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- Video of man punching woman's reclined seat continuously goes viral. Twitter divided over who's at fault - India Today
- France announces first coronavirus death outside Asia - FRANCE 24 English
- Dwight Howard pays tribute to Kobe Bryant at NBA Slam Dunk Contest with Superman slam - USA TODAY
- After thousands stranded at sea, contagion set to hit cruise industry - South China Morning Post
- Video of Korat shooter killing guard goes viral - Bangkok Post
- Syracuse tops Lindenwood with 6 goal 2nd period - The Daily Orange
- Coronavirus updates: China death toll at 1,665, cruise operator waits for new test on passenger - CNBC
- Nearly 65000 people are infected worldwide with coronavirus - Al Jazeera English
- Lakers: Why I’m excited to watch Dwight Howard in the Slam Dunk Contest - Silver Screen and Roll
- China’s Leader, Under Fire, Says He Led Coronavirus Fight Early On - The New York Times
- Virus renews safety concerns about slaughtering wild animals - The Ridgefield Press
- France confirms first coronavirus death in Europe - Anadolu Agency
- Pastrnak scores 42nd goal; Bruins roll past Detroit, 4-1 - WWMT-TV
- China reports another sharp rise in Coronavirus cases - KYMA
- First European death as Chinese tourist dies of coronavirus in France - The Telegraph
- Coronavirus: worried West African countries 'strengthen cross-border coordination' - Africanews English
- Liverpool 25 points clear as Mane goal seals win at Norwich - Yahoo Sports
- 槇原容疑者の現在の自宅からも危険「ラッシュ」押収 - 日刊スポーツ
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- Bulls legend Artis Gilmore returns to Chicago for NBA All-Star Weekend - Chicago Sun-Times
- Some Fans Suspect Kendall Jenner Would Be Taken More Seriously If She Stopped Doing This 1 Thing - Showbiz Cheat Sheet
- Justin Bieber's 'Changes': Wifed-Up and No Longer the Swingin' Dick - The Daily Beast
- "Better than him winning the Oscar," Bong Joon-ho made Martin Scorsese a hero of Oscars - KOREA NOW
- China coronavirus deaths reach 1523 after 143 on Friday - Nikkei Asian Review
- The New Coronavirus and Preparing for the Next Viral Pandemic - The New Yorker
Posted: 15 Feb 2020 11:36 PM PST ![]() On-flight horror stories are nightmarish, there is no denying that. Your journey on an airplane can become the worst time of your life if one of your co-passengers turns out to be non-cooperative. However, in some situations it is often hard to come to a conclusion whose fault it is and a similar incident has left internet divided. A video of two passengers on an American Airlines flight is going viral on Twitter and it has left the internet confused. The 1 minute 45 second long clip was shared by a Twitter user @AmicaAli and it shows a woman recording a man sitting behind her and a man continuously hitting her seat.
The video was shared online with the caption, "A little concerned that @AmericanAir didn't feel this was a problem. Not sure about the rest of you, but I would surely consider someone continually tapping on the back of my seat to be a nuisance." In fact, the woman Wendi, also tweeted to the airlines saying that she was troubled by the man on her flight.
In the video, one can see that the man sitting on the last seat of the airline and Wendi had her seat reclined. The man can be seen steadily punching the seat in which Wendi, who was recording the video, was sitting in retaliation and is clearly frustrated. After the video was shared online it managed to get over 49.4k views and was shared widely. People were divided over the fact that who was at fault; the man or the woman. While some said that the woman was rude for reclining her seat, others called the man childish for behaving like that. Take a look at some of the opinions shared by Twitterati:
A select few thought that both were rude.
What do you think? Who is at the fault here? ALSO WATCH: Top 10 TikTok videos of the week, February 8 to 14 "viral" - Google News February 15, 2020 at 10:12PM https://ift.tt/2vFpjkE Video of man punching woman's reclined seat continuously goes viral. Twitter divided over who's at fault - India Today "viral" - Google News https://ift.tt/2BCxygM Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
France announces first coronavirus death outside Asia - FRANCE 24 English Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:11 PM PST ![]() Issued on: Modified: France's health minister on Saturday announced the first coronavirus death in Europe, an 80-year-old Chinese tourist who other French authorities say was initially turned away from two French hospitals when he first fell ill. Advertising Minister Agnes Buzyn said she was informed Friday night of the death of the patient, who had been in intensive care at Bichat Hospital in Paris after testing positive in late January. His daughter also tested positive for the virus that has spread across central China and was hospitalized. However, the health minister said she was doing well and should be leavin g Bichat shortly. The hospital is among a handful in France with special isolation rooms. As of Saturday, four of the 11 confirmed virus cases in France have been "cured" and left the hospital, the latest a French physician on Friday, she said. Six others still remain hospitalized. The deceased patient, a Chinese tourist from the province of Hubei, had a serious lung infection caused by the COVID-19 virus. There were contradictory reports about the timing of the man's illness. Buzyn said he arrived in France on Jan. 16 and was hospitalized on Jan. 25 under strict isolation measures but his condition deteriorated rapidly. Other French medical officials said earlier that the man had arrived in France on Jan. 23 and quickly fell ill. Dr. Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of Bichat's infectious diseases unit, said the man had visited two French hospitals but because he "didn't fulfill the definition" of someone at risk of having the virus, the hospitals decided it was unnecessary to test him. The man did not live in Wuhan, the central Chinese city hardest-hit by the virus, but was from Hubei province that includes Wuhan. He later tested positive and was admitted to Bichat on Jan. 29, Yazdanpanah said. Nine European countries collectively have 46 cases of the virus that first emerged in central China in December, with Germany having the most at 16. The virus has infected more than 67,000 people globally and has killed at least 1,526 patients, the vast majority in China. The World Health Organization has called the virus a threat to global health. Chinese authorities have placed some 60 million people under a strict lockdown, built emergency hospitals and instituted controls across the country to fight the spread of the virus. Restaurants, cinemas and other businesses have been closed nationwide and sports and cultural events have been canceled to prevent crowds from gathering. In Munich on Saturday, chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a gathering of the world's top defense officials and diplomats that his country was "determined to fight and win this battle" against the virus, and suggested that its efforts were paying off. "Dawn is breaking and we are seeing light coming through," Wang said through a translator. He said the epidemic has presented a "severe challenge" to China's economy growth but said it was well positioned to rebound. "The fundamentals sustaining strong economic growth have not changed, and will not change," he said. "After the storm comes the rainbow, and we are confident that China will emerge stronger from the epidemic." Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said all Italians who sought repatriation from Wuhan due to the coronavirus have returned to Italy. The last was 17-year-old student who arrived on a military flight early Saturday after being twice refused passage due to a fever. The teen has tested negative for coronavirus, and will now spend two weeks in quarantine at a military facility near Rome. (AP) Top stories - Google News February 15, 2020 at 02:41AM https://ift.tt/2SNuiaz France announces first coronavirus death outside Asia - FRANCE 24 English Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Dwight Howard pays tribute to Kobe Bryant at NBA Slam Dunk Contest with Superman slam - USA TODAY Posted: 15 Feb 2020 10:11 PM PST CHICAGO — Dwight Howard paid tribute to Kobe Bryant in his return to the NBA Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday night. In his second dunk of the night, Howard pulled out his signature Superman costume with a blue shirt and red cape. Then he revealed that Bryant's No. 24 was written across the Superman logo in red letters. Howard received an alley-oop for a tomahawk slam that garnered a score of 49 from the five-judge panel. In Howard's first dunk he received a score of 41 for a hanging (with a pose) 180 windmill. Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among nine who died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. Howard told reporters last week he had planned to ask for Bryant's help in his dunks before the accident. Howard, who won the dunk contest back in 2008, has revived his career this season as a reserve big man for the Los Angeles Lakers in his second stint with the team. The 34-year-old returned as one of the oldest participants in the dunk contest's history. NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND: Buddy Hield defeats Devin Booker on final shot to win 3-Point Contest NBA ALL-STAR GAME: MVP award to be renamed the Kobe Bryant MVP Award Howard and Bryant were teammates during the 2012-13 season before Howard left for the Houston Rockets. Howard was an eight-time NBA All-Star but saw his career start to fade off in 2016, spending injury-plagued and uninspired seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards before his return to Los Angeles. Follow USA TODAY Sports' Scott Gleeson on Twitter @ScottMGleeson. Top stories - Google News February 15, 2020 at 07:21PM https://ift.tt/2V6ayC7 Dwight Howard pays tribute to Kobe Bryant at NBA Slam Dunk Contest with Superman slam - USA TODAY Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
After thousands stranded at sea, contagion set to hit cruise industry - South China Morning Post Posted: 15 Feb 2020 09:41 PM PST [unable to retrieve full-text content]
Top stories - Google News February 14, 2020 at 05:00PM https://ift.tt/37xZQ9K After thousands stranded at sea, contagion set to hit cruise industry - South China Morning Post Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Video of Korat shooter killing guard goes viral - Bangkok Post Posted: 15 Feb 2020 09:36 PM PST Video of Korat shooter killing guard goes viralImages from three sites linked to Feb 8-9 carnage circulating as a single compilation ![]() A video showing the soldier involved in last weekend's mass shooting in Nakhon Ratchasima firing shots at an army private before taking firearms and ammunition from an armoury went viral online on Saturday. The emergence of the video comes after a week of hand-wringing and public condemnation of the behaviour of internet users and media outlets that shared grisly images of the slaughter. The authenticity of the three-minute-long clip, reportedly obtained from rescue workers in the province, has not been confirmed. The Bangkok Post has chosen not to show or link to any of the videos or stills. The clip is a compilation of video from three locations. In the silent one-minute first video, a man who looks like Jakrapanth Thomma, 32, armed with a shotgun, walks to the armoury at the Surathampitham military camp. He is seen talking to Pvt Metha Lertsiri, 23, who was guarding the site on the afternoon of Feb 8. Pvt Metha then walks into a nearby room with open doors and the soldier fires two shots in his back. The private falls to the ground. The soldier then fires shots at the lock of the wooden door to the next room and opened the door. The private was the third victim of the shooter, who had earlier shot two people to death nearby. The attacker then took several weapons and ammunition from the armoury before going on a rampage that resulted in the deaths of another 26 people. The second part of the video, which is 1.50 minutes long, shows the cordoned scene around Wat Pa Sattharuam monastery and some of the spots where nine people had been gunned down by the soldier. According to news reports, after Jakrapanth took the guns, he stole a military truck that looked like a Humvee, but the army insisted it was just a modified truck. He then went to the monastery. There, he loaded the weapons and started shooting passers-by randomly, killing nine in total before driving to Terminal 21 shopping mall in downtown Nakhon Ratchasima. The third part of the video was taken in front of Terminal 21 at night. Gunfire can be heard from the inside and rescue workers are seen carrying a woman and escorting a man to get medical help. Volleys of gunfire rang out before dawn on Sunday, hours before police commandos moved into the ground floor of the shopping mall, where the gunman had holed up. Jakrapanth took 29 lives and wounded 58 others in total before police commandos shot him dead around 9am, ending the rampage that lasted more than 17 hours. Before the mass shooting, Jakrapanth shot dead his commander Col Anantharot Krasae, 48, and real estate developer Anong Mitchan, 65, and wounded a man identified as Witthaya Kaewprom, 40, over a real estate deal, at Anong's home in tambon Nong Jabok of Muang district. On Feb 14, the army issued an order to promote slain Pvt Metha posthumously to the rank of sergeant for his dedication to duty. ![]() Soldiers carry the coffin of slain Pvt Metha Lertsiri at his funeral at Wat Somporn in Muang district of Udon Thani on Feb 11. (Photo: Yuttapong Kumnodnae) "viral" - Google News February 14, 2020 at 11:55PM https://ift.tt/39C70LH Video of Korat shooter killing guard goes viral - Bangkok Post "viral" - Google News https://ift.tt/2BCxygM Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Syracuse tops Lindenwood with 6 goal 2nd period - The Daily Orange Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:29 PM PST Whatever Paul Flanagan said in the Orange locker room during the first intermission worked. "We just had a little chat," Flanagan said. "A little chat just between us." After a first period where Syracuse doubled Lindenwood's shots but scored only one goal the Orange came roaring out of the gate. Lauren Bellefontaine scored on a rebound just 22 seconds into the second period. Not even one minute passed when Kelli Rowswell's shot snuck past Lindenwood goalie Annika Asplundh. Syracuse (12-16-2, 10-4-2 College Hockey America) scored six goals in the second period in an 8-0 win over Lindenwood (5-21-3, 3-13). The goals came in bunches — three goals in five minutes to start the period then two goals in 90 seconds against Lindenwood's new goalie, Julia Maguire. "I think we all just knew that the first period wasn't our best performance and we wanted to pick it up for the second period and just get a bigger lead," Mae Batherson said. While the Orange's one goal first period allowed Lindenwood to stay in the game, the second period ended any hope in just a few minutes. After a Kristen Siermachesky slap shot made it 4-0, the Lions took three penalties in a 90 second span. SU continued to dump pucks in and had it's defenders close in on attackers to keep pucks in the zone. "You notice our D kept a lot of pucks in on the walls when they were trying to get out so they just got tired," Flanagan said. "So that's part of the mentality. Don't let them change, you'll score goals." Bellefontaine started and ended a stretch of five goals in 11 minutes. Her second goal came off another turnover by Lindenwood. The Lions were trying to clear the puck out of the zone but before it could cross center ice and out of the neutral zone, Jessica DiGirolamo batted it down out of the air and dished a pass to a streaking Madison Beishuizen. Beishuizen was then alone on a two-on-one with Bellefontaine and then passed the puck to Bellefontaine who roofed a shot off the crossbar and in. "He (Flanagan) said he was nervous for us because we were doing really bad in the neutral zone and our defensive zone. So we needed to pick it up a lot and get the offensive chances that we needed," Bellefontaine said. "So I think we really capitalized on that. And he motivated us to do that." Mae Batherson added a goal in the final minute of the second period when she weaved through three defenders to backhand it into the net. In all, Syracuse had six goals in the second period. Lindenwood had six shots in the same frame. In a game in which SU could have let the Lions stay in it, Syracuse took control. "I think once the kids got clicking you can tell Lindenwood was thinking about the flight home," Flanagan said. "I mean it's human nature." Published on February 15, 2020 at 9:08 pm Contact Gaurav: gshetty@syr.edu "Goal" - Google News February 15, 2020 at 06:08PM https://ift.tt/2HsMEbW Syracuse tops Lindenwood with 6 goal 2nd period - The Daily Orange "Goal" - Google News https://ift.tt/35TEe8t Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Posted: 15 Feb 2020 07:41 PM PST ![]() A girl wearing a face mask plays on her scooter at a park in Beijing on February 15, 2020. Wang Zhao | AFP | Getty Images This is a live blog. Please check back for updates. All times below are in Beijing time. 11.11 am: China sends more than 25,000 medical workers to HubeiChina has dispatched more than 25,000 health workers to help Hubei as of Feb. 14, as the central Chinese province seeks to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, state-owned Xinhua reported, citing a senior official at the National Health Commission. "The total number of medical workers has far exceeded that for rescue in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, and we did it at a much faster speed," Wang Hesheng, deputy head of the commission, reportedly said. He was referring to a magnitude 8 earthquake in May 2008 that hit southwest China's Sichuan Province, that killed an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people. Wang said that of the 25,633 medical workers sent to Hubei, about 20,000 are now working in Wuhan city — where the virus is thought to have first emerged. The official said that number does not include medical staff sent by the military, according to Xinhua. 10.13 am: Cruise ship operator awaits further tests for passenger said to have tested positive in MalaysiaThe cruise ship operator for MS Westerdam, the ship that docked in Cambodia last Thursday, said it was waiting on results from a new test to see if a passenger who flew to Malaysia had the virus. Holland America Line said in a statement: "While the first results have been reported, they are preliminary at this point and we are awaiting secondary testing for confirmation." Malaysian health authorities said the 83-year-old American woman flew from Cambodia to Malaysia — with 144 others from the ship — on Friday, according to Reuters. Malaysia's health minitistry said the woman's husband showed symptoms but his tests came back negative, Reuters said. Medical staff gesturing as they leave for Wuhan in Nanchang, China's central Jiangxi province on February 13, 2020. Stringer | AFP | Getty Images 9.31am: Test kits that show results in 15 minutes are reportedly being developed in ChinaChinese researchers have reportedly developed new test kits for COVID-19 that will cut short the testing time, according to a report by state-media Xinhua. The State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease said on social media that the new kits require a drop of blood for testing, and results can be shown in 15 minutes. However, Xinhua pointed out that the new testing method by the Guangdong-based lab "has not yet received consensus in the testing industry." 8.49 am: China death toll rises to 1,665, as total cases reach 68,500China's National Health Commission reported that there were 2,009 new confirmed cases and 142 additional deaths as of Feb. 15. That brings the total number of cases in mainland China to 68,500, and the total deaths so far to 1,665, according the latest statistics from the commission released Sunday. A total of 9,419 have recovered and were discharged, the country's health commision said. 8.00 am: Hubei reports 139 additional deaths and 1,843 new casesHubei's health authorities reported 1,843 new cases and 139 more deaths as of Feb. 15. There are now 56,249 known cases of the respiratory virus in Hubei, which has killed 1,596 people in the province alone. Hubei is the center of the epidemic, and has accounted for most of the cases and deaths so far. All times below are in Eastern time. 4.15 pm: Toyota will resume output at three auto plants in ChinaToyota will resume production at three of its four primary auto plants in China on Monday. The company had initially planned to restart production on Feb.3, but was delayed because of the virus outbreak. — Newburger 2.00 pm: Cruise ship confirms 67 new coronavirus cases as US evacuates citizensThe Diamond Princess cruise ship that is in quarantine in Japan confirmed 67 new cases of the virus on board. The ship was put under quarantine last week in Yokohama with about 3,700 people on board. American passengers aboard the ship will be evacuated on Sunday with chartered aircraft, according to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. There are 400 U.S. citizens on board and at least 40 Americans who were infected have been taken off the ship for treatment. Those who are evacuated will undergo 14 days of quarantine once they reach the U.S. — Newburger 1.30 pm: Xi started fighting virus earlier than previously known, newly published speech showsChinese President Xi Jinping issued internal orders regarding the virus outbreak roughly two weeks before his first public statements on the epidemic, according to a newly published speech on Saturday in the Qiushi Journal, the Communist Party's top publication. The speech indicates that Xi started giving orders about the outbreak as early as Jan. 7. His first public instructions on the epidemic was Jan. 20, in which he provided brief instructions on the virus. China's release of the speech is an apparent effort to mitigate public anger over the handling of the outbreak, and show that Xi has led the battle against the epidemic — including quarantining millions of people in Hubei, the province at the epicenter of the outbreak. Xi gave the speech on Feb 3, about the time when the virus was becoming a national crisis. — Newburger Read CNBC's coverage from the U.S. overnight: WHO calls on world leaders to 'stop stigma and hate' surrounding coronavirus outbreak — CNBC's Emma Newburger contributed to this report. Top stories - Google News February 15, 2020 at 04:15PM https://ift.tt/3bQcBA6 Coronavirus updates: China death toll at 1,665, cruise operator waits for new test on passenger - CNBC Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Nearly 65000 people are infected worldwide with coronavirus - Al Jazeera English Posted: 15 Feb 2020 07:41 PM PST [unable to retrieve full-text content]
Top stories - Google News February 14, 2020 at 11:47AM https://ift.tt/2vwAL1M Nearly 65000 people are infected worldwide with coronavirus - Al Jazeera English Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Lakers: Why I’m excited to watch Dwight Howard in the Slam Dunk Contest - Silver Screen and Roll Posted: 15 Feb 2020 07:11 PM PST ![]() It has been a long time since any Lakers have had any success in the Slam Dunk contest. The franchise hasn't had a player win the event since Kobe Bryant in 1997, a year when the event was so widely panned that the league skipped it in 1998 before Vince Carter and Co. brought it back with a vengeance two years later. The Lakers have only had one player even compete in the dunk contest since then, back in 2010 when Let Shannon Dunk turned out to be a dramatic misnomer of a campaign. Pau Gasol was weirdly present as a passer for Spanish teammate Rudy Fernandez in 2009, but that effort resulted in another fourth-place finish. Larry Nance Jr. was supposed to end the streak in 2018 — at Staples Center, to boot — but he was traded to Cleveland right before All-Star Weekend and took the floor in a Cavaliers jersey. It was a nice homage to his father, the inaugural NBA slam dunk champ whose jersey is retired in Cleveland, but it continued a dry spell for the Lakers. That ten-year absence from the premier event of All-Star Saturday finally comes to an end in 2020, as Dwight Howard will be representing the Lakers in his fourth appearance in the dunk contest. Although Howard is a legend of this event, at 34 years old, he isn't expected to bring another trophy back to Los Angeles. Instead, Howard's waning athleticism makes his participation more of an oddity than a draw for fans, myself included. As I've given Howard's past dunks another look, though, I'm getting more and more excited about his inclusion, and that's because Dwight Howard understands the showmanship of the Dunk Contest. He may not be able to dunk on a 12-foot rim anymore, at least not with the ease he did in 2009, but there's no reason Howard shouldn't be able to entertain in this year's event. And that's really the whole point, isn't it? I love the Dunk Contest. It's silly. The audience — specifically the NBA players in attendance — is itching to celebrate with abandon, waiting for something special to make them jump out of their seats. Magic Johnson uses the same catch phrases each year, Kenny Smith is more invested in his analysis of the dunks than any TNT Thursday night game, and there are always gratuitous crowd shots of Jerome Williams. It's a ridiculous night, compounded with ridiculous outfits, and it's usually a ton of fun. The beauty of the Dunk Contest is that the best moments aren't necessarily the ones that feature the most difficult dunks. The theatrics make the show. Dwight Howard is remembered most for his Superman dunk in 2008, when he removed his Orlando Magic jersey to reveal a hilariously-undersized Man of Steel costume that his teammate Jameer Nelson later adorned with a cape. The dunk was certainly impressive, given that Howard essentially threw the ball in Space Jam-style, but it wasn't on the level of his behind-the-basket dunk later in the competition, or even when he tipped the ball off the backboard to himself and dunked with the other hand. But the hilarity of Howard emerging as Superman makes that dunk the most memorable, and the most fun to rewatch. The dunk contest is admittedly designed to celebrate the athletic feats of the NBA's bounciest players, but even the best dunks require some production value. Think of Blake Griffin bringing out a choir, and a Kia, to perform probably his most basic dunk of the 2011 competition. Or Aaron Gordon enlisting the help of Stuff the Magic Dragon on a hoverboard, and then instructing him to spin. My personal favorite Dwight Howard dunk is the sticker dunk of 2007. It's yet another original from Howard, and the forethought to print and sign a sticker with his face on it, while also having a sign ready with the height of his jump, shows that Howard understands that there's more to the dunk contest than simply dunking. The dunk was dramatically underscored, probably because the judges didn't realize Howard had a sticker in his hand until after the dunk was complete. Howard learned from his mistakes and made no attempts to be subtle in 2008. And that's what Howard is going to have to lean on in this year's competition: his charisma. He doesn't have the best vertical in the field, and he might even be fourth considering what we've seen from Aaron Gordon, Derrick Jones Jr., and Pat Connaughton. Those three are firmly in their athletic primes while Howard has aged out of his. But Howard has embarked on a real-life redemption story this year, and for the first time since arguably the last time he appeared in the dunk contest, he's likable. That can't hurt with the judges. Fun fact: One of them is Los Angeles Sparks star Candace Parker, who happens to be Howard's former high school prom date. There's a popular narrative that the 3-point shootout threatens to eclipse the drama of the dunk contest because all of the biggest stars choose to participate in that event while very few elect to dunk. Even LeBron James once said he'd do the 3-point shootout if invited while he's famously ducked the dunk contest for the entirety of his career. But Dwight Howard is a big name, and an icon of the Dunk Contest. His return to the competition, however belated, brings some real star power. A franchise long associated with glitz and showtime should be a part of the biggest spectacle of All-Star Weekend. Howard has clearly put some thought into his participation. He held off on confirming his rumored appearance for weeks, presumably because he wanted to own the moment of his own announcement (again: showmanship) and he even said he had reached out to Bryant to help him, later adding that Bryant had indicated he would help him in some form. Howard isn't taking this lightly, and that is reason enough to tune in. Dwight Howard's 2019-20 season has been a blast from the past, a pleasant surprise as Howard has regained some of the production and the dominance that defined the earlier part of his career. Bringing back the levity and the success from those early All-Star Saturday appearances would be another wonderful chapter in his storybook return to the Lakers. NBA All-Star Saturday night will kick off on TNT at 5:00 p.m. PST, with the dunk contest being the last of the three events. You can find the full weekend schedule and thread here, and for more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. Top stories - Google News February 15, 2020 at 09:10AM https://ift.tt/37xBaON Lakers: Why I'm excited to watch Dwight Howard in the Slam Dunk Contest - Silver Screen and Roll Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
China’s Leader, Under Fire, Says He Led Coronavirus Fight Early On - The New York Times Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:41 PM PST ![]() Under fire for its response to the coronavirus epidemic, China's authoritarian government appears to be pushing a new account of events that presents President Xi Jinping as taking early action to fight the outbreak that has convulsed the country. But in doing so, the authorities have acknowledged for the first time that Mr. Xi was aware of the epidemic and involved in the response nearly two weeks before he first spoke publicly about it — and while officials at its epicenter in the city of Wuhan were still playing down its dangers. That new account risks drawing the president, China's most powerful leader in decades, directly into questions about whether top officials did too little, too late. In an internal speech published on Saturday, Mr. Xi said he had "issued demands about the efforts to prevent and control" the coronavirus on Jan. 7, during a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest council of the Communist Party, whose sessions are typically cloaked in secrecy. In the speech, he also said he had authorized the unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan and other cities beginning on Jan. 23. "I have at every moment monitored the spread of the epidemic and progress in efforts to curtail it, constantly issuing oral orders and also instructions," Mr. Xi said of his more recent involvement. Mr. Xi's advisers may have hoped that publishing the speech, delivered on Feb. 3. would dispel speculation about his recent retreat from public view and reassure his people that he can be trusted to lead them out of the epidemic. The virus so far has officially infected more than 68,000 people and killed more than 1,650 worldwide, the vast majority in mainland China. "The overall tone of the speech appears to be defensive," said Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California. "He wants to change the narrative, which until this point has been very unfavorable to the top leadership." Delivered at a meeting with top party officials, when the epidemic had already spiraled into a national crisis, the speech could expose Mr. Xi to criticism that he didn't treat the initial threat urgently enough, and make it difficult for him to shift blame onto local officials for what many see as the government's early mishandling of the epidemic. The remarks also raise questions about what top leaders knew at the time and what instructions they issued based on that knowledge. That Mr. Xi convened a meeting of China's highest political body in early January indicates that the coronavirus was already being seen as a matter of high-level concern — making his subsequent silence even more conspicuous, experts say. An official account of the Jan. 7 Standing Committee meeting issued at the time by Xinhua, the state news agency, made no mention of a discussion of the coronavirus. "It seems like he's trying to indicate that 'we weren't asleep at the wheel,'" said Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "But it comes off like 'we knew this was a problem, but we weren't sounding the alarm.'" In the speech this month, Mr. Xi signaled his displeasure with lower-level bureaucrats for their "shortcomings" in implementing the party's top-level directives. In early January, officials in Wuhan were giving open assurances that human-to-human transmission of the virus was unlikely. Some government experts agreed. "For now, it seems there is no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission," Xu Jianguo, a senior expert on communicable diseases at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview in early January with Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper. "This shows that the threat level from this virus is limited." The new information places Mr. Xi's involvement in fighting the epidemic much earlier than was previously known. His earliest public comment on the epidemic came on Jan. 20, when he gave brief instructions that were published in state media. In the days after Mr. Xi's Jan. 7 orders were issued, politicians in Wuhan met for the annual meeting of the city's People's Congress, its party-controlled legislature. Over that time, the Wuhan health commission's daily bulletins on the outbreak said repeatedly that there were no new cases of infection, no firm evidence of human-to-human transmission and no infection of medical workers. But signs were growing that politicians and government experts underestimated the potency of the new coronavirus. On Jan. 9, a 61-year-old man surnamed Zeng died — the earliest confirmed fatality from the virus. Already, some doctors in Wuhan hospitals were worried enough to warn friends and propose special wards for patients showing symptoms of infection. Even after Mr. Xi made his first public remarks about the epidemic on Jan. 20, he mostly kept it at the bottom of his public agenda. On the day before the Lunar New Year holiday began in late January, he took the stage at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and declared his success in guiding China through a difficult year — making no mention of the virus that was already spreading fear throughout the country. As he spoke, Wuhan, a city of 11 million, was going into lockdown mode, in a desperate attempt to stop the virus from spreading. Mr. Xi's first public appearance after the lockdown of Wuhan on Jan. 23 came two days later, when he presided over a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee. "We're sure to be able to win in this battle," he proclaimed. But in the days after, he all but disappeared from public view, emerging only a handful of times to preside over Communist Party meetings and to meet foreign visitors, including the director-general of the World Health Organization and Cambodia's autocratic leader Hun Sen. In the meantime, he directed the country's No. 2 leader, Li Keqiang, to lead the group handling the emergency, effectively turning him into the public face of the response. For days, Mr. Xi's absence from public view fueled speculation that he was trying to shield his own reputation by taking a back seat in the fast-unfolding crisis. In the past week, he has returned to center stage in an apparent effort to swat away such talk. This past week, Mr. Xi went to a neighborhood center in Beijing, a hospital and a center for disease control in what state media billed as a visit to the "front line" of China's efforts to combat the epidemic. He has yet to visit Hubei, the province at the center of the epidemic. A few days later, Mr. Xi fired two top Communist Party officials in Hubei, a move intended to calm simmering public anger and contain the political fallout. By publishing the Feb. 3 speech now, experts say, Mr. Xi appears to be staking his reputation on the outcome of the epidemic fight. "What's really interesting in the speech is there's a lot of the word 'I' in it," said Mr. Blanchette, of Center for Strategic and International Studies. "This is clearly putting himself at the center of Beijing's response to this while also falling back on the old excuse of blaming cadres for longstanding pathologies of China's political system." The Feb. 3 speech was published by Qiushi, or Seeking Truth, the Communist Party's top doctrinal journal. It is rare for such an internal speech to be published in full so quickly. In the speech, Mr. Xi described the efforts to end the epidemic as a "people's war" and he singled out two key battlegrounds: Hubei Province, where the infections and deaths have been concentrated, and Beijing, the capital. He also acknowledged that the epidemic and the fight to curtail it were likely to hurt the economy, slowing production and cooling trade. In response, Mr. Xi said the government would provide financial support for businesses, help migrant workers return to their jobs and step up support for construction projects. He said the blow to consumer spending could be offset by encouraging spending in new areas, such as 5G phone networks, as well as online entertainment and education. He also emphasized the importance of taking control of the narrative and winning over public opinion at home and abroad. "There must be closer monitoring and assessment of opinion, proactively speaking out and giving positive guidance," Mr. Xi said of Chinese public sentiment. "Seize the initiative and effectively shape international opinion," he added. Top stories - Google News February 15, 2020 at 03:02PM https://ift.tt/2UTUUJL China's Leader, Under Fire, Says He Led Coronavirus Fight Early On - The New York Times Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Virus renews safety concerns about slaughtering wild animals - The Ridgefield Press Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:41 PM PST [unable to retrieve full-text content]
Top stories - Google News February 14, 2020 at 03:32AM https://ift.tt/2V1yfLs Virus renews safety concerns about slaughtering wild animals - The Ridgefield Press Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
France confirms first coronavirus death in Europe - Anadolu Agency Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:11 PM PST ![]() Your opinions matter to us
Top stories - Google News February 15, 2020 at 02:55AM https://ift.tt/2u061FV France confirms first coronavirus death in Europe - Anadolu Agency Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Pastrnak scores 42nd goal; Bruins roll past Detroit, 4-1 - WWMT-TV Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:59 PM PST [unable to retrieve full-text content] Pastrnak scores 42nd goal; Bruins roll past Detroit, 4-1 WWMT-TV"Goal" - Google News February 15, 2020 at 05:09PM https://ift.tt/31W64Py Pastrnak scores 42nd goal; Bruins roll past Detroit, 4-1 - WWMT-TV "Goal" - Google News https://ift.tt/35TEe8t Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
China reports another sharp rise in Coronavirus cases - KYMA Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:41 PM PST ![]() Death climbs to almost 1,400 - NBC News' Bill Neely reportsHONG KONG, China (KYMA, KECY) - Officials in China are now expanding the round-up of people who may be infected with the coronavirus, with doctors now including cases of those whose lab results have yet to be confirmed. New figures show, in the last 24-hours, there have been 121 new deaths from the virus, and 5,000 new infections. The Chinese medical community isn't overly concerned. They have a new definition of what constitutes an infection. On Thursday that new definition prompted a steep rise in new infections. In fact, the number climbed to 15,000. Basically, under the new definition, if doctors see someone with a chest infection, that's enough to qualify them as infected. "This allows clinicians to move and report cases more quickly, not having to wait for lab confirmation, ensuring that people get to clinical care more quickly." said Dr. Michael Ryan with the World Health Organization's Emergencies Program. Though that still doesn't explain exactly why it's caused such a sharp spike. China is now taking extraordinary war-time control measures, locking a million and a half people in their homes. Leaders are also appealing for people who've recovered from the virus to give blood plasma in case that might help those who are still sick. The government is also tracking people through their phone apps. Top stories - Google News February 14, 2020 at 03:18PM https://ift.tt/2vztGgU China reports another sharp rise in Coronavirus cases - KYMA Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
First European death as Chinese tourist dies of coronavirus in France - The Telegraph Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:41 PM PST [unable to retrieve full-text content]
Top stories - Google News February 15, 2020 at 06:47AM https://ift.tt/2Hx2h1H First European death as Chinese tourist dies of coronavirus in France - The Telegraph Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:41 PM PST The coronavirus was confirmed in the Chinese city of Wuhan on January 7, 2020. Cases have since been confirmed in several other Asian countries, Europe and the United States. The World Health Organisation, WHO, has since declared it a public health emergency of international dimensions. WHO chief Tedros Ghebereyesus said whiles China had a robust health system to detect and control, his outfit remained concerned about the virus entering country's with weak systems. Almost all African governments have publicly put in place strict screening at points of entry especially airports. Ivory Coast, Kenya, Ethiopia and Botswana have recorded suspected cases. All except Botswana have reported that the tests were negative. African airlines have cancelled scheduled flights to China except for Ethiopian Airlines. Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that range from the common cold to MERS coronavirus, which is Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus and SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus. In this article, we will share the latest developments as authorities implement measures to contain the spread of the virus, especially on the African continent.
Interview: Ethiopian student in Wuhan shares lockdown experience West African countries collaborateWest African health ministers on Friday resolved to strengthen cooperation amongst their countries to deal with the new coronavirus. The ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met in the Malian capital with the stated objective of "strengthening the capacities of national and regional entities in the region in the surveillance, prevention and early detection of epidemics" due to the new coronavirus. While Egypt on Africa confirmed the first case on the African continent; no cases have been confirmed in ECOWAS. The shortcomings of the health systems in Africa are a concern and experts worry about the consequences that could arise from the emergence of the virus in sub-Saharan Africa. "Today, we have no confirmed cases in the ECOWAS region. But with 380 million people in our sub-region, we don't even have three laboratories that can take cases effectively," Malian minister Michel Hamala Sidibé told AFP after the meeting. During the meeting it was decided to "strengthen cross-border coordination", as well as vigilance with regard to travellers from China, he said without further details. February 14, 2020: Egypt records Africa's first caseEgypt has recorded what is Africa's first first case of coronavirus (COVID-19), Reuters news agency has reported quoting state television. The health ministry said the person affected was a foreigner. Their nationality was not disclosed but that they had been identified based on travel patterns. Africa till now had 'escaped' the virus which has so far led to the death of over 1,300 people since the outbreak began in China in January. It is the first time that the virus has entered a new country since February 4. February 13, 2020: Uganda to bailout studentsUganda's foreign ministry plans to send $61,000 (UGX 222m) to students who are confined in the city of Wuhan, ruling out the option of evacuation. "A total of 65 are known government sponsored students while 40 are on private sponsorship. Our mission in Beijing is in contact with these students on a daily basis. They created a WhatsApp group called Wechat which enables them to chat. The officer designated to follow them up is Amb Philip Kanyoonzi," Ruth Aceng, the health minister said in a statement. The health minister told parliament that Uganda does not have specialised knowledge to deal with the coronavirus, and would therefore not evacuate the students. ''It is safe to keep those persons in Wuhan city there because the city is under lock down. Uganda does not have specialised capacity to handle coronavirus. The country is already stressed with outbreaks,'' Aceng said. Aceng added that government had failed to charter a plane to airlift the students from Wuhan and bring home an estimated 105 students stranded in Wuhan. Some of the students in China have asked government to evacuate them, adding that they were running out of money, food and protective face masks. They have been running a social media campaign under the hashtag #EvacuateUgandansInWuhan. In the meantime, the government has asked at least 265 travellers from China, including 10 students to self-isolate for two weeks after they returned from China. Chinese doctor in Liberia exports face masks to WuhanReports of face mask shortages across China has been in the news recently as people struggled to avoid contamination with the coronavirus, now officially known as the COVID-19. A recent report said a South African company was in the process of exporting 20 million face masks to help with the shortage in mainland China where the virus has claimed over 1,000 lives. Over in Liberia, a Chinese doctor is sending a donation of 7,000 nose masks and 600 pieces of protective clothing to Wuhan – epicenter of the virus. Dr Zhai Yu, 46, told the BBC Africa reporter that she and her staff were loading the equipment into a vehicle for shipment to China. The doctor said she imported the medical gear six years ago to equip her clinic in the wake of the Ebola outbreak in the West African country, which has poor health services, the BBC report said. She is now donating them "because our people in China have suffered too much; they are between life and death. Being Chinese overseas we want to try our best to do something for our homeland," she said. "It's our duty. We must do that." Ethiopian Airlines explains stance on China routesEthiopian Airlines Chief Executive Officer Tewolde Gebremariam has defended the company's decision to maintain flights to China, arguing that suspending flights to the country would not end the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. Ethiopian Airlines operates 35 weekly flights to five destinations in China, and Ethiopian on average transports 4,000 Chinese between China and Africa daily. Ethiopian serves Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Chengdu. "As WHO clearly stated that suspending flights to China would not end the coronavirus outbreak as victims of the virus are located in other countries," Tewolde told The Reporter. ''If we stop flying to China we can still bring passengers from Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and that originated from China. So the most important thing is to strengthen the passenger screening mechanism and follow the WHO procedures.'' Seventy percent of the Chinese passengers arriving Addis Ababa Bole International Airport transit to other African countries. Tewolde says the airline has opted to follow the World Health Organisation's (WHO) recommendations that emphasise screening, rather than travel restrictions. "We should not isolate China. We should not marginalize Chinese passengers. What we should do is screen passengers in accordance with the WHO guidelines," he added. The Director General of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute Doctor Eba Abate also defended the airline's decision, saying the coronavirus cases reported in the five cities that Ethiopian flies to is minimal. According to Dr. Eba, body temperature of 47,167 passengers have been checked out of which 1,607 were from countries which reported cases of coronavirus. The institute is in the process to import the detergent used to test coronavirus.
'Allow your citizens to return from China'The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is appealing to o African countries to allow their citizens return home from China. Several countries including Uganda and Kenya have been officially rejecting calls fro evacuation from their citizens in China. "For Africans who are returning from China, we have the obligation to receive our citizens and keep them for a while and monitor them and release them into the community because as of yesterday, we started receiving reports that some countries are refusing their own citizens from coming back to the country. It cannot happen," Africa CDC director Dr. John Nkengasong said. The centre says it has trained 15 African countries that were most at risk and they would be ready to screen for the coronavirus from Monday. South Africa, Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria were already equipped with accurate testing systems for the coronavirus, according to the center which received $15 million to equip 15 countries that were most at risk, including countries that had direct flights to China. January 7: Ethiopia to quarantine all Wuhan entrantsEthiopia has announced that all passengers arriving from Wuhan will be quarantined as part of preventive measures against the coronavirus outbreak. The Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) announced the decision which will affect all passengers arriving at Bole International Airport. Ethiopia's 11 suspected cases so far has seen eight declared negative. The remaining three are to be sent to South Africa for further examination, the institute further disclosed. The Cameroonian embassy in Beijing has also released a statement to citizens of the Central African country praising the Chinese government and advising nationals on what steps to take. "Since it's outbreak, the government and people of China have been waging and unprecedented and impressive combat against the epidemic. "These efforts have been highly lauded by some of the most authoritative voices in the world in the field of health sciences," the statement read in part. The only African known to have contracted the virus is a 21-year-old Cameroonian student in China.
January 6: Ghana report negative in two suspected casesAuthorities in Ghana have reported that negative outcome to the two suspected cases referred to the main hospital, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital as at today, February 6. The cases involved a Chinese and an Argentine who had been staying together in the capital Accra for some days now. They reported to Korle Bu on Wednesday evening with symptoms suspected to be similar to the virus, state-run Daily Graphic said in a report. The Director of Medical Affairs at the Korle Bu, Dr Ali Samba, had earlier confirmed to a local radio station that blood samples of the two men have been taken to the Noguchi Medical Research Institute for testing. Ghana joins a number of African countries that have recorded suspected cases, amongst others Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana and Namibia. Meanwhile Ethiopian Airlines says it will not suspend flights to and from China over the coronavirus outbreak. Its CEO in an interview with state-run FBC said a suspension of flights won't mean the virus cannot reach Africa and also that per WHO advice, it was safe to continue operating taking into consideration relevant health screening procedures. READ MORE: Despite social media outrage, Ethiopian defends China operations Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta is however urging Ethiopian to halt China flights over the virus. Speaking in the United States he said: "Our worry as a country is not that China cannot manage the disease. Our biggest worry is diseases coming into areas with weaker health systems like ours." Over a half dozen African fliers including Kenyan Airways have suspended flights to and from China till further notice. A number of global fliers have also gone down that road. January 5: African quartet report negative cases, Equatorial Guinea donates to China, massive quarantine underwayFour African countries have reported negative outcome to tests conducted on suspected cases of the coronavirus. They are Kenya (seven cases overall), Ethiopia (three cases), Botswana (five cases) and Namibia with one case. Over in Uganda, reports indicate that over 100 people have been quarantined after returning to the country from China. The group which includes 44 Chinese are being held at a facility over the quarantine period. The number is up to over 500 in the case of Zimbabwe, the East African news portal reported. Health Minister Obadian Moyo is reported to have said people who recently returned from worse hit areas in China had been asked to self quarantine for two weeks and are restricted from public gatherings. Information Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, added that surveillance will be ramped up at all entry points and that isolation and quarantine units have been opened in the capital Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. Malabo shows Beijing love with $2m donation
January 5: Kenya to repatriate citizensAuthorities in Kenya are prepared to evacuate their citizens from China, where the Coronvirus outbreak has claimed over 400 people. The country's health administrative secretary Dr Mercy Mwangangi told lawmakers there are plans to evacuate 85 students who are stranded in China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in constant communication with the 85 Kenyan students," Mwangangi told the MPs, adding that evacuations will be done once China lifts the lockdown in the city. "We have identified two holding rooms at JKIA [Kenya's main international airport] and set up isolation facility at the Kenyatta Hospital. Additional satellite isolation facilities have been earmarked for Nairobi county," she added. It is not clear how long the Wuhan lockdown will last, but several countries have been evacuating their citizens from the city. Egypt and Morocco are among African countries that have already evacuated their citizens. February 4, 2020: Chinese embassy in Kenya issues 'orders'Kenya says there are three cases that are being dealt with as at Monday (February 3) – one in Nairobi and the others in Mombasa. The Health Ministry also stressed that four earlier cases had turned out negative. Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy in Kenya has issued a directive for employers who are expecting the return of workers from the holiday break. The statement whiles stressing the WHO position of a travel ban being needless said "…all Chinese companies in Kenya to quarantine their employees returning from China for 14 days no matter they have symptoms or not. "To date there is no suspected case of novel coronavirus among Chinese nationals in Kenya," it clarified stressing that China was undertaking equally stringent measures for nationals leaving the territory. Meanwhile, while citizens of several African countries caught up in Wuhan, the virus epicenter, call for evacuation, Senegal says it does not have the capacity so to do. President Macky Sall in an address confirmed that there are about a dozen Senegalese in Wuhan and that the government was in contact with them and providing them necessary assistance.
February 3, 2020: Cameroonian student infected after Wuhan visitThe first African known to have contracted the deadly coronavirus is a Cameroonian student in China. The university where he studies confirmed the situation in a statement. According to Yangtze University, the 21-year-old was being treated in hospital in southern Jingzhou city. The statement said he had gotten the disease whiles visiting the city of Wuhan in China's Hubei province. Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak which has affected thousands within and outside China so far. From Wuhan, he returned to his place of residence in Jingzhou, on 19 January, before a lockdown was imposed in Wuhan to prevent the spread of the plague. So far the death toll is over 200 people. The first death outside China was recorded over the weekend in the Philippines. READ MORE Africa records its first overseas case of coronavirus February 2 – 3, 2020: Kenya, Ethiopia cases, Air Tanzania suspends flightsAs at February 3, three African countries reported that they were investigation suspected cases of coronavirus. Kenya, Ethiopia and Botswana reported three, four, five cases respectively. Ethiopia last week recorded negative for three suspected cases, same with Kenya's first suspected case. Botswana's one case as at last week rose to five in a statement by the Health Ministry on Sunday. The only other African country to declare a suspected case negative is Ivory Coast. Meanwhile countries continue to undertake efforts to secure their entry points from possible importation of the virus. Air Tanzania has also joined the African fliers that have suspended scheduled flights to China over the outbreak. Meanwhile, Ethiopia's decision to continue flights to and from China has received heavy backlash. "Nigeria stands with the Government and people of China in this trying time, as they work hard to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. We wish them the very best, and have no doubt that this challenge will be fully overcome," this was part of Nigerian president's goodwill message to China. February 1, 2020: Kenya, Botswana cases, Nigeria readyAuthorities in Kenya have reported a new suspected case of coronavirus after its first case turned negative earlier this week. The said patient arrived in Kenya on December 30 and is currently in isolation. Over in Nigeria, the Heath Minister, Osagie Ehanire, at a meeting in Abuja over the coronavirus said the country had the capacity to detect, assess and respond in case the virus finds its way into the country. "While the risk of importation exists, we can assure Nigerians of the nation's capacity to detect, assess and respond to this and any other public health threats at the point of entry." He also said the federal government had voted funds to increase services of the ministry's Port Health Services Unit. He disclosed that government was in touch with 16 Nigerians in Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic in China's Hubei province. January 31, 2020: African airlines suspend flights to ChinaKenya's national carrier on Friday suspended all flights to and from China, as a precautionary measure against the spread of coronavirus. Kenya Airways says it is working with the country's health and foreign ministries to determine the length of the suspension. RwandAir, Air Madagascar, Air Mauritus and Royal Air Maroc have also suspended flights to mainland China, where the coronavirus has killed over 200 people. These airlines said the suspensions are indefinite and offered re-funds or re-routes to passengers who had booked flights to China. On the other hand, Africa's largest aviation operator, Ethiopian Airlines on Thursday said it would continue to operate all its flights to China, adding that it was working with relevant authorities to "protect its passengers and crew" from the virus. READ MORE: Ethiopian undertaking all China flights, Nigeria issues advisoryJanuary 30, 2020: Ethiopia suspected cases test negativeEthiopia's health authorities on Thursday said the four citizens who had been isolated on suspicions of having contracted the coronavirus tested negative. The ministry said the blood samples of the four were sent to a laboratory in South Africa for further investigation on Tuesday, and still came back negative. There are no confirmed cases of the coronavirus on the African continent. Earlier, the suspected case in Ivory Coast also tested negative. January 30, 2020: Ethiopian Airlines mantains flightsEthiopian Airlines on Thursday issued a statement refuting media reports that it had it had joined a growing list of global carriers suspending flights to China. "We are operating our regular flights to all of our 5 gateways in China, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hong Kong with the usual supply and demand adjustment that we always make during the Chinese New Year Holidays," the statement read in part. — Ethiopian Airlines (@flyethiopian) January 30, 2020 Ivory Coast suspected case tests negativeIvory Coast's health ministry on Wednesday said the suspected case of coronavirus in the country had tested negative. A student who had travelled from Beijing to Abidjan over the weekend had shown flu-like symptoms, 'coughing, sneezing and experienced difficulty breathing'. In a statement, the Ivorian health ministry said that tests by research institutes in Ivory Coast and France had come back negative for the virus. According to the ministry, the 34-year-old student who was quarantined while tests were carried out is being treated for her symptoms and is recovering well. If the results had been positive, this would have been the first confirmed case in Africa. January 28,2020: Mozambique suspends visasMozambique's cabinet on Tuesday decided to temporarily suspend the issuance of visas on arrival for travelers from China, as one of the measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, it is not yet clear whether the government will evacuate its students studying in China, who have requested to be taken from the country until the virus outbreak is controlled. Kenya's ambassador to China Sarah Serem on Wednesday said the government of the East African nation would not be evacuating its citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan. ''"The option for evacuation should not be an immediate concern for now,"Serem, who is back in Kenya said, adding that the Chinese were in a better position to deal with the virus. January 28,2020: Ethiopia confirms four possible casesEthiopia's state-affiliated FANA broadcasting corporate, FBC, reported that four Ethiopians suspected of being infected by coronavirus has been placed in isolation, said the Ministry of Health. "The students arrived in Ethiopia from a university in Wuhan, Chain's worst-affected city by the disease," the report added. January 28,2020: Kenya rushes suspected case to hospitalKenya Airways on Tuesday confirmed that one of its passengers who had travelled from the Chinese city of Wuhan to Nairobi had presented coronavirus-like symptoms and was rushed to hospital on arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. ''Kenya Airways confirms that a passenger who travelled on our flight KQ886 from Guangzhou to Nairobi on 28 January 2020 has, as a precautionary measure, been quarantined at the Kenyatta National Hospital," KQ said in a statement. The county's health ministry said it was investigating the suspected case at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) isolation ward. ''He was brought by the airport surveillance ambulance and is currently going through tests to rule out or confirm if he indeed has the disease,'' KNH Communications manager Hezekiel Gikambi told a local newspaper. The Daily Nation added that KQ's crew had isolated the passenger during the flight and provided him with a face mask, as per ICAO protocols. January 27,2020: Ivory Coast tests suspectIvory Coast on Monday became the first African country to test a suspected Coronavirus case, when a female student arrived at an airport in the capital with suspicious symptoms.* ''The 34-year-old student traveled from Beijing to the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny International Airport in Abidjan on Saturday and was coughing, sneezing and experienced difficulty breathing,'' Ivory Coast's Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene said in statement. This effectively becomes the first case of testing for the virus on the African continent, even as Chinese authorities announced on Tuesday that its death toll had surpassed 100 from over 4,000 cases reported. Authorities in Ivory Coast moved the student to a safe location where she is currently being monitored. The health says it is highly likely a case of pneumonia and not coronavirus, but the final diagnosis will be made after the analysis of the results of the test. Top stories - Google News February 15, 2020 at 06:10AM https://ift.tt/31Vjlbi Coronavirus: worried West African countries 'strengthen cross-border coordination' - Africanews English Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
Liverpool 25 points clear as Mane goal seals win at Norwich - Yahoo Sports Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:41 PM PST Liverpool's Sadio Mane celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Norwich City and Liverpool at Carrow Road Stadium in Norwich, England, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein) NORWICH, England (AP) -- Sadio Mane ensured Liverpool went 25 points clear at the top of the Premier League by securing a 1-0 victory at Norwich on Saturday. Mane returned from injury by coming off the bench in the second half and brought down Jordan Henderson's long ball before netting at the near post in the 78th minute. Liverpool remains unbeaten in its quest to end a 30-year title drought and has now won 25 out of 26 games in the league. With 12 games remaining, Liverpool is now 15 points from winning the title thanks to the commanding lead over Manchester City. The second-place defending champions play West Ham on Wednesday. Norwich is facing relegation, sitting seven points from safety in last place. --- More AP soccer: https://ift.tt/2Jaxh9l and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports Top stories - Google News February 15, 2020 at 11:44AM https://ift.tt/2SuXmVp Liverpool 25 points clear as Mane goal seals win at Norwich - Yahoo Sports Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
槇原容疑者の現在の自宅からも危険「ラッシュ」押収 - 日刊スポーツ Posted: 15 Feb 2020 08:07 AM PST 槇原容疑者の現在の自宅からも危険「ラッシュ」押収 - 日刊スポーツ シンガー・ソングライター槇原敬之(本名・範之)容疑者(50)が約2年前に住んでいた東京都港区のマンションで覚醒剤を所持したなどとして逮捕された事件で、警視庁が渋谷区にある現在の自宅からも危険ドラッグ「ラッシュ」を押収していたことが15日、捜査関係者への取材で分かった。最近も薬物を使用していた疑いもあるとみて詳しく調べる方針。 捜査関係者によると、渋谷区の自宅で同居している知人からも事情を聴いている。 槇原容疑者は13日、18年3月と4月に当時住んでいた港区のマンションで覚醒剤とラッシュを所持したとして逮捕された。この容疑については大筋で認めているという。 警視庁組織犯罪対策5課は13日、槇原容疑者の関係先を家宅捜索していた。(共同) ◇ ◇ ◇ ◆RUSH(ラッシュ) 主にセックスドラッグとして流通しており、厚生労働省によると、ラッシュは酩酊(めいてい)感などを得る目的で使われる。中枢神経系の興奮もしくは抑制、幻覚の作用が強い。大量に摂取すると呼吸障害で死亡する。指定薬物の亜硝酸イソブチルを含む液体状の薬物で、吸引すると性的興奮を高めるなどの作用があるとされている。07年に医薬品医療機器等法(旧薬事法)により「指定薬物」となり、業者による販売などが違法となった。その後、14年の改正で個人での所持や使用、購入した場合でも違法となり、15年には関税法改正により個人輸入についても二重に違法とされ、刑事罰の対象になった。 2020-02-15 14:58:48Z https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiRGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm5pa2thbnNwb3J0cy5jb20vZW50ZXJ0YWlubWVudC9uZXdzLzIwMjAwMjE1MDAwMTE3My5odG1s0gFKaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmlra2Fuc3BvcnRzLmNvbS9tL2VudGVydGFpbm1lbnQvbmV3cy9hbXAvMjAyMDAyMTUwMDAxMTczLmh0bWw?oc=5 |
ゆず似のフォークデュオ・MIZUがCDデビュー!「サヨナラチャリ」「5日」など6曲入り - ナタリー Posted: 15 Feb 2020 06:07 AM PST ゆず似のフォークデュオ・MIZUがCDデビュー!「サヨナラチャリ」「5日」など6曲入り - ナタリー MIZUは19歳のジンジン、ガンガンからなる"雫型フォークエンターティナー"。ミニアルバムには斎藤宏介( MIZU「MIZU」収録曲01. サヨナラチャリ 2020-02-15 13:00:00Z https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiJGh0dHBzOi8vbmF0YWxpZS5tdS9tdXNpYy9uZXdzLzM2NzQxONIBKGh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLm5hdGFsaWUubXUvbXVzaWMvbmV3cy8zNjc0MTg?oc=5 |
Bulls legend Artis Gilmore returns to Chicago for NBA All-Star Weekend - Chicago Sun-Times Posted: 15 Feb 2020 05:07 AM PST Bulls legend Artis Gilmore returns to Chicago for NBA All-Star Weekend - Chicago Sun-Times Artis Gilmore is back where it all started. On most days Gilmore can be seen walking across Jacksonville University's campus in crisp slacks and a polo shirt featuring the school crest. Or sometimes he's in the dining hall, enjoying a meal among college students. Wherever Gilmore is, people notice. ''There aren't many 7-foot-2, 300-pound people on any college campus,'' university president Tim Cost said. ''Everyone knows who Artis Gilmore is.'' ![]() Gilmore, a special assistant to the president at the school, is a walking campus historian. His impact on the university goes back 50 years, when he helped the Dolphins pull off one of the best underdog runs in NCAA tournament history before losing to UCLA in the championship game in 1970. In his two seasons at Jacksonville, Gilmore established himself as a major force by averaging 24.3 points and a record-setting 22.7 rebounds. His strength and scoring ability propelled Gilmore into the spotlight. He was selected in the first round of the 1971 American Basketball Association Draft and played for the Kentucky Colonels until the league folded in 1976. He then went on to become one of the best centers in Bulls history for six seasons (1976-82). Gilmore, a six-time NBA All-Star who averaged 18.8 points and 12.3 rebounds in his 17-year pro career, said he never will forget getting the call that told him he had made it into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. ''It was the first of April, and certainly it would've been a cruel April Fool's joke,'' said Gilmore, a member of the 2011 class that also included Dennis Rodman and Chris Mullin. ''So I was trying to control the emotional roller-coaster ride.'' Gilmore is soft-spoken, but his work ethic sets him apart. He never has seen a task too intimidating to take on because he learned at a young age what it's like to struggle. Gilmore grew up in Chipley, Florida. As a young boy, he worked long days in the blistering sun in cotton and melon fields to help his family make ends meet. ''Having grown up very poor, I knew early that the only way to achieve good things in life is to work hard,'' Gilmore said. ''Everything worth having requires discipline and practice, but getting ahead also means being willing to learn from others, whether that's a teammate, a coach, a friend.'' Inside Gilmore's home, you won't find displays highlighting his basketball achievements, walls overflowing with photos of his dunks or other great moments of his time as a player. That's not really his style. ''My great memories of my time on the court are enough,'' Gilmore said. He would be lying, however, if he said he didn't cherish his ABA championship and Hall of Fame rings. ''My ABA ring is important to me because it represents a high point in my playing career,'' Gilmore said. ''My Hall of Fame ring is important because it represents how others saw me as a player and symbolizes that many have felt me deserving of an honored place in the history of basketball.'' After having to get a replacement ABA ring after his original was stolen from a hotel room years ago, Gilmore has learned to keep his most prized possessions close. ''I don't keep them anywhere special, except on my hand, which I figure is as safe a place as any,'' he said. At 70, Gilmore is long removed from his playing days. He reckons he hasn't shot a basketball in five years, though he's still a fan of the game. Gilmore works as a color analyst for the Jacksonville men's and women's radio broadcasts and catches glimpses of the NBA on TV every once in a while. Does he think he still can play with the best of them? ''Yes,'' Gilmore said. ''My 5-year-old grandson, I can take him.'' Gilmore hasn't visited Chicago since the Bulls played the Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2013. But he'll be in town this weekend for the All-Star Game. Though he's unable to return as often as he would like, Chicago always will hold a special place in Gilmore's heart. ''That was a significant time in the life of a young man for all the expected reasons,'' Gilmore said. ''The sports fans of Chicago have always been absolutely wonderful to me. I was welcomed; I was treated well. ''Some of my dearest friends in life were met in Chicago, and my life is much, much better for having spent those important early years in such a great city.'' 2020-02-15 13:00:00Z https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports-saturday/2020/2/15/21133099/bulls-legend-artis-gilmore-returns-to-chicago-for-nba-all-star-weekend |
Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:48 AM PST Some Fans Suspect Kendall Jenner Would Be Taken More Seriously If She Stopped Doing This 1 Thing - Showbiz Cheat Sheet Kendall Jenner is one of the most successful members of the Kardashian-Jenner clan. A well-known model, Jenner has worked in the industry for years and has been featured by many iconic brands. She has also maintained her role in Keeping Up with the Kardashians, earning notoriety and contributing to her social media popularity. Still, Jenner has not always been embraced by fans, and more than a few have wondered whether or not it is time for the model to pursue another career path. Recently, some fans on Reddit discussed Jenner's credibility as a model and what she could start doing in order for people to take her a bit more seriously. How did Kendall Jenner get started in modeling?![]() Kendall Jenner was born in 1995, one of two children born to Kris Jenner and Caitlyn Jenner, then known as Bruce Jenner. Raised in palatial surroundings in Los Angeles, California, Jenner achieved fame at an early age when Keeping Up with the Kardashians premiered in 2007. As one of the younger members of the family, Jenner was just a young girl when she was first thrust into the spotlight. However, she knew when she was very young that she wanted to pursue a career as a model. As chronicled on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Jenner scored her first modeling gig in 2009, after her mother, Kris Jenner, helped set her up with a major modeling agency. Almost instantly, Jenner began walking the runway for major brands like Teen Vogue, Chanel, Alexander Wang, and Balmain. Over the years, Jenner became one of the top models in the world, and easily one of the most recognizable. All the while, Jenner has continued to appear on Keeping Up with the Kardashians alongside the rest of her family. Fans aren't thrilled with Kendall JennerAlthough Kendall Jenner has always been successful in her industry of choice, she hasn't always been popular with fans. She has received a great deal of criticism over the years for various things, including for the fact that she seems to have a sense of entitlement about the fashion industry, even stating that she picks and chooses what shows and projects she wants to be associated with and isn't like "those girls," other models who do thirty or more shows per season. Her comments drew ire from fellow models as well as fans. She has also been involved in several controversies over the years, from the infamous Pepsi commercial to doing shoots that critics claim are full of cultural appropriation. For many fans, she is the least interesting member of the Kardashian-Jenner family, and although some give her props for keeping her personal life off-camera, it also means there is significantly less positive buzz around her name. What could Kendall Jenner do to be taken more seriously?Recently, some fans on Reddit discussed the future of Jenner's career and her habit of over-sexualizing everything. The image in question was a giveaway that Jenner featured on her Instagram, in which she appeared to be nude, covered in expensive designer handbags. Critics on Reddit stated that the model would be "so much more respected if she didn't do this kind of stuff." Other Reddit users called Jenner's pose "tasteless" and said compared her to her younger sister, Kylie Jenner, and her habit of frequently posting nearly-nude photos to social media. There were other posters who called into question the validity of the giveaway itself, and of many other similar Instagram giveaways. It certainly seems as though Jenner is taking a page from her family's book when it comes to posting suggestive photos, even though she claims to want to distance herself from the fray. While no one can say for certain whether or not a change in image would help Kendall Jenner to be taken more seriously, it would be a good starting point. 2020-02-15 12:05:09Z https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMijwFodHRwczovL3d3dy5jaGVhdHNoZWV0LmNvbS9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L3NvbWUtZmFucy1zdXNwZWN0LWtlbmRhbGwtamVubmVyLXdvdWxkLWJlLXRha2VuLW1vcmUtc2VyaW91c2x5LWlmLXNoZS1zdG9wcGVkLWRvaW5nLXRoaXMtMS10aGluZy5odG1sL9IBAA?oc=5 |
Justin Bieber's 'Changes': Wifed-Up and No Longer the Swingin' Dick - The Daily Beast Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:48 AM PST Justin Bieber's 'Changes': Wifed-Up and No Longer the Swingin' Dick - The Daily Beast It makes sense that Justin Bieber's new album, Changes, would come out on Valentine's Day—another cultural institution contrived by savvy studio marketers, riddled with maxims about love, vaguely Christian, pretty corny, but also sweet and nice, if you like flowers and candy. The 17-track album, Bieber's first release in five years, sounds a lot like the figure he's become: subdued, happy, married. We last heard from Bieber in 2015, with the apologetic playboy dance-pop of Purpose. That album—which emerged from his unraveling relationship with Selena Gomez and a series of legal scrapes, including but not limited to a vandalism arrest in Brazil, a D.U.I., and an egg-throwing incident—felt monumental and statement-making, packed with alt-EDM bangers and hints of tropical house. For a months-long stretch that year, it was impossible to go anywhere without hearing snippets of "What Do You Mean?," "Sorry," or "Where Are Ü Now," and I didn't mind. There were softer, acoustic tracks on Purpose, like "Love Yourself," but its strengths came from the undercurrent of remorse under its playful pop beats (a motif producer A.G. Cooke later made explicit in his dark, retro remix "Whaaat 85"). Fans who wanted more of that Bieber, myself included, might be disappointed by Changes. As Vulture's Craig Jenkins observed in his review of the first single, "Yummy," the new album is much more in the spirit of Journals, Bieber's 2013 compilation of cool and melancholic R&B tracks. While the album got mixed reviews upon release, it became a cult favorite, heralding the moment Bieber emerged from the kiddie-pop of his YouTube days and staked a claim for himself as a serious musician. Changes isn't quite in the same mode—the subtle sadness of "Bad Day" or "Change Me" have been swapped out for earnest and committed love songs, many of them inspired by Bieber's new wife, the model Hailey Baldwin. But Changes does present Bieber on a similar course: toward emotional growth and restraint—a theme the criminally-literal singer nods to in the name: "Changes." This isn't the wild guy hocking loogies from his hotel window. He's wifed-up, got a mustache, vibing. The two advance singles, "Yummy" and "Intentions," previewed some of the motifs the album teases out. Bieber was never a lyrics guy (let's not forget: "What about the children? Look at all the children we can change."), and "Yummy" is almost comically nonverbal, with a lightly catchy hook of erotic babytalk. The lyrics were packed with innuendo, a recurring theme across Changes, and fair enough for the newlywed who recently told E! News, "When I'm with my wife, we like to…You guys can guess what we do. It gets pretty crazy…that's pretty much all we do." For all the intentional undertones, Bieber might have cut the sexual subtext for a song like "Intentions," which he dedicated to a women's shelter in Los Angeles, rather than crooning about his lack of ulterior motives. Then again, this is the same guy who posted a very long photo series of babies on Instagram and captioned them all "Yummy." There are a few moments on Changes when the hand of Scooter Braun and his vast marketing apparatus make themselves known. When I first watched the "Yummy" music video, for example, I thought immediately of scrolling through TikTok. The high-production montage follows a pink-haired Bieber in a room of well-dressed boomers, bopping (arguably with more enthusiasm than the low-key song affords) and disrobing in the mode of TikTok's mute and self-consciously handsome stars, nodding to hooks with their shirts off. That, it turns out, was intentional—Bieber later teamed up with Chipotle to run a Super Bowl ad campaign on the app in an explicit bid to get the song to go viral (it did—the #yummy hashtag has 4.6 billion views). Likewise, after the album dropped last night, Complex reported that the pleasantly upbeat track "Running Over" had originally featured a verse from Ski Mask the Slump God, the South Florida rapper behind the hilariously sly 2017 track "Catch Me Outside." In the weeks before the release, however, Ski Mask's verse was switched out for a perfectly fine riff from Lil Dicky, the one-note joke rapper who has an upcoming TV show. But what both "Yummy" and "Intentions" did well was remind listeners that Bieber has a nice voice, and Changes underscores that on nearly every song. Over the spare, pulled-back beats of tracks like "Available," "Take It Out On Me," or "Habitual" (some of which sound, as a friend put it, "like he searched 'Justin Bieber-Type Beat' on Youtube"), the 25-year-old's delicate range becomes the focus. The end result is something like a box of Valentine's chocolates: they all taste pretty much the same, but it's still sweet. 2020-02-15 08:43:00Z https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMihgFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVkYWlseWJlYXN0LmNvbS9qdXN0aW4tYmllYmVycy1jaGFuZ2VzLXNlZXMtdGhlLXBvcC1zdGFyLXdpZmVkLXVwLWFuZC1uby1sb25nZXItdGhlLXN3aW5naW4tZGljaz9zb3VyY2U9YXJ0aWNsZXMmdmlhPXJzc9IBAA?oc=5 |
"Better than him winning the Oscar," Bong Joon-ho made Martin Scorsese a hero of Oscars - KOREA NOW Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:48 AM PST "Better than him winning the Oscar," Bong Joon-ho made Martin Scorsese a hero of Oscars - KOREA NOW ![]() You can watch this video at https://koreanow.com It is not the director Martin Scorsese who has won the Oscars. 2020-02-15 09:00:06Z https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiK2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9VnhaNWNnam9yelXSAQA?oc=5 |
China coronavirus deaths reach 1523 after 143 on Friday - Nikkei Asian Review Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:41 AM PST ![]() SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) -- More than 2,600 new cases were confirmed from a coronavirus outbreak in mainland China, the National Health Commission said on Saturday, a day after people returning to the capital from holidays were ordered to quarantine themselves for 14 days to try to contain its spread. The total of confirmed infections across mainland China was now 66,492 after 2,641 new cases were confirmed, as of Friday, the commission said. The death toll rose by 143 to 1,523, it said, with most of the new deaths in central Hubei province and in particular the provincial capital of Wuhan, the city of 11 million people where the outbreak began in December. National Health Commission official Liang Wannian told a news conference the government would continue to try to contain the spread of virus in Wuhan. The commission was focused on lowering the fatality rate and reducing the infection rate, Liang said. The number of deaths in Hubei rose by 139 as of Friday, 107 of those in Wuhan. A total of 1,123 people in Wuhan have now died from the coronavirus. China is struggling to get the world's second largest economy going after the Lunar New Year holiday, which was extended by 10 days to help contain the virus. The official Beijing Daily newspaper said people failing to obey government orders to quarantine themselves on return from the holidays would be punished. But it was not immediately clear how that would be enforced, or whether the restrictions would apply to non-residents or foreigners arriving from abroad. "From now on, all those who have returned to Beijing should stay at home or submit to group observation for 14 days after arriving," Beijing's virus prevention working group said in a notice cited by the Beijing Daily. "Those who refuse to accept home or centralised observation and other prevention and control measures will be held accountable under the law," it said. The number of trade fairs, sports events and industry conferences in China and overseas that have been affected by the spread of the virus continued to increase. International Business Machines Corp said on Friday it had canceled its participation in the RSA cyber security conference in San Francisco at the end of February due to coronavirus-related concerns. Earlier, Facebook Inc said it had canceled its global marketing summit scheduled for next month, also in San Francisco, over worry about the same risks. The Mobile World Congress (MWC), the annual telecoms industry gathering in Barcelona, was also canceled after a mass exodus by exhibitors linked to the coronavirus. Organisers of next week's gymnastics World Cup in Melbourne said on Saturday the entire Chinese team had pulled out due to travel restrictions. A top Chinese official, in an interview with Reuters, acknowledged that the coronavirus was a huge challenge, but defended the government's management of the epidemic and lashed out at the "overreaction" of some countries. State Councillor Wang Yi, who also serves as China's foreign minister, said China had taken decisive measures to fight the epidemic, many going beyond international health regulations and World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. "Through our efforts the epidemic is overall under control," he said. Outside mainland China, there have been nearly 450 cases in some 24 countries and territories, and three deaths. Japan confirmed its first coronavirus death on Thursday. One person has died in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. The virus is killing about 2% of those infected, but has spread faster than other respiratory viruses that emerged this century. A WHO-led joint mission with China will start its outbreak investigation work this weekend, focusing on how the new coronavirus is spreading and its severity, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Top stories - Google News February 14, 2020 at 05:52PM https://ift.tt/3bI9MAK China coronavirus deaths reach 1523 after 143 on Friday - Nikkei Asian Review Top stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2FLTecc Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
The New Coronavirus and Preparing for the Next Viral Pandemic - The New Yorker Posted: 15 Feb 2020 04:36 AM PST ![]() It's hard to predict the trajectory or the ultimate death toll of a viral bomb without knowing precisely how it was launched. As the coronavirus that was identified in Wuhan, China, in late December, continues to race around the globe, scientists are struggling to answer many vital questions: How easily does it spread from person to person? What is the real incubation period—the time during which infected people can transmit the virus before showing symptoms themselves? What is the true death rate? Although ninety-nine per cent of the more than sixty-three thousand cases and nearly all of the roughly fourteen hundred deaths reported so far have occurred in China, that will change. It is impossible to know the number of people who left Wuhan, a city with eleven million residents, before the Chinese authorities closed it off. Nor do we know how many people boarded planes without knowing that they were carrying the virus. We will only be sure where they all went when they start to get sick. The virus is so deeply menacing that, this week, the World Health Organization carefully named it COVID-19—to avoid using the names of people, geographic locations, or even animal species, which could lead to racial attacks and the needless slaughter of animals. Despite its severity, however, there is almost nothing surprising about this pandemic. It has been utterly predictable in nearly every way: from the nature of its emergence, to its rapid international dissemination, to its clear potential to sicken people and kill them. What is surprising is the fact that we are not better prepared for this kind of assault. As the late Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Joshua Lederberg put it, in what is perhaps both his most famous and his most ignored warning, viruses pose "the single biggest threat to man's continued dominance on this planet." As the world learned in 1918, when influenza killed at least fifty million people, there is no weapon as lethal that is also as widespread. Moreover, these viral invasions often move in obvious, specific patterns. No one who has ever glanced at a textbook on emerging infectious diseases or, for that matter, read the science section of a newspaper, could have been surprised to learn that bats were the original host of this virus, or that humans almost certainly acquired it from an intermediary species—in this case, probably pangolins, which are thought to be the most heavily trafficked animals on Earth. Pangolins are prized for the supposed medicinal properties of their scales, and they appear to have been sold at the seafood market in Wuhan where the epidemic appears to have started. Infectious diseases that leap from animals to humans are called zoonoses. They do it all the time. Most people remember the worldwide panic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, which, in 2002, led to the first pandemic of the millennium—although its global death toll was seven hundred and seventy-four people, fewer than the number of people who die in an average week at the height of an annual flu season in the United States. The SARS virus, which also originated in China, passed to humans through a protein—ACE-2, or angiotensinconverting enzyme—that is found on respiratory cells, which also serve as an entry point for the COVID-19 virus. They are both coronaviruses—named for the halo you see around them under a microscope—are genetically similar, and were isolated in bats. The same was true for MERS, or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a coronavirus that began in 2012 and spread through Saudi Arabia. MERS was transmitted to humans via camels, but it originated in bats, as did the Ebola virus. Marburg, a deadly hemorrhagic virus that was first described in 1967, originated in Old World fruit bats. The reason that bats play such a significant role in the transmission of these viruses is not difficult to understand. Bats make up roughly twenty per cent of all mammal species, and many of them have unusually robust immune systems that seem easily able to defend them against powerful viruses. That makes them the perfect viral host; the viruses train themselves on the bats' immune system, and, in the process, become increasingly able to defend themselves. Yet bats are hardly the only host of viruses that infect humans. In 2004, a highly pathogenic form of avian influenza, H5N1, which occurs naturally in wild waterfowl but can spread easily to domestic poultry, leaped from chickens to humans, setting off a frightening epidemic. In 2009, the new strain of influenza was a form of H1N1, also called swine flu, because it passed to humans through pigs; they serve as a common mixing vessel for viruses, because porcine respiratory cells are similar to ours. The chances that a spillover, as this kind of transmission is called, will occur are greater in places where there is routine contact between animals and humans, such as the live-animal markets that are common in East Asia. If an infected pig were to sneeze in a crowded open market, it could, in theory, infect a human and set off an epidemic. Sixty per cent of the world's people live in Asia. There are a hundred and thirteen million people in Guangdong Province alone—far more than the population of any Western European country. These viruses all pose special threats because they are new, which means that humans have no antibodies to defend against them. The 2009 H1N1 epidemic infected at least 1.4 billion people, most of them before vaccines or treatments for the virus were available. And that was in a year when, by most accounts, the W.H.O. moved as expeditiously as it ever has. That strain of influenza killed as many as two hundred thousand people in the world—but it could have been many times worse. In 1957, for example, the Asian flu pandemic killed more than a million people. In 1968, the Hong Kong flu pandemic killed between one and four million. Maybe we will also be lucky this year. (It ought to be remembered that, even now, the seasonal flu poses a much greater threat to the health of the average American.) Unless COVID-19 proves to be uniquely virulent, it will likely subside within a few months, and the danger it poses will be substantially forgotten, like that of SARS, MERS, avian influenza, and other zoonotic diseases. But it is too soon to know for certain. Scientists are moving with great speed to stop this pandemic. They sequenced the virus in less than two weeks—an essential step in creating diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines, and one that only a few years ago would have taken months. But, even with expedited trials and drug development, it could take a year to create a vaccine. If this virus were to swerve out of control before then, the death rate could soar. In addition to the human toll, the economic damage to China—and, eventually, to the rest of the world—would be enormous. Industrial supply chains throughout the world have already been badly disrupted. Travel to and from China has all but stopped, and xenophobic attacks against Asians are rising. Although New York City has not reported a single confirmed case of COVID-19, business in Chinatown has reportedly fallen by more than fifty per cent since the epidemic began. Not all of this has to happen; we can do a much better job of preparing for these epidemics, just as we no longer wait to have heart attacks before we use our knowledge to limit their risk. Prevention works, and it can work with viral epidemics. For now we can be much more vigilant about improving sanitary conditions and regulating livestock in the kinds of markets where outbreaks are likely to occur. Sufficient and reliable tests for people who may have been exposed must be made readily available. There are scores of similar viruses found in host reservoirs—most notably, bats. Many of those viruses have genetic similarity to this coronavirus, and also to SARS and MERS. The time has come to use the modern tools of molecular and synthetic biology to make drugs and vaccines to protect us from them. We can make DNA vaccines in laboratories and store them as spare parts, just as we do with parts for a phone or a laptop. Why not work on making vaccines that would protect broadly against this entire class of virus, rather than waiting for each one to attack us, and then try to fight back? Today, with the annual flu, we grow most of our vaccines in eggs, just as we have for decades. It's time to move on. At some point, not many years from now, we will have the capacity to instantly sequence viruses and to make and operate diagnostic tests anywhere, not just in a lab. Biology is becoming digital information, and it needn't be stored only in Cambridge, or Palo Alto, or Paris. It is already possible to transmit and print a DNA sequence using the molecular equivalent of 3-D printers—a process that could enable scientists almost anywhere to construct vaccines. Making this technique readily available should be a national and, in fact, an international priority. There are other possible solutions, such as editing the genes of pigs (and bats) to repulse the viruses that can transfer to humans. This kind of ecological intervention would be scientifically difficult, and ethically questionable. But it will inevitably be discussed, so let's do it rationally. Even if this pandemic passes quickly, there will be another one, possibly far more catastrophic, next year, or in ten years' time, or twenty. All we can know for sure is that if we have any hope of containing it, the time to prepare is now. "viral" - Google News February 15, 2020 at 03:00AM https://ift.tt/2uBGZgR The New Coronavirus and Preparing for the Next Viral Pandemic - The New Yorker "viral" - Google News https://ift.tt/2BCxygM Shoes Man Tutorial Pos News Update Meme Update Korean Entertainment News Japan News Update |
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