Baku, Mar 2: At least 30 people died as a fire tore through a drug rehabilitation clinic in the Azerbaijani capital Baku early on Friday, the local APA news agency reported.
Firefighters and rescuers of Azerbaijan's emergencies ministry had extinguished the blaze and were investigating its causes, the news agency added.
Manila, Mar 16: The Philippines has detected an outbreak of avian flu in a northern province after tests showed presence of the highly infectious H5N6 subtype of the influenza A virus in a quail farm, the country's farm minister said on Monday.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the bird flu virus, the same strain that hit some local poultry farms in 2017, was detected in Jaen municipality in Nueva Ecija province, where about 1,500 quails had died on one farm alone.
A total of 12,000 quails have been destroyed and buried to prevent further infections, Dar said, citing field reports.
"We are on top of the situation," he said. "Surveillance around the 1-km and 7-km radius will be carried out immediately to ensure that the disease has not progressed around the said perimeter."
Animal quarantine checkpoints have also been set up to restrict the movement of all live domestic birds to and from the quarantine area, he said.
"We would like to emphasise that this is a single case affecting one quail farm only," Dar said.
Dr. Arlene Vytiaco, technical spokeswoman for avian flu at the agriculture department, said that while there is a possibility of transmission to humans through excretion and secretion, "the chances are very slim".
"There is also zero mortality rate," she said.
Dar said his department and the local government were jointly conducting an investigation and contact-tracing to determine the source of infection.
To ensure steady domestic supply of poultry, he said the transport of day-old chicks, hatching eggs and chicken meat will be allowed provided the source farms have tested negative for bird flu.
Washington, Jan 3: US President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Iran Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, who died in Baghdad "in a decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad," the Pentagon said Thursday.
"General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more," the Department of Defense said.
Following Soleimani's death, Trump tweeted an image of the US flag without any further explanation.
"US' act of international terrorism, assassinating General Soleimani—the most effective force fighting Daesh (ISIS), Al Nusrah,Al Qaeda, is extremely dangerous & foolish escalation. US bears responsibility for all consequences of rogue adventurism." said Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
Panic gripped big tech firms like Facebook and Twitter which decided to close their offices from Seattle to London as more employees tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Facebook shut its three London offices till Monday after an employee was diagnosed with COVID-19.
The social networking giant told nearly 3,000 employees in London to work from home after an employee, who is based in Singapore but visited the London offices between February 24-26, was diagnosed with the new coronavirus, Sky News reported on Friday.
"An employee based in our Singapore office who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 visited our London offices on February 24-26.
"We are therefore closing our London offices until Monday for deep cleaning and employees are working from home until then," the company said in a statement.
There have been 163 cases of coronavirus so far in the UK.
Earlier, Facebook recommended all its Bay Area employees in the US to work from home. The latest precautions come after San Francisco announced its first two coronavirus cases on Thursday.
Facebook has also shut its Seattle office until Monday after one of its contractors was confirmed to be infected with the virus. The infected contractor last visited the Facebook office on February 21. King County health officials said all Facebook sites should work from home until March 31.
Twitter shut its Seattle office for a 'deep clean' after an employee developed COVID-19 like symptoms though final result was still awaited.
"A Seattle-based employee has been advised by doctor about likely COVID-19, though still awaiting the final testing," Twitter said in a tweet on Friday.
"While the employee has not been at a Twitter office for several weeks and hasn't been in contact w/others, we're closing our Seattle office to deep clean," the company added.
According to The Seattle Times, at least 14 people have died due to COVID-19 in Washington State till date.
Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook have advised their employees in Washington State to work from home.
Apple has reportedly suggested its employees at California campuses to work from home as an "extra precaution" while new coronavirus cases spread on the west coast in the US, especially Seattle area.
Apple's flagship developers' conference WWDC 2020 in June is also at the risk of getting cancelled as the Santa Clara public health department has warned against large public gatherings. The event draws nearly 5,000 developers from across the world.
The US death toll from the new coronavirus has climbed to 14, according to Johns Hopkins' tracker, with 329 cases reported across the country.
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