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 ...

Coronavirus could double number facing acute hunger: UN

PTI Automatic

Singapore has launched a probe into an oil trading firm that allegedly covered up hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, police said Tuesday.
Hin Leong Trading has been a major force in oil markets for decades and its predicament highlights the fallout from weeks of chaos on crude markets caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Demand has been strangled as governments around the world scramble to halt the spread of the virus with lockdowns and travel bans, leading to massive falls in oil prices.
The company sought court protection from creditors last week after the price collapse crippled revenues and prompted banks to call in debts, Bloomberg News reported.
But the court filings showed the company, which owes nearly four billion dollars, had concealed about $800 million in losses over the years, the report said.
It said the company's founder Lim Oon Kuin had ordered the firm to hide the losses incurred from futures trading.
The company also sold some of the fuel it had offered as ...

Singapore police probe oil trading giant

Africa must move swiftly to prevent a looming food crunch caused by coronavirus disruption for small-scale producers, the head of a UN agency says.
"People in lockdown no longer have access to public transport systems, to seeds, to informal markets, to sell their goods or buy inputs such as seed and fertiliser," said Gilbert Houngbo, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
"The closure of major highways and bans on exports could also harm food systems," he told AFP in an interview.
"The breaking of logistical chains is one of the biggest problems to resolve," he said. "We have to act right now to prevent a health crisis from becoming a food crisis." IFAD specialises in help for poor rural populations, seeking to strengthen food security and employment through low-interest loans and grants.
The agency on Monday said it had committed $40 million ($36.91 million euros) to a fund called the COVID-19 Rural Poor Stimulus Facility, aimed at easing the impact of ...

Time short for avoiding African 'food crisis': UN's IFAD

Authorities in Greece have locked down a migrant hotel housing 470 asylum-seekers amid reports Tuesday that scores of residents tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The migration ministry said a pregnant woman from Somalia living at the hotel in Kranidi, 166 kilometres (104 miles) southwest of Athens had tested positive.
News reports said Tuesday that scores of other asylum-seekers staying at the hotel, which is supervised by the International Organisation for Migration, had also tested positive.
The International Organisation for Migration said it had "interpreters, psychologists, social workers and legal counsellors... in constant contact with all stakeholders to support in this challenging situation".
The 28-year-old woman had been placed under "complete isolation in her room" and the entire hotel is under lockdown, the ministry said.
A hotel worker had tested positive for the virus but had not come to work for the past 12 days, the ministry said.
Some 100,000 asylum seekers ...

Virus outbreak at migrant hotel near Athens

Bakary Meite's story of volunteering at a Paris hospital during the coronavirus pandemic has been seen, heard and read across the world, but the Ivory Coast back-rower remains humble about his efforts.
Meite, 36, has been helping out cleaning wards in the west of the city where he was born since late-March and has been interviewed by the BBC, numerous national radio and television stations as well as newspapers.
More than 20,000 people have died from COVID-19 in France and over 30,000 are in hospital across the country as of Monday with the capital's larger region the worst hit.
"My acts have been brought to the fore in the media but it's the personnel involved every day in the hospitals that you have to praise," he told AFP.
"It's the carers, the nurses, the cleaners... those with which I work now and who will still be there when I've stopped," he added.
After returning from holiday in Brazil the Parisian who plays for second-tier side Carcassonne and qualifies for the Ivory Coast ...

Back-rower to hospital cleaner - Meite joins France's fight against coronavirus

Spain's best-known bull running festival in the northern town of Pamplona, held annually between July 6 and 14, has ben cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, city hall said Tuesday.
Over one million people 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.

Spain's Pamplona bull-run festival called off over virus

Talented Canadian teenager Alphonso Davies says it is a "dream come true" to extend his Bayern Munich contract until 2025, joining Thomas Mueller and coach Hansi Flick who have also prolonged their involvement with the German champions.
Davies is the latest Bayern star offered an extension after Mueller and Flick both recently signed new contracts until 2023.
Davies, 19, was originally signed until June 2023, but the versatile teenager has impressed this season, both on the left wing and at left back.
"I'm very happy. Bayern Munich is one of the best clubs in the world, and for me it's a dream come true to play here," Davies said in a statement.
"I want to win as many titles as possible with this club.
"The mentality of always wanting to win everything is in FC Bayern's DNA."
Davies was born in a refugee camp in Ghana in 2000, his parents fled the civil war in Liberia and the family moved to Canada when Davies was five years old.
He joined the German giants from Vancouver Whitecaps in 

Teenager Davies extends Bayern Munich deal

Former UK Athletics performance director Neil Black, who defended Mo Farah's involvement with now-banned coach Alberto Salazar, has died at the age of 60, the governing body announced on Tuesday.
Black left his role last year after US authorities handed down a four-year doping ban to Salazar, who ran the Nike-backed Oregon Project training group in Portland.
Salazar worked closely with British distance runner Farah, who won four Olympic gold medals on the track, two at London 2012 and two more at Rio four years later.
A British Athletics statement read: "British Athletics is shocked and saddened to confirm the loss of our friend and former colleague Neil Black, who passed away suddenly at the weekend.
"Neil loved the sport of athletics and dedicated his life to supporting athletes -- as a world-class physiotherapist, as head of sport science, and then in recent years as performance director for British Athletics."
Black was in charge when UK Athletics appointed Salazar, whom he once ..

Former UK Athletics chief Neil Black dies aged 60

A band of Singapore superheroes created to help in the coronavirus fight has been shelved after internet users criticised the campaign for being too light-hearted and for mocking Liverpool football club.
The "Virus Vanguard" featured comic-book characters including "Dr Disinfector", "Fake News Buster", and "Must Always Walk Alone (MAWA) Man" -- a jibe referring to the English Premier League side's anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone".
The initiative devised by the government and local artists was aimed at encouraging people to follow rules to combat a worsening virus outbreak, but social media quickly lit up with mockery and anger.
Late Monday, the government announced on its Facebook page the campaign was under review, while a picture of the characters disappeared and was replaced by their silhouettes.
"We have received quite a lot of feedback on the characters and we will be reviewing them. We are sorry if we offended anyone," the post said.
One user described the outfit as "too ...

Singapore shelves virus superheroes after backlash

A Myanmar government health worker was injured and his driver killed when their United Nations-marked vehicle was ambushed as they were carrying COVID-19 test samples in conflict-ridden Rakhine state, the UN said Tuesday.
The country's northwest has been embroiled in an increasingly brutal civil war between Myanmar's military and Arakan Army rebels demanding more autonomy for the state's ethnic Rakhine population.
The area has endured a strict lockdown for months, making independent reporting difficult.
Both the military and insurgents blamed each other for the attack, which happened early Monday evening at a bridge near the town of Minbya.
The pair had been travelling in a UN vehicle while transporting COVID-19 surveillance samples, the organisation said, adding it was "deeply saddened" to confirm the death of driver Pyae Sone Win Maung.
The driver had promised to ring his parents, said father Htay Win Maung.
"He asked me not to call him when he was driving," he told AFP by phone, ...

Driver killed in attack on UN vehicle in Myanmar's Rakhine

Food insecurity was on the rise last year and the coronavirus crisis is likely to further exacerbate the situation, according to the Global Report on Food Crises released Tuesday by the United Nations.
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 Agricultural Organization and World Food Programme.
Comparing the 50 countries in the reports this and last year, the number of people in food crisis rose by nearly 10 percent to 123 million people.
The increase was due to conflicts, economic shocks and weather-related events such as drought.
The report found another 183 million were at risk of slipping into food crisis "if confronted by an additional shock or stressor".
While data 

Food insecurity rising even before coronavirus: report

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 170,000 people globally, close to two thirds of them in hardest-hit Europe, according to an AFP tally Tuesday at 0935 GMT.
In total, 170,226 people have died from the virus around the world, including 106,737 in Europe. With 42,364 deaths, the United States has the highest mortality rate, followed by Italy with 24,114 fatalities and Spain's 21,282. France has 20,265 deaths and Britain 16,509.
There are 2,483,086 recorded cases around the world, though the number of actual infections is believed to be higher since many countries are only testing the most serious cases.
The figures have been compiled by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Global coronavirus deaths top 170,000: AFP tally

American football superstar Tom Brady was found exercising in a Florida city park closed due to the coronavirus and kicked out, the local mayor said.
Brady, 42, moved to Tampa recently after signing a contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, closing a successful two-decade stint with the New England Patriots.
During a daily update Monday on the virus, Tampa mayor Jane Castor said a warden spotted someone exercising alone in one of the city's parks, which are closed to prevent help curb the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
"She went over to tell him that it was closed and it was Tom Brady," she said.
"Sorry @TomBrady! Our @tampaparksrec team can't wait to welcome you and our entire community back with even bigger smiles -- until then, stay safe and stay home as much as you can to help flatten the curve" the city said on its Twitter account.
Brady, married to Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, announced on March 20 that he was leaving the Patriots after winning a record six titles and .

NFL superstar Brady kicked out of park closed due to virus

Chinese telecom giant Huawei said Tuesday its revenue grew at a sharply slower rate of just 1.4 percent in the first quarter, when the coronavirus and efforts to contain it shut down China's economy.
The figures released by unlisted Huawei are among the first by a major Chinese corporation to provide a glimpse of the scale of the business impact from the pandemic, which emerged in China in December before spreading globally.
January-March revenue came in at 182.2 billion yuan ($25.8 billion), a year-on-year increase of 1.4 percent, compared with growth of 39 percent reported during the same period in 2019, the company said in a statement.
The first-quarter net profit margin came in at 7.3 percent, compared to around eight percent last year.
Huawei -- the world's top supplier of telecom networking equipment and number-two smartphone maker behind Samsung -- did not directly attribute the slower revenue growth to the coronavirus, which froze consumer spending and global supply ...

Huawei revenue growth slows sharply in virus-afflicted Q1

World Rugby has welcomed the decision of the Fiji Rugby Union to stand down chairman Francis Kean from the World Rugby Council after accusations of "rampant homophobia".
The move also means Kean, who was convicted of manslaughter in 2007, is no longer a candidate for the World Rugby Executive Committee.
A report in Britain's Sunday Times said Kean had been accused of "rampant homophobia", with the newspaper saying they had heard a recording of him making offensive remarks when he was in charge of the Fijian prison service.
The Fiji Rugby Union has seconded Bill Beaumont's bid to serve a second four-year term as World Rugby chairman, with the former England captain being opposed by Argentina great Agustin Pichot.
World Rugby on Monday launched an investigation into the allegations against Kean and on Tuesday acknowledged the steps taken by the FRU.
"World Rugby takes all allegations of behaviour that is not in keeping with the sport's strong and inclusive values and bye-laws extremely .

Fiji rugby boss steps down after homophobia accusations

The families of four passengers who were killed in the helicopter crash with NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna have launched legal proceedings against the firms that owned and operated the chopper, media reports said.
The lawsuits were filed Sunday in the Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of the families of basketball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri and their 13-year-old daughter Alyssa -- who played basketball with Gianna -- and of assistant coach Christina Mauser, the TMZ website said.
The complaints accuse Island Express Helicopters and Island Express Holding Corp. of negligence.
Bryant's widow Vanessa filed a lawsuit nearly two months ago against the operators of the helicopter and the estate of the pilot, Ara Zobayan, who was among the nine killed when they crashed in rugged terrain west of Los Angeles on January 26.
Her complaint faults the company for allowing the helicopter to fly in "heavy fog and low clouds."
The helicopter was headed to ...

Families sue helicopter firm in Kobe Bryant crash

The Saudi stock market led Gulf bourses down on Tuesday, a day after US oil prices slumped to historic lows over sluggish demand, a supply glut and a lack of storage.
The Saudi Tadawul stock market, the largest in the Arab world, dropped 2.1 per cent at the start of trading before recovering some of the losses. Less than an hour after opening it was trading down 0.9 per cent.
Energy giant Saudi Aramco was 1.3 per cent lower, well below its listing price.
The Dubai Financial Market dropped by 2.3 per cent, while its sister bourse in Abu Dhabi was down 2.1 per cent. Qatar bourse dropped 0.7 per cent.
In Kuwait, the Premier index slumped 1.3 percent while the All-Shares index was down 1.0 per cent.
The small Muscat bourse dipped 0.9 per cent while Bahrain stocks were flat.
US crude prices made a partial recovery on Tuesday after trading at historic lows, diving below zero the previous day for the first time due to paralysed demand and a glut that overwhelmed storage facilities.
On ...

Saudi stocks lead Gulf bourses down after oil slump

Apple Music is being expanded to 52 additional countries and territories in a push to broaden service revenue streams for the iPhone maker, the company said Tuesday.
The move, part of the biggest expansion of Apple services in a decade, brings Apple Music to a total of 167 markets, including 25 new African countries added Tuesday.
Costs will range from as low as $3 to $11 monthly, with a six-month free trial period in the new countries.
The expansion ramps up the global presence of Apple Music, which has some 60 million subscribers, in its duel against market leader Spotify, which has more than 120 million paid users but is available in fewer markets around the world.
Apple at the same time announced an expansion to 20 new markets of its other services, including its App Store, the Apple Arcade gaming service, Apple Podcasts and iCloud.
With the rollout, Apple services will be available in 175 countries around the world.  Until now, Apple customers in parts of the world had access to .

Apple Music expands to 52 new countries in global services push

US crude prices bounced back into positive territory Tuesday, a day after crashing below USD 0.00 for the first time owing to crippled demand and a storage glut, while the commodity rout sent equities sharply lower.
Investors were also tracking developments in North Korea following US reports that Kim Jong Un had undergone cardiovascular surgery earlier this month and was in "grave danger".
West Texas Intermediate for May delivery rose to USD 1.10 a barrel after diving to an unprecedented low of -USD 37.63 in New York as the pandemic brings the global economy, transport and factory activity to a halt.
However, it later eased back to sit 30 cents higher.
The sell-off in May futures came because the contract expires later Tuesday, meaning traders needed to find buyers to take physical possession of the oil -- a job made near-impossible as storage becomes scarce.
However, focus is now on the June contract, which had trading volumes more than 30 times higher. That rose towards USD21 a ...

US oil bounces after crash but stocks suffer big losses

Former Fiji prime minister Laisenia Qarase, who was installed as leader following one coup attempt and overthrown by another, died Tuesday aged 79, a family spokesman said.
The founder of the Soqosoqo Duavata Ni Lewenivanua Party, who served as Fiji's sixth prime minister from 2000 to 2006, died in hospital after a short illness.  Qarase passed away at the Oceania Hospital in Suva early Tuesday, family spokesman Mesake Koroi told AFP.
He was a career civil servant who was appointed prime minister in 2000 after the military quashed a coup by failed businessman George Speight that had removed the government of Mahendra Chaudhry.
Qarase was a champion of indigenous Fijians and won two elections without gaining any significant support from the Indo-Fijian population.
In 2006, he was removed from power in a military coup led by Frank Bainimarama and later imprisoned on corruption charges.

Former Fiji prime minister Qarase dies

After years battling his own demons, All Black legend John Kirwan is attempting to help fellow Kiwis struggling through COVID-19 lockdown by releasing a mobile phone app he calls "a mental wellbeing coach in your pocket".
The World Cup winning winger broke one of sport's great taboos after a stellar international career when he revealed his struggles with depression, helping explode the myth that on-field glory equates to happiness off the pitch.
"I had medical depression, I was on anti-depressants -- I wanted to jump out of a window one night," Kirwan told AFP in a telephone interview.
"I've got learned experience in this space." Such is Kirwan's passion for speaking out about mental health that when he was knighted in 2012 it was his pioneering advocacy, not his exploits in a black jersey, that earned him the award.
After writing two memoirs on the topic, Kirwan has in recent years devoted himself to a more hi-tech means of communication, a mobile phone app called Mentemia.
The app .

AFP

AFP

Page 23 - Afp