AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

Italy's virus epicenter grapples with huge toll, some hidden

BERGAMO, Italy (AP) — The priest gave a final benediction. There were no flowers, no embraces. Francesca Steffanoni and her mother hurried away from Bergamo’s main cemetery, their furtive farewell lasting no more than 5 minutes.

Bergamo is the epicenter of the hardest-hit province of Italy’s hardest-hit region, Lombardy, the site of hundreds of coronavirus deaths. Families here are deprived of a bedside farewell with virus-stricken loved ones, or even a traditional funeral, and the cemetery is so overwhelmed by the number of dead that military trucks transported 65 bodies to a neighboring region for cremation this week.

Steffanoni had taken her mother to watch as the coffin containing an 82-year-old relative — a widower with a heart condition, struck down with the virus — was driven inside the imposing gates. They wore masks and gloves; they kept their distance.

"In theory, we should not have gone. But it was one of her last relatives who remains," Steffanoni said.

According to unofficial figures, more than 600 people infected with the virus have died in the province, which is tucked up against the Italian Alps and accounts for more than a quarter of all deaths in Lombardy, even though it represents only a tenth of the region's population of 10 million.

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More leaders say stay home, seek supplies to treat the sick

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — California's governor ordered people in the most populous U.S. state to stay home as the coronavirus pandemic's toll worsened so much world leaders warned of “record” economic pain.

Iran accused the United States of helping spread the virus by retaining sanctions that prevent it importing desperately needed medicine and medical equipment. Iran's 1,200 deaths are exceeded only by those in Italy and China, and fears remain that it is underreporting the scale of its outbreak.

Iran’s U.N. Mission said the sanctions, imposed over the country's nuclear program, were making it virtually impossible for Iran to import what it needed to fight the virus.

“In other words, while the U.S. is trying to curb the virus internally, it is helping the spread of the virus externally," it said in a statement.

Worldwide the death toll from COVID-19 passed 10,000 and infections exceeded 244,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

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Global stocks, US futures rise on virus aid hopes

BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets and U.S. futures rose Friday on hopes government and central bank action can shield the world economy from a looming recession caused by the coronavirus.

London and Frankfurt opened more than 4% higher and Shanghai, Hong Kong and other Asian markets advanced. Seoul surged 7.4%.

Investors were encouraged after seeing more steps by the Federal Reserve and other central banks and governments to support credit markets and the economy.

On Wall Street, the future for the benchmark S&P 500 index rose 2.8% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3.2%. The S&P 500 gained 0.5% on Thursday in a relatively modest change after wild price swings over the past week.

Hopes are rising that there will be progress in finding virus treatments and that “a boatload of stimulus by both central banks and governments will put the global economy in position for a U-shaped recovery,” said Edward Moya of Oanda in a report.

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China exonerates doctor reprimanded for warning of virus

BEIJING (AP) — China has exonerated a doctor who was officially reprimanded for warning about the coronavirus outbreak and later died of the disease, a startling admission of error by the ruling Communist Party that generally bodes no challenges to its authority.

The party's top disciplinary body said the police force in Wuhan had revoked its admonishment of Dr. Li Wenliang that had included a threat of arrest.

It also said a “solemn apology" had been issued to Li's family and that two police officers, identified only by their surnames, had been issued “disciplinary punishments" for the original handling of the matter.

In death, Li became the face of simmering anger at the ruling Communist Party's controls over information and complaints that officials lie about or hide disease outbreaks, industrial accidents, natural disasters and financial frauds, while punishing whistleblowers and independent journalists.

After seeing thousands of new cases daily at the peak of the city's outbreak a month ago, Wuhan on Friday had its second consecutive day with no new confirmed or suspected cases.

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40 million Californians ordered to stay home to halt virus

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California's 40 million residents should stay home indefinitely and venture outside only for essential jobs, errands and some exercise, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday, warning that the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the state's medical system.

The move, the most sweeping by any state so far, was an exclamation point at the end of a week of increasingly aggressive moves meant to keep the virus in check by forcing people to stay away from each other as often as possible.

"I can assure you home isolation is not my preferred choice, I know it’s not yours, but it’s a necessary one,” Newsom said at an evening news conference streamed on social media.

He assured residents that they “can still take your kids outside, practicing common sense and social distancing. You can still walk your dog.” Restaurant meals can still be delivered to homes.

The announcement came after the release of a letter to President Donald Trump where Newsom warned the virus was spreading quickly and eventually could infect more than half the state's population. A spokesman later clarified that the figure did not take into account the aggressive mitigation efforts that have been made.

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In pandemic, word definitions shift and new lexicon emerges

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Newscasts bring word of “hot zones” and “lockdowns.” Conversations are littered with talk of “quarantines” and “isolation.” Leaders urge “social distancing” and “sheltering in place” and “flattening the curve.”

In an instant, our vocabulary has changed — just like everything else.

It seems like just days since people were looking up “caucus” for clarity on the American political process or “acquit” to decode the Senate’s verdict in President Donald Trump’s impeachment. Now, those turning to online dictionaries are parsing the difference between epidemics and pandemics, ventilators and respirators, seeking some black-and-white answers in the face of total uncertainty.

“Words matter,” says John Kelly, a senior research editor at Dictionary.com. “They provide comfort and order amid chaos. They provide solidarity in an age of social distancing.”

A look at the fast-evolving lexicon of the coronavirus pandemic:

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Trump's team, senators to negotiate $1T economic rescue deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of President Donald Trump's economic team convene Friday on Capitol Hill to launch negotiations with Senate Republicans and Democrats racing to draft a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package amid the coronavirus outbreak.

It's the biggest effort yet to shore up households and the U.S. economy as the pandemic and its nationwide shutdown hurtles the country toward a likely recession.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled the Republican opening offer to pump $1,200 direct checks to taxpayers, $300 billion for small businesses to keep idled workers on payroll and $208 billion in loans to airlines and other industries.

The GOP leader's effort builds on Trump's request for Congress to “go big.”

“We need to take bold and swift action as soon as possible,” McConnell said Thursday, announcing his plan on the Senate floor.

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Senators sold stock before steep market losses from virus

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., sold as much as $1.7 million in stocks just before the market dropped in February amid fears about the coronavirus epidemic.

Senate records show that Burr and his wife sold between roughly $600,000 and $1.7 million in more than 30 separate transactions in late January and mid-February, just before the market began to fall and as government health officials began to issue stark warnings about the effects of the virus. Several of the stocks were in companies that own hotels.

The stock sales were first reported by ProPublica and The Center for Responsive Politics. Most of them came on Feb. 13, just before Burr made a speech in North Carolina in which he predicted severe consequences from the virus, including closed schools and cutbacks in company travel, according to audio obtained by National Public Radio and released Thursday.

Burr told the small North Carolina audience that the virus was “much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history” and “probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic."

Burr’s remarks were much more dire than remarks he had made publicly, and came as President Donald Trump was still downplaying the severity of the virus.

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India hangs 4 men convicted for fatal New Delhi gang rape

NEW DELHI (AP) — Four men sentenced to death for the gruesome gang rape and murder of a woman on a New Delhi bus in 2012 were hanged Friday, concluding a case that exposed the scope of sexual violence in India and prompted horrified Indians to demand swift justice.

The four stood trial relatively quickly in India's slow-moving justice system, their convictions and sentences handed down less than a year after the crime. India's top court upheld the verdicts in 2017, finding the men's crimes had created a “tsunami of shock” among Indians.

“The four convicts were hanged together at 5.30 a.m.,” said Sandeep Goel, head of the Tihar Jail in New Delhi.

The victim, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, was heading home with a male friend from a movie theater when six men tricked into getting on a private bus. With no one else in sight, they beat her friend and repeatedly raped the woman. They penetrated her with a metal rod, causing fatal internal injuries. They dumped both victims on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later.

Asha Devi, the mother of the victim, thanked the judiciary and government after the convicts were hanged.

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2020 campaigns go digital amid fears of coronavirus spread

WASHINGTON (AP) — No more rallies. No more door-knocking. And no more in-person fundraisers, raking in dollars from dozens of millionaires at once.

The coronavirus has disrupted American life, and the 2020 presidential campaign is no exception. Amid calls for social distancing to stop the pandemic’s spread, President Donald Trump and Democrats Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have had little choice but to call off large-scale public events in favor of politicking online and over the airwaves.

Gone are the rope lines, selfies with supporters and entourages of traveling press. They're being replaced — for now — with tools of the digital word: tele-town halls, virtual fundraisers and livestreamed speeches from candidates’ homes, sometimes with awkward results.

The abrupt shift has infused the contest with an added degree of uncertainty.

With control of the White House at stake, candidates have been forced to ditch well-honed strategies in favor of untested tactics. There are doubts about whether they will be able to continue raising crucial cash as unemployment soars and the economy sputters. There are also concerns that a virtual campaign could foster the spread of misinformation and maybe even force the cancellation of the major party conventions this summer.