Month: May 2019

Taiwan has accused the World Health Organisation of risking a global health emergency by barring it from attending its global health summit in Geneva at the end of May at China’s behest.  This week the WHO, a United Nations agency, declined to invite Taiwan for the third consecutive year to an annual meeting of its decision-making…

Donald Trump Jr was subpoenaed on Wednesday to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of its probe into Russian election meddling, US media reported. It was the first known legal summons issued by Congress to a member of the president’s family to force testimony in the ongoing investigation, and comes after special counsel…

President Emmanuel Macron of France is to place the environment at the heart of his European election manifesto as his party seeks to overtake the far-Right and drum up interest in a faltering campaign just three weeks before the crunch vote. The outspoken Europhile is banking on coming first in the May 26 election for…

Archeologists have chanced upon an underground chamber decorated with images of panthers, centaurs and a sphinx in the remains of a vast palace built by the Emperor Nero in Rome. The room, which was part of the huge Domus Aurea palace built by the emperor in the first century AD, had remained hidden for nearly…

The spiralling number of deaths from drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is set to cost the world economy nearly $20billion annually. A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit warned that despite the fact that DR-TB is a huge global health threat, the fight against the disease lags behind others in terms of both money and attention. In low and…

A rare Asiatic black bear has been spotted living in the mined border area between North and South Korea, Seoul’s environment ministry confirmed on Wednesday.  A picture of the endangered animal, also known as the moon bear, was recorded by cameras that have been hidden among the wild foliage of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) for…

Assad regime forces have vowed they will crush the Syrian rebellion once and for all in the province of Idlib, saying there will be “no green buses” like the ones that allowed rebel fighters to evacuate after past defeats. After eight months of relative quiet following a Russian-Turkish ceasefire deal, Syrian regime forces and their…

A Democratic-led House panel on Wednesday approved a measure to hold US Attorney General William Barr in contempt for refusing to hand over an unredacted copy of the Mueller report on Russian election interference even as Donald Trump invoked the legal principle of executive privilege to block its disclosure. Throwing down another challenge to the US president, the House of…

A Kremlin-linked Russian misinformation outfit attempted to sway Wednesday’s general election in South Africa in favour of the ruling African National Congress, according to documents obtained by investigators. An organisation with ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, allegedly drew up plans to discredit South African opposition parties, including…

The Three Mile Island nuclear plant, site 40 years ago of the worst ever US nuclear accident, is to shut down in September, its owner announced on Wednesday. Exelon Generation had been seeking subsidies from Pennsylvania lawmakers to keep the money-losing facility open, but the company said that would apparently not happen in time. "We don’t see…