Britain is planning booster Covid-19 vaccines for over 70 year olds from September to protect them from new virus variants as the government drives ahead with its vaccine rollout, The Telegraph reported, citing the vaccine deployment minister.

Britain is close to striking a vaccine deal with the European Union as soon as this weekend that will remove the threat of the bloc cutting off supplies, The Times reported.

New Zealand’s Catholic Church formally apologised to the survivors of abuse within the church yesterday and said its systems and culture must change.

EU leaders voiced frustration over a massive shortfall in contracted deliveries of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines, as a third wave of infections surged across Europe.

The European Commission will extend EU powers to potentially block Covid-19 vaccine exports to Britain and other areas with much higher vaccination rates, and to cover instances of companies backloading contracted supplies, EU officials said.

Britain’s Prince Harry will become the first chief impact officer of BetterUp Inc, a San Francisco-based firm that provides employee coaching and mental health assistance, the company said today.

Germany is extending its lockdown until April 18 and calling on citizens to stay at home for five days over the Easter holidays to try to break a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel said.

Two police officers were seriously injured and at least two police vehicles were set on fire in the city of Bristol in southwest England during violent scenes after a peaceful protest, police said.

Confidence in the safety of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine has taken a big hit in Spain, Germany, France and Italy as reports of rare blood clots have been linked to it and many countries briefly stopped using it, poll data showed.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday said European allies had increased defence spending in 2020 despite the economic pain inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian police on Saturday arrested around 200 opposition politicians and municipal deputies at a Moscow conference as authorities tighten the screws on Kremlin critics ahead of parliamentary elections.

Russian scientists on Saturday launched one of the world’s biggest underwater space telescopes to peer deep into the universe from the pristine waters of Lake Baikal.

Police in London clashed with mourners and protesters on Saturday after more than a thousand people gathered to mark the killing of a 33-year-old woman, hours after the police officer charged with her murder appeared in court.

The European Union’s medicines regulator has dismissed reports of blood clots in people who had received the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, saying that there is no indication that the vaccine is linked to an increased risk of blood clots, BBC reported.

A man who has admitted to taking part in the 2017 murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia gave his first detailed account of the plot on Thursday, telling a court how the anti-corruption journalist was tracked and killed.

An Algerian man has been arrested in the Italian town of Bari on suspicion of belonging to the Islamist militant group Islamic State and helping the perpetrators of a coordinated attack that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015, police said on Monday.

Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, accused Britain’s royal family of raising concerns about how dark their son’s skin might be and pushing her to the brink of suicide, in a tell-all television interview that could send shockwaves through the monarchy.

A far-right proposal to ban facial coverings in Switzerland won a narrow victory in a binding referendum on Sunday instigated by the same group that organised a 2009 ban on new minarets.

Britain’s Prince Harry and American wife Meghan decided long ago they would not play the traditional royal media “game”, and on Sunday they depart from the norms of engagement again with an in-depth interview with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday he was ready to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights to prove his innocence, his first public reaction after being found guilty of corruption by judges on Monday.