In the week leading to Easter Sunday, hundreds of colourful processions featuring penitents in cone-shaped hoods and centuries-old religious floats traditionally flood the streets of villages and cities across Spain.
But with a nationwide lockdown in place to curb the spread of COVID-19, Spaniards are finding ways to mark Holy Week from their homes, by blasting religious music from their balconies or viewing videos of last year's parades.
In the western city of Salamanca, the association of religious brotherhoods that organises processions is posting pictures on social media of religious icons that would normally be paraded through the streets at the hour that would have taken place.
"And on our YouTube channel we are posting a video of the procession from last year," association president Jose Adrian Cornejo told AFP.
There is one part of the processions that can still go ahead -- the singing of "saetas", short, flamenco prayers sung from balconies which are especially popular in the 

Locked-down Spain celebrates Holy Week with music and humour

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Oil prices extended gains Thursday after Russia signalled it was ready to cut output before a key producers' meeting aimed at boosting energy markets as the coronavirus pandemic strangles demand.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose 4.6 per cent to USD 26.26 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, jumped 2.7 per cent to USD 33.73.
Oil exporting group OPEC, led by top producer Saudi Arabia, and others -- including Russia -- will meet via video conference later Thursday and expectations are growing they will agree to reduce output to support prices.
Prices are at near-two-decade lows with travel restrictions and lockdowns around the world throttling demand, and Riyadh and Moscow locked in a vicious price war.
But Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world's second-biggest producer, now look set to draw a line under their dispute to help stabilise battered markets.
Moscow said Wednesday it is willing to cut output by about 1.6 million barrels a day, or about 15 per cent, ..

Oil rallies as deal takes shape before key meeting

Australian police have raided the coronavirus-stricken Ruby Princess cruise ship and seized its black box, they said Thursday, as part of a criminal investigation after thousands of passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney and 15 later died of the illness.
Police wearing protective suits and masks boarded the vessel in Port Kembla, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Sydney, on Wednesday night, New South Wales Police said on Thursday.
"Police officers entered the Ruby Princess to gather evidence... ships have a black box very similar to international planes and that and other evidence has been seized," NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller told media.
The Ruby Princess berthed on Monday after weeks stranded at sea to allow doctors to assess sick crew members and take the most serious cases ashore for medical treatment.
Police have launched a criminal investigation into operator Carnival Australia over the circumstances that led to thousands of passengers disembarking in ...

Australian police seize black box in raid on virus-hit cruise ship

The United States recorded nearly 2,000 novel coronavirus deaths for a second day in a row, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University as of 8:30 pm Wednesday (0030 GMT Thursday).
The record-breaking figure of 1,973 deaths (slightly higher than the previous day's toll of 1,939) brings the total number of US fatalities to 14,695. The US death toll now exceeds that of Spain, which has suffered 14,555 deaths, but has not surpassed Italy, whose toll stands at 17,669.

Nearly 2,000 US coronavirus deaths for second day in a row: Johns Hopkins tally

The US authorized pharmacies on Wednesday to carry out tests for the coronavirus, including newly developed antibody tests that detect whether a person who has recovered from illness had COVID-19.
Health secretary Alex Azar, announced that all tests approved by regulators could be carried out by pharmacies as the country seeks to ramp up its testing efforts.
"The Trump Administration is pleased to give pharmacists the chance to play a bigger role in the COVID-19 response, alongside all of America's heroic healthcare workers," he said.
A nasal swab test can detect whether a person currently has the coronavirus.  After they have recovered, a test that looks at whether their body developed antibodies that fought off the virus and can be used -- even if the person never showed symptoms.
There are different kinds of antibody tests and they can't yet tell whether a person has sufficient antibodies to be protected against future infection.
A Chinese study posted this week, but not yet peer ..

US pharmacies authorized to test for coronavirus

Hundreds of people in Miami who are out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic spent hours Wednesday waiting in line to fill out unemployment forms after the website they were posted on crashed.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), which processes unemployment benefit applications, could not handle the surge on its website as panicked Floridians flocked to it amid the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.
For the past two weeks, the page has had problems. Meanwhile people calling the agency's phone line have faced hours on hold.
Applicants were instead encouraged to download and mail in the necessary form -- but with most offices and businesses closed, many people did not have access to a printer.
On Tuesday, authorities began distributing paper forms in the Cuban neighborhood of Hialeah, where lines to pick up the documents wrapped around the block.
"With the coronavirus, I'm suffocating," 55-year-old Gabriel Rodriguez told AFP, having spent five hours in line.
"I .

Hundreds wait in line for unemployment forms in Miami

Back in late February, when the US thought it had sealed itself off from the coronavirus, a Chicago resident with mild respiratory symptoms went to pay his respects at a funeral as a friend of the family.
Three days later, he would celebrate at a birthday party with his own relatives.
The man, who was unaware he had the COVID-19 illness, set off a chain of transmissions that infected 15 other people, three of whom died, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday.
The state of Illinois, of which Chicago is the biggest city, did not enact a lockdown order until weeks later on March 21 -- around a similar time to many other jurisdictions.
But the case is a telling example of how vital abiding by social distancing recommendations and lockdown orders are, the CDC said, as it revealed in a detailed report how the super spreading event happened.
It all started when the man, referred to as the "index patient," enjoyed a takeout meal using shared plates the night before 

Super spreader: A funeral, a birthday party and a trail of death

Lockdown measures in China must be lifted gradually in order to prevent a "second wave" of COVID-19 infections, scientists warned Thursday as thousands in the outbreak city of Wuhan were finally allowed to travel.
The strict social distancing measures, including a near 1l-week travel ban, appear to have paid off, and life is slowly getting back to normal in the megacity, even as the virus devastates Europe and the United States.
The restrictions enabled Chinese authorities to get a handle on the virus, which during its peak infected thousands of people daily in Hubei province, where Wuhan is situated.
Scientists in Hong Kong said that regions outside Hubei would need to gradually lift social distancing measures or risk the epidemic surging back.
They analysed the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in four Chinese cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wenzhou -- between mid-January and the end of February.
The team found that measures such as closing businesses and schools and ...

Lift lockdown gradually to avert COVID-19 'second wave': experts

Leftist US Senator Bernie Sanders suspended his presidential campaign Wednesday, clearing the way for rival Joe Biden to secure the Democratic nomination and challenge Donald Trump in November.
The feisty 78-year-old democratic socialist shook up the 2020 race with his relentless pursuit of "economic justice" for all Americans and a demand for universal health care.
But he acknowledged his campaign had fallen short, as party voters determined Biden would be a stronger candidate to go up against Trump in the general election.
"I have concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination will not be successful," Sanders told supporters in a livestream from his home, where he has remained for the bulk of the coronavirus pandemic that put all in-person campaigning on hold.
"Vice president Biden will be the nominee," he said, adding that he congratulated his rival, a "very decent man, who I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward." Sanders, who challenged Hillary Clinton ...

Sanders ends presidential bid, setting up Biden-Trump showdown

The virus-stricken Australian cruise ship Greg Mortimer will be allowed to dock in Montevideo and the passengers will be flown home, Uruguay's foreign ministry said Wednesday.
The ship, with more than 100 infected people on board, is anchored some 24 kilometers (15 miles) offshore and will be allowed to dock on Friday.  Passengers will be taken in buses to the city's international airport, officials told AFP.
"The docking of the Greg Mortimer cruise ship is initially scheduled for Friday afternoon. The objective is to have a sanitary cordon to Carrasco Airport," a Uruguayan navy statement said.
A medical plane to evacuate Australian and New Zealand passengers will arrive in Uruguay on Thursday and will depart at dawn on Saturday for Melbourne, foreign ministry sources said.
An Australian couple suffering from a deteriorating COVID-19 condition were evacuated from the ship earlier Wednesday, bringing to eight the number of passengers and crew to have been hospitalized in the Uruguayan .

Virus-stricken Australian liner to dock in Montevideo

Stranded at home, Britons have sought solace in their traditional passion for animals, with shelters recording a wave of applications to adopt dogs and cats.
The famous shelter at Battersea in south London saw 86 dogs and 69 cats leave in the week before the government announced its coronavirus lockdown, more than double the number at this time last year, leading to warnings against impulsive adoptions.
"We are a country of animal lovers and I think people recognise the situation we find ourselves in is exceptional," said Steve Craddock, Centre Manager at Battersea.
While all three Battersea centres have closed since the lockdown, "people continue to apply for adoption online," he said.
"We haven't seen an increase of animals being abandoned which is encouraging," he added.
The Kennel Club, the world-renowned British dog association, has also noted a "surge" in interest.
Puppy searches on its website increased by 53 percent between February and March, with a peak in the week before ...

Locked-down Brits seek creature comfort

The novel coronavirus began spreading in New York City in February, before widespread testing began, and the strain so far identified in local samples came from Europe, a scientist said Wednesday.
Adriana Heguy, a geneticist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine who led the research, told AFP that tracing back the virus' chain of transmission will help policy makers make better informed social interventions in the future.
"It's very interesting that so far, the majority seem to be coming from Europe, and this is in part I think because there was a focus on stopping travel from China," she said.
The findings also tie in with a spate of mysterious pneumonia cases that New York physicians were treating before large scale testing began in the city, she added.
Heguy and her team determined the viral sequences of 75 samples taken from the nasal swabs of patients at Tisch Hospital, NYU Winthrop Hospital and NYU Langone Hospital Brooklyn.
All organisms mutate over time, but so-called RNA viruses 

Coronavirus was spreading in NYC in February, came via Europe

Charities that rescue migrants attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing on Wednesday condemned Italy for its decision to close its ports because of the coronavirus epidemic.
The interior ministry said late Tuesday that Italy could no longer be considered a "port of safety" for the duration of the outbreak, which has killed over 17,500 people in the country.
That means migrants rescued at sea cannot be disembarked in Italy.
The closure comes a month after Italy was put on a nationwide lockdown in a bid to stem the virus's spread.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), SOS Mediterranee, German maritime rescue group Sea-Watch and Spanish Open Arms accused Rome of using the crisis as an excuse to stop taking in migrants.
"At a time like this, the suffering of citizens affected by a health emergency cannot become a reason to deny support... to those who risk losing breath not in an intensive care bed, but by drowning.
"All lives must be saved, all vulnerable people must be protected, both on 

Rescue charities protest Italy's closure of ports over virus

Some 16,500 Air Canada employees who were laid off because of the coronavirus pandemic will be rehired under a government relief package for businesses, the airline said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced during his daily news conference that the program would now be open to companies that suffered a drop of more than 15 percent in their revenues in March, against 30 percent previously.
Air Canada furloughed nearly half of its Canada-based workforce of 36,000 on March 30 after seeing business abruptly dry up by more than 90 percent as country after country imposed travel restrictions and people stopped flying.
The Canadian government stepped in April 1 with the emergency wage subsidy plan designed to help employers keep their workers or bring back ones that were laid off because of the pandemic.
It is retroactive to March 15 and the government will pay 75 percent of hard-hit companies' payrolls through June 6.
Air Canada said that under the "CEWS" relief package it ...

Air Canada to rehire 16,500 workers laid off due to pandemic

France said Wednesday it would extend a lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus as the death toll soared across Europe and the US as experts warned the looming global recession could be the worst in decades.
Governments are grappling with how to balance public safety against the devastating economic impact of stay-at-home orders that have erased millions of jobs in a matter of weeks.
More than 80,000 people worldwide have died in the virus crisis, which has sent the global economy spiralling and forced billions of people to remain at home as much as possible.
As the economic downturn starts to bite, health experts stressed that any premature loosening of restrictions could accelerate the spread of a contagion that has already infiltrated nearly every country.
In France, one of the hardest-hit nations in Europe with more than 10,000 deaths, President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation next week to explain the path forward.
The confinement order issued on March 17 ..

France to extend lockdown as virus deaths soar in Europe, US

New York recorded a new single-day high for coronavirus deaths on Wednesday but Governor Andrew Cuomo said the epidemic appeared to be stabilizing.
Cuomo said 779 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll in New York state from COVID-19 to 6,268.
The previous high of 731 was set on Monday.
New York is bearing the brunt of America's deadly coronavirus pandemic, accounting for around half the number of deaths across the country.
The governor said that despite the rise, the hospitalization rate was continuing to decrease because of social confinement orders.
"We are flattening the curve," the governor told reporters.
He added that if the rate continues to go down the hospital system will stabilize over the next two weeks, which will "minimize" the need for temporary hospitals.
Field hospitals have been set up in Central Park, at the home of the US tennis center, in a convention center and on a US navy ship to deal with the influx of patients.
Cuomo said the ...

New York hits new coronavirus peak but curve flattening

The Riyadh-led military coalition declared a two-week ceasefire in Yemen starting Thursday in a bid to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus, a senior Saudi official said.
"We are announcing a ceasefire starting (Thursday) for two weeks," the official said.
"We are expecting the Huthis (Yemeni rebels) will accept. We are preparing the ground to fight COVID-19" in Yemen.
The unilateral ceasefire will begin at 0900 GMT on Thursday, he added.
There was no immediate reaction by the Iran-aligned rebels.
The coalition was committed to a two-week ceasefire but still reserved the right to defend itself if it came under attack, the Saudi official said.
The ceasefire may be extended if the Huthis respond "positively" to the gesture, he added.
The Saudi-led military coalition has been active in Yemen's conflict in support of an internationally recognised government since 2015.
Yemen's broken healthcare system has so far recorded no cases of the COVID-19 illness, but aid groups have warned .

Saudi-led coalition declares 2-week coronavirus ceasefire in Yemen

The African Development Bank on Wednesday said it had created a $10 billion emergency fund to help the continent's countries fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Africa, the world's poorest continent, may be badly exposed to the pandemic both in terms of preparedness and the poor health care systems in many countries.
"Africa is facing enormous fiscal challenges to respond to the coronavirus pandemic effectively. The African Development Bank Group is deploying its full weight of emergency response support to assist Africa at this critical time," the bank's president Akinwumi Adesina said.
The facility includes $5.5 billion for operations in African Development Bank countries, and $3.1 billion for sovereign and regional operations for countries under the African Development Fund, the bank's arm that caters to fragile countries.
As the virus spreads, there are fears that poor and debt-saddled countries will be unable to provide an adequate response.
Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou 

Africa Development Bank creates $10 bn fund for virus aid

The global chemical weapons watchdog on Wednesday for the first time explicitly blamed Syria for toxic attacks, saying President Bashar al-Assad's air force used the nerve gas sarin and chlorine three times in 2017.
The findings came in the first report from a new investigative team set up by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to identify the perpetrators of attacks in Syria's ongoing nine-year-long civil war.
Western nations and rights groups condemned Syria following the release of the report, which will now go to the United Nations among others to decide what and if any further action should be taken.
In March 2017, Syrian fighter jets dropped sarin on the northern village of Lataminah and a military helicopter dropped a barrel bomb full of chlorine on the same village, the probe found.
The OPCW said the team "has concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the perpetrators of the use of sarin as a chemical weapon in Lataminah in 2017... 

Watchdog blames Syria for chemical weapons attacks

France is to further extend its lockdown ordered to slow the spread of the coronavirus, with President Emmanuel Macron to again address the nation next week, the French presidency said Wednesday.
The confinement order "will be extended" beyond its current limit of April 15, a presidential official told AFP, adding that Macron will address the nation on Monday evening to present the new decisions on the fight against the virus.

France to extend virus lockdown, Macron will address nation: Presidency

Somalia on Wednesday reported its first death of a patient suffering from COVID-19 and also said transmission was occurring among people who had no history of foreign travel.
Though the Horn of Africa country officially has just 12 positive cases, Wednesday's announcement highlights concerns that the coronavirus may in fact be more widespread and could soon overwhelm the health system of a country that has been mired in conflict for nearly three decades.
"The first death from COVID-19 was recorded today as a 52-year-old Somali who had the virus died," the health ministry said in a statement.
The statement also documented four new cases among patients "with no record of travelling outside the country".
"The ministry confirms that the spread of the disease has started in the community," it said.
Somalia was plunged into chaos with the fall of the autocrat Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, and it endures regular attacks from the militant group Al-Shabaab which is linked to Al-Qaeda.
The ...

AFP

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