ROME (AFP) -- Europe on Sunday prepared for a further cautious easing of coronavirus restrictions following signs the pandemic may be slowing, with hard-hit Italy set to follow Spain in allowing people outside. More than 243,000 people have been killed and 3.4 million infected worldwide by the virus, which has left half of humanity under some form of lockdown and pushed the global economy towards its worst downturn since the Great Depression. With signs that the spread of the contagion h

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Donald Trump vowed to temporarily ban immigration to the United States to combat the "invisible enemy" of coronavirus, claiming it would save American jobs as the world economy plunges into meltdown. The announcement, a drastic new step in the US President's anti-immigration crusade, comes as the globe tries to chart its way out of an unprecedented health and economic crisis. In just four months, the novel coronavirus has touched almost every nation on the planet

PARIS (AFP) -- The coronavirus pandemic could nearly double the number of people around the world facing acute hunger, the UN's World Food Programme warned Tuesday. "The number of people facing acute food insecurity stands to rise to 265 million in 2020, up by 130 million from the 135 million in 2019, as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19," the WFP said its projections had shown. The warning came as the WFP and other partners released a new report on food crises around the

ZURICH (AFP) -- Swiss watch exports plunged by more than a fifth in March, the Swiss watch industry federation, FH, said Tuesday, warning it expected the situation to deteriorate further in April. Overall, Swiss watch exports fell 21.9 percent in March compared to a year earlier, to 1.4 billion Swiss francs ($1.4 billion, 1.3 billion euros) -- with a range of markets seeing devastating declines, as economies worldwide have basically ground to a halt in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Expor

SINGAPORE (AFP) -- Singapore on Tuesday extended restrictions to fight the coronavirus until early June, the city-state's leader said, as cases surged past 9,000 due to a growing number of infections among migrant workers. The city-state managed to keep its outbreak in check in the early stages due to widespread testing and contact-tracing, but is facing a fast-moving second wave of infections. Health authorities reported 1,111 cases Tuesday taking the total to 9,125, with the vast majority

PARIS (AFP) -- The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating threats to press freedom around the world, with authoritarian states including China and Iran suppressing details of the outbreak, activists said on Tuesday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its annual press freedom rankings that the pandemic was "highlighting and amplifying the many crises" already casting a shadow on press freedom. The outbreak had encouraged some regimes to "take advantage of the fact

TOKYO (AFP) -- Struggling Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group on Monday forecast a $7-billion net loss for the year ended March due to the negative impact of coronavirus and losses related to WeWork. The telecoms and investment giant, led by flamboyant entrepreneur Masayoshi Son, also said in a surprise press release it expected to suffer an operating loss of 1.35 trillion yen or $12.5 billion. The firm cited a 1.8-trillion yen loss at its SoftBank Vision Fund, blaming “the deteriorati

PARIS (AFP) -- The new coronavirus has killed more than 70,000 people across the globe, the majority in Europe, according to an AFP tally Monday at 1100 GMT. Out of a total of 70,009 killed in the pandemic, 50,215 are in Europe, according to figures compiled from official government data and the World Health Organization.   Italy is leading the global death toll with 15,877 fatalities, followed by Spain with 13,055, the United States with 9,648 and France with 8,078. (AFP)  

PARIS (AFP) -- The number of officially reported coronavirus cases worldwide topped the one million mark on Thursday, signifying a sharp acceleration in the number of infections and deaths over the past few weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads exponentially. What do the latest figures tell us? At least 1,000,036 infections have been reported worldwide and 51,178 deaths, according to an AFP tally on Thursday at 1900 GMT. In the past seven days, as many new cases have been diagnosed

The controversial French professor who believes the anti-malaria drug chloroquine can help beat the coronavirus, has claimed that a new study he has conducted confirms its "efficiency" at combatting the virus. But several other scientists and critics of microbiologist Didier Raoult, who heads the infectious diseases department of La Timone hospital in Marseille, were quick to cast doubt upon his findings. They said the testing was not carried out in a controlled study and that th

Thomas Schaefer, the finance minister of Germany's Hesse state, has committed suicide apparently after becoming "deeply worried" over how to cope with the economic fallout from the coronavirus, state premier Volker Bouffier said Sunday. Schaefer, 54, was found dead near a railway track on Saturday. The Wiesbaden prosecution's office said they believe he died by suicide."We are in shock, we are in disbelief and above all we are immensely sad," Bouffier said in a recorded

PARIS (AFP) -- French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe raised the alarm Friday over an "extremely high" surge in coronavirus cases in the country and warned things will be "difficult" in the coming days. After 365 people died and more than 2,300 people were hospitalised in France in a single day, the military sent a plane Friday to evacuate six patients from the hard-hit east of the country where hospitals are overstretched. "We find ourselves in a crisis that will l

MADRID (AFP) -- The number of international tourist arrivals will fall by 20-30 percent in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus, putting millions of jobs at risk, the World Tourism Organization said Friday. This revises sharply lower a forecast made earlier this month of a decline of just 1.0-3.0 percent. The drop in arrivals will lead to an estimated loss of $300-450 billion in international tourism receipts, almost one third of the $1.5 trillion generated in 2019, the Madrid-based UN body sa

HONG KONG (AFP) -- When two Spanish footballers took to the controls of "FIFA 20" after the coronavirus pandemic saw their La Liga match cancelled, a stadium-sized virtual audience watched online. The huge digital crowd last week is part of a spectacular boom for the digital gaming industry, as record numbers flock to online servers for distraction, entertainment and friendship with the "real world" seemingly falling apart. Real Betis striker Borja Iglesias kicked the winn

NEW YORK (AFP) -- Wall Street posted its best performance in nearly 90 years on Tuesday, as indices rallied on hopes that lawmakers would soon agree on a massive stimulus package to blunt the coronavirus' economic impact. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 11.4 percent rallying to end the session at 20,704.91, its biggest one-day percentage increase since 1933. The tech-rich Nasdaq gained 8.1 percent to close at 7,417.86, while the broad-based S&P 500 finished the day at 2,447.33, a

TOKYO (AFP) -- Olympic chiefs on Tuesday postponed the 2020 Tokyo Games until next year, a historic move to push back the world's biggest sporting event due to the coronavirus pandemic that is upending global society. The dramatic step is the first time the Olympics has been postponed in peacetime and comes as a devastating blow to the city of Tokyo and the Olympic movement. The decision came after a telephone call between International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and Japanes

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US President Donald Trump called Monday for protection of Asian Americans after charges that his use of the term "Chinese virus" had aggravated a backlash. "It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world," Trump wrote on Twitter. "They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid

TOKYO (AFP) -- Postponing the Olympics over the coronavirus pandemic may become "inevitable", Japan's prime minister conceded Monday, after the International Olympic Committee said a delay was being considered as pressure grows from athletes and sports bodies. The comments from Shinzo Abe were his first acknowledgement that the 2020 Games may not open as scheduled on July 24, as the coronavirus marches across the globe causing unprecedented chaos. Canada's Olympic and Paralympic com

Spain on Sunday announced 394 new deaths caused by the novel coronavirus, raising to 1,720 the official death toll in Europe's worst-hit country after Italy, a 30 percent increase over the previous day. The number of confirmed cases of the disease rose by 3,646, or 14.6 percent, to 28,572, according to health ministry figures, with officials warning infections will rise further in the coming days. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his country's situation was now the most difficult sin

ROME(AFP) -- Italy reported a record 627 new coronavirus deaths Friday and saw its world-topping toll surpass 4,000, despite government efforts to stem the pandemic's spread.    The Mediterranean country's daily rate of fatalities is now higher than that officially reported by China at the peak of its outbreak around Wuhan's Hubei province.    But Matteo Bassetti of Italy's prestigious San Martino clinic in Genoa said the government probably had no idea how many people rea