News Headlines - 15 March 2020

▽Syrian Civil War Enters 10th Year As Russia, Turkey Struggle To Maintain Truce

Syria's bloody civil war enters its 10th year with the government of President Bashar al-Assad appearing to be consolidating his hold on power, backed by crucial military and political support from Russia and Iran.
The conflict began when Syrians took to the streets on March 15, 2011, to protest against Assad’s government, which then launched a brutal crackdown that has led to a conflict that has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions.

▽Local elections and London mayoral race postponed for a year | The Guardian

Local elections and the London mayoral election have been postponed for a year to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The government made the decision to push back the 7 May elections after the Electoral Commission said the health crisis would have an impact on campaigning and voting... England was scheduled to hold 309 local elections and 40 elections for police and crime commissioners. Four of those PCC positions also have responsibility for their local fire services.

▽Spain declares state of emergency over coronavirus | Al Jazeera

Spain will be in a state of emergency for the next 15 days to better combat the coronavirus, a dramatic increase to the policy response that will allow authorities to confine people and ration goods.
The state of emergency, which Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Friday and will formally be decided by a cabinet meeting on Saturday, will give the government power to take wide-ranging measures, including temporarily occupying factories or any other premises except private homes.

▽Coronavirus: Massive obituary columns in Italy show extent of tragedy | The Independent

A reader of the L’Eco di Bergamo - a daily in the Lombardy region where some 10 million inhabitants are currently quarantined - decided to compare the paper’s recent obituary pages to those at the outbreak’s onset.
First, the narrator holds up a copy of the Bergamo paper’s 9 February issue, published when the country had confirmed just three cases. The obituaries section takes up one and a half pages.
He then opens a copy dated 13 March, by which point the number of confirmed infections had risen to more than 17,600 and 1,266 people had lost their lives.
Slowly turning the pages of the local paper, he reveals that just over a month later the number of obituaries takes up 10 full pages.

▽Designer of Barcelona Olympic stadium dies of Covid-19 | New Straits Times

Vittorio Gregotti, an Italian architect who designed the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics stadium, died Sunday at the age of 92 after catching the Covid-19 coronavirus, Italian media said.
Gregotti died of pneumonia after being hospitalised in Milan having contracted Covid-19, the AGI news agency and the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
He also designed the Arcimboldi Opera Theatre in Milan, a futuristic structure built to allow the opera season to continue while the La Scala underwent renovation in 2002-2004.