The number of declared coronavirus cases in Europe topped 250,000, according to an AFP tally Thursday, more than half of which are in hard-hit Italy and Spain.
Europe is the worst-affected region in the world with 258,068 cases, including 14,640 deaths, ahead of Asia's 100,937 infections and 3,636 fatalities, according to a tally compiled from national health data and World Health Organization figures.
Italy has 74,386 registered infections and Spain has 56,188.  The global number of infections now stands at 481,230 across 182 countries, with 21,867 deaths.
The number of actual infections is believed to be higher since many countries are only testing severe cases or patients who require hospitalisation.

More than 250,000 declared coronavirus cases in Europe

PTI Automatic

Leading Malian opposition leader Soumaila Cisse has been kidnapped, the government said Thursday, in a first for a politician of his rank in the war-torn West African state.
A former finance minister and presidential contender, Cisse went missing in jihadist-ridden central Mali on Wednesday afternoon in circumstances that remain unclear.
His Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD) party released a statement later on Wednesday saying Cisse and his team had failed to turn up for an expected appointment and could not be reached by phone.
On Thursday, Malian government spokesman Yaya Sangare released a communique referring to Cisse's disappearance as a "kidnap," without offering further details.
"All the arrangements are being made to find the missing people and return them to their families," the statement said.  Two URD party members, who requested anonymity, also told AFP that the politician had been kidnapped.
Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted .

Missing Mali opposition leader kidnapped

The number of declared coronavirus cases in Europe topped 250,000, more than half of which are in Italy and Spain, according to an AFP tally Thursday at 1200 GMT.
The number of recorded cases in the continent now stands at 258,068, including 14,640 dead. Italy has 74,386 registered infections and Spain has 56,188, according to a tally compiled from national health data and World Health Organization figures.
The number of actual infections is believed to be higher since many countries are only testing severe cases or patients that require hospitalisation.

More than 250,000 declared coronavirus cases in Europe: AFP

Germany has boosted its coronavirus test rate to 500,000 a week, with the early detection helping in part to keep the country's death toll relatively low, a virologist said Thursday.
"The reason why Germany has so few deaths compared to the number of infected people can be explained by the fact that we carry out an extremely large number of laboratory diagnostic tests," said Christian Drosten, who heads the Institute of Virology at Berlin's Charite University Hospital.
"Estimates from the last days show that we are carrying out half a million tests a week," he added.

Germany ramps up coronavirus tests to 500,000 a week

A Northern Ireland man has been charged with attempting to commit grievous bodily harm after claiming to have coronavirus and deliberately coughing on police officers, the police service said Thursday.
The man was held for common assault following a domestic incident in north Belfast on Wednesday, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).  It is alleged he then told two arresting officers he had coronavirus before intentionally coughing over them.
"A 39 year-old man has been charged with common assault and two counts of attempting to commit grievous bodily harm," a PSNI spokesman said in a statement.
The man is due to appear at Belfast Magistrate's Court on the charges on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Ireland's health minister Simon Harris said he had been the victim of an apparent prank in Dublin where "a man and woman on the street" coughed at him and then "ran off laughing".
"There's absolutely nothing amusing about it -- it's quite pathetic," he remarked of the ...

N.Ireland man arrested for coughing on police officers

Australia's Great Barrier Reef has suffered "very widespread" damage after rising sea temperatures caused the third mass coral bleaching events in five years, authorities said Thursday.
The planet's largest coral reef system is worth an estimated USD 4 billion a year in tourism revenue for the Australian economy, but is at risk of losing its coveted world heritage status because warmer oceans brought about by climate change have damaged its health.
Its northern reaches suffered an unprecedented two successive years of severe bleaching in 2016 and 2017, prompting the government agency overseeing the reef to downgrade its long-term outlook to "very poor".
Some previously untouched areas had now suffered "moderate or severe bleaching", said the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which is conducting an aerial survey of the giant organism.
The damage had been less extensive around popular tourist destinations like Cairns and the Whitsunday Islands, the agency ...

Great Barrier Reef suffers mass coral bleaching event

Hong Kong police Thursday arrested an opposition politician under a colonial-era sedition law for allegedly sharing the identity of an officer who fired a baton round that blinded a journalist during protests last year.
Police said they arrested 60-year-old Cheng Lai-king on suspicion of "action with seditious intention".
"Someone posted speech that advocates violence and incites hatred," spokesman Superintendent Swalikh Mohammed said, adding that personal information on an officer and his family members was "illegally distributed".
Democratic Party district councillor Cheng, 60, shared a Facebook post which gave details of a policeman suspected to have fired the baton round that blinded a journalist during the anti-government demonstrations.
"If the police officer has a conscience, please turn yourself in. An eye for an eye," Cheng wrote in her repost.
Indonesian journalist Veby Indah suffered permanent blindness in one eye after being hit by a police plastic baton round when she was 

Hong Kong politican arrested for 'sedition' over Facebook post

The coronavirus death toll in Spain surged to 4,089 after 655 people died within 24 hours, the health ministry said on Thursday.
It was a 19 per cent increase on figures released on Wednesday.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose to 56,188 in Spain, which has the world's second highest death toll from the disease after Italy.

Spain virus death toll tops 4,000: government

World leaders are to hold online crisis talks Thursday on the coronavirus pandemic that has forced three billion people into lockdown and claimed more than 21,000 lives.
With the disease tearing around the globe at a terrifying pace, warnings are multiplying over its economic consequences, and experts say it could cause more damage than the Great Depression.
Amid squabbling between the leaders of China and the US over who is to blame, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for the world to act together to halt the menace.
"COVID-19 is threatening the whole of humanity," he said. "Global action and solidarity are crucial. Individual country responses are not going to be enough."
The global lockdown -- which also took in India's huge population this week -- tightened further Thursday as Russia announced it was grounding all international flights, while Moscow's mayor ordered the closure of cafes, shops and parks.
Tokyo's millions of citizens have been told to stay home and ...

G20 in virtual huddle as virus toll tops 21,000

Malawian Vice President Saulos Chilima has filed a lawsuit against President Peter Mutharika after he refused to fire the electoral commissioners who oversaw last year's failed election, his lawyer said Thursday.
A battle has been raging for months between the opposition and head of state over the May 21 vote, which was tainted by irregularities.
Mutharika has refused to promulgate laws to hold the new ballot and to fire members of the Malawi Election Commission (MEC), which was requested by the constitutional court in its historic judgment.
Parliament's public appointment committee also found that the commissioners were incompetent to manage fresh elections.
"Following the judgment by the constitutional court, the MEC commissioners' continued presence in the office is both unconstitutional and illegal," Chilima's attorney, Chikosa Silungwe, told AFP.
Chilima has also sued the commissioners for their refusal to resign and is seeking a stay order to stop them from working.
Silungwe ...

Malawi vice president sues president over electoral body

The World Health Organisation's (WHO) European office said Thursday it saw "encouraging signs" as Italy reported a lower rate of infections of the new coronavirus, cautioning it was too early to say whether the worst had passed.
"While the situation remains very serious, we are starting to see some encouraging signs. Italy, which has the highest number of cases in the region, has just seen a slightly lower rate of increase, though it is still too early to say that the pandemic is peaking in that country," Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, told a press conference.

WHO Europe sees 'encouraging signs' in coronavirus spread

An Italian employee of the Holy See who lives in the same residence as Pope Francis was reported Thursday to have tested positive for COVID-19 and has been hospitalised.
Several Italian newspapers with reputable sources in the Vatican said the clergyman has lived for years in the Saint Martha's guesthouse.
Il Messaggero said the person is "one of the pope's closest collaborators, an official of the Secretariate of the State, who was found to have a slight temperature after going in for a routine check".
The daily La Stampa said the unnamed person has been hospitalised in Rome and that his office has been disinfected.  Pope Francis has remained largely secluded at his residence since coming down with a cold late last month.  The 83-year-old pontiff has a small apartment in the building and takes his meals there.
He also has private meetings and occasionally moves to the Vatican library to record livestreamed messages to the world's 1.3 billion Catholics.
La Stampa said Pope Francis has 

Clergyman in pope's residence reported with virus

Moscow will close cafes, shops, parks and other non-essential services for one week starting Saturday, its mayor said on Thursday, in an "unprecedented" move to fight the spread of coronavirus.
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced a non-working week from March 28 to April 5 to keep Russians at home. But the measures imposed by Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin take the president's measures a step further.
Sobyanin had already ordered Muscovites aged over 65 to stay home starting Thursday, but stopped short of ordering a strict quarantine.
The closures announced Thursday "are not a holiday, it is a serious measure to prevent COVID-19," the mayor said in a statement on his website.
All cafes and restaurants must stop admitting customers and may only deliver food or prepare orders to go, according to the decree.
Stores selling non-essential items must close, as well as beauty salons and spas. Moscow's parks will also shut.
The mayor first hinted at the new measures in a televised ..

Moscow to shut cafes, shops in 'unprecedented' virus measure

Iran on Thursday announced 157 new deaths from coronavirus, raising the official number of fatalities to 2,234, as it slapped a ban on intercity travel to try to curb the spread.
Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour also said that 2,389 new cases have been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of declared infections in one of the world's wost-hit countries to 29,406.
"Fortunately, until today 10,457 of those infected have recovered and been discharged from hospitals," he told a news conference.
Jahanpour said that the spread of the new coronavirus and its rate of infection was "growing steadily" in Iran.
The Islamic republic imposed strict new containment measures Thursday, after weeks of public appeals largely failed to prevent hundreds of thousands of
Iranians taking to the roads to visit family for the Persian New Year holidays.  "Those who were planning to travel, cancel it right from this moment," said Hossein Zolfaghari, a senior official at Iran's ...

Iran reports 157 new virus deaths, imposes intercity ban

China has cancelled a UN Security Council meeting scheduled for Thursday in coronavirus-stricken New York as it seeks to encourage "votes by writing" while the pandemic rages on, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.
The Security Council, currently chaired by China, has not met since March 12 due to the outbreak and is deeply divided over a proposed declaration on the crisis and holding "virtual" meetings to vote on resolutions.
Council votes are usually taken by a show of hands in the same room, allowing for last minute negotiations between members.
Thursday's meeting was due to renew the mandate of UN experts responsible for sanctions imposed on North Korea and extend the peace mission in Somalia.
The votes would be postponed, according to a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has not shuttered the organization's headquarters in New York, but the city itself is under a stay-at-home order issued by the state's governor.
New York state ..

China cancels UN Security Council meeting

Hospitals in the British capital are being overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, the head of an organisation representing bosses in the state-run National Health Service said on Thursday.
The chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, told BBC radio that London hospitals had seen an "explosion of demand... in seriously ill patients", likening it to a "continuous tsunami".

London hospitals facing 'tsunami' of virus patients: NHS official

Asian markets mostly rose Thursday as investors breathed a sigh of relief that US senators have finally passed a gargantuan stimulus package for the world's top economy after being delayed by wrangling over details.
The unprecedented $2 trillion plan -- described by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as a "wartime level of investment" -- helped spur a surge across global equities as panicked traders worried about the impact of the coronavirus sweeping the planet.
But another advance on Wall Street was blunted Wednesday as it emerged that four Republican senators have baulked at the generous provisions agreed to in the bipartisan deal with the White House.
The bill eventually cleared the Senate by an overwhelming majority and will now head to the House of Representatives before going to President Donald Trump for his signature.
The monster deal thrashed out between Republicans, Democrats and the White House includes cash payments to American taxpayers and several hundred billion ...

Asia markets mostly up after senate passes huge stimulus

Business closures and self-confinement imposed by French authorities to limit the coronavirus threat has cut economic activity by about 35 per cent overall, statistics office Insee said Thursday, in its first attempt to gauge the financial impact of the crisis.
The lockdown in place since March 17 is widely expected to be extended into April, and the government has pledged 45 billion euros (49 billion dollars) in loan guarantees and other relief for firms.
Insee said a one-month lockdown could slash annual gross domestic product by three percentage points, but cautioned that it lacked sufficient data to provide a firm estimate on French economic growth in the coming months.
The government has already said it expects GDP to contract one per cent this year, abandoning the 1.3 per cent growth target of just a few weeks ago, along with a huge jump in the budget deficit.
Services, heavy industry and construction are all taking big hits, Insee said, as factories are shut down and only ...

French lockdown slashes economic activity by 35%: stats office

Leaders of the G20 major economies will hold an online summit Thursday in a bid to fend off a coronavirus-triggered recession, after criticism the group has been slow to address the crisis.
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will join the emergency videoconference chaired by Saudi Arabia's King Salman, who is also under pressure to end an oil price war with Moscow that has roiled energy markets.
The talks come as the global death toll from COVID-19 soared over 21,000 and over 3 billion people were locked down in their homes.
"As the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges to healthcare systems and the global economy, we convene this extraordinary G20 summit to unite efforts towards a global response," the king of Saudi Arabia, which currently holds the G20 presidency, said on Twitter.
The meeting, expected to be held at 1200 GMT, comes as the world's 20 most industrialised countries scramble to defend their virus-wracked economies amid ...

Saudi chairs G20 crisis talks as virus threatens recession

Singapore's economy suffered its biggest contraction since the financial crisis during the first quarter as the coronavirus pandemic escalated, data showed Thursday, an ominous sign of the devastation being inflicted on the global economy.
The finance minister meanwhile announced 48 billion  Singapore Dollars (USD33 billion) in fresh stimulus, taking to about 55 billion Dollars the amount so far pledged by the government to help the export-reliant financial hub weather the downturn.
One of the world's most open economies which is viewed as a barometer for the health of global trade, Singapore is now heading for a deep recession this year after shrinking 2.2 per cent on-year in January-March.
"COVID-19 is like an economic tsunami hitting Singapore's shores," said Selena Ling, head of research and strategy at the city-state's OCBC Bank.
Singapore is one of the first economies to report growth data since the virus outbreak began, and the dismal figures add to signs the world is heading ..

Singapore GDP contracts sharply, in warning for virus-hit global economy

Greek authorities have quarantined a cluster of Muslim majority towns and villages in the country's northeast after several cases and a death from the new coronavirus in the area.
The area in Xanthi prefecture was placed in lockdown as of Wednesday evening as nine people in the region overall have tested positive for the virus over the past six days, civil protection deputy minister Nikos Hardalias told reporters.
"All residents have been temporarily confined at home. No exceptions are allowed," Hardalias said.
The centre of the outbreak appears to be the small Pomak town of Ehinos, a community of about 2,500.
"Ehinos residents will be provided with food and medicine," Hardalias said.
Police were deployed Thursday on a bridge leading into town to enforce the lockdown, television footage showed.
One 72-year-old Ehinos man has died from the virus, local mayor Ridvan Deli Huseyin told Antenna television.
"It's better to take some measures now than to cry about this later," said Huseyin, .

AFP

AFP

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