A British judge on Monday rejected the United States' request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges, saying he was likely to kill himself if held under harsh US prison conditions. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that extradition would be "oppressive" because of Assange's mental health. She said Assange was "a depressed and sometimes despairing man" who had the "intellect and determination" to circumvent any suicide preventi

LIEURON, France (AFP) - Some 2,500 partygoers attended an illegal New Year rave in northwestern France, violently clashing with police who failed to stop it and sparking concern the underground event could spread the coronavirus, authorities said Friday. The revellers had set up the illegal rave in Lieuron, south of Rennes in Brittany, after skirmishes with police, said a statement from the local prefecture. Many were still on the site Friday as a sanitary cordon was thrown up around it. Local

  President Donald Trump on Thursday extended pandemic-related bans on green cards and work visas to large groups of applicants through March 31, while a federal appeals court sided with him on a rule that requires new immigrants to have their own health insurance. The twin developments on the final day of 2020 encapsulated how Trump has made US immigration policy more restrictive without support from Congress. President-elect Joe Biden has promised to undo many of Trump's actions but it

BEIJING -- The number of coronavirus cases in the Chinese city where the pathogen was first detected may have been 10 times higher than official figures suggest, according to a study by health authorities in Wuhan. About 4.4 percent of the city's 11 million residents had developed antibodies against the virus causing Covid-19 by April, the report by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control said. That correlates to around 480,000 infections in Wuhan by April, nearly 10 times the official tally to

UK ahead of others once more with emergency approval

PARIS (AFP) -- The rescheduled Tokyo Olympics will be the centrepiece of a crammed sporting year in 2021 as sports administrators who had their calendars wiped away by the coronavirus pandemic try to fill the gaps even as a second wave hits. While the Games will still be called the 2020 Olympics, they have been changed by Covid-19. Tokyo organisers and the Japanese government are struggling with increased costs and, despite the growing possibility of vaccination, whether to allow foreign visi

The Covid-19 vaccine developed by the British drugs group AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has achieved a  "winning formula" for efficacy, the company's chief executive said on Sunday. The vaccine, currently being evaluated by Britain's independent medicines  regulator, provides "100 percent protection" against severe Covid disease  requiring hospitalisation, Pascal Soriot said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper. He added he believes tri

Doctors, nurses and the elderly rolled up their sleeves across the European Union to receive the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine Sunday in a symbolic show of unity and moment of hope for a continent confronting its worst health care crisis in a century. Even though a few countries started giving doses a day early, the coordinated rollout for a bloc of 27 nations and nearly 450 million people aimed at projecting a unified message that the vaccine was safe and was Europe's best chance to

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A recreational vehicle parked in the deserted streets of downtown Nashville exploded early Christmas morning, causing widespread communications outages that took down police emergency systems and grounded holiday travel at the city's airport. Police were responding to a report of shots fired Friday when they encountered the RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said. Police evacuated nearby buil

　South Korea’s video game market was the fifth largest in the world in 2019, falling one position from the previous year, a report showed. 　The country's video game market reached sales of 15.6 trillion won ($14.2 billion) last year, up 9 percent from the previous year, according to an annual report by the Korea Creative Content Agency. 　The country ranked behind the United States, China, Japan and the United Kingdom in the global video market worth a total $186.5 billion last year.

　A record number of journalists were imprisoned worldwide during 2020, as governments cracked down on coverage of the coronavirus pandemic or tried to suppress reporting of civil unrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. 　At least 274 journalists were in jail as of Dec. 1, the most since the New York-based group began collecting data in the early 1990s, the report said, up from at least 250 last year. 　Protests and political tensions were the cause of many arrests, with the most m

US President-elect Joe Biden reiterated the importance of people taking necessary steps to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus on Tuesday, saying the "darkest times" have yet to come. He also highlighted the need for people to get vaccinated as quickly as possible, but insisted they must continue wearing masks and socially distance. "One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis, I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth,"

WASHINGTON -- US President-elect Joe Biden received a dose of COVID-19 vaccine Monday, setting an example for others to follow while many Americans say they are unwilling to get the shot. Biden is one of the first high-ranking US officials to have publicly received a COVID-19 vaccine after the sitting vice president, Mike Pence, got his first dose on Friday. "I am doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared, when it's available, to take the vaccine," the president-e

　A majority of Japanese people oppose holding the coronavirus-postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics next year, favoring a further delay or outright cancellation of the massive event, new polling showed. 　The new data shows public sentiment has shifted little since the summer, when surveys in Japan also found only a minority backing plans to hold the Games next year, despite the imminent arrival of new vaccines. 　A poll released by national broadcaster NHK found just 27 percent of respondents suppo

European countries started banning flights coming from the UK on Sunday as government in London warned that a potent new strain of the virus was "out of control". Following the example of the Netherlands, where a ban on all UK passenger flights came into effect on Sunday, a German government source said Berlin, too, was considering a similar move as "a serious option" for flights from both Britain and South Africa. The Dutch ban came into effect from 6:00 am (0500 GMT) an