Following the successful return of moon rocks by its Chang'e 5 robotic probe, China is preparing for future missions that could set the stage for an eventual lunar base to host human explorers, a top space program official said Thursday. China's next three lunar missions are on track, along with programs for returning samples from Mars and exploring asteroids and the planet Jupiter, Deputy Chief...

French President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for COVID-19 Thursday, following a week when he has met with numerous European leaders. The French and Spanish prime ministers are among those self-isolating because they had recent contact with him. Macron took a test "as soon as the first symptoms appeared" and will self-isolate for seven days, the presidency said in a brief statement. It did no...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- Violence at a Wistron Corpfactory in southern India is likely to stall the company's and its client Apple Inc's drive to expand local manufacturing, while forcing the government to redouble efforts to encourage foreign investors. Thousands of contract workers angry over the alleged non-payment of wages, destroyed equipment and vehicles at a Wistron plant in southern India ...

BERLIN (AFP) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday demanded tougher curbs to bring down coronavirus infections, as the German death toll reached a daily record of nearly 600 people. Germany has ordered far less stringent shutdown rules than other major European nations after coming through the first wave of the pandemic relatively unscathed. But Europe's biggest economy has been severely hit...

PARIS (AFP) -- Earth remains on course to warm more than 3 degrees Celsius by the century's end despite a dip in greenhouse gas emissions due to the pandemic and pledges to curb pollution, the UN said Wednesday. In its annual assessment of emissions levels, the UN's Environment Programme found that 2020's 7-percent fall in carbon pollution would have "negligible impact" on warming without a broa...

Citigroup Inc. appointed Elissar Farah Antonios as the first woman to run its Middle East & North Africa operations, among the US bank’s fastest-growing businesses in emerging markets. Antonios will continue to report to Atiq Rehman, who runs the bank’s Europe, Middle East & Africa emerging markets business, and will join the EMEA operating committee. She has been in charge of Citigroup’s operat...

Japan space agency officials on Sunday hailed the arrival of rare asteroid samples on Earth after they were collected by space probe Hayabusa-2 during an unprecedented mission. In a streak of light across the night sky, a capsule containing the precious specimens taken from a distant asteroid arrived on Earth after being dropped off by the probe. Scientists hope the samples, which are expected ...

Police arrested 95 people during protests across France against a planned security law, and 67 officers were injured during the demonstrations, Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin said Sunday. In Paris, the site of the worst violence, 48 police officers or gendarmes were injured during Saturday's street clashes, the interior ministry said on Twitter. A firefighter was also injured in the capital ...

Singapore said it will keep searching for possibilities of travel bubbles with other regions even after an arrangement with Hong Kong suffered a setback, the Straits Times reported. Potential partners could be the countries where the city-state has already opened its borders to, the paper said, citing Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung. Singapore currently allows short-term visitors from Australia,...

Provincial governments across China are placing orders for experimental, domestically made coronavirus vaccines, though health officials have yet to say how well they work or how they may reach the country's 1.4 billion people. Developers are speeding up final testing, the Chinese foreign minister said during a U.N. meeting last week, as Britain approved emergency use of Pfizer Inc.'s vaccine ca...

TOKYO (AFP) -- In a streak of light across the night sky, samples collected from a distant asteroid arrived on Earth on Sunday after being dropped off by Japanese space probe Hayabusa-2. Scientists hope the precious samples, which are expected to amount to no more than 0.1 grams of material, could help shed light on the origin of life and the formation of the universe. The capsule carrying samp...

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Washington issued new entry rules for Chinese Communist Party members traveling to the United States, the New York Times reported Thursday, citing the State Department. The new policy -- which took immediate effect on Wednesday -- caps visas of Communist Party members and their immediate families to one month and a single entry into the country, the report said. "For decades...

HONG KONG (AFP) -- A major Asia-focused tech conference announced Thursday it is ditching Hong Kong in favour of Malaysia in a fresh blow to the Chinese financial hub's push to attract tech talent. The annual RISE Conference brings together CEOs, startups and investors and has been held in Hong Kong over the last five years. But organisers said they would move their annual conference to Kuala L...

ROME (AFP) -- Global food commodity prices rose sharply in November to their highest level in nearly six years, the UN food agency said Thursday, due in part to adverse weather conditions. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said prices of the most globally traded foodstuffs were up across the board, putting extra pressure in particular on 45 countries that need outside help feeding thei...

TEHRAN (AP) -- Iran's supreme leader on Saturday demanded the "definitive punishment" of those behind the killing of a scientist who led Tehran's disbanded military nuclear program, as the Islamic Republic blamed Israel for a slaying that has raised fears of reignited tensions across the Middle East. After years of being in the shadows, the image of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh suddenly was to be seen eve...