The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Tuesday expelled a US warship that trespassed into Chinese territorial waters off the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea as the US' move could have easily caused an accident, a Chinese military spokesperson said on Tuesday, who also urged the US side to focus on COVID-19 prevention and control at home rather than destabilizing regional security and peace.

The US Navy's recent operations near China show its own fear of losing presence and influence in the Asia-Pacific region amid multiple COVID-19 outbreaks on its warships, analysts noted.

The PLA Southern Theater Command organized naval and aerial forces to follow the US guided missile destroyer USS Barry when it trespassed into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands on Tuesday, said Senior Colonel Li Huamin, a spokesperson of the PLA Southern Theater Command, on Tuesday.

They followed and monitored its course, identified the ship, warned and expelled it, Li said.

Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP) David Beasley has warned of a global famine because of the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, stressing the need to take urgent and wise measures to beat the COVID-19 pandemic and avoid a humanitarian disaster.

Beasley told the Security Council on Tuesday via video link that the global spread of COVID-19 this year has sparked “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two,” pointing out that 135 million people are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse, coupled with an additional 130 million on the edge of starvation prompted by Coronavirus.

London,(ST)- A report of the British Guardian newspaper revealed that the British company "BAE Systems" sold weapons to the Saudi regime for more than 15 billion pounds during the aggression against Yemen, stressing that the sales took place during the period in which the Saudi regime launched lethal bombings on Yemeni cities.

The report indicates that sales took place over five years, the period during which the kingdom was involved in fatal bombing operations in Yemen. The report adds that the activists analyzed the annual government report of the sales of the leading British company in the arms industry to reveal that it had managed to collect revenues exceeding 2.5 billion pounds of arms sales to Saudi Arabia during the past year only, so that the return on exports to Saudi Arabia between 2015 and 2019 will rise to about 15 Billion pounds, an annual increase of about 17.3%.

The sole way to bring farm produce to Der Ezzour province is across the bridge which has been built by the Russian military, after the destruction of 12 bridges across the Euphrates by US bombardments, according to a report published yesterday by the Russian News Agency (TASS).

The agency quoted locals as that before the war there were twelve bridges across the Euphrates here. US-led coalition's bombardments have destroyed them all. Last year Russian military engineers built a 100-meter-long pontoon bridge near Der Ezzour, thus creating a vital link between communities the Euphrates separates.

The US Peace Council has called on the US administration and the United Nations to immediately lift the unilateral coercive economic measures imposed on more than 30 countries, including Syria, particularly after the global spread of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.