World must prepare for potential COVID-19 pandemic says WHO
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom on Monday told countries to brace for a ‘potential pandemic’ of COVID-19.
China
Millions of Chinese Firms Face Collapse If Banks Don’t Act
With much of China’s economy still idled as authorities try to contain an epidemic that has infected more than 75,000 people, millions of companies across the country are in a race against the clock to stay afloat.
Italy towns close down amid virus case clusters, 2 deaths
A dozen towns in northern Italy effectively went into lockdown Saturday after the deaths of two people infected with the new virus from China and a growing cluster of cases with no direct links to the origin of the outbreak abroad.
Anti-Christian communist hardliner takes new oversight role for Hong Kong
Xia Baolong, former deputy and adviser to Xi Xinping and a hardliner against underground churches in China, has just been appointed the new director of the Hong Kong and Macau affairs office.
South Korean and Iran report first deaths from coronavirus
South Korea reported its first death from the COVID-19 virus, formerly known as coronavirus, on Thursday, a day after two people died in Iran from having contracted the Chinese virus.
Israelis who violate coronavirus self-quarantine could face 7-year prison term
Israelis caught violating a mandatory home quarantine for travelers who have recently visited East Asia could face a prison sentence of up to seven years, the Health Ministry warned Thursday.
Most evangelical Christians live outside of North America and Europe, researcher says
Evangelical Christians make up a huge swath of the world’s population. But most of them reside in Asia, Africa, and Latin America — not in North America, a new study has found.
China Appoints Hardliner Known for Crackdown Against Churches to Oversight Role in Hong Kong
Xia Baolong, a former deputy and ally of President Xi Jinping, has been appointed by the Chinese government as the new director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. It’s a move seen by some political analysts that Beijing intends to tighten its control over the city.
Fed calls coronavirus ‘a new risk to the global growth outlook’
The Federal Reserve considers its current policy stance as appropriate ‘for a time’ despite the coronavirus outbreak presenting a new threat to the global economy, minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting held in January revealed on Wednesday.
Christian workers in China witness “holy moment” as North Korean is baptized
A North Korean believer who escaped the hermit kingdom two years ago was recently baptized in the name of Jesus across the border in China, in a secret ceremony onlookers described as a ‘holy moment.’
Locust plague begins to spread from Africa to Middle East and Asia
Locusts swarming across eastern Africa have now made their way out of the continent, into the Middle East, and as far as India, Pakistan, and China, though authorities in east Asia say they are not yet worried about the locusts coming further inland.
Chinese Christians in Wuhan grapple with COVID-19 virus through repentance, exhortation
Christians in Wuhan, China are attempting to grapple with the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, which has forced believers to meet online due to government regulations forbidding physical meetings.
China’s Hurting Banks Brace for Worst-Case Economic Scenario
The impact of the spreading coronavirus risks bringing to life the worst-case economic scenarios contained in China’s annual banking stress tests. Last year’s exercise envisaged annual economic growth slowing to as low as 4.15% — a scenario which showed that the bad loan ratio at the nation’s 30 biggest banks would rise five-fold. Analysts now say that the outbreak could send first-quarter growth to as little as 3.8%.
‘Pirated Bibles’ now the object of raids in China
Bibles have become a target of government raids in China, where the communist regime is now attempting to eliminate all ‘pornography and illegal publications,’ forcing some believers to consider hiding stashes of Bibles in the mountains.
China coronavirus cases pass 70,000 as WHO mission gets underway
The number of deaths from the coronavirus in China rose to more than 1,700 on Monday as international experts began a joint mission with their Chinese counterparts to tackle the epidemic.
China Still Not Sharing Coronavirus Information, Experts Say
Six weeks after announcing the appearance of a new, highly contagious and sometimes lethal virus, experts say China is still not sharing important data that could help contain the epidemic.
China’s online censors tighten grip after brief coronavirus respite
While censorship in China has tightened under President Xi Jinping, questions of transparency around the current outbreak are especially sensitive after Beijing’s cover-up of the extent of the 2003 SARS epidemic fuelled suspicion and mistrust, and led to official calls for openness this time around.
Health expert: Coronavirus could establish ‘foothold’ in US
An American health expert is warning that the Chinese Coronavirus could soon ‘take a foothold in the US,’ where so far only 13 cases of the virus have been identified.
Coronavirus cases rise sharply as 242 people die in a single day
More than 14,800 new cases of the coronavirus have been reported in China’s Hubei province – the epicenter of the outbreak.
Believers in Wuhan brave coronavirus to share the gospel
Christians in China are sharing their faith by risking death to give out protective facemasks to the citizens of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 900 people so far and of which there are now more than 40,000 confirmed cases.