WORLD

Miami, United States | AFP |  What could be worse than a pandemic overwhelming health care systems and causing global economic collapse? Florida knows the answer: a pandemic that rages into hurricane season, which is already on the horizon and causing the Sunshine State to dramatically update its storm preparations. “COVID …

New York, United States | AFP |  Clutching flowers, candles and photos, New York hospital workers paid tribute to colleagues who have died from the coronavirus since the beginning of the epidemic that has ravaged the city with a modest ceremony in the freezing cold Friday. Standing in front of the …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Barack Obama celebrated the kickoff of his “historic” White House challenge before thousands of ecstatic supporters. Hillary Clinton also marked her “milestone,” as the first woman nominee of a major US party, to thunderous applause. And what of Joe Biden? The resurgent Democrat has been denied …

Los Angeles, United States | AFP |  Faith in divine protection, defending the economy, or simply an ideological stance: A handful of rural US states, many fierce supporters of President Donald Trump, have stubbornly refused to issue stay-at-home orders despite the ravages of coronavirus. Two of them — South Dakota and …

  Washington, United States | AFP | With an aircraft carrier forced into port and staff at bases handling nuclear missiles hit by COVID-19, the US military wants rivals to understand: don’t test us, we have not been weakened. Statement after statement from the Pentagon has sought to deliver that …

Rome, Italy | AFP | The global coronavirus death toll topped 100,000 Friday as Easter celebrations around the world kicked off in near-empty churches with billions of people stuck indoors to halt the pandemic’s deadly march. The grim milestone came as the World Health Organization issued a dire warning that …

Paris, France | AFP | In the emergency rooms of virus hotspots around the world, medical staff are seeing a greater number of men than women suffering severe symptoms of COVID-19, with obesity emerging as another potentially aggravating factor. But experts are still unsure why. What first began to appear as …

Rome, Italy | AFP | Criminal organisations in Italy are distributing food and ordering interest-free lending to the needy to try to extend their influence, Italian anti-mafia author Roberto Saviano has warned. Italy’s mafia groups are also poised to snatch up struggling businesses as the country — which is in crisis …

Paris, France | AFP | The Archbishop of Paris led a small prayer ceremony Friday at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, marking the start of the Catholic Easter weekend one year after a fire that nearly destroyed the world heritage monument. “There is still life here,” Archbishop Michel Aupetit said after he …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The World Health Organisation on Friday denied having brushed off a Taiwanese warning on human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus soon after its outbreak in China late last year. The US has accused the body of “putting politics first” by ignoring Taiwan’s warning in late December, …