Iran s parliament has passed a bill allowing the government to slash four zeros from the rial, Iranian state media reported on Monday, after a sharp fall in the value of the currency as a result of crippling U.S. sanctions. Iran s national currency will be changed from the rial to the Toman, which is equal to 10,000 rials, under the bill. "The bill to remove four zeros from the national currency was approved by lawmakers," Iran s Students News Agency ISNA reported. The bill needs to be approved by the clerical body that vets legislation before it takes effect. Iran s state TV said the Central Bank of Iran will have two years to "pave the ground to change the currency to Toman". The idea of removing four zeros has been floated since 2008, but gained strength after 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump exited Iran s 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions, as the rial lost more than 60% of its value. The Iranian currency was trading at about 156,000 rials per dollar on the unofficial market on Monday, according to foreign exchange websites. Iran s weak currency and high inflation have led to sporadic street protests since late 2017.

The man wearing an explosive vest emerged from a car and calmly marched toward the gates of the intelligence building in Iraq s northern city of Kirkuk. When he ignored their shouts to halt, guards opened fire, and he blew himself up, wounding three security personnel in the first week of Ramadan. Days later, a three-pronged coordinated attack killed 10 Iraqi militia fighters in the northern province of Salahaddin _ the deadliest and most complex operation in many months. The assaults are the latest in a resurgence of attacks by the Islamic State group in northern Iraq. The first was a brazen suicide mission not seen in months. The second was among the most complex attacks since the group s defeat in 2017. In neighboring Syria, IS attacks on security forces, oil fields and civilian sites have also intensified. The renewed mayhem is a sign that the militant group is taking advantage of governments absorbed in tackling the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing slide into economic chaos. The virus is compounding longtime concerns among security and U.N. experts that the group would stage a comeback after its ``caliphate, which once encompassed a third of Iraq and Syria, was brought down last year. In Iraq, militants also exploit security gaps at a time of an ongoing territorial dispute and a U.S. troop drawdown. ``It s a real threat, said Qubad Talabani, deputy prime minister of the northern Kurdish region of Iraq. ``They are mobilizing and killing us in the north and they will start hitting Baghdad soon.`` He said IS was benefiting from a ``gap between Kurdish forces and federal armed forces caused by political infighting. Intelligence reports say the number of IS fighters in Iraq is believed to be 2,500-3,000. In northeast Syria, Kurdish-dominated police have become a more visible target for IS as they patrol the streets to implement anti-virus measures, said Mervan Qamishlo, a spokesman for U.S.-allied Kurdish-led forces. IS fighters in late March launched a campaign of attacks in government-held parts of Syria, from the central province of Homs all the way to Deir el-Zour to the east, bordering Iraq. Some 500 fighters, including some who had escaped from prison, recently slipped from Syria into Iraq, helping fuel the surge in violence there, Iraqi intelligence officials said. IS is shifting from local intimidation to more complex attacks, three Iraqi military officials and experts said. Operations previously focused on assassinations of local officials and less sophisticated attacks. Now the group is carrying out more IED attacks, shootings and ambushes of police and military. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Multiple factors help the militants. The number of Iraqi military personnel on duty has dropped 50% because of virus prevention measures, the military officials said. Also, territorial disputes between Baghdad and authorities from the northern Kurdish autonomy zone have left parts of three provinces without law enforcement. The rugged landscape is difficult to police. The uptick also coincides with a pullout of U.S.-led coalition forces from bases in western Iraq, Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces in line with a drawdown conceived in December. ``Before the emergence of the virus and before the American withdrawal, the operations were negligible, numbering only one operation per week, said a senior intelligence official. Now, he said, security forces are seeing an average of 20 operations a month. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. Coalition spokesman Col. Myles B. Caggins III said IS attacks were increasing in reaction to operations against its hideouts in the mountains and rural areas of north-central Iraq. Iraqi military officials believe the improved, organized nature of the attacks serves to cement the influence of new IS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, who was named after his predecessor was killed in a U.S. raid late last year. One military official said more operations are expected during Ramadan to demonstrate the new leader s strength. In Syria, one of the most significant attacks occurred April 9, when IS fighters attacked government positions in and near the town of Sukhna. The government brought in reinforcements for a counterattack backed by Russian airstrikes. Two days of fighting left 32 troops and 26 IS gunmen dead, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the country s nine-year war. Days later, the government said that because of the security situation in the desert several gas wells in the fields of Shaer and Hayan were damaged, leading to a 30% drop in electricity production. Back in Iraq, the green pastures of the northern village of Kujalo conceal a hidden enemy that keeps resident Nawzad up at night. His farming community lies in a disputed territory that has witnessed a sharp increase in attacks, including a nearby ambush earlier this month that killed two peshmerga officers. He said the militants have local collaborators. ``They know everything about each farm in Kulajo and they know to whom each house belongs, he said, asking to be identified only by his first name, fearing reprisals. The militants also receive shelter, supplies, food and transport from local sympathizers, said Kurdish Brig. Kamal Mahmoud. His peshmerga forces are based on part of the front lines there, but can t operate in other parts run by government troops _ and there, he said, the overstretched security forces control only main roads with no presence in villages and towns. On April 1, a federal police officer was killed, and a battalion commander and brigadier general wounded in a security operation in the Makhoul mountain range in Diyala. Two days later, an IED attack targeted a patrol of a commando regiment of the Diyala Operations Command in the outskirts of Maadan village. Sartip, a Kujalo resident, said he fears the militants improved capabilities. ``IS has been carrying out attacks in Kurdish areas for a long time, but now they are more organized and have more people, he said.

The Lebanese government approved an economic rescue plan for digging the country out of a financial crisis seen as the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-90 civil war, an official source said. The plan drawn up by Prime Minister Hassan Diab s government comes as mounting hardship fuels a new wave of unrest. A protester was killed during rioting in Tripoli this week. An early draft of the plan called it a "good basis" for any negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), widely seen as Lebanon s only way to secure desperately-needed financing. A second official source said that, now Lebanon has a plan, it must officially ask for IMF help. The cabinet approved the plan after "minor amendments", the first official source said, adding that the question of the exchange rate was not decided on. The pound is still pegged at a rate of 1,507.5 to the dollar, even as it has slumped below 4,000 on a parallel market since October. The finalised document was not immediately available. The crisis is rooted in decades of state waste, corruption and bad governance that landed Lebanon with one of the world s biggest public debt burdens. Lebanon defaulted on its sovereign debt last month for the first time. The early draft of the plan set out vast losses in the financial system, including a projected $83 billion of losses in the banking system that has helped finance the state. The currency has shed more than half its value and savers have been shut out of their deposits since October, when countrywide protests erupted against ruling politicians. The price of consumer goods has shot up by 50% since October in the import-dependent country. The question of how to cover the losses in the financial system has sparked a political row. The early draft called for an exceptional contribution from large depositors, leading to fierce criticism from opponents of the Diab government, notably Sunni politician Saad al-Hariri and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. The Diab government came to office in January with backing from the Iran-backed Shi ite group Hezbollah, President Michel Aoun - the Christian Maronite head of state - and the Shi ite Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Hopes of an effective drug treatment for coronavirus patients have risen following positive early results from a trial of remdesivir, a drug first tried in Ebola patients. Data from the trial on more than 1,000 severely ill patients in 75 hospitals around the world show that patients put on the drug recovered 31% faster than similar patients who were given a placebo drug instead. Remdesivir cut recovery time from a median of 15 days to 11.

The French government will tighten restrictions on foreign investments from outside Europe in French companies to limit foreign control over strategic sectors and technologies, the finance minister said on Wednesday. Currently non-European investments in French companies do not need government approval as long as the stake is 25% or less. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he would lower the threshold to 10% for investments in large companies until end of the year. "In this period of crisis, some companies are vulnerable, some technologies are fragile and could be bought by foreign competitors at a low cost. I won t let it happen," Le Maire told LCI television. The government already at the start of the year tightened controls on non-European foreign investments, in particular by lowering the threshold for state-vetting to 25% from 33% previously. Le Maire also said that he would add biotechnology companies to a list of sectors that requires government approval for an investment from outside Europe to go ahead.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned countries against lifting restrictions put in place to contain the spread of coronavirus without careful planning, saying this would cause a setback. "While the virus continues to spread across our region, there has been a slight decrease in the number of cases reported week by week in some countries. Some of these countries have developed an exit strategy and have started lifting restrictions," Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office director, said on Tuesday. "Without careful planning and in the absence of scaled-up public health and clinical care capacities, this premature lifting of physical distancing measures is likely to lead to an uncontrolled resurgence in COVID19 transmission and an amplified second wave of cases," he added in a virtual press conference. Many countries around the world, including Egypt, have taken gradual steps to loosen lockdown restrictions in a bid to keep their economies running. The Geneva-based UN health body said it was working with researchers to accelerate the development of vaccines and drugs for COVID-19. “More than 80 vaccines are in development globally, including six vaccines in clinical evaluation, and several therapeutics are in clinical trials,” Al-Mandhari said. The international organisation is committed to sharing developed medicines and vaccines “equitably” with all countries and people, he said, while stressing impartiality. “As humanitarians, we have no hidden agendas or bias. We abide by our core mandate that health is neutral and ensuring humanitarian access for all people, everywhere." The fight against the virus is more daunting in some Arab countries. The emergence of coronavirus could be catastrophic in Yemen, whose healthcare system is fragile, while fighting and shelling in Libya impedes the organisation’s work, Al-Mandhari said. “Millions of already vulnerable people in these countries are more prone to infectious diseases due to overcrowded living conditions, weakened immunity due to years of food insecurity, and insufficient treatment for other underlying medical conditions.” "Many of these countries are also politically fragmented, resulting in limited humanitarian access to populations, and challenges in information sharing with WHO in a timely and transparent manner," he noted.

Israeli air strikes near the Syrian capital early Monday killed three civilians, state media said. "Three civilians were martyred and four others wounded, including a child, because shrapnel from Israeli missiles fell on houses" in the suburbs of Damascus, the official SANA news agency said. Syrian air defences had downed "most" of the Israeli missiles launched from Lebanese air space shortly before dawn, SANA said in an earlier report. Videos published on the agency s website purported to show the Israeli warheads exploding in the sky. An Israeli spokesperson declined to comment. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the attack hit positions of Iranian forces and fighters from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah south of Damascus. It said four such fighters were killed in the strikes. Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in the country, targeting government troops as well as allied Iranian forces and Hezbollah fighters, enemies of the Jewish state. On April 20, SANA said Syrian air defences had downed Israeli missiles near the ancient city of Palmyra. The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said the targets were "military posts for Iranian militias in the Palmyra desert". That raid killed three Syrian fighters and six foreigners, according to the monitor, which was not able to determine their nationalities. Israel rarely confirms its operations in Syria but says Iran s presence in support of President Bashar al-Assad is a threat and that it will continue its strikes.

Yemen s main southern separatist group announced early on Sunday it would establish self-rule in areas under its control, which the Saudi-backed government warned would have "catastrophic consequences". The move threatens to renew conflict between the UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) and the Saudi-backed government, nominal allies in Yemen s war, even as the United Nations is trying to secure a nationwide truce to confront the novel coronavirus. The STC deployed its forces on Sunday in Aden, the southern port which is the interim seat of the government ousted from the capital, Sanaa, by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. Reuters journalists saw STC fighters in a column of pickup trucks and military vehicles riding down a main street in Aden. The STC is one of the main groups fighting against the Houthis as part of a coalition led by Saudi Arabia. But the separatists, long backed by Saudi coalition partner the United Arab Emirates, have clashed with government forces in the past. In a statement, the STC announced emergency rule in Aden and all southern governorates, saying it would take control of Aden s port and airport and other state institutions such as the central bank. The Saudi-backed government and southern regions of Shabwa, Hadhramout and Socotra, among the few areas under coalition control, issued separate statements rejecting the declaration. Yemen s Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Hadhrami said the STC announcement constituted "a resumption of its armed insurgency" and a "rejection and complete withdrawal from the Riyadh agreement", a deal which ended a previous stand-off between the separatists and the government last year. The STC "will bear alone the dangerous and catastrophic consequences for such an announcement", he said in a statement. STC Vice-President Hani Ali Brik accused the government of hampering the agreement. In a Twitter post, he reiterated accusations against Hadi s government of mismanagement and corruption, charges it denies. CORONAVIRUS CEASEFIRE Yemen has been mired in violence since the Houthis ousted Hadi s government from power in Sanaa in late 2014, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to intervene. The conflict, seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has been in a military stalemate for years. The Houthis still hold most major cities despite fighting that has killed more than 100,000 people. The war has choked supply lines in the poorest Arabian peninsula nation, leaving millions of people on the brink of famine and dependent on international aid. The Saudi-led coalition has announced a unilateral ceasefire prompted by a U.N. plea to focus on the coronavirus pandemic. It extended the ceasefire on Friday for a month, but the Houthis have not accepted the truce and violence has continued. While Yemen has reported only one confirmed case of the novel coronavirus, aid groups fear a catastrophic outbreak should it spread among a malnourished population in a country with a shattered health system and little testing. The United Nations is trying to convene virtual talks to forge a permanent truce, coordinate coronavirus efforts and agree on humanitarian and economic confidence-building measures to restart peace negotiations stalled since late 2018. The STC, which has said it wants to be included in any political negotiations, in January pulled out of committees implementing the Riyadh deal. The UAE, which like the STC opposes the Islamist Islah party that forms the backbone of Hadi s government, largely scaled down its presence in the war last year, but retains influence through the thousands of southern fighters it backs.

Iran will destroy U.S. warships if its security is threatened in the Gulf, the head of Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards told state TV on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran over "harassment" of U.S. vessels. "I have ordered our naval forces to destroy any American terrorist force in the Persian Gulf that threatens security of Iran s military or non-military ships," Major General Hossein Salami said. "Security of the Persian Gulf is part of Iran s strategic priorities." Trump said on Wednesday he had instructed the U.S. Navy to fire on any Iranian ships that harass it at sea, but said later he was not changing the military’s rules of engagement. Earlier this month, the U.S. military said 11 Revolutionary Guards naval vessels from the Guards navy came close to U.S. Navy and coast guard ships in the Gulf, calling the moves “dangerous and provocative”. Tehran blamed its longtime adversary for the incident. On Thursday, Iran s Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who represents U.S. interests in the country, over the recent tensions between Tehran and Washington. "I am telling the Americans that we are absolutely determined and serious in defending our national security, our water borders, our shipping safety, and our security forces, and we will respond decisively to any sabotage," Salami said. "Americans have experienced our power in the past and must learn from it." Tensions between Iran and the United States have escalated since 2018, when Trump withdrew from Tehran s 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers and reimposed crippling sanctions. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested that Trump should focus on saving U.S. service members from the new coronavirus outbreak. "The U.S. military is hit by over 5,000 #covid19 infections. ...Also, U.S. forces have no business 7,000 miles away from home, provoking our sailors off our OWN Persian Gulf shores," Zarif tweeted. Iran s clerical rulers consider the U.S. military presence in the Middle East a threat to the Islamic Republic s security. Stoking antagonism over Tehran s nuclear and missile programs, Iran s Guards said on Wednesday they had successfully launched the country s first military satellite into orbit. The announcement drew protests from Washington. The U.S. military says the same long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could allow Tehran to launch longer-range missiles, perhaps someday with nuclear warheads. Tehran denies U.S. assertions that such activity is a cover for ballistic missile development and says it has never pursued the development of nuclear weapons.

A Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon has been put on lockdown after the UN announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus in one of the country s numerous and crowded camps. The patient, a Palestinian refugee from Syria, has been taken to the state-run Rafic Hariri hospital in Beirut, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a statement late Tuesday. Medical experts were due to visit the Wavel camp in the eastern Bekaa Valley later on Wednesday to carry out tests, the agency added. The testing will focus on the woman s relatives and people she has interacted with, as well as 50 others chosen arbitrarily "inside the camp and its surroundings", said Lebanon s official National News Agency. In coordination with Lebanese security forces, Palestinian factions in charge of security have imposed a lockdown on the camp, preventing anyone from entering or leaving, the NNA report said. The United Nations and aid groups have repeatedly warned that refugees and migrants in crowded camps worldwide are at special risk of the new coronavirus. More than 70 million people globally been forced by conflict, persecution, violence and abuses to flee their homes, including more than 20 million people living as refugees, according to UN data. Weak sanitation, cramped conditions More than 2,000 people live in Wavel, according to statistics released by Lebanon s government after a 2017 census, but the UN agency says the population of those registered in the camp are much higher. Aid groups have warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian and Syrian refugees living in Lebanon s overcrowded camps are the most vulnerable and that self-isolating patients in the camps where sanitation is weak would be one of the top challenges. "The main concern remains... the spread of coronavirus in the overcrowded Palestine refugee camps where there are very limited possibilities for home isolation," an UNRWA spokeswoman said earlier this month. More than 174,000 Palestinians live in Lebanon, according to official figures, with most residing in camps ruled by Palestinian factions beyond the reach of Lebanese security forces. But unofficial estimates say the Palestinians, whose forefathers fled the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, could number as many as 500,000. And out of the 1.5 million Syrians Lebanon says it hosts since the civil war broke out in the neighbouring country nine years ago, nearly one million are registered with the UN as refugees. So far just one Palestinian, who lives outside a camp, and three Syrians have tested positive in Lebanon for COVID-19 compared to 677 infections and 21 deaths across the country, according to officials.

Dozens of protesters poured back onto the streets of Beirut in their cars on Tuesday, furious at rising poverty and hardship, as parliament convened for the first time during Lebanon s coronavirus lockdown. People flocked to the streets in other parts of Lebanon too, including the northern city of Tripoli, resuming protests that had abated in recent months after shaking the country since October. Men and women popped out of their car windows, waving Lebanese flags and chanting "revolution", protesting in their vehicles to maintain physical distance as the country combats the outbreak of the highly contagious coronavirus. They drove from central Beirut towards the first legislative session that had been relocated from the parliament building to a theatre hall, also to allow for social distancing. "No one has a job anymore...Salaries keep doing down. We re in the streets because nothing has changed since we left," said Ali Haidar, a protester wearing a face mask in central Beirut. "The state left us with two choices: we either die from hunger or we die from the disease...Let us at least die taking a stand." The pandemic has compounded woes in Lebanon, which had plunged deep into financial crisis months before. The Lebanese have had to contend with the value of their savings tumbling, a tanking currency, painful price hikes and job losses. Before the outbreak, the World Bank had projected 40% of Lebanese people would be in poverty by the end of 2020, a forecast which the economy minister believes is now outdated. Lebanon s economic troubles, rooted in decades of state corruption and waste, came to a head last year after capital inflows dried up and protests erupted against a ruling elite in power since the 1975-1990 civil war. "We re all taking precautions and sitting in cars," said Nur Bassam, 30, a protester taking part in the convoy in Beirut. "But things have become unbearable, we should speak up..., especially for people sitting at home who can t work and provide food for their families." Since mid-March, people can only leave their homes to buy food or medicine, so as to curb the spread of the virus which has so far infected 677 people and killed 21 in Lebanon. An overnight curfew also bans going outside between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., with security forces enforcing curbs. In Tripoli, one of Lebanon s poorest cities, protesters who have gathered every evening for the past few days spoke of worsening hunger and desperation. Many said they could not stay at home without work or support as the economic crisis had left them with little or no means to cope. "When the shutdown was announced, we all abided by it," Michel Mahfouz said at a demonstration. "But the hungry people in Tripoli could not abide by it, because it is just delusional plans on paper."

Before the advent of Ramadan on Friday, the secretariat of the Arab League is expecting to have received comments from member states on two reports it had compiled on the possible socio-economic outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic on Arab societies. “We took a thourough look at the situation to assess the immediate impact of this pandemic on Arab societies; the impact on health systems and also on the wider socio-economic scale,” said Chief-of-Staff and Assistant to the Arab League Secretary-General Hossam Zaki. The reports, Zaki told Ahram Online in a telephone interview, are not just detailing the impact of the pandemic but are also proposing a set of measures that should be taken on the collective level to help Arab states recover from the consequences. “These measures should help support and improve Arab health capacities and aid in the recovery from the socio-economic impacts that are likely to go on for a while,” Zaki said. The council of Arab health ministers had met at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo in February before the pandemic had spread aggressively throughout the region and has not met since. Several Arab countries, including Egypt, had presented the UN General Assembly with a number of proposals to step up international cooperation to help developing countries, including Arab states, to withstand the socio-economic challenges imposed by the pandemic. According to Zaki, these reports are one part of the work the secretariat has been doing with regards to the impact of the coronavirus on Arab countries. “We have been carefully observing the regional political impacts too and we do have some serious worries,” Zaki said. A possible Israeli move to annex Palestinian territories or to expand the construction of illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land is a top concern for the pan-Arab organisation, he said. Last week, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboulgheit shared his concerns on the matter with UN and other world officials. Aboulgheit’s messages to the international officials, Zaki said, stressed the need for the international community to act promptly to keep Israel from moving towards any annexation moves. “Some in Israel likely think that the world is too preoccupied with the coronavirus situation and that this might be the best time to move towards annexation of occupied Palestinian territories,” he said. The pan-Arab organisation, he added, will continue to bring world attention to this issue because if Israel makes the wrong move things could really get out of hand. In the absence of a viable political process that could lead to a settlement of the Palestinian question, Zaki said, the last thing the Palestinians need is to be faced with further Israeli provocations. Meanwhile, Zaki said, there seems to be no new avenues for the possible resumption of peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis “yet.” “Our position on the offer that was made by [US] President Donald Trump for a final settlement to [the Palestinian-Israeli struggle] remains the same, and clearly the US and the rest of the world are currently too preoccupied now with the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. The secretariat of the Arab League had issued an apprehensive response to an offer that was put forward by Trump a few months back which was seen as totally unacceptable by both the Palestinian Authority and its opposition in the resistance Islamic camp – Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Since then, Israel has been weighing to annex the Palestinian territories that were assigned to it by virtue of the Trump plan but was cautioned against the move by the US, which said that these territories should go to Israel upon the final settlement. Meanwhile, Zaki said that the Arab League is “also very worried about the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian refugee camps in view of the threat of the coronavirus to societies with limited health capacities and challenged capacities of UNRWA”. The Palestinian Authority has so far registered over 320 cases of infection in the Palestinian territories and 115 cases in East Jerusalem. The Authority has been warning about a possible devastating impact on its frail health system, which cannot stand up to the challenge of containing the spread of the infection. Zaki said that the pan-Arab organisation has been calling on relevant international organisations to reach out to the Palestinian Authority on this matter. “Of course, we don’t talk to Israel, but we have been talking to all parties and organisations and we have been urging them. We are aware that there are serious economic concerns now for many donors, but we are asking for some essential help to be extended,” he said. Yemen, Zaki said, is another Arab country of equal concern to the Arab organisation, given the country’s lack of capabilities to manage the epidemic. So far, Yemen has recorded only one case of COVID-19, but international health sources say this is due to the Yemeni health system’s inability to conduct tests. Both Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboulgheit and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been repeatedly calling for a total ceasefire in the country’s five-year-long war between the Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-backed Houthis. In response, the Saudi-led coalition announced its consent to observe a ceasefire, and the UN, several Arab countries and the Arab League have praised the move. “We think that this is a very important move, for a variety of reasons notably the current health situation in Yemen,” Zaki said. “We hope that the [Houthis] respond by engaging in the ceasefire in order to allow the country to put its broken pieces together to face up to the pandemic.” Zaki added that the Arab League has been warning of the possible devastating impact of COVID-19 on Arab societies that are facing civil wars and instability, as in Yemen, Libya and Syria. Zaki said that there has to be a more effective effort to pursue a ceasefire in all spots of turmoil, and argued that the UN missions on Libya and Syria should be more engaged in promoting ceasefire in both places. This said, Zaki denied that the pan-Arab organisation was involved in blocking the nomination of prominent Algerian diplomat Ramtane Lamamra as chief of the UN mission to Libya (UNSMIL). “Totally untrue.. Mr. Lamamra is a superb diplomat with great experience.. But the Arab League was never formally informed that his name was up for nomination to be the envoy of the UN secretary-general to Libya,” Zaki said. Last month, Ghassan Salame, a prominent Lebanese diplomat and intellectual, resigned from his two-year-held post of the UN Envoy to Libya. The job is currently held by Salame’s trusted assistant, American Stephanie Williams, pending an agreement between the influential countries and Libyan parties on a possible new envoy. Some Arab and European diplomatic sources had suggested a preference on the side of Guterres to nominate an African diplomat for the job. “We are aware that the issue is being examined despite the fact the world is very consumed now with the battle against the pandemic and our simple and basic position is that the new envoy should be an Arab,” Zaki said. “Libya is a very complicated story, and going through the minute details of the conflict and managing to build confidence with the parties is not something that could be done without a native speaker’s command of the Arabic language,” Zaki argued. “Nobody should want to compound the difficulties of managing this very layered issue by throwing in translation issues that could often be a make-or-break factor.” Zaki said that the developments in Palestine, Yemen and Libya will be on the agenda of the Arab summit for 2020 when it convenes. The summit regularly meets at the end of March every year. It is hosted by the member states of the Arab organisation in alphabetical rotation. Algeria is the due host of the 2020 summit. However, in February, it requested a few months delay. Most informed Arab diplomats have said that Algeria’s wish for a delay is related to the internal political situation in the country, which has been going through a very tense and slow change of regime. However, some have argued that Algeria had also wished to use the extra time to allow for the return of Syria to the meetings of the Arab organisation. At the end of 2011, the Arab League foreign ministers decided to suspend the participation of Syria in the meetings of the Arab organisation to protest a very brutal response by the Syrian regime to pro-democracy peaceful protests. Over the past nine years so much has changed, and the peaceful protests were militarised and evolved into a terrifying civil war that has prompted one of the worst refugee crises in the world for a century. During the past couple of years, several Arab capitals have taken a number of unilateral decisions to re-engage Syria. Algeria has traditional close relations with Syria and had been arguing, before the regime change it went through in 2019, for the need to bring Syria back into the meetings of the Arab League. According to Zaki, however, this issue is “not at all an easy matter, due to many considerations.” “So many developments have taken place since 2011, this is true; but it is also true that the Syrian regime is now involved in very intense and complicated relations with Iran, which is perceived as a threat to several Arab countries,” Zaki said. Iranian officials have been openly bragging about their direct, on-the-ground influence in several Arab states, including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. “Now there are serious questions that the Syrian regime needs to address before we could seriously speak about its re-integration in the Arab League; its relationship with Iran is certainly one of these questions,” Zaki said. He added that another concern is the willingness of the Syrian regime to engage in constructive political talks with the non-militant opposition that could lead to a political breakthrough to allow for the beginning of an end to the “huge humanitarian crisis of Syrian refugees.” Obviously, Zaki said that it would be a stretch to argue today that the participation of Syria, or lack thereof, in the Arab summit is a determining factor to decide the date of the next top Arab congregation. The readiness of the host state and a lull in the aggressive attack of the pandemic, Zaki said, are the crucial issues now. Could the Arab summit end up being held online like other world meetings? “I would not wish to prejudge things; we are currently following the developments of the pandemic. Algeria and the rest of the Arab world are acting to contain the infection rate,” Zaki said. However, he added, depending on how things go in the next weeks, or maybe few months, the matter will be subject to consultations between the Arab League secretariat and Algeria as well as among other member States.

U.S. President Donald Trump will release new guidelines on Thursday evening on reopening the U.S. economy, backed by medical experts on his coronavirus task force, to serve as recommendations for states, a senior White House official said. "The president s new guidelines are in fact that. They are recommendations. They are flexible. They are data-driven," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Trump is to unveil the new guidelines at a 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) White House briefing, as a way to get the U.S. economy going again after the coronavirus shutdown millions of Americans jobless. More than 20 million people have filed for unemployment in the U.S. in the past month. Trump said on Wednesday some states with low numbers of infections will be ready to resume economic activity sooner than other states hard hit by the highly contagious virus. "They are layered," the official said of Trump s new recommendations. "They are signed off on and in full agreement by the medical experts on the task force." Trump was to preview the new plan with state governors on a video conference call with them before the news conference. "This is going to speak to every governor and in every situation and it is their choice as to what to do with these guidelines and recommendations. It will be a set of recommendations that every governor will be able to look to as a guide," the official said.

The coronavirus outbreak will slash global oil demand in 2020 to erase a decade of growth and set up “the worst year in the history” of the sector, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday. Demand is projected to plummet by a record 9.3 million barrels per day (mbd) for the year as a whole, with 29 mbd in the month of April, and 26 mbd in May — “staggering numbers”, according to the agency s executive director Fatih Birol. “I believe in a few years time, when you look at 2020 we may well see that it was the worst year in the history of global oil markets,” he told reporters on a teleconference. “During this terrible year, the second quarter may very well be the worst of the lot and… April may very well be the worst month.” The projected figures for this month were last seen in 1995, said Birol, describing this as “Black April in the history of the oil industry.” The global economy has been hard hit by the coronavirus outbreak, with many industries brought to their knees and air, rail and road traffic slashed as non-essential businesses were closed and hundreds of millions of people around the world placed in lockdown. The epidemic has killed more than 123,000 people since it first emerged in China in December. The IEA said measures taken by the OPEC+ group and other oil producing nations to cut output should allow demand to start exceeding supply again by the second half of 2020, assuming population lockdowns to curb virus spread are lifted. “Once the declines in oil demand start to reduce and once the impact of the production cuts from the OPEC+ agreement and non-OPEC producers start to bite, we start to see a recovery in the second half of the year,” Neil Atkinson, head of the agency s oil division, told the briefing. “But obviously there s still a long way to go before we reach that point.” – Decade of growth lost – In total, producers have undertaken to cut supply by about 12 million barrels a day in May, Atkinson said, including 9.7 million mbd pledged by the OPEC+ group. G20 countries have agreed to support the OPEC+ cuts. The combined effort “takes us right back to below 90 mbd a day which is a level of production for the world which we haven t seen since back in 2011,” said Atkinson. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the coronavirus pandemic was pushing the world into its deepest recession in a century, with economic output expected to shrink three percent. This means that “COVID-19 results in one year of growth lost of the global economy and almost a decade of growth lost in global oil markets,” said Birol. “The volatility we are seeing in oil markets is detrimental to the global economy at a time that we can least afford it.” Oil prices extended their slump Wednesday, with WTI hitting the lowest level since 2002 as the output cuts were deemed not enough. The benchmark WTI contract tumbled to $19.20 per barrel, it lowest level in 18 years. The IEA report said the OPEC+ and G20 actions “won t rebalance the market immediately. “But by lowering the peak of the supply overhang and flattening the curve of the build-up in stocks, they help a complex system absorb the worst of this crisis, whose consequences for the oil market remain very uncertain in the short term.” – Economic meltdown – Birol said the oil price crash would likely to cause a “huge decline” in global emissions of planet-warming carbon emissions this year. “But in my view this is not a reason to celebrate because this decline is happening because there is an economic meltdown, the energy industry is in many parts almost collapsing and many people are losing their lives. “We shouldn t forget that if there is a rebound of the economy… we may well see a big rebound of emissions as well.” In 2009, after the global economic crisis, emissions declined by 0.4 gigatonnes only to rise again by 1.7 gigatonnes the following year — the highest increase in the last 50 years, said Birol.

Spain and Austria allowed partial returns to work on Tuesday but Britain, France and India extended coronavirus lockdowns to try to rein in a pandemic which the World Health Organization warned had not yet peaked. Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 119,200 have died in the most serious pandemic in a century, according to a Reuters tally. The epicentre has moved from China, where the virus first emerged in December, to the United States, which now has the highest death toll at 23,568. World leaders, in considering easing curbs, have to balance risks to health and the economy, as the lockdowns strangle supply lines, especially in China, and bring economic activity to a virtual halt. The world economy is expected to shrink by 3% this year, the International Monetary Fund said, marking the steepest downturn since the Great Depression. The World Health Organization said the number of new cases was easing in some parts of Europe, including Italy and Spain, but outbreaks were growing in Britain and Turkey. "The overall world outbreak, 90 percent of cases are coming from Europe and the United States of America. So we are certainly not seeing the peak yet," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a briefing in Geneva. But world stocks gained after Chinese trade data came in better than expected and as some countries partly lifted restrictions. Some Spanish businesses, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to restart. Shops, bars and public spaces are to stay closed until at least April 26. Spain was flattening the curve on the graph, representing the rate of growth of the outbreak, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Tuesday. The overnight death toll from the coronavirus rose to 567 on Tuesday from 517 a day earlier, but the country reported its lowest increase in new cases since March 18. Total deaths climbed to 18,056. Some workers expressed concern that the relaxation of restrictions could trigger a new surge. But for Roberto Aguayo, a 50-year-old Barcelona construction worker, the restart came just in time. "We really needed it, just when we were going to run out of food we returned to work," he told Reuters. Italy, which has the world s second highest death toll of 20,465, maintained some tight restrictions on movement. Denmark, one of the first European countries to shut down, will reopen day care centres and schools for children in first to fifth grade on April 15. Thousands of shops across Austria reopened on Tuesday, but the government said it was "not out of the woods". Austria acted early to close schools, bars, theatres, restaurants, non-essential shops and other gathering places about four weeks ago. It has told the public to stay home. Austria has reported 384 deaths in total, fewer than some larger European countries have been suffering each day. Hospitalisations have stabilised. TRUMP CALLS THE SHOTS Britain, where the government has come under criticism for its slow approach to testing and for not getting protective equipment to the frontlines, has the fifth-highest death toll globally. The death toll in British hospitals rose to 12,107 on Monday and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said there would be no easing of lockdown measures when they come up for review this week. The Times newspaper said on Tuesday he would extend them until at least May 7. French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday extended a virtual lockdown to May 11. India, the world s second-most populous country after China, extended its nationwide lockdown until May 3 as the number of coronavirus cases crossed 10,000. Neighbours Pakistan and Nepal also extended their curbs. Russia might need to call in the army to help tackle the crisis, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. Moscow warned that the capital may run out of hospital beds in coming weeks. China s northeastern border province of Heilongjiang saw 79 new cases of imported coronavirus cases on Monday, all Chinese citizens travelling back from Russia, state media said. As of Tuesday, China had reported 82,249 coronavirus cases and 3,341 deaths. There were no deaths in the past 24 hours. U.S. President Donald Trump, who had predicted a return to work after Easter, defended his response to the coronavirus. He said he did not intend to fire the leading U.S. health expert, who said that earlier intervention could have saved more lives. Ten U.S. governors on the east and west coasts banded together on Monday in two regional pacts to coordinate gradual economic reopenings as the coronavirus crisis finally appeared to be ebbing. At a contentious briefing with reporters, Trump said he had the ultimate authority to re-open the economy. "The president of the United States calls the shots," Trump said. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would not abide by any order Trump might give to reopen his state in an unsafe manner during the coronavirus outbreak. Health ministers from the Group of 20 major economies will speak by video conference on Sunday to address the outbreak s impact.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was recuperating at his countryside retreat on Monday but remained off work after saying his battle with coronavirus "could have gone either way". Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is deputising in Johnson s absence, and faces a decision this week on whether to extend a nationwide lockdown aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19. Confinement measures have been in place since March 20 in Britain, where 11,329 people hospitalised with coronavirus have now died, making it one of the worst-affected nations in the global pandemic. There were 717 new deaths reported Monday, down from previous daily tolls. Numbers typically fall after the weekend due to delays in the collection of data. Johnson became the most high-profile leader to contract the virus last month and spent a week in hospital -- including three days in intensive care -- before being discharged on Sunday. He thanked medics who cared for him when it "could have gone either way" in a candid video message. - Decision due on lockdown extension - The 55-year-old is now staying at Chequers, a 16th-century mansion northwest of London used as a retreat by British premiers for the past century. He has reportedly been reunited with his pregnant partner Carrie Symonds, who earlier this month reported suffering from coronavirus symptoms herself. Over the weekend, Johnson spoke to Raab, who he asked to stand in for him when he was admitted to intensive care one week ago. "The prime minister is focusing on his recovery, and he s not currently carrying out government work," Johnson s spokesman said Monday. Raab has been chairing the government s daily meetings on coronavirus, but a decision is due on Thursday, when the three-week-old nationwide lockdown comes up for review. Ministers must decide whether to continue demanding people stay at home and keep non-essential shops closed. Given the death toll, has been rising by around 900 per day since last week, few expect the restrictions to be lifted this week. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said in Scotland, "that review is not likely to result in these restrictions being lifted in the very near future. "There are early optimistic signs that the steps we are taking are working, but until we know more, until we have solid evidence, we must stick with it," she told reporters in Edinburgh. - Saved my life - Johnson s government has faced questions about whether it was too slow to impose the lockdown, keeping pubs, shops and schools open even as they were shutting across Europe. According to The Times newspaper, 10 cabinet ministers -- just under half -- are pressing for the lockdown to be eased next month over concern about the economic impact. The government also remains under pressure as doctors and nurses complain of a lack of protective equipment and a shortage of coronavirus tests. Johnson tested positive at the end of March, and after 10 days holed up in Downing Street was admitted to hospital. Twenty-four hours later he was moved to intensive care. He was given oxygen, although he was not put on a ventilator, and in a video message released on Sunday, he said he had been in real danger. "I hope they won t mind if I mention in particular two nurses who stood by my bedside for 48 hours when things could have gone either way," he said. He named them as Jenny from New Zealand and Luis from Portugal, both of whom work for Britain s state-run National Health Service (NHS). He added "the NHS has saved my life, no question". The parents of Jenny, identified in media as Jenny McGee, spoke of their "exceptional" pride at her role. "She has told us these things over the years and it doesn t matter what patient she is looking after, this is what she does," her mother Caroline told Television New Zealand.

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been discharged from hospital and will continue his recovery from COVID-19 at Chequers, his official country residence, his Downing Street office said in a statement on Sunday. Johnson, 55, was taken to St Thomas Hospital in central London on April 5, suffering from persistent symptoms of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. On April 6 he was moved into intensive care, where he remained until April 9. Related Coverage British PM s pregnant fiancee speaks of “very dark times” while he was in hospital England s coronavirus death toll rises by 657 to 9,594 “On the advice of his medical team, the PM will not be immediately returning to work. He wishes to thank everybody at St Thomas for the brilliant care he has received,” an official statement said. In his first comments since leaving intensive care, Johnson said he owed his life to hospital staff. “I can t thank them enough. I owe them my life,” he said in comments that were released to journalists and confirmed by his office on Sunday. His pregnant fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who has also suffered from COVID-19 symptoms, thanked National Health Service staff in a series of tweets shortly after the Downing Street statement on Johnson being discharged. “There were times last week that were very dark indeed. My heart goes out to all those in similar situations, worried sick about their loved ones,” she said. While Johnson has been out of action, his ministers have come under mounting pressure to explain why the national death toll is rising so fast. Britain has reported two days in a row of hospital deaths increasing by more than 900 people. Friday s death toll of 980 surpassed the highest recorded in a single day in Italy, the hardest hit country in Europe so far. The British government has had to defend its response, which has included carrying out far less testing than in some other European countries and ordering a lockdown that came comparatively late. Ministers have also resisted apologizing for a shortage of protective gear for hospital staff. In a sign of the gravity of the emergency, Queen Elizabeth issued her second rallying message in a week, telling the nation that “coronavirus will not overcome us”.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A US Border Patrol agent wouldn t let Jackeline Reyes explain why she and her 15-year-old daughter needed asylum, pointing to the coronavirus. That confrontation in Texas came just days after the Trump administration quietly shut down the nation s asylum system for the first time in decades in the name of public health. “The agent told us about the virus and that we couldn t go further, but she didn t let us speak or anything,” said Reyes, 35, who was shuttled to a crossing March 24 in Reynosa, Mexico, a violent border city. She tried to get home to crime-ridden Honduras despite learning her brother had been killed there and her mother and seven-year-old daughter had fled to the Nicaraguan border. But she was stuck in Mexico as the virus closed borders in Central America. The US government used an obscure public health law to justify one of its most aggressive border crackdowns ever. People fleeing violence and poverty to seek refuge in the US are whisked to the nearest border crossing and returned to Mexico without a chance to apply for asylum. It eclipses President Donald Trump s other policies to curtail immigration — which often rely on help from Mexico — by setting aside decades-old national and international laws. Mexico is again providing critical support. It s accepting not only Mexicans, but people from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras who accounted for well over half of all US border arrests last year. The Trump administration has offered little detail on the rules that, unlike its other immigration policies, have yet to be challenged in court. The secrecy means the rules got little attention as they took effect March 20, the same day Trump announced the southern border was closed to nonessential travel. “The administration is able to do what they always wanted to do,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel for the American Immigration Council, which has criticized the administration. “I don t see this slowing down.” The administration tapped a law allowing the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ban foreigners if their entry would create “a serious danger” to the spread of communicable disease. The US has the most cases in the world by far. CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield issued a 30-day order but said he may extend the rules. Mexico won t take unaccompanied children and other “vulnerable people,” including people over 65 and those who are pregnant or sick, said Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, Mexico s consul general in San Diego. The US is also returning Central American children who travel with grandparents, siblings and other relatives, said a congressional aide who was briefed by US Customs and Border Protection officials and spoke on the condition of anonymity because the information was not intended for public release. Previously, children who weren t with parents or guardians were considered unaccompanied and automatically put into the asylum pipeline. The health risks of holding migrants in crowded spaces like Border Patrol stations is “the touchstone of this order,” Redfield wrote. He said exceptions to immediately expelling someone can be considered but didn t elaborate. An internal Border Patrol memo obtained by ProPublica said an agent who determines that a migrant claims a “reasonably believable” fear of being tortured can be referred for additional screening under the UN Convention Against Torture, a lesser form of asylum that s harder to qualify for. Under the rules, agents take migrants to the nearest border crossing in specially designated vehicles and avoid stations, minimizing the risk of exposure to the virus. Matthew Dyman, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol s parent agency, declined to comment on the internal memo or provide guidance about the new rules. “Obtaining and posting leaked information is a great way to degrade trust and communication between CBP and the media,” he said. In less than two weeks, the US has expelled more than 7,000 people, according to the congressional aide who was briefed last week. Those not sent to Mexico are flown to their home countries. CBP had about 300 people in custody last week, down from a peak of more than 19,000 during last year s surge of border crossers. March s border enforcement numbers were expected to be released Thursday and may offer a closer look at the impact of the virus. Ten Senate Democrats sent a letter to acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, who oversees border agencies, saying the Trump administration appeared to have “granted itself sweeping powers to summarily expel large, unknown numbers of individuals arriving at our border.” “A public health crisis does not give the Executive Branch a free pass to violate constitutional rights, nor does it give the Executive Branch permission to operate outside of the law,” they wrote this week. For Reyes and others sent to Mexico, they don t know what s next. Reyes said she joined dozens who entered the Guatemalan mountains illegally in a bid to reach Honduras but was stopped by soldiers and returned to Mexico, where she was quarantined in a migrant shelter. She said Mexican authorities questioned her about her health, but US authorities didn t. Four adults and seven children expelled from Texas also crossed into the mountains and are now hiding at a house in Guatemala because of a curfew tied to the virus. “We want to leave already, but I don t know who can help us,” said Fanny Jaqueline Ortiz of Honduras, who was with her 12- and three-year-old daughters. “There is no transportation, no bus, nothing.” Many Mexican shelters have closed over virus concerns, leaving many stranded in violent cities or reliant on relatives in the US to send money for rent. Trump s previous policies have targeted asylum but stopped short of ending it, acknowledging the 1951 UN Refugee Convention to provide haven to displaced people and a 1980 US law that established the asylum system. Under his “Remain in Mexico” policy, more than 60,000 asylum-seekers have been forced to wait across the border for US court hearings. Hearings are temporarily suspended because of the virus.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who saw his once strong lead in the Democratic primary evaporate as the party s establishment lined swiftly up behind rival Joe Biden, ended his presidential bid on Wednesday, an acknowledgment that the former vice president is too far ahead for him to have any reasonable hope of catching up. The Vermont senator s announcement makes Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Donald Trump in November. Sanders plans to talk to his supporters later Wednesday. Sanders initially exceeded sky-high expectations about his ability to recreate the magic of his 2016 presidential bid, and even overcame a heart attack last October on the campaign trail. But he found himself unable to convert unwavering support from progressives into a viable path to the nomination amid ``electability fears fueled by questions about whether his democratic socialist ideology would be palatable to general election voters. The 78-year-old senator began his latest White House bid facing questions about whether he could win back the supporters who chose him four years ago as an insurgent alternative to the party establishment s choice, Hillary Clinton. Despite winning 22 states in 2016, there were no guarantees he d be a major presidential contender this cycle, especially as the race s oldest candidate. Sanders, though, used strong polling and solid fundraising _ collected almost entirely from small donations made online _ to more than quiet early doubters. Like the first time, he attracted widespread support from young voters and was able to make new inroads within the Hispanic community, even as his appeal with African Americans remained small. Sanders amassed the most votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, which opened primary voting, and cruised to an easy victory in Nevada _ seemingly leaving him well positioned to sprint to the Democratic nomination while a deeply crowded and divided field of alternatives sunk around him. But a crucial endorsement of Biden by influential South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, and a subsequent, larger-than-expected victory in South Carolina, propelled the former vice president into Super Tuesday, when he won 10 of 14 states. In a matter of days, his top former Democratic rivals lined up and announced their endorsement of Biden. The former vice president s campaign had appeared on the brink of collapse after New Hampshire but found new life as the rest of the party s more moderate establishment coalesced around him as an alternative to Sanders. Things only got worse the following week when Sanders lost Michigan, where he had campaigned hard and upset Clinton in 2016. He was also beaten in Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho the same night and the results were so decisive that Sanders headed to Vermont without speaking to the media. The coronavirus outbreak essentially froze the campaign, preventing Sanders from holding the large rallies that had become his trademark and shifting the primary calendar. It became increasingly unclear where he could notch a victory that would help him regain ground against Biden. Though he will not be the nominee, Sanders was a key architect of many of the social policies that dominated the Democratic primary, including a ``Medicare for All universal, government-funded health care plan, tuition-free public college, a $15 minimum wage and sweeping efforts to fight climate change under the ``Green New Deal. He relished the fact that his ideas _ viewed as radical four years ago_ had become part of the political mainstream by the next election cycle, as Democratic politics lurched to the left in the Trump era. Sanders began the 2020 race by arguing that he was the most electable Democrat against Trump. He said his working-class appeal could help Democrats win back Rust Belt states that Trump won in 2016, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. But as the race wore on, the senator reverted to his 2016 roots, repeatedly stressing that he backs a ``political revolution from the bottom up under the slogan ``Not me. Us. Sanders also faced persistent questions about being the field s oldest candidate. Those were pushed into the spotlight on Oct. 1, when he was at a rally in Las Vegas and asked for a chair to be brought on stage so he could sit down. Suffering from chest pains afterward, he underwent surgery to insert two stints because of a blocked artery, and his campaign revealed two days later that he had suffered a heart attack. But a serious health scare that might have derailed other campaigns seemed only to help Sanders as his already-strong fundraising got stronger and rising stars on the Democratic left, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, endorsed him. Many supporters said the heart attack only strengthened their resolve to back him. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren outshone him throughout much of the summer, but Sanders worked his way back up in the polls. The two progressive candidates spent months refusing to attack each other, though Sanders offered a strong defense of Medicare for All after Warren offered a transition plan saying it would take the country years to transition to it. The two longtime allies finally clashed bitterly, if briefly, in January, when Warren said that Sanders had suggested during a 2018 private meeting that a woman couldn t be elected president. Sanders denied saying that, but Warren refused to shake his outstretched hand after a debate in Iowa. Warren left the race after a dismal Super Tuesday showing in which she finished third in her own state. In 2016, Sanders kept campaigning long after the primaries had ended and endorsed Clinton less than two weeks before their party s convention. This cycle, he promised to work better with the national and state parties. His dropping out of the race now could be a step toward unity.

Mohammed al-Dulfi s 67-year-old father died on March 21 after a brief struggle against the new coronavirus, but it would take nine days for his body to find a final resting place in the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq. On two occasions, the family rejected remote burial plots proposed by the government outside Baghdad for him and seven other coronavirus victims, al-Dulfi said. A fight broke out between the families and the Health Ministry s team. His father s corpse waited in a hospital morgue for days. "We were suffering immensely, knowing my father was deceased but we could not bury him," said the 26-year-old. Across the Middle East and parts of South Asia, bereaved families have faced traumatic restrictions on burying their dead amid the pandemic. Religion and customs that require speedy burials in the largely Muslim region have clashed with fears of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, and government-mandated lockdowns. As the regional death toll surpasses 4,500, ancient rituals - bodies solemnly washed by relatives, wrapped in white shrouds and buried as quickly as possible with large crowds of mourners in attendance - are being disrupted by the growing outbreak. In Egypt, where funerals were once an affair bringing dozens of families together in prayer, strict limits have put a cap on attendees. With faces covered in masks, they now bid farewell to loved ones interred in bags stamped "Danger!" Religious customs are also being upended in Iran, Pakistan and majority-Jewish Israel, where swift burials and large crowds of mourners are also a tradition. The World Health Organization says in guidelines similar to those issued during the Ebola epidemic that handling of the dead should be minimal and that trained medical teams should perform burials, according to Adham Rashad Ismail, the agency s head of mission in Iraq. In the Middle East, this often means religious rites must be modified or canceled. In Iran, Health Ministry guidelines starkly show how concerned the Islamic Republic remains about the virus, even from the dead. The country has the highest death toll in the region with over 3,700 deaths among over 60,500 confirmed cases. Once disinfected, the corpse is wrapped in a plastic bag, then carried to a grave site with pallbearers wearing protective gear. The body is interred in a grave sprinkled with lime and buried in concrete. Iran s state TV recently showed images of clerics wearing special protective suits while performing Islamic burial rituals for victims. "We want to make sure that our fellow countrymen are not buried without bathing and being wrapped in shrouds," said a volunteer at one of these televised funerals describing widely-observed practices. In Egypt, no one is allowed to attend the washing rite except health workers, and those present must wear protective gear and keep at a one-meter distance from the body, according to an internal document obtained by The Associated Press. The funeral of Attiyat Ibrahim, the country s first coronavirus victim, was held amid tight security. Only family members were allowed to come to the service in the Nile Delta province of Daqahlia, said Ramadan Mohammed, a village driver. "There was no funeral prayer call," Mohammed said. "Police were everywhere, watching and urging people not to stay in groups." Further east, in Pakistan, families are allowed to take the bodies to graveyards in their villages but not inside their homes, which is a tradition in the South Asian country. In Iraq, where over 60 people have died from the virus, some bodies waited several weeks for interment as government epidemic protocols sparked public vitriol. Baghdad and other provinces initially identified remote burial plots on the peripheries of cities. But families argued that burying their loved ones in such sites was undignified; most Iraqis inter their dead in cemeteries near holy shrines where they can return to pay homage. Some families spurned the government s rules entirely. In one instance, relatives snatched two corpses from an unwitting medical team near Baghdad ahead of burial and sped off, according to a police report on March 28. The bodies were later recovered. In the southern province of Muthana, one family falsified documents of a dead virus victim to say he had died of heart disease, then exhumed the body from the government-designated zone and brought it to Najaf for burial, a government official in the province said. The official was flummoxed when he learned of the forgery after the second burial. "I don t know whether to remove the body or not," he said, requesting anonymity because he wasn t authorized to discuss the case. In the case of al-Dulfi, the family argued with health officials until mobilizing support from Iraq s top Shiite cleric. He decreed that all eight bodies could be buried in a plot near Najaf s Wadi as-Salam cemetery, the final resting place of choice for pious Shiites. Ismail, the WHO head of mission, said "cultural attitudes" had posed a challenge for the government. By early April, the government rescinded the protocols and burials went ahead in Wadi as-Salam "or in any cemetery the family wants," Ismail said. For those with loved ones lost, like al-Dulfi, the victory was bitter-sweet. "Which Islam is this that prohibits a burial, even during a pandemic? Where is the religion in that?" he said.

Lebanon s President Michel Aoun on Monday called on international donors to provide financial assistance to the crisis-hit country as it grapples with a severe economic downturn compounded by the coronavirus. Speaking during a meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon, he specifically urged donors to unlock $11 billion in grants and loans they pledged during a Paris conference in April 2018. The call comes as his government prepares to launch a long-awaited reform plan demanded by international partners. "Given the danger of our current financial situation, and its significant economic impact on nationals, residents, and refugees, our reform programme will need external financial support," Aoun told ambassadors from countries in the support group at the presidential palace in Baabda. Lebanon is in the throes of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. The Lebanese pound has lost more than a third of its value on the black market, consumer prices have skyrocketed and unemployment is on the rise at a time when the entire country is on lockdown due to virus fears. Making matters worse, foreign currency reserves have plummeted amid a grinding liquidity crunch, forcing the cash-strapped government in March to default on its sovereign debt for the first time. Prime Minister Hassan Diab s cabinet, nominated in January to tackle a financial meltdown and unprecedented anti-government protests, has pledged a far-reaching reform plan to address the crisis as it seeks to enter restructuring negotiations with creditors. But the coronavirus pandemic has added to the country s difficulties, complicating reform efforts, Aoun said, appealing for help. "Today we are confronting all these crises and their consequences and we welcome any kind of international assistance," he said. He said international partners had a responsibility to help Lebanon shoulder the burden of hosting tens of thousands of Palestinians and at least 1.5 million Syrians, warning of a health catastrophe if the virus hits refugee camps. "The threat of COVID-19 is knocking on the doors of the camps," he said. So far just one Palestinian, who lives outside a camp, and three Syrians have tested positive for COVID-19 compared with 541 infections and 19 deaths across Lebanon, according to officials. Diab said the government was putting the "final touches" to the reform plan, which he said would be "ready soon."