Coronavirus

Shares in Lufthansa have plunged in recent days as the likely impact of the COVID-19 disease on the aviation sector in particular has become clearer

Lufthansa grounds 150 aircraft globally to cut costs over Coronavirus scare

Press Trust of India

Three Italian skiers died in an avalanche in northwestern Georgia on Wednesday, officials said.
They were among six people who were skiing in a closed zone near Mount Tetnuldi when the avalanche hit, the Caucasus nation's tourism agency said in a statement.
"Rescuers have found the bodies of three Italians," the agency said, adding it had rescued three more, including one with multiple fractures.
Upper Svaneti, where the incident occurred, is one of the highest and most remote skiing destinations in Europe. Its medieval villages dotted with stone watchtowers are on UNESCO's World Heritage list.

Georgia avalanche kills three Italian tourists

PTI Automatic

The seven Formula One teams that do not use Ferrari power units on Wednesday threatened legal action against the International Automobile Federation to force it to publish its report into the Italian team's engines.
Following complaints by rival teams, the FIA investigated Ferrari last year.
They released a statement last Friday, minutes before the end of winter testing, saying they had reached a "settlement" with Ferrari following "thorough technical investigations", the details of which "will remain confidential".
McLaren, Mercedes, Racing Point, Red Bull, Renault, AlphaTauri and Williams responded on Wednesday with a letter in which they said they "were surprised and shocked by the FIA's statement of Friday 28 February regarding the conclusion of its investigation into the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 Power Unit".
"We strongly object to the FIA reaching a confidential settlement agreement with Ferrari to conclude this matter." Last season several teams expressed suspicions after ...

Formula One teams threaten to sue over Ferrari engine

South African fast bowler Lungi Ngidi took six wickets as Australia were bowled out for 271 in the second one-day international at the Mangaung Oval on Wednesday.
Ngidi had career-best figures of six for 58. He dismissed three of Australia's top four in a first spell of three for 26 and claimed three more wickets in the closing overs of the innings.
Captain Aaron Finch and D'Arcy Short both hit 69 for Australia, but largely because of Ngidi, they were unable to capitalise on a fast start by Finch and David Warner.
Finch and Warner posted 50 off the first 37 balls of the innings before Ngidi had Warner caught at cover. He followed up by dismissing Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne off successive balls.
Labuschagne's wicket was Ngidi's 50th in one-day internationals in his 26th match -- the fastest South African to the landmark.
When Finch was caught behind off Anrich Nortje, Australia had lost their top four for 158 runs.
But Short, who gained a place on the tour when Glenn Maxwell ...

South Africa's Ngidi takes six to restrict Australia

Israel on Wednesday ordered a two-week quarantine on people arriving from France, Germany, Spain, Austria and Switzerland over coronavirus fears, after imposing similar measures on Italy and several Asian states.
"We are at the peak of a global epidemic," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during his announcement of the latest travel bans.
"We are in a better situation than other countries because... we have taken strict, very strict measures, to slow the spread of the virus," he added.
Israel currently has 15 confirmed cases of the virus but no deaths, with some 7,000 others already in home-quarantine.
The Jewish state previously issued quarantine instructions for all arrivals from mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Macau, South Korea, Japan and Italy.
In elections on Monday, thousands of people under quarantine voted at special polling stations staffed by officials in full protective gear.
The health ministry on Wednesday ordered a ban on public gatherings of more ..

Israel orders quarantine for arrivals from several European nations

Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion Ruth Jebet has been banned for four years after testing positive for banned blood booster EPO, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced Wednesday.
Hit with a provisional ban in 2018 after a positive test on December 1 2017, the Kenyan-born Bahraini has the right to appeal the four-year suspension.
As it stands the 23-year-old will not be able to defend her title at the July 24-August 9 Olympics in Tokyo.
After winning gold in Rio in 2016, she went on to set a new world record in the Paris Diamond League meet of 8min 52sec 78sec, a mark since smashed by Kenya's Beatrice Chepkoech (8:44.32) in July 2018.

Four-year doping ban for Olympic women's steeple champion Jebet

US media tycoon Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday he was quitting the Democratic primary race and instead endorsing frontrunner Joe Biden for the White House after being snubbed by voters on Super Tuesday.
"Three months ago, I entered the race for president to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump -- because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult," he said in a statement.
The billionaire former mayor of New York spent hundreds of millions of dollars on his presidential run, but failed to win any of the 14 states on offer on Super Tuesday -- the most important day in the Democratic primary season.

Billionaire Bloomberg suspends campaign, endorses Biden: statement

As governments across Europe prepare for a sustained battle against the new coronavirus, a relatively small EU agency is becoming increasingly important.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is on the frontline of the fight against the virus in Europe that has infected more than 3,300 across the continent so far.
It has entered emergency mode to respond to the virus, working long days in their corononavirus hub in nondescript offices in Stockholm, where the agency is based.
Working with member states and public health agencies, it takes a broad view of disease control, anticipating how an epidemic moves and where appropriate measures need to be taken.
It is not looking at "the sickness of a single patient, but the epidemic overall", Josep Jansa, head of the section for epidemic intelligence and response, told AFP.
The agency then sets up guidelines -- such as when it is appropriate to test for the virus in patients -- so that medical resources are used ...

EU agency takes centre stage in fight against coronavirus

The EU's top diplomat on Wednesday promised an additional 170 million euros in aid for vulnerable groups in Syria in a visit to Turkey, which has demanded greater assistance over the conflict.
"We have announced a 170 million additionally in humanitarian aid to continue assisting the most vulnerable people in Syria," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters, following meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top officials.
He said 60 million euros (USD 66.7 million) of that would go to addressing the humanitarian crises in northwest Syria.

EU offers 170mn-euro Syria aid during Turkey visit

Jihadists killed 14 security personnel and civilians in an attack on a military base in northeast Nigeria's Borno state on Wednesday, security sources told AFP.
Suspected Boko Haram fighters in trucks fitted with machine guns launched a dawn raid on the army base in the town of Damboa, sparking intense fighting.
Sources said six soldiers, four police officers and two members of a government-backed militia were killed along with two civilians.
"We lost six soldiers in the attack while six others were injured," a military officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The officer claimed 13 insurgents were killed by a fighter jet as they fled the area.
The leader of an anti-jihadist militia said the civilians who died were among more than 50 local residents hit by shrapnel after rocket-propelled grenades fired by the jihadists hit nearby homes.
Nigeria's decade-long jihadist insurgency has killed 36,000 people and displaced two million others inside the country, and spilled into ...

14 killed in jihadist attack on Nigeria military base

The pet dog of a coronavirus patient in Hong Kong was confirmed to be infected with the disease, in a likely case of human-to-animal transmission, authorities said on Wednesday.
The canine, which belongs to a 60-year-old woman patient, had repeatedly tested "weak positive" for the new coronavirus since Friday, when it was quarantined at an animal centre.
The city's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said repeated tests suggest the dog -- a pomeranian -- has "a low-level of infection".
The AFCD said experts from universities and the World Organisation for Animal Health have unanimously agreed that "it is likely to be a case of human-to-animal transmission".
The pomeranian has not shown any novel coronavirus symptoms the AFCD said.
All pets of people in Hong Kong infected with the coronavirus will be quarantined for 14 days, starting Friday. Two dogs are already in isolation.
The other dog in quarantine belongs to a second coronavirus patient that tested negative .

Pet dog infected with COVID-19, Hong Kong authorities confirm

Netflix and Amazon are battling a dizzying array of homegrown outfits, from Bollywood producers to broadcasters, for dominance of India's streaming market, a key target as growth in Western countries slows.
As more Indians shift to viewing movies and shows online, industry revenues from streaming in the country are set to jump from $500 million in 2018 to as much as $5 billion in 2023, according to Boston Consulting Group.
With many Western markets saturated and Asia's top economy China effectively closed off to foreign streamers, a nation of 1.3 billion where phone ownership is forecast to rocket makes for a tantalising prize.
"India is super important, for both Netflix and Amazon," Tony Gunnarsson, a streaming analyst from consultancy Ovum, told AFP at the recent Asia TV Forum in Singapore.
"Netflix... need to continue to generate new subscribers, and there is no better place than India." But the US giants face tough competition in the vast, ethnically and religiously diverse ...

Streaming titans seek passage to India for new growth

Women working in Britain must wait half a century to bridge the gender pay gap, the head of the nation's union umbrella organisation the Trades Union Congress warned Wednesday.
"Our economy is stacked against working women," said TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady on the first day of its women's conference.
"At this rate, it will take another 50 years to close the gender pay gap. No more excuses: government must get on and sort the gender pay gap now." The TUC said March 4 was the first day that the average working woman in the UK was "paid".
"The average woman effectively works for free for two months of the year compared to the average man," it added.
The TUC said the gap -- or percentage difference between the average male salary and the average female salary -- stands at 17.3 per cent.
"This pay gap means that women have to wait 63 days before they start to get paid on Women's Pay Day today," the organisation noted.

UK gender pay gap to last another 50 years: union chief

A second case of novel coronavirus has been confirmed among the staff at European Union institutions in Brussels, a European official told AFP on Wednesday, just hours after the first.
The victim works in a security unit of the European Council, which represents EU member states, and is believed to have been in contact with a previous case in Belgium, he said.

Second coronavirus case in EU Brussels institutions

A first-edition copy of Isaac Newton's groundbreaking book laying out his three laws of motion, which became the foundation for modern physics, has been found at a library on the French island of Corsica.
Vannina Schirinsky-Schikhmatoff, director of conservation at the Fesch public heritage library in Ajaccio, said she discovered the copy of the 17th-century work while studying an index from the library's founder Lucien Bonaparte -- one of Napoleon's brothers.
"I found the Holy Grail in the main room, hidden in the upper shelves," she told AFP this week.
"The cover has a little damage but inside it's in excellent condition -- this is the cornerstone of modern mathematics," she said.
The Latin text, "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) was first published by Newton in 1687.
The renowned physicist was famously inspired by seeing an apple fall from a tree in his garden in Grantham, England, which sparked his elaborations of the ...

Rare Isaac Newton manuscript discovered in Corsican library

A medal awarded to a former heavyweight boxer for helping to thwart the attempted kidnapping of Queen Elizabeth II's daughter Anne sold for 50,000 pounds (USD 64,000, 57,900 euros) at an auction on Wednesday.
Ronnie Russell was given the George Medal -- Britain's highest civilian award for bravery -- for punching assailant Ian Bell twice in the head when he tried to seize Princess Anne in 1974.
The burly former fighter, 72, put the award up for sale to pay for funeral costs after falling ill.
The medal had been expected to fetch up to 20,000 pounds when it went under the hammer at London auction house Dix Noonan Webb. But a private collector bought it for 50,000 pounds.
"For something I thought that I would never sell, I never believed it would sell for this amount," Russell said after the sale.
"I am absolutely blown away with this price and it gives me opportunities to do things that I never thought we could."
The queen told Russell when he received the award: "The medal is from the 

Princess Anne kidnap hero's gallantry medal sold for 50,000 pounds

Napoli's Italian Cup semi-final second leg against Inter Milan scheduled for Thursday has been postponed as the coronavirus epidemic continues to hit the country.
The Italian league said the game would be played at an unknown date in the future.
"The president of Lega Serie A announces that this match has been postponed to an undetermined date in the future," Serie A said in a statement.
Serie A added that it had acted in accordance with an order from the Prefect of Naples calling for the game to be delayed.
Napoli lead the semi-final 1-0 after the first leg.  Inter Milan's clash against league title rivals Juventus last weekend was also postponed.

Napoli v Inter Italian Cup semi-final postponed over virus fears

In Elizabeth Warren's Houston campaign office, one early morning in February, volunteers bustled around arranging chairs in a circle and tacking Spanish-language posters to the walls.
They were soon joined by a dozen Latino voters, come to discuss the Democratic White House race - with days to go until "Super Tuesday" on March 3, when Texas and 13 other states vote to pick a challenger to President Donald Trump.
For an hour and a half, people of all ages -- seniors, young adults, families with children -- talked about immigration, healthcare and their experiences as Latinos living in a state where they make up a third of the electorate.
"A lot of the time, we are kind of ignored as a community," said novelist Ariane Navarro, joined for the event by her husband and their two children.
"I'm surrounded by educated Latinos, and we all believe that we do have a voice and we can make a change in Texas," the former teacher told AFP.
Most of all, Navarro is keen to help her younger family ...

In Texas, Democrats do battle for Latino vote

Americans eager to know which Democrat will face President Donald Trump in November's election may have a clearer view after "Super Tuesday" - sure to be a defining moment in the race.
Four of the country's 50 states have already voted, but March 3 is the biggest day of the entire presidential primary process, with tens of millions of Americans eligible to cast ballots.
It could be a turning point when frontrunner Bernie Sanders secures an insurmountable lead - or former vice president Joe Biden secures a dramatic comeback.  Success on Super Tuesday requires a tremendous ground game, top-notch fundraising and serious momentum.
Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar will likely have to face a daunting choice Wednesday morning: defy the odds and keep going, or bow out.
Here are a few things to watch for on Super Tuesday:
Fourteen battlegrounds
The states in play span the nation, from sparsely populated northeasternmost Maine to California, the progressive west coast powerhouse whose ...

What you need to know about 'Super Tuesday'

Any national election campaign in the vast United States needs an army of volunteer workers if it is to have much hope of success.
The billionaire Michael Bloomberg, a Democratic hopeful in this year's presidential race, went about recruiting his own "army" in an unusual way, relying on goodwill generated over the years by his own activism and his millions of dollars of charitable donations.
Healthcare, education, the environment, gun control... the former New York mayor -- one of the richest people in the world -- has long put his fortune in the service of those and other causes, financing organizations whose members are now more than willing to repay their benefactor through their own time and effort.
Among them are the many militant members of the group Moms Demand Action (MDA), an anti-gun violence campaign founded after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
They provide much of the energy behind the Everytown for Gun Safety lobbying group, ...

Years of giving and activism help Bloomberg raise an army of backers

Myanmar soldiers swooped on several illicit drugs labs to seize nearly $27 million of narcotics, chemicals and equipment, military newspaper The Myawady said Monday, the biggest bust so far this year.
Photos showed hundreds of barrels, bags and other containers recovered in the operation in what is believed to be the world's largest methamphetamine producing nation.
Troops raided several sites over the weekend in Kutkai township of eastern Shan state after receiving a tip-off, the newspaper said.
They found around 18 million tablets, about 33 kilograms of heroin and 281 barrels of acids hidden in a ground pit alongside other equipment, including stoves, tablet-making machines and vehicles.
"It's the biggest seizure this year," a police officer from the anti-drugs department told AFP, asking not to be named.
Myanmar's multi-billion dollar drug industry is centred in Shan in the country's east, where the poppy-covered hills also hide illicit production labs.
High-grade crystal meth -- ..

AFP

AFP

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