International

Honduran president hospitalized with COVID-19: government

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AFP) — Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was admitted to hospital in the capital Tegucigalpa after announcing he had contracted the coronavirus, the government said Wednesday. Doctors who examined the president said laboratory tests showed he was suffering from pneumonia, government spokesman Francis Contreras told reporters at the capital’s Military Hospital. He added that Hernandez “has some infiltrates in his lungs but his general state of health is good.” The 51-year-old president announced […]

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Germany’s CureVac starts human trials for COVID-19 vaccine

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — German biotech firm CureVac has won permission to start human trials of a promising coronavirus vaccine, regulators announced Wednesday, as the global race to stop the pandemic gathers pace. The Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), the German body responsible for assessing clinical trials and approving vaccines, called the approval “an important milestone”. In a statement, it said it had given CureVac the green light based on “a careful assessment of […]

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New Zealand military to control borders after virus bungle

by Neil SANDS WELLINGTON, United States (AFP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered the military to oversee the country’s border controls Wednesday after a bungle that allowed two people with the coronavirus to leave quarantine. A 24-day run with no new cases was broken Tuesday when it emerged two women who recently arrived from Britain were allowed out of quarantine early without being tested for the virus, even though one had mild symptoms. […]

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Japan ‘can’t move ahead’ with US missile defence system: PM

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan “can’t move ahead” with a costly US missile defense system, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday, throwing his support behind a decision to suspend deployment of the controversial program. In a surprise announcement a day earlier, Japan’s Defence Minister Taro Kono said the deployment of the Aegis Ashore system would be suspended, citing cost and time constraints. Abe’s comments appear to suggest the system, which was originally estimated to cost […]

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Brazil reports highest daily jump in virus cases

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil on Tuesday recorded its highest daily jump in new coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with nearly 35,000 registered in 24 hours, the health ministry said. The country, which has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, after the United States, reported 34,918 new cases and 1,282 new deaths in the past 24 hours. That brought Brazil’s total caseload to more than […]

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North Korea vows to step up border military activities

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea threatened Wednesday to bolster its military presence at now-shuttered inter-Korean project sites and rebuild guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone, a day after it blew up its liaison office with Seoul, sharply raising tensions on the peninsula. In a series of denunciations of Seoul, it rejected an offer it said had come from the South’s President Moon Jae-in to send an envoy for talks. North Korean leader Kim […]

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Beijing schools closed again as city finds 31 more virus cases

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Beijing shut all its schools again on Wednesday as the city reported 31 new coronavirus cases, with authorities in the Chinese capital rushing to curb an outbreak linked to a wholesale food market. The new cases have raised fears of a second wave of infections as China had largely brought its domestic outbreak under control. City authorities on Tuesday had also announced a travel ban for residents of “medium- or high-risk” […]

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EU warns N.Korea against further ‘provocative’ acts

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The EU on Tuesday warned North Korea against taking further “provocative and damaging steps” after Pyongyang blew up a liaison office near its border with South Korea. The demolition came after days of increasingly virulent rhetoric from the North condemning the South over activists sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border. “The European Union strongly regrets the recent actions by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” an EU spokesperson said in a […]

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Elderly, sick, essential workers will get virus vaccine first: US

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States plans to give priority to the elderly, those with pre-existing conditions and essential workers once there is a vaccine against COVID-19, a senior Trump administration official said Tuesday. Under Operation Warp Speed (OWS), the US government is aiming to deliver 300 million vaccine doses by January 2021, investing in manufacturing capacity to relieve pharmaceutical firms of the financial risk. “Before any vaccines are approved or authorized, Operation […]

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Beijing imposes partial travel ban, closes schools over virus outbreak

by Jing Xuan Teng and Beiyi Seow BEIJING, China (AFP) — Beijing on Tuesday urged its residents to not leave the city and closed schools again as authorities scramble to contain a “severe” new coronavirus outbreak in the city of 21 million people. The coronavirus resurgence — believed to have started in the capital’s sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food market — has prompted alarm as China had largely brought its outbreak under control through mass testing […]

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India says 20 troops killed in deadliest clash with China in decades

by Bhuvan Bagga and Jalees Andrabi with Parvaiz Buhkari in Srinagar and Jing Xuan Teng in Beijing NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a “violent face-off” with Chinese forces along the disputed Himalayan frontier, the Indian army said Tuesday, in the deadliest clash between the nuclear-armed neighbours for more than four decades. Both sides blamed each other for Monday’s clash in the precipitous, rocky terrain of the strategically […]

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Kim Yo Jong: North Korean leader’s increasingly powerful sister

by Claire LEE SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister warned at the weekend that a Korean liaison office would soon be seen “completely collapsed”. On Tuesday, Pyongyang reduced it to rubble. Kim Yo Jong is one of her brother’s most trusted advisers and among the most powerful women in the isolated regime, but her public profile is mounting rapidly and she has been mooted as a potential successor. The […]

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