TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran on Monday began opening intercity highways and major shopping centers to stimulate its sanctions-choked economy, gambling that it has brought under control its coronavirus outbreak — one of the worst in the world — even as some fear it could lead to a second wave of infections. Stores from high-end […]

NEW YORK (AP) —Stocks are slipping in afternoon trading on Wall Street, as the price of oil cratered to historic lows Monday, cheaper than bottled water. The S&P 500 was down 0.8%, as of 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, after wavering between sharper and milder losses. But the market’s most dramatic action was in oil, where […]

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi David Yosef, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and a member of the Sephardic Torah Council, referred yesterday to the Israeli government decision to ease restrictions on public prayer and allow up to 19 people to pray together in an open space with masks while maintaining social distance. Rabbi Yosef quoted […]

PITTSBURGH (AP) — On Saturday afternoons, the Strip District neighborhood of Pittsburgh becomes a jam-packed hub of old-fashioned shopping. People stride along Penn Avenue, hopping from greengrocer to butcher to fishmonger to Italian market, smiling and gesturing and jabbering as they go. Not this weekend. As strange, spaced-out lines formed outside favorite establishments, the chatting […]

HALLE, Belgium (AP) — Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes just wanted to do the humane thing. After so many frail and elderly nursing home residents had been held in seclusion from their loved ones in the first weeks of the lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Wilmes said her government decided to allow one visitor […]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As a doctor in North Korea during the SARS outbreak and flu pandemic, Choi Jung Hun didn’t have much more than a thermometer to decide who should be quarantined. Barely paid, with no test kits and working with antiquated equipment, if anything, he and his fellow doctors in the northeastern […]

TZFAT (VINnews) — A 27-year-old coronavirus patient in serious condition hospitalized in the Sieff hospital in Tzfat underwent a successful delivery by caesarian section. The baby, who weighed in at 2.4 kilos (5 pounds) was transferred to the local neonatal ICU for further treatment. The patient was hospitalized last week suffering from COVID-19 and in […]

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq will allow the Reuters news agency to go back to work after its license was suspended earlier this month over a report that the government was underreporting coronavirus cases, the news agency said Sunday. The agency’s suspension came after an April 3 story cited multiple sources who said the government was […]

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Sirens wailed and Jewish prayers were said for the heroes of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising, but the annual memorial observances were scaled down Sunday and moved to the internet because of the coronavirus pandemic and the need for social distancing. Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said prayers at the monument […]

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Global digital platforms Google and Facebook will be forced to pay for news content in Australia, the government said on Monday as the coronavirus pandemic causes a collapse in advertising revenue. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, known as ACCC, would release in late […]