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VISAKHAPATNAM, India (AFP) — Eleven people were killed and hundreds hospitalized after a pre-dawn gas leak at a chemical plant in eastern India on Thursday that left unconscious victims lying in the streets, authorities said. Fears that the death toll from the incident on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam, an industrial port city in Andhra Pradesh state, might rise significantly were not borne out however. The gas escaped from tanks at a complex owned by South […]
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — An earthquake jolted Tehran shortly early on Friday, causing panicked residents to flee buildings for the safety of the streets, AFP journalists reported. The quake struck the Iranian capital at around 00:45 am (2015 GMT) and lasted several seconds, the AFP journalists reported. The website of the Tehran University Seismological Centre was inaccessible. However, according to the Twitter account of the EMSC earthquake monitoring service, it was 4.8 magnitude and its […]
by Joe JACKSON Agence France Presse LONDO, United Kingdom (AFP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told senior ministers on Thursday the government would adopt “maximum caution” as he prepared to outline how lockdown measures imposed to combat the coronavirus outbreak could be eased. Johnson will address the nation on Sunday evening to set out a “roadmap” for relaxing social distancing rules announced in late March, but is not expected to make any major changes […]
by Dan Martin Agence France Presse SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — At Shanghai High School, masks and social distancing have muted the adolescent buzz, classmates talk through glass in the canteen, and graduation ceremonies remain in doubt. As schools in coronavirus-hit countries worldwide ponder how the pandemic will alter campus life, China’s phased reopening of in-person classes points to a radically different atmosphere. Students in a number of cities including Shanghai and Beijing began returning to […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The British government was on Thursday reviewing lockdown measures introduced to combat the coronavirus outbreak, with a partial easing expected to be announced this weekend. Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets Cabinet colleagues, with predictions that unlimited exercise and picnics will soon be allowed as part of the first step of easing restrictions. “We’ll want if we possibly can to get going with some of these measures on Monday. I think […]
by Holly ROBERTSON Agence France Presse SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Cardinal George Pell was aware of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Australia as far back as the 1970s and failed to seek the removal of accused priests, according to findings of a top-level inquiry released Thursday. The Royal Commission report was handed down in 2017 but pages relating to Pell’s conduct were heavily redacted to prevent jurors in his trials on child […]
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 […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States recorded 2,073 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 73,095, according to the latest real-time tally Wednesday reported by Johns Hopkins University. The country — hardest hit by the pandemic in terms of the number of fatalities — has now confirmed a total of 1,227,430 cases, the Baltimore-based school reported. © Agence France-Presse
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan plans to authorize Thursday the antiviral drug remdesivir to treat coronavirus patients, the government said, with an eye to approving another medication Avigan this month. This would make Japan the second country to approve the drug after US regulators authorized it on Friday for emergency use against severe cases of COVID-19. “If there is no problem we hope to swiftly approve (the drug) today” at the health ministry’s regulatory panel, […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong has seized 26 tonnes of smuggled shark fins, sliced from some 38,500 endangered animals, in the largest bust of its kind in the southern Chinese city. The record haul was discovered in two containers from Ecuador, and highlights the continued demand for shark fin, which is served at wedding banquets in many Chinese communities. The city’s customs department unveiled the haul on Wednesday and said it smashed previous […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — At least five people have been killed and several hundred hospitalized after a gas leak at a chemicals plant on the east coast of India, police said Thursday. They said that the gas had leaked out of two 5,000-tonne tanks that had been unattended due to India’s coronavirus lockdown in place since late March. “We can confirm at least five deaths right now. More will be confirmed later. At least […]
by Chris Lefkow with AFP bureaus WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump renewed his criticism of China on Wednesday over the global coronavirus pandemic and said it has been worse for the United States than Pearl Harbor and 9/11. As Germany unveiled plans for a return to near-normality — including a May 15 restart of the Bundesliga — the European Union forecast a historic recession on the virus-battered continent. Countries in Asia joined […]
