Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — The Iraqi government said Thursday that it will extend a countrywide lockdown it imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic until April 11. Schools, universities, shopping centers, and other large gathering places will remain closed, as will the country’s international airports. Authorities have confirmed that at least 29 Iraqis have died from COVID-19 and nearly 350 others have contracted the disease. But there are fears the real number is much higher, […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo’s governor urged residents to stay home this weekend, warning of a possible “explosion” of the coronavirus with a record 41 new cases discovered on Wednesday. Yuriko Koike said the Japanese capital, so far spared the draconian measures seen in other major global cities, was at a “critical stage” in containing the virus that has confined one-third of the planet to their homes. “We urge people at all costs to refrain […]
by Suzauddin RUBEL with Sam JAHAN in Dhaka KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh (AFP) — The sewage-soaked alleys and cramped canvas and bamboo shacks that house one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are a horrifying scene for experts watching the coronavirus pandemic creep closer. The wretched conditions in the camps, where most of the stateless Muslims arrived in 2017 to escape a Myanmar military clampdown across the nearby border, are fertile ground for any disease. The public in […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — Iran’s president warned that his government was poised to introduce tough new measures against the coronavirus Wednesday as the death toll from one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks topped 2,000. President Hassan Rouhani said that the new measures, which could be adopted as soon as Wednesday evening, included Iran’s first restrictions on movement to try to stem the spread of the virus and were likely to be “difficult” for the public. […]
The self-ruled democratic island has had to scramble its own fighter jets in response to recent Chinese maneuvers, designed to show that Beijing’s military might remains unbowed by the health crisis. But the tactic is winning few friends among the Taiwanese. “As the world grapples with the severity of the COVID19 pandemic, China’s military maneuvers around Taiwan have continued unabated,” President Tsai Ing-wen said in a tweet late Tuesday accompanied by pictures of her visiting […]
by Aishwarya Kumar with Ammu Kannampilly in Mumbai NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Anxious Indians raced for essentials on Wednesday as an unprecedented 21-day lockdown across the nation of 1.3 billion people all but emptied normally traffic-choked roads. Many shelves in the megacities of New Delhi and Mumbai were stripped bare of staples like lentils and rice as the world’s second-most populous country lurched into a shutdown aimed at slowing the spread of the new […]
YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) — The Diamond Princess, a coronavirus-hit cruise ship off Japan that saw 712 passengers and crew contracting the disease with 10 deaths, left its moorings in Yokohama Wednesday, a city official said. The ship, which originally carried some 3,700 passengers and crew members, dominated international headlines as Japan’s clumsy handling of its quarantine made it at one point the biggest cluster of coronavirus carriers outside China. “Disinfection work has been finished. Quarantine […]
by Jing Xuan TENG MACHENG, China (AFP) — Huge crowds jammed trains and buses in Hubei province on Wednesday as people seized their first chance to travel after two months under lockdown at the epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak. Strict curbs on daily life are finally being lifted, allowing healthy people to head home and see loved ones after weeks of separation. At a railway station in the city of Macheng, AFP reporters saw long […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — US President Donald Trump has requested novel coronavirus test kits from South Korea, his counterpart Moon Jae-in said Wednesday, as Washington pushes for a quick reopening of the world’s biggest economy. The South was once the hardest-hit country outside China, where the virus first emerged, but appears to have brought its outbreak under control thanks to a huge testing and contact-tracing effort. By midnight on Tuesday more than 367,000 people […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A 7.2-magnitude quake hit off Russia’s Kuril Islands on Wednesday, prompting local residents to seek higher ground due to a brief tsunami threat, authorities said. The Russian emergencies ministry said the quake’s epicenter was 210 kilometers (130 miles) southeast of Severo-Kurilsk, a town of around 2,500 people on the Kuril island of Paramushir. Officials reported no casualties or damage but said 400 residents of Severo-Kurilsk were taken to higher ground. The […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia on Tuesday reported its first death from the new coronavirus as the total number of infections spiked to 767, according to the health ministry. An Afghan resident in the western city of Medina died from the virus, the ministry said, while reporting 205 new infections — the biggest jump in the kingdom in a single day. Saudi Arabia, which has reported the highest number of infections in the […]
by Bhuvan Bagga with Aishwarya Kumar and Vishal Manve in Mumbai NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s 1.3 billion people will go under “total lockdown” for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday, sparking panic buying. “From 12 midnight today (1830 GMT Tuesday), the entire country will be in lockdown, total lockdown,” Modi said in a national television address to the world’s second-most-populous nation. “To save India, […]
