Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The novel coronavirus or NCoV, the tentative name given to a new strain of coronavirus which was first reported in the Middle East last year, may be becoming more easily transmitted between humans and doctors should be on their guard, the Department of Health said yesterday.

First discovered in a Qatari patient in Saudi Arabia last year, NCoV is a strain of virus similar to that which caused the SARS outbreak in 2003.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said the NCoV is a respiratory tract infection and has a latency period of between seven and 10 days, and causes certain SARS-like symptoms, while some cases may be accompanied by renal failure.

Kirti Monastery monk Lobsang Namgyal in an undated photo. He is the 100th known Tibetan to self-immolate under China's rule since 2009 demanding freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama.

DHARAMSHALA, February 13: In confirmed reports, a Tibetan monk set himself on fire on February 3 in the Ngaba region of eastern Tibet protesting China’s continued occupation of Tibet.

Lobsang Namgyal, 37, a monk of the Kirti Monastery has become the 100th known Tibetan to self-immolate under China’s rule since the wave began in 2009.

Following immense security clampdown in the region, the news of Lobsang Namgyal’s fiery protest reached exile on February 13, a day being observed by Tibetan exiles all over the world as the 100th year of His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama’s Tibetan Proclamation of Independence.