WORLD

Sanguil, Senegal | AFP |  Large peanut orders from Chinese traders have cut Senegal’s traditional selling season short this year, rewarding farmers with fat profits but leaving local buyers with slim pickings. Peanuts are an important export in the West African state of Senegal, with the area around the central city …

Paris, France | AFP |  Opponents of Iran’s theocratic leadership are urging an outright boycott of its parliamentary elections, arguing that it is anything but democratic and that casting a ballot serves only to bolster the country’s Islamic rulers. The country’s supreme leader has urged Iranians to “disappoint the enemy” by …

Travel restrictions on China fuelling ‘panic:’ ambassador Brussels, Belgium | AFP |  Travel restrictions imposed on China over its virus outbreak COVID-19 are only fuelling “panic” and threatening attempts to resume business, the country’s ambassador to the EU warned on Tuesday. Envoy Zhang Ming also told a media conference in …

Beijing, China | AFP | The World Health Organization has warned against a global over-reaction to the new coronavirus epidemic following panic-buying, event cancellations and concerns about cruise ship travel, as China’s official death toll neared 1,900 on Tuesday. More than 72,000 people have now been infected in China and hundreds …

San Francisco, United States | AFP |  Apple is to miss its revenue forecast for the March quarter due to the coronavirus epidemic, the US tech giant said Monday, warning that iPhone supplies worldwide would also be impacted, underlining the economic cost of the health crisis. The COVID-19 virus death toll …

Washington, United States | AFP |  His company is often criticized for its environmental record, but Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and the world’s richest man, said Monday that he was committing $10 billion to a new fund to tackle climate change. In a post to his 1.4 million followers on …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP |  A top EU official for digital policy warned Monday that big tech companies could face tougher rules and penalties in Europe if they failed to adequately curb hate speech and disinformation. European Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton remarks followed talks with Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, who was …

Washington, United States | AFP | When Donald Trump literally belittles his perceived enemies — by mocking their stature — he is weaponizing a long-standing maxim of US presidential politics: taller guys tend to win the White House. Trump — who stands at about 6’3″ (1m90) depending on which source you …

Tokyo, Japan | AFP | More than a dozen infected Americans from a coronavirus-riddled cruise ship off Japan flew on evacuation flights to the US with other passengers on Monday, as the epidemic claimed more lives in China to take the death toll above 1,700. The COVID-19 virus has infected more …

Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Japan has suffered its worst quarterly GDP contraction in more than five years, with a tax hike and a deadly typhoon taking a toll on the world’s third-largest economy. The nation’s gross domestic product in the three months to December shrank 1.6 percent from the …