Canada gave the green light Thursday for children age 5-to 11 to receive the Prizer-BioNTech two-dose vaccine.

Health Canada said the decision -- children under 12 will be given one-third of the vaccine quantity of those over that age -- is a giant step in battling the virus.

“This is the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized in Canada for use in this age group and marks a major milestone in Canada's fight against COVID-19,” Health Canada said in a statement. “After a thorough and independent scientific review of the evidence, the department has determined that the benefits of this vaccine for children between 5 and 11 years of age outweigh the risks.”

Those risks include rare cases of myocarditis - inflammation of the heart muscle - but that must be weighed against the fact that up to a quarter of children who end up in hospital for the virus go into intensive care. Health Canada found the evidence to support the vaccine in younger children was more beneficial than risky.

The government announced the approval at a press conference Thursday.

Health Canada said clinic trails showed the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine to be 90.7% in the 5-to 11 age group. In those 12-to 15, it was 100% effective and in those 16 and older, 95%, as reported by CTV News.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended the interval between doses be increased to 21 days from the standard two weeks, since study shows that the longer period improves the protection from the virus.

The approval comes as Canada continues to wrestle with COVID-19, at times seemingly winning only to find the virus once again up and fighting off attempts to dispel it.

So far, close to 30,000 Canadians had died from the virus. Since the first infection was confirmed Jan. 25, 2020, there have been a total of 1.76 million COVID-19 cases.

Probably the province considered most under siege from the virus is Alberta, with 383 new cases as of Thursday, five more deaths active cases of 5,384, with outbreaks in 187 schools. Hospital emergencies are so overloaded that some patients have been flown to Ontario for treatment. Alberta made the mistake of giving carte blanche to businesses to open this past summer, health officials said.

In all, as of Thursday, 78.3% of Canadians have had at least one dose of vaccine, and 75% have received two, according to CBC vaccine tracker statistics./agencies

A Muslim man accused by the British government as an "extremist preacher" in 2015 and apologized six years later said that the word extremism is problematic.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency on the occasion of his legal struggle last six years, Salman Butt, chief editor of Islam21c website, said that labeling something as extremist is a philosophy of ignorance and tribalism.

"The problem with the word extremism is that it has no objectivity. And it's just a meaningless term now, and this is what we've learned over the last six years," Butt noted.

Mentioning the day when he first saw that his name, along with some other people labeled as extremists, Butt stated that he first thought that his picture was falsely used.

"I just noticed that they were using my picture there first; I thought maybe it's somebody else with the same name. And it just used my picture. But then, as I read more into it, it was actually referring to me, and that was surprising," he added.

After that, he said he launched two legal challenges, a defamation case for this label, a false accusation and a public law challenge.

He explained that launching public law challenge was aimed to show why the government is calling people extremists and what their definition is, the process of secretive government departments, monitoring individuals and making determinations about who they are and where they can speak.

Word of extremism doesn't really mean anything

More and more people realize that the word extremism doesn't actually mean anything, he said, adding that the term is "very subjective."

"... This is part of the reason why the government was trying to defend it, in my opinion, and then they just gave up and had to apologize, because it doesn't have a strong, robust operational definition," underlined Butt.

He said that it is very dangerous for governments to start labeling these types of ideas and thoughts and beliefs as an extremist since it's only a matter of time before that grows, and more and more people are included in that.

"So this is the main kind of lesson for me in that this word extremism, it doesn't really mean anything, and it shouldn't be used in everyday speech," he added.

Islamophobic organizations' effects

Butt noted that Islamophobic organizations are among the source of information for the government in this regard.

"It transpired that they were actually taking information from proudly Islamophobic organizations on which Muslim is extreme and should not be allowed to speak on university campuses ... And that's why out my name and the name of several other, just mainstream normal Muslim people were mentioned by the government."

He called on the British government to be more careful in receiving information.

Regardless, he stated that he accepted the apology, even though it had been six years past.

"I accept the apology ... as for clearing my own name, personally, I take that as a welcome apology, even though it's six years late," Butt added.

He noted that the Muslim community should decide what normal and extreme Islamic opinions are, not anyone else.

Butt case

On Monday, the British government apologized to Butt, who was falsely described as an extremist hate preacher in 2015.

"The government accepts that it was wholly false to allege that Butt is an extremist hate preacher who legitimizes terrorism and therefore someone from whose influence students should be protected," Aidan Eardley, legal counsel for Home Secretary Priti Patel, said in a court.

"It is sorry for the harm caused to him and in particular for the fact that the allegation was made and maintained for so long," he added, reading a statement.

Upon Butt's legal challenge to the false accusation by the UK government, the Home Office agreed to delete his name from the press release and pay Butt compensation alongside legal costs./agencies

A 3,250-year-old seal belonging to a Hittite prince and an ancient cuneiform tablet dating back 3,400 years were discovered in Turkey's southern Hatay province.

The excavations in Accana Hoyuk of the Reyhanli district in Hatay on behalf of the Culture and Tourism Ministry with the support of the Turkish Historical Society, have been underway for six months.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Murat Akar, the head of the excavation team and Mustafa Kemal University's Protohistory and Near East Archeology Department chair, said they have had some "thrilling" findings.

An ancient tablet they have unearthed has Akkadian cuneiform texts, Akar noted, saying: "The tablet, around 3,400 years old, and the accompanying cylinder seals give us information about the administration and administrative practices of the region, especially during a period when the region was under the rule of the Mitanni Empire."

He said they had found a 3,250-year-old seal during the latest excavation, adding that the item is one of the most important discoveries of this year, helping us understand "what happened during the period after the region came under the Hittite control" as well as "define its administrative and political dynamics."

Akar further noted that the findings provide information about the administrative and archival practices in the Alalakh ancient city, the capital of the Mukish Kingdom in the Middle and Late Bronze Age.

"The written documents we found are extremely exciting," he said.

The impressions on the cylinder seals show the existence of a ruling class in the region, Akar said, adding: "This last one, with Luwian hieroglyphic inscription on it, gives us the name of a Hittite prince whose name is not included in other written documents in Alalakh and appears for the first time."

He did not reveal the name of the Hittite prince, but said a Hittitology academic at Istanbul University Faculty of Letters, Hasan Peker, will share the name of the prince with the scientific community once the research is completed./agencie

Japan on Friday approved a $490 billion economic package to stimulate the country’s economy battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government approved the record economic stimulus package in fiscal spending to “weather the prolonged fallout from the coronavirus pandemic”, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

The package will include funds from the private sector and has ingredients from Kishida’s electoral promises, including to “narrow the income gap through pay hikes and securing the nation's economic security interests.”

Kishida was elected to the top office in early October.

The pandemic has hit Japan hard, the world’s third-largest economy which witnessed a record gross domestic product loss of 27.8% in the first quarter of last fiscal year when the COVID-19 was raging.

Data released early this week show Japan posted a trade deficit of 67.37 billion yen ($586 million) in October, below expectations.

In the same month a year earlier, the figure was a surplus of 840.80 billion yen ($7.4 billion).

This was the third straight month of a trade deficit, with exports rising 9.4% year-on-year to 7.1 billion yen ($62.4 million) while imports jumped 26.7% to 7.2 billion yen ($62.5 million).

Japan’s exports slowed down in the eight months up to October, as car shipments kept slumping.

Global supply constraints are still having a negative impact on the economy as car shipments continued to shrink.

While exports of steel and semiconductor manufacturing equipment continued to post gains, exports of cars slumped by more than a third as major automakers cut production due to parts shortages.

Japan has reported over 1.7 million COVID-19 cases, including 18,342 deaths, since the pandemic began./agencies

At least seven refugees died in northeastern Greece when a minibus carrying them crashed early on Friday, local media reported.

The vehicle carrying 15 people was traveling on the Egnatia Odos highway from the country's northeastern border with Turkey towards the northern port city of Thessaloniki when it crashed just after midnight, said Greek public broadcaster ERT, citing local police sources.

Police said that the vehicle had been traveling at high speed and that the driver, also thought to be a human smuggler, lost control as he tried to exit the highway, hitting a toll booth and then crashing into an adjoining storage container, ERT noted.

The victims of the crash were transported to public hospitals in the northeastern provinces of Komotini and Xanthi, including eight people -- one of them being the driver -- who had been injured.

A preliminary investigation has been launched into the incident, added ERT./agencies

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is at the highest level in 15 years, Brazil’s space research agency said Thursday. 

According to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), 13,235 square kilometers (5,110 square miles) of deforestation was seen in the world’s largest rainforest between August 2020 and July 2021.

In the August 2019 to July 2020 period, 10,851 square kilometers of deforestation was recorded in the region and 14,286 square kilometers in the same period of 2006.

The deforestation seen in the region in the same period of 2004 was announced as 27,000 square kilometers.

Brazil announced a plan to reduce illegal deforestation by 15% annually by 2024, 40% for 2025 and 2026, and 50% for 2027 and said it aims for zero illegal deforestation by 2028./aa

Belarus announced Thursday that it has cleared makeshift camps on its border with Poland and moved migrants to a nearby warehouse that the government has converted into a processing center.

In the afternoon, the migrants, who are seeking to emigrate to Europe, began packing their belongings in the forested area and camps they had set up along the border in Belarus' Grodno region.

The families with children and others, who are mostly from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and some other Asian and African countries, left the camp.

With the few remaining migrants leaving in the evening, the area was completely cleared.

The Belarusian State Border Committee announced that since there is no one left in the camps, journalists cannot work in the area but can continue their work at the processing center in the Bruzgi border region where the migrants are now settled.

At the instruction of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, medical aid, water and hygiene products were distributed to the migrants.

After spending 10 days in tents in cold weather, migrant groups quickly made their way to the processing center.

In the sheltered area, children played while mothers took care of their infants. There were also those who prayed.

Belarusian authorities are planning to set up a separate enclosed area for groups of migrants that could not enter the center. The presidential aide for the Grodno region, Yury Karayev, and his team personally led the aid activities in the region.

Since August, the European Union countries bordering Belarus -- Lithuania, Latvia and Poland -- have reported a dramatically growing number of irregular crossings.

Over 8,000 people have tried to enter the bloc via the Belarus-EU border so far this year, up sharply from just 150 last year.

According to the EU, Belarus reaches out to potential travelers through seemingly official channels, including diplomatic missions and travel agencies, and invites them to Belarus by offering them visas. They are then allegedly guided to the EU border.

Over the last week, at least 2,000 people, including women and children, have been stuck in the Belarusian-Polish border area in dire conditions./aa