A brawl broke out in the Armenian parliament on May 8. Edmon Marukian, chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia party, had just finished his speech when he was approached and slapped by Sasun Mikaelian, a member of the ruling My Step Alliance. Soon, dozens of lawmakers were fighting.

Johannesburg - South Africa now has over 9420 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus and 8 more deaths, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Saturday. Mkhize said there were 525 new infections, taking the total cases to 9420, while there were also 8 more deaths, taking the death toll to 186. The total number of...

ROME (AP) — South Korea's capital closed down more than 2,100 bars and other...

Nanjing University life science faculty's discovery of the anti-tumor mechanisms of high-salt diet was recently reported by Nature Communication and hailed by colleagues as a disruptive step of progress. Professors Zhang Junfeng and Dong Lei's team at the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology of School of Life Sciences published in the online journal on April 7, 2020, the paper 'High-salt diet inhibits tumor growth in mice via regulating myeloid-derived suppressor cell differentiation' (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15524-1). The publication drew widespread interest from at home and abroad. The Nature Research Cancer...

China’s President Xi Jinping had called up World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom in January to...

Patna: Tales of humanity and brotherhood have brought much-needed comfort to the people in distress as they battle the coronavirus pandemic, locking themselves in homes for the past 40 days. Two such incidents in four days stand out. A man from the Indian state of Bihar broke his fast to donate blood in a bid to save the life of a little girl admitted to a government hospital. The...

By Gabriela BaczynskaBRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU states should guarantee vouchers for travel cancelled during the coronavirus pandemic and start... ......

Germany and other member states...

Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez has said the spread of coronavirus in Brazil threatens his...

TWO sailors were injured after fire broke out from one of the Philippine Navy ships tasked to bring home donated personal protective equipment (PPE) from India. Lt. Cdr. Maria Christina Roxas, Philippine Navy spokesman, said the fire started at the main engine room of the BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16), a few hours after leaving Cochin […]

South Korean health authorities are investigating a small but growing coronavirus outbreak centered in a handful of Seoul nightclubs, seeking to keep infections in check ...

How prepared was Japan for the pandemic, and how well can it medically adapt to the emergency going forward?

Susan Munyoro says thyme would be the most ideal herb for a beginner. She is an agronomist who specialises on herbs production and international marketing. The crop thrives in hot areas and needs exposure to direct sunlight for six to eight hours, writes Shabibah Nakirigya

The following is intended to clarify how weight can be controlled when hunger is kept at bay using a reliable, informative tool called the glycemic index.

Biden has made no secret of his opposition to the Trump peace plan.

The Trump administration’s reprieve for Iraq from US sanctions on Iranian electricity imports will extend through September.

PESHAWAR: CM Mahmood Khan has directed the officials concerned to finalise all arrangements for a formal groundbreaking of Rashakai Economic Zone.He was chairing a meeting held here on Friday to review progress on Rashakai and Hattar Economic Zones projects, said an official handout. Besides...

Picka.treatsg, an online business operating out of a Singapore public flat, saw an increase in orders of its cakes late last month, after the authorities announced commercial snack and drinks outlets would have to temporarily stop operating.This came amid tighter restrictions during Singapore’s circuit breaker or partial lockdown period, and just before the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.Singapore moves nursing-home employees into hotels to protect elderlyWith orders growing from…

Prague Daily Monitor

A common topic over the past several years: temperature records falling on the positive side. The past several years have been some of the hottest in human's short recorded history. Again yesterday several records were broken, including České Budějovice's Rožnov where the temperature has been measured for 136 years.

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A Hong Kong police officer arrested in connection with the seizure of 25kg of drugs worth HK$12 million is believed to have orchestrated its theft from the scene of a bust he was personally in charge of last week, according to police sources.If true, it would mean the announced record seizure of 296kg of Ice, a form of methamphetamine, actually involved 321kg.Sources said the station sergeant, who was arrested along with a constable in connection with the missing drugs, was in charge of the…

Interruptions to vaccination programmes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could result in new waves of measles or polio outbreaks, health experts warn. A growing number of one-off immunisation campaigns and national routine vaccine introductions are being delayed amid social distancing and other measures to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2, leaving millions unprotected. Uptake of routine […]

The post Polio, Measles Outbreaks ‘Inevitable’, Say Vaccine Experts appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Rishi Kapoor passed away last week, leaving his fans and devotees in a state of shock

Karan Johar wishes to raise his children in an emotionally encouraging household away from stereotypes

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Samina Ahmed and Manzar Sehbai took fans by surprise after they got married earlier last month

French police have dismantled smuggling networks trying to take advantage of a rush to buy medical supplies including face masks to tackle the coronavirus epidemic, the interior minister said Friday.

Fresh coronavirus outbreaks at slaughterhouses in Germany and new cases reported Saturday in South Korea linked to a man who had visited multiple nightclubs highlighted the challenges authorities face as they seek to open up their economies.

COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of energy value chains but solar power could be an indigenous solution to keep the lights on during a crisis.

A wholesale market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan played a role in the outbreak of the novel coronavirus last year, as the source or possibly as an “amplifying setting”, the World Health Organisation said on Friday, calling for more research.

Chinese authorities shut down the market in January as part of efforts to stop the spread of the virus and ordered a temporary ban on trade and consumption of wildlife.

“The market played a role in the event, that’s clear. But what role we don’t know; whether it was the source or amplifying setting or just a coincidence that some cases were detected in and around that market,” said Dr Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO expert on food safety and zoonotic viruses that cross the species barrier from animals to humans.

It was not clear whether live animals or infected vendors or shoppers may have brought the virus into the market, he told a Geneva news briefing.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said there is “a significant amount of evidence” the virus came from the Wuhan laboratory, although he has also said there wasn’t certainty.

Read: The Wuhan lab at the core of a virus controversy

No public evidence has linked the outbreak to the lab in Wuhan and scientists have said the coronavirus appears to have developed in nature. A German intelligence report cast doubts on Pompeo’s allegations, Der Spiegel reported.

Ben Embarek did not address the accusations. He noted that it took researchers a year to identify camels as the source of the Mers (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) virus, a coronavirus that emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and spread in the Middle East, adding: “It’s not too late.”

“What is important, what would be of great help, is to get hold of the virus before it adapted to humans, before the version we have now. Because then we would better understand how it adapted to humans, how it evolved,” he said.

“In terms of investigations, China has most probably, most likely, all the expertise needed to do these investigations. They have lot of very qualified researchers to that,” he said.

A common sight across Asia, wet markets traditionally sell fresh produce and live animals, such as fish, in the open air.

Many markets worldwide that sell live animals must be better regulated and hygiene conditions improved, and some should be closed down, Ben Embarek said. “But the vast majority can be fixed, can be better organised.”

It is often a question of controlling waste management, the movement of people and goods, and of separating live animals from animal products and from fresh goods, he said.

An estimated 29 million babies will be born in South Asia in the nine months after the Covid-19 outbreak was classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), while five million births will be reported in Pakistan, according to a report released by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

The report — released on May 6 — has predicted that an estimated 116 million babies will be born across the world in the 40-week period between March 11 and December 16, with almost a quarter of them in South Asia.

India is expected to report 20 million births, the highest in the region, during this period, the report said, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh (2.4 million) and Afghanistan (one million).

The report also warned that lockdown measures imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus may cause disruptions in life-saving health services "putting millions of pregnant mothers and their babies at great risk".

"The continuing rapid spread of Covid-19 across South Asia means new mothers and newborns will be greeted by harsh realities, including global containment measures such as lockdowns and curfews, health centres overwhelmed with response efforts, supply and equipment shortages, and a lack of sufficient skilled birth attendants as health workers [...] are redeployed to treat Covid-19 patients.

"Unicef cautions that although evidence suggests that pregnant mothers are not more affected by Covid-19 than others, countries need to ensure they still have access to antenatal, delivery and post-natal services.

"Likewise, sick newborns need emergency services as they are at high risk of death. New families require care to ensure the health and well-being of mothers, support to start breastfeeding, and to get medicines, vaccines and nutrition to keep their babies healthy," the report said.

The UN body urged governments and healthcare providers to take a few steps to save lives in the coming months by:

• Helping women receive regular checkups during their pregnancy, skilled delivery care and post-delivery care
• Ensuring health workers are provided with the necessary personal protective equipment and priority testing and vaccination for Covid-19 when it becomes available
• Ensuring that all infection prevention and control measures are being followed at health facilities
• Allowing healthcare workers to reach pregnant women through home visits, encouraging women living in rural areas to visit maternal waiting homes, and using mobile health strategies for tele-consultations
• Training, protecting and equipping health workers with kits to attend to home births
• Allocating resources to lifesaving services and supplies for maternal and child health

The report also urged pregnant women to take precautionary measures by practicing social distancing, avoiding physical gatherings and using online health services.

Read: Mothers may pass coronavirus to unborn children, say Chinese doctors

It also advised them to continue breastfeeding their children even if they are infected as "the virus has not been found in samples of breast milk".

"Mothers with Covid-19 should wear a mask when feeding their baby, wash hands before and after touching the baby, and routinely clean and disinfect surfaces," it cautioned.

A document created by the nation's top disease investigators with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the still-raging outbreak has been shelved by the Trump administration.

The Strengthening Technical and Vocational Education and Training Project took on some of the obstacles to creating a place for women in the so-called blue-collar occupations.

STAMFORD, CT – HARMAN, the award-winning maker of outstanding audio and entertainment solutions, announced today that eight new products have been named CES Innovation Award winners for 2014. The awards were presented by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA®), producer of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow. Products from HARMAN’s JBL, Harman Kardon, Infinity, AKG, and Aha brands were recognized for outstanding design and engineering in consumer electronics.