Headlines

This week’s topics are dominated by covid-19. The pandemic, as the World Health Organisation has officially declared it, is spreading fast, with almost 45,000 cases and nearly 1,500 deaths in 112 countries outside China. Politicians are belatedly realising that, as health systems buckle and deaths mount, they will have to weather the storm. America, despite its wealth and the excellence of its medical science, has squandered its chance to prepare for the pandemic, and China’s president, Xi Jinping, celebrated a precipitous fall in cases with a victory lap in Wuhan, where the disease first took hold.

 It was a marriage of convenience based on oil. When it came apart, it sent the markets reeling.

Moscow, March 10.– It was always a marriage of convenience, whatever the pledges of devotion, but when Russia and Saudi Arabia parted ways late last week after a dispute over oil production, it was like a lot of breakups: instantly acrimonious.

Gone, it seems, are the days when two of the world’s strongest-willed leaders, Vladimir V. Putin and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, engaged in an unlikely courtship to prop up oil prices and extend their influence. Only six months ago, the Saudi energy minister called it an “until death do us part” union.

• History, strikes and celebrations.

• You might have seen International Women's Day mentioned in the media or heard friends talking about it. But what is it for? When is it? Is it a celebration or a protest? And is there an equivalent International Men's Day?

London, March 8.– For more than a century people around the world have been marking 8 March as a special day for women. Read on to find out why.

1. When did it all start?

International Women's Day grew out of the labour movement to become a UN-recognised annual event.

The seeds of it were planted in 1908, when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote. It was the Socialist Party of America who declared the first National Woman's Day, a year later.

• Official condemns Iran for allowing Saudi citizens into the country without stamping their passports. 
• Saudis who traveled to Iran must report their travel within 48 hours to avoid legal action.  

Riyadh, March 5.– Saudi Arabia on Thursday said Iran was responsible for increasing the number of coronavirus cases and spreading the outbreak around the world.