A Belfast couple were on Tuesday set to become the first same-sex couple to get married in Northern Ireland after a change in the law.Robyn Peoples, 26, and Sharni Edwards, 27, were due to wed at 2:00 pm (1400 GMT) in Carrickfergus, near Belfast, after the new legislation came into effect on Monday.It followed campaigning by Amnesty International and partner organizations in the “Love Equality” campaign, which hailed the occasion “a landmark moment for equality in Northern Ireland.””We didn’t set out to make history — we just fell in love,” Edwards said ahead of the nuptials in a statement released by the campaign.”We are so grateful to the thousands of people who marched for our freedoms, to the Love Equality campaign who led the way, and the politicians who voted to change the law.”Without you, our wedding wouldn’t have been possible. We will be forever thankful.”Her soon-to-be wife Peoples added: “While this campaign ends with Sharni and I saying ‘I do,’ it started with people saying ‘no’ to inequality. By standing together, we’ve made history.”British MPs in London passed legislation last July, while Northern Ireland’s devolved government was suspended, to allow gay marriages and same-sex civil partnerships.The move, which brought the province into line with the rest of the UK, was opposed by a group of local lawmakers but they failed in a last-minute bid in October to block its implementation.London spent the intervening months drawing up new regulations to apply to the marriages and partnerships — with the first permitted to happen this week.In the meantime, Northern Ireland’s political parties also agreed to restart power-sharing in Belfast.Activists, British MPs including Northern Ireland Secretary of State Julian Smith, and others will celebrate the occasion at a parliamentary event in London later on Tuesday.Sara Canning, the partner of journalist Lyra McKee who was killed by dissident republicans in the Northern Irish city of Londonderry last year, helped to campaign for the change.”Of course, this historic moment is a little bittersweet. It had been our dream too. Lyra and I should have been an engaged couple now, planning our own wedding day,” she said in the statement.
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Month: February 2020
US Scrutinizing Information Ahead of 2020 Election, Including From Giuliani
U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Monday confirmed that the Justice Department has received information from President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani ahead of the November election, but that anything originating from Ukraine should not be taken “at face value.”Barr spoke at a news conference a day after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation” that the department had created a process so Giuliani could provide information and the department would see if it could be verified.”We have to be very careful with respect to any information coming from the Ukraine,” Barr said. “There are a lot of agendas in the Ukraine. There are a lot of cross-currents, and we can’t take anything we receive from the Ukraine at face value.”Last week, the Senate acquitted Republican Trump largely along party lines on impeachment charges that he had abused his power by asking Ukraine to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden, who had served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.FILE – Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks to reporters as he arrives for a New Year’s Eve party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla., Dec. 31, 2019.Trump had based his demands on unfounded allegations of corruption. The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives said Giuliani, a former prosecutor, sought information about the Bidens in Ukraine.On Monday, Barr said that the Justice Department has created an “intake process in the field” that will be used to assess the “provenance and credibility” of any information.”That is true for all information that comes to the department relating to the Ukraine, including anything Mr. Giuliani might provide,” he added.Although the department acknowledged on Monday it is receiving and scrutinizing such materials, the FBI’s No. 2 official still stopped short of saying whether it had led to a more formal investigation into the Bidens.”I am not going to talk about any investigations as I never would. We do not talk about open investigations,” FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich said.House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler sent a letter to Barr on Monday expressing serious concerns about the Justice Department’s arrangement with Giuliani and posing nearly a dozen questions about the process. Nadler, a Democrat, set a Feb. 25 deadline for Barr to respond.One thing Nadler wants to know is whether the department has initiated any investigations as a result of information from Giuliani.”Any official relationship between Mr. Giuliani and the department raises serious questions about conflicts of interest — both for the department, generally, and for you, specifically,” wrote Nadler, who pointed out that two Giuliani associates on Ukraine matters, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, have been indicted by federal prosecutors in New York.Graham said he would refrain from his own probe of the Bidens and concentrate instead on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s decision to issue warrants that led to a federal investigation into allegations that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the election.
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Fierce Storm Causes Deaths, Damage and Delays Across Europe
A storm battered Europe with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains, killing at least seven people and causing severe travel disruptions as it moved eastward across the continent Monday and bore down on Germany.After striking Britain and Ireland on Sunday, the storm moved on, leaving a trail of damage including power cuts for tens of thousands of homes across Europe.A woman and her 15-year-old daughter died in Poland after the storm ripped off the roof of a ski rental equipment building in the mountain resort of Bukowina Tatrzanska and sent it hurtling onto people standing near a ski lift, police said. Three people also were injured in the incident.In Sweden, one man drowned after the boat he and another person were sailing in on the southern lake of Fegen capsized. The victim was washed ashore and later died. The other person is still missing, according to the Aftonbladet daily.Two men, one in the north of Slovenia and another in southern England, also died after their cars were hit by falling trees. And in Germany, a driver died after crashing his truck into a trailer parked by workers clearing storm debris off a highway in the southern state of Hesse.The jib of a crane is seen after it fell onto the roof of Frankfurt Cathedral during a storm, in Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 10, 2020.Police in the Czech Republic said the storm likely was to blame for a car accident that killed the man driving and injured a woman passenger. Investigators think a tree fell on the car, which skidded off the road and and overturned.The number of Czech households without electricity reached 290,000, according to power company CEZ.Britain, which bore the brunt of the storm on Sunday, was assessing the damage and working to get power restored to 20,000 homes. However, for parts of northern England and Scotland, the respite is set to be brief, with forecasts of blizzards and snow.Many parts of the country were mopping up after a month and a half’s rain fell in just 24 hours in some places and rivers burst their banks. Though 360 flood warnings have been removed as the storm moves on, around 75 remain in place across the country.The River Irwell burst its banks in northwest England, prompting authorities to evacuate residents. And in the Scottish town of Hawick, which borders England, a guest house and bistro collapsed into the raging River Teviot. No one was injured.In another dramatic scene, a driver managed to escape unhurt in the early hours of Monday when a car fell nose-first into a sinkhole in a residential street in the town of Brentwood, east of London. Six properties had to be evacuated due to the unstable ground that is said to have been linked to a partially collapsed sewer. The emergency services made the scene safe just before daybreak.The British government said it was offering financial compensation through its emergency Bellwin scheme. Under the scheme, local authorities dealing with the storm can apply to have certain costs reimbursed.Transport authorities were also working hard to clear up the mess. Network Rail, which runs the country’s rail infrastructure, said thousands of engineers had “battled horrendous conditions” after the storm blew trees, sheds, roofs and even trampolines onto the tracks.Ferries were operating across the English Channel after being closed down on Sunday, though P&O Ferries said in a tweet that further disruptions were possible.Airlines operating to and from U.K. airports were still being affected by the storm, with more than 100 flights canceled.”We’re getting in touch with those affected, and have brought in extra customer teams to help them with a range of options including a full refund or an alternative flight between now and Thursday,” British Airways said in a statement.The storm had largely passed through France by midday, though meteorologists warned that the Mediterranean island of Corsica could later see winds as high as 200 kph (124 mph). Up to 130,000 homes stretching from Brittany, in western France, through Normandy and the northern regions were without power Monday morning.In Germany, utility companies were also scrambling to restore power to some 50,000 homes in northern Bavaria, where a top wind of over 160 kph (100 mph) was recorded. The storm resulted in a record amount of electricity being fed into the German grid from wind turbines, equivalent to almost 44 nuclear power plants.Train travel across Europe’s biggest economy was also severely disrupted, leaving many commuters unable to get to work. Deutsche Bahn said Monday it was slowly resuming long-distance rail services in the north of the country but warned travelers to expect further disruptions. Airlines canceled hundreds of flights from German airports.The storm, which was dubbed Sabine in Germany, also led to school closures in several cities and regions, including North Rhine-Westphalia state, where several people were injured by falling branches and toppling trees. Parts of a construction crane fell onto the roof of Frankfurt Cathedral overnight.Even though there were no reported fatalities in Belgium, the storm had an emotional impact in the central town of Zottegem, where a scenic 150-year-old poplar tree was snapped at its roots, before falling and being pulverized on a country road.The tree had been granted protected status by the Flemish regional government and locals now plan to have a special remembrance service on Friday.”The tree meant so much to everyone,” Stefan Fostier, the driving force behind the initiative, told The Associated Press. “It will be a moment to honor the tree.”
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Feds Seek 7 to 9 Years in Prison for Trump Ally Roger Stone
Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence President Donald Trump’s confidant Roger Stone to serve between 7 and 9 years in prison after his conviction on witness tampering and obstruction charges.Stone, who is scheduled to be sentenced next week, was convicted in November of a seven-count indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election.FILE – Former special counsel Robert Mueller, checks pages in the report as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on his report on Russian election interference, on Capitol Hill, July 24, 2019.He was the sixth Trump aide or adviser to be convicted of charges brought as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.In a sentencing memorandum filed Monday evening, prosecutors asked for Stone to serve between 87 and 108 months in federal prison, in accordance with federal sentencing guidelines. Such a sentence would send a message to deter others who might consider lying or obstructing a congressional probe or tampering with witnesses.They charged in the filing that Stone “decided to double — and triple — down on his criminal conduct by tampering with a witness for months in order to make sure his obstruction would be successful.””Stone’s actions were not a one-off mistake in judgment. Nor were his false statements made in the heat of the moment. They were nowhere close to that,” prosecutors wrote in the court papers.Stone has denied wrongdoing and consistently criticized the case against him as politically motivated. He did not take the stand during his trial and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his defense.The evidence presented in the trial didn’t directly address Mueller’s conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to tip the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor. But it provided new insight into the scramble inside the Trump campaign when it was revealed in July 2016 that the anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks was in possession of more than 19,000 emails hacked from the servers of the Democratic National Committee.Witnesses in the case testified that Trump’s campaign viewed Stone as an “access point” to WikiLeaks and tried to use him to get advance word about hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton.FILE – Randy Credico, an associate of former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, walks with his dog as he arrives to testify before the grand jury convened by Special Counsel Robert Mueller at U.S. District in Washington, Sept. 7, 2018.Prosecutors alleged Stone lied to Congress about his conversations about WikiLeaks with New York radio host and comedian Randy Credico — who scored an interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016, when he was avoiding prosecution by sheltering in the Ecuadoran embassy in London — and conservative writer and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi.During the 2016 campaign, Stone had mentioned in interviews and public appearances that he was in contact with Assange through a trusted intermediary and hinted at inside knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans. But he started pressing Credico to broker a contact, and Credico testified that he told Stone to work through his own intermediary.Earlier testimony revealed that Stone, while appearing before the House Intelligence Committee, named Credico as his intermediary to Assange and pressured Credico not to contradict him.After Credico was contacted by Congress, he reached out to Stone, who told him he should “stonewall it” and “plead the fifth,” he testified. Credico also testified during Stone’s trial that Stone repeatedly told him to “do a ‘Frank Pentangeli,'” a reference to a character in “The Godfather: Part II” who lies before Congress.Prosecutors also charged that Stone had threatened Credico’s therapy dog, Bianca, saying he was “going to take that dog away from you.”
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High-Tech Spy Games Have US Revamping Its Strategy
Rapidly advancing technology and an explosion of new adversaries is forcing the United States to change the way it is fighting back.The nation’s new counterintelligence strategy, unveiled Monday, will no longer focus on specific enemies, and instead find ways to better defend the country’s vulnerabilities.National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) Director William Evanina described the new strategy as “a paradigm shift,” focused on “key areas where foreign intelligence entities are hitting us hardest, and where we need to devote greater attention.”New #counterintelligence strategy to focus on:-critical infrastructure-key US supply chains-US economy-American democratic institutions-cyber & technical ops…per @NCSCgov— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 10, 2020In another break from the past, the new counterintelligence strategy is counting on more help both from the private sector and the public.“With the private sector and democratic institutions increasingly under attack, this is no longer a problem the U.S. government can address alone,” Evanina said. “It requires a whole-of-society response involving the private sector, an informed American public, as well as our allies.”Report updates 2016 strategy The new 11-page document updates the previous strategy from 2016, and unlike its predecessor, names key U.S. foreign intelligence adversaries. It is a list that includes familiar foes, from countries such as Russia, China, Iran, Cuba and North Korea, to terror groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah, Islamic State and al-Qaida.It also warns of more amorphous, but still significant, threats from “hacktivists, leaktivists and those with no formal ties to foreign intelligence services.”The release of the new strategy comes the same day U.S. officials charged four Chinese military officers with one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history.Justice Department officials said the Chinese military hackers used a vulnerability to break into networks belonging to credit reporting giant Equifax, gaining access to the personal data of nearly half of all Americans.Goal is to undermine U.S.But the new counterintelligence strategy sees such gambits as just a start, with actors like China and others increasingly looking to undermine U.S. critical infrastructure, like the electricity grid, as well as supply chains that “underpin government and American industry.”“Their efforts likely are aimed at influencing or coercing U.S. decision-makers in a time of crisis by holding critical infrastructure at risk of disruption,” the strategy warns, adding that even weapons platforms could be put at risk.Counterintelligence officials are likewise concerned that adversaries such as China are looking to do more than simply steal intellectual property, which has cost the U.S. billions of dollars.Foreign intelligence entities “have embedded themselves into U.S. national labs, academic institutions and industries,” the new strategy warns, saying they seek to “influence and exploit U.S. economic and fiscal policies and trade relationships.”Another key area of concern is information warfare, where countries such as Russia, China and Iran have been aiming to undermine confidence in democratic institutions, sow division in U.S. society and weaken U.S. alliances.Expect attacks to increaseThe new counterintelligence strategy also warns that as part of these operations, foreign entities have been working to “influence and deceive key decision-makers, alter public perceptions and amplify conspiracy theories.”The strategy also cautions that such threats are likely to accelerate, as access to technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, nanotechnology and drones will make attacking the U.S. easier.“Foreign threat actors have become more dangerous because with ready access to advanced technology, they are threatening a broader range of targets at lower risk,” the strategy warns.
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Trump, First Lady to Travel to India in Late February
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will visit India on February 24-25 and travel to New Delhi and Ahmedabad, the White House said Monday.The latter city is the largest in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat and played an important role in Mahatma Gandhi’s life and leadership of the Indian independence movement.Press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump and Modi spoke by telephone over the weekend and agreed the trip would strengthen the strategic partnership between the two counties and highlight the strong bonds between the American and Indian people.The leaders have developed a warm relationship over the past few years.During their first White House meeting in June 2017, Modi bear-hugged Trump several times following a joint news conference in the Rose Garden. Last September, Trump traveled to Houston to speak at a rally for Modi before an audience of 50,000 Indian Americans.
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US Counterintel Strategy Emphasizes Protection of Democracy
A new counterintelligence strategy released Monday ranks fighting foreign influence in U.S. elections and countering the theft of research and innovation among the top national security priorities over the next two years.In focusing on foreign interference in elections, the strategy touches on a sensitive subject for President Donald Trump. The president has been dismissive of intelligence agencies’ findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and he was impeached by the House after multiple officials testified he pressured Ukraine, a critical foreign ally, to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. The Senate acquitted Trump last week.The document from the National Security and Counterintelligence Center is meant to guide U.S. intelligence agencies resources and priorities through 2022. Similar to the threats identified in a 2018 strategy, the document identifies the U.S. economy, infrastructure, democracy and supply chains as areas being routinely targeted by foreign governments.It comes as U.S. officials warn about foreign influence campaigns from Russia aimed at shaping public opinion ahead of the 2020 election and about Chinese efforts to pilfer American technology for Beijing’s economic gain. The report was released hours after the Justice Department announced charges against four members of the Chinese military, accusing them of stealing the personal information of more than 145 million people by hacking into the Equifax credit reporting agency.The strategy consists of five goals, including protecting critical infrastructure like electrical grids, countering foreign hacking and intelligence operations, and safeguarding the supply chain so that foreign countries can’t compromise it with malicious software or surveillance technology.”The United States is facing increasingly aggressive and complex threats from foreign intelligence services, as well as state and non-state actors,” Bill Evanina, the director of the counterintelligence center, wrote in an introduction to the strategy document.The goals identified by the counterintelligence center line up with what Trump administration officials have been publicly discussing in recent weeks.FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during an oversight hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill, Feb. 5, 2020 in Washington.FBI Director Chris Wray told lawmakers last week that though the FBI had not seen Russian efforts to target elections infrastructure, foreign influence operations — reliant on bots, disinformation and fake online persona — have continued unabated since the 2016 presidential election.In combating those foreign influence campaigns, the strategy document calls for strengthening government partnerships with social media and technology companies, and doing better at identifying and deterring those activities.Attorney General William Barr gives the keynote address to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS China Initiative Conference, Feb. 6, 2020, in Washington.Attorney General William Barr last week warned against what he said was China’s ambition to dominate new, high-speed, wireless networks, citing both economic and national security concerns. He suggested that the U.S. consider investing in Western telecommunications companies that compete against China’s dominant players, including Huawei and ZTE.On Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned the nation’s governors to be wary of China, which he said was targeting individual states to expand political and economic influence.
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Ukraine Minister Sees No Preparations for New Russia Talks, Has Low Expectations
Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Monday he saw no preparations taking place for a promised summit over the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, adding that he had little hope it would make any progress even if it goes ahead.The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany met in Paris in December to discuss the long-running Ukraine crisis and agreed to get together again within four months to keep the dialogue open.FILE – Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Vadym Prystayko gestures while speaking to the media during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Jan. 10, 2020.”I am confident that when leaders say they will meet in April then they will … what I don’t see though is the preparation,” Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko told reporters during a visit to Italy.”Before the December meeting … (preparations) started half a year beforehand. Now we have two months to go and I have not seen anything prepared. Maybe it will be a much faster process than last time and maybe we will make much more progress. I am sorry, but I doubt it.”The conflict in eastern Ukraine that broke out in 2014 has killed more than 13,000 people, left a large swathe of Ukraine de facto controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, and aggravated the deepest east-west rift since the Cold War.The December summit did not produce the sort of breakthrough some had hoped for, such as an agreement on expanding a cease-fire zone, but it did lead to a prisoner exchange deal.Prystaiko welcomed the subsequent large-scale prisoner swap that took place at the end of last year, but noted that more people had died in continued fighting in January 2020 than in the same month a year earlier.”We haven’t managed to achieve a cease-fire. … But even if we have just an exchange of prisoners, that is a good step for Ukrainians,” he said.
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Bernie Sanders Formally Requests Partial Recount of Iowa Democratic Results
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders formally requested the Iowa Democratic Party recount some of the state’s results from last week’s caucus, citing 28 precincts where the campaign believes he was shorted delegates.“While a recanvass is just the first step in the process and we don’t expect it to change the current calculations, it is a necessary part of making sure Iowans can trust the final results of the caucus,” Bernie 2020 Senior Advisor Jeff Weaver said.Sanders narrowly lost to rival Pete Buttigieg in the Feb. 3 nominating contest, which took days to settle after a technical meltdown led to delays in determining the winner.
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A Bridge Too Far? UK Looks at Linking Scotland, Northern Ireland
The British government said Monday it is seriously studying the feasibility of a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland, an audacious idea that has been floated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, said the proposal was being taken seriously and “a range of officials” were studying it.”There is a proper piece of work being undertaken into this idea,” he said. “The PM is ambitious in terms of infrastructure projects.”Johnson has promised to build major new infrastructure to better connect parts of the U.K. in the wake of Britain’s divisive exit from the European Union. He also has vowed to boost regions outside the economically dominant southeast of England.He has mentioned the bridge idea several times, and claimed it would “only cost about 15 billion pounds” ($20 billion).But engineers say spanning the deep and stormy Irish Sea would be difficult. The distance is 12 miles (19 kilometers) at its narrowest; one of the most likely routes for a bridge, between Larne in Northern Ireland and Portpatrick in Scotland, is about 28 miles (45 kilometers).The water is up to 1,000 feet (300 meters) deep and the sea bed holds thousands of unexploded bombs dumped by Britain’s defense ministry after World War II.Johnson has a mixed track record with big projects. As mayor of London between 2008 and 2016 he touted a “Boris Island” airport in the River Thames estuary and a lush “garden bridge” in the middle of the city. Neither was ever built.Ian Firth, a fellow at the Institution of Civil Engineers, said building a Scotland-Northern Ireland bridge had “a huge number of technical challenges” but was probably achievable.”At the end of the day it’s about money,” he said. “Anything is possible if you throw enough money at it.”
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UN Warns Of ‘Major Shock’ As Africa Locust Outbreak Spreads
Uganda scrambled to respond to the arrival of the biggest locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in decades, while the United Nations warned Monday that “we simply cannot afford another major shock” to an already vulnerable region.An emergency government meeting hours after the locusts were spotted inside Uganda on Sunday decided to deploy military forces to help with ground-based pesticide spraying, while two planes for aerial spraying will arrive as soon as possible, a statement said. Aerial spraying is considered the only effective control.FILE – Young desert locusts jump in the air as they are approached by visiting delegation from FAO, in the desert near Garowe, in the semi-autonomous Puntland region of Somalia, Feb. 5, 2020.The swarms of billions of locusts have been destroying crops in Kenya, which hasn’t seen such an outbreak in 70 years, as well as Somalia and Ethiopia, which haven’t seen this in a quarter-century. The insects have exploited favorable wet conditions after unusually heavy rains, and experts say climate change is expected to bring more of the same.U.N. officials warn that immediate action is needed before more rainfall in the weeks ahead brings fresh vegetation to feed new generations of locusts. If left unchecked, their numbers could grow up to 500 times before drier weather arrives, they say.”There is the risk of a catastrophe,” U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told a briefing in New York on Monday, warning that a region where 12 million people already face severe food insecurity can’t afford another jolt.Without enough aerial spraying to stop the swarms, the locust outbreak could turn into a plague, “and when you have a plague, it takes years to control,” Dominique Burgeon, emergency and resilience director with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, told The Associated Press last week.The outbreak also is moving toward South Sudan, where another several million people face hunger as the country struggles to emerge from civil war.The U.N. has asked for $76 million in immediate aid. So far just under $20 million is in hand, officials said. The United States said Monday it has released $800,000 and the European Union has released 1 million euros.”The response today is not gonna work, unless there’s a big scale-up,” Lowcock said.FILE – Swarms of desert locusts fly up into the air from crops in Katitika village, Kitui county, Kenya, Jan. 24, 2020.The locusts are eating the vegetation that supports vibrant herder communities in the region, and Kenyan Ambassador Lazarus Amayo warned of the “inherent risk of communal conflict over pastures.”The outbreak is so severe it might even disrupt the planting of crops in the coming weeks, he said, adding that the locusts “do wanton damage.”
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Mali President Acknowledges Contacts with Jihadists
Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has for the first time acknowledged contacts with jihadist insurgents, an option the government has long rejected.”The number of deaths in the Sahel is becoming exponential and it’s time that certain paths be explored,” he said in an interview with French media due to be broadcast on Monday.Mali has struggled to contain a jihadist revolt that broke out in the country in 2012, claiming thousands of military and civilian lives since.But dialogue with jihadist leaders such as Amadou Koufa and Iyad Ag Ghali has long been considered beyond the pale for the government in Bamako.In the interview, Keita appeared to have changed course on past refusals to engage jihadists.”We are ready to build bridges for dialogue with everyone… at some point, we have to sit around a table and talk,” he said.He said he had sent former president Dioncounda Traore “on a mission.””He is my high representative, so his job is to listen to everybody,” the president said.Traore was chiefly tasked with seeing if there were people who “could be sensitive to a discourse of reason.” However, Keita also said he was “not naive” about the likelihood of success.”Those who order others to enter a mosque and blow themselves up in the middle of the faithful don’t have much of my esteem,” he said.A 2017 national conference gathering Keita’s party and opposition parties urged holding direct talks with jihadists as a way to solve the crisis in Mali.The government never followed up the recommendations, however.
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Thai Soldier’s Deadly Rampage Reveals Security Lapses
It’s still unclear how a Thai soldier managed to steal heavy weapons from an army base which he then used to kill 29 people and hold off security forces for almost 16 hours while he was holed up in a popular shopping mall.That he could is less surprising, say experts in military matters.The question has a special sting because the country’s tough-talking army commander just a few weeks ago gave a high-profile interview in which he said he had ordered all army units to take care of their weaponry.Thai soldiers at Surathampitak Military Camp in Nakhon Ratchasima, Feb. 10, 2020.The Bangkok Post cited Gen. Apirat Kongsompong as saying that “All weapons must be kept under good care and ready for use,” and reported that he stressed “the army will never let ill-minded people steal them.”Apirat clearly meant political opponents of the current government, led by former army commander Prayuth Chan-ocha.This theft was particularly dramatic and bloody, even though it falls into the category of inside jobs. In many past cases, guns have been quietly siphoned off by corrupt officials from police and army stores.The most disastrous weapons theft took place in Thailand’s deep south in 2004, when Muslim separatist militants raided an army base, killed four soldiers and made off with about 400 assault rifles. Some of the weapons are believed to have been sent to Muslim militants in Indonesia’s Aceh province, but most stayed with the Thai rebels, who since then have been carrying out an insurgency that has taken about 7,000 lives.While details have yet to be released in this case, experts in military matters identified serious deficiencies in how the weapons were safeguarded.This is a photo of a wanted poster released by Crime Suppression Division of The Royal Thai Police on Feb. 8, 2020 showing the suspect in a mass shooting in Northeastern Thailand.That the gunman, identified as Sgt. Maj. Jakrapanth Thomma, snatched three assault rifles and two machine guns from his army base and escaped in a stolen military vehicle “shows that the level of control over this base’s armory was woefully insufficient in terms of manpower and access restriction,” said Michael Picard, research director of GunPolicy.org.Access to the main gate to Jakrapanth’s military unit, the 22nd Ammunition Battalion, was restricted on Monday, but much of the rest of the sprawling base in rural Nakhon Ratchasima province was open to through traffic.A junior officer who said he often withdrew ammunition from Jakrapanth’s unit for his own unit’s target practice said the shooter would have had to overpower soldiers guarding each of a number of small armory depots to take the weapons and ammunition he used in his rampage. The officer asked not to be identified because he wasn’t authorized to speak to reporters.Apirat was due to address criticism of the operation at army headquarters in Bangkok on Tuesday.A motorcycle and helmet that belongs to a victim lie in front of the Terminal 21 shopping mall following a gun battle involving a Thai soldier on a shooting rampage, in Nakhon Ratchasima, Feb. 9, 2020.Some people have criticized the many hours it took for Thai security forces to finally end the siege at the mall, among them Khunpol Khanpakwan, who was outside a public hospital morgue Monday waiting to recover his daughter’s body.His daughter, Apiksanapa Khanpakwan, 45, was killed and her 17-year-old daughter was severely injured when special forces fatally shot the gunman.Though Prime Minister Prayuth has said that security forces didn’t kill anyone, Khanpakwan said he was still awaiting his daughter’s autopsy report to determine the source of the many shots that riddled her body.Khanpakwan wondered how a force that boasted of safeguarding its military hardware was unable to stop a lone gunman from inflicting so much bloodshed.”How could the authorities let a culprit run around killing people around the city? Just only one person,” Khanpakwan said, adding that “they are equipped with weapons but couldn’t do anything to him.”Anthony Davis, a security analyst who writes for the Jane’s defense publications, said it was premature to judge the response to the siege.”In the end you have a professional military man with a large supply of ammunition holed up in a very large building with not much clear idea on the part of the security forces how many people are in his reach,” Davis said.”It took a long time but in a big building they couldn’t risk storming in and killing a lot of people,” he said.There remained other concerns about how the worst mass shooting in Thai history was handled, particularly lapses in security.On the night of the siege, a police perimeter kept bystanders only 100 meters from the shooting, within earshot of the automatic gunfire exploding in sudden bursts from a position security forces struggled to pinpoint.Around 8 a.m. the following morning, Thai special forces, still unable to locate the gunman, enlisted the help of a journalist, a drone operator for a local TV news channel. Camouflaged soldiers covered the 28-year-old on all sides as they escorted him into the mall’s basement, where authorities believed the gunman was hiding.From there, the reporter maneuvered his thermal-sensing drone through shattered windows and into a supermarket’s cold storage room, broadcasting images of Jakrapanth and several apparent hostages back to police.The sharpshooters’ rain of fire at the gunman then began, and the rampage ended.On Sunday evening, less than 10 hours later, a foreign reporter was able to walk into the mall through an unlocked door that wasn’t behind police tape.
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Mali Army Redeploys to Symbolic Former Rebel Bastion
Malian troops have begun deploying to the key northern town of Kidal, a senior army official said Monday, returning to an area that has long been a symbol of the government’s lack of control over the north.The official, who requested anonymity, said soldiers had left the northern city of Gao and were on their way to Kidal. “There is no problem for now,” he said.Rebels captured much of the West African state’s north in 2012, including Kidal, triggering a war that has since been taken over by jihadists and spread to central Mali, neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.The return of Malian troops to Kidal is considered a key component in implementing the 2015 Algiers peace agreement, struck between the government in Bamako and some rebel groups.Mali has struggled to contain the revolt, despite the presence of foreign troops.FILE – French troops patrol in the streets of Gao on Feb. 3, 2013 as France jets carried out major air strikes near Kidal.Both the United Nations peacekeeping mission and French forces in the country support the Malian army’s return to Kidal, the officer said. Troops are expected to take several days to reach the city, which is about 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Gao.The units returning to the city are so-called “reconstituted” ones, comprised of regulars and former rebels who joined the military after the 2015 peace accord.Other such units are expected to deploy in northern Malian cities such as Menaka, Gao and Timbuktu, after the soldiers reach Kidal.
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South Sudan’s Leader Wins Dubious ‘Spoiler of Peace’ Award
South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Monday was named the top “spoiler of peace” in a new award that seeks to shame him and others into taking serious steps to end bloody conflict in the world’s youngest country.Kiir and rival leader Riek Machar are under growing pressure to form a coalition government this month, the significant next step in a fragile peace deal signed in 2018 to end a five-year civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people.The deadline has been extended twice and the international community is signaling impatience. The upcoming deadline is Feb. 22.”It is for me totally unacceptable that we are still again close to the deadline of a new period that was declared, that there is no agreement on a number of issues,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said over the weekend. “Respect your people.”Now a Uganda-based group, Atrocities Watch Africa, is citing Kiir and others for their roles in the conflict that also has displaced at least 2 million people. Many fled to Uganda.The “spoiler of peace” award citation accuses Kiir of being unwilling to compromise on major issues needed to form the coalition government. It also asserts that under his command and control, government-backed fighters killed thousands of people and committed atrocities such as looting and razing villages.Ateny Wek Ateny, a spokesman for South Sudan’s presidency, described the award as “nonsense.”Dismas Nkunda, a Ugandan activist who established the awards, said he hopes that “with these awards the individuals, businesses and other institutions that are derailing the peace process in South Sudan will not continue as usual now that we know them.”Other winners of the awards announced in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, included the Ugandan government, South Sudan’s military, an oil consortium and other political and military figures in South Sudan.The Ugandan government, which has backed Kiir in his efforts to prevent rebels from taking power, is accused of facilitating arms transfers to South Sudan in contravention of a European Union arms embargo. Uganda, which denies any wrongdoing, insists it sent troops and equipment at the request of Kiir’s administration as rebels threatened to enter the capital, Juba.The civil war erupted in South Sudan in late 2013, when a rift between Kiir and his deputy, Machar, escalated into fighting often along ethnic lines. Both men have been accused of violating multiple ceasefires.The regional bloc mediating South Sudan’s peace process, IGAD, said in a communique over the weekend that further extension of the deadline to form a coalition government “is neither desirable nor feasible.” It said Kiir asked for time to consult and report back on Saturday.A key issue that remains is the number of states South Sudan should have, with IGAD calling it an internal matter for which a “solution should come only from the South Sudanese people.”
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Safety Advocates in Malaysia Push for Greater Use of Child Safety Seats
While waiting for his 5-year-old twins to get out of school one afternoon, Raj Rajoo got their child safety seats ready.
“My kids, their lives are very important for me so I invested in the car seats,” he said.Malaysia has been requiring the use of child safety seats — also known as child restraint systems — since January 1 but Rajoo and his wife, Jay Menon, have been using them since shortly after their children were born.
“Anything can happen in a split second and we don’t want to regret anything further on down the road,” Menon said.A study conducted last year in Malaysia found that less than half of the cars on the roads with children ages 12 and under had child safety seats. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)Researchers in Malaysia found last year that fewer than half of the cars on the roads with children ages 12 and under had child safety seats.“For many years, people have not been having car seats here, quite a number of people have not,” Menon said, “so it’s a change of mindset and it will take time.”Data shows that children secured properly in a child safety seat are up to 71-percent less likely to die in a car accident. (Dave Grunebaum/VOA)The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research says more than 1,500 children under the age of 10 died in road accidents in Malaysia from 2007 to 2017. Statistics show that children secured properly in a child safety seat are up to 71% less likely to die in a car accident.“A seat belt only, it is actually designed for an adult,” the institute’s director-general, Siti Zaharah Ishak, said.A child restraint system, she said, “is actually appropriate for a child to use in a car because it’s designed for a child to protect them to restrain them whenever there is a motor crash or an accident.“Omar Mohamad recently looked for a child safety seat for his 2-year-old son at a store in Kuala Lumpur. He said his family already has one in his wife’s car and he’s buying another one for his.Child safety seats became a requirement in Malaysia on Jan. 1. The government says after a six-month phase in period violators will be fined.(Dave Grunebaum/VOA)“Every time we want to move into my car, I have to prepare half an hour before, take out the car seat, put it in my car, fix it properly then we can go,” he said.
“So now I’m buying a new one, one more to put in my car so that one in each car and we are ready to go at any time.”After a six-month phase-in period, the government says violators will be fined, although the amount has not been announced yet.Large families are exempted from the requirement if they cannot fit safety seats for all of their children in their car. This decision came after complaints that many large families would otherwise need to buy new, bigger cars, but as child restraint systems do so much to protect children, safety advocates hope parents will make them a priority.
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France Condemns Iran Satellite Launch, Urges Tehran to Respect Obligations
France on Monday condemned a bid by Iran to put a satellite in space, urging Tehran to abide by international obligations on its controversial ballistic missile program.”France condemns this launch which calls on technologies used for ballistic missiles and, in particular, intercontinental ballistic missiles,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement after Iran said it “successfully” launched a satellite Sunday but failed to put it into orbit.Recalling Iran’s obligations under a 2018 U.N. Security Council resolution, the ministry added: “Iran’s ballistic program hurts regional stability and affects European security. France calls on Iran to fully respect its international obligations in this matter.”
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Russian Court Jails Seven ‘Network’ Activists On Terrorism Charges
A court in the Russian city of Penza has sentenced seven activists from a group known as “Set'” (the Network) to prison terms of between six years and 18 years on terrorism charges that opposition figures have denounced.On Monday, the Privolzhsky district court found the men, aged between 23 and 30 years, guilty of being members of a terrorist group.Some of the defendants were also found guilty of possessing illegal weapons and explosives, and attempted illegal drug sales.The group members were arrested in October 2017 with the Federal Security Service (FSB) accusing them of creating a terrorist group with cells in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Penza, and Omsk, as well as In neighboring Belarus.Investigators said the group planned to organize a series of explosions in Russia during the presidential election and the World Cup soccer tournament in 2018 “to destabilize the situation” in the country and to organize an armed mutiny.Rights activists have said the case was fabricated. Some of the activists claimed that they were tortured while in custody, but the Investigative Committee rejected the claims.Opposition leader Aleksei Navalny described the sentences as “horrific” in a post on Twitter, saying testimony about an “imaginary terrorist organisation” was “beaten out using torture.””Any minister in the Russian government is 10 times more of a criminal and a threat to society than these guys,” he added.The court called Dmitry Pchelintsev and Ilya Shaursky the group’s leaders and sentenced them to penalties of 18 years and 16 years in prison, respectively.Andrei Chernov was sentenced to 14 years, Maksim Ivankin to 13 years, Mikhail Kulov to 10 years, and Vasily Kuksov to 9 years in prison.Arman Sagynbaev received six years in prison.Before the sentences, Amnesty International called the terror charges “a figment of the Russian security services’ imagination that was fabricated in an attempt to silence these activists.”The London-based human rights watchdog called the case “the latest politically-motivated abuse of the justice system to target young people.”Two other activists initially arrested in the case, Igor Shishkin and Yegor Zorin, made deals with the investigators and testified against the others.Shishkin received 3 1/2 years in prison in January 2019, while the case against Zorin was closed in September 2018.
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New England State Looks Ahead to First-In-Nation Primary
The Northeastern state of New Hampshire votes on a Democratic Party nominee for President Tuesday. The vote is the nation’s second contest for the Democratic nomination, since Iowa conducted its caucuses last week, but the first primary of the year. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti is in New Hampshire, where she spent the week talking to numerous voters who explained why they are waiting make up their minds.
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Indonesian Leader Addresses Australian Parliament
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo had the rare honor Monday of addressing a joint sitting of the Australian federal parliament. The presidential visit is a chance for Australia and its neighbor to reset relations following spy scandals, tensions over asylum seekers and the executions of two Australian drug traffickers.Relations between Australia and its large Muslim-majority neighbor to the north have improved markedly in recent years. President Joko Widodo’s address marked 70 years of bilateral ties. He is only the second Indonesian leader to speak before a joint sitting of the Australian parliament.Economic development and attracting foreign investment are key priorities for Widodo. Last week the Indonesian parliament ratified a free-trade agreement with Australia. The president told the federal parliament in Canberra that his country is helping Australia with its recovery from a long and devastating bushfire season.Australia’s two-way trade with Indonesia is worth about $11 billion.The new free-trade deal will wipe out almost all tariffs on exports to both countries.Australian trade minister Simon Birmingham says it’s a good result for many sectors.“Around 500,000 tons of grain — a huge boom, especially for our West Australian grain growers. Big opportunities in terms of the cattle trade, the horticulture trade but also in the services space,” he said. “[There is] enormous potential in terms of now new opportunities for Australian education providers, our universities and vocational educational providers to operate in Indonesia.”Cooperation on climate change is another area that is expected to benefit from closer ties. The two countries already work closely on terrorism and the response to natural disasters.Successive Australian leaders have sought to forge better relations with Jakarta.But this enthusiasm appears not to be shared by Australians. A poll from the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank in 2019, found only 1 per cent of Australians felt Indonesia was “Australia’s best friend in the world.”Canberra is being urged to raise the cases of members of an Australian drug gang caught trying to smuggle heroin out of Bali, Indonesia in April 2005.Five members of the syndicate are serving life sentences in Indonesia. Two others of the so-called “Bali Nine” were executed. Convicted drug smuggler Renae Lawrence, another member of the gang, who was released in 2018, has used Widodo’s visit to plead for reduced sentences for those who remain behind bars.
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Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 900
The number of deaths from a coronavirus outbreak in China has topped 900, while an increase in cases in Britain led the government there to declare the virus a “serious and imminent threat” to public health.Chinese health officials reported 97 new deaths Sunday, pushing the total to 908. There were also 3,062 new cases, which reversed a multi-day downward trend that had brought hopes containment measures were working.Britain reported four new cases Monday, bringing its total to eight people testing positive for the virus. Health Minister Matt Hancock made the declaration about the threat to public health to give the government more power to isolate people in its bid to keep the virus from spreading.In Japan, a cruise ship remains in quarantine in Yokohama with 66 new cases reported Monday, more than doubling the number of known cases on board.The Diamond Princess was ordered to remain isolated last week after a passenger who got off the ship in Hong Kong tested positive for the coronavirus.The center of the outbreak is China’s Hubei province where millions remain under lockdown and people are complaining of food shortages.Commerce official Wang Bin said Sunday said there are poor logistics, price increases and labor shortages.”It is difficult for the market supply to reach normal levels,” he acknowledged. Currently, he said there is a five-day supply of pork and eggs, and a three-day supply of vegetables.China’s central bank said that starting Monday it would make available 300 billion yuan ($43 billion) to help businesses involved in fighting the epidemic.Joseph Eisenberg, professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, told the Reuters news agency it was too early to say whether the epidemic was peaking due to the uncertainty in the number of cases.”Even if reported cases might be peaking, we don’t know what is happening with unreported cases,” he said. “This is especially an issue in some of the more rural areas.”The death toll from the coronavirus is higher than that of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-03, which is believed to have killed 774 people and sickened nearly 8,100 in China and the special administrative region of Hong Kong.
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Schumer Wants to Protect Whistleblowers Amid Trump Payback
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling on the nation’s 74 inspectors general to protect government whistleblowers amid President Donald Trump’s ouster of key government officials in the impeachment probe.
In a letter Monday to the Defense Department inspector general, Schumer said Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman has been “viciously attacked” by the Republican president after “bravely stepping forward to tell the truth.”FILE – Jennifer Williams, special adviser to Vice President Mike Pence and Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, prepare to testify before the House Intelligence Committee, Nov. 19, 2019.Vindman, a White House national security council official when he testified before the House impeachment inquiry, was removed Friday and reassigned.
Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, also was asked to leave his job as a White House lawyer.
Also out Friday was Gordon Sondland, who had been Trump’s ambassador to the European Union. Sondland was among 17 people who provided public and private testimony in the impeachment proceedings.
The firings, alongside efforts to name the still anonymous government whistleblower whose complaint about Trump’s call with Ukraine sparked the impeachment probe, demand attention, Schumer said.
Similar letters are being sent to all 74 IGs calling on them to take immediate steps to investigate any “instances of retaliation against anyone who has made, or in the future makes, protected disclosures of presidential misconduct to Congress or Inspectors General.”
Federal employees have rights, including under the whistleblower law, that ensure they are protected through the inspector general offices and are able to provide information to Congress, as part of the legislative branch’s oversight role.
The White House has stood by the dismissals.
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Police: Twelve More Bodies Found After DR Congo Militia Massacre
Another 12 bodies have been discovered in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo region of Beni, two days after a militia attack left eight people dead and around 20 people missing, police said on Sunday.On Friday, fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces militia slit the throats of eight people in Mangina commune, prompting hundreds of villagers to flee the area.The attack was the latest massacre blamed on the ADF which has carried out reprisal attacks on civilians in response to a military crackdown on their fighters since October.Eastern DR Congo has been wracked by militia violence for years, a legacy of its two Congo wars in the 1990s, but the ADF has been blamed for most of the recent attacks.”The twelve bodies found today were victims of Friday’s ADF attack,” local Mangina police chief Major Losendjola Morisho told AFP.He said the army were currently chasing militia fighters on Makiki village, two kilometers (1.2 miles) east of Mangina.The Beni region is the epicenter of the ADF campaign where activists say more than 300 people have been killed since October when the army began its offensive.On January 28, 36 civilians were killed in an attack in Oicha, also in Beni, part of the ADF’s revenge attacks on civilians.The ADF, blamed for the deaths of more than 1,000 civilians in Beni since October 2014, began as an Islamist-rooted rebel group in Uganda that opposed President Yoweri Museveni.It fell back into eastern DRC in 1995 during the Congo Wars and appears to have halted raids inside Uganda. Its recruits today are people of various nationalities.
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Taiwanese Go Wild for Face Masks to Stop Deadly Virus from Nearby China
Taiwanese people are leading an Asian face mask craze this month to ward off threats from a deadly virus they fear will jump from its nearby source country China into a local population that was already extra cautious about getting sick.Local vendors normally produce 1.9 million masks a day and they’re now pushing out 3.2 million to 40 million, according to government Industrial Development Bureau figures. The island’s 80 mask producers have raised production to meet rising demand despite a rationing of sales to ensure no one hoards the supplies, a bureau official said.Many people in Taiwan, which is 160 kilometers from China, worry that a novel coronavirus discovered in December will eventually infect their own population. All 18 known cases known in Taiwan so far are linked to travel from China, where hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese work and invest.Chinese authorities had reported a cumulative 908 coronavirus deaths among 40,171 cases Sunday.“Taiwan because of its geography is close to mainland China and in addition you have Taiwanese people going back and forth quite frequently, whether tourists or Taiwanese, then add that we’re in winter, the season most suitable for the spread of disease,” said Chiu Cheng-hsun, a professor and doctor with the Linkou Chang Gung hospital children’s respiratory disease department. “As soon as mainland China has no way to control this epidemic, then Taiwan could become the first place to get hit,” Chiu said.People throughout much of East Asia have bought up surgical face masks as a precaution against catching the virus. A mask, the same type found in hospitals throughout the world, stops droplets coughed out by an infected person from landing on other people. Demand for masks has surged particularly in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand that get high numbers of Chinese tourists.Masks jumped in popularity last month so fast that the Taiwan government asked factories to raise production and rationed purchases. Shoppers must swipe their National Health Insurance cards in approved pharmacies to get their maximum of two masks, every two days. The swipe leaves a computerized purchase record.Two vendors wear face masks and wait for customers at a night market in Taipei, Taiwan, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020.Pharmacists said last week the government was also controlling supplies to their stores, for example 200 masks per day.Lines of 50 people or more have formed outside the pharmacies – only to find in some cases that stock has sold out. People in Taipei say they support the rationing as a way to ensure no one hoards supplies.“Some people have time to shop for masks and others don’t have time, so now there is a computerized record,” said Lee Kuo-bin, 58, a Taipei man who uses masks even when there’s no specific virus threat. He checked a cluster of pharmacies behind a hospital last week but found nothing.Bernie Huang, 31, a Taipei high school teacher, uses two masks per week and fears his compatriots are overreacting.“Due to the prevailing fear for the new coronavirus, many Taiwanese people buy masks in bulk and hoard the masks. However, healthy people don’t have to wear masks all the time, and the hoarding of masks will cut out people who actually need to wear masks, such as people with chronic diseases and respiratory infections,” he said. “The face mask rationing policy ensures that the masks are definitely available for people who actually need the masks,” Huang said.Mask users are motivated by television images of people wearing the own and news about the rising death count in China, said George Hou, a mass communications lecturer at Taiwan-based I-Shou University. “In almost every televised image you have demonstrations of people using face masks,” he said. Local scarcity prompts people to worry all the more, he added.Taiwanese were already using masks before the coronavirus outbreak on a perception the gear could block pollution and any germs suspended in the air. The island with a dense population where multiple generations live under the same roof is prone to influenza and a contagious gastrointestinal illness that has killed small children, all raising fear of disease. The 10% of people who once wore masks in Taipei now exceeds 50%.Taiwanese also recall the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 2003, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei. SARS originated in China and spread to Taiwan, killing 73 on the island.Some of the government’s rules, such as a two-week delay in starting the new public-school semester, are confusing or excessive, he said. Children clumped together risk spreading disease, but the semester delay has caused childcare headaches for some families.“If there are people who think the Tsai Ing-wen government is a bit over the top about this outbreak, I think as long as it’s not too exaggerated of an overkill, I can accept it,” he said.
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