WORLD

Rome, Italy | AFP |  Billions around the world celebrated Easter Sunday from lockdown at home as the pope urged solidarity to fight the coronavirus pandemic and the European death toll from the virus topped 75,000. Unprecedented scenes of empty churches emerged from Italy to Panama and the Philippines, as religious …

London, United Kingdom | AFP |  Boris Johnson left hospital on Sunday to convalesce from COVID-19 at Chequers, the country estate of British prime ministers, officials said, a week after he was admitted and then spent three days in intensive care. The 55-year-old leader will not be immediately returning to work, …

New York, United States | AFP |  With New York’s nightlife spots closed digital dance parties are all the rave, as DJs stream sets while revelers don their nipple pasties and disco-ball facemasks for clubs online. The city that proudly never sleeps has seen more than 90,000 of its residents test …

Fieni, Romania | AFP |  Peacocks may not be the first thing visitors expect to see at a cement plant. But a factory in the Romanian town of Fieni has built a spacious aviary for the birds in a bid to convince the public of its environmental credentials. The idea was the …

Jussey, France | AFP |  It’s a grim truth that times are good for the coffin business when they’re bad for people, and the coronavirus pandemic is no exception. At a factory belonging to Europe’s largest coffin maker, OGF, in eastern France, workers are doing overtime to meet demand from families …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | The coronavirus pandemic poses a huge global challenge to auction houses large and small, but those that have embraced technology could prosper as nervous investors seek a safe haven, according to experts. Major London-based house Sotheby’s has closed its London, Hong Kong, Dubai, Geneva, Milan, …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Abortion rights advocates on Saturday called on the US Supreme Court to urgently intervene to force Texas to reinstate the right to abortion, which has been suspended in the state since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic. This is the first appeal related to …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis will break with centuries of tradition and livestream Easter Sunday mass to allow the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics celebrate their holiest holiday under a coronavirus lockdown. Fear and confusion in the face of a disease whose official death toll has soared past …

Washington, United States | AFP | As COVID-19 tests become more widely available across the US, scientists have warned about a growing concern: Many people with negative results might actually have the virus. That could have devastating implications as a global recession looms and governments wrangle with the question of when …

  Sydney, Australia | AFP | Cardinal George Pell has penned a letter in Australia’s national newspaper just days after walking free from prison in which he says the Catholic Church has “cut out a moral cancer” by facing down child sex abuse. The letter, published Saturday in The Weekend Australian, …