At least five people in Australia have tested positive for the coronavirus.  The latest is a young Chinese student diagnosed in Sydney.  Australia is increasing its border and biosecurity measures. Medical authorities are warning it is likely there will be more confirmed cases in Australia of the potentially deadly coronavirus.  School children in New South Wales state have been told to stay away from class for two weeks if they have been in contact with a confirmed case of the disease.  Symptoms of the virus include fever, difficulty breathing and coughing.Children, wearing face masks, wait for their mother after arriving in Sydney, Jan. 23, 2020, from a flight from Wuhan, China.The coronavirus causes severe respiratory infection and there is no cure or vaccine.  Most of the deaths have been of those with pre-existing respiratory problems, or the elderly.Doctors in Australia are being urged to wear protective face masks when seeing patients …

Thailand has announced the 10th case of the coronavirus as government authorities say the outbreak is still under control. Meanwhile, Asian airlines such as Chinese Eastern Airline are still taking passengers home to China’s epicenter in Wuhan, despite a ban on outgoing flights from the epicenter. Steve Sandford speaks to Asian tourism workers and government officials about the evolving crisis in southern Thailand in the midst of celebrations of the Chinese New Year.  …

The United States, Japan and other countries are sending planes to evacuate their citizens out of the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak that has now killed 106 people.Japan is sending a chartered jet to Wuhan Tuesday to evacuate about 200 of the 650 Japanese nationals in the city.  The United States is preparing to fly staff from its consulate in Wuhan, along with some American citizens, sometime this week.  France and other nations have also announced plans to evacuate their citizens out of Wuhan.  Chinese health authorities announced an additional 25 deaths on Tuesday, including the first fatality reported in the capital city of Beijing.  The total number of confirmed cases in China now stands at well over 4,500.  Authorities have imposed a virtual quarantine on Wuhan, banning people from traveling in and out of the city, while several other cities in Hubei …

When it comes to prostate cancer, African American men have similar survival rates to white counterparts if they have equal access to health care, a new study suggests.Earlier research has found African Americans are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as whites, and the reasons may include diagnosis when the disease is more advanced as well as differences in medical care.But the new study, which followed more than 60,000 men with prostate cancer getting care from the U.S. Veterans Administration Health System, found African American men did not have more advanced disease at diagnosis and did not die earlier than white men, researchers reported in Cancer.”Throughout the U.S. population, African Americans usually have worse outcomes with prostate cancer,” said the study’s senior author Dr. Brent Rose of the University of California, San Diego. “The hypothesis has been that the disease is just biologically more aggressive in African American …

Countries around the world are planning to evacuate diplomatic staff and private citizens from Chinese areas hit by the new coronavirus, which is spreading quickly.Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in the Chinese province of Hubei, is the epicentre of the outbreak. Wuhan is in virtual lockdown and much of Hubei, home to nearly 60 million people, is under some kind of travel curb. Following are some countries’ evacuation plans, and how they are planning to manage the health risk from those who are returning. * France expects to repatriate up to a few hundred of its 800 citizens living in the Wuhan area. Evacuees will have to spend 14 days in quarantine to avoid spreading the virus in France. * Japan is expected to arrange charter flights as early as Tuesday for any of its citizens who wish to return from Wuhan, two sources familiar with the matter …

Countries with citizens in the central Chinese city that’s the epicenter of a viral outbreak are planning evacuations as the number of illnesses grow and China takes drastic measures to try to stop the spread of the virus.A look at steps being taken: — CHINA: The government cut transportation links to and from the city of Wuhan on Jan. 22 and has since expanded those controls to several nearby cities. Anyone traveling from Wuhan is required to register and quarantine themselves for 14 days — the virus’ maximum incubation period. Hong Kong barred entry to travelers from Hubei province and told Hong Kong residents returning from the area to quarantine themselves at home.FILE – Pedestrians wear protective masks in Tokyo, Jan. 16, 2020.— JAPAN: Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said 560 Japanese citizens are confirmed in Hubei and chartered evacuation flights are being prepared to leave “as soon as possible.” The …

An expert in China warns that the new strain of virus originating from the Chinese city of Wuhan could be gaining strength and increasing its ability to transfer from one person to another. The coronavirus that is causing respiratory problems similar to pneumonia has sickened close to 3,000 people worldwide and killed at least 56 in China, prompting governments to come up with measures to protect their citizens. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the city of Wuhan on Monday to meet with health officials and examine the response to the outbreak of a coronavirus that has killed 80 people.Wuhan is the center of the outbreak and people there and in several other cities face strict restrictions on movement as the government tries to prevent the virus from spreading.Officials took an extra step Sunday to extend the Lunar New Year holiday three extra days to cut down on group gatherings.The latest figures reported by Chinese health officials include more than 2,700 cases of people being sickened by the virus.Cases have also been reported in Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Nepal, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.  The World Health Organization says most of those are people who had a travel history in Wuhan, with several others having contact with someone who …

Hundreds of employees are openly criticizing Amazon’s record on climate change despite what they say is a company policy that puts their jobs at risk for speaking out.On Sunday, more than 300 employees of the online retail giant signed their names and job titles to statements on blog post on Medium. The online protest was organized by a group called Amazon Employees For Climate Justice, an advocacy group founded by Amazon workers that earlier this month said the company had sent letters to its members threatening to fire them if they continued to speak to the press.   “It’s our moral responsibility to speak up, and the changes to the communications policy are censoring us from exercising that responsibility,” said Sarah Tracy, a software development engineer at Amazon, in a statement.   Amazon said that its policy on external communications is not new and is in keeping with other large companies. It …

Private American citizens living and working in Wuhan are being warned there will not be room for many of them on an evacuation flight being prepared for U.S. consular staff in the epicenter of the Coronavirus epidemic.”The Department of State is making arrangements to relocate its personnel stationed at the U.S. Consulate General in Wuhan to the United States,” the U.S. Embassy in Beijing wrote on Sunday, adding that the flight will travel directly from Wuhan to San Francisco.”This capacity is extremely limited and if there is insufficient ability to transport everyone who expresses interest, priority will be given to individuals at greater risk from coronavirus,” a statement said.An American citizen teaching at a university in Wuhan, who asked that her name not be used for fear of Chinese retribution, told VOA that neither the consulate nor the U.S. Embassy in Beijing has yet contacted most American citizens in the …

The U.N. refugee agency welcomes a ruling by the U.N. Human Rights Committee this past week that people fleeing climate-related and natural disasters have a valid claim for international protection.The case in question concerns Ioane Teitiota, a man from the Pacific island of Kiribati, whose claim for protection as a climate refugee was denied by New Zealand.  The U.N. Human Rights Committee, which reviewed this case, agrees with that decision on the grounds that he was not at imminent risk.  Nevertheless, the committee says people should not be returned to their place of origin if it is shown that climate change is a threat to their right to life. The U.N. refugee agency hails this a landmark decision.  UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic says the decision has potentially far-reaching implications for the international protection of displaced people affected by climate change and natural disasters.”It underscores the importance of countries taking action …

Algae often gets a bad rap — for creating dead zones in the ocean and toxic pond scum when the “wrong” algae blooms. But algae has a talent people need: as a crop it can provide carbon-neutral fuels, foods and products, even in salty water, even in the desert. To make algae products a reality, scientists at “NREL,” the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado, are unlocking algae’s secrets. Shelley Schlender in Boulder, Colorado, has more. …

Spacewalking astronauts plugged a leak in a cosmic ray detector outside the International Space Station on Saturday, bringing it another step closer to new life. It was the fourth spacewalk since November for NASA’s Andrew Morgan and Italy’s Luca Parmitano to fix the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. They installed new coolant pumps last month to revive the instrument’s crippled cooling system and needed to check for any leaks in the plumbing. Parmitano quickly discovered a leak in one of the eight coolant lines — the first one he tested — and tightened the fitting. Our day just got a little more challenging,” Mission Control observed. The line still leaked after a mandatory one-hour wait, and Parmitano tightened it again. Finally, success — the leak was gone.Let us all take a breath,” Mission Control urged. By then, the astronauts were already halfway into their planned six-hour spacewalk. Mission Control acknowledged the leak added some unwanted drama” …

Southeast Asia’s proximity to China and dependence on that nation for a major share of its economy is raising concerns that the coronavirus outbreak  that started there will not only have health impacts but harm the region’s economies.The outbreak, which has so far caused 41 deaths in China, and caused the country to quarantine 16 cities, is causing comparisons to the 2003 spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which decreased the value of the global economy by $40 billion.“Now that the Wuhan coronavirus has been found to be able to be transmitted from human to human, the economic consequences could be extremely concerning for the Asia-Pacific region,” Rajiv Biswas, IHS Markit Asia Pacific chief economist, said.“Sectors of the economy that are particularly vulnerable to a SARS-like virus epidemic that can be spread by human-to-human transmission are retail stores, restaurants, conferences, sporting events, tourism and commercial aviation,” he said.Observers …

A coronavirus has stopped cold Lunar New Year celebrations for tens of millions of Chinese.China’s National Health Commission says the death toll from the new virus has jumped to 41, with more than 1200 infections in 29 provinces across the country.Fifteen medical workers are among those who have been infected.  One doctor has died.Hundreds of medical personnel have been deployed to Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, where the virus emerged late last year.Wuhan, like 16 other Chinese cities, has been shuttered, in an effort to contain the coronavirus.   The local government of the virus-hit city said Saturday, “Motor vehicles shall be prohibited from driving in the central urban areas.”Beijing’s Forbidden City and Shanghai Disneyland have been closed indefinitely. Popular tourist destination Sanya city in Hainan province has closed all tourist sites to prevent the spread of the virus.Hong Kong has declared a state of emergency, canceling the official Lunar …

China is reporting another 15 deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the toll from the disease to 41, and an additional 180 people sickened in central Hubei province.The new figures, announced by officials in Hubei province, brought the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus to more than 1,000.The development came as France announced three cases of the virus, marking the first confirmed diagnoses in Europe.French health officials said Friday that two of the cases involved patients who had recently traveled from China, while the third person was a relative of one of the initial patients.Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner, Chicago Department of Public Health, speaks at a news conference, Jan. 24, 2020, in Chicago. A Chicago woman has become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with the dangerous new virus from China.Second US caseAlso Friday, U.S. health officials reported a second patient infected with the virus, a woman from Chicago, Illinois, who returned January 13 from Wuhan, …

Afghanistan and Pakistan witnessed a spike in reported polio cases last year, further highlighting what local officials call an imminent threat to the border region …

The World Health Organization says the number of reported cases and deaths from the new coronavirus is probably an underestimation. The latest reports put the number of confirmed cases at 830, including 26 deaths.Most of the infections and all of the deaths have occurred in China. A small number of coronavirus cases have been reported in seven other countries, including the United States. All have been mild, and all of those patients have recovered.World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says it is too early to draw conclusions about the severity of the coronavirus.”Because at the beginning of any outbreak, you would focus more on the severe cases and you will have more of those and then maybe we are missing some mild cases because people will just be a little bit sick and will not be ever tested and they will recover,” Jasarevic said. “We may see more mild cases …

More airports are beginning to screen passengers arriving from China amid growing concerns Friday over the outbreak of a new virus there that has already killed more than two dozen people and sickened hundreds.      The energy-rich Gulf Arab nation of Qatar, home to long-haul carrier Qatar Airways, said it had installed thermal scanners at its main hub, Hamad International Airport.      Kuwait announced similar measures late the night before at Kuwait International Airport, joining the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which on Thursday announced screenings for all passengers arriving on direct flights from China, including at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest.      Kuwait’s state-run news agency said isolation rooms had also been opened at Kuwait International Airport for passengers suspected to have the virus.      Elsewhere in the region, Bahrain said it was taking unspecified steps over the virus.      China has …

The Chinese National Health Commission said Friday that there are 830 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus countrywide, while at least 25 people have died.The Chinese government isolated more cities Friday, an unprecedented move to contain the coronavirus, which has spread to several other countries.In China, at least 10 cities, and at least 33 million people, have been put on lockdown — Wuhan, Huanggang, Ezhou, Chibi, Qianjiang, Zhijiang; Jingmen, Xiantao, Xiaogan and Huangshi — all in central China’s Hubei province, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, when millions of Chinese traditionally travel.Shanghai Disney Resort announced on its website that it is temporarily closing Shanghai Disneyland, a major tourist attraction during Lunar New Year, “in response to the prevention and control of the disease outbreak and in order to ensure the health and safety” of guests and cast.The municipality authorities of Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have …

The Chinese government isolated more cities Friday, an unprecedented move to contain the coronavirus, which has spread to several other countries.At least eight cities, and a total of at least 25 million people, have been put on lockdown — Wuhan, Ezhou, Huanggang, Chibi, Qianjiang, Zhijiang, Jingmen and Xiantao — all in central China’s Hubei province, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, when millions of Chinese traditionally travel.On Thursday authorities first banned planes and trains from leaving the city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated. Toll roads were closed, and ferry, subway and bus services were suspended.A passenger wearing a protective facemask to help stop the spread of a deadly SARS-like virus that originated in the central city of Wuhan waits at Beijing railway station in Beijing, Jan. 24, 2020.Wuhan authorities have demanded that all residents wear masks in public and urged government and private …

The keepers of the Doomsday Clock on Thursday moved the symbolic countdown to global disaster to the closest point to midnight in its 73-year history, citing “existential danger” from nuclear war and climate change.The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was founded after the creation of the atomic bomb in World War II and focuses on the greatest threats to human survival, said it moved the clock from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight — a 20-second advance.The decision was made by the group’s science and security board, in consultations with its board of sponsors, which includes 13 Nobel laureates.In a statement accompanying the clock’s advance, the organization said the nuclear and climate dangers “are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare that undercuts society’s ability to respond.””The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the …

Most U.S. adults report worrying about at least two financial issues, such as being able to afford medical bills, retirement or a child’s college education, new research finds.Individuals with two or more financial worries were far more likely to suffer from serious psychological distress than those who reported fewer money concerns, Dr. Judith Weissman, a mental health researcher at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City, and her colleagues found.Financial distress had a relatively greater effect on mental health in women and Latinos, while less-educated whites reported the most psychological distress.The findings show that “people are feeling very disturbed about financial matters,” Weissman told Reuters Health in a phone interview. “These financial matters are a proxy for our life stability.”Death rates among middle-aged white men and women in the U.S. have been on the rise since about 1999, largely driven by increases in deaths from drug overdoses, …