TOKYO (AFP) -- Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to extend a nationwide state of emergency imposed over the coronavirus, possibly by another month, local media reported on Thursday. The measure was initially declared on April 7 across seven regions experiencing a spike in infections, but was later expanded to cover the entire country. With the initial month-long period coming to an en...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has not been seen in public for more than two weeks, missing commemorations for a key political anniversary, and reports he underwent a cardiovascular procedure have spiralled into speculation he could be incapacitated or even dead. Both Seoul and Washington have played them down, but there has been no concrete proof of life in Pyongyang's state media, beyond repo...

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was ailing, criticizing his frequent nemesis CNN for running the story. "I think the report was incorrect, let me just put it that way," Trump told reporters. "I'm hearing they used old documents." Trump declined to say if he had direct knowledge from North Korea that Kim was fine. H...

GENEVA (AFP) -- The World Health Organization on Wednesday warned that the coronavirus crisis will not end any time soon, with many countries only in the early stages of the fight, as the global death toll surpassed 180,000. The pandemic has sparked not only a health emergency, but a global economic rout, with businesses struggling to survive, millions left jobless, and millions more facing star...

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....

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 w...

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,...

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. ...

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 pr...

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Donald Trump said he would temporarily ban immigration to the United States because of the "Invisible Enemy" of the coronavirus, as angry Americans took to the streets to demand an end to crippling lockdowns. In just four months, the virus has turned the world upside down, confining half the planet indoors and killing nearly 170,000 on its march through virtually every countr...

NEW YORK (AFP) -- US oil prices crashed to unprecedented lows Monday as futures in New York ended in negative territory for the first time amid a devastating supply glut that has forced traders to pay others to take the crude off their hands. With space to store oil scarce, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for May delivery closed at -$37.63 a barrel. The futures contract for May closes Tues...

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....

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The new coronavirus isn’t biased about whom it infects -- so why does data emerging from some states suggest that African Americans are bearing the brunt of the pandemic in the US? Experts say blacks are disproportionately impacted by underlying health conditions linked to poverty, face discrimination in medical care, and are more likely to work jobs that require them to leav...

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 b...

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...