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In this Friday May 1, 2020 photo, 34-year-old entrepreneur Fino Dlamini poses for a photograph inside her office in the Soweto township outside Johannesburg, South Africa. Business was good in January and February, and projections for the rest of 2020 were excellent. Then the coronavirus brought everything to an abrupt halt. Dlamini was confined to her small home under a strict lockdown, with few options for earning money. South Africa is struggling to balance its fight against the coronavirus with its dire need to resume economic activity. The country with the Africa’s most developed economy also has its highest number of infections — more than 19,000. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

In fight against virus, South Africa expects a long wait

May. 24, 2020 1:46 PM EDT

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — With her winning smile and outgoing nature, Fino Dlamini was a natural to succeed in South Africa’s booming tourism industry. Her bicycle tours of Soweto took visitors to historic sites, including the homes of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and to restaurants where...

A health worker checks a computer screen at the COVID-19 test department of the Broussais Hospital in Paris, Monday May 11, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly pledged the country would be able to test up to 700,000 people per week as key to the re-opening process, but so far the number of people tested is much lower and the effective capacities in the country remain vague. (Alain Jocard, Pool via AP)

The Latest: UN warns cybercrime on rise during pandemic

May. 23, 2020 12:43 AM EDT

The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. TOP OF THE HOUR: —UN warns cybercrime on rise during pandemic. —South...

Cemetery musician Victor Dzib Cima, 70, plays his accordion as he waits for clients while cemetery workers remove coffins from gravesites that belonged to families who stopped paying rent at the San Nicolas Tolentino Pantheon, where he has worked for tips for 22 years, in the Iztapalapa area of Mexico City, Friday, May 22, 2020. The cemetery is making space for more burials amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is custom for cemeteries in Mexico to rent, instead of sell, grave sites. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Record virus infections, deaths are ravaging Latin America

May. 22, 2020 9:47 PM EDT

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A surging coronavirus is ravaging parts of Latin America, setting records for cases and deaths Friday in some countries in the world's most unequal region even as the pandemic's march slows in much of Europe, Asia and the United States. Latin America's two largest nations —...

Missouri jobless rate more than doubles to 9.7% due to virus

May. 22, 2020 5:38 PM EDT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Missouri’s unemployment rate more than doubled last month due to the shutdown caused by the coronavirus, state officials said Friday. Still, Missouri's jobless rate of 9.7% was well below the national rate of 14.7%. The Missouri Department of Economic Development released its April...

This May 5, 2020, photo shows Lance Chang playing a ukulele during a livestream performance of his family's band, Kanilau, from the living room of his father Roland Chang's home in Honolulu. The coronavirus pandemic has taken out large sections of Hawaii's tourism-based economy, including the Chang family's turtle and dolphin snorkel tour business and their regular music gig in Waikiki. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy)

Pandemic job losses hit tourism-dependent states hardest

May. 22, 2020 4:50 PM EDT

HONOLULU (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has been particularly brutal to the tourism-dependent economies of Nevada and Hawaii, lifting the unemployment rate in both states to about one-quarter of the workforce. Nevada topped the nation with an April unemployment rate of 28.2%, the worst any state has seen...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., wears a face mask to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus as he walks to the Senate chamber after meeting with Vice President Mike Pence and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

GOP weighs jobless aid cuts as layoffs surpass 38 million

May. 22, 2020 8:23 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Reconsideration of jobless aid is fast becoming the focus of congressional debate over the next virus aid package Republicans are staking out plans to phase out coronavirus-related unemployment benefits to encourage Americans to go back to work, although it's not clear when there will be...

This image released by Damien Escobar shows Escobar with medical staff at Queens Hospital in the Queens borough of New York. Many people are reaching out to help others during the pandemic, and some say it's helping them regain a sense of control in their lives. Escobar, a contemporary violinist based in New York, has distributed protective equipment to first responders, raising $50,000 from a charity concert. He has pivoted to a new campaign, “Masks for the Masses,” to get masks to the homeless and low-income families. (Damien Escobar via AP)

In virus chaos, some find solace, purpose in helping others

May. 22, 2020 2:54 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — In April, as the coronavirus was ravaging New York, Susan Jones learned her older brother had been diagnosed with a blood cancer. His supervisor at work launched a GoFundMe page to help with costs, and Jones shared it on Facebook. What happened next stunned her. While Jones, who works as...

FILE - In this March 18, 2020, file photo, thousands of Afghan refugees walk as they enter Afghanistan at the Islam Qala border crossing with Iran, in the western Herat Province. An international aid group says Friday, May 22, 2020 that some 661,000 people in 19 countries have been displaced by armed conflict in the two months since the U.N. secretary general called for a global cease-fire to help curb the coronavirus pandemic. The Norwegian Refugee Council says in a report Friday that the bulk of the newly displaced were in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but that large numbers were also uprooted in Yemen, Afghanistan, Chad and Niger. (AP Photo/Hamed Sarfarazi)

The Latest: UN again urges global cease-fire to fight virus

May. 22, 2020 1:28 AM EDT

The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. TOP OF THE HOUR: — U.N. again urges global cease-fire to help tackle COVID-19...

A woman rides an empty subway Thursday, May 21, 2020, in Tokyo. Tokyo is still under a coronavirus state of emergency until the end of May though there have been no hard lockdowns. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Bank of Japan helps fund small businesses fighting pandemic

May. 21, 2020 11:45 PM EDT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's central bank said Friday it will provide some 30 trillion yen ($280 billion) to banks for financing small and medium-size businesses battling economic hardships brought on by the coronavrius pandemic. The Bank of Japan will start providing funding to the banks in June, it said. The...

A woman walks past a store advertising sales at 70 percent off, Thursday, May 21, 2020, in Cleveland. More than 2.4 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week in the latest wave of layoffs from the viral outbreak that triggered widespread business shutdowns two months ago and sent the economy into a deep recession. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Nearly 39 million have lost jobs in US since virus took hold

May. 21, 2020 10:52 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits in the two months since the coronavirus took hold in the U.S. has swelled to nearly 39 million, the government reported Thursday, even as states from coast to coast gradually reopen their economies and let people go back to work....

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