(Eagle News) – Cebu City remains under Enhanced Community Quarantine after July 15, while Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Benguet, Leyte, Southern Leyte and other cities and areas which are currently still under General Community Quarantine will stay under GCQ. President Rodrigo Duterte and his officials, including Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, made the announcement on Wednesday, July 8, at past 1 a.m. in a televised press briefing. Duque said that the considerations for the […]
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Microsoft, Zoom join pause on Hong Kong data requests
SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Microsoft and Zoom on Tuesday joined other major internet firms that have stopped considering requests by Hong Kong’s government for information on users in the wake of China’s imposition of a sweeping new security law. Microsoft and Zoom said they are pausing consideration of data requests by officials or police in Hong Kong, a precaution also taken by Facebook, Google and Twitter. “As we would with any new legislation, […]
US formally starts withdrawal from WHO
by Shaun TANDON WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday formally started the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization, making good on threats to deprive the UN body of its top funding source over its response to the coronavirus. Public health advocates and Trump’s political opponents voiced outrage at the departure from the Geneva-based body, which leads the global fight on maladies from polio to measles to mental […]
Hundreds battle deadly Ukraine forest fire
KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — Hundreds of firefighters and rescue workers rushed to deal with a forest fire that has killed six people in eastern Ukraine, the interior minister said on Tuesday. Water-bombing planes were also sent to the scene of the blaze in the Lugansk region, which is partially under the control of pro-Russia separatists, Arsen Avakov said. Firefighters initially battled back the flames but it spread again, helped by gusts of wind and soaring […]
Russia urges against marmot hunt over plague fears
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian authorities have warned residents of regions near Mongolia against hunting marmots but stressed there was no risk of bubonic plague spreading across the country. Russian public health authorities appealed to residents of the mountainous Tuva and Altai regions following last week’s confirmation of two bubonic plague cases in Mongolia. The cases involve brothers who had eaten marmot meat. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said it was also monitoring a […]
52 dead in Japan floods as more troops join rescue
by Charly TRIBALLEAU TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan will deploy more troops to search for survivors of devastating floods and landslides that have killed at least 52 people in the southwest of the country, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Tuesday. Even as rescue operations continued, with 80,000 personnel already involved and more expected to join, authorities warned that more torrential rain was expected. Japan’s Meteorological Agency issued its second-highest emergency warning for heavy rain and […]
Tie for warmest June globally, Siberia sizzles: EU
by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — Temperatures soared 10 degrees Celsius above average in June across much of permafrost-laden Siberia, with last month in a dead heat for the warmest June on record globally, the European Union’s climate monitoring network said Tuesday. An Arctic hourly temperature record for the month — 37 degrees Celsius — was set on June 21 near Verkhoyansk in northeastern Russia, where a weather station logged a blistering 38C on […]
Brazil to become testing ground for coronavirus vaccine
by Louis GENOT RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil may be struggling in its battle against the coronavirus, but it is on the cutting edge of vaccine development with large-scale trials and the production of millions of doses on the horizon. COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across the Latin American nation — a situation underlined when President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive on Tuesday — creating the necessary conditions for testing a vaccine’s efficiency. Brazil, which […]
Beal out for Wizards in NBA restart with shoulder injury
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal, the NBA’s number two scorer, will not play in the 2019-20 season restart due to a right shoulder injury, the team announced Tuesday. It’s another major setback for the Wizards, who will also enter the Orlando bubble this week without injured star forward John Wall and Latvian Davis Bertans, who opted out June 22 over injury worries. “This was a difficult decision and one that […]
Ecuador VP resigns just 8 months out from election
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Ecuador’s Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner announced his resignation on Tuesday, just eight months away from the 2021 general election. “It’s not an easy decision, the easiest would have been to stay, but I’ve never done what’s most comfortable for me,” said Sonnenholzner in an official statement published on television and radio. “I’ve always said I’m not here for the position, nor for the salary, nor for the honors, and that the […]
WHO studying evidence on airborne virus transmission
by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO said Tuesday it would study fresh evidence on airborne transmission of the coronavirus, after an international group of scientists concluded it could spread far beyond two metres. The World Health Organization said it would put out a new scientific brief within days, rounding up the knowledge about how the virus can be transmitted and ensuring its guidance stays in line with the evidence. The two-metre (yard) […]
Dubai field hospital bids farewell to last virus patient
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Dubai on Tuesday closed its only field hospital set up at a convention centre to treat coronavirus cases after the last patient, a Japanese national, walked out in good health. Doctors and nurses, still wearing protective gear, lined up clapping for Hiroaki Fujita as he left the Dubai World Trade Centre which was converted to a 3,000-bed field hospital in April to treat virus patients. “I ask everyone to […]





