Global English news

Confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in Panama reached 22,597 on Wednesday, up 635 from the previous day, and deaths climbed by 13 to 470, the health ministry said. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2UTMl0K

Peru topped 240,000 total cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, surpassing hard-hit Italy, government data showed, even as the pace of infections has begun to moderate in the South American nation. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2YGf5eu

The U.S. government on Wednesday issued a warning about the threat posed by pirates to boats and oil installations in the southern Gulf of Mexico, in the latest sign of concern about ongoing security challenges facing Mexico. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3fLM6gr

The Canadian province of Alberta will study replacing the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) with a provincial plan and establishing a provincial police force, Premier Jason Kenney said on Wednesday after a panel recommended the ideas. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/30Sqt9Z

The Eiffel Tower is preparing to welcome back visitors after the COVID-19 lockdown, but they will need to be fit: because of lingering concerns about infection, the elevators will initially be off-limits. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2UXLMTM

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ramped up verbal attacks on Spain's Iberdrola on Wednesday, accusing the power generation company of mounting a media campaign against his government as well as unspecified acts of graft. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3diOQjL

Authorities in Democratic Republic of Congo's southeastern mining heartland announced temporary lockdowns on Tuesday in an effort to widen coronavirus testing and prevent a worrying situation from worsening, governors said. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3fwRvaR

Turkey's Defence Ministry said its warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq's Haftanin region on Wednesday, the second such operation launched against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in recent days. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2zHJhNY

North Korea said on Wednesday it had rejected South Korea's offer to send special envoys to ease escalating bilateral tensions, and vowed to redeploy troops to demilitarised border units in the latest step towards nullifying inter-Korean peace accords. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/30NSKOT

Some villagers in the eastern Amazon are spurning Brazilian government advice to take the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to keep the novel coronavirus at bay and are drinking tea of jambú, also known as the toothache plant. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3fz4FnY

Seven years ago, Dharamveer Solanki, a Hindu, left his home in Pakistan’s Hyderabad city, never to return. When his train crossed the border into India, Solanki said he felt happier than ever before. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3e8rrCP

Brazil's top court on Tuesday granted police permission to inspect financial and phone records of federal lawmakers allied with President Jair Bolsonaro as part of a probe into anti-democratic rallies, a source with direct knowledge of the ruling said. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/3e3ZLyN

The United States and China will each allow four weekly flights between the two countries, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Monday, easing a standoff on travel restrictions in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/37uQIEG