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Italy's Saipem has reached an agreement with Norway's Equinor to develop technology to build floating solar power farms close to the coast, the energy contractor said.

British government emergency response scientists published the evidence on their understanding of COVID-19 evolution on Friday.

Americans worried about their exposure to coronavirus can check their symptoms with two new screening tools online.

Japanese Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda said on Friday the government would not extend its request that schools be closed until spring break to stem coronavirus infections, setting the stage for classes to resume at the start of the academic year in April.

Belgium recorded 16 new deaths on Thursday because of coronavirus, for a total of 37 in the country, the biggest daily rise since the beginning of the epidemic, a spokesman for the Belgian health ministry said on Friday.

An Olympic torch event in Japan drew hundreds of spectators on the day of the flame's arrival on Friday, creating the type of packed gathering the government and Tokyo 2020 organisers have warned against to prevent coronavirus from spreading further.

Finland's national health authority questioned on Friday the World Health Organization's call on countries to test as many patients as possible for coronavirus, after the country ran out of testing capacity this week.

While many Muslims in Indonesia's capital accepted advice to avoid religious gatherings and prayed at home on Friday elsewhere in the world's most populous Muslim country, people ignored the risk of coronavirus and crowded into their mosques.

Russia due to coronavirus has postponed a test designed to improve the ability of its domestic internet infrastructure to cope with being cut off from the global network, the Communications Ministry said on Friday, TASS reported.

Spain's death toll from the coronavirus epidemic soared to 1,002 on Friday from 767 on the previous day, the country's health emergencies chief Fernando Simon said.

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus today:

Many overseas arrivals in the Asian financial hub of Hong Kong are going unmonitored as they begin two weeks of mandatory self-quarantine, with only a third of the 6,000 electronic wristbands issued to them being activated, authorities said on Friday.

Taiwan, which has won global praise for its effective action against the coronavirus, is rolling out a mobile phone-based "electronic fence" that uses location-tracking to ensure people who are quarantined stay in their homes.

Chinese online education platform Yuanfudao, which is backed by tech giant Tencent Holdings , is close to completing a financing round that would value it at around $7.5 billion, two people familiar with the matter said.

An Olympic cauldron was ignited in Japan on Friday with a flame carried from Greece, with officials again pledging the Tokyo 2020 Games will proceed despite mounting pressure to halt the world's biggest sporting event due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan will hold a video conference on Friday to foster cooperation on the coronavirus pandemic, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

Thailand reported 50 new coronavirus infections, taking its tally to 322, a health official said on Friday, with the majority located in Bangkok, the capital.

Iranians will overcome a coronavirus outbreak with unity, President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Friday, praising doctors and nurses for their courage in fighting the disease that has killed 1,284 in the Middle East country.

The world's richest nations poured unprecedented aid into the global economy as coronavirus cases ballooned in the new epicentre Europe, with the number of deaths in Italy outstripping those in mainland China, where the virus originated.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday reported 10,491 cases of coronavirus, an increase of 3,404 from its previous count, and said the death toll had risen by 53 to 150, the biggest one-day jump so far.