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by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA Agence France Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s nationwide coronavirus lockdown, the biggest in the world, will be extended until at least May 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday. The current three-week-old lockdown of the nation of 1.3 billion people had been scheduled to end at midnight Tuesday. “From the economic angle, we have paid a big price,” Modi said in a nationwide address. “But the lives of the people […]
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Three Turkish prisoners have died from the coronavirus, Turkey’s justice minister said Monday as he announced the first cases of convicts diagnosed with the disease. A total of 17 convicts in five open prisons have contracted the virus, Abdulhamit Gul told reporters in Ankara. “Three of them, unfortunately, died during their treatment in hospital,” he said. Some convicts are sent to open prisons towards the end of their sentences to serve […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran’s health ministry on Monday reported another 111 deaths from the novel coronavirus, taking the official overall toll in the worst-hit Middle East country to 4,585. Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 1,617 new infections took the total number of cases in the country’s outbreak to 73,303, of whom 45,983 had recovered. “The trend of relatively stable and decreasing new cases of contamination, which has been observed in recent days, has also […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean firms will make their first shipment of coronavirus tests to the United States this week after a request by US President Donald Trump, Yonhap news agency reported Monday. The US has more confirmed COVID-19 cases than anywhere else in the world and also has the highest toll, with more than 22,000 deaths. In contrast South Korea was once the hardest-hit country outside China, but appears to have brought […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has carried out a major reshuffle of his State Affairs Commission, official media reported Monday, replacing more than a third of its members. Kim has established an iron grip over the levers of authority in his nuclear-armed country since inheriting power in his late 20s in 2011. He is chairman of the SAC — the North’s highest decision-making body — and five of its […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea called for stronger measures against the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic at a meeting presided by leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported Sunday, without acknowledging whether the country had reported any infections. The already isolated, nuclear-armed North quickly shut down its borders after the virus was first detected in neighbouring China in January, and imposed strict containment measures. Officials in Pyongyang and its state media have repeatedly insisted […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Yemen reported its first case of coronavirus Friday in a southern government-controlled province, raising fears of an outbreak in the war-torn country as air strikes blamed on the Saudi-led coalition tested a unilateral truce. The announcement came on the second day of the two-week ceasefire declared by the military coalition supporting the government in what it said was a move to help fight the pandemic. “The first confirmed case […]
by Shaun Tandon with Amber Wang in Taipei Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States on Thursday accused the World Health Organization of putting politics first by ignoring early coronavirus warnings by Taiwan, which voiced outrage over criticism from the UN body’s chief. President Donald Trump has gone on an offensive with threats to withhold funding for the WHO, which is at the forefront of fighting the pandemic that has […]
by Jing Xuan TENG Agence France Presse WUHAN, China (AFP) — Hairstylist “Ah Ping” is back in business now that Wuhan’s coronavirus lockdown has been lifted, but his salon has no customers, only empty chairs and lingering fears over a contagion that continues to haunt the city. Wuhan is waking from its coronavirus nightmare, loosening tight restrictions on movement and business as the global pandemic’s launchpad tries to move on. But the full recovery remains […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan demanded an apology from the World Health Organization chief on Thursday after he accused the island’s government of leading personal attacks against him and his agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for unity to fight the disease on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump criticized the global health body and threatened to cut its funding. During the press conference he spoke of the […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran on Wednesday reported 121 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing its overall number of fatalities to 3,993. In the past 24 hours, 1,997 new cases of COVID-19 infection were detected in Iran, state news agency IRNA quoted health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour as saying. That put the number of confirmed cases at 64,586, he added. Iran, which announced its first COVID-19 cases on February 19, is by far the […]
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AFP) — Five civilians were killed on Wednesday when their car was hit in a bomb attack in Turkey’s southeast, local officials said. The governor of Kurdish-majority Diyarbakir province said the attack was carried out in the early hours by “members of the PKK terror organization”, referring to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The PKK has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and is listed as a terror group by […]
