Blogroll

As the new coronavirus spreads and worldwide deaths linked to it top 3,400, global alarm is growing and has caused everything from consumer runs on face masks to mass school closures.

The United Nations has canceled meetings in Bonn, Germany, and elsewhere planned in the run-up to a crucial U.N. climate summit to be held in Glasgow in November due to the coronavirus outbreak, an official said on Friday.

Iraq has banned entry to travelers coming from France and Spain, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, bringing the total number of countries on its entry ban list to 11 as it tries to stem the spread of coronavirus.

Hotel bookings have fallen by as much as 40% in some areas of Spain, the country's hotel federation said and flagged an overwhelming impact for the eurozone's fourth largest economy as anxiety about the coronavirus outbreak takes hold.

The U.S. telehealth industry, including market leader Teladoc Health Inc, is preparing for a surge in demand as public health officials aiming to contain the fast-spreading new coronavirus encourage use of alternatives to clinic visits and patients seek to avoid public spaces.

Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd said on Friday that it has agreed to sell Grindr LLC, a popular gay dating app it acquired in 2016, for about $608.5 million.

A Spanish pre-Easter tradition, where Catholics flock in droves to kiss statues of Jesus and Mary, fell victim to the coronavirus epidemic this week as churches with some of the most sought-after statues told worshippers not to touch or kiss them.

At a face mask factory just outside the South Korean capital of Seoul, workers are churning out 300,000 masks a day - and it's still not enough.

Bhutan said on Friday it would bar arriving tourists for two weeks after confirming its first case of the coronavirus, a tourist who spent several weeks in neighbouring India.

Organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics pushed on with the test event for sports climbing on Friday even as a raft of matches and tournaments were being canceled or postponed worldwide due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.

In Australia, major grocers have restricted supplies to one pack per person. In Japan, rolls are chained to the wall in public toilets. In Hong Kong, armed robbers carried out a heist as supplies were delivered to a supermarket.

Germany on Friday reported 134 new confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, the Robert Koch Institute said.

The coronavirus outbreak radiated across the United States on Thursday, surfacing in at least four new states and San Francisco as Congress quickly approved more than $8 billion to fight the outbreak.

Vodafone and Telecom Italia (TIM) on Friday secured conditional EU antitrust approval to create Europe's biggest mobile towers company, part of a strategy to roll out lucrative 5G services.

Tesla Inc has advertised for solar and energy storage project managers in China, as the U.S. electric vehicle maker moves to expand its energy business into the country.

The number of people infected with the new coronavirus across the world surpassed 100,000 on Friday as the economic damage intensified, with business districts beginning to empty and stock markets tumbling.

European Union officials are considering temporarily suspending its rules on state subsidies and financial support to economic segments hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak, an official said on Friday.

The number of people diagnosed with the new coronavirus in Switzerland has risen to 210, Daniel Koch, head of infectious diseases at the national public health agency, told a news conference in Bern.

Twelve asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus have been registered on board a Nile cruise ship, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Egypt's health ministry said on Friday.

Cameroon and Togo confirmed their first cases of coronavirus on Friday, bringing the number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa hit by the epidemic to five.