Manchester United coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insisted on Tuesday it was unfair to single out footballers over the issue of pay cuts during the coronavirus pandemic and said they are an "easy target".
England's wealthy top-flight stars have come under fire over their lack of action, with British Health Secretary Matt Hancock calling for them to take a cut and "play their part".
The Premier League has urged players to accept wage reductions of 30 percent but ongoing talks have hit a stumbling block.
Professional Footballers' Association boss Gordon Taylor said his members had "agreed to play their part" and Solskjaer said it was time to stop criticising players.
"For me football is an easy target sometimes," Solskjaer told Sky Sports.
"For me it's unfair to call on any individual or footballers as a group because I already know players do a great amount of work in the community, and players are doing a lot to help this situation.
"Discussions are taking place between players and clubs, .

United boss Solskjaer says players are 'easy target' in pay row

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Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova said she enjoyed her first outdoor training on Tuesday as the Czech government reopened sports grounds to ease its COVID-19 measures, but she complained practicing with no goal felt 'weird'.
Kvitova's native Czech Republic, which reported 4,828 COVID-19 cases including 80 deaths on early on Tuesday, closed borders, pubs, most shops as well as sports facilities in March to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday, the government said it would ease measures related to sports, recreation and leisure time ahead of this weekend's Easter holiday.
"Frankly, it feels very weird, motivation is at zero right now, and I don't know what to aim my training at," Kvitova said in a recording provided by her Sparta Prague club.
"So I'm rather trying to keep my body in shape," the 30-year-old current world number 12 added.
Kvitova spent the month of confinement doing exercises at home and running as well as reading and cleaning.
"This was my first opportunity 

Kvitova relishes 'weird' training return with no goal

WhatsApp on Tuesday placed new limits on message forwarding as part of an effort to curb the spread of misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.
The new policy limits users to forwarding certain messages to one "chat" at a time, aiming to limit the rapid propagation of content which is provocative but likely to be false.
The Facebook-owned messaging platform said it took the action to enable people to concentrate on personal and private communications during the health crisis.
In recent weeks, "we've seen a significant increase in the amount of forwarding which users have told us can feel overwhelming and can contribute to the spread of misinformation," WhatsApp said in a blog post.
"We believe it's important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal conversation."
Last year, WhatsApp set limits on forwarded messages to five chats at a time, "to constrain virality," responding to events in India where the rapid proliferation of unverified ...

WhatsApp tightens sharing limits to curb virus misinformation

The price of Easter chocolates and cakes have spiked online in Italy, a consumer protection group warned on Tuesday as the country prepares to celebrate the upcoming holiday in lockdown.
Price hikes of up to 168 percent on Easter treats have been seen online, Federconsumatori said, calling on the government to crack down on price gouging.
Italy, one of the world's coronavirus hotspots, has imposed strict confinement measures and Italians are restricted to shopping at the stores closest next to them.
Online shopping and delivery has exploded as people avoid going out. Prices on festive items purchased by many Italians for Easter, an important holiday in the Catholic country, have only risen modestly in stores, however, according to Federconsumatori.
The price of a "Colomba di Pasqua," a Panettone-like cake in the form of a dove eaten at Easter costs on average 9.69 euros (USD 10.50) in a physical store but can reach prices of 19.90 euros or even 19.99 euros online, the group said in a .

Eggcessive price hikes for Easter treats in virus-hit Italy

Iranian health officials cast doubt on Tuesday on China's reporting of its novel coronavirus toll, saying the figures appear to be too low.
"After the virus spread, it became evident it wasn't as China reported," said Minoo Mohraz, a health ministry official who is also a member of Iran's coronavirus-fighting taskforce.
"They're currently retracting many of their articles and their figures and studies have not been very correct," she said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.
"With what we know of their scientific studies... their figures are not trustworthy." Another taskforce official said China's figures were "far from the truth", based on COVID-19's spread and high fatalities worldwide.
Hamid Souri, an epidemiologist, said "distorted data leads to distorted decision-making".
Iran's health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour came under fire on Sunday after saying China's reporting of its COVID-19 figures was a "bitter joke".
He was slammed on Twitter by the Chinese ambassador to ...

Iran health officials cast doubt on China virus tolls

Saudi Arabia's health minister on Tuesday warned of a huge spike in coronavirus cases of up to 200,000 within weeks, state media reported.
The warning comes a day after the kingdom extended the duration of daily curfews in multiple cities, including the capital Riyadh, to 24 hours in a bid to limit the spread of the deadly virus.
"Within the next few weeks, studies predict the number of infections will range from a minimum of 10,000 to a maximum of 200,000," the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing health minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah.
Rabiah, who warned the kingdom faces a "critical moment" in the fight against the virus, said the projection was based on four studies by Saudi and international experts.
Saudi Arabia has so far reported a total of 2,795 infections and 41 deaths from the disease, according to the latest tally released by the health ministry on Tuesday.
The kingdom, which has reported the highest number of infections in the Gulf, is scrambling to limit the spread of .

Saudi expects virus cases to spike to up to 200,000: minister

President Donald Trump's chief spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham, who never held a single press briefing in a White House where Trump runs much of the communications himself, stepped down on Tuesday.
The White House said Grisham would now become spokeswoman and chief of staff for Trump's wife Melania.
"First Lady Melania Trump is today announcing that Stephanie Grisham will be rejoining the East Wing full time as chief of staff and spokesperson," a statement said.
Grisham took up the once high profile job of White House press secretary in June last year but has been largely invisible since.
"My replacements will be announced in the coming days," she said.

Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham steps down: White House

Some 1.25 billion workers are seeing their livelihoods threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations said on Tuesday, warning it was the "worst global crisis" since World War II.
In a fresh study, the International Labour Organization warned that the global spread of the new coronavirus and the drastic measures taken to rein in the disease would, during the second quarter of 2020 alone, wipe out 6.7 per cent of working hours globally.
That is equivalent to 195 million full-time workers, the UN agency pointed out.
The study comes as the number of cases of the new coronavirus, which first emerged in China late last year, soared past 1.35 million worldwide, including more than 75,500 deaths, according to a tally compiled by AFP from official sources.
The report found that the Asia Pacific region would see the greatest loss in hours worked, with the equivalent of 125 million full-time jobs obliterated there over the next three months.
"The pandemic is having very serious ...

Workers facing worst crisis since WWII amid pandemic: UN

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson battled the coronavirus in intensive care on Tuesday as death tolls in the United States and Europe reached new heights from the pandemic sweeping the world.
His case has highlighted the global reach of COVID-19, which has put more than half of the planet on some form of lockdown, upended societies and wrecked economies worldwide.
The disease's relentless march across the planet has now claimed more than 75,500 lives out of more than 1.35 million confirmed cases, with warnings that much worse is yet to come.
The number of daily deaths in Spain shot up to 743 on Tuesday, after France on Monday recorded a new surge of 833 fatalities and Italy saw its death toll rise after days of dropping.
New research showed Britain's toll on a steeper trajectory than other nations and predicted as many as 66,000 deaths there by July, far more than Italy.
Johnson himself was moved into intensive care when his condition worsened 10 days after his diagnosis. His ...

British PM in intensive care as global virus deaths soar

Wall Street stocks opened higher on Tuesday, surging for a second straight session amid hopes governments are making progress in combatting the spread of the coronavirus.
About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 23,380.75, up 700 points or 3.1 per cent.
The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 2.7 per cent to 2,735.25, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 2.2 per cent to 8,084.82.
Analysts said the gains reflected less bleak coronavirus case figures in key hotspot regions, such as New York city and Italy.
But many analysts are taking the surge with a grain of salt.
"It is gleeful that we could be nearing the worst of the coronavirus from a health standpoint," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.
But he cautioned that sentiment might be "too far ahead of itself with an assumption that things will go back to normal when the stay-at-home orders are lifted".
Analysts expect more market volatility ahead as companies announce additional cutbacks ...

US stocks open much higher on hopes virus spread limited

Major League Baseball and its players union are showing interest in a plan that could allow the season to start in May at several stadiums in Arizona, ESPN reported Tuesday.
The idea, unnamed sources told the US sports network's website, has the support of top federal public health officials who think all 30 clubs could operate safely despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The plan would have teams play at empty outdoor stadiums in the Phoenix area where several teams conduct pre-season spring training and Chase Field, the retractable-roof home stadium for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Players, managers and coaches, umpires and others would be sequestered at area hotels, living in relative isolation with travel only to and from the stadium, essentially in a bubble to be kept from the public.
"I think there would be an adjustment but we would follow suit," retired MLB star and television commentator Alex Rodriguez told ESPN.
"Players want to play and fans want to watch." The MLB season .

MLB, players union eye plan for May restart in Arizona: report

Iran's Parliament convened on Tuesday for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak forced its doors to close, as the country reported a drop in new infections for the seventh straight day.
More than two-thirds of the legislature's 290 members gathered in the absence of speaker and veteran politician Ali Larijani, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
At least 31 members of the Parliament, or Majles, which had been shut since February 25, have contracted the disease.
State television footage of the opening session showed some MPs huddling together despite guidelines on social distancing to stop the spread of the virus.
Parliament debated and eventually blocked an urgent bill to totally lock down the country for a month, with those against arguing it would damage the economy.
"This plan is against jobs and growing productivity. Who's going to pay for implementing it?" MP Shadmehr Kazemzadeh said, according to the semi-official news agency ISNA.
But Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, ...

Iran reopens Parliament as virus infections drop for seventh day

Global stock markets posted strong gains for a second straight session Tuesday as investors seized on signs of a slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus, while some governments began making plans to ease restrictions.
"Investors are betting that the coronavirus outbreak may have peaked and are ignoring the economic slump that we are in," said Fawad Razaqzada, an analyst with Trading Candles.
But Razaqzada also said he "wouldn't be surprised if the rally were to end abruptly because the economic impact of COVID-19 is going to be severe".
In the meantime, oil was energised by hopes that key producers will agree to cut output at this week's emergency OPEC+ video meeting, which will address virus-sapped demand and a price war.
Following on from gains in Asian and European equities, Wall Street also posted solid gains shortly after the opening bell, with the DJIA up more than 800 points.
"Equities are still racing higher, as the news from key countries like Spain and Italy remains ...

Stock markets surge ahead on virus fight hopes

Saudi Arabia's health minister on Tuesday warned of a huge spike in coronavirus cases of up to 200,000 within the coming weeks, state media reported.
"Within the next few weeks, studies predict the number of infections will range from a minimum of 10,000 to a maximum of 200,000," the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah.

Saudi expects up to 200,000 virus cases within weeks: minister

The European Union is to put up 15 billion euros (USD 16.4 billion) to help poor countries fight the coronavirus epidemic, the bloc's chief announced on Tuesday.
European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said the money would help countries with weak healthcare systems tackle the impact of COVID-19 and also aid their long-term economic recovery.
Beating the pandemic in Europe alone is not enough, officials say, pointing out that if coronavirus continues to rage elsewhere in the world, it will simply return in time.
"We will only win this battle with a coordinated global response," von der Leyen said in a video posted on Twitter.
"This is why the European Union is securing more than 15 billion euros to help our partners worldwide to fight coronavirus." The brief video did not give details of where the money would come from nor which countries would benefit.
But officials have previously identified Africa as a concern because of its links to Europe and the poor state of healthcare in 

EU announces 15 bn euros to fight virus worldwide

A 101-year-old woman crept out of an old people's home in a bid to get to visit her daughter on her birthday, German police said Tuesday.
Officers intercepted her after she had escaped via an emergency exit at the home in northern Germany.
Brunswick police said they were called out after the enterprising senior lost her way in her search for her daughter's house in a suburb.
Although she claimed that she lived with her daughter, officers suspected the truth.
When they brought her to the house, the daughter explained that her mother had moved into the old people's home only two weeks before and had been "missing her daughter terribly".
Police said the elderly woman was able to see her daughter -- from the safety of the patrol car's window -- before they brought her back to the home.
Germany has been under nationwide lockdown for more than two weeks, with gatherings of more than two people in public banned and most businesses and institutions.
Old people's homes have been closed to ...

101-yr-old German woman escapes senior home amid virus lockdown

China last year became the world leader in international patent filings, unseating the United States which had held the top spot for more than four decades, the UN said Tuesday.
A record 265,800 international patent applications were filed last year, a hike of 5.2-percent from 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organisation said in its annual report.  WIPO's complex system of registering international patents involves multiple categories.  In the main category -- the Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT -- China topped the ranking for the first time, with 58,990 applications.  It thus overtook the United States, which filed 57,840 applications, and which has topped the PCT ranking since the system took effect in 1978.  China and the United States were followed by Japan, Germany and South Korea as the world's top patent application filers, WIPO found.  "China's rapid growth to become the top filer of international patent applications via WIPO underlines a long-term shift in the locus ..

China becomes world's top patent filer: UN

Officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro have divided public opinion by preparing more than 600 graves for coronavirus victims ahead of anticipated deaths.
The Dnipro mayor's spokeswoman Yulia Vitvitska told AFP the city had dug 615 graves and readied 2,000 body bags in preparation for COVID-19 fatalities.
At least 100 new plots could be seen in a large field surrounded by forest at a cemetery lined with orthodox crosses outside the city.
Ukraine has confirmed 1,462 coronavirus cases and 45 deaths, according to official statistics.
Dnipro has reported 13 infections and no deaths.
"We are preparing for the worst," mayor Borys Filatov said on his Facebook page last week.
Filatov said medical workers will be prohibited from carrying out autopsies on those believed to have died from the virus.
Instead, patients who die will be placed in sealable body bags and buried in closed coffins after being disinfected, he said.
Ivan Krasikov, a local activist, said the mayor's comments had .

Ukrainian city prepares hundreds of graves for coronavirus victims

Stuck at home with no visitors and not much else to do, a pair of pandas in Hong Kong finally decided to give mating a go after a decade of dodging the issue.
Like half the planet, Ying Ying and Le Le have only really had each other for company since coronavirus-caused lockdowns shut off the flow of guests to their themepark pad.
And like couples everywhere, they've been making the best of the time on their own.
"Since Ying Ying and Le Le's arrival in Hong Kong in 2007 and attempts at natural mating since 2010, they unfortunately have yet to succeed until this year upon years of trial and learning," said Ocean Park conservation official Michael Boos.
The park released photos of the pair embracing in an enclosure uncharacteristically free from prying eyes and cameraphones.
Pandas are notoriously bad at reproducing, especially in captivity.
But vets had their hopes up when the monochromatic lovers started showing an interest in each other during the short spring mating season.
For those 

Pandas use lockdown privacy to mate after a decade of trying

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will consult scientists Tuesday about ways to safely end a month-long lockdown aimed at stemming a pandemic that has killed thousands and left millions unemployed.
Conte's videoconference with the government's scientific committee comes one week before Italy's economically-crippling closure of most businesses and factories is set to expire.
Few expect it will.
The shutdown and an accompanying ban on almost all outdoor activity has helped slow the spread of a novel coronavirus that has officially claimed a world-topping 16,523 lives.
The daily reported toll reached 969 on March 27 and has since levelled off.  But health officials warn that the outbreak appears to have peaked only because of the various closures and bans.
They insist on keeping the containment rules in place as long as possible -- perhaps until a vaccine is developed or some reliable tests can show who has immunity against the new disease.
Italian businesses counter that they cannot 

Italy ponders ways to break crippling virus lockdown

- Sweden on Tuesday reported another 114 coronavirus deaths, bringing the total to 591 in a country that has adopted a softer approach to containing the outbreak than some of its European neighbours.
Sweden's Public Health Agency said it had recorded a total of 7,693 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country of around 10 million people.
It reported 114 new deaths on Tuesday, an uptick from preceding daily tolls, but cautioned that some of the fatalities occurred in previous days.
State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said Tuesday the country has been averaging an average of "a little over 40" deaths a day.
He added that Sweden saw a slight decrease in the number of daily new confirmed cases of the new coronavirus over the last few days, but said it was to early to say whether numbers had peaked.
Sweden has not imposed extraordinary lockdown orders seen elsewhere in Europe to stem the spread of the virus, instead calling for citizens to take responsibility to follow social distancing ...

AFP

AFP

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