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Belgium is asking travellers from China to test themselves for Covid-19 if they show symptoms seven days after arriving.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Belgium to test wastewater on airliners from Covid-hit China
Belgium will test wastewater from planes arriving from China for new Covid-19 variants as part of new steps against the spread of the coronavirus as infections in China surge, the government announced on Monday.
“This will be an additional monitoring objective to verify that the data we receive from China is accurate,” Steven Van Gucht of the Sciensano national public health institute told Reuters.
He said Belgium was aware that some Covid-infected passengers might not use the toilet during their flights, and therefore the new measure was “not meant to track people but to track independently what is happening in China.”
Tens of thousands view body of former Pope Benedict
AFP
A steady stream of tens of thousands of people filed into St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday to pay their respects to former Pope Benedict XVI, whose body was laying in state without any papal paraphernalia ahead of his funeral this week.
Benedict, a hero to conservative Catholics who yearned for a return to a more traditional Church, died on Saturday at the age of 95 in the secluded Vatican monastery where he had lived since 2013, when he became the first pope in 600 years to resign.
“I feel like he was a grandfather to us,” Veronica Siegal, 16, a Catholic high school student from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who is in Rome for a programme of religious study, told Reuters in St. Peter’s Square after viewing the body.
Harry sees ‘no willingness to reconcile’ in royal rift
AFP
Prince Harry sees “no willingness to reconcile” in a palace rift where leaks portray him and his wife Meghan as villains, according to interview extracts released Monday.
Harry, 38, said he would nonetheless like to get back his father King Charles III and brother William, heir to the British throne, according to extracts from a television interview to be aired Sunday, days before the prince’s memoirs are published.
Harry and Meghan, 41, lifted the lid on their experiences in the British royal family in a Netflix docuseries last month about the reasons behind their stunning 2020 departure for North America.
Spain sees hottest year on record in 2022
EPA-EFE
Spain in 2022 experienced the hottest year since records began, the country’s national weather service said Monday, adding that several northern cities were also unseasonably warm on New Year’s Day 2023.
Nations across the globe grappled with extreme weather including scorching temperatures and drought across Europe which last year fuelled wildfires, damaged crops and led to water use restrictions.
Spain recorded an average temperature for the year of nearly 15.5 degrees Celsius, the highest since records began in 1916, national weather office Aemet said in a tweet.
Football: Relentless Brentford rattle Liverpool with 3-1 victory
Action Images via Reuters
Brentford pulled off their latest Premier League scalp by beating Liverpool 3-1 at home on Monday, bringing Juergen Klopp’s side’s four-game winning streak to an end and rattling their top-four ambitions.
Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate knocked the ball into his own net in the 19th minute while Yoane Wissa doubled Brentford’s advantage before halftime after his side had two goals disallowed following VAR reviews in a frantic opening 45 minutes.
Darwin Nunez struck for Liverpool early in the second half but his goal was then ruled out for offside.
