BRUSSELS (AFP) -- The EU‘s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has the coronavirus, he announced on Thursday. 　 “I tested positive yesterday for Covid-19. I’m as well as I can be, strictly confined to my home,” Barnier, 69, said in a video posted on his Twitter account. 　 “I‘m fine, morale is good,” added the former French foreign minister, who is in France. 　 “I naturally am following all instructions, as does my team. My message to all those

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The United States is suspending routine visa services in most countries because of the coronavirus pandemic, the State Department announced late Wednesday. It said embassies and consulates in "most countries worldwide... will cancel all routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments as of March 18, 2020." It did not specify which countries would be exempted from the suspension, which was in response to "worldwide challenges" related to the deadly

A South Korean hospital has introduced phone booth-style coronavirus testing facilities that allow medical staff to examine patients from behind the safety of a plastic panel, the latest innovation in the country's drive to track down infections. The row of four booths -- which use negative air pressure to prevent harmful particles from escaping outside -- stand under a tented shelter outside the H Plus Yangji Hospital in Seoul. The hospital dubs them the "Safe Assessment and Fast Evalua

MONTREAL (AFP) -- International Olympic Committee member Hayley Wickenheiser said Tuesday that vows to press ahead with plans for the Tokyo Games are "insensitive and irresponsible." Wickenheiser, a member of Canada's women's ice hockey team that won four straight Olympic golds between 2002 and 2016, made her comments on Twitter. The 41-year-old IOC Athletes Commission member was speaking as the IOC said there was no need for "drastic decisions" over the staging of th

LAUSANNE (AFP) -- The International Olympic Committee will hold high-level talks on Tuesday, as doubts grow over the Tokyo Games and with some in Japan urging officials not to risk lives by pressing ahead during the coronavirus emergency. While countries across Europe have gone into full lockdown after the continent was declared the new epicentre of the deadly virus by the World Health Organization, no decision is expected yet on a possible postponement, or indeed cancellation, of this summer'

PARIS (AFP) -- Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: Border closures, checks French President Emmanuel Macron says the 27-nation European Union is to close all its external borders for 30 days. Germany implements controls at its land borders with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Spain announces it is closing its land borders. Chile closes all its land, maritime and air frontiers. Egypt will close its airports from Thursday to March 31. Greece a

GOLD COAST (AFP) -- Tom Hanks has been released from the Australian hospital where he was in isolation since testing positive for the coronavirus last week, but his wife Rita Wilson remains hospitalised, health officials said Tuesday. The multiple Oscar-winning actor was on the Gold Coast near Brisbane to film an Elvis Presley biopic directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann when he and Wilson, both 63, came down with the disease. Wilson, a singer-songwriter, had given concerts in Sydney and Brisba

NEW YORK (AFP) -- Stock markets and oil prices went into freefall Monday as interest rate cuts and fresh stimulus measures by central banks failed to dampen fears amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The US Federal Reserve on Sunday slashed borrowing costs to zero -- its second emergency cut in less than two weeks -- and took action coordinated with central banks in several European countries to counteract global "dollar funding pressures." The Fed acted again on Monday, with its

TOKYO (AFP) -- Doubts are growing in Japan about the Tokyo Olympics, with growing opposition to holding them as scheduled and some urging officials not to risk lives by pressing ahead during the coronavirus emergency. Officials like Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach have repeatedly insisted preparations should continue to light the Olympic flame on July 24. But with events from the Premier League to NBA basketball scrapped, and Japanese s

NEW YORK (AFP) -- A New York Yankees minor league player has tested positive for the coronavirus the team said Sunday, the first known case in baseball. The team did not identify the player in accordance with US medical privacy regulations, but said he was never present at the Florida spring training facility used by the Yankees' major league team and did not have known contact with any of the Yankees players. "He was never here, nor anybody who would be linked to being with him," Y

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The United States said Saturday it was stepping up its fight against the coronavirus and extending a European travel ban to include the United Kingdom and Ireland, while acknowledging that some domestic travel curbs were also being considered. President Donald Trump has decided to "suspend all travel from the United Kingdom and Ireland" effective midnight Monday EST (0400 GMT Tuesday), Vice President Mike Pence told a White House news conference. "Americans

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US President Donald Trump has tested negative for the novel coronavirus, the White House physician said Saturday. Trump submitted to the test after coming in contact with several members of a Brazilian presidential delegation visiting his Florida resort who have since tested positive for the virus. "This evening I received confirmation that the test is negative," the president's physician Sean Conley said in a memo. "One week after having dinner with the B

The United States on Friday summoned China's ambassador after a senior official in Beijing tweeted the "ridiculous" suggestion that the US military started the COVID-19 pandemic, the State Department said. David Stilwell, the top US diplomat for Asia, issued a "stern representation" to Ambassador Cui Tiankai a day after foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted the conspiracy theory. "China is seeking to deflect criticism for its role in starting a global 

ATHENS (AFP) -- Greece's Olympic Committee on Friday said it was cancelling the rest of the torch relay for the Tokyo 2020 Games on Greek soil as large crowds had turned out despite coronavirus warnings. "The rest of the torch relay on Greek soil has been cancelled," the committee said, adding that the Olympic flame would be handed over to Tokyo organisers on March 19 as scheduled, but without spectators. It noted that crowds had ignored "repeated warnings" not to gat

TEHRAN (AFP) --Iran announced on Friday that the new coronavirus has claimed another 85 lives, the highest single-day death toll in one of the world's worst affected countries. "Sadly, 85 people infected with the COVID-19 disease have died in the past 24 hours", bringing to 514 the overall number of deaths in Iran, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in a televised news conference. "Across the country, at least 1,289 infected people have been added to the list of