US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has ordered a 60-day freeze on moves by US troops and civilian defense employees overseas in an effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
The move stopped the deployment or redeployment of some 90,000 US service members for the next two months. It also freezes in place the families of service members who travelled overseas with their deployments.
"This measure is taken to aid in further prevention of the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), to protect US personnel and preserve the operational readiness of our global force," the Pentagon said in a statement on Wednesday.
The statement said Esper's order "is not expected to impact" the drawdown of some 4,000 US troops in Afghanistan targeted to be completed within 135 days of the February 29 peace pact with the Taliban.
As of Wednesday morning, the Pentagon said there were 435 current and recovered COVID-19 cases among military personnel, civilians, contractors and their families. One ...

US freezes overseas troop movements in virus lockdown

PTI Automatic

Kosovo's government has been toppled by a no-confidence vote less than two months after coming to power, plunging the unstable democracy into political uncertainty as it tries to halt the spread of coronavirus.
The vote on Wednesday ended a brief and bumpy alliance between two former opposition parties who took power last month with a mandate to loosen the grip of an old guard that has held sway over Kosovo for more than a decade.
The partnership quickly broke down with the junior partner in the coalition, the centre-right LDK, initiating the motion after weeks of tension with Prime Minister Albin Kurti, leader of the left-wing Vetevendosje party.
After nearly 12 hours of debate, 82 MPs in the 120-member assembly voted in favour of the motion of no confidence.
President Hashim Thaci, whose party lost in the last elections, now has the power to give Kurti -- his political enemy -- another chance to form a government or call a new poll.
The tumult has outraged citizens who want their ...

Kosovo government toppled by no-confidence vote

Leading Malian opposition leader Soumaila Cisse has gone missing in the war-torn centre of the country, his party said, with no-one is able to contact him since.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Cisse's Union for the Republic and Democracy (URD) party said the politician and his team had gone missing after campaigning near the town of Niafunke, in central Mali.
Cisse is a former minister of finance and has run for president of Mali three times.
He and his team were expected at the nearby village of Koumaira later in the afternoon but never turned up, the statement added, also saying that they were  no longer reachable by telephone.
Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012, and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives.
Despite the presence of thousands of French and UN troops, the conflict in Mali has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Al-Qaeda-affiliated ...

Leading Malian opposition leader goes missing

Social distancing appears to be slowing the spread of the coronavirus in New York, the epicenter of America's pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo has said.
In his daily update on efforts to contain the deadly pandemic, Cuomo said on Wednesday that projection rates suggested hospitalisations were increasing at a slower rate than before.
"The arrows are headed in the right direction," he told reporters.
Cuomo said New York was still "on the way up the mountain" and wouldn't meet the peak of declared cases for another three weeks.
But he added that projections showed that hospitalizations were now doubling every 4.7 days as opposed to every two days as was the case on Sunday.
The state's almost 20 million residents have been confined to their homes since Cuomo ordered all non-essential businesses closed on Sunday.
He said that the number of confirmed infections in Westchester County, the origin of New York's outbreak, had "dramatically slowed" following a two-week containment.
New York has ..

New York governor says social distancing slowing coronavirus

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has said that containment measures being taken to slow the spread of the new coronavirus could lead to chaos and looting, warning democracy was at risk.
The far-right leader has repeatedly lashed out at restrictive measures by local authorities against COVID-19, such as closing businesses and schools in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, saying they risked wrecking the Brazilian economy, Latin America's largest.
"Companies aren't producing anything. They can't pay their employees. And if the economy collapses, there won't be any way to pay public officials. We are facing chaos," Bolsonaro told journalists on Wednesday outside the presidential residence in Brasilia.
"We could end up with problems like people looting supermarkets. And the virus will still be there, too. So we'll have chaos plus the virus."
His latest comments on the pandemic came a day after he sparked outrage among critics with a national address condemning "scorched-earth" containment ...

Bolsonaro warns virus quarantines could ignite 'chaos'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged church leaders to organise Easter services online and proposed patrols around churches to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
"The heads of the Churches understand that religious services can be celebrated online," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Easter is one of the most widely celebrated religious festivals in the ex-Soviet country where most identify as Orthodox Christians.
"If a rite requires people's presence, there is a need to limit the number of worshippers," Zelensky said.
Speaking in a video conference with regional officials, he also suggested organising "patrols near churches" to dissuade parishioners from gathering there.
He said Ukrainians should celebrate Easter at home.
Ukraine has two main Orthodox Churches -- one newly independent from Russia and a smaller one loyal to the Moscow Patriarch. There is also the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which observes Orthodox rites but is loyal to the Vatican. All celebrate 

Ukraine president urges online Easter services over virus

Streets are deserted and daily activity has come to an almost standstill in much of Mexico due to the coronavirus pandemic but experts warn that any dip in crime will likely be only temporary.
Mexico suffered its most violent year on record in 2019 with 35,588 murders, according to official figures.
Such grim statistics are expected to drop should the government decide to take more extreme measures to stop the spread of the virus outbreak, such as a national lockdown.
But that won't affect the bleak outlook for crime in the country, says security analyst Alejandro Hope.
"So far violence isn't down, the data from February and March show that we're more or less the same as 2019, maybe higher," he said.
"However, if the restraining measures are tightened, there should be a change in crime patterns." Mexico recorded 5,751 murders during the first two months of 2020, according to figures from the public security secretariat (SESNSP).
"A quarantine, with strict restraining measures, would ..

Coronavirus not likely to have lasting impact on Mexican crime, experts say

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed by Christians to house Christ's tomb, was shut Wednesday, as Israel tightened movement restrictions and the Palestinians announced their first novel coronavirus death.
The church, located in Jerusalem's Old City, was closed shortly after 5:00 p.m. (1500 GMT), as Israel applied a series of new restrictions meant to curb the spread of the virus, including shutting down places of worship.
"We have been informed of the closure. Our understanding is that it is for one week. We hope (the church) will reopen as soon as possible," said Wadie Abunassar, a spokesperson for the local clergy.
The new restrictions in Israel, announced in a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, prohibited leaving one's home except to buy essentials, such as food and medicine, or to seek medical treatment.
"Individuals aged 60 and over, especially the elderly and at-risk groups, must remain at home and avoid risking themselves by going out," the 

Jerusalem's Church of Holy Sepulchre shuts as Israel ups anti-virus measures

In Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, workers in informal jobs fear not only the novel coronavirus, but how they will survive emergency measures that have cut off their livelihoods.
"We are stuck at home, with no work and no pay," said Hakim, a 30-year-old father who until last week worked in a bar-restaurant in the Moroccan capital Rabat.
His boss told employees he wouldn't pay them for the month of March, but Hakim said they can't do anything about it.
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, like many other countries worldwide, have announced strict measures to confront the COVID-19 pandemic.
Police and soldiers patrol deserted roads, cafes and restaurants have closed, street vendors have disappeared and small businesses have pulled down their shutters.
The three North African countries have a combined population of around 90 million.
Among them are millions working in informal, undeclared or precarious employment lacking social protections, from day labourers to street vendors, craftspeople to ...

'Who will feed us?': viral shutdown hits N Africa's precarious workers

Afghan government officials will speak face-to-face with the Taliban in a historic meeting to discuss an initial release of insurgent prisoners, Afghanistan's National Security Council announced Wednesday.
The announcement comes after the US and the Taliban signed a deal last month that paves the way for American and foreign forces to leave Afghanistan.
Part of the accord requires the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and the insurgents to release 1,000 from the government side.
The two foes spoke earlier via videoconference, Afghanistan's National Security Council said, and agreed the initial release of 100 Taliban prisoners by March 31.
"100 prisoners will be freed on humanitarian grounds -- including health, age and vulnerability to #COVID19 -- by March 31 after guarantees by Taliban and the prisoners that they will not re-enter the fight," the NSC said on Twitter, referring to the new coronavirus illness.
"To carry out these further discussions, a Taliban team .

Taliban, Afghan govt will meet to discuss prisoner release: Afghan officials

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Group of Seven foreign ministers agreed with him in talks Wednesday that China was waging a "disinformation" campaign about the coronavirus pandemic.
The top diplomats from the major industrialized nations held a previously scheduled meeting by videoconference, with the United States scrapping a meeting in Pittsburgh as the contagion fears restrict international travel.
Pompeo, who has heavily criticized Beijing over what he calls the "Wuhan virus," said he was united with other ministers -- from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
"Every one of the nations that were at that meeting this morning was deeply aware of the disinformation campaign that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in to try and deflect from what has really taken place," Pompeo told reporters after the talks.
Pompeo said that China "has been and continues to be engaged in" a campaign on social media that has included conspiracy theories that the United States ..

Pompeo says G7 agrees China spreading virus 'disinformation'

Russia on Wednesday said two elderly patients had died in Moscow after testing positive for coronavirus.
"Two elderly patients died in Moscow, who had tested positive for coronavirus," the Moscow city health department said in a statement, adding that they were suffering from pneumonia and complications.
Russia has not confirmed any deaths directly due to coronavirus and it was not immediately clear whether these deaths would be counted in its tally.
Last week Moscow health authorities announced the death of a woman who had tested positive but later said that an autopsy showed she had died of a blood clot, not the virus.
On Tuesday, the Moscow city health department said an elderly woman who had died at the city's infectious diseases hospital had in fact tested negative and the cause of death was advanced cancer.
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday gave an address to the nation in which he underlined the seriousness of the epidemic, a day after visiting the Moscow hospital where ...

Moscow announces deaths of two patients with coronavirus

South African police have charged two men with attempted murder for allegedly continuing to go out after they tested positive for the coronavirus, exposing others to the infection.
Police minister Bheki Cele announced the charges on Wednesday during a press conference detailing the enforcement of an incomong lockdown meant to curb the spread of coronavirus.
"If you break these laws of regulations you are six months in, or fined, or both," said Cele.
"Two people have been charged already... who deliberately moved around after they were told" not to, he warned.
"So it's not a fairytale to say the law will act and act very harsh on you." The first case was a 52-year old salon owner diagnosed with coronavirus on March 18 and instructed to quarantine for at least 14 days.
Police spokesperson Vish Naidoo said local officials raised the alert on Tuesday after the man was seen around the western city of Ladysmith, in KwaZulu-Natal province.
"(He) allegedly continued with his business... and ..

S African virus carriers charged with attempted murder for not isolating

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday failed in his bid to be bailed after he argued that he was at risk of catching coronavirus in the British prison where he is being held.
"As matters stand today, this global pandemic does not as of itself provide grounds for Mr Assange's release," said judge Vanessa Baraitser at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
Assange is currently in the high security Belmarsh prison in south London as he fights an extradition request by the United States to stand trial there on espionage charges.
Baraitser pointed out that the 48-year-old, who followed proceedings via videolink, had already violated a bail order when he fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012.
At that time, Swedish authorities were attempting to extradite him over sexual assault claims that were later dropped.
Assange's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said there was currently no COVID-19 case at Belmarsh but 100 prison officers were off work and there was a "very real risk -- and the risk could 

Assange loses bid to be bailed over coronavirus

Vienna funeral homes said Wednesday they are now offering to stream ceremonies online after the government restricted gatherings and travel to stem the COVID-19 outbreak.
Only up to five people are allowed to gather at a time, and movement has been strictly limited in Austria since last week as countries around the world fight to contain the virus.
Himmelblau, Vienna's largest privately owned funeral home, has begun offering live stream of ceremonies since Friday, according to director Jacob Homan.
Six funerals have since been sent out, and more customers are interested in the free service, Homan said.
"It is difficult for many of the next-of-kin that they cannot attend the funeral," he told AFP.
The funeral is filmed on a mobile phone and broadcast via the Zoom platform, which is secured by a password.
Customers also get the video to share with others later if they wish.
"Travel bans and the strict measures render it impossible at times to bid the final farewell," noted Nina ...

Vienna funerals go online amid coronavirus fears

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday sealed off the capital Riyadh and two of Islam's holiest cities and extended curfew hours as it reported its second death from the new coronavirus.
The kingdom barred entry and exit from Riyadh as well as Mecca and Medina and prohibited movement between all provinces, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, as the health ministry said the total number of infections spiked to 900.
Saudi Arabia, which has reported the highest number of infections in the Gulf, on Monday began implementing an 11-hour nationwide curfew -- starting at 7 pm -- to limit the spread of the deadly COVID-19 illness.
The curfew hours were brought forward to 3 pm in the three cities, SPA said citing measures approved by King Salman that will take effect from Thursday.
Authorities plan to implement the curfew for 21 days and have warned that transgressors will be fined 10,000 Saudi riyals ($2,663) and could face jail for repeated breaches.
The health ministry on Wednesday said a resident .

Saudi seals off three cities after second virus death

A total of 67 Italian priests infected with the novel coronavirus have died since the pandemic reached the Mediterranean country last month, the Avvenire newspaper said Wednesday.
The youngest of those listed by the Catholic Church-affiliated paper was 53.
"Priests get sick and die like everybody else, maybe even more than the rest," the Avvenire wrote.
The paper said 22 of the fatalities were in the Bergamo diocese, at the heart of the outbreak not far from the financial centre Milan.
Pope Francis asked priests "to have the courage to go out and see the sick" when the pandemic was gathering strength across the country on March 10.

67 Italian priests have died of virus: report

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Wednesday called for governments to put a hold on debt payments from the world's poorest nations so they can battle the coronavirus pandemic.
"The World Bank Group and the IMF believe it is imperative at this moment to provide a global sense of relief for developing countries as well as a strong signal to financial markets," the Washington-based development lenders said in a joint statement.
The move aims to help countries that are home to two-thirds of the world's population living in extreme poverty -- largely in sub-Saharan Africa -- and qualify for the most generous, low-cost loans from the International Development Association (IDA) financed by wealthier nations.
"The coronavirus outbreak is likely to have severe economic and social consequences for IDA countries" which will face "immediate liquidity needs to tackle challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak," the organization said.
The IMF and World Bank called on the Group of .

IMF, World Bank call for suspending debt payments by poorest nations

Hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug dubbed a "gift from God" by US President Donald Trump for its potential ability to fight the new coronavirus, was found to be no more effective than standard treatment in a small Chinese study.
The paper, which was published in the Journal of Zhejiang University on March 6, looked at 30 COVID-19 patients, half of whom received the medicine.
After seven days, 13 of the patients who were on the drug tested negative, compared to 14 people who weren't on it.
One of the patients on it went on to develop severe illness, while the median time taken for the individuals to recover was similar in both groups.
The sample size is considered too small to be statistically significant.
But a similar number of patients were examined in a recent French study that found the same drug to be highly effective at fighting the infection, especially when taken in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin.
That triggered heightened global interest in ...

Antimalarial drug no better than standard coronavirus care: study

The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the United States reached 60,115 on Wednesday while 827 people had died, a tracker run by Johns Hopkins University showed.
The tracker showed 600 deaths around 24 hours earlier. The US has the third highest number of confirmed cases behind China and Italy, and the US death rate is now 1.38 percent, based on reported cases.
The true number of infected is believed to be far higher, meaning the real death rate would be lower.

US coronavirus cases cross 60,000, 827 dead: tracker

Robots are expected to demonstrate their value for "dirty and dangerous" medical tasks in the fight to quell the coronavirus pandemic, researchers said Wednesday.
An editorial in Science Robotics noted that robots can help with telemedicine, decontamination, handling of hazardous waste and monitoring compliance with voluntary quarantines.
"Historically, robots have been developed to take on dull, dirty and dangerous jobs," the researchers wrote.
"As epidemics escalate, the potential roles of robotics are becoming increasingly clear."
Some robots are already in use during the pandemic. Thai hospitals have deployed "ninja robots" to measure fevers and protect the health of overburdened medical workers, and robots in Denmark are using ultraviolet light to disinfect frequently touched surfaces.
While robots have been used for years in disaster situations and some medical applications, the pandemic has highlighted the need to expand their role, according to the scientists.
"Why are we are .

AFP

AFP

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