CORONAVIRUS DID NOT COME FROM US: WUHAN LAB

A laboratory in the Chinese city at ground zero of the global COVID-19

outbreak has rejected U.S. theories that it spawned the pandemic.

The denial came as world governments were debating how and when to ease

lockdowns that have kept more than half of humanity - 4.5 billion people -

confined to their homes and crippled the global economy.

The virus was probably first transmitted to humans at a Wuhan market where

exotic animals were slaughtered, according to Chinese scientists. But

conspiracy theories that the virus came from a maximum-security virology lab

have been brought into the mainstream by U.S. government officials.

"There's no way this virus came from us," Yuan Zhiming, the head of the P4

laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is equipped to handle

dangerous viruses, said in an interview with state media. "I know it's

impossible."

Wuhan declared low-risk area

Meanwhile, China has classified the coronavirus epicentre Wuhan as a

low-risk area, days after it revised the city's death toll by 50 per cent,

even as 16 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the country, health officials

said on Sunday.

As per the risk criteria defined in a guideline issued by China's State

Council, cities, counties and districts with no newly confirmed cases in the

last 14 days are categorised as low-risk areas.

AUSTRALIA TO MAKE GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK PAY FOR NEWS CONTENT

Global digital platforms Google and Facebook will be forced to pay for news

content in Australia, the government said on Monday as the coronavirus

pandemic causes a collapse in advertising revenue.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the competition watchdog, the Australian

Competition and Consumer Commission, known as ACCC, would release in late

July draft rules for the platforms to pay fair compensation for the

journalistic content siphoned from news media.

Frydenberg said he believed that Australia could succeed where other

countries, including France and Spain, had failed in making Google and

Facebook pay.

"We're very conscious of the challenges and complexity of ensuring a

mandatory code. Many other countries have tried it without much success,"

Frydenberg told Australian Broadcasting Corp. "We think we can be world

leading."

"We do want the rules of the digital world to reflect as much as possible

the rules of the physical world," he added.

CORONAVIRUS: US FACED WITH PROTESTS AMID PRESSURE TO REOPEN

Protesters have taken to the streets in states across the US, demanding that

governors reopen economies shut by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rallies in Arizona, Colorado, Montana and Washington state were expected on

Sunday, following earlier protests in half a dozen states.

Agitation for easing restrictions has grown, despite the risk of a Covid-19

resurgence posed by reopening too soon.

US President Donald Trump has signalled support for the protests.

The US is the epicentre of the Covid-19 crisis, with over 735,000 cases and

some 40,000 deaths - but signs have emerged that it is reaching the apex of

the outbreak and that infection rates are slowing in some states.

Governors in several states have begun discussions to plan reopening amid

signs of the slowdown, but other regions remain under strict lockdown.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced this week that the state would

extend its stay home measures until 15 May. Speaking at his daily virus

briefing on Sunday, Mr Cuomo urged caution to residents, beset with "cabin

fever" and desperate for their state to reopen.

"We still have to make sure we keep that beast under control," Mr Cuomo

said. "As we all get very eager to get on with life and move on."

"This is only halftime in this entire situation."

CHINA GETS 130-BILLION-POUND BILL FROM GERMANY FOR CORONA DAMAGES

China is facing a backlash from major European powers after suspicions over

its role in the coronavirus pandemic which has caused 1 lakh deaths in

Europe.

The Express UK reported that that a major German newspaper has put together

a 130-billion-pound invoice that Beijing "owes" Berlin following the impact

of the coronavirus pandemic.

European powers like Germany, France, the UK and the US have unleashed

criticism at China after findings have surfaced that China may have covered

up the outbreak.

Germany's largest tabloid newspaper, Bild, joined this attack by drawing up

an itemised invoice for Euro 149 billion (130 billion pounds).

The list includes a Euro 27 billion charge for lost tourism revenue, up to

euro 7.2 billion for the German film industry, a million euros an hour for

German airline Lufthansa and euro 50 billion for German small businesses.

Bild calculated that this amounts to euro 1,784 (1,550 pounds) per person if

Germany's GDP falls by 4.2 per cent, under the title "What China owes us."

Express UK reported that China has responded by claiming the invoice "stirs

up xenophobia and nationalism".

Bild Editor-in-Chief Julian Reichelt rebutted the criticism, saying: "We

asked in our newspaper Bild whether China should pay for the massive

economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide.

"Xi Jinping, your government and your scientists had to know long ago that

coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about

it."

"Your top experts didn't respond when Western researchers asked to know what

was going on in Wuhan. You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the

truth, which you felt was a national disgrace."

OVER 81,000 COVID-19 CASES REPORTED WORLDWIDE IN LAST 24 HOURS: WHO

A further 81,153 people have tested positive for the coronavirus disease

over the preceding 24 hours, taking the overall number of cases confirmed

since the start of the outbreak above 2.24 million, the World Health

Organization (WHO) announced on Sunday.

In total, 6,463 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have died over

the preceding 24 hours, raising the total death toll to 152,551 as of 08:00

GMT.

The latest update indicates a decline in the daily increase of case numbers

and deaths compared to data released by WHO on Saturday. Almost 4,000 fewer

cases and 247 fewer deaths were reported worldwide on Sunday.

Europe remains the most severely affected continent by the outbreak, with

more than 1.1 million cases of the disease. The Covid-19 death toll in

Europe surpassed 100,000 on Sunday, according to WHO, after 3,737 more

deaths were reported.

A further 37,589 cases and 2,516 deaths were reported in the Americas

region, the bulk of which were in the United States.

Earlier in the day, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

addressed leading health officials during a video conference of G20 health

ministers. The director-general called on the world's leading economies to

offer urgent support to countries that are struggling to cope with the

Covid-19 outbreak.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of Covid-19 cases

worldwide stands at 2.38 million.

TURKEY BLOCKS SAUDI AND EMIRATI STATE NEWS WEBSITES

Turkish authorities blocked Saudi and United Arab Emirates state news

websites on Sunday, days after the sites of Turkey's state broadcaster and

news agency were blocked in Saudi Arabia.

The apparently reciprocal moves come four weeks after Turkish prosecutors

indicted 20 Saudis over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the

Saudi consulate in Istanbul, a killing that soured relations between Ankara

and Riyadh.

Internet users in Turkey trying to access the sites of Saudi news agency

SPA, the UAE's WAM news agency and more than a dozen other sites saw a

message saying that they were blocked under a law governing internet

publications in Turkey.

The Turkish website of the UK-based Independent newspaper, which is operated

by a Saudi company, was one of the sites to be blocked on Sunday, in a move

that its editor said reflected political tensions between Riyadh and Ankara.

"We believe the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Turkey reflected on us,"

editor Nevzat Cicek told Reuters. Sunday's decision appeared to be

"retaliation against Saudi Arabia", he said.

Earlier this month Saudi Arabia banned Turkish state news agency Anadolu,

along with the website of state broadcaster TRT.

GUNMAN KILLS 16 IN RAMPAGE, DEADLIEST IN CANADIAN HISTORY

A gunman disguised as a police officer went on a rampage across the Canadian

province of Nova Scotia, shooting people in their homes and setting fires,

leaving 16 people dead on Sunday, in the deadliest such attack in the

country's history.

Officials said the suspected shooter was also dead.

A police officer was among those killed. Several bodies were found inside

and outside one home in the small, rural town of Portapique, about 100

kilometers north of Halifax - what police called the first scene. Bodies

were also found at other locations. Authorities believe the shooter may have

targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly.

Overnight, police began advising residents of the town - already on lockdown

because of the coronavirus pandemic - to lock their doors and stay in their

basements. Several homes in the area were set on fire as well.

Police identified the man believed to be the shooter as Gabriel Wortman, 51,

who was thought to live part-time in Portapique. Authorities said he wore a

police uniform at one point and made his car look like a Royal Canadian

Mounted Police cruiser.

Police first announced that they had arrested Wortman at a gas station in

Enfield, outside Halifax, but later said he had died. It was not clear how,

and they did not explain further.

"This is one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province's

history," said Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil.

BORIS JOHNSON BEGINS TAKING CHARGE AFTER COVID-19 HOSPITALISATION: REPORT

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has begun taking charge of the

government even as he convalesces at Chequers in south-east England,

following his hospitalisation after testing positive for coronavirus.

'The Sunday Telegraph' reports that Johnson began giving directions to his

Cabinet, including to his deputy UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, from his

prime ministerial countryside retreat as he prepares to resume full charge

in the coming days.

The 55-year-old issued some directives to Raab as well as senior aides in a

series of calls last week, followed by a three-hour meeting with his deputy

and staff on Friday.

"He [Johnson] has had some contact with ministers, but mostly with his

private office here at Downing Street," Robert Jenrick, UK Communities

Minister, had told reporters at the daily Downing Street briefing on

Saturday.

The newspaper quoted sources to say that while the prime minister was still

recovering from COVID-19, following his discharge from hospital a week ago,

he has been getting "more involved", including to set out a "direction".