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  The former Minneapolis Police officer who pressed his knee into George Floyd's neck was charged on Wednesday with a new, more serious count of second-degree murder, and the three other officers on scene during his killing were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. "I strongly believe that these developments are in the interest of justice for Mr. Floyd, his family, our community and our state," Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in announcing the charges. The announcement came more than a week after Floyd was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests that call for the end to police violence against black citizens. Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, was previously charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The new second-degree murder charge says he killed Floyd "without intent" in the course of committing assault in the third degre

Dozens of bodies have been found stored in moving lorries in New York, authorities say, after passersby complained of the smell. The Andrew T Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn had rented trucks and put about 50 corpses inside with ice. One official quoted anonymously in the New York Times said the home's freezer had stopped working. Police were called to the scene and sealed off the area. A refrigerated truck later arrived. Workers in protective suits were later seen moving bodies. It is unclear if these were victims of the coronavirus. But officials and funeral homes have struggled to cope with the huge numbers of dead in New York, the worst-affected state in the US. More than 18,000 people have died in New York City alone, according to Johns Hopkins University data. As a whole, the US has more than one million confirmed cases of coronavirus, more than any other country. "They had dead bodies in the vans and trucks," the owner of the building next door told t

The US has the highest number of coronavirus cases on the planet President Donald Trump has communicated trust coronavirus cases were "leveling off" in US hotspots, saying he saw "promising finish to the present course of action".  On Sunday, New York, the focal point of the US episode, announced a drop in the quantity of new diseases and passings.  Mr Trump depicted the plunge as a "decent sign", yet cautioned of more passings as the pandemic approached its "top" in the US.  "In the near future, America will persevere through the pinnacle of this pandemic," Mr Trump said at his every day coronavirus instructions.  He said progressively clinical work force and supplies, including covers and ventilators, would be sent to the states that are most needing help.  Deborah Birx, an individual from the president's coronavirus team, said the circumstance in Italy and Spain, where diseases

The Stopp Corona app helps users keep an anonymous digital diary of the people they've had contact with In Austria, the Red Cross has launched a smartphone app called Stopp Corona, which helps users keep an anonymous digital diary of the people they have had contact with. Gerry Foitik, from the Austrian Red Cross’s managing board, says the app aims to reduce the strain on the medical services. He says users perform a digital handshake. “Whenever you have a close contact, you can record this manually and anonymously so if you get infected by the coronavirus, you can anonymously inform all your contacts from the last 48 hours, and they can self-isolate to disrupt the chain of infection.” Austrian data protection activist Max Schrems says the app isn’t anonymous - as each person is given an ID number, but he says it doesn’t pose particular problems when it comes to the EU’s privacy laws. “It's opt in. It's voluntary. People have to ask for consent.” Mr Schrems also

Containment of the pandemic would allow for a sustained recovery in the region, although risks to the outlook from financial market stress would remain high, the Washington-based global lender stated in a report About 11 million people could be driven into poverty in East Asia and the Pacific as a result of the coronavirus pandemic that has impacted over 780,000 people and killed more than 37,000 globally, the World Bank has warned. The Washington-based global lender, in a report released on Monday, said that prior projections had estimated that nearly 35 million people would escape poverty in East Asia and the Pacific in 2020, including over 25 million in China alone. “If the economic situation were to deteriorate further, and the lower-case scenario prevails, then poverty is estimated to increase by about 11 million people,” it said in its April 2020 Economic Update for East Asia and the Pacific ahead of the annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and

The coronavirus pandemic could kill up to 200,000 Americans and millions more could be infected, the US government's leading expert has warned. Dr Anthony Fauci, the face of the Trump administration's coronavirus task force, made the prediction on Sunday. "Looking at what we're seeing now, I would say between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths," he told CNN. But he quickly urged caution. "I don't want to be held to that," he said. "It's such a moving target." Dr Fauci added that the US, which now has the most recorded cases of the virus in the world, was the "focus" of the global outbreak. "We've got a serious problem in New York, we have a serious problem in New Orleans, and we're going to be developing serious problems in other areas," he said. "I want to see that tests are being implemented on the ground," he added. "If we can do that... then I think we can pull back on some of the restr

US President Donald Trump has said quarantining New York "will not be necessary", after the state's governor said doing so would be "preposterous". Mr Trump said the latest decision was taken on the recommendation of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The president had earlier said he might impose a quarantine on New York, and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, to slow the spread of Covid-19. There are more than 52,000 cases in New York. The state has about half of the total confirmed Covid-19 cases in the entire US. Mr Trump tweeted that instead of quarantine, a "strong travel advisory" would be issued to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).