International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A northeastern Chinese city of 10 million people struggling with currently the country’s biggest coronavirus cluster shut dine-in services on Saturday, as the rest of China eases restrictions designed to hamper the spread of the disease. Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang and its biggest city, said it temporarily suspended dine-in services
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday announced an immediate ban on military-grade assault weapons in response to the country’s deadliest-ever mass shooting, a rampage that left 22 people dead last month. “These weapons were designed for one purpose, and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of
The World Health Organization reiterated Friday that the new coronavirus was of natural origin after US President Donald Trump claimed he had seen evidence it originated in a Chinese lab. Scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in 20 days as he celebrated the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, state media said Saturday, ending an absence that had triggered global rumors that he may be seriously ill. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China reported three new confirmed coronavirus cases on April 26, down from 11 a day earlier, with no new deaths, the country’s health authority said on Monday. Of the new cases, two were imported, down from five imported cases on the previous day, the National Health Commission said in its daily bulletin.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returns to work on Monday more than three weeks after being hospitalised for the coronavirus and spending three days in intensive care. Johnson, one of the highest-profile people to have contracted the virus, returned to 10 Downing Street on Sunday evening and will chair a meeting on Monday morning of
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the global coronavirus pandemic began, now has no remaining cases in its hospitals, a health official told reporters on Sunday. The novel coronavirus is believed to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan and first emerged in December before spreading quickly worldwide. Some 2.83 million
New York, which has ground to a halt to stop the coronavirus pandemic, may start reopening manufacturing and construction after May 15, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Sunday. Cuomo, however, said that any easing of measures would take place first in the north of the state and not in the New York City metropolitan region, by
The global death toll in the novel coronavirus pandemic soared past the grim 200,000 milestone on Sunday, as the World Health Organization warned against “immunity passports” for recovered patients, seen as a possible tool for countries preparing to re-open their economies. The WHO opposes such “passports” because recovery from the virus might not protect a person from reinfection. “There
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The Indian government allowed a limited reopening of shops in neighborhoods and residential areas from Saturday, more than a month after the nation went into a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, officials said. Late on Friday the federal home ministry said retail shops could start operations with the
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain could hit the grim milestone of 20,000 COVID-19 deaths later on Saturday, when the daily count is added to the current toll of 19,506 people who tested positive for the new coronavirus and died in hospital. The death toll from COVID-19 in hospitals across the United Kingdom increased on Friday by
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Even as the confirmed U.S. death toll from the coronavirus soared past 50,000, Georgia, Oklahoma and Alaska began loosening lockdown orders Friday on their pandemic-wounded businesses, despite warnings from health experts that the gradual steps toward normalcy might be happening too soon. Republican governors in Georgia and Oklahoma allowed salons, spas
