Europe

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Medicines Agency was meeting Thursday to discuss whether Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine should be authorized, a move that would give the European Union a fourth licensed vaccine to try to curb the pandemic amid a stalled inoculation drive.

The Amsterdam-based EU regulator is scheduled to convene its expert committee in the morning to assess the J&J vaccine data. A decision on whether the agency recommends that the shot be licensed across the 27-nation bloc could come in the afternoon.

BERLIN (AP) — Austria is embarking on an ambitious drive to inoculate residents of a district that has been particularly hard-hit by the virus variant first found in South Africa, a move that is part of a research project into vaccinations.

Some 48,500 of the 64,000 people eligible for vaccinations in Tyrol province’s Schwaz district have signed up to be vaccinated in the drive that starts Thursday, according to the Austrian news agency APA.

Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said the rollout will offer vaccine jabs to all people 16 and over.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union figures show that the 27-nation bloc has allowed the export of over 34 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines over the past weeks despite shortages at home as it continues to struggle to get its vaccine drive up to speed.

LONDON (AP) — The head of a major British press organization has resigned over his response to Meghan and Harry’s television interview — the second senior U.K. media figure to leave amid a heated debate over the royal couple’s allegations of racism and bias.

Ian Murray said he was stepping down as executive director of the Society of Editors after issuing a statement that many felt downplayed the problem of racism in the media. —

GENEVA (AP) — When the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic one year ago Thursday, it did so only after weeks of resisting the term and maintaining that the highly infectious virus could still be stopped.

A year later, the U.N. agency is still struggling to keep on top of the evolving science of COVID-19, to persuade countries to abandon their nationalistic tendencies and help get vaccines where they’re needed most.

BERLIN, March 10. /TASS/: Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine has a chance to be registered in the EU, Thomas Mertens, head of Germany's Standing Committee on Vaccination, said in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper published on Wednesday.

"It is a good vaccine that will probably be authorized in the EU at some point. Russian researchers have a lot of experience with vaccinations," he said.

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/: The flight by US astronaut Mark Vande Hei aboard a Russian manned Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft has nothing to do with cross flights by Roscosmos and NASA crews and will be a one-time event, Roscosmos Executive Director for Piloted Space Programs Sergei Krikalyov said in a live broadcast of the Rossiya-24 TV Channel on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/: Moscow is confident that in time, Turkey will understand that Russia’s position on Crimea is correct, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

The spokesman said that the reunification of Crimea with Russia "is a matter that does not relate to the disagreements [between Russia and Turkey]." "We do not accept Turkey’s stance on Crimea, but we continue patiently explaining our position," he stressed.

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/: Moscow police shut down more than 360 cafes and retail stores for violating coronavirus restrictions last year, according to a video shown to Moscow City Council members before an address by head of the Main Moscow Department of the Russian Interior Ministry Oleg Baranov.

"Police officers played an important role in ensuring compliance with sanitary rules in the city. They identified and shut down over 360 cafes, hookah bars, tobacco shops and retail stores that were in breach of restrictions," the video said.

MOSCOW, March 10. /TASS/: Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said he has no information about some new plan for a peace settlement in Donbass the Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has announced.

"I have no information about the existence of such a plan," Peskov told the media on Wednesday.