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Ukraine’s parliament has voted to lift the ban on the sale of farmland in a move that would allow the country to get $8 billion worth of aid from the International Monetary Fund.  The bill, long pushed by economists to stimulate investment in agriculture, was approved by 259 votes out of 450 late Monday. It opens up the land market for Ukrainian citizens starting from July 1, 2021, and for Ukrainian companies starting from 2024.  Ukrainians will vote on a nationwide referendum on whether to allow foreigners to buy farmland.  FILE – In this handout photo released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks at a ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 13, 2020.Speaking in parliament Monday night, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stressed the importance of getting the IMF loan.  “It is really important for us, to sign the memorandum with the IMF, and you know well that the two main conditions were the land law and the banking law,” Zelenskiy said.Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal echoed his sentiment in televised remarks Monday.  “Without the support of international organizations we will have to fall into the abyss of a financial meltdown,” Shmyhal said.  Earlier Monday, lawmakers approved the banking law in the first reading. It prevents former owners of banks that were nationalized or liquidated from regaining ownership rights or receiving compensation from state funds.  Some said that the bill, among others, targets billionaire tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, whose Privatbank was nationalized in 2016 and who sought to get it back using his connections to Zelenskiy. In recent months, Zelenskiy has been trying to distance himself from Kolomoisky, who wasn’t hiding his ambitions to influence both domestic and foreign policies, observers say.According to Zelenskiy, once Ukraine fulfills the conditions outlined by the IMF, it will receive the first batch of funds — $1.75-$2 billion — in 15 days.  “We agreed with the management of the IMF,” Zelenskiy said.
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The World Bank says the COVID-19 pandemic will derail economic growth this year in China and throughout the East Asia-Pacific region. The Bank issued a report Monday projecting just a 2.1% growth rate among developing countries in the East Asia-Pacific region this year, compared to 5.8% in 2019 under a forecast that presumes an economic recovery from the pandemic.  But the same report projects a -0.5% growth rate under a worst-case scenario that presumes the pandemic will continue into 2021. The Bank projects China’s economic growth would slow from 6.1% last year to 2.3% this year under the best-case scenario, but, under the worst-case scenario, would fall to a paltry 0.1% gain. The World Bank had earlier predicted that nearly 35 million people in the region would be lifted out of poverty in 2020, but now projects that an additional 11 million people could be forced into poverty if the pandemic continues unchecked. 
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Colombia’s left-wing National Liberation Army rebel group says it will observe a month-long unilateral cease-fire beginning Wednesday. In a statement released Monday, the (ELN) rebels described the cease-fire as a “humanitarian gesture” while the country is in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the rebels’ gesture following his appeal for worldwide cease-fires.  The UN leader called on other armed groups in Colombia to take similar action so authorities can focus on fighting the pandemic. So far, more than 700 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Colombia. At least 14 have died, so far. In addition to the cease-fire the National Liberation Army rebel group said it is receptive to resuming suspended peace negotiations with the government. 
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As the coronavirus cases increase daily the world over, movies about viruses spreading and threatening global communities are going viral on streaming services. Why are these films so thrilling to wide audiences and why do people re-watch many of these classics during the coronavirus epidemic? VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.   
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Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has issued a “full force” stay-at-home order through June 10 as part of his state’s efforts to fight the coronavirus. It includes an order that all “institutions of higher education” must immediately stop all in-person classes and any gathering of 10 people or more. Students who meet for online remote classes are asked to practice social distancing. Many colleges and universities around the country and in Virginia haven’t waited for a governor to tell them to take precautions to stop the coronavirus from spreading. Spring breaks have been extended indefinitely and students were told to empty their rooms and go home School started by Jerry FarwellThere are no outdoor classes on sunny days or relaxing on the quad this year. But one Virginia college has until this week resisted recommendations to suspend classes and send students home – Liberty University in Lynchburg. Liberty with its 46,000 students was founded in 1971 by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell, the controversial far-right fundamentalist Christian activist best known as the head of the Moral Majority. His son, Jerry Falwell, Jr., leads the university. Falwell is an outspoken supporter of President Trump and has played down the dangers of the coronavirus. He has called it a North Korean bioweapon, accused people of overreacting to damage Trump, and has dismissed the virus as just a flu.  Falwell came under fierce criticism and enormous pressure from the governor, the city of Lynchburg, and even some students and their parents when he encouraged them return to the campus last week and resume classes.  Since then, at least one Liberty student who lives off campus has tested positive for coronavirus.  Falwell accused The New York Times of publishing a “false and misleading” report that says according to the school’s student health director, 12 Liberty students became ill since returning from spring break.  School ‘very disappointed’ with coverageIn a statement, Liberty says it is “very disappointed about the way The New York Times chose to handle its reporting about this story. Such media conduct contributes to the public’s record low approval ratings for news media and earns the label ‘fake news.’” After more than a week of confusing and conflicting statements from Falwell, including exactly how many students actually returned to the campus, Liberty now says it will comply with all state government orders and guidance about dealing with the coronavirus.  It had earlier said that some classes, including those dealing with medicine and aviation, could only be taught in a laboratory, not online. But students who showed up to those labs Monday found them locked.  “Our messages did change throughout the week as the governor’s orders changed,” Falwell said, according to the NYT. “We had to adapt.” 
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Russia tightened controls aimed at combating the spread of the coronavirus on Monday, with Moscow introducing temporary quarantine measures, and the Kremlin moving to extend the lockdown nationwide. The new restrictions came as President Vladimir Putin discussed the coronavirus, among other issues, with President Donald Trump in a phone call that the Kremlin insisted was at Washington’s request.The conversation came as Putin made clear he recognized the growing threat of the COVID-19 outbreak. He appeared for his second televised national address on the issue Monday afternoon with a new sense of urgency.“If you value your life, you should remain home,” he said, addressing elderly Russians, in particular. “God helps those who help themselves,” added the Russian leader. A doctor observes through a glass window the condition of the patient in a ward in the Moscow Sklifosovsky emergency hospital in Moscow, Russia, March 25, 2020.The new tone came as a  government task force said suspected cases of COVID-19 had swelled past the 1,800 mark with nine deaths — numbers that continued to place Russia far lower than other global coronavirus hotspots but that Kremlin allies and critics alike now acknowledge reflect some degree of underreporting.Moscow through the looking glass  Under new rules that went into effect midnight Sunday, the vast majority of Moscow’s 15 million inhabitants now face a blanket “home isolation quarantine” — with exceptions for trips to local supermarkets and pharmacies, as well as walking pets or taking out trash. A police officer wearing a protective mask and glasses stops a car driver to check his documents in Grozny, Russia, March 30, 2020.City authorities also announced that a system of smart QR codes would be developed to track people moving about the capital, as well as plans to retrofit additional public hospitals and private clinics to accept COVID-19 patients.“The situation with the spread of coronavirus has entered a new phase,” Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote in a blog post explaining the new rules with Moscow now an epicenter of the virus threat.  “The extremely negative turn of events that we see in the largest cities of Europe and the USA is cause for enormous concern for the lives and health of our citizens,” Sobyanin said.Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin later issued an appeal to Russia’s far-flung regional governors to follow Moscow’s lead — calling the quarantine a “logical extension of the president and the government’s policies to battle the coronavirus.” Putin’s ‘workless week’Moscow’s restrictions seemed to upstage the “workless week” introduced by Putin in an address to the nation last week.While the Russian leader requested people to stay home, his appeal fell far short of the quarantines and self-isolation measures now commonplace in cities across Europe, the United States and Asia.Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with Russian regional officials via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, March 30, 2020.Some Russians seemed to interpret the “workless week” as an unexpected paid vacation — a factor that Sobyanin said played a role in the decision to close Moscow down. “Movement across the city has been cut by two-thirds, and that’s very good,” Sobaynin wrote in the blog. “But it’s also obvious that far from everyone has heard us.” Amid a spell of spring-like weather over the weekend, parks were so crowded that authorities resorted to blasting public service announcements from passing ambulances. The message: Go home. Media reports also noted a run on meat and charcoal at local supermarkets, suggesting the outdoor barbecue season was, or soon would be, in full swing.  Meanwhile, there was a spike in booked flights from Moscow to the southern resort city of Sochi — so much so that the region’s local governor, Benjamin Kondratiev, warned on social media that “this is not a week of extra leave or a holiday,” and ordered city attractions closed.  Good cop, bad copRussia’s political chatter centered on the seeming gulf between Sobyanin and Putin over how to respond to the contagion.  Had the mayor undermined the president? And who was in charge?“The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing,” Genady Gudkov, a former member of Parliament with ties to the opposition, wrote in a post on Facebook. “Either Putin is losing control, or differences among the elite are dangerously strong.”Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin attends a cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Moscow, Russia, March 30, 2020.Others argued that Putin was merely distancing himself from more unpopular restrictions — at least until they were trial-ballooned by the hapless Moscow mayor — in effect, playing good cop to Sobyanin’s bad. Putin threw Sobyanin “before the firing squad, and himself remained in the shadows, giving speculation that Sobyanin is acting on his own,” wrote Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst with R.Politik, in a post to her Telegram channel. Stanovaya chalked the showdown to the shifting improvisational nature of Putin’s rule, one in which “circumstances rule.” “And who rules the circumstances, rules Russia,” added Stanovaya.
 
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Nigeria’s two main cities — Abuja and Lagos — are preparing to go on lockdown to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.  The arrival of coronavirus testing kits donated by a Chinese billionaire is expected to give officials a more accurate reading of coronavirus infections in Africa’s most populous nation. But there are also concerns on how the public could react to a jump in infection numbers and a lockdown.The lockdown announcement was made during President Muhammadu Buhari’s national broadcast.Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari addresses the nation on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Abuja, March 29, 2020. (Nigeria Presidency/Handout)Normal activities in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun near Lagos are expected to shut down for 14 days starting late Monday night.”Some of these measures will surely cause major inconveniences to many citizens. But these are sacrifices we should all be willing and ready to make for the greater good of our country,” said Buhari.Hours after the announcement, thousands of citizens stormed shopping malls in Abuja in what appears to be panic-buying.Abuja residents like Daniel Yerimah said the shutdown is a necessary move to control the coronavirus from spreading.”Personally I think it’s long overdue and I’m not really satisfied with the way the government has been handling the whole situation. But with the president coming out to announce a lockdown, I think it’s a beautiful decision and I hope that this will help us control the situation on ground,” he said.A traffic gridlock is seen as people attempt to rush out of Abuja, Nigeria, following efforts of the authorities trying to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), March 30, 2020.However, he has some concerns.”I don’t believe many citizens can remain indoors for two weeks. It’s not possible because majority of the citizens live below the poverty line. Even one week, it’s not possible for them to remain indoors one week without any income,” said Yerimah.Since new testing kits donated by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma arrived in Nigeria last week, more testing has been carried out and more cases discovered.A general view of a food market in Lagos after Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari called for a lockdown starting tonight to limit the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), March 30, 2020.Chinwe Ochu is the head of prevention programs at NCDC. He said the kits are essential to containing the virus.”Our objective is to stop the transmission, and to do this, we want to have early detection of cases, early reporting, early cases investigations, isolation and treatment, early contact tracing and early social distancing,” said Ochu.With more than a hundred confirmed cases of the virus in Nigeria so far, authorities are working hard and say they’re ready to impose even more drastic measures if need be, in order to control the spread.
 
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Major U.S. stock indexes advanced more than 2% in early trading Monday in the hours after President Donald Trump extended the country’s social distancing guidelines through April 30 to combat the spread of the coronavirus. European exchanges edged ahead marginally in late-day trading, while those in Asia fell. The European markets had fallen most of the day on worries about the pandemic and the decision of the European Central Bank to ask banks not to pay dividends on their stock or buy back shares until October. People wearing face masks walk past a bank’s electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, March 30, 2020.Asian markets closed down as investors continued to be worried by the coronavirus and its effect on the world economy. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index had lost over 330 points, or 1.45% at its closing bell, while the Nikkei in Japan was down more than 300 points or 1.57% and the Shanghai closed off nearly 1%.    
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Laid off airline cabin crew staff in Britain are being asked to work in temporary hospitals to help treat COVID-19 patients. Budget airline easyJet and Virgin Atlantic are writing to thousands of staff with first aid training to help out. Meanwhile, easyJet said it was grounding all its 344 aircraft due to the collapse in demand for flights. Airlines had already canceled the vast majority of their flights. South Korea will provide as much as 1 million won ($817) in gift certificates or electronic coupons to all but the richest 30% of households to help ease the financial shock of the coronavirus outbreak.   The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments on Monday related to the global economy, the work place and the spread of the virus.  Repurposing staff: Britain’s health service is asking airline cabin crew who have been laid off during the coronavirus pandemic to go to work in temporary new hospitals being built to treat COVID-19 patients. The National Health Service says easyJet and Virgin Atlantic are writing to thousands of staff — especially those with first aid training — asking them to work at hospitals being built inside convention centers in London, Birmingham and Manchester. It said those who sign up will perform support roles under the supervision of doctors and nurses.  Airlines: European budget airline easyJet says it is grounding all of its 344 aircraft amid a collapse in demand. It said there was “no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights.” The carrier based in Luton, England, had already canceled most of its flights and said it has reached an agreement with unions on furlough arrangements for its cabin crew. Many airlines around the world are negotiating or calling for financial rescue packages from governments. Easyjet said it was in talks with financial liquidity providers. Britain’s government has so far demurred from creating a rescue package for aviation but has said it is ready for negotiations with individual firms once they had “exhausted other options.” Scottish regional airline Loganair said it expects to ask for a government bailout. ___ Handouts: South Korea will provide as much as 1 million won ($817) in gift certificates or electronic coupons to all but the richest 30% of households to help ease the financial shock of the coronavirus outbreak. The country will spend around 9.1 trillion won ($7.4 billion) on the one-time giveaways, which will reach 14 million households. Officials are ruling out handouts of cash. South Korea’s has employed a variety of financial tools to support its economy in face of the global health crisis, such as cutting its policy rate to an all-time low, expanding short-term loans for financial institutions and introducing a rescue package for companies totaling 100 trillion won ($81.7 billion). 
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Iran’s president on Sunday lashed out at criticism of authorities’ lagging response to the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, saying the government has to weigh economic concerns as it takes measures to contain the pandemic.Syria meanwhile reported the first fatality from the virus in the war-torn country, which has five confirmed infections. State news agency SANA said a woman died upon reaching an emergency room and tested positive for the virus, without saying where it happened.Syria has closed schools, restaurants and nightclubs, and imposed a nighttime curfew last week aimed at preventing the virus’ spread. Its health care system has been battered by nearly a decade of civil war, leaving the country particularly vulnerable.Libya, which has also been mired in chaos since 2011, reported another five cases, bringing its total to eight. The country is split by rival governments, each backed by an array of militias, that have been battling over the capital, Tripoli, for nearly a year.Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said authorities had to consider the effect of mass quarantine efforts on Iran’s beleaguered economy, which is under heavy U.S. sanctions. It’s a dilemma playing out across the globe, as leaders struggle to strike a balance between restricting human contact and keeping their economies from crashing.
“Health is a principle for us, but the production and security of society is also a principle for us,” Rouhani said at a Cabinet meeting. “We must put these principles together to reach a final decision.”
“This is not the time to gather followers,” he added. “This is not a time for political war.”Even before the pandemic, Rouhani was under fire for the unraveling of the 2015 nuclear deal he concluded with the United States and other world powers. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement and has imposed crippling sanctions on Iran that prevent it from selling oil on international markets. Iran has rejected U.S. offers of humanitarian aid.State TV on Sunday reported another 123 deaths, pushing Iran’s overall toll to 2,640 amid 38,309 confirmed cases.Most people suffer only minor symptoms, such as fever and coughing, and recover within a few weeks. But the virus can cause severe illness and death, especially in elderly patients or those with underlying health problems. It is highly contagious, and can be spread by those showing no symptoms.In recent days, Iran has ordered the closure of nonessential businesses and banned travel between cities. But those measures came long after other countries in the region imposed more sweeping lockdowns. Many Iranians are still flouting orders to stay home in what could reflect widespread distrust of authorities.Iran has urged the international community to lift sanctions and is seeking a $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.Elsewhere in the region, Qatar reported its first death from the new coronavirus late Saturday, saying the total number of reported cases there was at least 590.The tiny, energy-rich nation said it flew 31 Bahrainis stranded in Iran into Doha on a state-run Qatar Airways flight. But since Bahrain is one of four Arab countries that have been boycotting Qatar in a political dispute since 2017, Doha said it could not fly the 31 onward to the island kingdom.
“Bahraini officials have said they will send a flight for them at some undefined point in the future,” the Qatari government said in a statement.Bahrain said it planned a flight Sunday to pick up the stranded passengers. The kingdom said it had its own repatriation flights scheduled for those still stuck in Iran and warned Qatar that it “should stop interfering with these flights.”In Egypt, at least 1,200 Sudanese are stranded at the border after Sudan closed all its crossings, according to Egyptian officials at one of the crossings. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.Sudan, which is still reeling from the uprising that toppled President Omar al-Bashir last year, has six confirmed cases, including two fatalities. It’s one of several countries in the region where the health care system has been degraded by years of war and sanctions. Authorities closed the borders to prevent any further spread. The second death was announced as a positive coronavirus case earlier Sunday, more than two weeks after the person’s return from the United Arab Emirates.Sudan’s Information Minister Faisal Saleh said Sudanese authorities are looking for lodging in Egypt for the stranded passengers. He said authorities have quarantined at least 160 undocumented migrants who were sent into Sudan from war-torn Libya earlier this month.Residents in Egypt’s southern city of Luxor say they are providing shelter to the stranded Sudanese.
“We have provided food and medicine to the Sudanese brothers,” said Mahmoud Abdel-Rahim, a local farmer. “People hosted women, children and elders in their homes.”Egypt, which has reported 609 cases and 40 fatalities, imposed restrictions on cash deposits and withdrawals to prevent crowding at banks as payrolls and pensions are disbursed. Authorities began imposing a nighttime curfew last week.
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Britain is on an emergency footing for the first time since World War II. The move means the British government is setting up what it calls strategic coordination centers across the U.K. to distribute supplies to citizens to help combat the coronavirus outbreak.  There are more than 22,000 British confirmed cases of coronavirus – Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles are among them. More than 1,200 have died. The government’s deputy chief medical officer says the lockdown could last as long as six months but says if people do as they’re told and conditions improve, the lockdown and other restrictions can start to be eased.Prince Charles tests positive for Coronavirus. Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Intelligence Agencies, visits the Headquarters of GCHQ, on July, 12, 2019.In Moscow, the lockdown is just getting started. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says beginning Monday, people will be allowed out of their homes only to shop for food and medicine, takeout the garbage, walk the dog, or for urgent medical care. Police will issue special passes to those who cannot work from home. Moscow reports 1,000 cases and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is telling worshippers to pray at home “before someone dies.”  While the number of cases in Italy – the European epicenter – slowed slightly for the second straight day Sunday, Spain’s death toll rose 838 overnight Sunday – a record climb for that country which, like Italy, remains on total lockdown.  In Asia, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked that country’s poor to forgive him for the difficulties that country’s lockdown is causing them. He acknowledged the steps he ordered are harsh and knows people are angry with him.  “But these tough measures were needed to win this battle,” he said Sunday. With a population of 1.3 billion, India’s lockdown is by far the world’s largest, leaving countless millions with no food or homes. Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, is banning public gathering of more than two people. The state government says people should leave their homes only under “exceptional circumstances.” Australia’s nationwide death toll stands at 4,000.A nurse speaks with patients at the door of a new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) clinic opening at Mount Barker Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, March 17, 2020.Syria Sunday reported its first confirmed coronavirus death, but human rights groups warn of a looming catastrophe, saying the country’s war-torn health care system is ill-equipped to handle an outbreak among refugees.  Also Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump has extended the government’s recommended guidelines for social distancing for another 30 days. The U.S. has the world’s biggest number of confirmed cases. Finally, in Brazil, a federal judge has banned the government’s social media campaign that downplayed the coronavirus threat. President Jair Bolsonaro’s “Brazil Can’t Stop” campaign said there was no need for most Brazilians to lock down inside their homes. “I’m sorry, some people will die, they will die, that’s life,” Bolsonaro said in a television interview. 
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Repeated discoveries of an obscure, offshore natural gas known as flammable ice will bolster Chinese claims to a sea that’s contested by five other Asian governments. China extracted 861,400 cubic meters of flammable ice, a natural gas hydrate, for a daily average of 28,700 cubic meters during a mission that started in February, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.   The findings give China new cause to use the sea, despite protests from other countries, while ensuring an energy supply for its 1.4 billion population, analysts say. China would gain an even more solid footing in the sea if it began licensing flammable gas extraction technology to other countries or partnering with them to extract it, the scholars add.   A new discovery “simply strengthens their argument” about why China should remain in the sea to pursue oil and gas, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school.   Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. China calls roughly 90% of the waterway its own, overlapping zones claimed by the other governments and causing occasional clashes. China took a lead over the past decade by landfilling tiny islets for military use. Chinese technology, such as drones and underwater surveillance systems, is considered  more advanced than the knowhow of Southeast Asian claimants. International law would not recognize an energy discovery as cause for claiming sovereignty, Araral said. Although the other claimant governments are busy at home managing Covid-19 disease caseloads, they are expected to take note eventually if China expands exploration. The discovery site, called Shenhu, is located in undisputed Chinese waters 320 kilometers from the mainland shore. “So far, I haven’t (seen) any official diplomatic protests from the Vietnamese side, but I think that they are closely watching the development,” said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.   Flammable ice lies under other tracts of the seas, meaning other countries will take interest, said Stuart Orr, professor of management at Deakin University in Australia. Flammable ice China’s minister of land and resources said the country mined flammable ice at sea for the first time in 2017 after about two decades of research, according to Xinhua. Because it can be ignited like ethanol, the gas is called “flammable.”   One cubic meter of ice equals 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas, Xinhua said. The energy source that also occurs in Arctic tundra zones is considered clean and easy to transport yet hard to commercialize. The 2017 effort at Shenhu, which is about 1,225 meters deep, produced less gas than the recent one, Xinhua said. Sino-foreign joint exploration The flammable ice haul this month will let China showcase “technological prowess” and seek exploration partnerships with other countries, said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.   Other claimants to the sea lack their own flammable ice technology, Koh said. The four Southeast Asian claimants actively explore, however, for oil and conventional natural gas. “There should be some substantial interest from many other countries in accessing the technology that China has developed, which would give China the option of either licensing or choosing to share these capabilities with countries of interest, and that could provide it with significant political leverage in a world that’s worried about sources of low-cost energy,” Orr said. The Chinese leadership sees this discovery as a chance to remove foreign multinational energy drillers from the disputed sea, Koh said. Deals between Southeast Asian states and firms from Europe, India and the United States let foreign players into a waterway that Beijing sees as Chinese. “China is long aware that Southeast Asian countries will be turning to the foreign multinational energy corporations for this sort of venture, and all the while China wanted to be seen as a viable partner,” Koh said. 
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Football leagues around the world have canceled soccer games for the foreseeable future as one of the measures to slow a rapid COVID-19 spread. But soccer, or football, as it is called in much of the world, continues to be played in Belarus where the number of confirmed infections is still relatively low.The country’s autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed the virus scare as overblown and has advised his people to continue business as usual, especially agriculture. Local media published photos of the Belarus president playing ice hockey.Top Belarusian football division, Vysheyshaya Liga, is run by the Belarusian Football Federation and currently includes 16 teams. The country has never excelled in soccer and has never qualified for the World Cup or the European football championships.But with sports fans around the world deprived of their favorite pastime, Belarus is getting attention and signing broadcasting contracts with a growing number of countries to carry their games. People in India and Israel, not just neighboring Russia, could soon become familiar with members of teams such as FC Minsk or Dinamo Minsk and their individual styles.Belarus soccer fans hope the exposure will inspire their teams to play better and qualify for the next UEFA (The Union of European Football Associations) champions league. UEFA Championship is also known as the European Cup.The spokesman for the Belarus Football Federation Aleksandr Aleinik said the organization is respecting the recommendations by the Sports Ministry.  “All those who are in contact with fans were given protective gloves,” he said. But images of fans from some of the games Saturday show very few wearing masks and some of them cheering without any shirts on.The outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has been especially deadly for the northern city of Bergamo. The unprecedented toll has been traced to a February football match in Milan. More than 2,000 fans traveled from Bergamo to Milan to watch the Atlanta vs. Valencia match at Milan’s San Siro Stadium February 19. As they chanted in the packed stadium it is believed they picked up the new coronavirus strain and took it home to Bergamo. Two days later, Italy confirmed the first case of locally transmitted COVID-19.  Six weeks later, Italy reported that the number of deaths from the coronavirus had topped 10,000. Bergamo is struggling to bury and cremate the number of bodies after several hundred people sometimes die in one day.   European football leagues have canceled local soccer matches until at least the end of April to help slow the rapid spread of COVID-19. The European championship has been postponed until the summer of 2021 because the domestic competition cannot be completed in time for this summer.Most European countries have locked their borders and ordered closures of schools and all but essential businesses. People are asked to stay at home, gather in very limited numbers, sometimes no more than two, and keep a distance from others when they have to go out. In some cases, governments have imposed strict measures such as curfews and mandatory quarantine.  But measures vary from country to country.  In Sweden, restaurants and bars in some cities seemed as lively this month as ever, with the government allowing people to choose how to protect themselves. Schools, day care centers, gyms and beauty salons remained open even as they closed in neighboring Denmark and Norway.  The government announced tougher measures last week after the number of infections and COVID-19 deaths suddenly soared.  But Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said you cannot legislate everything and that individuals also have to take responsibility.Some experts also say that it is counterproductive to impose measures that cannot be sustained for a long period of time. Meanwhile, ordinary people in countries hit by the virus may have to weigh daily the pros and cons of stepping out of the house for weeks or months yet to come.   
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A Democratic Party leader in western Missouri died Sunday after contracting COVID-19 as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state exceeded 900 and the death toll reached 12.
The death of William “Al” Grimes, the Henry County Democratic Party chairman, was announced in a tweet from state Chairwoman Jean Peters Baker. It came after the Henry County Health Center in Clinton, about 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) southeast of Kansas City, announced that a man in his 70s had died.
“We will miss you, Al,” Peters wrote. “The stars will not shine as brightly.”
Peters said that Grimes, a Navy veteran, had been active in campaigns throughout eastern and central Missouri. He also ran for the Missouri House in 2014 and 2016.
Grimes was first hospitalized in Clinton before being transferred on March 8 to a Kansas hospital, The Kansas City Star reported.  His positive test for coronavirus was reported March 13, but he was among the state’s first confirmed cases.
His death was among two new deaths reported Sunday by the state Department of Health and Senior Services. There were no details about the other new death.
The number of coronavirus cases confirmed in Missouri rose by 65 from Saturday to 903, according to the department, but the increase of 8% was considerably lower than the 25% increase Saturday and the average daily increase of 45% over the past week.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
Meanwhile, a third St. Louis-area police officer tested positive for the coronavirus and was in isolation.
The St. Louis County Police Department said Saturday that one of its officers had contracted the virus, but the agency does not believe it happened while the officer was on duty. The department provided no other details.
The St. Louis County police said affected work areas and vehicles have been thoroughly cleaned and they don’t know of any other cases associated with the officers.
Two officers in the St. Louis city police force’s traffic division also have tested positive for the virus.
Also, Jim Edmonds, a broadcaster for baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals said he underwent tests at an area hospital for coronavirus after going to the emergency room. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the 49-year-old former outfielder said he has pneumonia and was awaiting the results of other tests. 
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Singer-songwriter Jan Howard, who had a No. 1 country hit “For Loving You” with Bill Anderson and wrote hits for others like Kitty Wells’ “It’s All Over But the Crying,” has died at age 91, according to the Grand Ole Opry.The Opry, of which she was a member for nearly 50 years, announced her death on Saturday.”Jan Howard was a force of nature in country music, at the Opry, and in life,” said Dan Rogers, the Grand Ole Opry’s vice president and executive producer, said in a statement. “We were all so lucky so many nights to hear her voice on stage and to catch up with her backstage. We’re all better for having had her in our lives.”The Missouri-born Howard had her first hit in 1960 with “The One You Slip Around With,” and had a string of others including “Evil on Your Mind” and “Bad Seed.”But she had her biggest success as a duo with Anderson, including “I Know You’re Married,” “Someday We’ll Be Together” and”For Loving You,” which spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard country chart in 1967.She also wrote for others, including Wells’ song and Connie Smith’s hit “I Never Once Stopped Loving You.”Her most personal song was perhaps “My Son,” which she wrote as plea for her son Jimmy’s safe return from the Vietnam war. He was killed two weeks after its release in 1968. Another son later killed himself.Howard documented her triumphs and struggles in the 1987 autobiography “Sunshine and Shadow.”She is survived by her remaining son, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. 
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Krzysztof Penderecki, an award-winning conductor and one of the world’s most popular contemporary classical music composers whose works have featured in Hollywood films like “The Shining” and “Shutter Island,” died Sunday. He was 86.In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, the Ludwig van Beethoven Association said Penderecki had a “long and serious illness.” He died at his Krakow home, the association said.The statement called Penderecki as “Great Pole, an outstanding creator and a humanist” who was one of the world’s best appreciated Polish composers. The association was founded by Penderecki’s wife, Elzbieta Penderecka, and the communique was signed by its head, Andrzej Giza.Penderecki was best known for his monumental compositions for orchestra and choir, like “St. Luke Passion” and “Seven Gates of Jerusalem,” though his range was much wider. Rock fans know him from his work with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.  A violinist and a committed educator, he built a music center across the road from his home in southern Poland, where young virtuosos have the chance to learn from and play with world-famous masters.  Culture Minister Piotr Glinski tweeted that “Poland’s culture has suffered a huge and irreparable loss,” and that Penderecki was the nation’s “most outstanding contemporary composer whose music could be heard around the globe, from Japan to the United States.””A warm and good person,” Glinski said in his tweet.Penderecki’s international career began at age 25, when he won all three top prizes in a young composers’ competition in Warsaw in 1959 — writing one score with his right hand, one with his left and asking a friend to copy out the third score so that the handwriting wouldn’t reveal they were all by the same person.He would go on to win many awards, including multiple Grammys, but the first prize he won was especially precious: It took him to a music course in Germany, at a time when Poland was behind the Iron Curtain and Poles couldn’t freely travel abroad.  In the late 1950s and the 1960s, Penderecki experimented with avant-garde forms and sound, technique and unconventional instruments, using magnetic tape and even typewriters. He was largely inspired by electronic instruments at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, which opened in Warsaw in 1957 and was where he composed.”In my works the most important is the form and it must serve the purpose,” Penderecki said in a 2015 interview for Polish state news agency PAP.He said he begins composing with a “graphic sketch of the entire work and then I fill in the white spaces,” he said.His 1960 “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” won him a UNESCO prize. Written for 52 string instruments, it can be described as a massive plaintive scream.In the 1970s, believing that avant-garde had been explored to the full, Penderecki embarked on a new path, writing music that, to many, sounds romantic and has the traditional forms of symphonies, concertos, choral works and operas. A Catholic altar boy who grew up in a predominantly Jewish environment, he was largely inspired by religious texts: Catholic, Christian Orthodox and Jewish.But his first opera, the 1969 “Devils of Loudun,” based on a novel by Aldous Huxley about the Inquisition, put him at odds with the Vatican, which called on him to stop the performances. He refused.Penderecki wrote music for various historical celebrations, and conducted around the world. Among the works are the 1966 “St. Luke Passion,” commissioned by West German Radio to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the Muenster Cathedral, and the 1996 “Seven Gates of Jerusalem” to mark 3,000 years of the titular city.  In 1967 he composed a major choral work, “Dies Irae,” known also as the “Auschwitz Oratorio,” in homage to the Holocaust victims.His second opera, “Paradise Lost,” based on the John Milton poem, seemed to reconcile him with the Catholic Church, and in 1979, he conducted a concert at the Vatican for Polish-born Pope John Paul II.In 1980, the leader of Poland’s Solidarity freedom movement, Lech Walesa, called him and commissioned a short piece that would honor Poles who lost their lives fighting the communist regime. Penderecki composed “Lacrimosa,” which led to the larger “Polish Requiem” that premiered in 1984 in Stuttgart.  Penderecki wrote for virtuosos and friends like violinists Isaak Stern and Anne-Sophie Mutter and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. In 2012 he recorded an album with Greenwood, Radiohead’s guitarist.”Because of the complexity of what’s happening — particularly in pieces such as ‘Threnody’ and ‘Polymorphia,’ and how the sounds are bouncing around the concert hall, it becomes a very beautiful experience when you’re there,” Greenwood said in a 2012 interview with The Guardian.Penderecki said at the time that Greenwood is a “very interesting composer” and that working with the guitarist made him see his own music from a new perspective.Greenwood tweeted Sunday to say “What sad news to wake to. Penderecki was the greatest – a fiercely creative composer, and a gentle, warm-hearted man. My condolences to his family, and to Poland on this huge loss to the musical world.”Penderecki’s rich, powerful, sometimes menacing music, especially in his early works, was used in Hollywood movies including Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island,” David Lynch’s “Inland Empire” and William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist.”It was also a personal matter for Penderecki to have parts of the “Polish Requiem” used in the Polish World War II movie “Katyn” by Oscar-awarded director Andrzej Wajda, about the 1940 massacre of Polish officers by the Soviets. Penderecki’s much-loved uncle was killed in that massacre.  But Penderecki said his “greatest fascination in life” was not music — it was trees. Around his manor house, he arranged a scenic arboretum featuring the various kinds of trees and plants that he brought from the most distant corners of the world where his music was played.  “It takes generations to plant a garden,” he once said. “I will do it over some 40 years, but this garden is like an unfinished symphony. Something can always be changed, you can always add new trees, find new species.”Although he was a recluse, he liked to write music on a Baltic Sea beach in Jastrzebia Gora with his close family near him.Penderecki was born Nov. 23, 1933, in the southern Polish town of Debica. His maternal grandfather was German and his grandmother was Armenian. His father, a lawyer, loved to play the violin and instilled in his son a love of music.Penderecki studied violin and composition at the Krakow Conservatory, where on graduation in 1958 he was appointed a professor, and next a rector. From 1972-1978 he also taught at the Yale University School of Music.Penderecki won a number of Grammy Awards during the course of his career. The Recording Academy awarded him the special merit National Trustees Award in 1968. In 1988, he won a Grammy for the recording of his 2nd Concerto for Cello, with Rostropovich. Two more came 11 years later, for his 2nd Violin Concerto, “Metamorphosen,” written for and performed by Mutter, with Penderecki conducting. Most recently, a Grammy for best choral performance came in 2017 in recognition of the “Penderecki Conducts Penderecki” album.  He is survived by his second wife, Elzbieta, who as a girl was a piano student of his first wife Barbara, and by daughters Beata and Dominika and son Lukasz.His ashes will be buried in the National Pantheon, the crypt of Krakow’s St. Peter and Paul Church, according to the head of the pantheon’s foundation.The funeral is being postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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A medical evacuation plane headed from the Philippines to Japan burst into flames Sunday at the end of the runway in Manila, killing all eight people aboard, officials said. “Unfortunately, no passenger survived the accident,” that involved a Lion Air flight the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) said in a statement. The plane was carrying a patient along with a companion and medical staff to Haneda, Japan. “8 passengers consisting of a flight medic, nurse, doctor, three flight crew, one patient and its companion were on board,” Senator and head of the Philippine Red Cross Richard Gordon wrote on Twitter. Our fire and medic teams were already dispatched to NAIA Terminal 2 to respond to the plane crash incident involving Lion Air Flight RPC 5880. 8 passengers consisting of a flight medic, nurse, doctor, three flight crew, one patient and its companion were on board.— Richard J. Gordon (@DickGordonDG) March 29, 2020It was not immediately clear whether the patient was suffering from the novel coronavirus. Video from the scene shows a huge plume of smoke rising from the end of the runway. 
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