WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the United States will ban visas to some employees of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which Washington is seeking to isolate. “The State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of the Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses,” Pompeo told a news conference. © Agence France-Presse
International
Teenage boy dies of plague in Mongolia
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AFP) — A 15-year-old boy has died from the bubonic plague in Mongolia, health authorities said Tuesday, one of a handful of cases that recently emerged in the country and neighbouring China. The boy, who lived in the remote southwest province of Gobi-Altai, caught the rare bacterial illness after hunting and eating a marmot, according to the health ministry. “We quarantined the first 15 people who came into contact with the deceased and […]
Tokyo on top virus alert level after new cases
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo is on its highest coronavirus alert level after a spike in new cases, the city’s governor warned Wednesday, as experts said the rising infections were a clear “red flag”. However, the move to a “red” alert does not mean the city will ask businesses to close or events to be postponed. Even during a national state of emergency in April, there was no “lockdown” in Japan of the type seen […]
US clocks up another 63,000 virus cases in 24 hours
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States recorded 63,262 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday. The total number of cases recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic now exceeds 3.42 million, according to the Baltimore-based university. COVID-19 also claimed 850 new victims in the United States in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 136,432, […]
Chilean police train dogs to sniff out COVID-19
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Police in Chile are training dogs to detect people that may be infected with the novel coronavirus by sniffing their sweat. The dogs — three golden retrievers and a labrador — are between the ages of four and five. Until now they have been used to sniff out illicit drugs, explosives and lost people, police say. The training program is a joint effort by Chile’s national police, the Carabineros, and specialists […]
Third of Bangladesh underwater as monsoon drenches region
by Sam JAHAN BISWAMBHARPUR, Bangladesh (AFP) — Almost four million people have been hit by monsoon floods in South Asia, officials said Tuesday, with a third of Bangladesh already underwater from some of the heaviest rains in a decade. The monsoon — which usually falls from June to September — is crucial to the economy of the Indian sub-continent, but also causes widespread death and destruction across the region each year. “This is going to […]
Hong Kong academics fear for freedom under new security law
by Jerome Taylor and Su Xinqi HONG KONG, China (AFP) — China’s new security law has sent a chill through Hong Kong’s schools and universities with many teachers fearful the city’s reputation for academic freedom and excellence is now at risk. Just a week after the sweeping legislation was imposed on the territory, staff at some institutions have already been warned by their administrators to be careful how they teach. “Remain neutral in your teaching […]
China rushes to contain floods after record rainfall
SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — Soldiers erected sandbag flood barriers in a city near China’s largest freshwater lake after the heaviest rainfall in nearly six decades drenched the swollen Yangtze River basin. The vast Yangtze drainage area has been lashed by torrential rains since last month, leaving 141 people dead or missing and forcing the evacuation of millions more across several provinces. Flooding along the river — the world’s third longest — has been an annual […]
Dozens injured as trains crash near Prague
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AFP) — Dozens of people were injured, four of them seriously, when a passenger train collided with a stationary freight train near Prague on Tuesday evening, emergency services said. “We have treated four people with serious injuries and taken them to hospitals in Prague,” regional emergency service spokeswoman Petra Effenbergerova told AFP, adding that two helicopters had been deployed. “We have also treated 29 people with lighter injuries. They are being transported […]
Moderna COVID-19 vaccine enters final stage trial July 27: statement
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US biotech firm Moderna said Tuesday it would enter the final stage of its human trials for its COVID-19 vaccine on July 27, after promising early results were published in a journal. The Phase 3 trial will recruit 30,000 participants in the US, with half to receive the vaccine at 100 microgram dose levels, and the other half will receive a placebo. It is designed to learn whether the […]
New Zealand opposition picks ‘Crusher’ to challenge Ardern
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand’s opposition has installed a conservative veteran nicknamed “Crusher” as leader as it regroups for the daunting task of trying to oust Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in a September general election. The center-right National Party selected Judith Collins in a caucus vote late Tuesday, hours after her predecessor Todd Muller unexpectedly quit, saying the pressure of the role was too much. Collins is best known to New Zealanders for […]
Polish embassy opens new office, renders service amid COVID-19
(Eagle News) – The Embassy of Poland in Manila recently opened its new office at Taguig City, rendering essential consular and diplomatic services to Filipinos and Polish citizens alike amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Chargé d’affaires Jaroslaw Szczepankiewicz said that the embassy’s new office, located at the Bonifacio Global Center, was the venue for the recently concluded Polish presidential elections. “How to do elections during the lockdown? It was very complicated,” Szczepankiewicz shared, revealing that Polish […]