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 ta...

A Pakistani court on Thursday overturned the death sentence for British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted 18 years ago in the kidnapping and beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Pearl's brutal murder sparked revulsion and an international outcry in early 2002, putting pressure on Pakistan's military government just as it was trying to remake its image following y...

President Donald Trump cast doubt on the accuracy of official Chinese figures on its coronavirus outbreak after US lawmakers, citing an intelligence report, accused Beijing of a cover up. "How do we know" if they are accurate, Trump asked at a press conference. "Their numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side." Trump insisted that "the relationship with China's a good one" and that he r...

North Korea remains totally free of the coronavirus, a senior health official in Pyongyang has insisted, despite mounting scepticism overseas as confirmed global infections near one million. The already isolated, nuclear-armed North quickly shut down its borders after the virus was first detected in neighbouring China in January, and imposed strict containment measures. Pak Myong Su, director o...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The European members of the UN Security Council on Tuesday condemned North Korea's latest missile tests, describing the launches as "provocative actions." Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom "are deeply concerned by the repeated testing of missiles, using ballistic missile technology," by North Korea on March 2, 9, 21 and 29, read a statement ...

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) -- Ethiopia's election commission announced Tuesday that general elections due in August would be delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, in a setback for the country's fragile democratic transition. "Because of issues related to the coronavirus, the board has decided it can't conduct the election as planned according to the calendar it announced, so it has decided to void...

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it had selected a lead candidate vaccine for the new coronavirus that would move to human trials by September and could be ready for emergency use by early next year. The pharmaceutical company has signed an agreement with the US government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to invest $1 billion in the effort, it said in ...

BERLIN (AFP) -- In the race against the coronavirus, Germany is betting on widespread testing and quarantining to break the infection chain, a strategy borrowed from South Korea whose success in slowing the outbreak has become the envy of the world. Germany is already carrying out more coronavirus tests than any other European country at a rate of 300,000 to 500,000 a week, according to official...

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...

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 i...

Moody's has downgraded South Africa's credit rating to junk status, piling more anguish on an economy already in recession and battered by Africa's worst coronavirus outbreak. Two other major international rating agencies Fitch and S&P had cut the credit rating of Africa's most developed economy to subinvestment level in 2017. Losing its last investment grade rating will see the country being e...

The Chinese city of 11 million people that was Ground Zero for what became the global coronavirus pandemic partly reopened on Saturday after more than two months of almost total isolation. Wuhan was placed under lockdown in January with residents forbidden to leave, roadblocks ring-fencing the city's outskirts and drastic restrictions on daily life. But the major transport and industrial hub ha...

President Donald Trump issued a federal order Friday to force auto giant General Motors to manufacture ventilators, as supplies of the crucial hospital equipment grow short and coronavirus infections mount across the country. Trump invoked the rarely-used Defense Production Act (DPA) to order GM to speed up its commitment to make ventilators in one of its auto plants after delays in negotiations...

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...

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 tour...