WORLD

Kampala, Uganda | XINHUA |  Sweden’s economy shrank by 8.6 percent in the second quarter (Q2) of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Statistics Sweden (SCB) said Wednesday. Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson attributed this “better than expected” results partly to the country’s less strict lockdown policies. SCB said the …

Kampala, Uganda | XINHUA |  An estimated 40 percent voter turnout was recorded in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections by noon on Wednesday after voting began at 7 a.m. local time, the government information department said. In several districts a little over 40 percent voter turnout was recorded with the highest …

Washington, US | XINHUA | Global current account surpluses and deficits narrowed in 2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic could narrow the imbalances further in 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its annual External Sector Report released on Tuesday. In 2019, the global current account balance, the absolute sum …

Washington, US | XINHUA | U.S. President Donald Trump said the coronavirus pandemic is as well-controlled in the United States as it can be, despite the fact that over 155,000 American people have died amid rising infections, according to media reports. In a recent interview with U.S. news website AXIOS, …

San Francisco, US | XINHUA | A team of researchers has developed a new vaccine design strategy that could confer improved immunity against certain viruses, including those that cause AIDS, the flu, and COVID-19, according to a report released by the University of Washington Medicine (UW Medicine) on Tuesday. Using this …

San Francisco, US | XINHUA | As the United States struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread protests against racism, U.S. President Donald Trump’s support among California voters is eroding even in conservative areas of the state, according to a new poll released Tuesday by the Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) …

Kampala, Uganda | XINHUA |   U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien Tuesday said that the United States was “deeply troubled” by the conflict in Libya, urging against foreign military interventions. “We strongly oppose foreign military involvement, including the use of mercenaries and private military contractors, by all …

Berlin, Germany | XINHUA | Forty-seven percent of German citizens generally supported a reduction of U.S. troops in Germany, according to a survey published by the market research institute YouGov on Tuesday. Only 32 percent of Germans wanted U.S. troops to stay in the country at current strength or even increase …

Beijing, China | XINHUA | As the top diplomat of the world’s sole superpower, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ought to promote global peace and stability. Instead, he has spent much of his tenure in the past two years on bashing China and stoking division and chaos in the …

Tehran, Iran | XINHUA | Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that enemies have waged “a psychological warfare” against the country to downplay its achievements, Tasnim news agency reported. One of the enemy’s main strategies in harming Iran’s economy, beside sanctions, is to “portray a poor image of the administration’s …