SAN FRANCISCO -- Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush's son, Neil Bush, pledged Thursday to carry out his father's legacy to take the China-U.S. friendship to a new stage.
"I have a real passion (for US-China relations), as my father did for U.S.-China relations during his entire life," said Bush, founder and chairman of the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, during an event in the Bay Area that launched an initiative to call for international efforts to battle the COVID-19 epidemic.
"I'm a huge advocate, as my father was, of closer ties between the United States and China, and of more respectful ties including better understanding," he said.
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GENEVA -- The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday that the world is at a "decisive point" to tackle the coronavirus outbreak as new cases outside China has outnumbered that inside the country.
"We are at a decisive point," said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a daily briefing. "For the past two days, the number of new cases reported in the rest of the world has exceeded the number of new cases in China."
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UNITED NATIONS -- The Syrian government bears the primary responsibility for improving the humanitarian situation in Syria, a Chinese envoy said Thursday.
"The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other humanitarian agencies should strengthen coordination and cooperation with the Syrian government, abide by the UN Charter and the principles of humanitarian neutrality, impartiality and independence, and fully respect Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, told the Security Council.
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BISSAU -- Guinea-Bissau's president-elect Umaro Sissoco Embalo was sworn in on Thursday by the first Vice President of the National People's Assembly Nuno Gomes Na Biam.
"My presidency will fight against all the bads that affect the country," Embalo said in his inaugural speech, listing fights against corruption, drug trafficking and nepotism as his main challenges and promising to promote "national reconciliation." Enditem
