WORLD

Wuhan, China | AFP | Chinese authorities rapidly expanded a mammoth quarantine effort aimed at containing a deadly contagion on Friday to 13 cities and a staggering 41 million people, as nervous residents were checked for fevers and the death toll climbed to 26. While the World Health Organization (WHO) held …

Rome, Italy | AFP | Former nuns “abandoned” by the Catholic Church, including some who became prostitutes to survive, have been sheltered at a Vatican residence for more than a year, a Brazilian cardinal said. Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz confirmed the house’s existence at an undisclosed location in Vatican City …

No qualms for India’s hangman before first job of executing rapists Meerut, India | AFP | Pawan Kumar feels zero sympathy for the four men he is due to hang next month for a 2012 gang rape and murder that appalled India. “The people who are going to die are …

Washington, United States | AFP | With his eyes firmly on the November election, Donald Trump will Friday become the first US president to address in person the country’s biggest annual gathering of anti-abortion campaigners. Addressing a crowd of thousands on the National Mall in Washington, Trump is assured of a …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP |  Brussels’ two top officials, the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, signed off on Britain’s EU divorce agreement Friday. With Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel’s formal endorsement, the text will now go to the European Parliament on Wednesday, January 29 for …

Beijing, China | AFP |  China Friday added a ninth city to a transport ban around the epicentre of a deadly virus, restricting the movement of some 32 million people as authorities scramble to control the disease. Jingzhou, with a population of 6.4 million, said Friday that all services departing …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP |  The UN’s top court ordered Myanmar on Thursday to take “all measures within its power” to prevent alleged genocide against Rohingya Muslims. The International Court of Justice granted a series of emergency steps requested by the mainly Muslim African state of The Gambia under …

  Beijing, China | AFP |  A second central Chinese city is being put on lockdown to help control the spread of a virus epidemic that broke out in neighbouring Wuhan, authorities said Thursday. The train station in Huanggang, which has a population of 7.5 million and is 70 kilometres …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | The UN’s top court will announce Thursday if it will allow a case accusing Myanmar of genocide against Rohingya Muslims to go ahead and if it will impose emergency measures to stop further violence. The ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) comes days …

Moscow, Russia | AFP |  Russia’s State Duma on Thursday was set to discuss the constitutional amendment bill submitted by President Vladimir Putin, a reform plan unlikely to meet any serious criticism in parliament. The bill is on the agenda to be debated in the first of three readings just a …