FACTBOX-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

* Australia's Victoria state reported a record daily increase in cases while neighbouring New South Wales banned dancing, singing and mingling at weddings. MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * The steepest dive in cocoa demand in a decade has thrown into jeopardy a plan by top producers Ivory Coast and Ghana to guarantee some two million farmers a living wage, sources within the countries' regulators said. * Israel imposed a new weekend shutdown and tightened a series of curbs to lower infection rates.

Divided Americans dug further into debates over mask mandates and schools reopening on Friday, with states and localities choosing conflicting strategies as the country reported a daily global record of more than 77,000 new infections.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS * For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread, open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

* For a U.S.-focused tracker with state-by-state and county map, open https://tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T in an external browser. * Eikon users, see MacroVitals (cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?navid=1592404098) for a case tracker and a summary of developments.

EUROPE * European Union (EU) leaders' views on a mass stimulus plan remained "diametrically different", Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said, after hours of talks on how to breathe life into economies ravaged by the pandemic.

* The EU is negotiating advance purchase deals of potential COVID-19 vaccines with drugmakers Moderna, Sanofi, and Johnson & Johnson and biotech firms BioNtech and CureVac, two EU sources said. * Russia will unveil a deal with AstraZeneca to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the pharmaceuticals giant and Oxford University.

* The reproduction rate of the coronavirus in France's Brittany region has risen sharply in less than a week. * Catalonia urged some four million people to stay home in response to surging virus cases.

* Belgium may be at the start of a second wave of coronavirus infections after reporting a 32% increase in weekly cases, virologists said. * Czech authorities tightened restrictions in the northeast of the country after a spike in infections.

AMERICAS * Public health specialists who have for months warned the U.S. government that shuffling detainees among immigration detention centers would help spread COVID-19 were right, according to a Reuters review of court records and ICE data.

* Coronavirus infections in Brazil no longer appear to be rising exponentially but the country is "still in the middle of this fight," the World Health Organization said. * A recent spike in infections in Canada is worrying and can be linked to groups of young people gathering in bars and nightclubs and at parties, a top medical official said.

ASIA-PACIFIC * India became the third country in the world to record more than one million coronavirus cases.

* The Japanese government is facing a blowback after excluding Tokyo residents from a multi-billion dollar campaign aimed at reviving domestic tourism. * Australia's Victoria state reported a record daily increase in cases while neighboring New South Wales banned dancing, singing, and mingling at weddings.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA * The steepest dive in cocoa demand in a decade has thrown into jeopardy a plan by top producers Ivory Coast and Ghana to guarantee some two million farmers a living wage, sources within the countries' regulators said.

* Israel imposed a new weekend shutdown and tightened a series of curbs to lower infection rates. MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* South Korea approved an early stage clinical trial of Celltrion Inc's experimental COVID-19 treatment drug, making it the country's first such antibody drug to be tested on humans. * India's Zydus Cadila plans to complete late-stage trials for its potential coronavirus vaccine in March 2021 and could produce up to 100 million doses a year if trials are successful.

ECONOMIC FALLOUT * World stocks treaded water on Friday and government bond yields edged lower as investors waited on the European Union to iron out details of an expected 750 billion-euro recovery fund.

* A battle in the U.S. Congress over a new coronavirus-aid bill began as Republicans were putting the finishing touches on provisions granting liability protection for a wide range of entities resuming operations amid the pandemic.