Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday that Rome was allocating 25 billion euros ($28.3 billion) to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak that has killed 631 people in Italy. "We have allocated an emergency sum of 25 billion euros," Conte told reporters during a break in a meeting on the government's response to the rapidly escalating health crisis. The entire sum "will not all be used imm...

DETROIT (AFP) -- Joe Biden took another big step closer to clinching the Democratic nomination to challenge President Donald Trump, with wins projected Tuesday over leftist rival Bernie Sanders in Mississippi and Missouri, two of six states holding primaries. The Mississippi win, projected by US networks, confirmed crucial and overwhelming support from African American voters for Biden, the form...

WUHAN (AFP) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan Tuesday for the first time since the city emerged as the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic in January -- a major sign that officials believe the outbreak is under control. Xi's visit came as unprecedented quarantine measures that have sealed off Wuhan and the rest of central Hubei province since late January appear to have paid off, w...

Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League last 16-second leg at home to German club Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday in Paris will be played behind closed doors. The Six Nations clash between France-Ireland scheduled for Saturday in Paris is postponed. In Greece the Olympic Flame lighting ceremony for this summer's Tokyo Games is to be held without spectators in Olympia on Thursday. In the United S...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump said Monday his administration will ask Congress to pass payroll tax relief and other quick measures as a public health and economic maelstrom brought on by the coronavirus drew closer to him personally. Intending to calm the fears of financial markets over the impact of the epidemic, Trump told reporters that he is seeking "very substantial relief" to t...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) -- The number of confirmed US coronavirus cases soared past 500 Sunday, including two further deaths, as President Donald Trump defended his administration's "perfectly coordinated" response to the epidemic. The virus has reached some 30 US states, with Oregon the latest to declare an emergency, and 60 million people in California and New York are under crisis measures. Two mo...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices are plunging amid worries that an OPEC dispute will lead an economy weakened by COVID-19 to be awash in an oversupply of crude. Brent crude, the international standard, lost $8.77, or 19.3 percent, to $36.50, as of 7:23 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday after earlier touching its lowest price since early 2016. Benchmark US crude fell $8.11 to $33.17. The dramatic losses fo...

BEIJING (AFP) -- At least ten people were killed in the collapse of a hotel used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in eastern China, authorities said Sunday. Rescuers retrieved 48 people from the rubble, of whom 38 are still alive, the Ministry of Emergency Management said on social media. The building in the coastal city of Quanzhou had been repurposed to house people who recently had conta...

BEIJING (AFP) -- World health officials have warned that countries are not taking the coronavirus crisis seriously enough, as outbreaks surged across Europe and in the United States where medical workers sounded warnings over a "disturbing" lack of hospital preparedness. Global markets tumbled again over concerns about the impact on the economy and as countries took more drastic steps to prevent...

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -- Tech firms in Seattle, a new focal point for the coronavirus epidemic, were telling employees this week to take advantage of technology to work remotely in an effort to contain the outbreak. Ten of the 12 US fatalities from the outbreak have been in the northwest state, leading to an emergency declaration by the state and proactive measures in the community where tech play...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) -- Passengers on a cruise ship stranded off the coast of San Francisco were confined to their cabins Thursday as tests were conducted to determine if any of the nearly 3,500 guests and crew had contracted the new coronavirus. Authorities said the Grand Princess, which had been scheduled to dock on Wednesday, would remain at sea until the test results of those who had shown symp...

The UAE Tour's last two stages were abandoned with riders and teams subsequently quarantined in their Abu Dhabi hotels. The Gulf state announced six coronavirus cases linked to the abandoned cycling event -- two Russians, two Italians, one German and a Colombian had been infected. Australian cycling team Mitchelton-Scott said they were pulling out of a series of major races including Paris-Nice ...

BUDAPEST (AFP) -- Hungary and Slovenia reported their first confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday in two Iranian students and a third patient who recently travelled back from Morocco via Italy. "Two patients have been taken into medical care due to coronavirus infections," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a Facebook video message. "Two foreigners, students studying ...

"Defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it, and after yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and great American Joe Biden," he added. Trump himself had a typically scathing appraisal of the performance by his rival New Yorker, who will now be throwing potentially bottomless funding behind Biden. "This has been the worst, and m...

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The World Bank unveiled a $12 billion aid package on Tuesday that will provide fast-track funds to help countries combat the coronavirus outbreak. "The goal is to provide fast, effective action that responds to country needs," World Bank President David Malpass told reporters. He said it is critical to "recognize the extra burden on poor countries" least equipped in the stru...