The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for $675 million to fight the novel coronavirus, mainly through investment in countries considered particularly at risk. This comes as the number of deaths nears 500 with more than 24,300 confirmed cases in China. Outside of China there are 191 confirmed cases in …

“1-2-3,” shouts Dr. Noradhiah Tumirin, a physician and fitness trainer. “You can do it,” she enthusiastically says as her client Sarah Baharudin is lying flat on her back and struggling to lift her legs from the ground to a 90-degree angle.Baharudin, age 35, is breathing heavily throughout the workout. She’s …

A vast transportation lockdown meant to contain the spread of a new coronavirus in central China is complicating the already grueling journey of North Korean refugees, according to two sources who help arrange North Korean defector trips.Chinese authorities have implemented what one World Health Organization official called an “unprecedented” lockdown …

Despite Kenya banning female genital mutilation in 2011, the tradition of circumcising girls has continued in some ethnic communities. President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to end FGM by 2023, but activists say more needs to be done as millions of girls are still at risk of undergoing the cut.At just seven …

Solar power is making a strong showing in Vietnam after years of shuttling from one extreme to the other, with the nation looking sometimes like it would revert to coal, and other times like it would invest in renewable energy.By the end of last year Vietnam had surpassed Malaysia and …

With many Chinese cities on a virtual lockdown and businesses closed until next week at the earliest, there are growing concerns about coronavirus’s impact on the global economy. On Tuesday, automaker Hyundai Motor said  it will suspend production in South Korea, its biggest manufacturing base, becoming the first major automaker …

A smartphone app that combines computer vision with a host of experts is empowering nature enthusiasts across the globe to document the organisms around them. Matt Dibble takes a closer look.  …

Medical workers in Hong Kong are staging a second consecutive day of strikes Tuesday as the Chinese territory reports its first death from a coronavirus that has killed 425 people in mainland China.Hong Kong shut down nearly all land and sea border crossings with the mainland at midnight local time …

Medical workers in Hong Kong are staging a second consecutive day of strikes Tuesday as the Chinese territory reports its first death from a coronavirus that has killed 425 people in mainland China.Hong Kong shut down nearly all land and sea border crossings with the mainland at midnight local time …

The World Health Organization reports cancer is on the increase globally. But it says preventive measures can save the lives of millions of cancer sufferers over the next decade. This report comes in regard to World Cancer Day on Feb. 4.Over the past decade, nearly every country in the world …

The latest trial of a vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has been halted as results show it is not working.The Maryland-based U.S. National Institutes of Health announced Monday it has stopped the HVTN 702 study in South Africa, following a recommendation of an independent data and safety …

 The World Health Organization is working with Google to ensure that people get facts from WHO first when they search for information about the new virus that recently emerged in China.       Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the opening of WHO’s executive board meeting on Monday that social media …

Wai Htet Aung, age 27, waits for his turn at a crowded betel quid stand in downtown Yangon. Customers have lined up by the table to place their orders. “It’s tasty,” he says. “I have bad breath and I want my mouth to smell better.”The signs of this popular habit …

 The World Health Organization is working with Google to ensure that people get facts from WHO first when they search for information about the new virus that recently emerged in China.       Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the opening of WHO’s executive board meeting on Monday that social media …

As the deadly coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, it has killed its first patient outside China. News reports from the Philippines say a Chinese man from Wuhan, in Hubei province where the virus was first detected, died in a hospital in Manila a few days after arriving there. Many countries, …

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued rules on Sunday to implement new restrictions on Americans who have recently visited China to address the threat of the coronavirus.Airline officials said Sunday the new rules will mean they must now ask all U.S.-bound passengers if they have visited mainland China. …

President Donald Trump says the United States has “shut down” the coronavirus coming in from China even as officials in San Francisco report the ninth confirmed U.S. case.”We’ve offered China help but we can’t have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem, the coronavirus,” Trump told Fox …

*/ /–>/ /–>/ /–>/ /–>/ /–>/ The Latest:A clerk wearing a face mask and a plastic bag stands in a pharmacy in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, Jan. 31, 2020.Reports, including some from Wuhan residents, indicate that early information about the outbreak was covered up, and many people, including …

Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike promised Sunday to implement “thorough measures” to protect people from the deadly coronavirus in the run-up to this summer’s Olympic Games.At the opening of the $330 million Ariake Arena, venue for Olympic volleyball and Paralympic wheelchair basketball, Koike said:”I will implement even more stringent measures to …

As if health officials in China don’t have enough on their hands with a spreading coronavirus, now officials announced an outbreak of bird flu.China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced Saturday an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 bird flu at a farm in the southern province …

*/ /–>/ /–>/ /–>/ The Latest:Q: “And about the death rate, I think I’ve seen that it’s like, you know, there’s just the raw numbers coming out of China. It’s about 2 percent, but that’s people who have been in the hospital right?”PEKOSZ: “Exactly! And so the big variable that we really …

A vaccine against the new Wuhan coronavirus may start testing in as little as three months, according to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci.That’s fast.It took 20 months before a vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, was ready for clinical trials.That doesn’t mean you can …

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate and peers from other African nations on Friday made an urgent appeal for the world to pay more attention to the continent that stands to suffer the most from global warming despite contributing to it the least.The Fridays For Future movement and activist Greta Thunberg …

Pakistan Friday temporarily halted all flights to and from China, effective immediately, a day after it decided to delay the opening of a key border crossing with the neighboring country following the coronavirus outbreak there.A spokesman for the Pakistan  Civil Aviation Authority said all flights “to and from China will …

China says it has nearly 10,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. The virus has caused 213 deaths in China where it emerged late last year.The World Health Organization says the  worldwide spread of the virus is  a global health emergency, as well as an “extraordinary event” requiring a coordinated …