"Lazy mosquitoes" mean more women than men get chikungunya - scientists
"Lazy mosquitoes" are the reason why women, who tend to spend more time at home than men, are more likely to be infected by chikungunya, a painful mosquito-borne viral disease which spreads the same way as Zika, researchers said on Monday (Nov 7).
Chikungunya, which is commonly transmitted by the daytime-biting aedes aegypti mosquito, can cause debilitating symptoms including fever, headache and severe joint pain lasting months.
A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analysed a 2012 outbreak of chikungunya in the Bangladeshi village of Palpara, around 100 km from the capital Dhaka.
The study said more than a quarter of cases were spread within the same household, while half of infections occurred in households less than 200 metres away, creating small clusters of the disease.
Woman pushed to her death in front of New York subway train
A woman shoved an unsuspecting traveller off a New York City subway platform into the path of an approaching train on Monday (Nov 7) afternoon, killing the victim instantly as bystanders watched in horror, police said.
The victim, also a woman, was pushed onto the tracks as a southbound No. 1 train pulled into the Times Square station around 1pm EST (2am Singapore time), and she was pronounced dead on the scene shortly afterward. Witnesses immediately alerted police officers, who apprehended the suspect in the station.
Neither the victim nor the suspect was immediately identified by authorities.
Ignoring Trump, UN talks seek to turn climate pledges into action
Almost 200 nations began work on Monday (Nov 7) to turn promises for fighting climate change into action at a UN conference that played down threats to a 2015 global agreement if Republican Donald Trump wins the US presidency.
At the start of two-week talks in Morocco, many delegates wore badges with a smiling picture of the Earth to celebrate the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on Nov 4, which seeks to phase out greenhouse gas emissions this century.
The US election was not mentioned in speeches at the opening ceremonies.
Iraq forces find mass grave in area recaptured from ISIS
Iraqi police forces said they found a mass grave at the agricultural college in an area that was recaptured from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group on Monday (Nov 7).
The grave was found in Hamam al-Alil area, about 14 kilometres from the southern outskirts of Mosul, the last ISIS-held Iraqi city.
"Federal police found a mass grave west of Hamam al-Alil in the agricultural college," the police said in a statement that did not elaborate.
Samsung apologises for Galaxy Note phones in US ads
Samsung took out advertisements on Monday (Nov 7) in major US newspapers to apologise for the Galaxy Note 7 scandal in which fire-prone batteries forced a global recall of the popular smartphones.
The full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post admitted the company "fell short" on its promise of delivering "breakthrough technologies that enrich people's lives."
"For this we are truly sorry," the company said.
