World

3M, U.S. reach agreement that allows mask exports

Published on Tue, 04/07/2020 - 4:04pm

TORONTO (AP) — Manufacturing giant 3M said Monday it has an agreement with the Trump administration that will allow the company to continue to export N95 protective masks to Canada and Latin America amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

The company said the U.S. government and 3M have a plan to produce 166.5 million masks over the next three months to support healthcare workers in the United States. They will primarily come from its manufacturing facility in China. 

Mideastern burial traditions clash with fears

Published on Tue, 04/07/2020 - 4:04pm

BAGHDAD (AP) — Mohammed al-Dulfi’s 67-year-old father died on March 21 after a brief struggle against the new coronavirus, but it would take nine days for his body to find a final resting place in the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq. 

On two occasions, the family rejected remote burial plots proposed by the government outside Baghdad for him and seven other coronavirus victims, al-Dulfi said. A fight broke out between the families and the Health Ministry’s team. His father’s corpse waited in a hospital morgue for days.

Japan to declare state of emergency for Tokyo, other areas

Published on Mon, 04/06/2020 - 2:51pm
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TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he will declare a state of emergency for Tokyo and six other prefectures as early as Tuesday to bolster measures to fight the coronavirus, but that there will be no hard lockdowns.

Abe also told reporters Monday that his government will launch a 108 trillion yen ($1 trillion) stimulus package — Japan’s largest ever and nearly twice as much as expected — to help counter the economic impact of the pandemic, including cash payouts to households in need and financial support to protect businesses and jobs.

UK’s Johnson ‘in good spirits’ in hospital

Published on Mon, 04/06/2020 - 2:50pm
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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was in good spirits Monday after spending the night in a London hospital where he was admitted with the new coronavirus.

Johnson’s spokesman said Johnson had spent a comfortable night and remained in charge of government despite being admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital after COVID-19 symptoms of a cough and fever persisted, 10 days after he was diagnosed.

Johnson sent out a tweet thanking the National Health Service for taking care of him and others in this difficult time.

From Iran’s hot zone, Afghans flee home, spreading virus

Published on Mon, 04/06/2020 - 2:49pm
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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Mahdi Noori, a young Afghan refugee in Iran, was left jobless when the factory where he’d worked cutting stone was shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak. He had no money, was afraid of contracting the virus and had no options. So he headed home.

He joined a large migration of some 200,000 Afghans and counting who have been flowing home across the border for weeks — from a country that is one of the world’s biggest epicenters of the pandemic to an impoverished homeland that is woefully unprepared to deal with it.

Taliban warn peace deal with US near breaking point

Published on Mon, 04/06/2020 - 2:48pm

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The Taliban said their peace deal with the United States was nearing a breaking point, accusing Washington of violations that included drone attacks on civilians, while also chastising the Afghan government for delaying the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners promised in the agreement. 

The Taliban said they had restricted attacks against Afghan security forces to rural outposts, had not attacked international forces and had not attacked Afghan forces in cities or military installations. 

Ukraine continues to battle forest fire near Chernobyl

Published on Mon, 04/06/2020 - 2:48pm

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Emergency teams in Ukraine on Monday continued battling a forest fire in the contaminated area around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that has raised radiation fears.

Police said they tracked down a person suspected of starting the blaze by setting dry grass on fire in the area. The 27-year-old man said he burned grass “for fun” and then failed to extinguish the fire when the wind caused it to expand quickly. 

Two blazes erupted Saturday in the zone around Chernobyl that was sealed after the 1986 explosion at the plant.

Scramble for virus supplies strains global solidarity

Published on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 2:58pm
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ROME (AP) — San Marino needed medical masks. Badly. 

The tiny republic, wedged next to two of Italy’s hardest-hit provinces in the COVID-19 outbreak, had already registered 11 deaths by March 17 — a sizeable number in a country of just 33,000, and a harbinger of worse to come. So authorities sent off a bank transfer to a supplier in Lugano, Switzerland, to pay for a half-million masks, to be shared with Italian neighbors.

Next day, the truck returned empty. The company was refusing to provide the masks.

Vendors return in Wuhan as China prepares memorial

Published on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 2:57pm

WUHAN, China (AP) — Sidewalk vendors wearing face masks and gloves sold pork, tomatoes, carrots and other vegetables to shoppers Friday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began, as workers prepared for a national memorial this weekend for health workers and others who died in the outbreak. 

100,000 tourists in New Zealand leave as rules ease

Published on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 2:57pm

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — About 100,000 tourists stuck in New Zealand since it began a lockdown last week were starting to fly to their home countries Friday.

The initial problem for many tourists had been that they were banned from catching domestic flights during the strict monthlong lockdown, which is aimed at preventing more coronavirus infections. The domestic flight ban prevented tourists from reaching the country’s main hub of Auckland Airport to catch international flights home.