Beijing denied Monday that it was soliciting praise for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic following a report that Chinese representatives tried to earn kudos from German officials.
China has faced criticism abroad -- notably in the United States -- over the outbreak that first emerged in the central city of Wuhan late last year.
It has sent aid to European countries in recent weeks, a move seen as a charm offensive to deflect blame for the pandemic.
Citing a confidential foreign ministry document, Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported Sunday that senior officials and staff at German government ministries were invited "to speak in positive terms about China's management of the coronavirus".
The German foreign ministry recommended that all governmental departments reject such approaches, the newspaper added.
A German intelligence source told Die Welt that "Chinese officials are pursuing an intensified information and propaganda policy with regard to the coronavirus".
Asked about .

China denies seeking virus praise from Germany

PTI Automatic

Iran vowed Monday to protect its people from the economic impact of the novel coronavirus as the official death toll in the Middle East's worst-hit country passed 4,500.
The government of President Hassan Rouhani has struggled to contain the outbreak since it announced the country's first COVID-19 cases nearly two months ago.  It shut schools and universities, postponed major events and imposed a range of other restrictions, but it has stopped short of ordering lockdowns.
The government stressed the importance of striking a balance between the measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus and getting the economy back on track.
The objective was to protect "the health and lives of the population from the coronavirus and its economic and social consequences", said government spokesman Ali Rabiei.
"Intelligent (social) distancing has the same objective... we must ensure the health of society while preserving the social and economic life" of the country, said Rabiei.  "The priority ...

Iran vows to protect people from virus economic impact

Moscow authorities are issuing digital permits to reduce violations of the coronavirus lockdown as Russia on Monday reported more than 2,500 new infections, its highest daily rise yet.
Officials said that more than 800,000 passes had already been issued to people planning to travel by car or public transport ahead of the system's formal launch on Wednesday.
But they said that hackers have targeted the mayor's office website and applicants complained on social media they were not able to get a pass despite multiple attempts.  People will be assigned a special code consisting of a sequence of figures and letters -- which can be printed out or received by email -- if people report where they are planning to go.
Work passes will be valid until April 30, while passes obtained to go to a doctor or elsewhere will have to be renewed.
Police patrols will be able to check the passes on the streets and could fine people for violations.
Exempt are armed forces personnel, municipal officials and ..

Moscow tightens virus lockdown with digital travel permits

Three Turkish prisoners have died from the coronavirus, Turkey's justice minister said Monday as he announced the first cases of convicts diagnosed with the disease.
A total of 17 convicts in five open prisons have contracted the virus, Abdulhamit Gul told reporters in Ankara.
"Three of them unfortunately died during their treatment in hospital," he said.
Some convicts are sent to open prisons towards the end of their sentences to serve out the remainder of their punishment as the state prepares them for release.
They are given permission to leave for temporary periods and must accept work, according to the Civil Society in Penal System Association.
Thirteen of the sick convicts are in a good condition in hospital, Gul said, but one prisoner with chronic diseases remains in intensive care.
He did not give any further details on where the prisoners were but insisted the necessary precautions had been taken in every jail.
"There are no positive cases in closed prisons," he added.
Turkey 

Three Turkish prisoners die of coronavirus

Tottenham on Monday reversed a much-criticised decision to cut the wages of non-playing staff at the Premier League club by 20 per cent and use government money to prop up the other 80 per cent.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said at the end of March the club planned to use the British government's furlough scheme which will guarantee 80 percent of wages up to a maximum of 2,500 pound a month (USD 3,100, 2,850 euros).
That decision led to widespread criticism, including from senior political figures, as Tottenham have not yet cut the salaries of their playing squad.
"We have decided that all non-playing staff, whether full-time, casual or furloughed, will receive 100 percent of their pay for April and May. Only the board will take salary reductions," Tottenham said in a statement.
"In view of supporter sentiment regarding the scheme, it is now not our intention to make use of the current CJRS (coronavirus job retention scheme) that runs until the end of May.

Tottenham reverse controversial plans to furlogh non-playing staff

Rory McIlroy is hoping the rescheduling of the 2020 golf calendar can help him complete a career grand slam at the Masters in November.
All four of golf's majors have been affected by strict government restrictions to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The Open Championship has been cancelled and the three American majors rescheduled for the second half of the year.
Rather than its usual position as the first major of the year, The Masters will round off a hectic four months that is also scheduled to include the PGA Championship, US Open and Ryder Cup.
"The Masters means so much. Obviously it's the last major for me to win but putting that aside, it is such a special place, so many great memories already,"
McIlroy said in an Instagram Live with Nike Golf.
"I always feel there's this bit of anticipation going into Augusta, the first big event of the year. There's all this hype.
"I don't think it will feel like that this year, it will feel different but it's something I'm looking ..

McIlroy hoping schedule change leads to Masters breakthrough

A shadowy Islamist group that has terrorised northern Mozambique for more than two years has suddenly become more brazen, unmasking its fighters and openly declaring its goal of turning the gas-rich region into a caliphate.
In recent weeks, the jihadists have seized government buildings, robbed banks, blocked roads and hoisted their black-and-white flag over towns and villages across Cabo Delgado province.
"We want everyone here to apply Islamic law," a Kalashnikov-wielding group member told terrified residents in a video that appeared to have been shot in Mocimboa da Praia after a recent attack.
Mocimboa da Praia is where the militants staged their first attack, back in October 2017.
Until recently, the identity of the assailants had remained unclear and their declared intentions unknown.
But the latest videos, the jihadists no longer bother covering their faces.  "We don't want a government from unbelievers, we want a government from Allah," the group member added, speaking in the ..

xtremists in northern Mozambique declare goal of caliphate

More than 4,300 people were arrested over the weekend in Morocco for breaching emergency rules in place to combat the novel coronavirus, according to official figures.
More than half of those detained were taken into police custody.
Since mid-March, authorities have arrested 28,701 people across the North African country, 15,545 of whom have been referred to court after being held in custody, according to the country's national security force DGSN.
Penalties for violating measures in place to curb the spread of the COVID-19 disease include up to three months in jail and fines of up to 1,300 dirhams ($130), or both.
Morocco imposed a public health state of emergency on March 19, confining everyone to their homes except those with a permit to be out for work.
Last week, authorities made wearing face masks in public obligatory.
Police and security agents supported by soldiers in armoured cars have been deployed around the country, erecting road barriers and control points to enforce the .

Morocco arrests over 4,300 for breaching emergency rules

Workers in Spain's construction and manufacturing sectors cautiously returned to work Monday as the daily death toll resumed its downward trend and new infections fell to the lowest level in three weeks.
Spain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world, and saw the daily death rate fall for three consecutive days last week, only to rise again on Sunday.
But on Monday it fell again, with 517 deaths in 24 hours, putting the overall death toll at 17,489 with the number of cases now standing at 169,496.
Confirmed cases also rose by 3,477 -- the lowest daily figure since March 20 -- as Spain began reopening parts of its economy after a two-week "economic hibernation" period.
Although health chiefs say the outbreak in Spain has peaked, they have urged the population to keep observing a strict national lockdown imposed on March 14 to slow the spread of the virus.
The restrictions were further tightened on March 30 when all non-essential activities were frozen for two weeks -- largely ...

Spain death toll falls as some sectors go back to work

The worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 114,539 on Monday, according to a tally compiled by AFP from official sources.
More than 1,853,300 declared cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least 395,000 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 epicentre of the pandemic, the death toll stands at 22,109 with 557,590 infections. At least 41,831 patients have recovered.
Italy is the second worst-hit country with 19,899 deaths from 156,363 infections.
It is followed by Spain with 17,489 fatalities from 169,496 confirmed infections, France with 14,393 deaths and 132,591 infections and Britain with 10,612 ...

Global coronavirus toll rises to 114,539

Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portugal teammates have donated half of their bonus for qualifying for the Euro 2020 finals to help amateur football in the country that has been hit by the coronavirus shutdown.
The Portuguese football federation said on Monday the money would go towards a fund that it hopes will reach 4.7 million euros ($5.1 million) to help amateur clubs survive the crisis.
The federation last week decided to end the already-suspended amateur season with immediate effect, declaring the season null and void without champions, promotion or relegation.
No decision has been taken on resuming professional football but the president of the Portuguese league said in late March he was determined the season should be completed.
"It is fundamental that the championships end because it would allow some sort of normality to be restored and we could prepare for next season knowing who has qualified for international competitions, who the champions are and who is relegated," Pedro ...

Ronaldo and Portugal squad give amateur clubs financial boost

Damon Hill insisted on Monday that Stirling Moss ranks among Formula One's greatest-ever drivers even though he never won the world championship title.
Moss died on Sunday aged 90 following a long illness and tributes have poured in from around the F1 world.
The British racer was regarded as the finest driver of his era by no lesser an authority than Juan Manuel Fangio.
Fangio pipped Moss to the F1 crown three times between 1955 and 1957 and won five world titles.
England's Hill, who won the F1 crown in 1996, is also adamant Moss deserves to be placed in that hallowed company.
"He's right up there with the great names. He's up there with (Jim) Clark and with Fangio and with (Jackie) Stewart and (Lewis) Hamilton and Niki Lauda and people like that," Hill told the BBC on Monday.
"I don't think anybody regarded him as anything less than one of the greats." Moss was runner-up in the world title race four times and finished third on three occasions in a career during which he won 16 Grand .

Damon Hill hails Moss as F1 'great' despite lack of world title

Pope Francis prayed Monday for the growing number of women subjected to domestic abuse while living under coronavirus lockdown.
The Argentine pontiff livestreamed an Easter Monday prayer from his private library as the Vatican and Italy entered a second month of restrictions on most outdoor activities.
Worries about domestic abuse have spread across the world as nations force billions to stay at home to stop the spread of a disease that has officially killed nearly 115,000 people.
The pope offered a prayer to the "many mothers and sisters who find themselves locked in the house with the whole family, with children, with the elderly and the disabled.
"Sometimes they are at risk of being subjected to violence, for a coexistence in which they carry too great a burden," Francis said.
"We pray for them, that God may give them strength and that our communities can support them together with their families." Countries from Australia to France have seen surges in the number of domestic ...

Pope prays for lockdown victims of domestic abuse

The Asian Development Bank said Monday it will roll out a massive USD 20 billion package to help developing member nations weather the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The fund represents the tripling of a package announced just a month ago, which the ADB decided to boost as the scale of the contagion's impact has mushroomed.
Nearly simultaneous shutdowns across the global economy, with workers ordered to hunker down at home against the virus, have set the stage for a deep recession.
Officially reported COVID-19 cases worldwide have topped 1.8 million and claimed around 115,000 lives globally.
"The scope and the scale of the crisis make it imperative for the ADB to expand its support," bank president Masatsugu Asakawa said in a video statement.  Up to USD 13 billion in loans will be made available to help virus-hit developing members fill in budget gaps, with another roughly USD 2 billion set for the private sector.
Developing members of the bank range from Afghanistan .

ADB announces USD 20 bln virus rescue package

Iran's health ministry on Monday reported another 111 deaths from the novel coronavirus, taking the official overall toll in the worst-hit Middle East country to 4,585.
Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 1,617 new infections took the total number of cases in the country's outbreak to 73,303, of whom 45,983 had recovered.
"The trend of relatively stable and decreasing new cases of contamination, which has been observed in recent days, has also continued over the past 24 hours," he told a televised news conference.
"People must always continue to avoid unnecessary travel," he said, in order to stop the spread of the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
Iran announced its first COVID-19 cases on February 19, when it said two people died of the disease in the holy Shiite city of Qom.
But there has been speculation abroad that the real toll of the disease in the Islamic republic could be higher.

Iran reports 111 virus deaths, raising total to 4,585

The daily death toll in Spain resumed its downward trend on Monday after another 517 people died with the overall number of fatalities nearly 17,500, government figures showed.
The data also showed confirmed cases rose by 3,477 -- the lowest daily figure since March 20 -- as Spain began reopening parts of its economy with construction and manufacturing workers returning after a two-week hibernation period.

Virus death toll falls again in Spain with 517 dead: government

A month has now passed since the last football matches were played before packed stadiums in Europe, and the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic means that nobody can say with any certainty when the sport might return.
A crowd of 50,000 filled Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow on Thursday, March 12 to see Rangers lose 3-1 to Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League.
Other matches that night were played behind closed doors, or postponed altogether, as Italy announced its death toll from the virus had passed 1,000.
Fast forward 31 days and the figures make for grim reading throughout Europe, with Italy, Spain, France and the United Kingdom the worst hit. Countries across the continent are now weeks into restrictive lockdowns.
Nobody knows when sport will be allowed to restart behind closed doors let alone before crowds. The psychological impact of the current situation means many people may well now have second thoughts about mixing with vast crowds at a football match in future.
In any case, 

A month into lockdown, football forced to play waiting game

A second death from Ebola has been recorded in eastern DR Congo in the final days before a deadline, now scrapped, in which health authorities hoped to declare an end to a 20-month epidemic.
Hopes had been high that the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday would officially bring the curtain down on the country's 10th known outbreak of the notorious haemorrhagic fever.
But on Friday, a 26-year-old man was listed as having died from the disease, and a young girl who was being treated in the same health centre passed away on Sunday.
Both died in the city of Beni, an epicentre of the outbreak, the health authorities said late Sunday.
The epidemic, which began in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on August 1 2018, has claimed 2,276 lives, according to an official tally.
The outbreak can only be declared officially over after 52 days without any new cases, which is equal to twice the virus' incubation period.
The DRC has so far recorded 20 deaths out of 234 known cases of ...

Second Ebola death in DR Congo ahead of hoped-for deadline

At least six people were killed when tornadoes ripped through Mississippi on Sunday, officials said, prompting the southern US state to declare an emergency.
The tornadoes caused "catastrophic" damage, according to US media, and prompted the National Weather Service to issue its highest level of tornado alert.
Governor Tate Reeves tweeted that he had declared a state of emergency "to protect the health and safety of Mississippians in response to the severe tornadoes and storms hitting across the state."
"We are mobilizing all resources available to protect our people and their property," Reeves said, telling residents "you are not alone." The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported that all six deaths occurred in the southern part of the state.
"These are initial reports and will continue to update when info becomes available," the agency tweeted.
The Storm Prediction Center said it expected "severe thunderstorms" to continue through the night in Mississippi, as well as in ...

At least six dead as tornadoes hit Mississippi

South Korean firms will make their first shipment of coronavirus test kits to the US this week after a request by President Donald Trump, Yonhap news agency reported on Monday.
The US has more confirmed COVID-19 cases than anywhere else in the world and also has the highest toll, with more than 22,000 deaths.
In contrast South Korea was once the hardest-hit country outside China, but appears to have brought its outbreak under control with a huge "trace, test and treat" strategy.
It has tested more than half a million people in a process free to anyone referred by doctors or those who have links to a confirmed case.
The Trump administration has been accused of being slow to respond to the outbreak, although the president now regularly re-iterates that the US has tested more individuals than any other country.
After a phone conversation with him last month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Trump had asked for test kits.
A Maryland-bound US cargo flight will depart from Incheon ...

South Korea to ship coronavirus test kits to US this week: report

Two mixed martial arts (MMA) events planned behind closed doors in Singapore this month have been postponed after the city-state tightened restrictions to fight the coronavirus, organisers said Monday.
A spokeswoman for Asia's biggest MMA promotion, One Championship, confirmed that the events, on April 17 and 24, have been postponed.
Two more closed-door events next month could also be shelved because of the tougher restrictions imposed by the city-state, she told AFP.
The worldwide sporting calendar has been left in tatters because of the pandemic, which has killed more than 110,000 people and infected nearly two million.
It was still unclear about the fate of another One Championship event scheduled for May 29 in the Philippines capital Manila, which is also under a government lockdown.
"We are living through the most extraordinary of times. The good news is that these short-term restrictions will undoubtedly slow down the coronavirus, and flatten the curve," One Championship ...

AFP

AFP

Page 39 - Afp