Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - British manufacturers are the most pessimistic about the outlook than they have been at any time since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago because of the spread of coronavirus, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said its measure of manufacturing expectations for the next three months sank to -20 from +8 in February.

The balance of order books for March also fell to -29 from -18 but that was slightly less of fall than expected in a Reuters poll of economists which had a median forecast of -35.

24 Mar 2020; MEMO: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has postponed its procedures against Israel due to the coronavirus outbreak, ICC’s chief prosecutor announced on Sunday.

According to the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that the procedures against Israel would be delayed for at least a month, citing the global coronavirus pandemic.

Bensouda, the Israeli newspaper said, was slated to file her responses to several issues on 30 March.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said that an aid package worth up to 750 billion euros ($816.38 billion) that the government announced on Monday was just an initial step in tackling the coronavirus crisis.

“The federal government is clear that we view this package of measures as just the first step,” Altmaier told a news conference on Tuesday.

“We know that the time to implementation is critical. We want to makes sure help arrives as quickly as possible,” he added.

MADRID (Reuters) - The number of new coronavirus cases in Spain jumped on Tuesday to 39,673 from 33,089 cases registered on Monday, the health ministry reported on Tuesday.

The number of fatalities rose to 2,696 overnight from 2,182, the ministry said.

ROME (Reuters) - The number of cases of coronavirus in Italy is probably 10 times higher than the official tally of almost 64,000, the head of the agency that is collating the data said on Tuesday.

Latest figures show 6,077 people have died from the infection in barely a month, making Italy the worst-affected country in the world, with close to double the number of fatalities in China, where the virus emerged last year.

However, testing for the disease has often been limited to people seeking hospital care, meaning that thousands of cases have certainly gone undetected.

LONDON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- A new emergency bill to give the British government great powers to fight coronavirus was approved by lawmakers Monday night.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that the virus is the most serious public health emergency the world has faced in a century.

"To defeat it, we are proposing extraordinary measures of a kind never seen before in peacetime. Our goal is to protect life and to protect every part of the National Health Service (NHS)," he said.

BRUSSELS/GENEVA, March 23 (Xinhua) -- More than 300,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in 189 countries and regions, said World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday, noting "The pandemic is accelerating."

TASS, March 23: The price of futures contracts of Brent crude oil for May 2020 delivery lost 7.9% on London's ICE to $25.01 per barrel, according to the trading data as of 1:16 am Moscow time.

The price of futures contracts of WTI crude oil for April delivery is down 7.5% trading at $21.06 per barrel.

The oil price drop follows reports on continuing growth of the number of coronavirus infection cases and the appearance of new sites of the disease.

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin supported on Monday the request by head of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing Anna Popova to strengthen responsibility for violating quarantine procedures.

"We will do that without fail, we need to formulate it after the presidium [meeting]," he said opening a meeting of the presidium of the government's Coordination Council to control the incidence of the novel coronavirus in Russia in response to a request from the chief sanitary physician.

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/: The crews of the Caspian Flotilla’s ships and marine infantry units kicked off joint command and staff drills with troops of Russia’s Southern Military District, the District’s press office reported on Monday.

"The personnel of the Flotilla’s units and formations practiced loading supplies onto the ships and motor vehicles while the units of a separate marine infantry regiment prepared to perform a march to the Adanak and Turali training ranges," the press office said in a statement.