World

South Korea will ban large public gatherings and shut down churches and nightspots in the greater capital area amid an alarming surge in viral infections that health officials describe as the countrys biggest crisis since the emergence of COVID19.

South Korea reported a threedigit increase in novel coronavirus cases for a fifth day on Tuesday as authorities scrambled to trace hundreds of members of a church congregation, and the military locked down bases to stop the spread of the virus.

Residents of a Swiss town got a bit of a shock when it started snowing particles of a fine cocoa powder after the ventilation system at a chocolate factory malfunctioned.

More than a dozen states as early as this week are expected to sue the Trump administration over cuts at the United States Postal Service they say could delay mailin ballots in the November elections, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said on Monday.

At Oklahoma State in Stillwater, where a widely circulated video over the weekend showed maskless students packed into a nightclub, officials confirmed 23 coronavirus cases at an off-campus sorority house.

Sudanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters who gathered on Monday, some burning car tyres, to mark the anniversary of a transitional powersharing deal with demands for quicker political reform.

More than a dozen laptop computers used for an early phase of the 2020 census were lost, stolen or missing last year, and they may have contained personal information whose confidentiality is protected by federal law, according to an agency watchdog.

The Trump administration on Monday finalized a plan to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, putting it on track to issue decadeslong leases in the pristine wilderness area before a potential change in U.S. leadership.

Former Spanish king Juan Carlos, who left Spain under a cloud of scandal, has been in the United Arab Emirates since Aug. 3, a royal household spokesman said on Monday, putting an end to an international guessing game over the 82yearold's whereabouts.

The head of Lebanon's customs authority was formally arrested on Monday after being questioned over the massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month, the staterun National News Agency reported.

A Malaysian court on Monday jailed a teenager for killing 23 people in a fire that he started at a religious boarding school in 2017, national news agency Bernama reported, in what was one of the worst such tragedies in two decades.

Top Italian and European Union officials are holding talks in Tunisia on Monday to try to stem the growing numbers of migrants crossing from the North African country to Europe.

Thailand's economy contracted at a 12.2% annual rate in the AprilJune quarter, its sharpest downturn since the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.

The researchers analysed monthly satellite data from over 200 large glaciers draining into the ocean around Greenland. Their observations show how much ice br.

Shannon Silver had planned to take her family on a trip from her home in Connecticut to visit relatives in Ohio just before the start of the school year for her two children.

South Korea counted its fourth straight day of tripledigit increases in new coronavirus cases Monday as the government urged people to stay home and curb travel.