Briefly

WHO

Monkeypox cases top 70,000 globally

Case numbers in the global monkeypox outbreak have topped 70,000, said the World Health Organization on Wednesday as it warned that declining new cases did not mean people should drop their guard. The WHO said case numbers last week were on the rise in several countries in the Americas, as it stressed that a slowdown worldwide in fresh cases could be the "most dangerous" time in the outbreak. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the WHO was working with countries to increase their testing capacity.

UNITED STATES

NASA looks to launch Artemis test flight again

NASA has targeted Nov 14 for a third attempt to launch its big, next generation rocket ship, the US space agency said on Wednesday, after weeks of technical setbacks and foul weather delayed the inaugural uncrewed Artemis mission to the moon. Plans call for rolling the 32-story-tall Space Launch System rocket and its Orion capsule back out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as early as Nov 4 to renew final flight preparations.

SYRIA

4th century Roman mosaic floor unearthed

A well preserved Roman-era mosaic panel was discovered in a residential suburb in the central Syrian province of Homs, local antiquities authorities announced on Wednesday. The relic, which dates back to the 4th century, is inlaid with thousands of colored mosaic pieces made of small grains and glass in a pattern unique among existing excavations, Syrian archaeologists said. Twenty meters long and 6 meters wide, the flooring panel belonged to a building's hall, probably a castle, the archaeologists said.

Agencies - Xinhua