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BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) — Pablo Escobar’s most notorious hitman, known by the nickname Popeye, died on Thursday at age 57 after a life of crime he celebrated on YouTube, Colombia’s prison authorities said. Jhon Jairo Velasquez had boasted of killing hundreds of people for his “boss” Escobar, the infamous drug lord killed by Colombian police in 1993 while on the run to avoid extradition to the United States. Velasquez spent 23 years in prison after […]
by Helen Roxburgh and Laurent Thomet BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese doctor, among the first to raise the alert about China’s new coronavirus, himself died from the pathogen on Friday, emphasizing the depth of a worsening crisis that has killed more than 560 people. Global panic also spread, with thousands trapped on quarantined cruise ships. Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang died at 2:58 am, Wuhan Central Hospital said in a post on its verified account on […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) –The official Chinese death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose on Friday to 636, with the government saying total infections had climbed past 30,000. The toll was raised by 73 new deaths from the epidemic, the National Health Commission said in its daily update. Another 3,143 new cases of infection were confirmed, bringing total infections in the country thus far to 31,161, it said. The central province of Hubei where the virus […]
by Michael Mathes / with Chris Lefkow in Washington MANCHESTER, United States (AFP) — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joined Pete Buttigieg on Thursday in claiming victory in the chaotic Iowa caucuses as an exasperated party chairman ordered a review of the results of the first nominating contest. Sanders, the leftist senator from Vermont, and Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, have been separated by a razor-thin margin in the results released so […]
by Miguel Medina with Alexandria Sage in Rome LODI, Italy (AFP) — Two rail workers were killed and about 30 people injured on Thursday when a high-speed train derailed before dawn near Milan in northern Italy, authorities said. The crash occurred just after 5:30 am (4:30 GMT) near the town of Lodi, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Milan. “It was a serious accident that had a tragic end with the death of two […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A Chinese doctor who was among the first to raise a public alarm about the deadly new coronavirus outbreak died of the infection early on Friday, his hospital announced. Ophthalmologist Li Wenliang passed away from the infection at 2:58 am, Wuhan Central Hospital said in a post on its verified account on Chinese social media platform Weibo. © Agence France-Presse
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — The Kremlin said Thursday it has begun checking the body temperature of officials and reporters attending events involving President Vladimir Putin due to coronavirus fears. “This is a precautionary measure,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state news agency RIA Novosti after journalists underwent checks at the Kremlin on Thursday afternoon. Peskov said that all participants of meetings involving the 67-year-old Russian leader would be checked. “There is a new screening […]
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Fourteen people were injured at a popular night spot in central Jerusalem after being struck by a vehicle on Thursday, in an incident Israeli police are investigating as a terror attack. The driver “fled the scene” following the early morning attack at Jerusalem’s First Station, an historic rail stop that now hosts bars, shops and restaurants, police spokesman Micky Rosenfled said. “Police are searching for the vehicle,” he added. “The incident […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Panic buyers in Hong Kong have descended on supermarkets to snap up toilet rolls as the government warned that online rumors of shortages were hampering the city’s fight against a deadly coronavirus outbreak. Videos obtained by AFP showed long queues of frantic shoppers packing trolleys with multiple packets of toilet rolls, with some arguments breaking out. Rice and pasta have also become a popular target for panic buying. The footage […]
by Harumi OZAWA YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) — Thousands of people were stranded aboard two cruise ships in Asia on Thursday, quarantined by officials desperate to stem the spread of a deadly virus that has killed hundreds in China and spread panic worldwide. At least 20 people on board one ocean liner off the Japanese coast have tested positive for the new coronavirus, with thousands more staring at two-week sea-borne isolation. The outbreak on the vessel, […]
by Helen ROXBURGH BEIJING, China (AFP) — China scrambled to find bed space for thousands of newly infected patients on Thursday, as the toll from a deadly new virus jumped again. More than 28,000 people are now known to be infected nationwide in an outbreak that has killed 563 and spiraled into a global health emergency. Two dozen countries now have confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus that emerged from a market selling exotic animals […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged Wednesday to commit up to $100 million for the global response to the novel coronavirus epidemic that has claimed nearly 500 lives. The funding will be used to strengthen detection, isolation and treatment efforts, the foundation said, including protecting at-risk populations and developing vaccines and diagnostics. “Multilateral organizations, national governments, the private sector, and philanthropies must work together to slow the pace of […]
