A LOW-COST DRUG IS FIRST TO REDUCE COVID DEATHS

In a major breakthrough, Oxford University scientists have identified a

steroid drug widely used to treat asthma, allergies and rheumatoid

arthritis, has significantly reducing risk of death from Covid-19 among

patients with severe respiratory complications.

The low-cost and widely available steroid, dexamethasone, reduces death by

up to one-third among those hospitalised with severe respiratory

complications of Covid-19, chief investigators for Oxford University's

randomised controlled trial - the Recovery trial - announced on Tuesday.

The drug is part of the world's biggest trial testing existing treatments to

see if they also work for coronavirus.

It cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those

on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.

Had the drug had been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the

pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved, researchers say.

And it could be of huge benefit in poorer countries with high numbers of

Covid-19 patients.

The UK government has 200,000 courses of the drug in its stockpile and says

the NHS will make dexamethasone available to patients.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was a genuine case to celebrate "a

remarkable British scientific achievement", adding: "We have taken steps to

ensure we have enough supplies, even in the event of a second peak."

Chief Medical Officer for England Prof Chris Whitty said it would save lives

around the world.

NORTH KOREA'S MILITARY TO RE-ENTER COOPERATION SITES

North Korea blew up an office set up to foster better ties with South Korea

on Tuesday in a "terrific explosion" after it threatened to take action if

North Korean defectors went ahead with a campaign to send propaganda

leaflets into the North.

North Korea's KCNA state news agency said the liaison office in the border

town of Kaesong, which had been closed since January, was "completely

ruined".

North Korea says it will redeploy troops to now-shuttered inter-Korean

tourism and economic sites near the border with South Korea, in an

announcement made today.

The North's General Staff says its military units will be deployed at the

sites of the Diamond tourism project and the Kaesong industrial complex,

both located just north of the heavily-fortified border.

Those sites, once symbols of inter-Korean cooperation, have been shuttered

amid animosities over North Korea's nuclear program for years.

The North says it will also resume military exercises and re-establish guard

posts in front-line areas and fly propaganda balloons toward South Korea.

These steps means that North Korea will nullify a 2018 tension-reduction

deal with South Korea.

The office served as an embassy for the old rivals and its destruction is a

setback to efforts by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to coax the North

into cooperation.

CORONAVIRUS LEAVES MORE AMERICANS DEAD THAN WORLD WAR I

With 740 new coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, the United States has seen more

people die from the pandemic than died in World War I, according to a tally

by Johns Hopkins University.

The new figure, counted at 8:30 pm (0030 GMT) Tuesday, brought the country's

total Covid-19 deaths up to 116,854, the tracker from the Baltimore-based

university showed.

The increase came after two days of death tolls under 400.

And 23,351 new cases in the same 24-hour period brought the total US count

up to 2,134,973, making it by far the hardest-hit of any country in the

world.

The country's pandemic death toll had already passed that of its soldiers in

the Vietnam War in late April.

The United States, where many businesses are reopening, continues to

register around 20,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus each day. Several

states are even recording their highest levels of new cases since the start

of the pandemic.

The administration of President Donald Trump, who has downplayed risks of

the virus and instead focused on reviving the economy as he faces a tough

re-election battle in November, insists there will be no shutdown of the

economy if a second full-blown wave of the epidemic arises.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell meanwhile warned that the US economy is

unlikely to recover as long as "significant uncertainty" remains over the

course of the pandemic.

U.S. SUES EX-TRUMP ADVISER BOLTON TO BLOCK BOOK PUBLICATION

The United States on Tuesday sued former national security adviser John

Bolton, seeking to block him from publishing a book about his time in the

White House that it said contained classified information and would

compromise national security.

The civil lawsuit came one day after U.S. President Donald Trump said Bolton

would be breaking the law if the book were published.

The White House National Security Council (NSC) "has determined that the

manuscript in its present form contains certain passages - some up to

several paragraphs in length - that contain classified national security

information," the lawsuit said.

Publication of the book "would cause irreparable harm, because the

disclosure of instances of classified information in the manuscript

reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage, or exceptionally grave

damage, to the national security of the United States," according to the

lawsuit.

Trump fired Bolton last September after roughly 17 months as national

security adviser.

Trump said on Monday that Bolton knows he has classified information in his

book, and that he had not completed a clearing process required for any book

written by former government officials who had access to sensitive

information.

Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department was trying to get

Bolton to complete the clearance process and "make the necessary deletions

of classified information."

Bolton's lawyer Charles Cooper said they were reviewing the lawsuit and

"will respond in due course."

"The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir" is set to be published on

June 23.

TRUMP SIGNS ORDER ON POLICE REFORM AFTER WEEKS OF PROTESTS ABOUT RACIAL

INJUSTICE

President Donald Trump, facing criticism that his policies and inflammatory

rhetoric have aggravated a racial divide in the United States, signed an

order on Tuesday that he said would reform police practices even as he

pressed for "law and order" nationwide.

After weeks of protests against racism and policy brutality prompted by the

death of George Floyd, a black man killed on May 25 in police custody in

Minneapolis, Trump sought to offer a policy response to rising concerns

about racial injustice going into the Nov. 3 election, in which he is

seeking a second term.

Trump, a Republican, opened his remarks by expressing sympathy to the

families of victims of police violence, pledging to fight for justice and

promising them their loved ones will not have died in vain. But he quickly

pivoted to a defense of law enforcement officers and a threat of penalties

to looters.

"Americans want law and order, they demand law and order," Trump said at a

ceremony at the White House, reiterating a call that has angered protesters

who have poured onto streets from New York to Los Angeles.

"Americans know the truth: Without police there is chaos, without law there

is anarchy, and without safety there is catastrophe," he said.

RUSSIA STARTS EARLY VOTING ON REFORM EXTENDING PUTIN'S RULE

Russia's far eastern region of Kamchatka has kicked off early voting on the

constitutional reform that would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in

power until 2036, with election officials travelling to remote areas and

bringing ballots to residents who don't have access to polling stations.

Early voting on the reform has been officially allowed since June 10 - 20

days ahead of the vote scheduled for July 1 - with many regions starting the

process this week.

Kamchatka election officials travelled to deer herder settlements, remote

weather stations and divisions of the country's Pacific Fleet on Monday and

Tuesday. Footage showed officials in hazmat suits travelling by helicopter

to several remote locations with a small ballot box and residents filling

out ballots.

Some 60 people out of 2,000 residents of remote areas have already voted,

Inga Irinina, head of Kamchatka's regional election commission, told The

Associated Press.

Rescheduling the vote for July 1 has still elicited public health concerns

because Russia is reporting over 8,000 new virus cases daily and remains the

third hardest-hit country in the world.

In one measure that aimed to avoid crowds on voting day, polling stations

will open a week ahead of the vote, on June 25 through to June 30. Kremlin

critics fear the move will hinder independent monitoring of the election.

CALIFORNIA UTILITY PG&E PLEADS GUILTY TO 84 WILDFIRE DEATHS

A California utility has pleaded guilty to the deaths of 84 people in a

wildfire, the deadliest US corporate crime ever successfully prosecuted.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) admitted the 2018 Camp Fire, the state's

deadliest and most destructive, was caused by its faulty equipment.

In the court hearing, a judge read the name of each victim aloud to the

company chief executive.

The company will be fined millions of dollars, but no-one will go to jail.

Many of the Camp Fire's victims were elderly or disabled.

A number of them were found in burnt-out cars, killed as they attempted to

flee the blaze with their family and neighbours.

Others were discovered in and around their homes, as some elderly residents

decided against leaving early, not understanding the gravity of the threat.

In Butte County Superior Court on Tuesday, an image of each victim was

displayed on a screen as PG&E's chief executive Bill Johnson pleaded to

every single count of involuntary manslaughter, responding 84 times:

"Guilty, your honour."

In a highly unusual US corporate acknowledgment of criminal wrongdoing, Mr

Johnson apologised to the families, saying: "I've heard the pain and

anguish.

"No words from me can ever reduce the magnitude of that devastation.

RUSSIA'S PUTIN PROTECTED FROM CORONAVIRUS BY DISINFECTION TUNNEL

Russian President Vladimir Putin is protected from the novel coronavirus by

a special disinfection tunnel that anyone visiting his residence outside

Moscow must pass through, the state-controlled RIA news agency reported on

Tuesday.

The special tunnel, manufactured by a Russian company based in the town of

Penza, has been installed at his official Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside

Moscow where he receives visitors, it said.

Demonstration footage of the tunnel, published by RIA, showed masked people

passing through it being sprayed with disinfectant from the ceiling and from

the side.

The Russian news agency described the disinfectant as a fine cloud of liquid

that covered people's clothes and any exposed upper body flesh.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, said in April that anyone meeting Putin in

person was tested for the novel virus. A month later, Peskov said he had

himself been infected.

Russia has recorded over 500,000 infections, the third highest number of

cases in the world after Brazil and the United States, something it

attributes to a massive testing programme.