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| - Duty Editor: James Hossack Tel: +852 2829 6211 -- TOP STORIES -- + AstraZeneca vaccine pros outweigh risks: EU + Uber grants British drivers worker status + Spike Lee to head Cannes Film Festival jury + Irish mourn another St Patrick's Day lockdown + Battle of the bulldogs: new top pup in US Health-virus,WRAP GENEVA The EU's medicines regulator says it is "firmly convinced" the benefits of AstraZeneca's jab outweigh potential risks, insisting there is no evidence linking it to blood clots after several nations suspended the shot over health fears. 850 words 0200 GMT by Nina Larson, with Danny Kemp in The Hague and AFP bureaus. Picture. Video. Graphic Also moved: Health-virus-pharmaceutical-vaccines,Q&A Britain-transport-technology-business-Uber,WRAP LONDON Uber says it is granting its UK drivers worker status, with benefits including a minimum wage -- a world first for the US ride-hailing giant. 500 words 0130 GMT by Ben Perry Entertainment-France-film-festival,WRAP PARIS US director Spike Lee will head the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in July, organisers say, making him the first black person to take on the role. 600 words moved by Francois Becker. File picture Health-virus-Ireland-pubs,SCENE DUBLIN The cellar of The Temple Bar in central Dublin would normally be stacked head-high with enough kegs of Guinness to serve thousands of pints to revellers toasting Ireland's patron saint. Not so, this year. 700 words 0300 GMT by Joe Stenson. Picture. Video US-animals-dogs NEW YORK French bulldogs are on track to end labrador retrievers' three-decade reign as top dog in the United States, the American Kennel Club says. 200 words moved -- SPOTLIGHT -- France-lifestyle-wine-cannabis,FOCUS BORDEAUX, France A young entrepreneur has launched France's first wine infused with a cannabis extract in the heart of the Bordeaux wine-growing region, hoping to shake up traditions and score with millennials. 550 words 0330 GMT by Leo Pierrard with Thais Moulie in Paris -- CORONAVIRUS -- Health-virus-US-children,FOCUS WASHINGTON Drugmaker Moderna says it has started Covid-19 vaccine trials for thousands of children aged under 12 years, a first step towards a new phase of the immunization campaign experts say might be necessary to stamp out the pandemic. 700 words moved by Issam Ahmed and Lucie Aubourg -- AMERICAS -- US-pharma-addiction-bankrupcy-Purdue,WRAP WASHINGTON The addiction to opioid sales that made vast sums for Purdue Pharma now spells the end of the company, and the Sackler family has offered to pay billions to settle lawsuits over the company's role in the overdoes crisis that swept the country. 550 words moved US-economy-bank-rate,WRAP WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve opens its two-day policy meeting and is expected to provide a more upbeat outlook for the US economy, which will soon be awash in $1.9 trillion in stimulus funds. 550 words moved by Heather Scott US-France-architecture-award-Pritzker,WRAP NEW YORK The Pritzker Prize -- architecture's most prestigious award -- is given to French duo Jean-Philippe Vassal and Anne Lacaton for their affordable, eco-friendly spaces that prioritize the wellbeing of the many. 650 words moved by Catherine Triomphe. File picture Cuba-politics-US-Vietnam-diplomacy,FOCUS HAVANA Cuba will emerge from the April congress of its all-powerful Communist Party without a Castro at the helm for the first time in over 60 years. 750 words 0200 GMT by Carlos Batista. Picture. File picture US-politics-immigration,FOCUS BROWNSVILLE, Texas In a gusty, open-air bus depot in Brownsville, Texas, Febe Carillo-Ramos speaks easily after a journey of hundreds of miles from her home in Guatemala: for the first time in 20 days on the road, she can now move without worry. 900 words 0200 GMT by Paul Handley. Picture. Video -- ASIA -- China-Myanmar-unrest-economy,FOCUS BANGKOK Chinese factories torched as mainland workers hunker down under martial law -- Beijing is being pulled into the ulcerous crisis in Myanmar, a country it had carefully stitched into its big plans for Asia, but which is now fast unravelling. 850 words 0330 GMT by Aidan Jones -- EUROPE -- France-court-assault,WRAP PARIS France's top appeals court is set to decide if three firefighters facing sexual abuse allegations should have been charged with rape, in a case that has ignited a national debate about consent. 500 words 0300 GMT by Clara Wright and Clare Byrne Britain-court-police-kidnap-murder,2ndlead LONDON A British police officer is remanded in custody when he appeared in court charged with the kidnap and murder of a woman who vanished as she walked home in London this month. 450 words moved by Pauline Froissart. Picture. Video Netherlands-vote,WRAP THE HAGUE Dutch voters are to cast their ballots at bike-through polling stations and museums on the final day of a coronavirus-dominated election that could return Prime Minister Mark Rutte to power. 600 words 0300 GMT Also moving: Netherlands-politics-vote-Rutte,PROFILE Netherlands-politics-vote,FACTS France-politics-justice-Sakozy,WRAP PARIS Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial over claims of illicit financing for his failed 2012 re-election bid, just two weeks after a landmark conviction for corruption. 650 words 0300 GMT by Joseph Schmid Health-virus-Russia-economy-migrants,FOCUS MOSCOW Russian construction executive Vitaly Lychits bemoans a shortage of cheap foreign workers during the coronavirus pandemic as he walks across frost-covered ground at a building site in southwest Moscow. 750 words 0300 GMT by Andrea Palasciano. Picture. Video -- MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA -- Israel-vote-Michaeli,PROFILE JERUSALEM Israel's Merav Michaeli, the feminist now leading Labor, says she is hoping to bring the party back from the brink of extinction in elections next week. 400 words 0230 GMT by Stephen Weizman. File Picture. File Video Lebanon-politics-economy,Q&A BEIRUT Lebanon's worst economic downturn in decades has pushed a battered population to the brink with no solution in sight as the country's barons wrangle over forming a new government. 750 words 0230 GMT by Layal Abou Rahal. File Picture We will also move: Lebanon-politics-economy,FACTS -- AFRICA -- Mozambique-unrest-Britain-children,WRAP LONDON Children as young as 11 have been targeted by violence and beheaded in a jihadist insurgency in northeast Mozambique, the charity Save the Children says in a new report. 500 words moved by Callum Paton. File pictures. Graphic Ghana-girls-education-pregnancy-health-virus,FOCUS ACCRA Gifty Nuako has just turned 18, an age when a young person stands on the threshold of life. Instead, her future looks bleak. 650 words 0330 GMT by Marine Jeannin Ethiopia-Tigray-conflict-unrest-general,WRAP ADDIS ABABA A "dirty war" causing suffering for "defenceless" victims is unfolding in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, an Ethiopian general has told diplomats, according to an audio recording of his comments obtained by AFP. 650 words moved by Robbie Corey-Boulet Senegal-unrest-sport-wrestling,FOCUS DAKAR Senegal's traditional wrestlers, who are revered by millions of adoring fans, have reacted in anger to rumours that they were behind the violence that recently shook the West African nation. 600 words 0330 GMT by Alexandre Martins Lopes -- ENTERTAINMENT -- Entertainment-US-Syria-film,FOCUS LOS ANGELES Shamima Begum, the teenage "ISIS bride" who left Britain for Syria in 2015 to join the Islamic State group, is part of a documentary premiering at the online Texas-based South By Southwest festival. 800 words 0200 GMT by Andrew Marszal afp
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