Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate and peers from other African nations on Friday made an urgent appeal for the world to pay more attention to the continent that stands to suffer the most from global warming despite contributing to it the least.The Fridays For Future movement and activist Greta Thunberg held a news conference with the activists to spotlight the marginalization of African voices a week after The Associated Press cropped Nakate out of a photo at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Nakate, Makenna Muigai of Kenya, Ayakha Melithafa of South Africa and climate scientist Ndoni Mcunu of South Africa pointed out the various challenges both in combating climate change on the booming continent of some 1.2 billion people and in inspiring the world’s response.“African activists are doing so much,” Nakate said. “It gets so frustrating when no one really cares about them.”The AP has apologized and acknowledged mistakes …

Pakistan Friday temporarily halted all flights to and from China, effective immediately, a day after it decided to delay the opening of a key border crossing with the neighboring country following the coronavirus outbreak there.A spokesman for the Pakistan  Civil Aviation Authority said all flights “to and from China will remain suspended until February 2.” Abdul Sattar Khokar cited no reasons, saying the decision would effect 22 weekly flights.Chinese health officials reported Friday the respiratory virus that originated in the city of Wuhan has killed about 200 people, and the number of cases topped 9,000. The virus has spread to  18 countries outside China, including  South Korea, Japan, Australia, Canada  and the U.S.Pakistani officials say screening of travelers landing at national airports has already been tightened and emergency quarantine measures are in place but so far no confirmed coronavirus case has been reported from any part of the country.  Health …

China says it has nearly 10,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. The virus has caused 213 deaths in China where it emerged late last year.The World Health Organization says the  worldwide spread of the virus is  a global health emergency, as well as an “extraordinary event” requiring a coordinated international response.The Trump administration is warning Americans not to travel to China.The State Department issued what it calls a Britain reported its first confirmed cases Friday.  “We can confirm that two patients in England, who are members of the same family, have tested positive for coronavirus,” said Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England.   He said the two are receiving “specialist” care from the country’s National Health Service.   India and Philippines have also confirmed their first cases, joining a growing list that includes Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, The United Arab Emirates and …

The spotlight on brain injuries suffered by American troops in Iraq this month is an example of America’s episodic attention to this invisible war wound, which has affected hundreds of thousands over the past two decades but is not yet fully understood.Unlike physical wounds, such as burns or the loss of limbs, traumatic brain injuries aren’t obvious and can take time to diagnose. The full impact — physically and psychologically — may not be evident for some time, as studies have shown links between TBI and mental health problems. They cannot be dismissed as mere “headaches” — the word used by President Donald Trump as he said the injuries suffered by the troops in Iraq were not necessarily serious.Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a veteran of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, told reporters Thursday that the number of service members diagnosed with TBI from …

For the third time in one week, a World Health Organization Emergency Committee will meet to decide whether the new coronavirus poses a global health threat.  The latest number of confirmed cases has risen to 7,700, including 170 deaths. The two previous emergency meetings ended inconclusively.  WHO experts were split on whether the spread of the coronavirus was large enough to constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.  But this quickly evolving disease may change some of the doubters’ minds.FILE – Tedros Adhanom, WHO director-general meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Jan. 28, 2020.WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praises the strong response taken by the Chinese government to try to stop the epidemic.  This includes the lockdown of Wuhan city, the epicenter of the disease and other cities in the country where the virus has been identified.But …

China counted 170 deaths from a new virus Thursday and more countries reported infections, including some spread locally, as foreign evacuees from China’s worst-hit region returned home to medical observation and even isolation.      India and the Philippines reported their first cases, in a traveler and a student who had both been in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the new type of coronavirus first surfaced in December. South Korea confirmed a case that was locally spread, in a man who had contact with a patient diagnosed earlier.      Locally spread cases outside China have been a worrying concern among global health officials, as potential signs of the virus spreading more easily and the difficulty of containing it. The World Health Organization is reconvening experts on Thursday to assess whether the outbreak should be declared a global emergency.      The new virus has now infected more people …

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg said on Instagram on Wednesday she has applied to register her name and that of the Fridays For Future movement she founded in 2018, which has gone global and catapulted her to international fame.The move would allow legal action against persons or companies trying to use her name or the movement’s which are not in line with its values, she said. “I assure you, I and the other school strikers have absolutely no interests in trademarks. But unfortunately it needs to be done,” she said on the social network. Thunberg said she had also applied to trademark “Skolstrejk for klimatet,” school strike for the climate in Swedish — the wording on the placard she has held since she started her one-person protest outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, for which she missed school. “My name and the #FridaysForFuture movement are constantly being used for commercial purposes …

At Arizona State University, which hosts more than 13,300 international students, people are wearing face masks and petitioning the school to cancel classes after the coronavirus was diagnosed in someone at the university who had recently returned from China.“From stores selling out of surgical masks to students calling for class cancellations, the 2019 novel coronavirus has taken ASU by storm since Sunday’s announcement that a member of the community was infected with the viral illness,” wrote the student newspaper, The State Press.While a planeload of Americans flown from China to the U.S. is being held at a California airbase for three days before they will be allowed to proceed into the country — and advised to stay for 14 to ensure they are not carrying the virus — international students have been flocking back to U.S. universities for the past two weeks with no barrier to entry.WATCH: As Coronavirus Outbreak Expands, …

For the foreign students on lockdown in China where a deadly flulike coronavirus has emerged, days are marked by fear, frustration and boredom.“I wear a mask all the time,” said Redwan Mohamed Nur, an accounting student who told VOA he is one of 14 Somalis at Wuhan University and among 5,000 Africans studying in China. “I [am] so scared that I didn’t dare to open the window because I’m afraid the wind would blow the virus in.”Wuhan is home to dozens of universities and colleges. On Jan. 23, China closed off Wuhan, the center of a deadly outbreak of the coronavirus; 16 cities are locked down, more than 6,000 cases worldwide have been confirmed and at least 132 people are dead.Stuck in his dorm, he said he has left only once, and that was to walk to where school authorities distribute food to foreign students every other day. Elsewhere in China, An …

A massive mobilization is underway in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Officials are racing to build two new medical centers from the ground up in a matter of days. A new coronavirus spreading from the city is flooding the country’s health care system. Hospitals are overcrowded with sick people and those who think they may be infected. The new facilities aim to help carry the load. But experts say China’s health care system faces long-term challenges. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more. …

China has told farmers to step up vegetable production, opened roads for delivery trucks and is punishing those trying to profit in order to keep feeding residents of the locked down city of Wuhan at the center of the new coronavirus outbreak.Authorities cut most transport links to the central Chinese city last week to try to halt the spread of the flu-like virus. Thousands of cases have been reported in China, with a small number in countries including the United States, Thailand and Singapore.The unprecedented move prompted people in the city of 11 million to rush to supermarkets to stock up on instant noodles, vegetables and whatever else they could put their hands on.Residents say there has yet to be an acute shortage of food, although shelves are cleared quickly when goods arrive.Shouguang, the country’s biggest vegetable production base, in the eastern Shandong province, has been asked to deliver 600 …

NASSARAWA, NIGERIA — Nigerian twin girls joined in the chest and abdominal regions are now living virtually normal lives, weeks after being successfully separated at the state-owned National Hospital.  Medical experts say the operation was the most complicated case of conjoined twins separation ever performed in Nigeria.An event in Abuja to announce the successful separation of seventeen-month-old Nigerian twin sisters, Goodness and Mercy, starts on a celebratory note.The mother of the twins, Mariam Martins, was not celebrating when she learned her girls were conjoined.  She said their condition was undetected during pregnancy.”None of the scans showed that they were joined. The doctors didn’t know that they were joined, they only told me that they’re in one place and using one placenta,” she said.After delivery through a cesarean section, the girls were referred to the National Hospital from the medical center here in Nassarawa, where they were born.At the hospital, pediatricians …

Explorers discovered the world’s seventh continent, Antarctica, 200 years ago.  A multinational power grab ensued.  It took until the late 1950s for countries to sign a treaty protecting the frozen landmass, but as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, the pact never envisioned the challenges posed by climate change …

A plane evacuating more than 200 Americans from a Chinese city at the center of a virus outbreak continued Wednesday on to southern California after everyone aboard passed a health screening test in Anchorage, where the aircraft had stopped to refuel.All 201 passengers had already been through two screenings in China and were screened twice more in Anchorage by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One passenger received medical attention for a minor injury that happened before boarding the airplane in China, according to a news release from Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services.A nearly empty lobby at the North Terminal of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, is shown, Jan. 28, 2020.The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, where the latest coronavirus outbreak started, and other U.S. citizens. The plane landed Tuesday night in Anchorage. …

African nations are preparing for what experts believe is the inevitable emergence of cases of coronavirus on the continent. With growing economic ties and increased travel between the African continent and China, health professionals say they must be ready to treat and isolate cases.On Tuesday, Ethiopia announced it had quarantined three Ethiopian students and one Chinese student returning from a university in Wuhan, China. The students were stopped during a screening at the airport when it was discovered they had symptoms including sore throat and a cough.Dr. Munir Kassa, chief of staff for Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, said the country has been determined to stay ahead of the outbreak. Since the beginning of January, the Ethiopian government has communicated with the World Health Organization and the Chinese government for status updates. “We had several meetings and there is also an emergency center [that] has been activated. And so active surveillance and …

An airplane that a federal official said was evacuating as many as 240 Americans from a Chinese city at the center of a virus outbreak has landed in the U.S.The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, where the latest coronavirus outbreak started, and other U.S. citizens. The plane made a refueling stop in Alaska before flying on to Southern California, the U.S. Embassy in China has said.The white cargo plane with red and gold stripes and no passenger windows arrived at the mostly desolate North Terminal just after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, local time.The jetway was extended from the end of the terminal, but it also had no windows. Passengers were not visible.Media were held in a concourse between the airport’s two terminals, about 100 yards (91.4 meters) from the plane. Airport workers buzzed around the plane after it landed.Alaska health officials …

The coronavirus that started in Wuhan, China, last month has spread to more than 18 countries, as governments work to stop it. China has a mixed record on transparency during public crises, but President Xi Jinping, in a meeting with the director of WHO, said his country is ready to work with the organization and international community. This as Washington calls on Beijing to allow more public health experts into China to help halt the spread of the virus. More from VOA’s Mariama Diallo. …

The World Health Organization warns the evacuation of nationals from China to their home countries carries the risk of spreading the deadly coronavirus.  The WHO reports 4,428 cases of the disease in China, including 106 deaths. Another 45 cases are confirmed in 13 countries. WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is wrapping up several days of talks with China’s President Xi Jinping and other high-level officials in Beijing.  They have been discussing measures to protect the health of Chinese citizens and foreigners during the coronavirus outbreak.WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier says officials also have considered possible alternatives to the evacuation of foreigners from China to ensure no infections are imported back to their home countries.  He calls that a real possibility as the incubation period of the coronavirus is between one and 14 days.  That means people can transmit the virus during that period.”There are possibilities that also asymptomatic people, people showing no …