Rifat Chadirji, known as the father of modern Iraqi architecture, died late Friday in the United Kingdom after contracting the novel coronavirus, friends and Iraqi officials have said.
The 93-year-old architect and photographer is credited with designing some of Iraq's most well-known structures, including the iconic "Freedom Monument" in the now protest hub of Baghdad's Tahrir Square its name.
"He was a giant of 20th century Iraq," said Caecilia Pieri, a scholar focusing on Baghdad's modern architecture who knew Chadirji well.
Top Iraqi officials including President Barham Saleh and caretaker premier Adel Abdel Mahdi mourned him on Saturday.
"With the death of Rifat Chadirji, architecture in Iraq and the world has lost its modern lung," Saleh wrote.
Born in Baghdad in 1926, Chadirji studied in London and returned to Iraq in the 1950s to design his magnum opus -- an elegant arch entitled "The Unknown Soldier" -- as well as the capital's post office and other public buildings.
But when 

Father of modern Iraqi architecture dies of COVID-19

PTI Automatic

The United States became the first country to report more than 2,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day, marking a grim milestone as billions around the world celebrated the Easter holiday weekend under lockdown from home.
The global death toll from the virus surged past 103,000 on Friday, with the United States quickly becoming the epicentre of the pandemic that first emerged in China late last year.  Europe has so far shouldered the majority of all deaths and infections -- though there were signs of hope the curve could be starting to flatten in some of the hardest-hit countries.
Numbers out of Madrid offered a glimmer of hope Saturday: 510 new deaths, a dip in fatalities for the third day in a row.  In France, nearly 1,000 new deaths were confirmed Friday but the country reported a drop in the number of intensive care patients for a second day running.
Italy meanwhile said the number of daily deaths was starting to level off -- though the government resisted pressure to lift its ...

US reports highest daily virus toll as Easter opens in lockdown

Paris Saint-Germain winger Pablo Sarabia says that beating the coronavirus would be the "real victory of the season", with most professional football shut down due to the pandemic.
France's Ligue 1 was suspended on March 13, with PSG sitting 12 points clear of Marseille at the top of the table, while having also reached the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2016.
But Spanish international Sarabia says public health has to come first ahead of getting back onto the pitch.
"No, I'm not afraid about that (the season not restarting), it's not the thing I am worrying about," he told AFP.
"I am thinking about my family first and foremost and then about getting this sorted. This is a critical situation.
"Who knows right now whether the league will restart or not -- it is hypothetical and we all need to focus on the pandemic. Coming through this would be the real victory of the season."
Football players have come under pressure to take salary cuts, with Barcelona, Real ..

Beating virus would be 'real' victory, says PSG's Sarabia

An inmate was found dead Saturday after a riot and a blaze swept through a Russian prison under a coronavirus lockdown in eastern Siberia, authorities said.
Trouble erupted at penal colony No. 15 in Angarsk on Thursday with authorities blaming prisoners, while human rights activists said inmates self-harmed en masse to protest systematic mistreatment.
On Friday, the work yard of the colony was engulfed in flames as riot police cordoned off roads leading to the prison, turning away independent observers. The fire was extinguished by Saturday morning.
"When they cleared the debris, they found the body of an inmate," said Irkutsk region rights ombudsman Viktor Ignatenko, quoted by Interfax news agency.
"It was a violent death." The regional penal service issued a statement late Friday saying the situation is "under control" and  investigators are on site after "inmates set several buildings in the work yard on fire".
It confirmed several inmates self-harmed using glass from broken ...

Inmate found dead after Siberian prison riot: official

Kenny Dalglish's son admitted he was "truly humbled" by the messages of support that poured in from across the football world after the Liverpool legend tested positive for the coronavirus.
Dalglish found he had the virus after being admitted to hospital on Wednesday for treatment for a separate infection which required intravenous antibiotics.
The 69-year-old Scot's family said on Friday he is not showing symptoms of the disease, but Liverpool fans, current players and old stars were quick to send him their best wishes.
Dalglish's son Paul responded on Twitter, writing: "It's not my place to comment on my old man, he can do that for himself in due course.
"Truly humbling messages from supporters of all teams.
"I'm sure we can all agree this is more important than football and that we are all united as blues to support the NHS. Stay safe everyone." Dalglish's daughter, Sky Sports presenter Kelly Cates, also shared a message of thanks to fans for their kind words and well ...

Dalglish's son thanks well-wishers after Liverpool legend gets virus

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has announced a coronavirus aid package for poor people and hard-hit firms, as cases continue to rise in the war-torn West African state.
The president warned on Friday that the country's already war-battered economy was facing a shock, and declared a package worth some 500 billion CFA francs (USD 832 million).
"The government of Mali... is willing to make the greatest sacrifice to lessen the negative impact of the pandemic on our economy and society," Keita said in a televised address.
Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world and has been struggling since 2012 to quell a jihadist insurgency that has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians.
The conflict -- which has left swathes of the country outside state control -- has aggravated fears that Mali is ill prepared to tackle a large coronavirus outbreak.  Authorities have recorded 87 cases in the country so far, with seven fatalities. The government had previously declared a ...

Mali announces coronavirus aid package, maintains election date

Iran on Saturday reported 125 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the overall toll in the Middle East's worst-hit country to 4,357.
Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference that 1,837 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 70,029.
Iran has carried out 251,703 tests for the virus so far, he added.
Of those admitted to hospital, 41,947 have recovered and been discharged, while 3,987 are in a critical condition.
The update came as Iran starts reopening "low-risk" businesses in a bid to protect its sanctions-hit economy.
Iran announced its first coronavirus cases on February 19.
There has been speculation abroad that the real number of deaths and infections in the country could be higher.
In response to the health crisis, Iran shut schools and universities as well as cinemas, stadiums and revered Shiite Muslim shrines.
It also warned people to refrain from travel for the Persian New Year holidays that ended last ...

Iran says virus deaths rise 125 to 4,357

Cardinal George Pell has penned a letter in Australia's national newspaper just days after walking free from prison in which he says the Catholic Church has "cut out a moral cancer" by facing down child sex abuse.
The letter, published Saturday in The Weekend Australian, comes after the country's High Court on Tuesday quashed five counts against Pell of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in the 1990s, ending the most high-profile paedophilia case faced by the Catholic Church.
In the Easter message, titled: "In the suffering, we find redemption", Pell labels his initial conviction a disappointment but says he will turn the experience behind bars into spiritual energy.
"I have just spent 13 months in jail for a crime I didn't commit, one disappointment after another," he wrote.
"The sexual abuse crisis damaged thousands of victims. From many points of view the crisis is also bad for the Catholic Church, but we have painfully cut out a moral cancer and this is good."
The ...

Cardinal George Pell pens Easter message on redemption

France has decided to allow people outside to adopt a pet from animal shelters, despite strict home confinement measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The interior ministry announced Saturday that "tolerance will be granted" for the mercy missions from Thursday after a call from the Animal Protection Society (SPA).
The society shut its 62 centres to the public in line with official decrees to limit contact three weeks ago.
But on Monday the SPA urged a re-think and warned of overcrowding with thousands of animals waiting for a new home.
"Fully behind the cause of animal welfare, the government has heard the SPA's call and immediately shown the heart to find a sensible solution," said Interior Minister Christophe Castaner.
"It has been decided that tolerance will be granted for travel to adopt animals from shelters," the ministry said in a statement.
However, it added a series of restrictions including selecting the pet online and making an appointment for it to be collected by a ...

French to be allowed outside to adopt a pet

Equipped with a mask, gloves and tank of disinfectant spray, a popular Pristina barber has taken his show on the road to clip and coif clients who are stuck at home under coronavirus lockdown.
"People are in need," Driton Kameri, a 33-year-old with a scruffy beard and fedora told AFP, after gearing up for one of his home visits.
"You can shut down hairdressers but you cannot order hair not to grow. It needs to be cut regularly," he added.
Like most other businesses in Pristina, Kameri's hair salon was closed under measures to halt the spread of the virus in Kosovo, where six people have died and more than 200 infections have been recorded.
"The virus has no legs. Please, do not give it any," the Institute for Public Health has begged, with warnings the country's health system could buckle under a major outbreak.
In the name of keeping up appearances, however, Kameri has decided to save his customers from attempts to buzz their own hair at home.
Now he is making house calls -- though ..

Kosovo's travelling barber keeps hair trimmed in virus lockdown

After burying five elderly people in one morning, the local priest can finally remove his gloves, a job all too familiar in this central Spanish town blighted by death.
These days, they no longer publish death notices in Tomelloso, a town of 36,000 located in the arid plains of La Mancha, about two hours south of Madrid.
Before the epidemic took hold, it was a peaceful town visited by tourists following in the footsteps of Don Quixote, the delusional would-be knight in Miguel de Cervantes' 1605 novel.
Known for its vineyards, Tomelloso would normally be gearing up for its end-of-April festival celebrating the Virgin of the Vines featuring floats, fanfares and carts pulled by mules in vibrantly colourful regalia.
But things this year have been very different, with Mayor Inmaculada Jimenez saying the virus killed at least 104 of the town's residents in March alone.
"I'm speaking to you through the pain... that we all feel over the savage way this virus has brutalised our town," said the 

Death casts dark shadow over Spanish town

Publicly-funded US broadcaster Voice of America has rubbished criticism from the White House that it is promoting Chinese "foreign propaganda" on the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement on Friday, President Donald Trump's administration claimed VOA pushed Beijing's message by tweeting a video of celebrations at the end of Wuhan's quarantine measures, and noting the US had surpassed China's death toll.
"VOA too often speaks for America's adversaries -- not its citizens," the White House claimed, adding: "Journalists should report the facts, but VOA has instead amplified Beijing's propaganda." At least 18,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, compared to about 3,000 Chinese nationals, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
VOA director Amanda Bennet pushed back at the criticism -- while not mentioning the Trump administration -- noting that the broadcaster had reported on China's efforts to initially hide the coronavirus outbreak.
"VOA has thoroughly debunked much of the ...

VOA pushes back against White House 'propaganda' criticism

Passengers from an Australian cruise ship stranded off the coast of Uruguay for two weeks with more than 100 novel coronavirus infections on board arrived at Montevideo's international airport Friday.
Following an agreement between the governments of Uruguay and Australia, about 110 passengers from the Greg Mortimer are due to board a medically equipped Airbus A350 plane to take them to Melbourne and bring to an end weeks of virus nightmare.
The Australians and New Zealanders were taken along a "sanitary corridor" from Montevideo's port to its international airport after the ship was finally allowed to dock following two weeks anchored in the Rio de la Plata, around 20 kilometers off the Uruguayan coast.
"Everything (is going) as planned," Uruguay's Defense Minister Javier Garcia told reporters as he awaited the passengers' arrival at the Carrasco airport.
Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne tweeted her thanks to her Uruguayan counterpart Ernesto Talvi "for your sincere ...

Passengers from virus-infected cruise ship arrive at airport

More than 100 Australians and New Zealanders left Uruguay on a chartered flight after two weeks stranded aboard a virus-infected cruise ship, Montevideo's Carrasco airport said Saturday.
Of 217 people aboard the Greg Mortimer liner, 128 had tested positive for new coronavirus and had been blocked from docking.
An agreement between the Uruguayan and Australian governments was made to create a "sanitary corridor" to take the mostly elderly tourists from Montevideo's port to its international airport where they boarded a flight for Melbourne, bringing to an end weeks of a virus nightmare.
Television images showed jubilant passengers boarding the medically equipped Airbus A350 plane -- with one kissing the runway tarmac.
"This is (like) winning a World Cup," Uruguay's Foreign Minister Ernesto Talvi tweeted alongside a video of four buses -- flanked by a police escort with blaring sirens -- taking the roughly 110 passengers to the airport.
"Flags waving in the balconies and residents ...

Passengers from virus-infected cruise ship leave for Australia

G20 ministers struggle to finalise oil output cuts despite Trump’s efforts

The final G20 communique appeared to gloss over simmering divisions over energy policy, making no mention of output cuts and pledging simply to ensure oil "market stability"

G20 ministers struggle to finalise oil output cuts despite Trump's efforts

Business Standard

Two-time World Series winner Hunter Pence and Juan Soto of the reigning champion Washington Nationals are among 30 Major League Baseball players who began an online tournament.
"MLB The Show" features five World Series champions and 11 All-Stars in the lineup, with one player from every MLB team playing each of his rivals over about three weeks and the top eight advancing to the virtual league's playoffs.
MLB shut down real pre-season games last month and delayed the scheduled March 26 start of the 2020 campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The five who played on World Series champions include San Francisco Giants outfielder Pence, a member of their 2012 and 2014 title teams, and Soto, a 21-year-old Dominican outfielder who sparked Washington over Houston in last year's seven-game championship showdown.
Three World Series champion pitchers are also entered -- Houston's Lance McCullers from the 2017 champion Astros, Venezuelan Eduardo Rodriguez of 2018 champion Boston and Seattle's 

Pence, Soto among World Series winners in MLB online duel

Almost 650,000 businesses had applied for Germany's reduced-hours work scheme by April 6, official figures showed Thursday, with the government expecting uptake to exceed levels seen in the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
The latest figures released by Germany's federal labour agency (BA) mark a 40 percent rise in applications, up from 470,000 on the last count a fortnight ago.
BA president Detlef Scheele said that it was impossible to say exactly how many individual employees would be placed on the scheme, but said it would be "signficantly" more than the peak of 1.4 million seen during the financial crisis.
The government itself expects uptake to be as high as 2.1 million people this time around.
Known as "Kurzarbeit", the scheme is a crucial tool in Germany's plan to keep labour market structures intact as the economy grinds to a halt.
First tested in the financial crisis, the measure tops up from government coffers the pay of workers placed on shorter hours by their employer, ...

German partial unemployment 'to exceed 2009 crisis level'

Nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb says he has no trouble finding ways to lift his spirits and pass the time during  coronavirus-enforced lockdown.
Dirt-biking through the kitchen, driving Formula 1 on a games console, and embarrassing co-driver Daniel Elena on social media, are among the diversions Frenchman Loeb has found under lockdown at his home in Switzerland.
Loeb last competed in the Monte Carlo rally in January, the opening round of the World Rally Championship.
He has never been behind the wheel for his Hyundai team since, with the season now on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With time on his hands Loeb has adopted new pursuits.
These include riding his dirt bike around his swimming pool, up the garden steps and through his kitchen in the Swiss sunshine.
The video has been seen more than 141,000 times on Instagram, giving a glimpse of how he passes his time away from his chosen sport.
"I don't do too much. A little bit of sport, PlayStation, I look after my ...

Killing time in lockdown -- rally champ Loeb eyes new challenges

From an acute shortage of regional staple couscous to a surge of confidence tricks and counterfeiting, authorities in North Africa have been busy tackling coronavirus challenges that go beyond healthcare.
For the past two weeks, Algeria's more than 40 million people have been facing a severe shortage of couscous semolina after rumours spread on social media sparked panic buying.
"I have never in my life bought a 25-kilo bag of semolina but I was afraid the situation would get worse and bakeries would close", said Fawzi, a young entrepreneur in the capital Algiers.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune tried to allay fears, declaring that semolina stocks were enough "for four or five months", but it has had little visible effect.
"I had to pay 1,700 dinars (more than $13) for the bag instead of 1,200 dinars but I had no choice", said Fawzi, who has a young daughter.
Karim Khelouiati, a cyber-security expert, told AFP that individuals stockpiling was "a human reaction". But, he added, "some ...

North Africa battles couscous shortage amid coronavirus profiteering

Southampton on Thursday became the first Premier League club to defer players' wages as a senior official for their union insisted they were doing their bit for the nation during the coronavirus pandemic.
Southampton's players, manager Ralph Hasenhuttl, his staff and the club's directors will defer their salaries for April, May and June.
The club said the measure would "help protect the future of the club, the staff that work within it and the community we serve".
Southampton also said they would not be using the government scheme to pay the salaries of other employees.
The decision comes amid a row about whether Premier League players -- with an average salary of three million pounds ($3.7 million) -- should be forced to give up some of their salary to help the nation.
Bobby Barnes, deputy chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), said players were being demonised by people who ignored the fact many were helping "extended families" at home and ...

First Premier League club defers wages as union pleads for fairness

Linda Tripp, the Pentagon publicist whose secret recordings of Monica Lewinsky talking about sex with president Bill Clinton led to the his impeachment, has died at 70.
Her former lawyer, Joseph Murtha, confirmed the death, and US media cited family members saying she died on wednesday after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.
Tripp was a public affairs official of the US Department of Defense when her co-worker Lewinsky, who had served as a White House intern in the mid-1990s, told her she had secretly had sexual encounters with Clinton in the Oval Office.
In conversations Tripp secretly recorded, Lewinsky said the two had had sex on numerous occasions and that she had saved a blue dress she wore during one that still had stains of Clinton's semen on it.
Tripp then took the recordings to independent prosecutor Ken Starr, who used them to expand a separate investigation of Clinton.
Clinton at first denied the relationship, declaring from the White House: "I did not have sexual ...

AFP

AFP

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