Asia

Magnitude 5.9 quake strikes east Turkey, followed by aftershocks, 1 dead

  A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck eastern Turkey on Sunday, followed by aftershocks, killing one person and injuring several others. According to the US Geological Survey, the 5.9 magnitude quake struck 14 kilometers east of Yedisu, a town in Bingol province in eastern Turkey. This was followed by two strong aftershocks — both magnitude 4.5 tremors — about half an hour apart.  The main quake and the aftershocks that followed had a depth of around […]

Delhi coronavirus fears mount as hospital beds run out

  by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA Agence Frnce Presse Ashwani Jain succumbed to the coronavirus in an ambulance as his family pleaded with several hospitals to take him in, the latest victim of the pandemic sweeping through the Indian capital and exposing a deadly shortage of hospital beds. “They don’t care whether we live or die,” said his 20-year-old daughter Kashish, whose uncle, Abhishek, sat with Ashwani in the back of the vehicle on its desperate journey […]

6.6-magnitude quake strikes off coast of Japan: USGS

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A strong but deep 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of southwest Japan early Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was issued. There were no immediate reports of injury or damage caused by the earthquake; its epicentre was 135 kilometres (84 miles) northwest of Naze, Japan. The quake, which USGS originally recorded as a 6.7-magnitude temblor, was relatively deep at 160 kilometres. Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported […]

New domestic cases in Beijing raise fears of new virus wave

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — China reported 11 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, including six domestic cases in the capital that raised concerns about a resurgence. The majority of China’s cases in recent months were overseas nationals tested as they returned home, with the domestic outbreak brought largely under control after the disease first emerged in the central city of Wuhan last year. But the new cases have prompted Beijing officials to delay the return […]

North Korea denounces US two years after Singapore summit

  SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea criticized Donald Trump in a stinging denunciation of the United States on Friday, the second anniversary of a landmark summit in Singapore where the US president shook hands with leader Kim Jong Un. It was the latest in a series of vitriolic statements from Pyongyang aimed at both Washington and Seoul, and came a day after the North implicitly threatened to disrupt November’s election if the US […]

Pakistan battles locusts by turning them into chicken feed

 By Kaneez Fatima, with Ashraf Khan in Karachi LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) –Chickens in Pakistan have been feasting on captured locusts under an initiative to combat swarms of the insects that are threatening food supplies in the impoverished country. Prime Minister Imran Khan has endorsed plans to expand a pilot project in the bread-basket province of Punjab, where villagers earned cash to gather locusts that were then dried out, shredded and added into poultry feed. Farmers […]

Dozens killed as south China hit by floods and rainstorms

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Floods and mudslides in south China have uprooted hundreds of thousands of people and left dozens dead or missing, state media reported Thursday. The bad weather has wreaked havoc on popular tourist areas that had already been battered by months of travel restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak. Torrential downpours unleashed floods and mudslides that caused nearly 230,000 people to be relocated and destroyed more than 1,300 houses, official state news agency […]

N. Korea warns US to stay out of inter-Korean affairs

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea rebuked Washington on Thursday for criticizing its decision to cut communication links with Seoul, warning it to stay out of inter-Korean affairs if it wanted to ensure a smooth presidential election. In a statement carried by the KCNA news agency, a senior North Korean foreign ministry official slammed the “double-dealing attitudes” of the US as “disgusting”. Washington should “hold its tongue and mind its internal affairs first”, said […]

Japan’s ‘Kawasaki disease’ doctor dies at 95

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — The Japanese doctor who discovered the mysterious “Kawasaki’s disease” — recently in the headlines for some similarities to coronavirus — has died of natural causes aged 95, his research NGO said Wednesday. Pediatrician Tomisaku Kawasaki first noticed the disease in the 1960s as a junior doctor when he began treating children with fever, red eyes, and a rash with no clear cause. He reported 50 cases as an unknown disorder in […]

China removes pangolin from traditional medicine list

BEIJING, China (AFP) — China has removed pangolin parts from its official list of traditional medicines, state media reported Tuesday, days after increasing legal protections on the endangered animal. Pangolins were left out of the official Chinese Pharmacopoeia this year, along with substances including a pill formulated with bat faeces, the state-owned Health Times reported. The pangolin, the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal, is thought by some scientists to be the possible host of the […]

Huge fire breaks out at India gas well blowout

GUWAHATI, India (AFP) — A huge fire broke out at an oil field near popular ecotourism spots in northeastern India on Tuesday, after gas that had spewed for two weeks from a blown-out well ignited, officials said. The gas well at an oil field managed by state-owned Oil India started leaking in late May in Tinsukia district of Assam state, and the firm said late last week gas was still flowing “uncontrollably”. Tuesday’s explosion sent […]

WHO calls for new lockdowns in Pakistan as virus surges

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AFP) — The World Health Organization has told Pakistan it should implement “intermittent” lockdowns to counter a surge in coronavirus infections that has come as the country loosens restrictions, an official said Tuesday. Since the start of Pakistan’s outbreak in March, Prime Minister Imran Khan opposed a nationwide lockdown of the sort seen elsewhere, arguing the impoverished country could not afford it. Instead, Pakistan’s four provinces ordered a patchwork of closures, but last […]