Premier League club Newcastle United have introduced a handshake ban to protect against the spread of the coronavirus, manager Steve Bruce said on Friday.
"There's a ritual here that everybody shakes hands with everybody as soon as we see each other every morning -- we've stopped that on the advice of the doctor," Bruce said.
"We are like everybody else. Thankfully, we've got a superb doctor here and he will keep us informed of what we have to do.
"We're like everybody else, we're glued to the TV for where it's going to go next and let's hope it doesn't get any worse in this country."
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said the club took the threat of the coronavirus seriously but there was no current advice not to shake hands at the club.
"We don't do some things that we maybe usually would do but that's when the flu is going around it's for us the same," he told his pre-match press conference.
"We cannot do anything different to that."
He added: "In the end nobody has told us yet that ..

Newcastle ban handshakes to guard against coronavirus

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The UN Security Council is to hold emergency talks Friday on the escalation of fighting in Syria, diplomats said, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in a Syrian air raid.
The meeting is expected to begin at 2100 GMT, the acting chairman of the council, Belgian ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve, told reporters.
He said it was requested by the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, Estonia, and the Dominican Republic -- some of which have stated publicly that they support Turkey.
After the attack by the Russian-backed regime in the battleground Idlib province late Thursday, Turkish reprisals killed 20 Syrian soldiers there and in neighbouring Aleppo, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Wednesday nine members of the Security Council asked Secretary General Antonio Guterres to do more to press for a ceasefire in Idlib.
Germany even asked him to travel there but he declined, saying it might be counterproductive and alienate Russia, diplomats said.
Since late 

UN Security Council to meet Friday on Syria: diplomats

Iceland on Friday confirmed the new coronavirus had reached the subarctic island after a man in his forties, who had recently returned from a trip to northern Italy, tested positive for COVID-19.
The man was placed in isolation at the National University Hospital of Iceland, after a test confirmed the new coronavirus around 1 pm local time (1300 GMT), Iceland's department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said in a statement.
"The man is not seriously ill but shows typical symptoms of the COVID-19 disease," the government agency said in a statement.
The man had recently visited northern Italy but had been outside the designated risk areas, according to the agency.
Authorities said that efforts were underway to trace the infection path of the virus, as well as anyone exposed to it from the Icelandic patient.

Iceland confirms first case of new coronavirus

The UN health agency on Friday upgraded the global risk from the new coronavirus to "very high", saying the continued increase in cases and countries affected was "clearly of concern".
"We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level," World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

WHO upgrades global risk of virus spread to 'very high'

A British man who was on board a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo has died, Japan's health ministry said Friday.
The unidentified man's death is the latest linked to infections on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where more than 700 other people tested positive for the illness.
The ministry confirmed the man's nationality and death on Friday without giving further details. He is the first Briton to die from the illness and joins five Japanese nationals who also succumbed to the pathogen.
The death comes as the governor of Japan's rural northern island of Hokkaido urged people to stay at home this weekend in a desperate effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Governor Naomichi Suzuki issued an unprecedented call in a televised meeting of government executives asking locals to "refrain from going out during the weekend" to prevent further spread of the virus.
The region has seen at least 63 cases, including two deaths, accounting for more than a quarter of ...

British passenger of virus-hit Japan ship dies

A US central banker said Friday that emergency interest rate cuts in response to the coronavirus outbreak are possible but not likely unless the epidemic becomes much worse.
James Bullard, head of the St Louis Federal Reserve Bank, last year pushed for more aggressive rate cuts, but now says policy is in a good place.
"In my view, further policy rate cuts are a possibility if a global pandemic actually develops... But that's not the baseline case at this time," he said during a speech in Arkansas.
Bullard is not a voting member of the Fed's rate-setting committee this year, but in September he dissented from their decision, arguing the central bank should have lowered interest rates by a half point rather than a quarter point.
He said the Fed is watching the development of the virus closely, and it certainly will have an impact on China's growth in the first quarter of the year.
"Policymakers are right to worry about the possibility, which is still strong as of today, that a ...

Emergency rate cuts 'not the baseline': US Fed's Bullard

A Chinese bomber flew over the strategically sensitive sea separating Taiwan from the mainland Friday, the self-ruled island's defence department said.
The move comes after Taiwan earlier this month scrambled F-16 fighter planes when a Chinese jet crossed into its air space.
"The H-6 bomber passed through our southwestern territorial waters and to the Bashi Channel where it circled back to base," the Friday statement said.
"The whole passage was monitored and there were no abnormalities," it added.
On February 10, a Chinese military jet briefly crossed the median line separating the two sides in the first major incursion since Beijing-wary President Tsai Ing-wen was re-elected in January.
China was holding a two-day naval and air military exercise off the southeastern coast of Taiwan when one of its fighter jets crossed into Taiwanese air space.
A military commentator told Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times that the drills were "to warn Taiwan secessionists and also demonstrate .

Chinese bomber flies over Taiwan Strait as tensions rise

Turkey on Friday rejected Russia's claim that 33 Turkish troops killed by Syrian regime fire in the province of Idlib were among groups of "terrorists".
"I want to state that during this attack, there were no armed groups around our military units," Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said in televised remarks.
Russia's defence ministry had said that the Turkish troops "were in the battle formations of terrorist groups" and had not communciated their presence in the area "where they should not have been".
But Akar said Thursday's strike in the northwestern province took place "despite coordination with Russian officials", adding that the bombardment continued despite "warning" of the Turkish troops' presence.
He said ambulances were also hit.
The latest incident has raised further tensions between Ankara and Moscow, whose relationship has been tested by violations of a 2018 deal to prevent a regime offensive on rebel-held Idlib.
As part of the agreement, Ankara set up 12 observation .

Turkey rejects Russian explanation over Idlib attack

Kenya's high court on Friday ordered the suspension of flights from China after an uproar over the government allowing travellers into the country without compulsory quarantine for the new coronavirus.
On Wednesday, Kenya allowed 239 passengers to alight from a China Southern flight from Guangzhou, with the health ministry merely advising those on board to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Outrage spread across social media, and the Daily Nation newspaper's front page on Friday read: "Virus: Why Kenya is dancing with death".
A doctor and the Law Society of Kenya subsequently filed a suit at the high court claiming the government was putting citizens' lives at risk.
The court ordered that flights be suspended for 10 days pending another hearing, and that all the passengers be rounded up and taken to a military health facility for quarantine.
"The government should move with speed to forthwith trace, account, re-examine, confine and quarantine in a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) facility or a ...

Kenya court blocks flights from China over virus fears

Russia's athletics federation (RUSAF) on Friday elected a businessman as its new president with the organisation racing to win places for its athletes at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics after a doping ban.
Businessman and politician Yevgeny Yurchenko was voted to helm an organisation embroiled in a doping scandal, winning 53 out of a possible 63 votes, RUSAF said in a statement carried by agencies.
Yurchenko's bid for the top spot was all but guaranteed, with Russia media reporting ahead of the ballot that the 51-year-old had won the support of the Kremlin.
Hours before the vote, on Thursday evening, RUSAF said the former vice governor was the only candidate, without giving details.
Yurchenko, who was briefly vice-governor of the Voronezh region south of Moscow, won notoriety in 2011 when he purchased a historic Vostok space capsule launched in the early 1960s for $2.9 million.
He now faces the considerable task of convincing World Athletics to allow Russian athletes who test clean to ...

Troubled Russian athletics elects businessman as president

A British man who was onboard a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo has died, Japan's health ministry said on Friday.
The ministry confirmed the man's nationality and death on Friday without giving any identifying details.
The man was the first foreigner to have died from the illness after spending time aboard the Diamond Princess. Another five Japanese nationals on the vessel have died and more than 700 others tested positive for the disease.

British passenger of virus-hit Japan ship dies: health ministry

The leaders of Russia and Turkey held crisis talks on Friday to try to scale down tensions after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in a regime air strike in Syria.
The international community voiced fears of a rapidly-rising risk of escalation after the attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces in the province of Idlib, where President Bashar al-Assad is waging a bloody campaign to oust rebels from their last holdout.
Hours after the strike, Turkey warned it was opening the gates for refugees to flee to Europe, a move that could have major repercussions for its western neighbours and prompted Greece to double its border patrols.
The deadly bombardment added to weeks of mounting tensions between rebel supporter and NATO member Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow, and stoked international concerns about the plight of people living in the battleground province.
It was the highest single death toll since the Turkish army first intervened in Syria in 2016, and brought the total number of Turkish ...

Russia and Turkey hold crisis talks after deadly Syria strike

Durham fast bowler Mark Wood has been ruled out of England's tour of Sri Lanka with a left side strain and has been replaced in the squad by Lancashire seamer Saqib Mahmood.
Wood sustained the injury at the end of the tour to South Africa earlier this month.  A statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board on Friday said scans had revealed the 30-year-old sustained "a small tear to his left side".
Wood will now "commence an injury rehabilitation programme, working with England and Durham medical teams", the ECB statement added.
England are set to travel to Sri Lanka on Monday. The first Test of the two-match series starts on March 19 in Galle.
Wood was troubled by a similar problem following the World Cup, which saw him miss the 2019 Ashes series.
Lancashire opener Keaton Jennings and Surrey wicketkeeper-batsman Ben Foakes were both recalled to the squad.
Jonny Bairstow, though, will not be in the 16-man touring party while England's record wicket-taker James Anderson is another .

England bowler Mark Wood ruled out of Sri Lanka tour

The organisers of Baselworld, one of the world's biggest watch fairs, said Friday they would cancel the 2020 event after the Swiss government banned mass assemblies over the spread of the deadly new coronavirus.
"For health safety reasons and in accordance with the precautionary principle following the bans of large-scale public and private events ... Baselworld announces that it has taken the decision to postpone the show," it said in a statement.
The show, which was to be held from April 30 to May 5, will now be put off until next January, it said.
The news came after the Swiss government on Friday announced it was suspending all public and private events with more than 1,000 participants until at least March 15, invoking emergency powers to do so.
A range of other major events in the wealthy Alpine nation have also been cancelled, including the Geneva International Motor Show, as well as another large watch show, the Watches and Wonders Geneva.
The Baselworld organisers said they ..

Baselworld watch fair cancelled over coronavirus fears

A partial truce between the Taliban, US and Afghan troops held for a seventh day Friday, with only minor attacks reported on the eve of a deal to withdraw American troops.
The accord would see thousands of American troops quit Afghanistan after more than 18 years, in return for various security commitments from the Taliban and a pledge to hold talks with the government in Kabul.
Afghan officials will be conspicuously absent from Saturday's signing ceremony in Doha, but a government delegation will be there to make "initial contacts" with the insurgents.
While the ongoing truce does not amount to a full ceasefire, the number of Taliban attacks has fallen dramatically, with only isolated attacks in rural areas breaking the calm.
But in a sign of the underlying tensions, the Afghan interior ministry said a policeman was killed and three people were injured in three attacks on Friday.
A day earlier, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a bombing in Kabul which left one ...

Afghanistan partial truce holds on eve of US-Taliban deal

Greek border guards on Friday blocked hundreds of migrants from entering the country, police said, hours after Turkey announced it would no longer hold them back from Europe.
The head of Greece's general staff and the minister for police were dispatched to the area as the government said it had "tightened" border vigilance "to the maximum level possible.

Greece blocks hundreds of migrants on Turkish border: police

President Paul Biya's party has retained an absolute majority in Cameroon's parliament, the constitutional council announced Friday after the controversial February 9 vote.
His Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (RDPC) won 139 out of 167 declared seats on "moderate" turnout of almost 46 per cent, said the council's president, Clement Atangana.
Elections were cancelled in 13 other seats, in Cameroon's troubled anglophone regions, and are to be held at a later date.
In the outgoing parliament, elected in 2013, the RDPC had 148 seats.
Atangana said an RDPC ally, the National Union for Democracy and Progress (UNDP), won seven seats.
The biggest opposition party in the outgoing assembly, the Social Democratic Front, which had 18 seats in the outgoing assembly, has seen its share fall to just five.
Voting day in the central African republic was overshadowed by the crisis in two regions where anglophone separatists have declared independence from the majority French-speaking ...

Ruling party retains sweeping majority in Cameroon

Medical staff caring for a California woman with the first US case of novel coronavirus of unknown origin were unable to get her tested for five days because she had not traveled to outbreak-hit regions, a lawmaker revealed Thursday.
The development comes amid reports citing a whistleblower complaint that federal health workers interacted with quarantined patients in two California air bases without proper gear or training, before dispersing around the country.
One of these sites, Travis Air Force Base, is in Solano County, where the ill woman is also from.
In a congressional hearing, Representative Ami Bera said the patient was admitted to the University of California Davis Medical Center on February 19 and quickly placed on a ventilator.
The same day, her doctors asked to submit a sample for a coronavirus test to federal authorities.
But it was not until February 23, after her condition had worsened, that there was "an insistence and a strong push and ultimately the patient did get .

US patient with coronavirus of unknown origin denied test for days

An important chapter in Volkswagen's years-long "dieselgate" emissions cheating saga appeared headed for a close Friday, as the German car giant agreed a compensation deal with domestic consumer groups.
VW and German consumer federation VZBV reached a "comprehensive agreement" in a first-of-its-kind collective lawsuit brought by around 400,000 diesel car drivers, the Brunswick higher state court said.
The mass lawsuit is one of the biggest legal hangovers from VW's 2015 admission to fitting 11 million vehicles worldwide with software to make the engines appear less polluting in regulatory tests than in real driving conditions.
Consumer federation VZBV said it would reveal details of the agreement at a 1:00 pm (1200 GMT) press conference.
Under German law, plaintiffs have a month to decide whether to accept the settlement offer after its approval by judges.
If fewer than 30 per cent of them reject the deal, it will go ahead.
Friday's announcement follows just two weeks after the two ...

VW strikes 'dieselgate' compensation deal with German consumers

President Paul Biya's party has retained an absolute majority in Cameroon's parliament, the constitutional council announced Friday after the controversial February 9 vote.
His Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (RDPC) won 139 out of 167 declared seats on "moderate" turnout of almost 46 per cent, said the council's president, Clement Atanaga.
Elections were cancelled in 13 other seats, in Cameroon's troubled anglophone regions, and are to be held at a later date.

Ruling party retains sweeping majority in Cameroon election

Tech giants including Google are free to censor content as they wish, a US court has ruled, in a landmark freedom-of-speech case concerning private internet platforms.
The decision on Wednesday by San Francisco's Ninth Circuit appeals court rejected a conservative news outlet's claims that YouTube had breached the First Amendment by censoring its content.
The US Constitution's First Amendment prohibits the government, but not private parties, from censoring free speech.
Despite its two billion monthly users, Google-owned YouTube "remains a private forum, not a public forum subject to judicial scrutiny under the First Amendment," the court found.
Conservative non-profit PragerU had argued that Google unlawfully limited access to its videos discussing topics such as "male-female differences," "environmental issues" and "other topics discussed on university campuses."
Google had acted "in an arbitrary or capricious manner that provides them with unbridled discretion to discriminate ...

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