Category: Foreign

Agency Reporter

A study by Italian scientists has found that people can transmit the coronavirus SARS-COV-2 to cats and dogs.

The study tested 540 dogs and 277 cats living in households in northern Italy, particularly in Lombardy, where someone was infected with the virus or in areas where there were many cases.

The study, which has not been peer-reviewed yet, found coronavirus antibodies in 3.4 per cent of dogs and 3.9 per cent of cats, indicating they were infected with the virus.

Swab tests for active virus infections were negative in all animals, as the virus shedding period ended after two weeks.

The tests were conducted between March and May of this year.

Thomas Mettenleiter, leader of the German Federal Research Institute for Animal Health (FLI), said the results showed that the virus could be transmitted between humans and animals.

READ ALSO: More tigers, lions test positive for coronavirus at New York zoo

“This confirms what we already know,” Mettenleiter said, adding that the large scale of the study was unprecedented as it was difficult to get samples.

According to Mettenleiter, most animals in the study came from households affected by the coronavirus, indicating that infection is generally transmitted from humans to animals.

He added that this confirmed the FLI’s assumption that cats and dogs don’t play a significant role in the spread of COVID-19, and that healthy people needed not limit their contact with their pets.

People, who are infected with the virus, however, should limit their contact with their pets, although there are no indications so far that animals can die of the coronavirus, according to Mettenleiter. (dpa/NAN)

Agency Reporter

U.S. President Donald Trump has flayed an appellate court ruling that overturned the death sentence given to the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

In a tweet on Sunday, Trump said that hardly had anyone deserved the death penalty than Tsarnaev.

He said the government must push for the death penalty, adding that the country could not let the ruling stand.

“Rarely has anybody deserved the death penalty more than the Boston Bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

“The court agreed that this was one of the worst domestic terrorist attacks since the 9/11 atrocities.

“Yet the appellate court tossed out the death sentence. So many lives lost and ruined.

READ ALSO: Details emerge on Boston suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

“The Federal Government must again seek the death penalty in a do-over of that chapter of the original trial.

“Our country cannot let the appellate decision stand. Also, it is ridiculous that this process is taking so long!,” the tweet read.

Three people died and hundreds of others were injured after Tsarnaev, 27, and his older brother, Tamerlan, detonated homemade bombs along the marathon’s route on April 15, 2013.

Tsarnaev was handed the death penalty in 2015 but he appealed the ruling in 2019 on the ground that the juniors were biased.

In its ruling on July 31, the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with him, and ordered a retrial of the case.

It said the trial judge should have excluded jurors, who had already concluded that Tsarnaev was guilty.

Prosecutors are now left with two options: to comply with the appellate court ruling or challenge it at the Supreme Court.

(NAN)

Our Reporter

China reported 45 virus cases in the mainland for July 31, down sharply from 127 cases a day earlier, the health commission said.

Of the new infections, 31 were in the far western region of Xinjiang, according to a statement by the National Health Commission. Eight were in the northeastern province of Liaoning, and the remaining six were imported cases.

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China reported 23 new asymptomatic cases, up from 11 a day earlier.

As of the end of Friday, mainland China had 84,337 cases, the health authority said.

(www.newsnow.co.uk)

Our Reporter

A light aircraft overloaded with cocaine crashed on take-off on its way to Australia, police said on Saturday, exposing a Melbourne-based crime syndicate and leading to the arrest of five men with alleged links to the Italian mafia.

The Cesna aircraft, which was stuffed with more than 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of cocaine, went down while attempting to leave a remote airstrip in Papua New Guinea on July 26.

Australian Federal Police said in a statement that “greed played a significant part in the syndicate’s activities” and added they “cannot rule out that the weight of the cocaine had an impact on the planes (sic) ability to take off.”
Five suspects were arrested in Queensland and Victoria in recent days, and have been charged with conspiring to import over 500 kilograms of cocaine and a number of related offenses. They each face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted. The pilot was also arrested two days later, after surrendering himself to police.
Authorities said the plane had flown to Papua New Guinea from the small town of Mareeba in Far North Queensland, flying at about 3,000 feet to avoid detection by radar.

READ ALSO: Italy-bound traveller who swallowed cocaine jailed six years

The cocaine stash was eventually found on Friday after a search of the area. Its total value was estimated to be around 80 million Australian dollars ($57M USD), the equivalent of about 500,000 street deals.
“With current interstate travel restrictions in place due to COVID-19, the attempt to import illicit drugs into Australia shows how opportunistic and greedy organised crime can be,” AFP deputy commissioner Ian McCartney said in a statement.

The arrested men — aged 31, 36, 31, 33, and 61 — were charged with a variety of crimes. The first man arrested faces charges of directing activities of a criminal syndicate and money laundering of over $1m AUD. A number of assets were seized by police, with an estimated total value of $3.5 million AUD.

The drugs bust is one of the largest in recent Australian history. In 2016, a similar-sized 500 kilogram haul of cocaine was seized by officers in New South Wales.

(www.newsnow.co.uk)