SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – It was Thursday morning, and my phone buzzed with a text message from South Korea’s emergency alert system, as it has hundreds of times during the coronavirus outbreak. Someone in my Seoul neighborhood — a 35-year-old Polish male — had tested positive. Clicking a link to a government website revealed an astonishing […]
CAIRO – Iran’s health ministry said Saturday that 123 people had died of coronavirus during the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 1,556, with more than 20,000 people infected. The ministry stressed that the death toll for the day had dropped from 149 a day earlier. Some Iranian opposition sources, however, […]
The World Health Organization determined Wednesday that the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak is now a pandemic and warned that the worst is yet to come. “WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” […]
WASHINGTON – The World Health Organization said Sunday that 100 countries are now reporting coronavirus cases with more than 100,000 people reported as being ill. “While very serious, this should not discourage us,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “There are many things everyone, everywhere can and should do now.” Tedros praised Italy for […]
2019 saw the biggest increase in global military spending in a decade, according to data published Friday, which also showed the United States ramping up war expenditures under President Donald Trump. The findings are from The Military Balance 2020, the latest annual assessment from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) formally launched at the […]
China’s health care system is struggling to cope with the surging number of patients infected by the deadly coronavirus despite that Chinese President Xi Jingping has re-emerged in public to call for greater confidence in his government. The death toll Tuesday totaled 1,018 worldwide among the more than 43,000 confirmed infections; 974 deaths, […]
‘No survivors’ after Ukrainian Boeing 737 passenger plane crashes in Iran. France 24/Youtube video Iran has invited the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. accident investigation agency, to participate in the probe of the Ukrainian Boeing commercial jetliner that crashed near Tehran earlier this week. The NTSB said in a statement Thursday it […]
SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may not have formally abandoned nuclear talks in his New Year’s comments published Wednesday. But Kim appears to be preparing his domestic audience for a long-term future without sanctions relief, effectively dismissing the possibility of progress in negotiations that have been stalled for months. In his […]
ISLAMABAD – A powerful bomb-and-gun attack on the largest American military base in Afghanistan early Wednesday killed at least one person and wounded more than 80 others, mostly civilians. Afghan military authorities said a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed vehicle in front of the gate of an unused hospital almost adjacent to the Bagram Airfield […]