Global News

[ad_1] Hong Kong CNN  —  China is planning to offer free fertility treatment to citizens under its national insurance scheme in a bid to reverse its plummeting birth rate. The National Healthcare Security Administration said on Friday it would extend its coverage to help shoulder the costs for families trying to conceive. It said the new coverage would include assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques and also cover labor analgesia to ease pain in childbirth. The most commonly performed ART procedure is in vitro fertilization (IVF). The administration described China’s falling population as one of the biggest obstacles to national development and stressed it had already added ovulation-inducing drugs to its coverage, to help “reduce the burden of infertility.” The expanded coverage is part of a wider attempt by Chinese authorities to persuade more people t...

[ad_1] Jerusalem and Gaza CNN  —  At least 10 Palestinians were killed Wednesday during a major Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank that also left more than 100 injured, Palestinian officials said. Israeli authorities said Wednesday’s operation targeted three suspects “planning attacks in the immediate future.” The three were “neutralized,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Security Agency said in a joint statement. In the unusual daytime raid, Israeli forces entered Nablus in the West Bank. The Islamic Jihad militant group said two of its commanders were killed in ensuing clashes with Israeli troops. The Lion’s Den militant group also confirmed its members were involved in the fighting, but did not say if any of their members were killed. All three of the suspected P...