AstraZeneca vaccine suspended in Ireland and the Netherlands

LONDON — Irish health officials Sunday recommended the temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine after reports of serious blood clotting after inoculations in Norway.

Dr. Ronan Glynn, Ireland’s deputy chief medical officer, said the recommendation was made after Norway’s medicines agency reported four cases of blood clotting in adults after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

He said that while there was no conclusive link between the vaccine and the cases, Irish health officials are recommending the suspension of the vaccine’s rollout as a precaution. Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic authorities have taken similar precautionary steps.

The Netherlands followed suit late Sunday, suspending vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shot as a precaution for two weeks.

AstraZeneca said in a statement Sunday that it “would like to offer its reassurance on the safety of its COVID-19 vaccine based on clear scientific evidence.”

The company said that a review of safety data of more than 17 million people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Union and the U.K. “has shown no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis or thrombocytopenia, in any defined age group, gender, batch or in any particular country.”

Italian lockdown: Italians enjoyed the last weekend outdoors before three-quarters of the population is scheduled to enter into a strict lockdown Monday, when the government puts in place restrictive measures to fight the rise in coronavirus infections.

A more contagious variant first identified in the United Kingdom, combined with a slow vaccine rollout, led to a 15% increase in cases in Italy last week, a worrisome picture for the government run by Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

Most regions in northern Italy, as well as Lazio and Marche in central Italy and Campania and Puglia in the south, will shut schools and forbid residents from leaving their homes except for work, health or necessity. Only supermarkets, pharmacies and a few other stores will stay open, but restaurants will be shut.

Myanmar protests: At least four people were shot and killed during protests Sunday in Myanmar as security forces continued their violent crackdown against dissent following last month’s military coup.

Two of the victims were killed in Yangon, the country’s largest city. One of them was shot in the head and another was shot in the abdomen, according to local media covering the demonstrations in Hlaing Thar Yar Township.

A third person died in the northern city of Hpakant when police fired into a crowd of demonstrators. A fourth victim, a woman, died after being shot in the head in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, as security forces were conducting clearance operations.

FEMA to help at border:

The Biden administration is turning to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help managing and caring for record numbers of unaccompanied immigrant children who are streaming into the United States by illegally crossing the border with Mexico.

FEMA will support a

governmentwide effort over the next three months to safely receive, shelter and transfer minor children who arrive alone at the U.S. southwest border, without a parent or other adult, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Saturday.

Government figures show a growing crisis at the border as hundreds of children illegally enter the U.S. from Mexico daily and are taken into custody.

German elections: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centerright party suffered clear defeats in two German state elections Sunday at the hands of popular governors from parties further to the left, according to projections. The setback comes six months before a national vote that will determine who succeeds the country’s longtime leader.

Sunday’s votes for new state legislatures in the southwestern states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate kicked off an electoral marathon

that features another four state ballots and the Sept. 26 national election.

Amid discontent over a sluggish start to Germany’s vaccination drive, with most coronavirus restrictions still in place and infections rising again, Merkel’s Union bloc has been hit over the past two weeks by allegations that two lawmakers profited from deals to procure masks early in the coronavirus pandemic.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union already faced a challenging task against wellliked governors.

Projections for ARD and ZDF public television, based on exit polls and a partial count of votes, showed those governors’ parties — the environmentalist Greens in Baden-Wuerttemberg and the center-left Social Democrats in Rhineland-Palatinate — finishing first, some 7 to 9 percentage points ahead of the CDU.

The CDU’s projected showings of about 23% and 27%, respectively, were the party’s worst since World

War II in both states.

London police under fire:

London’s police commissioner Sunday defended her officers’ actions and said she didn’t intend to resign, after coming under heavy criticism for the way police treated some protesters during a vigil for a woman whom one of the force’s own officers is accused of murdering.

Hundreds defied coronavirus restrictions Saturday to protest violence against women and remember Sarah Everard, a 33-yearold London resident whose disappearance and killing prompted a national outcry. But the vigil ended with clashes and many questioned whether the police force was too heavy-handed.

Police were seen scuffling with some women at the event, and one woman was seen pinned to the ground by two officers.

On Sunday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said she was

personally appalled by the attack on Everard and she was more determined than ever to lead the organization.

Kosovo Embassy in Israel:

Kosovo’s Foreign Ministry said Sunday that it has formally opened its embassy to Israel in the disputed city of Jerusalem.

A statement said the move was made after the establishment of diplomatic ties with Israel on Feb. 1 and a Kosovo-Serbia summit held at the White House in September.

Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed, as the capital of a future state.

Most of the international community doesn’t recognize the Israeli annexation of east Jerusalem. Most international embassies are in Tel Aviv.

Kosovo becomes the first European country and Muslim-majority one to establish its embassy in Jerusalem, following the U.S. and Guatemala.

PETER DEJONG/AP Dutch riot police kick a man during a demonstration to protest government policies, including coronavirus-related restrictions, Sunday in The Hague, Netherlands. The protest came on the eve of three days of voting in the general election. According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 16,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the Netherlands.