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by Beiyi SEOW Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — The Chinese laboratory accused by top American officials of being the source of the coronavirus pandemic conducts research on the world’s most dangerous diseases. US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both claimed that there is evidence the pathogen came from the lab in Wuhan — the city where the disease was first detected late last year. But the World Health […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — China will not invite international experts to investigate the source of COVID-19 until the “final victory” over the virus, Beijing’s UN ambassador in Geneva said Wednesday. China’s priority is first beating the pandemic — and secondly countering the “absurd and ridiculous” US politicization of the new coronavirus, Chen Xu told reporters in an online briefing. The World Health Organization says it is waiting on an invitation from China to take part […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China warned Hong Kong protesters Wednesday it would not tolerate them “stirring up trouble again” in the semi-autonomous territory that was rocked by months of pro-democracy demonstrations last year. Mass arrests of protesters and a ban on large gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak in the financial hub have stifled the protest movement, but small demonstrations have been held in recent weeks as contagion fears ease. Hong Kong police used pepper […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Tuesday successfully launched a new rocket and prototype spacecraft, state media said, in a major test of the country’s ambitions to operate a permanent space station and send astronauts to the Moon. The Long March 5B rocket took off from the Wenchang launch site in the southern island of Hainan and eight minutes later an unmanned prototype spaceship successfully separated and entered its planned orbit, according to the Xinhua […]
by Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS with AFP bureaus Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — China reported its first cases of the new coronavirus in December. But was COVID-19 already silently circulating? To find out scientists are looking for “patient zeros” by tracking the evolution of the virus itself. This genetic detective work is tracing the family tree of the coronavirus that has killed tens of thousands in its relentless spread across the planet. It could also help find out if […]
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Wu Wen, a giant panda loaned to a Dutch zoo by China, has given birth in a first for the Netherlands, Ouwehands animal park announced Saturday. Mating took place in January and the cub, which belongs to Beijing just like the mother and father Xing Ya, was born on May 1. “The mother and her cub are staying in the maternity den and are doing well,” the zoo in the […]
by Brian KNOWLTON Agence France Presse Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday stepped up a US campaign to hold China accountable for the spread of the deadly coronavirus, asserting there is “enormous evidence” the virus originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan. The high-security bio-containment facility, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has called such claims “impossible”. Pompeo, speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” did not elaborate on what he also described as “significant […]
by Sebastian Smith, with AFP bureaus Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump has said he has seen evidence the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab, an assertion that threatened on Friday to turn a global health emergency into a diplomatic crisis. The US president’s statement was immediately undermined by intelligence officials and top diplomat Mike Pompeo, who said: “We don’t know precisely where it began.” But the […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened new tariffs against Beijing after claiming there is evidence linking the coronavirus to a lab in China’s ground-zero city of Wuhan. Asked if he had seen anything giving him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of the outbreak, Trump replied, “Yes, I have.” The Republican is increasingly making complaints over Beijing’s handling of the pandemic […]
by Patrick BAERT Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — A researcher in a lab coat in Beijing holds up the hopes of humanity in his fingers: “Coronavac”, an experimental vaccine against the coronavirus that has upended the world. Sinovac Biotech, which is conducting one of the four clinical trials that have been authorized in China, has claimed great progress in its research and promising results among monkeys. While human trials have just started, the […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Tens of thousands of students returned to school in Shanghai and Beijing Monday after months of closures intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as China’s major cities gradually return to normality. Shanghai students in their final year of middle and high school returned to classrooms, while only high school seniors in Beijing were allowed back on campus to prepare for the all-important “gaokao” university entrance exam. But the students […]
by Sebastien RICCI and AFP bureaus Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — Children in China’s two most important cities went back to school Monday after more than three months at home, as coronavirus restrictions eased and governments around the world began charting a path out of the pandemic lockdown. Europe’s four worst-affected countries all reported marked drops in their daily death tolls, offering hope that the outbreak may have peaked in some places — […]
