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The West needs to do more to stop China buying up strategic technology including companies such as British semiconductor chip designer Imagination Technologies, the former head of Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service said on Thursday.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is gradually shifting production of chips designed in-house away from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) and towards a mainland Chinese firm in preparation for more U.S. restrictions, sources familiar with the matter said.

The Pentagon's inspector general on Wednesday said it could not determine whether the White House influenced the award of a $10 billion contract to Microsoft Corp over Amazon after several officials said their conversations were privileged "presidential communications."

The coronavirus outbreak has virtually shut down corporate Australia and New Zealand, forcing companies to throw out their strategic plans and resulting in thousands of layoffs or staff suspensions.

Australia's federal government on Thursday urged state premiers to reopen schools as it considers how to start winding back some other restrictions on movement that have helped slow the spread of the coronavirus throughout the country.

The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in the United States approached 31,000 on Wednesday as governors began cautiously preparing Americans for a post-virus life that would likely include public face coverings as the "new normal."

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday he regrets U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull funding for the agency, but that now is the time for the world to unite in its fight against the new coronavirus.

U.S. President Donald Trump has told his administration to temporarily halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to shut down Congress so he could fill vacancies in his administration without Senate confirmation, saying he was frustrated lawmakers were not in Washington to vote on his nominees for federal judgeships and other government positions.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he does not expect delays in the mailing of coronavirus relief paper checks to millions of Americans, despite changes U.S. Treasury Department officials will need to make in the printing process to add his name.

Smartphone software makers Alphabet's Google and Apple will have to convince the public that any contact tracing technology to track who has been exposed to the new coronavirus will not lead to a violation of their privacy, Senator Richard Blumenthal said on Wednesday.

A federal judge said Tesla Inc and Chief Executive Elon Musk must face a lawsuit claiming they misled shareholders when Musk tweeted that he had secured funding to take his electric car company private in a $72 billion transaction.

The United States could redirect to other aid groups some $400 million it would have paid the World Health Organization this year, senior Trump administration officials said on Wednesday after President Donald Trump halted funding for the U.N. agency over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pulling funding from the World Health Organization (WHO) is a dangerous and nonsensical move when the world is facing the health crisis brought by the COVID-19 disease pandemic, Melinda Gates said on Wednesday.

Red tape and rules on exporting medical gear have delayed work on a field hospital for migrants in an asylum camp near Mexico's border with Texas, undercutting efforts to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic, according to organizers of the project.

Germany has achieved a "fragile intermediate success" in its the fight against the coronavirus and will take small steps out of lockdown with the partial reopening of shops next week and schools from May 4, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

American semiconductor firm Xilinx Inc said on Wednesday it had won a deal to supply chips to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd for 5G networking equipment.

The head of the 1.4-million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters union said on Wednesday he told President Donald Trump not to reopen the U.S. economy until it is safe.

Northern Ireland will keep coronavirus restrictions in place for another three weeks, First Minister Arlene Foster said on Wednesday, keeping the British-run region in line with similar measures in neighbouring Ireland due to run until May 5.

Alphabet Inc's Google will slow hiring for the rest of the year, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told the company's staff in a memo on Wednesday.