Month: January 2020

Baghdad (AFP) – Thousands of Iraqi anti-government protesters grappled with security forces in a bid to shut streets across the country on Monday, a deadline they had given authorities to implement long-awaited reforms. Rallies have rocked Iraq since October but fearing they would lose momentum amid spiralling regional tensions protesters last Monday told the government…

NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images China is stepping up its efforts to stop the spread of a mysterious, deadly virus as millions of people prepare to travel to celebrate Chinese New Year. The 2019-nCoV respiratory virus has caused three deaths, but not much is known about it. The virus has already spread with a few…

China reported 17 new cases of the mysterious SARS-like virus on Sunday, including three people in serious condition, heightening fears ahead of China’s Lunar New Year holiday when hundreds of millions of people move around the country. The new coronavirus strain has caused alarm because of its connection to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed…

Back in the fall of 2017, during the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping took the podium at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People to claim that one-party autocracy offered an option for “countries that want to speed up their development while preserving their independence.” In the years since, China’s…

Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Thursday called for the U.S. government to cease detaining illegal immigrants. Omar tweeted an ABC News story about a tiny Georgia town having more detained illegal immigrants than residents. Her takeaway: America shouldn’t be detaining those who cross the border illegally. “This should never be the case,” she wrote. “The cruelty…

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Somalia had invited Turkey to explore for oil in its seas, after Ankara signed a maritime agreement with Libya last year, broadcaster NTV reported. Turkey has been a major source of aid to Somalia following a famine in 2011 as Ankara seeks to increase…

Australia’s already fire-ravaged state, Victoria, could now face severe flooding as experts forecast its wettest two-day period in “many, many months”. Heavy rain has dampened many of the country’s bushfires, which began in September and have killed at least 28 people as well as destroying thousands of homes and scorching acres of land. But the…

“Apocalyptic” dust storms swept across drought-stricken areas of Australia over the weekend, with thunder and giant hail battering the east coast, as extreme weather patterns collided in the bushfire-fatigued country. The southern city of Melbourne was lashed by huge hailstones late Sunday and fire-ravaged parts of Victoria state overnight received heavy rainfall, prompting new extreme…

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Dust storms, hail and flash floods have battered beleaguered Australian cities in recent days, extreme weather that has diminished the threat from scores of wildfires that continue to blaze across the country’s southeast. A hail storm in the national capital Canberra on Monday damaged public buildings, businesses, homes and cars, cut…

Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images Six former cruise-ship workers described to Business Insider the things they couldn’t live without while on the job. Their answers included clothing, technology, and cosmetics. The workers’ former employers were Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, and American Cruise Lines. Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories. A cruise ship…