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As China battles an unprecedented COVID surge, nearly 90% of Henan — the third most populous province — has now been infected with the virus, a top health official said Monday. Kan Quancheng, the director of the health commission for central Henan province, said that as of Jan. 6, the infection rate was 89%. With Henan’s population being about 99.4 million, the data would suggest that 88.5 million residents have now been positive for COVID. Visits to fever clinics hit their peak on Dec. 19 — mere weeks after China began easing its brutal “zero-COVID” policies. After that surge late...

Coronavirus hospitalizations are sharply increasing in a South African province that has been identified as an early hotspot of the omicron variant, raising concerns about the new strain as health officials work to learn more about its transmissibility and severity. The Gauteng province — which includes Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa — has seen hospitalizations spike by almost 400 percent since the beginning of November, according to NBC News. During the week ending Nov. 6, hospitalizations in the province rose from 120 to 580, according to data from South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), cited by...

The Afrin Liberation Congress, held under Turkey's auspices following the capture of the region of Afrin in Syria by Turkish and Free Syrian Army forces, has announced that the region will be governed as part of the Turkish province of Antakya, independent news site T24 said. The region will also establish a 450-person police force, the congress decided, and a governor and local governor will be appointed by Turkey’s central government. Around 100 individuals from the region took part in the congress in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, and elected a 35-person assembly made up of 24 Kurds, eight Arabs, one...

The announcement of a tripartite alliance "Yezidi, Assyrian, Turkoman" demands a special province for minorities in Iraq Twilight News / announced Aesideon and Assyrians and Turkmen in Iraq on Sunday for a tripartite alliance combines minorities within Iraq Resume management linked to the federal government in Baghdad. Under the slogan "a sure guarantee for the stability of minorities in Iraq Mesopotamia region," "Top Yezidi Council and independent organization enforcement Turkmens and the Organization of Mesopotamia" announced "tri-national alliance combines minorities", and demanded the coalition "province of Mesopotamia, which will include three provinces, namely, (Sinjar and Tal Afar and Nineveh Plain)...

The Quebec province in Canada has adopted a new Charter of Quebec Values, prohibiting skullcaps and other religious garments to be worn during public service. According to the charter, employees in the public service system -including doctors, nurses, teachers, and government officials – will not be allowed to wear any religious symbols or garments while working, including a Star of David, cross, kippot, burqa or turban. According to Ynet, leaders in the Jewish community, including Lawyer and Political advisor Eric Maldoff who lead the delegation and Jewish Federation president David Cape, met with Bernard Dranville, the Canadian minister responsible for...

One of the three convicted murderers who escaped from an Arizona prison has been linked to the deaths of a couple found in a burned-out camper, police said. Forensic evidence links John McCluskey to the crime scene where two bodies were found in a camper near Santa Rosa, N.M., Arizona State Police Maj. Robert Shilling said, KOB-TV, Albuquerque, N.M., reported. McCluskey escaped July 30 from the Arizona State Prison near Kingman with fellow inmates Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick, who was caught in Colorado after a police chase and shootout. McCluskey's mother, Claudia Washburn, 68, was arrested Saturday at the...

HIS has been one of the deadliest weeks on record for coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan. Two Australian soldiers were killed in Tarin Kowt on Monday; seven US soldiers and one contractor were also killed. Two more US Marines died the following day in Southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province, when seven Marines were brought down by an IED blast. Two of those casualties were later confirmed to be the result of ''angels'' - the call sign for friendly KIA (Killed In Action) incidents. The remains of one of the dead Marines were unable to be located. It is assumed that he...

BAGHDAD, Sept. 15 (VOI) – The official spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense (MOD) on Monday said that Iraq's security forces will receive the two security folders of Babel and Wassit provinces from the Multi National Forces (MNF) during the coming two weeks. "Preparations are underway to receive the security folders of Babel (100 km south of Baghdad) and Wassit (180 km southeast of Baghdad) during the coming two weeks or on early October," Staff General Mohammed al-Askari told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI). "Receiving the security folders of those two provinces will be through official...

Bolivia's richest province votes for autonomy By Jeremy McDermott, Latin America Correspondent Last Updated: 4:55PM BST 05/05/2008 South America's poorest nation is threatened with partition after the country's richest province voted for autonomy, threatening the rule of President Evo Morales, the first indigenous Indian president and close ally of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Residents of Santa Cruz province celebrate the referendum result In the rich eastern province Santa Cruz, 86 per cent of voters opted for greater autonomy, with another three provinces preparing their own votes next month. Between them the four provinces account for 80 per cent of Bolivia's...

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Kosovo's independence will strengthen a bid by the Armenian-backed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh to be recognized as a state, Armenia's prime minister Serzh Sarksyan told Reuters in an interview. Sarksyan drew a link between the Serbian province which will declare independence on Sunday and Nagorno-Karabakh, where ethnic Armenian separatists broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s but have failed to win international recognition. "We are getting a rather favorable position," said Sarksyan, front-runner in the February 19 Armenian presidential election. "Recognition of Kosovo's independence can be welcomed by us. "If countries recognize the independence...

MOSUL, Iraq - Competent Iraqi security forces and a deluge of tips from residents have helped U.S. troops tamp down violence in northern Iraq despite an influx of al-Qaida fighters responsible for occasional spectacular attacks, U.S. officials say. But American commanders believe the key to lasting peace is to resolve the region's most vexing political problem — Kurds hold too much power in the local government at the expense of Sunni Arabs. The situation here is somewhat similar to that in Baghdad, where U.S. troops have managed to reduce violence but politicians have failed to reach agreements for long-term stability....

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2007 – The Marine Corps’ top officer said yesterday he is “heartily encouraged” by the progress Iraqi and coalition forces are making in Iraq’s Anbar province. “We have seen large numbers of Sunni tribesmen, at the encouragement of their sheikhs and their imams, come forward to join the Iraqi security forces,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway told an audience at the National Press Club here. “We see that as a very positive thing.” The general said the past six months have seen a 60 percent decline in attacks, a 400 percent increase in enemy weapons...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2007 – The security situation in Anbar province has greatly improved in recent months, thanks to additional U.S. troops provided by the surge and the growing presence of trained and vetted Iraqi soldiers and police, a senior U.S. military officer said today. (Video) Statistics show that daily insurgent-generated violence, as measured by small-arms, mortar and improvised-explosive-device attacks, has decreased in Anbar since this time last year, Marine Maj. Gen. Walter E. Gaskin, commanding general of Multinational Force West, told Pentagon reporters during a satellite-carried news conference. “I can report that the future of the province looks...

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2007 – Changes in Iraq’s Anbar province and the failure of the Taliban spring offensive in Afghanistan are good signs, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during an interview today on his way home from Iraq and Afghanistan. During his flight home, Marine Gen. Peter Pace spoke about his trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq he took part in a series of meetings with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, the commander of U.S. Central Command; Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq; and Army...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2007 – Notwithstanding a March 27 terrorist attack that killed and injured scores of Iraqis in Tal Afar, Iraq, coalition officials have recommended that Ninewah province be transferred to Iraqi control next month, a top coalition officer in the province said today. Army Brig. Gen. John Bednarak, deputy commander of Multinational Division North, told reporters via satellite that the Tal Afar tragedy must be balanced with the progress that has taken place in the province as a whole. Tal Afar is due west of the provincial capital of Mosul on one of the main roads into...

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2007 – Over the last year, coalition forces have laid the foundation for stability and provincial Iraqi control in Anbar province, the commander of Multinational Force West said today. “Our strategy of clear, hold and build, combined with an energized governmental and tribal engagement, is beginning to bear fruit,” Marine Maj. Gen. Walt Gaskin told reporters at the Pentagon via satellite. Progress is evident in the region’s increased Iraqi security forces recruiting figures, decreased number of attacks, and in the upswing in economic commerce, he said. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s benchmark visit to the region, Gaskin...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18, 2006 – A joint Afghan National Army and coalition patrol struck an improvised explosive device and was subsequently engaged by extremists with small-arms and rocket-propelled-grenade fire in the Waza Khwa district of Afghanistan’s Paktika province yesterday, military officials reported. One Afghan soldier was killed, and one coalition vehicle was damaged in the attack. The extremists fled the area in two trucks identified by coalition ground forces, and this information was relayed to coalition aircraft overhead. The fleeing trucks were traveling off-road in an attempt to avoid detection. Overhead aircraft observed 10 to 15 people and heavy weapons...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (NNS) -- The Army Corps of Engineers (ACoE) has been augmented this summer by some senior enlisted Navy leaders who volunteered as individual augmentees to help rebuild cities within the Al-Anbar Province in western Iraq. Chief Aviation Boatswain's Mate (Handler) (AW/SW) Michael Yule, who three months ago was teaching at the Center for Navy Leadership in Little Creek, Va., has now found himself playing a vital role in the rebuilding of the provincial cities of Al-Asaad, Ramadi and Fallujah. "Right now, we're rebuilding more than 50 houses in Fallujah," said Yule, a native of Pittsburgh. "We're also...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq, Aug. 13, 2006 – The Iraqi people must step forward and accept their freely elected government if there is to be peace in the country’s troubled Anbar province, the coalition’s commander in the region said here today. Marine Maj. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer met with reporters traveling with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace. Zilmer said relations between the coalition and the province’s population, as well as the security climate in former hot spots such as Fallujah and Qaim, have improved. But though these “atmospherics” have changed for the better, big problems do remain,...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2006 – Large-scale sectarian violence as displayed by Sunnis and Shiites in Baghdad has seemingly bypassed Nineveh province in northern Iraq, a U.S. military commander told Pentagon reporters today. "We have been fortunate in that we've not seen that level of sectarian violence in Nineveh province," said Col. Michael Shields, commander of the U.S. Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. Shields gives credit for this positive state of affairs to the efforts of Gov. Duraid Mohammed Daud Abbodi Kashmoula and the senior Iraqi military and police officials serving in the province. "They have great outreach to...