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This is VOA news. I'm Marissa Melton.
Chinese health officials said Sunday the number of new cases of the coronavirus has slowed for the third consecutive day. Reuters' Adam Reed has more. The coronavirus has presented Beijing with the huge challenge of stamping out the epidemic whilst also preventing damage to the world's second largest economy. But on Sunday, China's National Health Commission said a campaign to prevent and control the disease was showing results. China has placed Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, where the outbreak is believed to have originated, under virtual lockdown. Spokesman Mi Feng said the medical support and preventative measures in Hubei had headed off more critical cases and that mild cases were being treated more quickly to prevent them from becoming critical. That's Reuters' Adam Reed reporting. Candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination campaign ahead of next Saturday's caucuses in Nevada. AP correspondent Tim McGuire has that story. At a Democratic Party gala near the site of the Las Vegas massacre, former Vice President Joe Biden criticized Bernie Sanders' vote in 2005 to protect gun makers from being sued. "We gave immunity to gun manufacturers and look what they've done." Sanders says his populist plans are what the people want. "The agenda that we are bringing forth is exactly the agenda the working-class of this country want." Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren calls it a key election. "I believe that 2020 is our moment in history." Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg says old ideas won't beat President Donald Trump. "We can't go up against the most disruptive president in American history both by falling back on the familiar ...." I'm Tim McGuire. You can find more on this and other stories online at voanews.com. From Washington D.C., you're listening to VOA news. The United States and Europe appeared deeply divided over the trans-Atlantic relationship following a key security conference in Germany over the weekend. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier opened the conference with a speech that accused Washington of rejecting the idea of an international community. He warned of growing threats from Russia and China. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Europe should look to the tens of thousands of U.S. troops defending NATO's border with Russia. He also pledged $1 billion to help Eastern European countries and end their dependence on Russian gas. For Europe, the diagnosis appears very different. President Emmanuel Macron said the United States is rethinking its relationship with Europe and that the continent must take charge of its own destiny. Yemen's Houthi movement says retaliatory airstrikes after the shooting-down of a Saudi-led coalition warplane on Friday have killed civilians including children. Reuters' David Doyle reports. The United Nations says as many as 31 Yemeni civilians died in airstrikes on Saturday that the country's Houthi movement claims were a retaliation by a Saudi-led coalition. In the latest flareup in the five-year Yemen conflict, the Iran-aligned Houthis claimed on Friday to have shot down a coalition Tornado warplane in the Houthi-controlled Al-Jawf province. The area's health ministry said women and children were among those killed in the subsequent coalition airstrikes. The U.N. office in Yemen said preliminary field reports indicated 12 injured as well as the up to 31 civilians killed. Reuters' David Doyle reporting that story. The International Organization for Migration reports despite Yemen's brutal civil war, tens of thousands of desperately poor Africans continue to cross the Gulf of Aden each year into the conflict-ridden country in hopes of reaching Saudi Arabia and finding work. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva. Nearly five years of civil war in Yemen has killed thousands of civilians, shattered the economy and left millions of people on the verge of famine. The United Nations considers Yemen the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe. Despite this disastrous situation, migrants from the Horn of Africa remain undeterred in their determination to reach Yemen and then to Saudi Arabia and a hoped-for better life. Last year, the International Organization for Migration reports more than 138,000 people crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. This is more than the 110,000 migrants and refugees who crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe during the same period. Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has begun a three-day visit to Pakistan by urging the international community to support countries that continue to host millions of refugees from Afghanistan. I'm Marissa Melton. This is VOA news. |