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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.

Tesla Inc said on Thursday it will suspend production at its San Francisco Bay Area vehicle factory on March 24, ending a standoff with California authorities concerned about the spread of the coronavirus.

Tesla Inc said on Thursday it will suspend production at its San Francisco Bay Area vehicle factory on March 24, ending a standoff with California authorities concerned about the spread of the coronavirus.

The first shipments of international medical aid are due to arrive at North Korea's borders this week to shore up its defenses against the coronavirus, but strict border controls could mean the stream of supplies remains a trickle.

Doctors in Seattle have been reduced to making their own face masks out of sheets of plastic, after a global shortage of medical protective gear has hit Washington state, an epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

The world's wealthiest nations poured unprecedented aid into the traumatized global economy on Thursday as coronavirus cases ballooned in the current epicentre Europe even as they waned at the pandemic's point of origin, China.

Engineer Anthony Levandowski, known for advancing self-driving car technology in the last decade, agreed to plead guilty on Thursday to taking sensitive documents from his former employer Google before joining rival Uber Technologies Inc.

Alphabet Inc's Google is exploring ways to use location information to slow the spread of the coronavirus by, for example, determining the effectiveness of social distancing.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has halted activities such as domestic compliance checks and vape shop inspections, the health regulator said on Thursday, as its staff switch to teleworking amid the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak.

The outbreak of disease caused by the new coronavirus has raised questions about a phenomenon known as "herd immunity" and whether it might play a role in how the pandemic progresses.

Mexican officials are dragging their feet on border closures and coronavirus containment measures, in what critics call a high risk strategy driven by bad memories of a shutdown a decade ago that deepened the country's recession during the swine flu epidemic.

The number of registered coronavirus infections in Mexico rose on Thursday to 164 from 118 a day earlier, a senior health ministry official told a news conference.