First US federal execution of woman in decades

An American woman was put to death by lethal injection Wednesday, becoming the first female to be executed by US federal authorities in nearly seven decades. Lisa Montgomery's execution came in the final days of the government of US President Donald Trump, which pushed forward with her execution despite a legal battle that the Supreme Court ended with a ruling in the early hours of Wednesday. Montgomery, 52, murdered an expectant mother to steal her baby, though she had sought a stay of execut

Jan. 13, 2021

Astronomers find oldest, most distant quasar and black hole in universe

The oldest and most distant quasar and black hole in the universe have been discovered, a team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona said Tuesday. The newly discovered quasar and black hole are 13 billion light-years from Earth. As the most energetic objects in the universe, quasars are tremendously big and bright celestial objects that are located at the center of galaxies. Dubbed J0313-1806, the most distant quasar dates back to 670 million years after the Big Bang, when the un

Jan. 13, 2021

WHO rules out virus herd immunity in 2021 despite vaccines

The World Health Organization has warned that herd immunity for COVID-19 will not be achieved this year despite the vaccines already being rolled out in a number of countries. “We are not going to achieve any levels of population immunity or herd immunity in 2021,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said Monday during a video press conference. “Even if it happens in a couple of pockets in a few countries, it’s not going to protect people across the world.” H

Jan. 12, 2021

Massive power outage leaves Pakistan in the dark

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- A major technical fault in Pakistan's power generation and distribution system caused a massive power outage that plunged the country into darkness overnight, the energy minister said. Hours after the late Saturday outage, Energy Minister Omar Ayub said on Twitter that power was being restored in phases, starting with Islamabad. He said later Sunday that power had been restored to much of the country. The blackout was initially reported on social media by residents of major

Jan. 10, 2021

Pompeo voids restrictions on diplomatic contacts with Taiwan

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Saturday that the State Department is voiding longstanding restrictions on how US diplomats and others have contact with their counterparts in Taiwan, another move that is expected to upset China as the Trump administration winds to an end. The Trump administration has sought to strengthen bilateral relations with Taiwan. It announced Thursday that UN Ambassador Kelly Craft would go to Taiwan, a move that sparked sharp criticism from B

Jan. 10, 2021

German virus deaths top 40,000 as Merkel warns of 'hardest weeks'

BERLIN (AFP) -- The total number of Germany's coronavirus deaths crossed 40,000 on Sunday, as Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the coming weeks would be "the hardest" yet. Germany recorded 465 deaths over the past 24 hours, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control said, raising the toll since the start of the pandemic to 40,343. More than 1.9 million people have been infected so far, with almost 17,000 new cases added since Saturday. In her weekly video message on Saturday,

Jan. 10, 2021

[Newsmaker] Indonesia jet carrying 62 goes missing on domestic flight

JAKARTA (AP) -- A jet carrying 62 people lost contact with air traffic controllers minutes after taking off from Indonesia’s capital on a domestic flight on Saturday, and debris found by fishermen was being examined to see if it was from the missing plane, officials said. Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Sriwijaya Air’s Flight SJ182 was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2:36 p.m. The Boeing 737-500 disappeared from radar four minutes later, after the pilot

Jan. 10, 2021

China says WHO Wuhan visit preparations ongoing

BEIJING (AFP) -- China confirmed Saturday that preparations were still ongoing for a World Health Organization mission to Wuhan to investigate the origins of Covid-19, following a rare rebuke from the UN body over a delay to the long-planned trip. The comments came after the WHO chief said on Tuesday he was “very disappointed” that Beijing had yet to finalise permission even as the team of experts had begun travelling to China to explore the beginnings of the virus, which first emer

Jan. 9, 2021

Biden calls Trump 'unfit' but doesn't endorse impeachment

WILMINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Joe Biden says that President Donald Trump isn't “fit for the job,” but he repeatedly refused to endorse growing Democratic calls to impeach him a second time. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to members of her chamber that lawmakers could move as early as next week to impeach Trump for inciting a violent mob that overran the US Capitol if the president didn’t “immediately” resign. Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader C

Jan. 9, 2021

Asian shares climb on Wall Street rally, stimulus hopes

Asian shares were mostly higher Friday on hopes for additional economic stimulus after President-elect Joe Biden takes office.  A new state of emergency in the Tokyo region to combat surging coronavirus cases did little to dampen market optimism. The benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 2.4 percent to close at 28,139.03, its highest finish in more than 30 years.  The emergency declaration, announced by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for Tokyo and nearby areas, asks people to stay home and ref

Jan. 8, 2021

[Newsmaker] Korean American lawmaker helps 'clean up' tarnished US Capitol

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), a Korean American congressman, received wide attention and praise on Thursday for helping clean up the mess from the previous day's insurrection at the US Capitol. Thousands of angry protesters stormed the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday while the Senate and the House of Representatives were trying to certify the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential election. One person was shot to death while three others died of medical issues, while many protesters breac

Jan. 8, 2021

Mob storms US Capitol as Trump accused of 'coup'

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Donald Trump's supporters stormed a session of Congress held Wednesday to certify Joe Biden's election win, triggering unprecedented chaos and violence at the heart of American democracy and accusations the president was attempting a coup. Vowing not to be deterred, lawmakers resumed business after dark and voted down the first challenge to Biden's win, with several Trump loyalists reversing course in the wake of the violence that drew shock around the world. Egged on

Jan. 7, 2021

[Newsmaker] Pro-Trump mob storms US Capitol in bid to overturn election

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A violent mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday and forced lawmakers into hiding, in a stunning attempt to overturn America’s presidential election, undercut the nation’s democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House. The nation’s elected representatives scrambled to crouch under desks and don gas masks, while police futilely tried to barricade the building, one of the most jarring scenes

Jan. 7, 2021

EU agency approves Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine

The European Union's medicines agency gave the green light Wednesday to Moderna Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccine, a decision that gives the 27-nation bloc a second vaccine to use in the desperate battle to tame the virus rampaging across the continent. The approval recommendation by the European Medicines Agency's human medicines committee -- which must be rubber stamped by the EU's executive commission -- comes amid high rates of infections in many EU countries and strong criticism of the slow pace of

Jan. 6, 2021

Germany to require women on large firms' boards

German listed companies must include women on their executive boards as part of a landmark bill agreed by the country's coalition government Wednesday after voluntary efforts failed to close a gender gap. Listed companies with four executives or more must appoint at least one woman to their boards, according to a draft law to be voted on by parliament. The law sends "a very strong signal", Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht told reporters, urging corporations to "take advanta

Jan. 6, 2021

Why do the latest mass arrests in Hong Kong matter?

China has moved to crush Hong Kong's democracy movement in recent months but Wednesday's mass arrest of democracy figures for subversion under Beijing's new national security law was particularly momentous.  Here's why. What's so significant about this operation? The most eye-catching element is the scale of the crackdown and the variety of figures caught in the dragnet. Prior to Wednesday, around 30 people had been arrested under the new security law since its imposition in late June

Jan. 6, 2021

WikiLeaks founder Assange denied bail in UK

A British judge on Wednesday denied bail to WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange, who has been jailed in Britain since 2019 as he fights extradition to the United States. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ordered Assange to remain in prison while the courts consider an appeal by US authorities against a decision not to extradite him. On Monday, the judge rejected an American request to send Assange to the US to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks' publication of secret military documents a deca

Jan. 6, 2021

Dutch begin COVID-19 vaccinations; last EU nation to do so

Nearly two weeks after most other European Union nations, the Netherlands on Wednesday began its COVID-19 vaccination program, with nursing home staff and front-line workers in hospitals first in line for the shot. Sanna Elkadiri, a nurse at a nursing home for people with dementia, was the first to receive a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a mass vaccination center in Veghel, 120 kilometers southeast of the capital, Amsterdam. “This is a very important moment for me as a person wh

Jan. 6, 2021

[Graphic News] Plane crash deaths rise in 2020 despite COVID pandemic

　The number of people killed in large commercial airplane crashes rose in 2020 to 299 worldwide, even as the number of crashes fell by more than 50 percent, a Dutch consulting firm said. 　Aviation consulting firm To70 said in 2020 there were 40 accidents involving large commercial passenger planes, five of which were fatal, resulting in 299 fatalities. In 2019 there were 86 accidents, eight of which were fatal, resulting in 287 fatalities. 　Large commercial airplanes had 0.27 fatal acciden

Jan. 6, 2021

Former head of China state asset firm sentenced to death

The former head of state-owned China Huarong Asset Management Co. Ltd. was sentenced to death Tuesday for bribe taking in one of the harshest punishments for economic crimes in recent years. Lai Xiaomin, 58, was also found guilty by the Second Intermediate People's Court of Tianjin of lesser charges including corruption and bigamy. Life sentences and suspended death sentences commuted to life after two years are frequently handed down in corruption cases, but death sentences without the chan

Jan. 5, 2021