NEW DELHI – Eight COVID-19 patients died in India when a fire engulfed the critical care unit of a hospital in Ahmedabad city in the western Gujarat state early Thursday. The victims included five men and three women. About 35 other patients in the hospital were shifted to other facilities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted […]

WASHINGTON – Another 1.2 million unemployed U.S. workers filed for government jobless compensation last week, the government’s Labor Department reported Thursday, as the unabated coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the American economy.  It was the 20th straight week that more than a million people sought government assistance as the virus unrelentingly attacks communities […]

The top U.S. infectious disease expert says the world will never be able to eradicate the coronavirus that has infected 18.8 million people with COVID-19, but is hopeful hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine could be available by the end of this year. “There will be, I think, enough vaccine if everything turns out […]

U.S. President Donald Trump Thursday ordered sweeping bans on two Chinese consumer apps. He ordered the bans prohibiting U.S. companies from doing business with ByteDance, the owner of the video-sharing app TikTok, and Tencent, the owner of the messenger app WeChat. The executive orders targeting the Chinese companies go into effect in 45 days. Whether […]

Asian markets are mostly higher Wednesday despite investors’ concerns over the ongoing stalemate in Washington over a new round of emergency aid to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.  Japan’s Nikkei index closed 0.2% lower.  The S&P/ASX index in Sydney lost 0.5%.  South Korea’s KOSPI index gained 1.2%, and Taiwan’s TSEC index rose 0.7%.    In late […]

OTTAWA, CANADA – Canadian researchers have discovered the first known case of cancer in a dinosaur, according to a study published in the August issue of the scientific journal The Lancet Oncology. A leg bone from a Centrosaurus was discovered by paleontologists in 1989 in the Canadian province of Alberta. Experts initially believed that the deformed […]

Daily testing for the coronavirus in the United States is falling, even while the death toll rises, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. The number of tests has dropped nearly 4 percent over the past two weeks, AP reported. Experts said demand has overburdened laboratories that carry out the highly accurate molecular tests that detect the […]

With the coronavirus spreading widely across the United States, the White House’s pandemic task force coordinator is advising those living with vulnerable people to wear a mask at home, as well as in public places.   “If you’re in multigenerational households and there’s an outbreak in your rural area or in your city, you need to […]

GENEVA – The International Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor has been universally ratified. The International Labor Organization said this is the first time in its history that all 187 of its member states have ratified an International Labor Convention. An estimated 152 million children are in child labor. Seventy-three-million are involved in hazardous […]

SYDNEY – The Australian state of Victoria has declared a state of disaster and is introducing the country’s toughest-ever COVID-19 lockdown measures. The move comes as a further 671 cases and seven deaths were confirmed Sunday. Australia has had almost 18,000 coronavirus infections. More than 200 people have died.  A “public health bushfire” is how the authorities in […]

Egypt’s minister of international cooperation has extended an invitation to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk after a Musk post on Twitter that the pyramids were built by extraterrestrial beings.   Musk tweeted Saturday: “Aliens built the pyramids obv.”  Musk’s posting prompted Rania Al Mashat, the international cooperation minister, to tweet: “I follow your work with a lot of admiration.  I invite you […]

LONDON – A former Spanish prime minister once described the rock of Gibraltar, which Spain ceded to Britain in 1713, as a stone in the shoe of Anglo-Spanish relations. But Gibraltar currently isn’t the only source of Spanish irritation with the British. Last week’s abrupt decision by London to require Britons returning from vacation in […]

A New York Times survey of 270 U.S. colleges and universities has uncovered 6,600 COVID-19 infections among students and staff and 14 coronavirus-related deaths. Hundreds of the almost 1,000 schools the newspaper contacted did not reply to the questions. The statistics do not include numbers for the fall semester that has already started at some schools. “This […]