Melinda Gates, wife of billionaire Bill Gates, has warned that if the world does not act fast enough, then there will be dead bodies all over the streets of Africa.

Mrs Gates gave the warning while speaking to CNN, on the deadly coronavirus and its effects in third world countries.

She said her heart is in Africa, stating that she is worried that the continent might not be able to handle the devastating effect of virus.

Melinda Gates, who is also co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, fears things will get worst for Africa once cases peak because of poor health care systems and lack of humanitarian supports.

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More than 4,300 people were arrested over the weekend in Morocco for breaching emergency rules in place to combat the novel coronavirus. According to reports, more than half of those detained were taken into police custody.

Since mid-March, authorities have arrested 28,701 people across the country, over 15 thousand of them have been referred to court after being held in custody. The largest number of arrests were made in the country’s economic centre of Casablanca and the capital Rabat.

Penalties for violating measures in place to curb the spread of the COVID-19 disease include up to three months in jail and fines of up to 1,300 dirhams, or both.

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The two weeks upward trend in bond prices is expected to persist this week even as inflow of 253 billion naira boosts liquidity in the interbank money market. Consequently, the five-year, 14.50 per cent FGN JUL 2021 paper, gained N0.04 while the yield fell to 5.99 percent from 6.06 percent; the seven-year, 13.53 per cent FGN MAR 2025 note gained N4.46 while the yield dropped to 10.61 percent from 11.75 percent; the 10-year, 16.29 per cent FGN MAR 2027 debt gained N2.16 while the yield dropped to 12.18 percent from 12.61 percent; the 20-year, 16.25% FGN APR 2037 bond gained N3.44 while the yield dropped to 12.30 percent from 12.71 percent.

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Operators in the downstream oil sector have said the pump price of petrol could drop further by between 5 and 8 naira per litre.

According to oil marketers, the crash in crude oil price warranted the recent slashes in petrol price by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency.

They noted that the current PMS cost of 123 naira, 5o kobo per litre to 125 naira per litre could drop further when other operators join the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to start importing products.

Senior officials of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, however, noted that this would happen when every downstream petrol importer begins to access the dollar at the same rate with NNPC.

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Nigeria could see a slowdown in diaspora remittances for the first time in over a decade amid global economic crisis fuelled by coronavirus outbreak. This is according to the consulting arm of Agusto & Co.

The rating agency expects a 20 percent drop in the diaspora remittances that will be recorded for Nigeria this year, saying the projected drop will further put the naira under some more pressure.

Agusto says it is forecasting a 20 percent drop in the diaspora remittances to 20 billion dollars, due to a decline of 5 billion dollars from the 25 billion dollars reported in 2019.

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The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, says Nigeria has started the digitisation of payment of the Conditional Cash Transfer programme to the poor for accountability and transparency. This is in response to controversies surrounding the disbursement of funds under the pilot programme which is in six states of the federation.

The minister, during her state tours to Imo, Anambra, Lagos and Ogun states, assured that the federal government will continue to expand the digitalisation. She urged the state governments to prioritise the poor, vulnerable and persons with disabilities as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

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Retail giant Amazon says it will build its own coronavirus testing lab to monitor the health of its staff. This comes as the company said it had assembled a team to build its own "incremental testing capacity".

Amazon staff have previously criticised the firm over its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cases of Covid-19 have been reported at more than 50 Amazon facilities across the US. Some have involved multiple infected workers.

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US stocks have just recorded their biggest weekly gain since 1974 despite the bleak economic outlook. Markets were lifted by comments from Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who said there may end up being fewer fatalities from the coronavirus than earlier forecast.

Wall Street's S&P 500 shares index has risen 12 percent this week, as the US central bank announced more stimulus measures to support the economy.

In the commodities market, the price of gold has hit a seven-year high with many investors still remaining cautious about the future of the global economy.

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EU finance ministers have agreed a 500-billion-euro rescue package for European countries hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. The chairman of the Eurogroup, Mário Centeno, announced that the deal was reached after marathon discussions in Brussels.

It comes as Spain's prime minister said the country was close to passing the worst of its coronavirus outbreak. The package finally agreed is smaller than the what the European Central Bank had recommended.

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Singapore has suspended the use of video-conferencing tool Zoom by its teachers, after a "very serious incident" during a home-based lesson.

The suspension comes after a mother told local media that during her daughter's geography lesson, obscene image appeared on screen, before two men asked girls to perform obscene acts.

Zoom has expressed regret over the incident,

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