07/07/2020
SYDNEY/MELBOURNE — Lockdown measures were reimposed in Australia’s second biggest city on Tuesday, confining Melbourne residents to their homes unless undertaking essential business for six weeks, as officials scramble to to contain a coronavirus outbreak. The decision, which affects around 4.9 million people, was announced just hours before the busy...
WELLINGTON — New Zealand’s embattled Health Minister resigned on Thursday after security slip-ups at quarantine facilities where the coronavirus was detected just days after officials declared it had been eliminated from the country. David Clark was also under fire for personally breaching strict lockdown rules twice earlier in the year, by taking his family on […] Read more »
MEXICO CITY — At least 24 people were killed in an armed attack on a drug rehabilitation facility in the central Mexican city of Irapuato, Mexican police said on Wednesday, underlining the challenge the government has in fulfilling a pledge to stop gang violence. Police in the city in Guanajuato state said the gunmen also […] Read more »
SYDNEY – Australian police set up suburban checkpoints in new coronavirus hotspots in Melbourne on Thursday as authorities struggled to contain new outbreaks in the country’s second-largest city, even as travel restrictions eased elsewhere. Images published by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Thursday showed police flagging down cars in suburban streets after 36 suburbs in […] Read more »
MELBOURNE — Authorities will lock down more than 300,000 people in suburbs north of Melbourne for a month from late on Wednesday to contain the risk of infection after two weeks of double-digit rises in new coronavirus cases in Australia’s second most populous state. Australia has fared better than many countries in the pandemic, with […] Read more »
BRUSSELS — The European Union has excluded the United States from its initial “safe list” of countries from which the bloc will allow non-essential travel from Wednesday. The 27-member bloc gave majority approval on Tuesday to leisure or business travel from 14 countries beyond its borders, the Council of the EU, which represents EU governments. […] Read more »
YOKOHAMA — Doctors in white coats and blue scrubs sat around a conference room table in June, looking up at a colourful slide projected on the wall. “How is anyone supposed to memorize this?” a doctor sitting in the back asked as Yoshihiro Masui, the director of Yokohama City Seibu Hospital’s critical care centre, checked […] Read more »
With her husband left jobless by the pandemic, the last thing Indonesian mother Juarsih needed was to get pregnant, but now she’s expecting a third child — one of many in the country anxiously preparing for a COVID-fuelled baby boom. Indonesian authorities believe there could be 400,000 more births than usual next year as lockdowns […] Read more »
An experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc showed promise and was found to be safe in an early-stage human trial, the company said on Tuesday. The vaccine, one of 17 being tested in humans and part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed program, induced immune responses in 34 of the 36 healthy volunteers […] Read more »
TOULOUSE, France/PARIS — Airbus is cutting 15,000 jobs within a year, including 900 already earmarked in Germany, saying its future is at stake after the coronavirus outbreak paralysed air travel. Airbus is moving swiftly to counter damage caused by a 40% slump in its 55-billion-euro ($61.8 billion) jet business following the pandemic, balancing belt-tightening against […] Read more »
WUHAN, China/BEIJING – Six months after the World Health Organization learned of “viral pneumonia” cases that would become the COVID-19 pandemic, life in Wuhan, the city where it emerged, is returning to normal, although masks remain ubiquitous and emotional scars linger. A city of 11 million, Wuhan was locked down for two months starting in […] Read more »
ACAPULCO, Mexico – The coastline of famed Mexican beach resort Acapulco was sullied late last week by a large discharge of raw sewage, the ugly scene captured in a viral video, which has prompted local officials to promise an investigation and fix broken drains. The video taken from a nearby balcony shows a high-pressure stream […] Read more »
LEICESTER, England — Britain has imposed a stringent lockdown on the English city of Leicester following a local flare-up of the novel coronavirus just as Prime Minister Boris Johnson attempts to nudge the United Kingdom back to normality. The United Kingdom has been one of the world’s worst-hit areas, with more than 54,000 suspected deaths, […] Read more »