Oil price dives as OPEC, Russia fail to agree on output cut

 An oil pump works at sunset in the desert oil fields of Sakhir, Bahrain VIENNA, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — OPEC and key ally Russia failed to agree on a cut to oil production that would have contained the plunge in the price of crude caused by the new coronavirus outbreak’s…

Covid-19 fraud: UK victims lose 800,000 pounds in scams

LONDON, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Victims in the United Kingdom have lost more than 800,000 pounds to coronavirus-linked scams since last month, with criminals tricking fearful people who wanted to buy protective masks, police said. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) said there had been 21 reports of fraud since…

Covid-19: Senegal orders cabinet to stay in country over virus risks

Dakar, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Senegal’s president Macky Sall ordered his cabinet ministers not to leave the country in a measure to control risks from coronavirus, the presidency said. Senegal has registered four cases of COVID-19 since the virus first emerged in China in December and has since infected more…

Covid-19: Funeral named as major source of outbreak in Spain

MADRID, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A funeral held in northern Spain about two weeks ago has been named as the biggest source of coronavirus in the country, local media have reported. More than 60 people at the ceremony in the Basque capital of Vitoria-Gasteiz, and their close contacts have been…

Covid-19: Morocco bans fans from football games over coronavirus fears

RABAT, March 8 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Morocco has banned fans from attending football games days after the coronavirus reached the country. The Moroccan football association (FRMF) announced the decision two days after the first case was reported on Monday. Among the measures, the organization of matches behind closed doors, but above…

One dead in Guinea anti-government demonstration

BISSAU, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — One person has died during protests in Guinea after confrontations broke out between crowds and security forces. Guinea has been hit by a series of protests since October and the latest rallies are about a constitutional referendum that would have led to President Alpha Conde…

Covid-19: Italy coronavirus toll passes 200, cases near 6,000

ROME, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Italy’s death toll from the novelcoronavirus rose by 36 to 233 on Saturday while the number of infections shot up by a single-day record of 1,247 to hit 5,883. Italy has recorded the most deaths of any country outside China and thethird-most infections after China…

France to close schools in areas worst hit by coronavirus for 15 days

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (right) and Health Minister Olivier Veran give a press conference on Covid-19 PARIS, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France will close nurseries and schools for 15 days from Monday in the two areas most hit by coronavirus infections, one north of Paris and the other in…

Guatemala seeks to limit migrants returned under U.S. asylum agreement

GUATEMALA CITY, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Guatemala’s new government is trying to limit the number of foreign migrants the United States sends its way under an agreement that makes the Central American nation a buffer zone to reduce U.S. asylum claims. The United States has sent hundreds of Honduran and El Salvadoran…

Guatemala court overturns government’s civil society restrictions

GUATEMALA CITY, March 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Guatemala’s government on Friday said it will respect a ruling by the nation’s Constitutional Court that overturns a law allowing the government to pry into the affairs of and even dissolve non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Congress passed the law on Feb. 12 with the support…