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Sri Lankan stocks plunged after the island nation reported the first case of Covid-19 community infection in several months. The Colombo Stock Exchange halted trading twice for 30 minutes each, after it’s blue-chip index first dropped 5% and then 7.5% from its previous closing level. Trading resumed at 12:13 p.m. local time and blue-chip gauge was down 8.8% as of 12:18 p.m. Sri Lankan authorities closed schools and asked people to avoid non-essential travel over the next 72 hours to contain the spread of the virus. The South Asian island nation, which has so far recorded some 3,400 cases and 13 deaths, imposed an indefinite curfew Sunday on two northwestern provincial towns in the suburbs of Colombo. Sri Lanka had lifted its nationwide lockdown on June 28. Sri Lanka’s rupee was down 0...

Image captionThe announcement was made at a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden Three scientists who discovered the virus Hepatitis C have won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. The winners are British scientist Michael Houghton and US researchers Harvey Alter and Charles Rice. The Nobel Prize committee said their discoveries ultimately "saved millions of lives". The virus is a common cause of liver cancer and a major reason why people need a liver transplant. In the 1960s, there was huge concern that people receiving donated blood were getting chronic hepatitis (liver inflammation) from an unknown, mysterious disease. The Nobel Prize committee said a blood transfusion at the time was like "Russian roulette". Highly sensitive blood tests mean...

This Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020 photo shows an arrangement of licorice candy pieces in New York. A Massachusetts construction worker’s love of black licorice wound up costing him his life. Eating a bag and a half every day for a few weeks threw his essential nutrients out of whack and caused the 54-year-old man’s heart to stop, doctors reported Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison) A Massachusetts construction worker’s love of black licorice wound up costing him his life. Eating a bag and a half every day for a few weeks threw his nutrients out of whack and caused the 54-year-old man’s heart to stop, doctors reported Wednesday. “Even a small amount of licorice you eat can increase your blood pressure a little bit,” said Dr. Neel Butala, a cardiologist at Massachusetts Ge...

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Vaccine COVID-19" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's sovereign wealth fund and its partner Chemrar will supply the COVID-19 drug Avifavir to 17 additional countries, the fund said in a statement on Thursday. Avifavir gained approval from the Russian health ministry in May and is based on Favipiravir, which was developed in Japan and is widely used there as the basis for viral treatments. Clinical trials in Japan and Russia have confirmed those drugs' efficacy, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement. Russia is pushing hard to take a global lead in the race against the virus. It is already exporting its COVID-19 tests and has clinched several international deals...

FILE PHOTO: The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Slovakia PRAGUE (Reuters) - Slovakia, which has one of Europe's lowest death tolls from the novel coronavirus, reported its highest daily tally of COVID-19 cases for a second day in a row on Thursday, registering 360 positive tests in the previous day. Since the start of the pandemic in March, Slovakia has recorded 7,629 cases, from which 3,978 patients had recovered and 41 deaths have been reported. The country has faced a spike in cases this month although at a lower per capita rate than other countries in Europe. (Reporting by Jason Hovet; Editing by Toby Chopra)

SARS-CoV-2 sniffer dogs in Vantaa By Anne Kauranen HELSINKI (Reuters) - Dogs trained to detect the novel coronavirus began sniffing passenger samples at Finland's Helsinki-Vantaa airport this week, authorities said, in a pilot project running alongside more usual testing at the airport. The dogs' efficiency has not been proven in comparative scientific studies so passengers who volunteer to be tested and are suspected as carrying the virus are instructed to also take a swab to confirm the result. A team of 15 dogs and 10 instructors are being trained for the job in Finland by volunteers, sponsored by a private veterinary clinic. Among them is Kossi, a rescue dog from Spain, who was trained as a sniffer dog in Finland and who has worked before detecting cancers. "What we've seen ...

Virus Outbreak Germany Rainer Knirsch, Telekom press spokesman, wears a mouth and nose protector with the app's logo at the beginning of a press conference on the 100-day Corona Warning App at the Federal Press Conference Center in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020.(Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP) MADRID — Health authorities in Madrid may extend to more communities the restrictions on movement it imposed on areas of the Spanish capital with high coronavirus infection rates. About 860,000 Madrid residents already are required to justify trips out of 37 neighborhoods, mostly working-class areas. People have complained that the restrictions stigmatize the poor. The region’s deputy health chief, Antonio Zapatero, said Wednesday that a decision on additional measures, including poss...