A deadly viral outbreak in China has now killed 41 people, while the number of infected cases has soared to nearly 1,300, authorities said Saturday.
The 15 new deaths all took place in Wuhan, the city of 11 million where the deadly respiratory contagion first emerged, the Hubei Health Commission said.
At least 444 new cases of the virus have been found, raising the total number to 1,287, the National Health Commission said in a separate statement.
The disease has spread to 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.  Wuhan and 13 other cities in Hubei have been locked down in an unprecedented quarantine effort aimed at containing the deadly respiratory contagion, which has spread to several other countries.
The Hubei Health Commission also reported 180 new cases overall in the province, 77 of them in Wuhan but the bulk of the rest spread out across the locked-down smaller cities. There are now 729 cases in Hubei alone.
Several of those cities were reporting their first cases .

China virus death toll jumps to 41, cases soar to nearly 1,300

PTI Automatic

A massive quarantine effort covering 13 cities was in effect in China on Saturday aimed at containing a deadly virus, as the death toll climbed to 26 and the first cases of the disease were reported in Europe and South Asia.
China on Friday imposed transport bans in an area covering a staggering 41 million people, as the United States confirmed its second case of the SARS-like virus that has reached almost a dozen countries.
The virus has also spread to densely populated South Asia, where Nepal confirmed one case, and Europe, where two cases were reported in France.
With more than 800 cases logged in China so far, a range of Lunar New Year festivities have been cancelled, with temporary closures of Beijing's Forbidden City, Shanghai's Disneyland and a section of the Great Wall to prevent the disease from spreading further.
The previously unknown virus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed hundreds across mainland China and 

Vast virus quarantine in China as cases emerge in Europe, S. Asia

- A former commander of a Mexican federal police unit that worked hand-in-glove with US agents fighting drugs cartels has been indicted in New York on drugs trafficking charges, US prosecutors said Friday.
Ivan Reyes Arzate was indicted by a grand jury in Brooklyn on Thursday with three counts of conspiracy to bring cocaine into the United States between September and November 2016.
The charges carry a minimum 10-year sentence if convicted, with a maximum penalty of life behind bars.
Reyes Arzate, who is being held in a New York prison, appeared before a federal judge on Friday and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The judge agreed with the prosecution and ordered him to remain in custody, citing the danger of him trying to flee the country for Mexico.
Reyes Arzate had been chief of the Sensitive Investigative Unit, or SIU, between 2008 and 2016, acting as a key pointman between the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Mexico's security forces.
US prosecutors accused him of having ...

US charges ex-chief of Mexican anti-drug unit with trafficking

An American couple pleaded guilty to running a USD 1 billion solar investment scam that they used to finance a luxury lifestyle, including buying Burt Reynolds' sports car, US authorities announced Friday.
The California husband and wife team were taking money from investors for non-existent mobile solar generators, which they used to buy a 1978 Firebird that once belonged to the late Hollywood star, luxury homes in the Caribbean and Mexico, jewelry and a baseball team, according to a statement.
They were charged in a wide-ranging case involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies.
"By all outer appearances this was a legitimate and successful company," said Kareem Carter, Special Agent in Charge at IRS Criminal Investigation.
"But in reality it was all just smoke and mirrors -- a Ponzi scheme touting tax benefits to the tune of over $900 million." According to court documents, between 2011 and 2018, ...

USD 1 bn solar scam toasts US husband & wife team: officials

Canadian searchers on Friday found the body of one of five French snowmobilers whose machines fell through the ice of a frozen lake, police said.
Hopes had dimmed of finding any of the five alive, despite a search that included divers, sonar operators and police backed by helicopters in the area about 225 kilometers (140 miles) north of Quebec City.
Quebec provincial police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu said the body "was found more than two kilometers from the initial search area in Grande Decharge River" at the mouth of Lake Saint-Jean where the accident happened.
"At the moment, we can't identify the body," Beaulieu said.
The group included eight French tourists, three of whom survived. Their Canadian guide died when they crashed through ice while snowmobiling Tuesday evening in an area that is off limits to snowmobiles because the ice is thinner there.
Police had already recovered six snowmobiles at the bottom of the lake near where the accident occurred, which prompted a pledge from .

Body found after 5 snowmobilers crashed through Canada ice

US President Donald Trump, seeking to shore up evangelical support ahead of the November election, addressed the country's biggest annual anti-abortion rally on Friday as the Senate sat in judgment nearby at his impeachment trial.
"Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House," Trump told tens of thousands of anti-abortion campaigners at the 47th "March for Life" on the National Mall.
Trump, the first president to address the annual event in person, assailed Democrats for supporting abortion rights and claimed that "religious liberty" was under attack.
"When it comes to abortion," the 73-year-old Republican president said,
"Democrats have embraced the most radical and extreme positions." "We have taken decisive action to protect religious liberty," he added.
Following Trump's brief remarks, the crowd broke into a chant of "four more years," a reference to the November vote, when Christian evangelical support will be crucial to Trump's re-election.
"I vote ...

Trump attends anti-abortion rally as Democrats wrap impeachment case

US President Donald Trump thanked China on Friday for its "efforts and transparency" in tackling a deadly virus that has triggered a vast quarantine in the country.
"China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus," Trump tweeted, hours after the United States confirmed its second case of the SARS-like virus that has reached half a dozen countries.
"The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency," he added. "It will all work out well.

Trump praises China 'efforts and transparency' on virus

US authorities said Friday they had granted permission to a TV provider to urgently lift a four-ton (3,600-kilogram) satellite to a so-called "graveyard orbit" over fears a battery fault may soon cause it to explode.
DirecTV had told the Federal Communications Commission its Boeing-built Spaceway-1 satellite had suffered a "major anomaly" in its batteries and did not have time to deplete its remaining fuel before disposing of it by placing it 300 kilometers (190 miles) above the "geostationary arc."
This arc is about 36,000 kilometers above the equator and is home to most of the world's communication satellites because it allows them to match the Earth's orbit so that ground dishes do not have to track them across the sky.
An FCC spokesman told AFP on Friday that permission was granted on January 19 for DirecTV to begin its de-orbiting plan the following day.
The company said it was necessary to complete the procedure before February 25, when the satellite would pass through the ...

TV provider shifting satellite to high orbit over explosion fears

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday hailed "a new chapter" in Britain's history as he signed its divorce treaty with the EU, clearing another hurdle before the country exits the bloc next Friday.
It allows Britain to end its decades-long membership of the European Union and leave its closest neighbours and trading partners after several years of domestic acrimony and delays.
"The signing of the withdrawal agreement is a fantastic moment, which finally delivers the result of the 2016 referendum and brings to an end far too many years of argument and division," Johnson said in a statement.
"This signature heralds a new chapter in our nation's history," he added on Twitter, alongside a photo of the occasion.
Johnson signed the agreement in Downing Street, seated in front of two Union Jack flags, with European and British officials who had brought it from Brussels looking on.
EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel had already put their names to the treaty overnight at a ...

UK's Johnson hails 'new chapter' as he signs EU divorce treaty

A powerful earthquake measuring 6.8 hit eastern Turkey on Friday, leaving at least four people dead and causing buildings to collapse.
The quake shook the Sivrice district in the eastern province of Elazig at around 8.55 pm (1755 GMT), the government's disaster and emergency management agency said.
The US Geological Survey assessed the quake's magnitude at 6.7, and said it struck at a depth of 10 kilometres (about six miles).
"It was very scary, furniture fell on top of us. We rushed outside," 47-year-old Melahat Can, who lives in the city of Elazig, told AFP.
"We will spend the coming days in a farmhouse outside the city," she said.  Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said four people had died.
"We are hoping we will not have more casualties," he was quoted as saying by the official Anadolu news agency.
"Sivrice was shaken very seriously, we have directed our rescue teams to the region," he told reporters, adding that there were reports of some collapsed buildings in the region.
The ...

Powerful quake hits eastern Turkey, four dead

An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit eastern Turkey on Friday, a Turkish government agency said.
There was no immediate information about any casualties but the country's interior minister said there were reports that some buildings had collapsed.
The quake shook the Sivrice district in the eastern province of Elazig at around 8.55 pm (1755 GMT), the government's disaster and emergency management agency said.
The US Geological Survey assessed the quake's magnitude at 6.7, and said it struck at a depth of 10 kilometres (about six miles).
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said there was no news of casualties at the moment.
"Sivrice was shaken very seriously, we have directed our rescue teams to the region," he told reporters, adding that there were reports of some collapsed buildings in the region.
Turkey lies on major faultlines and is prone to earthquakes.
In 1999, a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Izmit in western Turkey, leaving more than 17,000 people dead ..

6.8 magnitude quake hits eastern Turkey

A forensic psychiatrist told Harvey Weinstein's rape trial on Friday that victims of sexual assault commonly remain in contact with their attacker for years after the incident.
The prosecution called Barbara Ziv, who testified when American comedian Bill Cosby was convicted of sexual assault, to dispel several "myths" surrounding rape.
Ex-Hollywood titan Weinstein, 67, whose trial began hearing testimony this week, faces life imprisonment if convicted of predatory sexual assault charges related to two women: actress Jessica Mann and former production assistant Mimi Haleyi.
He is alleged to have forcibly performed oral six on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi and to have raped actress Jessica Mann.
Weinstein denies all allegations of non-consensual sex.
Pennsylvania-based Ziv said most sexual assaults are committed by someone who is known to the victim, and not by a stranger, as is often believed.
She told the proceedings, symbolic to the #MeToo movement against sexual ...

Weinstein rape trial told of sexual assault 'myths'

Four male employees of a French Christian NGO, three French nationals and one Iraqi, have been missing in Baghdad since Monday, the charity announced Friday.
The four members of the influential SOS Chretiens d'Orient (Christians of the Middle East) charity went missing near the French embassy in the Iraqi capital, the organisation's director Benjamin Blanchard told a news conference in Paris.
No ransom demand has been received as yet and no group has claimed responsibility for their disappearance, he added.
SOS Chretiens d'Orient has been working with persecuted Christians in Iraq since 2014 when Islamic State jihadists overran the province of Mosul, displacing tens of thousands of minority Christians and Yazidis.
It is principally active in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil, where many Christians sought refuge.
The missing workers were in Baghdad "to renew their visas and register the association with Iraqi authorities," Blanchard said.
They were also due to inspect the group's ...

Four employees of French Christian NGO missing in Baghdad

Two anti-government protesters were killed in clashes with security forces in the Iraqi capital on Friday, hours after thousands of supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr rallied separately to demand the ouster of US troops.
Four NGO workers, three of them French nationals, were also reported missing in Baghdad, rocked since October by a youth-dominated protest movement demanding a government overhaul, early elections and more accountability.
More than 470 people have died in protest-related violence since October, most of them demonstrators, and violence has spiked this week.
On Friday, one protester was struck in the neck by a live round while another died after being hit with a military-grade tear gas canister in clashes with security forces, medical and police sources told AFP.
It marked a sudden and bloody turn as thousands of men, women and children had gathered in Baghdad earlier the same day without incident to demand US troops withdraw.
A vowed enemy of US troops, Sadr had .

Iraqis mass to urge US troop ouster, rival rallies turn deadly

Boeing, still in crisis mode due to the grounding of the 737 MAX, is considering further production cuts to another key commercial plane, a person close to the matter said on Friday.
The move could affect the 787 Dreamliner plane, which is bigger than the MAX and was the company's most-delivered jet in 2019 while MAX deliveries were halted.
In October, Boeing trimmed 787 output to 12 from 14 per month, describing the move as necessary given lower orders from China.
The company may cut the 787 output further, the source said, confirming a report on CNBC.
Boeing would maintain a "disciplined rate management process taking into account a host of risks and opportunities," a company spokesman said on Friday.
"We will continue to assess the demand environment and make adjustments as appropriate in the future."
Former chief executive Dennis Muilenburg said in October that Boeing expected the lower 787 production rate for two years and stressed that the company was still bullish on the ...

Boeing could again cut production on 787 plane: Source

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday hailed "a new chapter" in Britain's history as he signed its divorce deal with the EU, clearing another hurdle ahead of the country's departure from the bloc next Friday.
Johnson signed the agreement in Downing Street in front of European and British Foreign Office officials who had brought it from Brussels.
EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel had put their names to the treaty at a ceremony held behind closed doors in the dead of night.
"The signing of the withdrawal agreement is a fantastic moment, which finally delivers the result of the 2016 referendum and brings to an end far too many years of argument and division," Johnson said in a statement.
"This signature heralds a new chapter in our nation's history," he added on Twitter.
The treaty will now return to Brussels, where the original will be kept in EU archives along with other international treaties, while three copies will be dispatched back to London.
On Wednesday next ...

UK's Johnson hails 'new chapter' as he signs EU divorce deal

A 26-year-old man is believed to have shot dead his mother and father and four other people in a town in southwest Germany on Friday, police said, leaving two others seriously wounded.
The suspect "called the police station in (nearby town) Aalen at 12:48 pm (1148 GMT) to inform them he had shot several people," police chief Reiner Moeller told reporters in a press conference hours after the killings in Rot am See, near Baden-Wuerttemberg state capital Stuttgart.
The young man stayed on the line, and when the first officers arrived minutes later at the hotel where the shooting took place, they immediately arrested him outside.
"They were then able to identify six dead people both inside and behind the building," Moeller said, including three men aged 36, 65 and 69 and three women aged 36, 56 and 62.
Images from the scene showed large numbers of emergency vehicles and heavily armed officers sealing off the area with red and white police tape.
Meanwhile forensics teams dressed in white .

Gunman kills parents and four others in Germany

Nearly three dozen US troops suffered traumatic brain injuries or concussion in the recent Iranian air strike on a military base in Iraq housing American personnel, the Pentagon said on Friday.
"Thirty-four total members have been diagonosed with concussions and TBI (traumatic brain injury)," Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters.
US President Donald Trump had initially said that no Americans were injured in the strike on the Ain al-Asad base in western Iraq earlier this month although authorities later reported that 11 troops were injured.

34 US troops injured in recent Iranian strike: Pentagon

A coalition of nine rebel groups from two conflict areas in Sudan on Friday signed a preliminary agreement with the government after weeks of talks in a key step towards a final peace deal.
The peace talks began in October in South Sudan and aim to end conflicts in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan, where rebels have fought bloody campaigns against marginalisation by Khartoum under ousted president Omar al-Bashir.
The latest deal covers key issues around land, giving local authorities the right to make their own laws, power sharing, and the creation of a unified national army.
It was signed by groups from the Blue Nile area and Darfur, however rebels from South Kordofan -- who are demanding an autonomous state -- did not as they press further demands.
"With this agreement, there (are) so many details including the issues of land that (were) resolved," said Adi Idriss, chairman of the coalition, the Sudan Revolutionary Front.
The agreement also addressed legislature for the two ...

Sudan rebel groups ink key deal on security, land, power sharing

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is convinced Manchester United will give him the time and backing to turn the stumbling giants around.
Back-to-back Premier League defeats by Liverpool and Burnley have been compounded by a toxic atmosphere around the club, with fans voicing their anger at United's owners the Glazer family and executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.
Pressure is also ratcheting up on United manager Solskjaer but the 1999 treble hero is understood to retain the belief and confidence of the Old Trafford hierarchy.
United head to Tranmere in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday in desperate need of a victory but the Norwegian remains confident they are on the right track.
"When you start on something, you stick to that plan," Solskjaer told reporters on Friday.
"For me, anyway. I'm not going to change six or eight or nine or 10 months after I got the job and start believing in a different way of doing things.
"I'm going to stick to what I've been trusted to do by the club and hopefully ...

Solskjaer convinced Man Utd will give him time

Bruised by months of street protests and calls to resign, Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam came to Davos with a tricky pitch to sell -- that the Chinese territory is still a safe destination for investment and she is not going anywhere.
Her stay at the four-day event in the Swiss Alps, which wraps up Friday, was shadowed by a downgrade from Moody's a day before World Economic Forum (WEF) even began on the grounds of a lack of government response to the protests.
Lam must also now deal with the health, social and economic consequences of the coronavirus in China, openly admitting Hong Kong is extremely vulnerable due to the flows of people from the mainland.
"I feel that we have gone through some very tough times. I personally have gone through and am still going through some very tough times," she said in candid remarks at a dinner late Thursday.
Lam has come under huge pressure as she struggled to end more than seven months of huge and often violent pro-democracy protests in 

AFP

AFP

Page 183 - Afp