MANILA, Feb 13 (NNN-ABN) – Spokesman of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said, Manila’s move to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States “is in the right direction.”
From the point of view of the Philippines, presidential spokesman, Salvador Panelo, said, the decision to terminate the VFA “is a move in the right direction that should have been done a long time ago.”
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, said on Thursday it would extend a work suspension and asked all enterprises not to reopen before the end of Feb. 20.
The local government made the announcement in a statement on its website.
SEOUL (Reuters) - Oil prices were mixed on Thursday as concerns about falling demand caused by travel restrictions tied to the coronavirus outbreak in China, the world’s biggest oil importer, outweighed expectations of supply cuts from major producers.
Brent crude LCOc1 fell 6 cents, or 0.1%, to $55.73 per barrel at 0735 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 was up 5 cents, or 0.1%, to $51.22 a barrel. Brent rose 3.2% on Wednesday while WTI gained 2.5% as a slowdown in new Chinese coronavirus cases boosted expectations of a demand recovery.
JAKARTA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The most active volcano, Mount Merapi, in Indonesian Java Island, erupted on Thursday morning, and a warning over the risks of hot clouds and volcanic materials was issued, the volcanology agency said.
The 2,930-meter-high volcano spewed a column of ash by up to 2,000 meters to the sky, the agency said.
Mount Merapi is located about 28 kilometers north of Indonesia's province of Yogyakarta which has a 2.4 million population, and thousands of people living on the flanks of the volcano.
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (AP) — A cruise ship turned away by other Asian and Pacific governments due to virus fears anchored Thursday off Cambodia, which is checking the health of its 2,200 passengers and crew.
The Westerdam was unwelcome elsewhere even though operator Holland America Line said no cases of the COVID-19 viral illness have been confirmed among the 1,455 passengers and 802 crew members on board.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday replaced its top officials in central Hubei province and its capital, Wuhan, the epicenter of a viral outbreak that has infected more than 45,000 people worldwide.
Former Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong succeeds Jiang Chaoliang as the ruling Communist Party’s chief in the beleaguered province, the Xinhua state news agency reported, while Wang Zhonglin will take over from Ma Guoqiang as the party secretary in Wuhan.
12 February 2020; AFP: The OPEC oil cartel on Wednesday lowered its forecast for growth in global oil demand this year by nearly a fifth due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
In its monthly report on the world's oil market, OPEC said it now expects growth in global oil demand of 0.99 million barrels per day (mbd) this year, down from the 1.22 mbd forecast last month.
NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand (Reuters) - A Thai soldier’s killing of 29 people in a rage over a housing deal involving his superior officer has brought attention to the business dealings of army personnel in a country that just emerged from direct military rule.
Thailand’s army chief has promised to investigate and also acknowledged a wider problem of inappropriate business deals involving army officers and their subordinates, vowing to root out the practise.
TASHKENT (Reuters) - Uzbekistan is sending 40 tonnes of protective suits, masks and gloves to virus-hit China, the Central Asian nation’s government said on Wednesday, as a fully loaded military cargo plane departed Tashkent.
Uzbekistan’s government has stopped all regular flights to China, its major trade partner and investor, due to an outbreak of a new coronavirus, which emerged there late last year. Chinese authorities have reported shortages of protective medical equipment.
WUHAN, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The inflection point is still undetermined amid the current novel coronavirus outbreak, said renowned Chinese respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan Tuesday on a remote video conference.
Zhong added that the peak should appear in mid-to-late February.
"The problem of human-to-human transmission has still not been solved in Wuhan," he said.
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