China’s manufacturing plunged in February by an even wider margin than expected after efforts to contain a virus outbreak shut down much of the world’s second-largest economy, an official surveyed showed Saturday. The survey, coming as global stock markets fall on fears the virus will spread abroad, adds to mounting evidence of the vast cost […]

As the new coronavirus spread rapidly in central China, the country’s authoritarian government took a very authoritarian step: It ordered the unprecedented lockdown of 60 million people in the hardest-hit province. The shutdown of public transport in some cities, the closing of entertainment venues nationwide and a heavy dose of fear emptied the streets of […]

Pope Francis cancelled official engagements for the third day in a row Saturday as he battled an apparent cold. The 83-year-old pope, who lost part of a lung to a respiratory illness as a young man, has never cancelled so many official audiences or events in his seven-year papacy. Francis is, however, continuing to work […]

The wounded came in waves. First in ones and twos, limping up the steps and staggering through the aluminium doors, and then in wheelbarrows, with bleeding skulls and stabbed necks. Finally, the motorcycles and auto-rickshaws arrived, their seats stained with the blood of as many as they could hold. As the Mustafabad neighbourhood of India’s […]

Japanese sporting events were held without spectators on Saturday in a move aimed at halting the spread of the new coronavirus. The Chiba Lotte Marines hosted the Rakuten Eagles with no spectators in the stands at Zozo Marine Stadium in Chiba Prefecture on Saturday, one of six preseason baseball games played at empty stadiums. The […]