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by Qian Ye and Matthew Knight Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese laboratory has been developing a drug it believes has the power to bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt. The outbreak first emerged in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines. A drug being tested by scientists at China’s prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery […]
(Eagle News) – More than 800 Indian nationals stranded in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been repatriated to India from May 10 to 14, the Embassy of India in Manila reported on Monday, May 18. “Majority of the evacuees are students, tourists, senior citizens and citizens with health concerns”, the Embassy said in a statement. The 800 repatriates from the Philippines are among the 190,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries who are […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Four people were killed and another 23 injured when an earthquake shook southwestern China’s Yunnan province, local authorities said Tuesday. The shallow quake in Qiaojia county struck late Monday evening, the Yunnan government said in a statement on its social media account. The quake hit near the city of Zhaotong, with a population of over six million, and registered 5.0-magnitude, according to China’s government seismology authority. State news agency Xinhua said […]
by Nina LARSON with Jing Xuan TENG in Beijing Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday Beijing has been “transparent” throughout the coronavirus crisis, and offered to share a vaccine as soon as one was available — as well as $2 billion in aid. Governments including the US and Australia have called in recent weeks for an investigation into the origins of the virus, which has become a flashpoint […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — One rocket hit near the US embassy in Baghdad early Tuesday morning, security sources told AFP, the first to land in the high-security zone in weeks. The blast could be heard across the Iraqi capital and triggered security sirens at the US embassy compound but did not cause casualties, the sources confirmed. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. It follows more than two dozen similar attacks against American interests in […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran on Monday said it was entering a new phase of trying to eliminate the novel coronavirus after bringing the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak under control in many regions. “Reports show we have passed the management and control phase and are now in the phase of curbing” the spread of COVID-19, government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a televised news conference. But even as Rabiei gave the upbeat assessment in Iran’s three-month […]
by Kyoko HASEGAWA Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan dived into its first recession since 2015, according to official data Monday, with the world’s third-largest economy shrinking by 0.9 percent in the first quarter as it wrestles with the fallout from the coronavirus. The drop in gross domestic product followed a 1.9-percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2019 as a tax hike and typhoons hit Japan hard — even before […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A baby was born with the coronavirus in Russia’s Caucasus region, health officials were quoted by TASS news agency as saying on Sunday, to a mother who is also infected. The birth in the North Ossetia city of Beslan follows one in mid-April in Peru, which health officials there said was the second known case of a COVID-19 positive newborn worldwide. In North Ossetia, “a pregnant woman was infected by […]
HERZLIYA, Israel (AFP) — China’s ambassador to Israel, Du Wei, died at his home in Tel Aviv on Sunday, apparently from natural causes, a statement from Beijing said. The 57-year-old envoy, who had arrived in Israel in mid-February, was found dead in his home in Herzliya, north of the city, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP. A statement from China’s foreign ministry said: “The preliminary verdict is that Ambassador Du Wei died unexpectedly of health […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China faces a potential second wave of coronavirus infections due to a lack of immunity among its population, its government’s senior medical advisor has warned. After months of lockdowns and curbs on travel China has largely brought the virus under control, but fears of a second wave have risen as clusters have emerged in northeast provinces and in the central city of Wuhan. “The majority of… Chinese at the moment […]
by Ammu KANNAMPILLY / Vishal MANVE Agence France Presse MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Packed morgues, bodies in wards, patients forced to share beds and medical workers run ragged: Mumbai’s war against coronavirus has pushed the Indian city’s hospitals to breaking point. Ravi, 26, had to change his mother’s diapers himself as she lay dying from the disease in the huge Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, better known as Sion. “They would just give us medicines […]
DOHA, Qatar (AFP) — Qatar has made wearing a face mask compulsory for everyone who steps outside their home, with violators facing jail time and fines of up to $55,000. The move comes as the number of reported novel coronavirus cases in the Gulf monarchy jumped by another 1,733 on Thursday, a single-day record for the Gulf state. Cabinet mandated the wearing of face masks “upon leaving the house for any reason” except when “alone […]
