SEOUL, September 21 (Reuters): Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has expressed hopes for improved relations in a letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Moon's office said on Monday, amid strained ties over history and trade. Feuds dating back to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea continue to dog bilateral relations, including the issues of Korean labourers forced to work at Japanese firms and women at military brothels during World War II.

SYDNEY, September 21 (Reuters): Marine biologists were planning the rescue of around 270 whales stranded on a sandbar off the remote west coast of the Australian island of Tasmania on Monday. Government scientists said it appeared that at least 25 of the animals, believed to be pilot whales, had already died. Pilot whales are a species of oceanic dolphin that grows 7 metres (23 ft) long and can weigh up to 3 tonnes. "While strandings are not uncommon in Tasmania, and wh

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK, September 21 (Reuters): Anthony and Rosemary Terio, married for 65 years, died five days apart in separate New York hospitals last spring, two lives among the nearly 200,000 that the United States has now lost to the coronavirus pandemic. "This pain will never go away for me," said one of their daughters, Lisa Terio-Heath, who, because of the pandemic, had to remain at her home in Greensboro, North Carolina, and witness her family's loss from

Washington, September 21 (IANS): The overall number of global coronavirus cases was nearing the 31 million mark, while the deaths have increased to almost 960,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University. As of Monday morning, the total number of cases stood at 30,918,269 and the fatalities rose to 959,332, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update. The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of

Tokyo, September 21 (IANS): Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga held his first phone talks with US President Donald Trump since he took office last week, during which the two leaders agreed to further strengthen the security alliance between the two countries. During the phone call on Sunday night that lasted about 20 minutes, Suga and Trump also discussed the situation in North Korea as well as the response to the coronavirus pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency. Addre

MADRID, September 20 (Reuters): Protesters in some poorer areas of Madrid that are facing lockdown to stem a soaring COVID-19 infection rate took to the streets on Sunday to call for better health provisions, complaining of discrimination by the authorities. Madrid's regional government on Friday ordered a lockdown from Monday in some of the poorer areas of the city and its outskirts that are home to about 850,000 people after a surge in coronavirus cases there. The

UNITED NATIONS, SEPTEMBER 20 (IANS): Ahead of the high-level meetings of the UN scheduled for Monday, the international community expects world leaders to make collective efforts to address global challenges. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the UN which finds itself standing at another juncture in human history given rising unilateralism and protectionism, reports Xinhua news agency. "As we mark the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations, it is clear that the world h

Reuters The United States set a one-day record with over 1 million coronavirus diagnostic tests being performed, but the country needs 6 million to 10 million a day to bring outbreaks under control, according to various experts. The country performed 1,061,411 tests on Saturday, according to data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak. The record comes after testing has fallen for several weeks. The United States tested on average 650,000

TOKYO, September 20 (Reuters): Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed the importance of their countries' alliance in phone talks on Sunday, their first since Suga took over as Japan's new leader. Suga said Trump told him they should further develop the Japan-U.S. alliance together, while Suga told Trump the alliance was the foundation of regional peace and stability. Suga, speaking to reporters, also said they agreed to coord

YANGON, September 20 (Reuters): Myanmar announced a stay-at-home order for its biggest city Yangon after reporting a record daily increase in new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday. The order in Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital, comes into effect on Monday and will force all employees to work from home. Schools were already closed under previous lockdown measures. The health ministry said on Sunday it had recorded 671 new coronavirus cases, without saying where. Most of the

NINGBO, China, September 20 (Reuters): Authorities in China's northeastern Jilin province have found the novel coronavirus on the packaging of imported squid, health authorities in the city of Fuyu said on Sunday, urging anyone who may have bought it to get themselves tested. One of the packages had arrived in the city via the provincial capital Changchun, Fuyu city's health office said on its official WeChat account on Sunday. It asked people who had bought and eate

DUBAI, September 20 (Reuters): The United States faces defeat in its move to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday, as Washington declared all U.N. sanctions on Iran had been restored. "America is approaching a certain defeat in its sanctions move ... It faced defeat and negative response from the international community," Rouhani said in a televised speech. "We will never yield to U.S. pressure and Iran will give a

ISTANBUL, September 20 (Reuters): Turkey and Greece could soon resume talks over their contested Mediterranean claims but European Union leaders meeting this week will not help if they threaten sanctions, Turkey's presidential spokesman said on Sunday. The NATO members and neighbours have been locked in a bitter dispute over the extent of their continental shelves in the eastern Mediterranean. Tensions flared last month when Turkey sent a vessel to survey for gas and oil in

WASHINGTON, SEPTEMBER 20 (IANS): A package containing ricin poison that was addressed to US President Donald Trump has been intercepted before it reached the White House, officials told American media outlets. The letter was discovered at a screening facility for White House mail earlier this week, the BBC quoted the officials as saying to the outlets on Saturday. They said a substance found inside the envelope was identified as ricin, a poison found naturally in castor beans.

BEIRUT, September 20 (Reuters): Lebanon's top Christian cleric took a swipe at leaders of the Shi'ite Muslim community on Sunday for making demands he said were blocking the formation of a new government and causing political paralysis in a nation in deep crisis. Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, leader of the Maronite church, did not mention Shi'ites directly but asked how one sect can demand "a certain ministry". Shi'ite politicians have said they mu

ROME, September 20 (Reuters): Italians began voting on Sunday in a raft of local ballots and a referendum, with the ruling coalition under pressure in its first electoral test since the coronavirus crisis. Voters have largely approved of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's handling of the pandemic, but recent opinion polls suggest this will not help his coalition allies in the vote for the heads of seven regions and mayors in almost 1,000 towns. The rightist opposition,

BRASILIA, September 20 (Reuters): Brazil's former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, barred from elected office due to corruption convictions, said he is open to backing any candidate who can beat far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections. "I am prepared to support any candidate who is committed to the working people of Brazil and against Bolsonaro," Lula told Reuters on Friday in an interview via video conference. Whether or not he him

Tokyo, Septeber 20 (IANS): Sony has apologised for PS5 pre-orders being a bit of a mess which caused many gamers to miss out on securing a console. The company has promised that the PS5 console stocks will soon be restored in the coming days. Furthermore, they said that there will be more PS5 consoles available through the end of the year. "Let's be honest: PS5 preorders could have been a lot smoother. We truly apologise for that. Over the next few days, we will release

Washington, September 20 (IANS): A package containing ricin poison that was addressed to US President Donald Trump has been intercepted before it reached the White House, officials told American media outlets. The letter was discovered at a screening facility for White House mail earlier this week, the BBC quoted the officials as saying to the outlets on Saturday. They said a substance found inside the envelope was identified as ricin, a poison found naturally in castor beans.

ATHENS, September 20 (Reuters): Three people have died after Cyclone Ianos, a rare storm known as a medicane, battered Greece, flooding streets and homes, Greek authorities said on Sunday. Ianos uprooted trees and caused power cuts on the Ionian islands and the western Peloponnese. It swept through central Greece on Saturday, hitting the cities of Karditsa and Farsala before it moved south to the island of Crete. The body of a man was found under the collapsed roof of his ho