US OIL PRICES TURN NEGATIVE AS DEMAND DRIES UP

The price of US oil has turned negative for the first time in history.

That means oil producers are paying buyers to take the commodity off their

hands over fears that storage capacity could run out in May.

Demand for oil has all but dried up as lockdowns across the world have kept

people inside.

As a result, oil firms have resorted to renting tankers to store the surplus

supply and that has forced the price of US oil into negative territory.

The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US

oil, fell as low as minus $37.63 a barrel.

CFRA Research. "The demand shock was so massive that it's overwhelmed

anything that people could have expected."

The severe drop on Monday was driven in part by a technicality of the global

oil market. Oil is traded on its future price and May futures contracts are

due to expire on Tuesday. Traders were keen to offload those holdings to

avoid having to take delivery of the oil and incur storage costs.

EUROPE BEGINS EASING LOCKDOWN STEPS

Germany and other parts of Europe took tentative steps to ease lockdown

measures on Monday but officials warned the battle against the COVID-19

pandemic was far from over.

Some shops reopened in Germany and Denmark and parents dropped their

children off at nurseries in Norway as tight restrictions in place for weeks

were lifted in parts of the continent. But Chancellor Angela Merkel urged

Germans to stay disciplined, warning: "We stand at the beginning of the

pandemic and are still a long way from being out of the woods." After being

hit hard by the virus that emerged in China late last year, Europe has seen

encouraging signs in recent days, with death rates dropping in Italy, Spain,

France and Britain.

The hope is tempered by fears of new waves of infections, warnings that life

will not be back to normal for many months and deep concern over the

devastating impact the virus is having on the global economy. But even the

smallest return to normalcy was welcome.

Governments around the world are mulling how and when to ease lockdowns that

have kept more than half of humanity confined to their homes. The virus has

so far infected more than 2.4 million people globally and killed more than

1,65,000, with nearly two thirds of the victims in Europe, according to an

AFP tally.

'CHINA'S VICTIM, NOT CULPRIT': BEIJING DISSES CALLS FOR PROBE INTO COVID-19

ORIGIN

China on Monday rejected Australia's call for a probe examining the global

response to the coronavirus pandemic -- including Beijing's early handling

of the outbreak.

Washington and several allies have accused China of failing to adequately

respond to the viral disease threat in the weeks after it was first detected

in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

US President Donald Trump also cut funding to the World Health Organization

after accusing it of mismanaging the crisis and covering up the seriousness

of the initial outbreak before it spread around the world and killed more

than 165,000 people.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the accusations

disrespected "the Chinese people's tremendous efforts and sacrifices" in

fighting the contagion.

"Any question about China's transparency in the prevention and control of

epidemic situation is not in line with facts," Geng told a regular press

briefing.

UN MEMBER STATES DEMAND 'EQUITABLE' ACCESS TO FUTURE COVID-19 VACCINES

The 193 members of the UN General Assembly on Monday adopted by consensus a

resolution that calls for "equitable, efficient and timely" access to any

future vaccines developed to fight coronavirus.

The resolution also highlights the "crucial leading role" played by the

World Health Organization, which has faced criticism from Washington and

others about its handling of the pandemic.

The resolution, which was drafted by Mexico and received U.S. support, calls

for strengthening the "scientific international cooperation necessary to

combat COVID-19 and to bolster coordination," including with the private

sector.

TRUMP SAYS GOVERNORS PLAY 'POLITICAL GAME' WITH VIRUS TESTS

President Donald Trump accused Democrats on Monday of playing "a very

dangerous political game" by insisting there is a shortage of tests for the

coronavirus, and Vice President Mike Pence told governors the federal

government is working around-the-clock to help them ramp up testing.

The vice president sought to soften the Trump administration's message with

governors amid growing clamor from the states for a national testing

strategy to help secure in-demand supplies like testing swabs and chemical

reagents. Trump said Sunday that he could use the Defense Production Act to

compel one company to manufacture swabs.

"When it comes to testing, we're here to help," Pence told governors during

a videoconference from the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management

Agency. The Associated Press obtained audio of the call.

Pence said the administration sent an email to officials in each state on

Monday detailing current testing capacity by state. But Maryland's

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said much of the unused lab machinery listed for

his state by the administration was in federal labs that the state does not

have access to. Pence agreed to open up federal labs to help states.

Meanwhile, Trump took to Twitter with a more combative tone, complaining

that the "radical left" and "Do Nothing Democrats" were playing politics

with their complaints about a lack of tests.

"Now they scream ....'Testing, Testing, Testing,' again playing a very

dangerous political game," Trump tweeted. "States, not the Federal

Government, should be doing the Testing - But we will work with the

Governors and get it done. This is easy compared to the fast production of

thousands of complex Ventilators!"

WHO CHIEF TERMS COVID-19 'PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1', SAYS 'WORST IS YET AHEAD OF

US'

The World Health Organization chief warned Monday that "the worst is yet

ahead of us" in the coronavirus outbreak, reviving the alarm just as many

countries ease restrictive measures aimed at reducing its spread.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn't specify why he

believes the outbreak that has infected some 2.5 million people and killed

over 166,000 could get worse. He and others, however, have previously

pointed to the likely future spread of the illness through Africa, where

health systems are far less developed.

"Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us," Tedros told reporters from WHO

headquarters in Geneva. "Let's prevent this tragedy. It's a virus that many

people still don't understand."

Tedros and his agency have been on the defensive after President Donald

Trump of the United States - the WHO's biggest single donor - last week

ordered a halt to US funding for the agency, alleging that it botched the

early response to the outbreak.

Tedros said: "There is no secret in WHO because keeping things confidential

or secret is dangerous. It's a health issue."

"This virus is dangerous. It exploits cracks between us when we have

differences," he said.

In one of his starkest comparisons yet, the UN health agency chief also

alluded to the so-called Spanish flu more than a century ago, saying the

coronavirus has a "very dangerous combination ... like the 1918 flu that

killed up to 100 million people."

Tedros called the illness "Public Enemy No. 1," and said: "We have been

warning from Day One: This is a devil that everybody should fight."

ISRAEL FIRED MISSILE ON AREAS NEAR HISTORIC PALMYRA: SYRIA

Syrian air defences opened fire and shot down several missiles launched by

Israeli warplanes near the central historic town of Palmyra, state media

said.

Syrian state TV gave no further details about the attacks on April 20 night,

the latest to hit central Syria in three weeks.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war

monitor, said the Israeli strikes targeted Iranian and Iran-backed fighters

in the desert near Palmyra. It had no immediate word on casualties, adding

that Israeli warplanes were flying over neighbouring Lebanon.

Iran is a strong backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has sent

thousands of Iran-backed fighters to fight along his troops in Syria's

nine-year conflict.

The strikes came hours after Iran's Foreign Minister Minister Mohammed Javad

Zarif was in Damascus where he met with Mr. Assad and his Syrian

counterpart.

Israel has in the past used Lebanon's airspace to launch attacks on Syria

and Israeli drones and warplanes were flying over Lebanon earlier on April

20. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

ISRAEL PM, GANTZ SIGN UNITY GOVERNMENT DEAL

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his centrist election rival

Benny Gantz signed an agreement on Monday to form an emergency coalition

government that would end a year of political deadlock.

Mr. Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Mr. Gantz's Blue and White party issued

a joint statement saying they had clinched a unity deal, which follows

elections in April and September 2019 and on March 2 in which neither won a

governing majority in Parliament.

Official details of the power-sharing deal were not immediately disclosed,

but a source in Blue and White said the two had agreed Mr. Netanyahu would

remain Prime Minister for a set period until Mr. Gantz takes over in October

2021. Until then, Mr. Gantz, a former Armed Forces Chief, will serve as

Defence Minister and several of his allies, including two members of

Israel's Labour Party, will receive ministerial portfolios.

EXPORTING CORONAVIRUS? INFECTIONS AMONG U.S. DEPORTEES REACH HAITI, MEXICO

Mexico and Haiti have detected coronavirus infections among migrants

deported recently from the United States, officials said on Tuesday, part of

a growing trend of contagion among deportees.

The new infections come after an outbreak among deportees to Guatemala,

where the government at the weekend linked almost a fifth of all cases of

the new coronavirus in the country to flights returning migrants from the

United States last week.

All three affected countries have far fewer confirmed cases of the disease

than the United States.

Three Haitians who arrived in the Caribbean country two weeks ago tested

positive while in quarantine, a Health Ministry official told Reuters. The

flight had raised objections from human rights advocates worried about

exporting the virus to the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

In the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, one man deported from Houston

infected 14 others at the Catholic church's Nazareth migration shelter,

state authorities and the city's bishop said. Cubans, Mexicans, Hondurans

and a migrant from Cameroon were among those who caught the virus, officials

said. The 15 who tested positive, who include three children 16 years old

and under, have been placed in isolation, shelter authorities said.

It is not clear where the deportees contracted the virus, but the new cases

led to calls for deportations to be suspended unless U.S. authorities can

test migrants before they leave the country.

Workers at some U.S. deportation and migrant detention facilities have

tested positive for the virus, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has

said.