Briefly

UNITED NATIONS

Countries urged to stop coal stations

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a video message to the East Asia Summit, has called on all countries to stop building new coal-fired power plants. "To reach carbon neutrality by 2050, I am calling for all countries to stop building new coal power plants and for partners to stop financing them," Guterres said on Saturday. The COVID-19 recovery effort ought to be used "to build green climate-resilient economies and work towards carbon neutrality by 2050", he told the summit, chaired by Vietnam's Prime Minister, Nguyen Yuan Phuc.

ROMANIA

Hospital fire kills 10 COVID-19 patients

Ten patients infected with coronavirus were killed in a fire late on Saturday in the intensive care unit of the Piatra Neamt County Hospital in northeastern Romania, the Health Minister Nelu Tataru said. Eight patients died as a result of the fire, and the other two died later in the emergency department, due to respiratory failure, Tataru said. Irina Popa, a spokeswoman for the local Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, said 16 patients were in two COVID-19 emergency wards when the fire broke out.

Xinhua