A handful of Eastern Orthodox priests held mass for the Christian holiday of Easter on Sunday in an empty Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem due to restrictions in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Some were born in this warren of small rooms in what used to be a hospital, dating to the 17th century. Many are likely to die here. And all are currently confined to their rooms, denied the simple comfort of human companionship.
U.N. experts have recommended blacklisting 14 vessels for violating sanctions against North Korea in a report that accuses the country of increasing illegal coal exports, imports of petroleum products and continuing with cyber attacks on financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges to gain illicit revenue.
As Spain hunkers down after five weeks of confinement, the brave few keep the country going during a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 20,000 of their fellow citizens.
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
On most mornings, Somaya Farooqi and four other teen-age girls pile into her dad?s car and head to a mechanic?s workshop. They use back roads to skirt police checkpoints set up to enforce a lockdown in their city of Herat, one of Afghanistan?s hot spots of the coronavirus pandemic.
South Korea reported fewer than 10 new coronavirus cases Sunday for the first time in two months as U.S. governors ease lockdowns amid pressure worldwide from businesses and the public to limit the pandemic?s economic damage.
After 15 years in professional basketball, Andrew Bogut is close to making a decision on when to end his career. The new coronavirus and subsequent postponement of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo isn?t making it any easier.
The former mayor of a Northern California city who stepped down after he harshly criticized President Donald Trump and his supporters died Saturday in a plane crash, the Sacramento Bee reported.
A gunman shot and killed a Texas police officer and wounded two others Saturday after they responded to a call at an apartment complex, authorities said.
Africa now has more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday, while Nigeria said the president’s chief of staff had died.
Iran allowed some businesses in the capital and nearby towns to re-open Saturday after weeks of lockdown aimed at containing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East.
Hong Kong police arrested at least 14 veteran pro-democracy lawmakers, activists and a media tycoon on Saturday on charges of joining unlawful protests last year calling for reforms.
The coronavirus brings with it forced isolation: Family members cannot visit hospitalized patients. Nursing homes bar their doors to outsiders. People with mild cases or who have been in contact with infected persons must stay in quarantine.
Governments around the world are wrestling with when and how to lift economically painful virus-control measures as unemployment rises and rent payments come due.
For Orthodox Christians, this is normally a time of reflection and mourning followed by joyful release, of centuries-old ceremonies steeped in symbolism and tradition.
Malaysian authorities said they have turned back a boat carrying about 200 Muslim Rohingya refugees, including children, that was attempting to enter the country illegally.
South Korea?s Supreme Court said Friday it will re-open a case related to the enslavement and abuse of thousands of people at a vagrants’ facility in the 1970s and 1980s, more than three decades after its owner was acquitted of serious charges. A finding that the government failed to protect the constitutional rights of former inmates could boost their push for compensation.
Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus even under the best-case scenario, according to a new report that cites modeling by the Imperial College London.
Myanmar announced Friday that it was releasing almost 25,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty marking this week’s traditional New Year celebration.
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
Spain was expecting a bright, hopeful spring of blossoms, soccer games and music festivals. The eastern city of Valencia planned to burn huge satirical sculptures for its annual Fallas celebration. As days stretched longer, cafés and bars served the first outdoor vermouth of the season.
Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine began a prisoner exchange on Thursday, according to the Ukrainian president’s office and separatists.
With gold prices rising to a seven-year high, many Thais have been flocking to gold shops to trade in their necklaces, bracelets, rings and gold bars for cash, eager to reap profits during an economic downturn.
Health concerns were on artist Danai Ussama?s mind when he returned to Thailand last month from a trip to Spain. He noticed that he and his fellow passengers did not go through medical checks after arriving at Bangkok?s airport, and thought it worth noting on his Facebook page.
Jordi Fernández?s 16-year-career as a mortician didn?t prepare him for the hundreds of bodies that are streaming into the Barcelona funeral home where he works.
Israel?s president Thursday asked the Knesset to choose a new prime minister, giving parliament three weeks to agree upon a leader or plunge the country into an unprecedented fourth consecutive election in just over a year.
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
A former senior North Korean diplomat won a constituency seat in South Korea?s parliamentary elections, the first such achievement among tens of thousands of North Koreans who have fled their authoritarian, impoverished homeland.
Bangladesh’s coast guard has rescued 382 starving Rohingya refugees who had been drifting at sea for weeks after failing to reach Malaysia, officials said Thursday.
As countries consider how to restart economies that have been halted by the coronavirus, the early experiences in China and parts of Europe show it will be no easy task.
The U.S. ambassador to China said Wednesday that he doesn?t believe Beijing is deliberately blocking exports of masks and other medical supplies to fight the coronavirus, and that the shipment of 1,200 tons of such products to the U.S. could not have been possible without Chinese support.
Global demand for oil will fall this year by the most ever due to the economic lockdowns enforced around the world to contain the coronavirus pandemic, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.
German authorities say police have arrested four suspected members of the Islamic State group alleged to be planning an attack on American military facilities.
The European Union moved Wednesday to head off a chaotic and potentially disastrous easing of restrictions that are limiting the spread of the coronavirus, warning its 27 nations to move very cautiously as they return to normal life and base their actions on scientific advice.
In a pre-dawn raid in food-starved Zimbabwe, police enforcing a coronavirus lockdown confiscated and destroyed 3 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables by setting fire to it. Wielding batons, they scattered a group of rural farmers who had traveled overnight, breaking restrictions on movement to bring the precious produce to one of the country?s busiest markets.
Polish lawmakers on Wednesday are debating draft laws backed by a conservative Catholic group that would impose a near-total ban on abortion, criminalize school sex education and equate homosexuality with pedophilia, revisiting proposals that were shelved after a popular outcry.
The Associated Press had a panel of WNBA coaches and general managers hold a mock draft over the course of the season. This is the final installment with the draft on Friday.
Global stocks and oil prices tumbled Wednesday after the International Monetary Fund said the world’s economy will suffer its worst year since the Great Depression of the 1930s due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It was the year Cassius Clay won the heavyweight championship and became Muhammad Ali. When Roy Emerson of Australia and Maria Bueno of Brazil took the titles at Wimbledon, when Arnold Palmer claimed his fourth and final Masters, and when the Beatles arrived on a Pan Am flight from London to play their first concert in the United States.
The $2.2 trillion federal stimulus package could fail to deliver badly needed financial aid to thousands of smaller cities and counties where a majority of Americans live, according to documents and interviews with local officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief rival met Tuesday in a final effort to finalize an agreement on an emergency government that would tackle the coronavirus threat and prevent yet another costly and divisive election amid the crisis.
China is facing a new coronavirus flare-up along its remote northern border with Russia, far from the epicenter of Wuhan, where it has all but declared victory in the battle against the pandemic.
Gregg Marshall began his career as an assistant at tiny Randolph-Macon and Belmont Abbey, but it was during eight years on the staff of Hall of Fame coach John Kresse at College of Charleston that he learned to build a basketball program.
Asian shares rose Tuesday although investors were braced for sobering news about how the coronavirus pandemic has hurt global corporate earnings and the Chinese economy, the driver of growth for the region.
President Donald Trump’s record-setting fundraising pace slowed slightly amid the coronavirus outbreak but remained strong as he maintains a massive cash advantage over Democrats.
Highways that once pulsated with traffic are eerily silent. Big cities normally filled with dense crowds are wide open, with public spaces out of bounds. Those hunkered down at home peer out from their windows and balconies, while police patrol the streets.
The International Olympic Committee will face ?several hundred million dollars? of added costs because of the postponement of the Tokyo Games, the body’s president said.
With the national sports calendar now in its second month on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, The Associated Press looks at what would have been held the week of April 13-19:
NASCAR star Kyle Larson used a racial slur on a live stream during a virtual race ? the second driver in a week to draw scrutiny while using the online racing platform to fill time during the coronavirus pandemic.
Crowds swarm Stockholm’s waterfront, with some people sipping cocktails in the sun. In much of the world, this sort of gathering would be frowned upon or even banned.
Turkey?s president has rejected the resignation of the country’s interior minister who took responsibility for a poorly timed announcement of a weekend lockdown that prompted thousands of people to rush into the streets to stock up on supplies.
Pope Francis and Catholics around the world marked a solitary Easter Sunday, forced to celebrate the most joyful day in the Christian calendar amid the sorrowful reminders of the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.
Police across Turkey are conducting routine ID checks on the streets, stopping anyone who looks under 20 or over 65 as they enforce a coronavirus curfew for the young and the elderly. Yet factory workers are still going to their jobs, people freely ride buses and many offices remain open.
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed Italy’s for the highest in the world, surpassing 20,000, as Chicago and other cities across the Midwest braced for a potential surge in victims and moved to snuff out smoldering hot spots of contagion before they erupt.
The Israeli government approved a tight quarantine of several areas of Jerusalem on Sunday, including the historic Old City, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the city’s most susceptible neighborhoods.
Four German students say they’re glad they’ll finally get to fly home Sunday but also sad to say goodbye to the New Zealand family that sheltered them for 2 1/2 weeks during a nationwide lockdown.
?Saturday Night Live? tried its first ?quarantine version' of the comedy show, with coronavirus pioneer Tom Hanks, Coldplay singer Chris Martin and the comedy show’s entire cast phoning in with jokes from home.
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
A panel of 15 golf writers were asked to vote on the top Masters in history. They are being republished this week because the Masters has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 1986 Masters was voted No. 1 by a large margin. The following story moved on was on April 13, 1986.
When Pastor Matt McGarity looked out at his Clover, South Carolina, congregation, he saw a view unlike anything he?d seen before. The familiar faces of his flock were blurred behind vehicle windshields, with the exception a few children sticking their heads out of sunroofs. Some held onto dogs while others sat listening to the Easter service in their Sunday best ? on a Saturday evening.
Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak that has killed thousands of people for more than 18 months, and now it must also face a new scourge: the coronavirus pandemic.
Steve Baker, one of the British parliament’s leading libertarians, was nearly in tears as he addressed the House of Commons in support of a bill that once seemed unthinkable: a massive economic aid package in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sarajevo, a religious melting pot throughout its more than five-centuries-long history, would normally be teeming with life this April. Instead, along with the rest of Bosnia and most of the world, it is under a lockdown to try to bring the new coronavirus under control.
Indonesia?s Anak Krakatau volcano spewed a column of ash 500 meters (1,640 feet) into the sky in the longest eruption since the explosive collapse of the island caused a deadly tsunami in 2018, scientists said Saturday.
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
A panel of 15 golf writers were asked to vote on the top five Masters in history. They are being republished this week because the Masters has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 1997 Masters was voted No. 2. The following story moved on was on April 13, 1997.
Indonesian security forces shot and killed three separatist rebels who were suspected in an attack that killed a New Zealander near the world?s largest gold mine in the easternmost province of Papua, police said Saturday.
Her friends who worked in hospitals cried, and Indonesian businesswoman Maryati Dimursi listened: They did not have the protective gear they needed to treat patients suspected of having COVID-19. Some had resorted to wearing plastic raincoats.
Although still damaged and scarred by fire, Notre Dame Cathedral is ? if only for an instant ? coming back to life as a center for prayer in a Paris locked down against the coronavirus.
Thomas Ravelli was talking about the coronavirus ? what else? ? when his thoughts turned to Sweden?s fairly relaxed attitude to a pandemic that has shut down much of the world.
Renault says it is seeking billions in state-backed loans, cancelling its dividend for 2019 and its chairman is taking a pay cut, as the French automaker tries to weather the coronavirus crisis.
A roadside bomb exploded near a Pakistani paramilitary vehicle in restive southwestern Baluchistan province Friday, killing two soldiers who were clearing the area for fencing the border with Afghanistan, two intelligence officials said.
Southeast Asian foreign ministers have endorsed the setting up of a regional fund to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and discussed a planned video summit of their leaders with counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea.
Weeks before the coronavirus spread through much of the world, parts of Africa were already threatened by another kind of plague, the biggest locust outbreak some countries had seen in 70 years.
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