World

The warning comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump downplaying the risk, saying WHO's conclusion of a 3.4 per cent mortality rate was false.

The comments come as the number of new daily infections from the COVID-19 virus is increasing outside of China faster than inside, and that follows crippling Chinese restrictions imposed to stop its spread, including transport suspensions and the extensio...

The virus that erupted in central China in December has killed more than 3,000 worldwide and infected over 90,000 people.

Twelve of the 23 deaths -- recorded in 13 cities in six provinces across the country --- took place on 16 November, a further eight on 17 November, and three on 18 November, according to Amnesty.

The joint statement from the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada was issued after an emergency conference call among the finance ministers and central bank presidents.

Under the US-Taliban pact signed in Doha, the United States has agreed to reduce its troops in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 in the next 130 days and withdraw all its soldiers in 14 months.

Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia has emerged as a hotspot after an infected couple attended carnival celebrations there, infecting dozens of people.

It was not immediately clear why the youth, who hailed from remote mountainous Jumla district, threw the shoe. Prachanda narrowly escaped the shoe attack, party leaders said.

A government official said one of the new patients had no relevant travel and it is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad.

The US-Taliban deal signed on Saturday in Qatar envisions the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners by the Afghan government ahead of talks between Afghan factions meant to begin on March 10 in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

The announcement came a day after two more people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Pakistan, taking the total number of infections in the country to four.

The authorities have kept more than 200 of the pilgrims in quarantine at the Taftan border and have stepped up scanning measures at airports and other border crossings, including in western Afghanistan, said government health adviser Zafar Mirza.

Award-winning German religious historian Hubert Wolf will be in Rome on Monday, armed with six assistants and two years of funding to start exploring documents from the 'private secretariat' of the late pope.

The US will begin reducing the number of troops, while sustaining a counterterrorism force to continue dismantling terrorist groups that seek to attack America, the White House said.

Having previously recommended that people avoid shaking hands, the minister said they should also cut back on la bise, the custom in France and elsewhere in Europe of giving greetings with kisses, or air kisses, on the cheeks.

A 59-year-old man in Mexico City who also visited northern Italy is the third case but authorities did not say whether he had been hospitalised.