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by Aishwarya Kumar with Ammu Kannampilly in Mumbai NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Anxious Indians raced for essentials on Wednesday as an unprecedented 21-day lockdown across the nation of 1.3 billion people all but emptied normally traffic-choked roads. Many shelves in the megacities of New Delhi and Mumbai were stripped bare of staples like lentils and rice as the world’s second-most populous country lurched into a shutdown aimed at slowing the spread of the new […]
PERTH, Australia (AFP) — Thousands of passengers on three cruise ships were stranded off Australia’s west coast Wednesday as officials refused to let them land to avoid repeating the “utter disaster” of a previous cruise-related coronavirus surge. The Artania and Magnifica were anchored off the West Australian port of Fremantle with a third, the Vasco de Gama, on its way. “There are no circumstances we will allow passengers or crew to wander the streets in […]
HONG KONG China (AFP) — Asian equities soared again Wednesday after US lawmakers finally agreed on a mammoth stimulus package to support the world’s biggest economy against the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. While the deadly disease continues to spread, traders have a rare semblance of optimism after weeks of carnage across global markets, with eyes fixed on Washington where lawmakers in the early hours thrashed out an emergency bill worth as much as $2 […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — South Africa reported that its number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus jumped to 709 on Wednesday from 554 the previous day, an increase of 28 percent. South Africa, which now has the highest number of infections on the continent, has ordered a 21-day lockdown which rolls into action at midnight on Thursday. “Right now we have actually increased from yesterday, we are now at 709 cases,” Health Minister […]
YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) — The Diamond Princess, a coronavirus-hit cruise ship off Japan that saw 712 passengers and crew contracting the disease with 10 deaths, left its moorings in Yokohama Wednesday, a city official said. The ship, which originally carried some 3,700 passengers and crew members, dominated international headlines as Japan’s clumsy handling of its quarantine made it at one point the biggest cluster of coronavirus carriers outside China. “Disinfection work has been finished. Quarantine […]
by Jing Xuan TENG MACHENG, China (AFP) — Huge crowds jammed trains and buses in Hubei province on Wednesday as people seized their first chance to travel after two months under lockdown at the epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak. Strict curbs on daily life are finally being lifted, allowing healthy people to head home and see loved ones after weeks of separation. At a railway station in the city of Macheng, AFP reporters saw long […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — US President Donald Trump has requested novel coronavirus test kits from South Korea, his counterpart Moon Jae-in said Wednesday, as Washington pushes for a quick reopening of the world’s biggest economy. The South was once the hardest-hit country outside China, where the virus first emerged, but appears to have brought its outbreak under control thanks to a huge testing and contact-tracing effort. By midnight on Tuesday more than 367,000 people […]
by Michael Mathes WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US lawmakers worked deep into Tuesday night trying to seal a deal that buttresses the teetering economy by giving roughly $2 trillion to hospitals, businesses and ordinary Americans buckling under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic. But a full day of intense, protracted negotiating was unable to produce a viable outcome, even as the two sides — plus the White House — kept haggling and the US […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — California officials on Tuesday pleaded for young people to heed safety warnings over the new coronavirus after a teen tested positive and died. It would be the first known juvenile death from the COVID-19 illness in the United States. A statement by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health warned the cause of death “will require further evaluation.” “Though earlier tests indicated a positive result for COVID-19, the […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The British government said Tuesday it will open a 4,000-bed field hospital at a London exhibition center as part of its plans to treat coronavirus cases. The move comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday ordered the country into lockdown to tackle the spread of the outbreak, which has seen 422 deaths and 8,077 cases in Britain. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a news conference the temporary hospital, to […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Billions in economic aid announced last week by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help Canadians deal with the coronavirus pandemic hit a snag Tuesday when opposition parties rejected giving his minority government unprecedented spending powers. Thirty-two members of Parliament, proportionally representing each party instead of the full 338, gathered in Ottawa for a vote on the emergency measures. But opposition Conservatives balked at additional provisions giving Trudeau’s Liberals unlimited borrowing and […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia on Tuesday reported its first death from the new coronavirus as the total number of infections spiked to 767, according to the health ministry. An Afghan resident in the western city of Medina died from the virus, the ministry said, while reporting 205 new infections — the biggest jump in the kingdom in a single day. Saudi Arabia, which has reported the highest number of infections in the […]
