Protective masks will be required on public transport in most parts of Germany, with capital Berlin joining a wave of federal states in ordering the measure to stem contagion of the novel coronavirus.
Berlin mayor Michael Mueller told reporters that "to be able to protect people" in trains, busses and trams, his city government intended to make "protection of the nose and mouth compulsory from April 27".
Unlike in shops, it was "not possible to ensure a distance of several metres between each person" in public transport, he said.
Following similar announcements from states including Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hamburg and Hesse on Monday and Tuesday, ten of Germany's 16 regions have now announced similar rules.
Mueller and other state premiers were keen to emphasise that improvised masks would also be acceptable.
"I said protection of the nose and mouth...it can also be a scarf," said the Berlin mayor.
Though the new rule will be limited to public transport in Berlin, other states ...

Masks made compulsory in most German states

PTI Automatic

Months after the United States killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad, it has offered millions for any details on the mysterious man filling his boots -- Hezbollah power-broker Muhammad Kawtharani.
Washington charged last week that Kawtharani had "taken over some of the political coordination of Iran-aligned paramilitary groups" formerly organised by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani.
In fact, when a US drone strike in January killed Soleimani and others in a small convoy outside the Baghdad airport, the little-known but powerful official from Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement was initially rumoured to have died alongside him.
It was quickly confirmed that Kawtharani, who has long spearheaded Hezbollah's Iraq policy, was not among those killed in the attack that brought arch enemies Tehran and Washington to the brink of war.
But rumours of his demise only proved his place among the shadowy pro-Iran brokers steering politics in Iraq, the oil-rich but ..

US zeroes in on shadowy Lebanese playmaker in Iraq

Forty-six people have died in heavy flooding that struck the town of Uvira in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said on Tuesday, giving early figures.
"The updated toll is 30 dead, but it's still very provisional," deputy mayor Kapenda Kyky Kifara told AFP, while the territory's administrator, Alexis Rashidi Kasangala, said there were 16 recorded dead and 3,600 homes that been destroyed on the outskirts of the town.

Dozens killed in eastern DR Congo floods

- Sheffield United players will defer part of their wages until the end of 2020 to help the Premier League club ride out the economic storm caused by coronavirus.
The Blades manager Chris Wilder, senior members of his coaching staff and chief executive Stephen Bettis have also agreed a wage deferral for six months.
Southampton and West Ham have agreed wage deferrals, while Arsenal became the first Premier League club to reach a deal on pay cuts with players taking 12.5 percent less for a year.
"It is a difficult period for everyone, but our football club also needs to be taken care of and I'm delighted that the players want to mirror the gesture of Chris and the staff by contributing, it confirms that they care about Sheffield United," said Bettis in a club statement.
"The players should be commended, not only for this action, but also for their role in the #playerstogether initiative with other Premier League clubs."
PlayersTogether is a charitable fund set up by Premier League ...

Sheffield Utd players defer wages till end of 2020

Football fans have the chance to showcase their skills at Wembley Stadium during the coronavirus lockdown... as part of the English FA's "Footballs Staying Home" campaign.
With sport on hold due to the coronavirus crisis, the FA is giving advice on making the most of time "off the pitch", including tips on saying safe and healthy and football activities.
The FA now wants fans to share videos of themselves and family members honing their skills from home via social media by including the hashtag #FootballsStayingHome.
They will have the chance to see their skills shown on giant screens at the home of English football, which will be streamed to millions of people worldwide via social media channels.

Fans get chance to showcase skills at Wembley

All 20 Serie A clubs on Tuesday voted unanimously to complete the Italian league season, which has been suspended for the past six weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"The Assembly of the Serie A League met this morning and confirmed, with the unanimous vote of all twenty associated clubs in video conference, the intention to complete the 2019-2020 sports season," Italy's top flight said in a statement.
It added that any resumption would "take place if the government authorises it and in full compliance with the rules for the protection of health and safety".
The Italian football federation (FIGC) will meet on Wednesday with Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora to present the medical protocol established for the resumption of competition.
It would allow players to start training again in small groups and under strict medical supervision from May 4, the date on which the government plans to start easing the lockdown measures imposed in Italy since March 10, to deal with the virus which .

Serie A clubs vote unanimously to continue season

The boss of the Bundesliga says the German league must repay the trust shown by Angela Merkel's government if football returns, as expected on May 9, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
"It is our task to repay this trust," said Christian Seifert, CEO of the German Football League (DFL).
"It is the task of the clubs, but also of the players.
"This has a lot to do with hygiene measures, it has a lot to do with behaviour in private life," Seifert said, in a video message.
"It's a matter of being particularly disciplined" With the German government slowly easing restrictions, there is hope the top two tiers of the Bundesliga can return to action.
On Thursday, Seifert will host a video conference with the top clubs to discuss how to restart league football, which was halted on March 13.
Many details are set to be finalised, including the key issue of regular testing of players.
Matches would be played in near-empty stadiums -- known as 'ghost games' in German -- with fans locked out.
Hopes .

German football 'must repay trust': Bundesliga boss

COVID-19 has overshadowed the climate crisis as governments scramble to protect the health of citizens without cratering their economies, but the pandemic could still open a fast-track pathway -- albeit a narrow one -- to a greener, low-carbon future, experts say.
The Chinese term for "crisis" (weiji) is famously composed of two characters, one meaning "danger" and the other "opportunity".
For now, economists see a lot more of the former than the latter.
What the IMF has called the "Great Lockdown" will likely slice $9 trillion off of global growth over the next 20 months, and lower projected GDP in 2020 by more than 6 per cent.
And that is an optimistic scenario, according to the global lender of last resort. If the pandemic extends into 2021 -- as well it might -- GDP "may fall next year by an additional eight percent," IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said in a blog post last week.
In the short-term, coping with COVID-19 is understandably the singular focus of leaders around the ..

Pandemic cuts both ways for climate change

Greece quarantined a migrant hotel and a nearby town on Tuesday after 150 people tested positive for the new coronavirus.
A total of 148 asylum seekers staying at the beachfront hotel and two staff members tested positive but are asymptomatic, said Nikos Hardalias, deputy minister for civil protection.
The town of Kranidi -- some 166 kilometres (104 miles) southwest of Athens -- would be put under a two-week quarantine and a night-time curfew, Hardalias said after an emergency meeting with local officials.
He said there were "many children" among the 470 asylum seekers at the hotel, which lies about five kilometres from Kranidi.
The asylum seekers hail from sub-Saharan Africa, according to the migration ministry, which said a pregnant woman from Somalia was the first resident to test positive.
A hotel employee had earlier tested positive for the virus but had not gone to work for the past 12 days.
The hotel was locked down on April 16 but residents had previously moved freely to ...

Greece locks down migrant hotel after virus outbreak

Half of the world's school and university students affected by class closures because of the coronavirus outbreak -- from pre-primary to university level -- do not have access to a computer for home-schooling, the UN's educational agency said Tuesday.
Highlighting "startling digital divides" between the rich and poor, a UNESCO statement added that 43 percent of young people have no access to internet at home.
This means roughly 826 million students have no home computer and some 706 million no internet at a time when "distance learning" is the only option available for most, with school closures in 191 countries of the world, UNESCO said.
"Disparities are particularly acute in low-income countries: in sub-Saharan Africa, 89 percent of learners do not have access to household computers and 82 percent lack internet access," the agency said.
The figures are based on data from UNESCO's Institute for Statistics and another UN agency, the International Telecommunication Union.
About 56 ...

Half of world's locked-down pupils lack computer: UN

At least seven people have been killed and 85 injured in flash flooding in Yemen this month, the UN said Tuesday, as the coronavirus threat also looms over the war-torn nation.
Yemen announced its first case of COVID-19 on April 10, and aid organisations have warned that its health system -- all but collapsed since a conflict between the government and Huthi rebels broke out in 2014 -- is ill equipped to handle the crisis.
"Heavy rains and flooding across northern governorates, including Marib, in mid-April led to casualties and damaged property and sites for internally displaced persons," the UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA said.
"Initial information indicated that seven people -- five women and two children -- were killed in the flooding and another 85 people were injured, including seven who were seriously injured and hospitalised."
The rebel-held capital Sanaa and districts in the same governorate "have been badly affected", it added.
Storms also hit other provinces, ...

At least seven dead in Yemen flash floods

Italy's booksellers and publishers warned the government Tuesday that the country risks developing "cultural deserts" unless their industry is supported to deal with the consequences of the coronavirus lockdown.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has allowed bookstores to reopen after a six-week suspension of almost all business activity across Italy.
Conte is set to announce this week which other shops and industries can resume operations when the current restrictions end on May 3.
But the publishing industry association said the reopening has not spared booksellers the "most serious crisis in the post-war era".
It said 64 percent of the Mediterranean country's publishers had either furloughed their workers or intended to do so.
The nation of 60 million was on the brink of developing "cultural deserts, especially in the economically weaker areas of the country", the association said.
The Italian government has introduced a "cultural bonus" programme that awarded 18-year-olds 500-euro (USD 

Italy's booksellers warn of 'cultural deserts' in pandemic

Israeli air strikes late Monday in the area of the central Syrian city of Palmyra killed nine fighters loyal to the Iran-backed Damascus regime, a war monitor said Tuesday.
Those who died in several missile strikes included three Syrians and six foreigners of unknown nationalities, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Since the start of the civil war in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria targeting government troops as well as allied Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Syrian state media had said that Syrian air defences late Monday downed Israeli missiles over Palmyra in the central Homs province before they could reach their targets.
Contacted by AFP, an Israeli army spokesperson declined to comment.
Israel has repeatedly vowed to impede any Iranian encroachment in war-torn Syria across its border.
Monday's attack came hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met President Bashar al-Assad ..

Israeli strikes in Syria kill 9 pro-regime fighters: monitor

Oil-price turmoil gripped traders once more Tuesday, a day after US crude futures crashed below zero for the first time as the coronavirus crisis crippled global energy demand and worsened a supply glut.
The commodity rout also sent world equity markets spiralling lower, as investors fretted it could compound a deep global economic downturn that has been widely forecast as a result of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.
WTI had Monday collapsed to an unprecedented intra-day low of minus USD 40.32.
Negative prices mean traders must pay to find buyers to take physical possession of the oil -- a job made near-impossible with the world's storage capacity at bursting point.
This week's massive sell-off came ahead of Tuesday's expiry of the May contract. Most trading has moved to the June contract.
"Ever thought that it could be imaginable to see the price of US oil valued at less than a pizza? Or even a slice of pizza? How about for it to actually cost to sell US crude?" said Jameel Ahmad, head .

Oil market in turmoil as equities slump

Wall Street stocks opened sharply lower Tuesday as the oil market remained under pressure and more large companies withdrew their earnings forecasts due to the uncertain economic outlook.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.2 per cent at 23,129.42.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 1.8 per cent to 2,773.72, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.2 per cent to 8,457.84.

US stocks open sharply lower amid pressure on oil market

Iran on Tuesday announced 88 new deaths from the novel coronavirus as the country said it had released more than 1,000 foreign prisoners over the outbreak.
According to health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour, the latest fatalities in the past 24 hours brought the total to 5,297, in one of the world's deadliest outbreaks.
The foreign prisoners were among 100,000 inmates temporarily released in several stages since March.
They included British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, arrested in 2016 and serving a five-year jail term for sedition.
"What Iran has done in guaranteeing prisoners' health and granting furlough to them is a significant move" compared with what other countries had done, said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.
A panel of UN human rights experts last week called on Iran to expand the list of inmates it has temporarily released over the COVID-19 outbreak to include "prisoners of conscience and dual and foreign nationals".
It also raised concerns ...

Iran records 88 new virus deaths, has freed prisoners

An 800-bed hospital that was hastily built to treat coronavirus patients has opened outside Russia's capital Moscow, city officials said on Tuesday.
The clinic, 70 kilometres (40 miles) south of Moscow, was inspired by a coronavirus facility in the Chinese province of Wuhan, officials said, and was built in a month.
"Unlike similar facilities that open in many countries to fight COVID-19, this in-patient facility will work on a permanent basis," Moscow city hall said in a statement.
"After the pandemic is over any types of infections will be treated here." Cranes and heavy building equipment still dot the site and construction work is still going on, an AFP journalist who visited the facility on Monday said.
Yet the hospital already employs 500 staff and has admitted its first 20 patients, city hall said.
The clinic may expand its capacity by 100 beds and will eventually employ more than 1,000 medical specialists, the statement said.
The complex is equipped with a lab and a dormitory .

Moscow unveils Chinese-inspired coronavirus hospital

Spain's best-known bull running festival in the northern town of Pamplona has been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, Pamplona city hall said Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands of people typically attend the centuries-old San Fermin celebration, which sees half-tonne fighting bulls chase hundreds of daredevils, many wearing traditional white shirts and scarves, though the narrow streets of the city each morning.
Pamplona's municipal council decided to call off the event, held each year between July 6 and 14, because "the fight against COVID-19 has become a global priority and there is no other possible option for such massive festivities," a statement said.
People flock to the city from all over the world to test their bravery and enjoy the festival's mix of round-the-clock parties, religious processions and concerts.
Sixteen people have been killed in the bull runs since officials began keeping track in 1910.
The last death was in 2009 when a 27-year-old Spaniard was gored in 

Coronavirus gores Pamplona bull-run

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia said Tuesday it was closely monitoring the oil markets and ready to take any additional measures after prices hit historical lows.
q"The kingdom continues to closely monitor the situation in the oil markets and is prepared to take any additional measures in cooperation with OPEC+ and other producers," the cabinet said in a statement cited by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi says closely monitoring oil markets, ready to act

China has reached an agreement with South Korea to set up a "fast track" for businesspeople to travel between the countries as Beijing looks to ease an entry ban on foreigners imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
With the deadly disease spreading globally, China last month blocked almost all foreigners from entering as authorities fretted over cases being imported from abroad.
Beijing is also in talks with other countries including Singapore to set up a similar channel to stabilise economic cooperation and ensure supply chains run smoothly, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a press briefing Tuesday.
The virus, first discovered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has since spread like wildfire and killed more than 167,000 people worldwide with cases reported in over 190 countries.
But there are signs that China is looking to relax some of its controls as the measures used to curb the pandemic place a huge economic strain on nations worldwide.
"China is 

China to ease entry ban on foreigners with South Korea 'fast track'

The coronavirus pandemic could nearly double the number of people around the world facing acute hunger, the UN's World Food Programme warned Tuesday.
"The number of people facing acute food insecurity stands to rise to 265 million in 2020, up by 130 million from the 135 million in 2019, as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19," the WFP said its projections had shown.
The warning came as the WFP and other partners released a new report on food crises around the world.
The fourth annual Global Report on Food Crises found that food insecurity was already on the rise last year before the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis.
It found that 135 million people in 55 countries were in living in situations of acute food crises or outright humanitarian emergencies last year.
The increase by more than 20 million people takes it to a record level in the four years the report has been compiled.
The report is due to be presented later Tuesday to the UN Security Council by the UN's Food and ...

AFP

AFP

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