by AFP | Feb 18, 2020 | Lifestyle, News
Tokyo (AFP) – Thieves in Japan have made off with some 6,000 surgical masks from a hospital, with the country facing a mass shortage and a huge price hike online due to the coronavirus.Four boxes containing the face masks disappeared from a locked storage facility at the Japanese Red Cross hospital in the western port city of Kobe, a hospital official said on Tuesday.”We still have a large number of masks — enough to continue our daily operations at the hospital, but this is so deplorable,” the official told AFP.Police have launched an investigation as they suspect the thieves intend to resel… (more…)
by AFP | Feb 17, 2020 | Health, News, place
Taipei (AFP) – While China deploys stern communist slogans in its battle against a deadly new coronavirus, democratic Taiwan has embraced cuddly mascots and humour to ease public anxiety and educate on best practices.Images of cute animals have featured in daily social media updates from government agencies to tackle disinformation and prevent the spread of infections.The health ministry has deployed a cartoon “spokesdog” — a Shiba Inu called Zongchai — that has proved a hit with hashtags of his name going viral and posts shared hundreds of thousands of times.Recent contributions have includ… (more…)
by AFP | Feb 14, 2020 | News
Beijing (AFP) – It was supposed to be a whirlwind tour of China for Jiang Lanyi’s boyfriend: classical gardens in Suzhou, modern art in Shanghai, ice-skating in central Beijing.Instead, the 24-year-old and her Ukrainian partner have spent more than two weeks holed up in her parents’ house in northeast Liaoning province to avoid the new coronavirus.Couples around China settled for a quiet Valentine’s Day this year, with COVID-19 intruding as an unwelcome third-wheel in romantic celebrations.The new disease has infected nearly 64,000 people and killed more than 1,350 in China, triggering transpo… (more…)
by AFP | Feb 14, 2020 | News, place
Sao Paulo (AFP) – Scientists in Antarctica have recorded a new record temperature of 20.75 degrees Celsius (69.35 Fahrenheit), breaking the barrier of 20 degrees for the first time on the continent, a researcher said Thursday.”We’d never seen a temperature this high in Antarctica,” Brazilian scientist Carlos Schaefer told AFP.He cautioned that the reading, taken at a monitoring station on an island off the continent’s northern tip on February 9, “has no meaning in terms of a climate-change trend,” because it is a one-off temperature and not part of a long-term data set.But news that the icy co… (more…)
by Malaysiakini | Feb 13, 2020 | News
The Federal Court, in a majority 4-3 decision, ruled that a Muslim child conceived out of wedlock cannot bear his father’s name.The seven-member bench led by Court of Appeal president Rohana Yusuf allowed partly the appeal brought by the National Registration Department (NRD), its director-general and the government to set aside the appellate court’s decision.The Court of Appeal, in 2017, held that a Muslim illegitimate child could bear his father’s name instead of using “bin Abdullah”.Justice Rohana who delivered the majority Federal Court decision today said section 13A of the Births and Dea… (more…)
by AFP | Feb 13, 2020 | News, people
Los Angeles (AFP) – Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna were buried last week near their family home in Newport Beach, California, in a private ceremony, according to death certificates.A death certificate for the basketball legend, who was killed in a helicopter crash outside Los Angeles on January 26 along with his daughter and seven others, states that he was buried last Friday at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar, US media reported.A memorial service for Bryant and Gianna is planned February 24 at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles which can hold 20,000 people.The Center… (more…)
