WORLDWIDE (Reuters) - Reported cases of the coronavirus have crossed 2.57 million globally and 178,574 people have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 1400 GMT on Wednesday.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS -
* U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hit out at Beijing again over the coronavirus outbreak, even as he welcomed China's provision of essential medical supplies.
* The head of the World Health Organization said he hoped the Trump administration would reconsider its suspension of funding, but that his main focus was on ending the pandemic.
* Peru's hospitals are struggling with a rapid rise in infections, with bodies being kept in hallways, masks repeatedly reused, and protests of medical workers concerned over their safety.
* The U.S. House of Representatives expects to pass a nearly $500 billion coronavirus relief bill on Thursday.
* Mexico will increase spending on social programs and infrastructure projects by $25.6 billion, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said, in a delayed attempt to jump-start the coronavirus-hit economy.
EUROPE
* It may take European Union countries until the summer or even longer to agree on how exactly to finance aid to help economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic as major disagreements persist, a bloc official said.
* The British government came under sustained pressure over its coronavirus response when members of parliament got their first major opportunity in a month to hold it to account.
* French police will not shy away from enforcing a coronavirus lockdown in the high-rise Paris suburbs where unrest has erupted the past four nights, the interior minister said.
* Relieved Spanish parents welcomed a decision allowing children out on short walks for the first time in more than a month as the government voted to extend Spain's lockdown until May 9.
* Ukraine extended strong quarantine measures till May 11.
* The Kremlin called allegations about artificial origin of the new coronavirus groundfewer and unacceptable.
ASIA-PACIFIC
* Australia sought support for an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in calls with the U.S. President and major powers, but France and Britain said now was the time to fight the virus, not to apportion blame.
* Hackers working in support of the Vietnamese government have attempted to break into Chinese state organizations at the center of Beijing's effort to contain the outbreak, a U.S. cybersecurity firm said.
* A northeastern city of 10 million people grappling with what is now China's biggest outbreak further restricted inbound traffic on Wednesday.
* More than 30 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan's Nagasaki prefecture have tested positive. * India suspended antibody tests because of concerns over reliability, health officials said.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
* Sixty-eight people, mostly staff, have come down with the coronavirus at a prison in the Moroccan city of Ouarzazate, prison authorities said, without reporting any deaths.
* With just a few hundred ventilators and international aid slow to materialize, Sudan's fledgling government knows it has an uphill battle against a coronavirus pandemic that has brought far richer countries to a standstill.
* Zambia's Chamber of Mines has urged the government to urgently engage with the sector and agree relief measures.
* Iran reopened parks and recreational areas on Wednesday, pressing ahead with measures to ease its coronavirus curbs despite one of the worst outbreaks of the disease in the Middle East.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
* A jump in the price of oil and the promise of more government stimulus to ease the economic pain inflicted by the pandemic helped calm global equity markets on Wednesday.
* Canada's annual inflation rate tumbled to a near five-year low in March as gas prices plunged while analysts said the relevance of future data could be affected because of disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
* The collapse in China's economic activity has fanned calls for the government to hasten the roll out of fiscal stimulus, as ballooning unemployment threatens social stability.
* Global crude steel production fell 6% to 147.1 million tonnes in March from a year earlier, World Steel Association data showed, as the coronavirus crisis forced the closure of furnaces.
* Turkey's central bank slashed its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 8.75% on Wednesday, more than expected.
* Switzerland's federal budget deficit could jump to around 6% of national output this year, its finance minister said on Wednesday.
* Delta Air Lines Inc said it does not expect air travel to recover for two or three years and is working to halve its cash burn after posting its first quarterly loss in eight years due to the coronavirus pandemic.