Geography of Asia

Modern strains that resemble the 1338 strain have been found in rodent populations around the Tian Shan Mountains

Most of the victims were registered in Paktika, where 100 people were killed and 250 injured, said Muhammad Nazim Haqqani, head of the Taliban's emergency services.
He said there were casualties in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Khost.

Hussam al-Aqouli remembers the exact spot along southern Iraq's Lake Sawa where his two daughters once dipped their feet into clear waters. Now he stands there two years on and the barren earth cracks beneath him.

More neighborhoods in provinces across Turkey will be closed to foreigners due to a quota to be introduced starting next month, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced.

Some 781 locations where the population of foreigners exceeded 25 percent of the local population have already been banned for foreigners, Soylu added.

Some 34 members of seven Syrian families, who have been residing in Istanbul's Esenyurt district for a decade, "went back home" with an official ceremony held by the local municipality.

Thanking Turkey for being their home, the families moved back to the Syrian cities of Afrin, Latakia and the capital Damascus on a bus on June 8.

"Suddenly one ran after another to take the cross. Thus, by groups of twenty, or fifty, or a hundred, they put up banners and began to journey to Jerusalem"

The positions of the two Greek tankers that have been seized by the Iranian authorities were announced by the website TankerTrackers.com.

The Greek tanker Prudent Warrior is anchored in the port of Bandar Abbas in Iran, while the Delta Poseidon is located north of the island of Larak, according to a post by TankerTrackers.com on Twitter.

Turkey condemned the attack on a water pumping station east of the Suez Canal in Egypt on May 7, killing 11 soldiers and injuring five.

In a written statement on May 8, the Foreign Ministry extended its condolences to the families of people who lost their lives and the Egyptian state and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

Beijing on Wednesday closed around 10% of the stations in its vast subway system as an additional measure against the spread of coronavirus.

The subway authority in a brief message said only that the measure to shut 40 mostly downtown stations was being taken as part of epidemic control measures. No date for resumption of service was given.

Beijing shifted more classes online Thursday in a further tightening of COVID-19 restrictions, as China's capital seeks to prevent a wider outbreak.

The city of 21 million has already ordered three rounds of mass testing this week for the virus, with the third due to take place on Friday, and closed down some communities where cases were found.