Health & Science

• Monday, February 10th 2020 - 08:12 UTC

  WHO team of experts in Beijing; Coronavirus death toll is over 900 and over 40.000 confirmed infections

  

  In advance team of international experts led by the World Health Organization (WHO) has left for Beijing to help investigate China’s coronavirus epidemic, which authorities said on Monday had now claimed 908 lives on the mainland.

• Friday, February 7th 2020 - 18:54 UTC

  Chinese coronavirus toll climbs on Friday to 636 and over 30.000 infections

  

  The official Chinese death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose on Friday to 636, with the government saying total infections had climbed past 30,000. The toll was raised by 73 new deaths from the epidemic, the National Health Commission said in its daily update.

• Friday, February 7th 2020 - 09:50 UTC

  Argentine president preparing bill to legalize abortion

  

  Argentina edged closer to legalizing abortion on Wednesday, as President Alberto Fernandez said he was preparing to send a Bill to Congress. In a speech to the Institute of Political Studies in France, the President said the measure would pay a “debt to democracy”.

• Friday, February 7th 2020 - 09:40 UTC

  Bumblebees essential for pollinating, suffer drastic declines in North America

  

  When scientist Peter Soroye first saw the figures showing estimated bumblebee populations in North America had fallen by nearly 50% in a single generation, he thought it must be a typo. He checked the numbers - the result of a long-term analysis of bumblebee populations published in the journal Science on Thursday, seven times to be sure they were accurate.

• Friday, February 7th 2020 - 09:37 UTC

  Brazil approves quarantine rules for nationals returning from China

  

  Brazil's lower house of Congress late approved a bill laying out rules for the quarantine of Brazilian nationals returning from China who may be infected with coronavirus, as well as other measures to combat the disease. The measures will be in force as long as the public health emergency declared by the World Health Organization is in place.

• Friday, February 7th 2020 - 09:01 UTC

  Christina Koch shatters spaceflight record for female astronauts with eleven months in the Space Station

  

  NASA's Christina Koch returned to Earth safely on Thursday after shattering the spaceflight record for female astronauts with a stay of almost 11 months aboard the International Space Station. Koch touched down at 0912 GMT on the Kazakh steppe after 328 days in space, along with Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency.

• Friday, February 7th 2020 - 08:54 UTC

  Chinese doctor who warned about coronavirus and reprimanded for “spreading rumors” has died of the infection

  

  A Chinese doctor who was among the first to warn publicly about the new coronavirus outbreak - and was reprimanded by authorities for “spreading rumours” - died of the infection early on Friday, his hospital announced.

• Thursday, February 6th 2020 - 09:09 UTC

  Coronavirus deaths keep climbing; China increasingly isolated by air and sea

  

  The death toll from a new coronavirus in mainland China jumped by 73 to 563 on Thursday, its third consecutive record daily rise, as experts intensified efforts to find a vaccine for a disease that has shut down Chinese cities and forced thousands more into quarantine around the world.

• Wednesday, February 5th 2020 - 09:40 UTC

  Ten coronavirus positive cases in quarantined cruise vessel with 3.371 passengers in Japanese waters

  

  At least 10 passengers on a cruise ship that Japan quarantined tested positive for the new coronavirus, public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media reported on Wednesday, citing the health ministry.

• Wednesday, February 5th 2020 - 09:02 UTC

  Royal Caribbean cancels cruises out of China until March 4

  

  Royal Caribbean Cruises has cancelled eight cruises out of China through March 4 in response to the coronavirus outbreak in the world's second-largest economy, the company said on Tuesday. The company said it expects the cancellations and some modifications to its itineraries to reduce earnings by 25 cents per share.