German FA chief Fritz Keller has insisted the Bundesliga could only resume next month behind closed doors, while supporters have questioned the morality of football returning at all during the coronavirus pandemic.
The German Football League (DFL) hopes to get the go-ahead from Angela Merkel's government for the top two tiers to resume next month -- possibly on May 9 or 16.
There are hopes a decision will be made Thursday after the 36 clubs in the first and second divisions meet via video call.
German football was halted on March 13 to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus in Germany, which currently has 141,672 confirmed cases and 4,404 deaths as a result of the pandemic.
"This week, important decisions will be made on how to proceed," Keller told Kicker.
With large public events banned in Germany until August 31, the only viable option for league action to resume next month would be in empty grounds -- dubbed 'ghost games' in German.
"We are very much aware that football without 

'Ghost games' only option for Bundesliga return: German FA chief

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Increasing numbers of professional footballers are struggling with anxiety and depression having been forced out of action with the sport suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by global players' union FIFPro released on Monday.
FIFPro surveyed 1,602 players across 16 countries, including England, Scotland, France, Australia and the United States, with 468 female players featured in the study.
It found that 13 percent of male players surveyed, and 22 percent of female players, reported symptoms of depression. Close to one in five of both male and female players reported symptoms of anxiety.
"In football, suddenly young men and women athletes are having to cope with social isolation, a suspension of their working lives and doubts about their future," said Vincent Gouttebarge, a French former player who is FIFPro's chief medical officer.
While many countries have gone into strict lockdowns in attempts to slow the spread of Covid-19, Gouttebarge pointed out that 

Report highlights growing concern of depression among footballers

Italian tennis player Fabio Fognini has revealed he would like wife Flavia Pennetta to follow in the footsteps of another former US Open champion, Kim Clijsters, and make a comeback to the sport after having a child.
Pennetta, 38, retired soon after winning the US Open in 2015, and the couple have two young children, three-year-old Federico, and a daughter Farah born last December.
"I'm trying to get Flavia back in 2021, like Kim Clijsters," Fognini told Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
"I spoke to (Francesca) Schiavone and (Corrado) Barazzutti, they train her and I manage them, I already have the tournament programme ready." Pennetta won 28 WTA titles during her career, reaching a career-high number six ranking in singles and number one in doubles.
The couple returned to their home at Arma di Taggia, south of Genoa after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
And the 11th-ranked Fognini, who won the Monte Carlo Masters last year, said he could not see the 2020 tennis season ...

Fognini wants wife Pennetta to make comeback like Clijsters

The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating diplomatic "fractures", heightening US-China rivalry and weakening multilateralism, France's foreign minister said in an interview published on Monday.
"It seems to me that we are witnessing an amplification of the fractures that have been undermining the international order for years. The pandemic is the continuation, by different means, of the struggle between powers," Jean-Yves Le Drian told Le Monde newspaper.
"My fear is that the world after (the outbreak) will strongly resemble the world before, but worse." Led by the United States, criticism has been mounting in the West over China's management of the outbreak which has killed more than 164,000 people worldwide and hammered the global economy.
The United States is now the country hardest hit by the epidemic, which broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December before spreading worldwide.
China has denied concealing any outbreak information or lying about its death toll, and has ...

France says virus exacerbating global diplomatic rift

Germany will cover the cost for treating novel coronavirus patients taken in from European Union neighbour countries as a gesture of goodwill, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Monday.
Germany has been spared the worst of the coronavirus crisis seen in some of its hard-hit European neighbours, and has taken in patients -- mainly from France -- to relieve pressure on their overburdened healthcare systems.
A total of 229 foreign patients have been treated in Germany, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said Monday -- 130 from France, 44 from Italy and 55 from the Netherlands.
Their treatment has so far cost about 20 million euros ($21.7 million), according to Spahn.
"Germany will cover the treatment costs of these patients, that is what we understand by European solidarity," Spahn said ahead of a meeting of ministers tackling the virus crisis on Monday.
"The willingness and capacity is there to admit more if necessary," he added.  The number of coronavirus deaths and infections in ...

Germany to cover costs of foreign virus patients

Myanmar shipped hundreds of recently released Rohingya inmates back to the country's restive western borderlands on Monday, after fears that its overcrowded prisons could become hotbeds for runaway coronavirus outbreaks.
Men, women and children belonging to the stateless and long-persecuted Muslim minority were among nearly 25,000 prisoners freed last week by a presidential pardon to mark the country's April New Year celebrations.
A Navy vessel transported the group from Yangon to western Rakhine state, where most Rohingya live under tight movement restrictions and in conditions Amnesty International has condemned as "apartheid".
More than 600 disembarked near state capital Sittwe, while another 200 were taken further north to townships on the border with Bangladesh, state immigration department chief Soe Lwin told AFP.
"They will be quarantined," he added, without giving further details.
Myanmar's biggest prisoner release in years came as coronavirus fears gripped the country, with ..

Myanmar ships 800 freed Rohingya prisoners back to Rakhine

Dutch electronics giant Philips announced Monday net profits plunged in the first quarter due to the coronavirus outbreak but pinned its hopes on an explosion of orders for medical equipment to boost its coffers.
Amsterdam-based Philips, which has abandoned its home appliance arm in order to focus on the health sector, said its net profit sunk by 75.93 percent year-on-year to 39 million euros (USD 42 million) -- a result it said had been considerably impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic.
The pressing demand for ventilators and other medical equipment around the world to fight the coronavirus epidemic saw the group's orders jump by 23 percent on a comparative basis, it said.
Philips said it was now focused on the production of ventilators to help COVID-19 patients breathe, in particular in the United States where the Dutch company has several factories.
While the firm expects a boost to its medical equipment business, Philips said the pandemic has led to a "sharp drop" in income in its ...

Philips pins hopes on ventilator sales

New York oil crashed Monday to nearly $11 per barrel, the lowest level since 1998, extending a dizzying plunge to almost 40 percent on abundant supplies and virus-sapped demand.
Just before 1200 GMT, the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery tanked to USD 11.31 per barrel, as the market was hit also by technical trade ahead of the contract's expiry later Monday.

US oil price plunges almost 40 per cent to 22-year low

Norwegian Air said Monday four of its subsidiaries in Sweden and Denmark had filed for bankruptcy, affecting some 4,700 pilots and crew, as a result of the economic impact of the new coronavirus.
"It is heartbreaking that our Swedish and Danish pilot and cabin crew subsidiaries now are forced to file for bankruptcy, and I'm truly sorry for the consequences this will have for our colleagues," Jacob Schram, chief executive of Norwegian Air, said in a statement.

Norwegian Air cuts 4,700 staff in subsidiary bankruptcy

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said Monday that leagues across Europe were ready to return to action behind closed doors in a bid to limit the damage caused by coronavirus.
Football leagues have been suspended since mid-March due to the pandemic which has claimed more than 100,000 lives throughout the continent.
But the head of European football believes that playing would be an important step towards a return to normal life and avoid heavy financial losses for leagues.
"I believe there are options that can allow us to restart cup championships and to complete them," Ceferin said in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
"We may have to resume without spectators, but the most important thing, I think, is playing games.
"It is early to say that we cannot complete the season. The impact would be terrible for clubs and leagues. Better to play behind closed doors than not at all.
"In such hard times it would bring happiness to people and a certain sense of normality even .

UEFA president Ceferin said leagues ready to play behind closed doors

The worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 165,216 on Monday, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
More than 2,403,410 declared cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December.
Of these cases, at least 537,700 are now considered recovered.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.
Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.
In the United States, now the worst-hit country, the death toll stood at 40,683 with 759,786 infections. At least 70,980 patients have recovered.  Italy is the next most affected country with 23,660 deaths and 178,972 confirmed infections.
It is followed by Spain with 20,852 fatalities and 200,210 confirmed infections, France with 19,718 deaths and 152,894 infections and Britain with 16,060 .

Global coronavirus toll tops 165,000

Spain's economy is likely to crash by between 6.6 percent and 13.6 per cent in 2020 as a result of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the Bank of Spain warned on Monday.
The estimated contraction would be "unprecedented in recent history" even if the figures were subject to "huge uncertainty" depending on how long the current lockdown lasts, the central bank said in a statement.
Spain imposed a tight lockdown on March 14 to slow the spread of the virus which has so far killed more than 20,800 people, the third-highest number of deaths in the world after the United States and Italy.
The Bank of Spain said the estimates were "provisional" and would likely be modified in the coming months in line with the evolution of the pandemic, envisaging a number of different scenarios.
If the lockdown was limited to just eight weeks, ending on May 9 in line with the current government directive, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would contract by between 6.6 per cent and 8.7 per cent.
But that could reach 

Spain economy to shrink by up to 13.6% in 2020: Bank of Spain

After five weeks without setting foot on land due to coronavirus restrictions, 168 passengers from a luxury Italian cruise ship disembarked in Barcelona on Monday, ending a highly unusual world trip.
Since the luxury liner set sail on January 5 from the northern Italian city of Venice on a round-the-world tour, not a single case of coronavirus has been found on board.
With some 1,800 passengers, the 12-deck Costa Deliziosa docked early Monday to allow Spanish passengers to disembark on its penultimate stop before heading back to Italy.
The 300-metre ship entered port after receiving the green light from Madrid, just days after French officials refused to let it disembark some 460 passengers at the southern port of Marseille.
"The boat has arrived. All the Spanish nationals have disembarked and are on their way home," said a spokesperson for vessel owner Costa Cruises.
Those authorised to leave disembarked in small groups and were bussed to the city centre, said an AFP correspondent ...

After weeks at sea, tourists leave cruise ship in Barcelona

Manchester United captain Harry Maguire believes the Red Devils are on the right track towards contending for the Premier League title again.
United have not won the league since Alex Ferguson retired as manager in 2013 and were a mammoth 37 points behind leaders Liverpool when the Premier League season was put on hold due to coronavirus last month.
However, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men were on an 11-match unbeaten run before the shutdown with Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka beginning to repay the lavish sums spent on them last summer and January signing Bruno Fernandes making an immediate impact.
"I knew when I first came to Manchester United that Ole said to me loads and loads it's a building process but we'll be where we want to be." Maguire told Sky Sports.
"There are plenty of aspects we need to improve to get to the top of where we want to be. We don't want to be challenging for this Champions League spot, we want to be challenging for titles.
"We know there's still a lot of ...

Maguire confident Man Utd on course to compete for titles again

Chinese star Wu Lei hailed the selfless actions of medical staff on Monday after the Espanyol forward was diagnosed with coronavirus last month in Spain.
China's football association said on March 21 that the country's best player was infected but the 28-year-old said he had only light symptoms which quickly disappeared.
"Personally, from my experience of being infected by the virus, I cannot describe the respect I have for doctors and nurses who sacrifice their time and own safety to help patients recover," said Wu, according to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) website.
"I must thank them for taking such good care of me as well as to those who continue to help people affected by COVID-19."
Wu, who isolated at home in Barcelona after his positive test, urged people to follow the advice of medical experts and the World Health Organization to help stop the spread of the pandemic.
"The medical frontliners have and will always be heroes so please do not let their efforts go to ...

China's Wu Lei thanks medical staff after coronavirus

A total of 399 people died of COVID-19 in Spain over the past 24 hours, down from 410 a day earlier, the government said on Monday.
The latest figures also showed the number of cases soaring to 200,210 in Spain, which has suffered the third-highest number of virus deaths in the world after the United States and Italy.

Spain daily virus death toll drops under 400

The Taliban have killed at least 23 Afghan troops and nine civilians, officials said Monday, as a fresh wave of violence grips Afghanistan despite a deal with the US and a worsening coronavirus crisis.
Under the terms of the US-Taliban deal, the Afghan government and the insurgents were by now supposed to have concluded a prisoner exchange and started talks aimed at bringing about a comprehensive ceasefire.
But the stalled prisoner swap has been beset with problems -- with Kabul claiming the Taliban are demanding the release of some of the group's most notorious warriors -- and peace talks seem as elusive ever amid ongoing attacks.
Late Sunday night in Takhar province in northeast Afghanistan, the Taliban struck an Afghan army base, killing 16 soldiers and two policemen, provincial police spokesman Khalil Asir told AFP.
The governor's spokesman, Mohammad Jawad Hejri, confirmed the attack and also blamed the Taliban, putting the death toll at 19.
In the south, the Taliban attacked a ...

Dozens dead in fresh wave of Taliban violence in Afghanistan

Italian scientists want the government to conduct psychological tests on a sample of the population to determine how long people can stay confined to their homes, a report said Monday.
The Corriere della Sera newspaper said scientists want to understand how long Italians "are able to endure a lockdown" in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.  Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will announce a new set of social guidelines this week that could include the tests, the report said.
Italy entered into a progressively more restrictive lockdown over the first half of March that has since been replicated by most European nations.
The Mediterranean country's 60 million citizens have been barred from walking more than 200 metres (650 feet) from their homes without a significant reason.
Reports of domestic abuse have surged and scientists worry about the impact of such isolation on the elderly and the more vulnerable.
Conte's government is now debating how it can lift the stay-at-home order and ...

Italy mulls psychological tests to gauge lockdown impact

China's deputy public security minister, who was placed in charge of security affairs for protest-wracked Hong Kong in 2017, is being investigated by the country's anti-graft body for alleged corruption.
Sun Lijun was being investigated for "serious violations of discipline and the law" -- a euphemism for corruption -- according to China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
The notice, published late Sunday, did not give details on the alleged wrongdoings.  Sun, 51, was last seen in public in early March in Wuhan, the city at the epicentre of China's coronavirus outbreak, the official People's Public Security Daily reported.
He had also visited Hubei province -- where nearly 3,900 have died from COVID-19 -- in February to encourage frontline police officers, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
On top of his main role, Sun was appointed director of the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan office under the ministry of public security in December 2017.
Hong Kong was shaken by ...

Top China official for Hong Kong security probed for corruption

Playing to empty stadiums, Taiwan has managed to keep its baseball league running during the coronavirus pandemic -- but social distancing went out of the window on Sunday when a game descended into an on-field brawl.
The island has been held up as a model for how to battle the virus outbreak.
Despite its close proximity and economic links with China, it has just 422 confirmed cases and six deaths.
As a measure of its success, Taiwan has one of the few professional sports leagues in the world still operating, and a new international audience starved of games back home.
But on Sunday night, fans following on TV watched as the Rakuten Monkeys against Fubon Guardians erupted in a bench-clearing brawl.
The melee broke out after Fubon pitcher Henry Sosa hit in-fielder Kuo Yen-wen in the hip with an inside ball, the fourth inside pitch at Kuo.
"There are some tempers exploding out there right now," an English-speaking commentator said on Eleven Sports Taiwan, which has started broadcasting .

Social distancing takes a hit as Taiwan baseball teams brawl

Novak Djokovic has said he would be against a compulsory coronavirus vaccination if it became a requirement for tennis players to travel to tournaments.
"Personally I'm against vaccination. I wouldn't like that someone forces me to get a vaccine in order to be able to travel," the world number one said late Sunday.
The Serbian star was speaking from Spain, where he is in lockdown with his family, in a video conference held on his Facebook for Orthodox Easter.
"We (players) will have to travel. I think it will be the number one challenge," the 32-year said.
"If it (vaccination) will become compulsory what will happen? I will have to take a decision," on whether to get a vaccine or not, he said.
"This is my opinion at the moment. Whether it will change I don't know."
There is currently no vaccine for the virus that has claimed some 165,000 lives around the globe, though labs around the world are racing to develop a treatment.
Like the rest of the sporting world, tennis has been on pause 

AFP

AFP

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