Blogroll

Pacific islands are imposing strict lock-down measures to combat the coronavirus, denying access to supply vessels and prohibiting human-to-human contact during aircraft refueling, amid fears their small healthcare systems could be over-run.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday that lawmakers and the White House have neared agreement on a legislative response to the coronavirus outbreak and said she hopes to make an announcement on Friday.

U.S. lawmakers and the White House neared agreement on a coronavirus economic aid package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday, adding she hoped to announce a deal on Friday.

U.S. hospitals, bracing for a surge in demand as more Americans are infected with the novel coronavirus, plan to use tents, conference rooms and cafeterias to house overflow patients.

In Texas, a photographer worries about paying his bills. In Pennsylvania, an aspiring dancer struggles with a canceled audition. In suburban Los Angeles, a mother wonders whether anyone will show up for her son's bar mitzvah.

New York State will ban gatherings of more than 500 people beginning on Friday at 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) , to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday.

SoftBank Group Corp on Friday said it will buy back up to 7 percent of its own shares for as much as 500 billion yen ($4.77 billion).

Saudi Arabia detected 17 new cases of coronavirus, 11 of whom were Egyptians, state news agency (SPA) said on Friday.

Airlines on Thursday appealed for urgent government financial support as U.S. carriers rushed to cut flights to Europe in the wake of new U.S. travel restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus outbreak, while United Airlines warned of U.S. travel disruption as the virus spreads domestically.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry suggested on Thursday the U.S. military might have brought the coronavirus to the Chinese city of Wuhan, which has been hardest hit by the outbreak, doubling down on a war of words with Washington.

Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc said on Thursday they had taken down a network of Russian-linked fake accounts operated out of Ghana and Nigeria which targeted the United States.

France will close from Monday all nurseries, schools and universities to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus, President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address, calling the outbreak the nation's worst public health crisis in a century.

Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing told Reuters on Thursday that it had created a $10 million fund to support drivers and couriers diagnosed with the coronavirus as companies worldwide grapple with how to respond to the pandemic.

Wirecard AG said on Thursday auditing firm KPMG did not find any discrepancies in its audit of the company's operations in India and Singapore as well as the Merchant Cash Advance and Digital Lending division.

Broadcom Inc withdrew its revenue forecast for 2020 on Thursday, joining a host of chipmakers that have either cut or pulled their sales outlook due to demand and supply disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Growth in cloud business helped Oracle Corp top quarterly profit and revenue on Thursday and said the coronavirus will have "minimal impact" on the fourth-quarter revenue, which is usually skewed toward software licenses rather than hardware.

Workplace communication platform Slack Technologies Inc forecast a soft revenue outlook for the first quarter on Thursday, sending its shares down more than 20% aftermarket, on a day major U.S. stock indexes went into a tailspin amid coronavirus fears.

Italy's antitrust watchdog said on Thursday it was investigating e-commerce giants Amazon and eBay for an allegedly excessive rise in the price of products such as hand sanitizer during the coronavirus crisis.

President Donald Trump signed legislation on Thursday to bar telecom carriers from using U.S. subsidies to purchase network equipment from Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL], ZTE Corp and other companies deemed a national security threat.

Verizon Communications Inc on Thursday raised its full-year capital expenditure as it accelerates its transition to 5G network.