COLOMBO -- China has taken swift and decisive measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, and the country's "herculean" efforts should be highly commended, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka D.E.W. Gunasekara has said.
"Within a short period since the start of the outbreak, the infection rate and death rate are both coming down. In that context, this is an achievement," the 84-year-old party leader told Xinhua recently.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- The novel coronavirus "occurred naturally from animals to people" rather than being "made in some biological weapon research," said Arthur Reingold, a leading U.S. epidemiologist at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), refuting a conspiracy theory on the origin of the virus to support Chinese health professionals.
"I reject that theory out of hand. Based on what we know, it's more likely it's something that originated in animal and then made it into people, just like the case of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome)," Reingold said in a recent interview.
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RIYADH -- International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said here on Saturday that she expects China's economy to "return to normal in the second quarter" of 2020.
"The Chinese authorities are working to mitigate the negative impact (of COVID-19) on the economy," Georgieva said, adding that she "had an excellent discussion" with Chinese senior officials.
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ANKARA -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday evening said the Turkish military had "martyrs" in Libya, while Turkish-backed forces killed 100 "rival fighters" in the country.
"Of course we have a few martyrs," Erdogan said speaking in western Izmir province. Enditem
