GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) - The world prepared for a coronavirus pandemic on Friday as hopes the disease could be contained to China vanished and investors dumped equities in expectation of a global recession. Share prices were on track for the worst week since the global financial crisis in 2008 as virus-related disruptions to international travel and supply chains fuelled fears of recession in the United States and the Euro zone. The U.S. stock market fell into correction territory with the benchmark S&P 500 index down more than 4% on Thursday, extending a market rout that has now sliced more than 10% off of its closing peak on Feb. 19.

Medical staff caring for a California woman with the first US case of novel coronavirus of unknown origin were unable to get her tested for five days because she had not traveled to outbreak-hit regions, a lawmaker revealed Thursday. The development comes amid reports citing a whistleblower complaint that federal health workers interacted with quarantined patients in two California air bases without proper gear or training, before dispersing around the country. One of these sites, Travis Air Force Base, is in Solano County, where the ill woman is also from.

Donald Trump’s White House is facing criticism for its “insane and depressing” decision to hire 23-year-old college James Bacon for a post in its powerful Presidential Personnel Office under new director John McEntee.The president has just returned from his two-day visit to India where he set in place a lucrative arms deal with Narendra Modi and toured the country’s beauty spots while being shielded from the outbreak of anti-Muslim riots, which left at least 20 people dead in New Dehli.

But it's totally cool, I'm sure they can afford their own!

A British man who died while skydiving on holiday had been given a parachute with holes, according to a police report.Christopher Swales, 55, died after going into free-fall during a tandem skydive with an instructor near the Grand Canyon, in Arizona.

SINGAPORE - A Year 1 student from Raffles Institution (RI) who has been confirmed to have COVID-19 coronavirus infection has prompted RI to suspend school for Year 1-6 and the Ministry of Education (MOE) to suspend classes at the MOE Language Centre (Bishan) for Friday (28 February).

Emaciated with a vacant gaze and without the strength to stand upright, 20-year-old lion Jupiter's life is in danger. Leading attempts to restore Jupiter to full health is the woman who rescued him from the circus where he was born and brought him up as her "son" from the age of three months. Ana Julia Torres has run the Villa Lorena animal sanctuary in Cali, Colombia for more than 30 years.