An estimated 5 million children under the age of 5 died in 2021, the United Nations said, urging health care investment in underserved communities around the globe to avoid this “immense, intolerable and mostly preventable loss of life.” Some 2.3 million deaths in 2021 occurred in the children’s first month, mostly due to being premature or from complications related to childbirth. After a child’s first month, infectious diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria

The combination of an inexpensive cost of living, beautiful scenery and traveler-friendly visa options make Portugal the best country to move to in 2023. International Living's Annual Global Retirement Index lists the 10 countries that are the best retirement destinations for the year, but they are not just for retirees. As remote work becomes more common and people seek a simpler way of life, the countries on the list may be appealing to younger generations as well. In 2022, Portugal was r

Death toll rises to 11 in California dance hall shooting

By Jeffrey D. Sachs BELEM, Brazil – I write today from Brazil to inaugurate a new series of columns for The Korea Herald. My columns will discuss the dramatic changes underway in the world economy, and how these changes affect Korea. Most importantly, I will analyze how new forms of global cooperation, including Korea, China, the US, and the rest of the world, can be implemented to face the world’s growing crises. Brazil is in fact an excellent place to launch the new column. At th

Canada’s Western Hudson Bay polar bear population has fallen 27 percent in just five years, according to a government report, suggesting climate change is impacting the animals. Every fall, bears living along the western edge of Hudson Bay pass through the sub-Arctic tourist town of Churchill, Manitoba, as they return to the sea ice. This has made the population not only the best studied group in the world, but also the most famous, with the local bear-viewing economy valued at $5.3 millio

NEW YORK (AP) -- A computer outage at the Federal Aviation Administration brought flights to a standstill across the US on Wednesday, with hundreds of delays quickly cascading through the system at airports nationwide. The FAA ordered all US flights to delay departures until 9 a.m. Eastern, though airlines said they were aware of the situation and had already begun grounding flights. At 7:30 a.m. Eastern, there were more than 1,200 delayed flights within, into or out of the United States, accord

Iran’s protest crackdown has helped push the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide to a record high of 533 in 2022, according to a report by Reporters Without Borders. The figure is up from 488 in 2021, already a record, according to the France-based NGO. More than half are detained in just five countries: China, which remains “the world’s biggest jailer of journalists” with 110, followed by Myanmar (62), Iran (47), Vietnam (39) and Belarus (31). Iran is the only cou

Nearly eight out of 10 South Koreans believe social media leads to more political division, with nearly as many people saying social media makes it easier for people to manipulate others, a survey showed. However, more than 60 percent of those surveyed said social media is still a good thing for the country’s democracy, according to the survey conducted by Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington. In South Korea, 77 percent of those surveyed said social media leads

Four out of every 10 South Koreans think their country’s influence in the world stage grew stronger in recent years, a survey showed. In an annual survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, 40 percent of those surveyed answered South Korea’s global influence was getting stronger. The reading marks the third highest among 19 countries surveyed after Israel and Singapore. The research said people satisfied with the current state of their

Belarus' state-run BelTA news agency reported that a Ukrainian S-300 missile had fallen onto the territory of Belarus on Thursday during one of Russia's largest missile attacks against Ukraine since the start of the war. The Minsk defence ministry was investigating whether Belarus' air defence systems had shot down the rocket or it was a misfire. The incident occurred between 10 and 11 a.m. (0700-0800 GMT) - around the time Russia was firing scores of missiles towards Ukraine. B

BUFFALO, New York -- Millions of people hunkered down against a deep freeze Sunday to ride out the winter storm that has killed at least 34 people across the United States and is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses with heaping snow drifts and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses. The scope of the storm has been nearly unprecedented, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico. About 60

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine and the United States of turning a deaf ear to its concerns after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a historic visit to Washington. Zelensky enjoyed a hero's welcome on a lightning trip on Wednesday in which US President Joe Biden committed nearly $1.8 billion in military supplies including, for the first time, the Patriot missile defence system. "We can say with regret that so far neither President Biden nor President Zelensk

CHONGQING, China (AFP) - Elderly patients lined the wards of hospitals in major cities in China Thursday as the country battled a wave of COVID cases. The virus is surging across China in an outbreak authorities say is impossible to track after the end of mandatory mass testing. Attached to a breathing tube under a pile of blankets, an old man racked with COVID-19 lay groaning on a stretcher in the emergency department of a hospital in central China Thursday. A paramedic at Chongqing Medical Uni

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID-19 death toll, a Chinese health official said, in a narrow definition that limits the number of deaths reported, as an outbreak of the virus surges following the easing of pandemic-related restrictions. Deaths that occur in patients with pre-existing illnesses are not counted as COVID-19 deaths, said Wang Guiqiang, the head of infectious disease at Peking University's No. 1 Hospital. C

The first attempt to survey the extent of violence and harassment at work around the globe has found that workplace abuse is widespread, and particularly pronounced among young people, migrants, and wage earners, especially women. More than 22.8 percent of the nearly 75,000 workers in 121 countries surveyed last year reported having experienced at least one type of violence or harassment, according to the report released by the UN International Labor Organization, the Lloyds Register Foundation