Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Former Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption during his 10-year term in office, the attorney general’s office said Tuesday. Correa — who was president from 2007-17 but now lives in exile in Belgium, where his wife was born — was one of 18 people convicted of bribery, the office said on Twitter. Correa, one of the feistiest characters in Latin American politics, […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday extended a shutdown in the epicenter of America’s deadly coronavirus pandemic until near the end of the month. Cuomo said the COVID-19 death rate in the state was “effectively flat” for the past two days but announced that schools and non-essential businesses must stay shut until April 29. “Now is not the time to be lax,” he told reporters, adding that fines […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Ecuador’s vice president Otto Sonnenholzner has apologized after scores of bodies were left on the streets of Guayaquil as the coronavirus ravages the horror-struck port city. Residents had published videos on social media showing abandoned bodies in the streets in the Latin American city worst hit by the pandemic. Authorities collected at least 150 corpses from streets and homes earlier this week, but did not confirm how many of the […]
by Phil HAZLEWOOD with AFP bureaus Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The global death toll in the coronavirus crisis soared past 60,000 on Saturday, as US calls for the public to cover their faces reignited debate about whether masks can be effective in stemming the pandemic. The latest milestone came as Britain recorded a new daily high in fatalities, including a five-year-old child believed to be the nation’s youngest COVID-19 victim. But hard-hit […]
More than 20,000 cases of COVID-19 were registered in Latin America and the Caribbean by Wednesday — double the figure from five days ago, according to an AFP tally. As infections spread across the region, a Guatemalan migrant died and more than 20 were wounded in a riot over coronavirus fears at a holding facility for Central American migrants in Mexico, officials said. A protest by mostly Honduran migrants at the facility in southeastern […]
by Katell ABIVEN HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) — Student doctors in Cuba are trudging from house to house trying to identify cases of the coronavirus pandemic to stop it from spreading in the Caribbean island nation. “How many people live here? Have you been in contact with foreigners? Do you know the health rules to follow?” they ask. Some 28,000 students repeat the same questions dozens of times a day, all across the country. In the […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — Ecuador marked its highest daily increase in deaths and new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, with the total reaching 14 dead and 789 infected, authorities said. The number of fatalities rose from seven late Saturday to 14 on Sunday morning, while infections surged from 532 to 789, according to the country’s National Risk and Emergency Management Service. Ecuador had 166 people infected with the COVID-19 illness on Friday. It is the […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — President Nicolas Maduro asked the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday for a $5 billion loan to help crisis-worn Venezuela cope with the onslaught of the coronavirus. In a letter to IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva, Maduro said a $5 billion loan from the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument “will contribute significantly to strengthening our detection and response systems.” The RFI is a mechanism by which all member countries can get financial assistance without […]
by Louis GENOT RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — President Jair Bolsonaro condemned what he called “hysteria” over the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday, as Brazil confirmed its first death and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro declared a state of emergency. Flying in the face of mounting global alarm over the pandemic, the far-right president lashed out at containment measures he said would hurt the economy. “People are acting like it’s the end of the world,” […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered on Sunday a “collective quarantine” in seven states, including the capital Caracas, from Monday to stem the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic. All activities in the seven states are to be suspended from 5:00 am on Monday, except food distribution, health services, transport and security, Maduro said in a television address to his crisis-devastated nation where the economy had already collapsed long before the pandemic […]
LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Former UN chief Javier Perez de Cuellar, who was known for his peace-making efforts including brokering a ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war, died Wednesday in his native Peru, aged 100, his son said Perez de Cuellar served as UN secretary-general from 1981 to 1991, when he was often described as a “pacifist by vocation and nature.” Lauded by his countrymen as one of the most illustrious Peruvians of his era, Perez […]
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — At least 21 people have been killed in torrential rain that hit the Brazilian states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, triggering flash floods and destroying homes, authorities said Tuesday. Another 32 people are missing in Sao Paulo, raising fears the toll could rise further. Violent storms in recent days have dumped a month’s worth of rain on some areas in a matter of hours, devastating the southern coast […]
