WHO SLAMS U.S. COVID-19 INTEL TEAM AS EUROPE TIGHTENS CURBS

Wuhan, 10: A WHO expert sent to China to probe the Coronavirus hit out at US intelligence on

Covid-19 as his team headed home with few answers about the origin of a pandemic that was forcing more clampdowns in some of the hardest-hit parts of the world.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was set to seek an extension of strict virus curbs, as the European Commission chief addressed the stumbling vaccination rollout on the continent — which accounts for a third of the 2.3 million

Covid-19 deaths worldwide.

The Coronavirus has infected close to 107 million people, devastating the global economy, and questions over the handling of the initial outbreak in central China have sparked an intense diplomatic row between Washington and Beijing.

The WHO mission to the ground zero city of Wuhan wrapped up on Tuesday without any concrete answers.—

Seoul, Feb. 10: North Korea has stolen more than $300 million worth of cryptocurrencies through cyberattacks in recent months to support its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, a confidential UN report said.

Compiled by a panel of experts monitoring sanctions on Pyongyang, the report said the country’s “total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $316.4 million”, citing a UN member state.

Financial institutions and exchanges were hacked to generate revenue for Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development, said the report, which was seen by AFP.

The North is known to operate an army of thousands of well-trained hackers who have attacked firms, institutions and researchers in South Korea and elsewhere. —