September 18, 2020 8:10 PMLONDON (BLOOMBERG) - British Health Secretary Matt Hancock declined to rule out a second national lockdown amid a surge of coronavirus cases across the United Kingdom, as London mayor Sadiq Khan warned fresh restrictions could be imposed on the capital.

September 18, 2020 8:05 PMWASHINGTON (REUTERS) - The US Commerce Department plans to issue an order on Friday (Sept 18) that will bar people in the United States from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok starting on Sept 20, three officials told Reuters.

September 18, 2020 6:28 PMMADRID (AFP) - Chinese hackers have stolen information from Spanish laboratories working on a vaccine for Covid-19, El Pais newspaper reported on Friday (Sept 18).

September 18, 2020 5:36 PMOTTAWA (AFP) - A driver who allegedly set his car to autopilot and then took a nap as it broke the speed limit on a rural Canadian highway has been charged with dangerous driving, police said.

September 18, 2020 4:25 PMMILLINOCKET, UNITED STATES (AFP) - A wedding in rural Maine became a coronavirus "superspreader" event that left seven people dead and 177 infected, renewing fear of the disease in the northeastern US state that had hoped the worst of the pandemic was behind it.

September 18, 2020 4:09 PMTEL AVIV (REUTERS) - Israel will enter a second nationwide lockdown on Friday (Sept 18) at the onset of the Jewish high-holiday season, forcing residents to stay mostly at home amid a resurgence in new coronavirus cases.

September 18, 2020 3:59 PMPRAGUE (AFP) - The Czech Republic registered a record high of 3,130 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday (Sept 17), reaching in 24 hours a figure comparable with the entire month of March, Health Ministry data showed on Friday.

September 18, 2020 1:51 PMCOPENHAGEN (AFP) - Large parts of Europe on Friday (Sept 18) geared up for broad new restrictions to stop the coronavirus, after infections worldwide topped 30 million and the World Health Organisation warned of "alarming rates of transmission".

September 18, 2020 1:28 PMATHENS (NYTIMES) - A rare Mediterranean cyclone began to rake western Greece with heavy rains Thursday (Sept 17) and was expected to slam into the country in full force Friday, with hurricane-force wind and life-threatening flooding in some places, forecasters said.

September 18, 2020 1:22 PMNEW YORK (NYTIMES) - Pregnant women who are infected with the coronavirus and hospitalised are at risk for developing serious complications and may face an elevated risk for delivering their babies prematurely, according to new studies from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).