The US stood Sunday at the brink of a once-unthinkable tally: 500,000 people lost to the coronavirus. A year into the pandemic, the running total of lives lost was about 498,000 -- roughly the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure compiled by Johns Hopkins University surpasses the number of people who died in 2019 of chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumonia combined. “It’s nothing like we ha

　Serious pollution caused around 160,000 premature deaths in the world’s five most populous cities last year, even as air quality improved in some places due to coronavirus lockdowns, an environmental group said. 　The worst-affected was New Delhi, the most polluted capital on Earth, where around 54,000 deaths are estimated to have occurred due to hazardous PM 2.5 airborne particles, according to a report from Greenpeace Southeast Asia. 　In Tokyo, the figure was 40,000, with the rest

MANDALAY (AP) -- Two anti-coup protesters were shot dead by riot police who fired live rounds Saturday in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, local media reported. One of the victims was shot in the head and died at the scene, according to Frontier Myanmar, a news and business magazine based in Yangon, the country’s largest city. Another was shot in the chest and died en route to the hospital. Several other serious injuries were also reported. The shootings occurred near

LONDON (AFP) -- Britain’s Prince Harry will relinquish his honorary military appointments and patronages after confirming to Queen Elizabeth II that he and wife Meghan Markle will not return as working royals, Buckingham Palace announced Friday. “The Queen has written confirming that in stepping away from the work of The Royal Family it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service,” it said. “The honorary mili

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- The first dose of the Pfizer vaccination is 85 percent effective against coronavirus infection between two and four weeks after inoculation, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal. 　The survey was carried out on healthcare workers at the largest hospital in Israel, which on December 19 launched a mass vaccination campaign regarded as the world‘s fastest. 　Israeli studies have found the Pfizer vaccine to be 95 percent effective one week after a se

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) -- Prices of popular gadgets such as PlayStations and iPhones could rise because of microchip shortages caused by a "perfect storm" of coronavirus-driven demand, supply chain disruptions and trade war stockpiling, experts warn. In the months after the pandemic hit, people stuck at home went on a spending spree to buy items including extra monitors, new computers and tablets -- each of which runs on all-important chips. Compounding the crisis are US-China tensi

For Masayoshi Son, these days are even better than the dot-com bubble. Shares in the Japanese billionaire’s SoftBank Group surged in Tokyo on Tuesday to the highest close since the company went public in 1994, rising past a long-standing record two decades ago. The shares rose 4.2 percent to finish at 10,420 yen, surpassing its previous record of 10,111.09 yen marked on Feb. 18, 2000. SoftBank’s share price increases have been backed by a surging stock market which lifted

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday of inciting the horrific attack on the US Capitol, concluding a historic impeachment trial that spared him the first-ever conviction of a current or former US president but exposed the fragility of America's democratic traditions and left a divided nation to come to terms with the violence sparked by his defeated presidency. Barely a month since the deadly Jan. 6 riot that stunned the world, the Senate convened for a rare weekend session to

His rallying cry to supporters has been dissected. His videos, press conferences and calls to Fox News have played on loop. His Twitter account is once again dominating news coverage, his missives read aloud in the Senate chamber. More than three weeks removed from the White House, Donald Trump’s voice is again permeating the nation’s capital — but not on his terms. Stripped of his social media megaphone, the former president has watched the searing opening days of his hist

Pressure is coming from all sides in Japan for Yoshiro Mori to step down as the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday held his first call as president with Xi Jinping, pressing the Chinese leader about trade and Beijing's crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong as well as other human rights concerns. The two leaders spoke just hours after Biden announced plans for a Pentagon task force to review US national security strategy in China and after the new US president announced he was levying sanctions against Myanmar's military regime  following this month's coup i

A World Health Organization team has left China after gaining some new insights into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 2.3 million people but with the major questions still unanswered. The visit was politically sensitive for China which is concerned about any allegations it didn't handle the initial outbreak properly and has been closely watched around the world. Team member Peter Daszak sounded upbeat on arriving at the airport Wednesday at the end of the four-