The U.S. Federal Reserve is taking emergency action and slashing its benchmark interest rate by a full percentage point to nearly zero. It's also purchasing more Treasury securities to encourage lending in a bid to offset the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.Ottawa has made 10-billion-dollars available to businesses through a credit facility program. The Bank of Canada earlier cut its trend-setting interest rate by half-a-percentage point to three-quarters of a per cent.

Concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic saw global markets in freefall, with New York's Dow Jones industrial average posting its biggest loss since 1987, closing down almost 10 per cent to 21,200.62. Canada's main stock index plunged 1,761.64 points, or 12.34 per cent, to 12,508.45, with every sector in the red. European stock markets have had one of their worst days in history, with investors worried about a US travel ban that covers much of Europe.

President Donald Trump says he is suspending all travel from Europe to the U.S. for 30 days beginning Friday as he seeks to combat a viral pandemic.Trump made the announcement Wednesday in an Oval Office address to the nation, blaming the European Union for not acting quickly enough to address the novel coronavirus and saying U.S. clusters were ``seeded'' by European travellers.Trump says the restrictions won't apply to the United Kingdom and the U.S. will monitor the situation to determine if travel can be reopened earlier.The White House has also cancelled a planned trip by the president to

The NBA has suspended its season ``until further notice'' after a Utah Jazz player tested positive Wednesday for the coronavirus, a move that came only hours after the majority of the league's owners were leaning toward playing games without fans in arenas. Now there will be no games at all, at least for the time being. A person with knowledge of the situation said the Jazz player who tested positive was centre Rudy Gobert. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither the league nor the team confirmed the presumptive positive test.

Tom Hanks and his actress-singer wife Rita Wilson have tested positive for the coronavirus, the actor said in a statement Wednesday. Hanks said the couple were in Australia and felt tired, with colds, body aches and slight fevers. ``To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the coronavirus and were found to be positive,'' Hanks said. The 63-year-old actor said they will be ``tested, observed and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires.'' ``Not much more to it than a one-day-a-time approach, no?'' added Hanks. Hanks, who also posted his mes

Italy's premier says all stores except pharmacies and grocery stores are being closed nationwide in response to the country's coronavirus outbreak. Premier Giuseppe Conte thanked the public for co-operating with the already unprecedented travel and social restrictions that took effect Tuesday. But he said Wednesday night on Facebook Live that Italy must `` go another step'' by closing all shops and businesses except for food stores, pharmacies and other shops selling ''essential'' items. The tighter restrictions on daily life are the government's latest effort to respond to the fast moving cri

The World Health Organization says COVID-19 is officially a pandemic.WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the announcement at a news conference in Geneva, but is urging calm, saying with prevention, preparedness and political leadership it can be managed.He says calling the situation a pandemic doesn't change the organization's assessment of the threat from the illness or what countries should do to prepare and combat it.

The Grand Princess cruise ship with 21 cases of novel coronavirus has arrived at a port in Oakland near San Francisco. There are about 35 hundred people on board including 237 Canadians. Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says it is expected they will be taken soon to a federally chartered plane and flown home to Ontario. They will be in quarantine for two weeks.

Experts say Germany's low death rate from the new coronavirus is partly due to early testing that gave more time to contain the outbreak. The country has confirmed more than 1,100 cases but, so far, just two deaths. Other countries with a similar number of confirmed infections have dozens of deaths. Christian Drosten, the director of the Institute for Virology at Berlin's Charite hospital, said Germany's dense network of independent labs received both the technical information needed to conduct tests and the approval to bill for them in January. Case numbers in Germany were still in the singl