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NEW YORK – The COVID-19 virus outbreak began to look more like a worldwide economic crisis Friday as anxiety about the infection emptied shops and amusement parks, canceled events, cut trade and travel and dragged already slumping financial markets even lower.

More employers told their workers to stay home, and officials locked down neighborhoods and closed schools.

WASHINGTON – America's longest war may finally be nearing an end.

The U.S. and the Islamists it toppled from power in Afghanistan are poised to sign a peace deal Saturday after a conflict that outlasted two U.S. commanders in chief and is now led by a third eager to fulfill a campaign promise to extricate America from “endless wars."

More than 18 years since President George W. Bush ordered bombing in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the agreement will set the stage for the withdrawal of U.S.

SAN DIEGO – Dealing a significant blow to a signature Trump administration immigration policy, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the government can no longer make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts.

The government faced a setback from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that may prove temporary if President Donald Trump's administration appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has consistently sided with Trump on immigration and border security policies.

SPRINGFIELD – The risk of contracting the potentially deadly COVID-19 virus in Illinois remains low, Gov. JB Pritzker said Friday as Chicago’s mayor and state and city health officials joined him to detail the steps they’re taking to halt the new virus.

A respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19 was first spotted in China and has spread to virtually every continent. Illinois has had two reported cases.

NEW YORK – The Federal Communications Commission has proposed about $200 million in fines combined for the four major U.S. phone companies for improperly disclosing customers' real-time location.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said during a news conference Friday that the fines amounted to $91 million for T-Mobile, $57 million for AT&T, $48 million for Verizon and $12 million for Sprint. More details would be released later Friday. The carriers can object to the proposed fines, which could change.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The risk of contracting potentially deadly COVID-19 in Illinois remains low, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday as Chicago's mayor and state and city health officials joined him to detail the steps they're taking to halt the new virus.

A respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19 was first spotted in China and has spread to virtually every continent. Illinois has had two reported cases.

A 27-year-old Lakemoor man was found guilty Friday of sexually assaulting his former girlfriend in September 2018.

McHenry County Judge Robert Wilbrandt announced the guilty verdict after a two-day trial by judge, which began Feb. 21 and resumed Friday. Kevin F. Graf is scheduled to be sentenced for criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual abuse and restraint on April 16.

In making his determination Friday, Wilbrandt said he found Graf's testimony not credible.

TOKYO (AP) — A deepening health crisis became an economic one too Friday, with the virus outbreak sapping financial markets, emptying shops and businesses, and putting major sites and events off limits.

As the list of countries hit by the illness edged toward 60 with Mexico, Belarus, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands reporting their first cases, the threats to livelihoods were increasingly eyed as warily as the threats to lives.

“It’s not cholera or the black plague,” said Simone Ven

Fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a global run on sales of face masks despite evidence that most people who aren't sick don't need to wear them.

Many businesses are sold out, while others are limiting how many a customer can buy. Amazon is policing its site, trying to make sure sellers don't gouge panicked buyers.

In South Korea, hundreds lined up to buy masks from a discount store.

SPRINGFIELD – Certain chemicals that are commonly used as sealants on asphalt driveways, parking lots and playgrounds could soon come under state regulation over concerns about their impact on human health and the environment.

A state Senate committee advanced a bill Thursday that would require public entities, including schools and state agencies, to publicly disclose their use of coal tar-based sealants or any other sealants with high concentrations of a substance called “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon,” or PAH, a compound that federal officials sa