North America

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in isolation for two weeks after his wife, Sophie, tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, and the outbreak prompted the province of Ontario to shutter schools to limit the spread.

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau recently returned from London and experienced flu-like symptoms, so she was tested for the coronavirus, the prime minister’s office said earlier on Thursday. The test came back positive, it said in the evening.

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Treasury said Thursday that it has imposed sanctions against TNK Trading International S.A. (TTI), a subsidiary of Russian oil producer Rosneft, as the latest move to pressure Venezuela's government led by President Nicolas Maduro.

"TNK Trading International S.A. is another Rosneft subsidiary brokering the sale and transport of Venezuelan crude oil, which is subject to sanctions," said Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin in a statement issued by the department.

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The United States will host the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting by video conference, the U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell "are grateful to the city of Philadelphia for its willingness to host the event, assistance in planning, and support in this decision," the department said in a statement. The physical gathering was originally planned to take place next month.

UNITED NATIONS, March 12 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, reacting to the coronavirus crisis, has cancelled all UN system-sponsored side events at headquarters in New York, but not legislative meetings such as for the General Assembly and Security Council, a UN spokesman said on Thursday.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres, also said the UN chief urges all 193 member states to consider cancelling all side events they are sponsoring.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed into law a bill that provides $1 billion to help small telecom providers replace equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE.

The U.S. government considers the Chinese companies a security risk and has pushed its allies not to use Huawei equipment in next-generation cellular networks, known as 5G. Both companies have denied that China uses their products for spying.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister demanded Thursday that the United States immediately halt what he called a “campaign of economic terrorism” and lift sanctions, saying they have made it increasingly difficult for the country to export oil and virtually impossible to import medicine and medical equipment, including to identify and treat coronavirus patients.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that she and the Trump administration are close to agreement on a coronavirus aid package to reassure anxious Americans by providing sick pay, free testing and other resources, hoping to calm teetering financial markets amid the mounting crisis.

Final details were being worked out, but the top House Democrat, who held daylong talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, expected an announcement Friday. The House could then swiftly vote.

MIAMI (AP) — Florida has never been known as a place of stability, especially in its politics.

And yet stability is what has been on the minds of many Democrats in the state who say they’ll vote for former Vice President Joe Biden in Tuesday’s presidential primary election instead of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“I like some of Sanders’ ideas, but he’s a little too extreme for me,” said Jeanne Hilburn, a 76-year-old retired teacher who lives in the suburbs of Tampa. “A lot of Democrats are like me — we want stability.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Seven weeks have passed since the first U.S. case of coronavirus was announced, and the government is failing to account for what could be thousands of additional infections because of ongoing problems with testing.

“The system is not really geared to what we need right now,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert at the National Institutes of Health. “That is a failing. It is a failing, let’s admit it.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. launched airstrikes Thursday in Iraq, targeting the Iranian-backed Shia militia members believed responsible for the rocket attack that killed and wounded American and British troops at a base north of Baghdad, the Pentagon said.

U.S. officials said multiple strikes by U.S. fighter jets hit five locations and mainly targeted Kataib Hezbollah weapons facilities inside Iraq. A Defense Department statement said the strikes targeted five weapons storage facilities “to significantly degrade their ability to conduct future attacks.”