Molson Coors employees were returning to work Monday at the Milwaukee brewery where a worker last week fatally shot five co-workers and then himself.Employees will find heightened security measures, including additional guards, both armed and unarmed, according to a company email. Bag checks will take place at Molson Coors campuses nationwide, including the complex in Milwaukee’s Miller Valley, the Journal Sentinel reported.Counseling services will be available for employees.“We recognize not everyone will feel ready to come back, and that’s absolutely fine,” the email said.Meanwhile, the newspaper reported a couple hundred people gathered outside Milwaukee City Hall on Sunday night for a vigil in honor of the victims. They include Jesus Valle Jr., 33, of Milwaukee; Gennady “Gene” Levshetz, 61, of Mequon; Trevor Wetselaar, 33, of Milwaukee; Dana Walk, 57, of Delafield; and Dale Hudson, 60, of Waukesha.Union officials, politicians, clergy members and others spoke out against violence and hatred. Forward Latino President Daryl Morin said those in the crowd were not separated by political parties, the color of their skin or where they lived.“We come together as Milwaukeeans. We come together as Wisconsinites,” Morin said. “We will show the nation what it means to be Milwaukee Strong.”The gunman, Anthony Ferrill, 51, took his own life last Wednesday at the brewery.U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, whose congressional district includes the brewery complex, read the names of the victims, but not the shooter’s. She said she was friends with Levshetz for 25 years and attended his funeral service Sunday.“I speak their names to remember them, to cherish them,” Moore said.Pardeep Singh Kaleka, executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, told the crowd: “I know that our faith feels like it’s being tested.”Kaleka introduced the clergy members, including Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Sikh, Jewish and Hindu, who each said prayers.Kaleka’s father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was among six people fatally shot at a Sikh temple shooting in suburban Oak Creek in 2012. The gunman killed himself.
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Month: March 2020
Officials say Ex-Guard Releases Hostages, Leaves Manila Mall
Officials say a recently dismissed security guard has released his hostages and walked out of a Philippine shopping mall, ending a daylong hostage crisis.The man, identified as Archie Paray, a former guard at the complex, left the V-Mall in suburban San Juan city in metropolitan Manila on Monday evening with his hostages, who were secured by police.The suspect was allowed to speak to reporters and authorities to outline his grievances.Police say the man shot a security officer in the morning before rushing to the second floor of the complex, where he held dozens of people, mostly employees, hostage in an office. The number of hostages wasn’t immediately clear.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story is below:
Philippine police surrounded a shopping mall in Manila on Monday after a recently dismissed security guard opened fire and took dozens of people hostage, starting a standoff that began before noon and was still ongoing in the evening, an official said.
Mayor Francis Zamora of San Juan in the Philippine capital said the gunman, who was armed with a pistol, shot one person at the V-Mall. The victim was in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
Zamora said the suspect was a disgruntled former security guard at the shopping complex.
“He felt bad because he was removed as a guard,” Zamora told reporters, adding that the man tried but failed to convince fellow guards to join him. Aside from a pistol, the hostage taker yelled that he had a grenade, but authorities could not immediately confirm that, Zamora said.
“We have evacuated all the people in the shopping center and we’re in a lockdown here in the entire mall,” he said.
An initial police report said the hostage taker, who was identified as Archie Paray, shot a mall official before rushing to the second floor of the complex, where he was holding dozens of mostly employees in an office. The report said “more or less 50 staffs” were being held hostage, but it did not provide other details.
Zamora said about 30 to 40 people were being held, adding that his estimate was based on the size of the administrative office were they were being held.
The suspect was complaining of unequal treatment,'' the police report said.shortcomings” and resigned or offered to quit.
He was apparently dismissed from work after abandoning his job in recent weeks without notifying management, Zamora said. He said the hostages were fine and added that authorities were trying to resolve the situation without further violence.
The suspect used his cellphone to deliver a message to the guards and the media, expressing his anger over a change in his work hours and accusing his superiors of corruption.
In a bid to appease the hostage taker, six officers in charge of overseeing the mall's security apologized to the suspect at an early evening news conference for their
“I’m asking for his forgiveness, and because of this, I’ll resign from my job so this crisis will come to an end,” said Oscar Hernandez, one of the security officers.
Earlier in the day, more than a dozen SWAT commandos were seen entering the mall, their assault rifles ready. Other policemen stood by outside, along with an ambulance.
The shopping complex, popular for its restaurants, shops, bars and a bazaar, lies near an upscale residential enclave, a golf club and the police and military headquarters in the bustling metropolis of more than 12 million people, where law and order have long been a concern.
Three years ago, a gunman stormed a mall-casino complex in Manila, shot TV monitors and set gambling tables on fire, killing 36 people who were mostly suffocated by the thick smoke. The gunman stole casino chips before he fled but was found dead in an apparent suicide in an adjacent hotel at the Resorts World Manila complex.
The attack, which caused guests and shoppers to flee to safety, was claimed by the Islamic State group, but Philippine authorities rejected the claim, saying the attacker was not a Muslim militant but a heavily indebted gambler.
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Bloomberg’s Biggest Test: Winning Votes on Super Tuesday
Moments before Mike Bloomberg stood in the pulpit of Brown Chapel AME Church, the pastor noted that the former New York mayor initially declined an invitation to speak at the church where, 55 years ago, civil rights activists prepared for the historic march to Montgomery. The pastor praised Bloomberg’s change of heart, but the Democratic presidential candidate struggled to win over his audience. Multiple parishioners stood and turned their backs to him.
A short time later, the church erupted in cheers when former Vice President Joe Biden – fresh off his victory in the South Carolina primary – strode into the sanctuary and sat behind the pulpit.
The contrasting responses on Sunday were a stark reminder that Bloomberg’s unprecedented investment in the presidential campaign may have little payoff if a diverse coalition of voters spurn him in the 14 states that vote Tuesday, including Alabama. The billionaire former New York mayor seemed to be aware of the high stakes he faces on Super Tuesday.
“I’ve got a primary to run and to win,” he said at the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast in Selma, Alabama. “We’ll see what happens.”
Bloomberg has sought to make issues of race central to his campaign. He has acknowledged his privilege as a white man, released several criminal justice proposals and landed endorsements from prominent black elected officials, including the mayor of Washington and several members of the Congressional Black Caucus. He has also been frank in expressing regret for the stop-and-frisk policing program that disproportionately affected black and Latino New Yorkers during his tenure as mayor.
On Sunday, just hours after he campaigned in Selma, he won the endorsement of California state Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, a black legislator who authored one of the nation’s strictest laws on when police can use deadly force.
But after Biden’s commanding win in South Carolina, which was powered by support from African Americans, Bloomberg is facing mounting pressure to justify his presence in the race. Some Democrats fear that Bloomberg will take votes on Super Tuesday that would otherwise go to Biden, making it harder for the party to unite behind a single moderate alternative to Bernie Sanders, who some in the party establishment think is too liberal to beat President Donald Trump.
“Mike Bloomberg says that Bernie Sanders can’t beat Trump, yet his presence in the race makes it much more likely that Bernie Sanders will enter the convention with the delegate lead,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a longtime aide to former President Barack Obama who recently called on Bloomberg to drop out. “Given how many delegates are at stake on Super Tuesday, particularly in California and Texas, Bloomberg could massively strengthen Sanders’ grip on the nomination next week.’”
Even if Bloomberg has a poor showing on Tuesday, he’s likely to press on. His campaign hasn’t set clear expectations for victory on Tuesday, but adviser Tim O’Brien said there’s no scenario in which he exits the race due to the results. He’s already invested heavily in states that come next, including general election battleground states like Florida, where he’ll appear Tuesday night.
“It’s our first test with voters so it’s very important to us,” O’Brien said. “But we’re also in this for the long haul. There’s still a lot of the country to be heard from and we’re in 45-plus states and territories, so we’re going to be fighting it through.”
Bloomberg spent much of last week campaigning in a handful of Southern and Western states where his aides say they believe he could notch a win, largely because he’s the only candidate who’s been able to visit multiple times or air ads in many of them. His campaign believes he has a particular appeal to suburban Democrats, those well-educated, upper middle-class voters who may be more moderate on financial issues and may have followed his political advocacy on gun control and climate change.
Arkansas, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee are the Super Tuesday states with significant black populations. Texas and California, the biggest delegate prizes, meanwhile, are each roughly 40% Latino, a group of voters Sanders has aggressively targeted. Other states that vote Tuesday, like Utah, Maine and Vermont, are heavily white, but offer low delegate hauls.
Bloomberg’s aides admit Biden’s South Carolina win makes their path tougher. But they believe the coronavirus outbreak gives Bloomberg an opportunity to make an even stronger case for his candidacy as the only proven problem-solver in the field. The campaign aired a three-minute ad Sunday night on two major networks touting his leadership in times of crisis as New York mayor, including in the aftermath of 9/11.
Bloomberg is campaigning for the presidency in the same way he ran three times for City Hall in New York: overwhelming his rivals with so much spending that it becomes hard to compete.
He’s the only candidate on air in all 14 states, and has staff on the ground in every state, including some teams that campaign leadership says are bigger than any campaign has built for a prior election.
Bloomberg has spent nearly $180 million on television advertising alone in the 14 Super Tuesday states, with more than $100 million of that spent just in California and Texas, the two biggest delegate hauls in the primary contest. That’s nearly $3 per registered voter in both states.
“I’ve just never seen anything quite as dramatic as these buys,” said Sheri Sadler, who runs a political media buying firm based in California and consulted for Tom Steyer’s nascent campaign.
While Bloomberg only campaigned in Texas in the final week before the primary and did not personally visit California, he’s purchased ads in every single media market in both states in the 10 days leading up to Super Tuesday, according to TV spending data obtained by The Associated Press. As of Saturday, when South Carolina voted, about 1.4 million California Democrats had already returned mail-in ballots. That’s roughly 20% of the ballots that went out.
Someone in San Diego, the state’s second-largest city and a former Republican stronghold that’s seen its politics shift over the last decade, could see a Bloomberg ad as many as 40 times in that window. In North Carolina, some TV viewers in the northeastern corner of the state may have seen Bloomberg ads as many as 180 times since he entered the race and began spending money there.
He’s even spending big in the home states of rivals Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, at more than $9 million in Massachusetts and nearly $8 million in Minnesota.
The ads are just one piece of Bloomberg’s unmatched campaign spending. Attendees get free T-shirts at every Bloomberg event, with one of his general campaign slogans including “I Like Mike,” or specialized T-shirts for whatever state the event is in. Nearly every event has specialized signage and a backdrop themed to the city the event is in; a massive sign with Nashville’s city skyline outlined in red framed Bloomberg as he spoke to voters in a concert venue in mid-February. They’re treated to catered buffets ranging from cheese plates and small sandwiches to mini quiches to barbecue.
For Cookie Arthur Smith, an undecided voter at a Bloomberg event in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday, that was enough to pique her interest.
“I think he’s a rough and tough businessman who really has made money on his own and not coasted along on his daddy’s coattails,” she said. “And, my God, he gave us this free barbecue. What’s not to like?”
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Over 50 Killed as Armed Men Attack Villages in Northern Nigeria
Armed men killed at least 50 people Sunday in attacks on villages in the Nigerian state of Kaduna, according to local officials and residents.According to local police, about a hundred armed men attacked the villages of Kerawa, Rago, Zareyawa, Marina, Hashimawa, and Unguwar Barau, all in the Igabi district, shooting residents, and looting and burning homes.Zayyad Ibrahim, a member of Nigerian parliament, said assailants began shooting people at random, as worshipers left mosques after prayer.Ibrahim and local counsellor Dayyabu Kerawa told the French news agency (AFP) that killings were the work of “bandits.” Kerawa said bandits “accused the residents of the targeted villages of providing information about their hiding places to the soldiers.”A local politician, Alhaji Daiyibu Kerawa, told VOA’s Hausa service that the shooters were part of Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
“These killers are Boko Haram. They stormed our village killing indiscriminately. They spared nobody — the young, the old, even Almajiris [Islamic students] were not spared,” he said. “They continued to shoot people, setting fire on the dead and on property. It was extremely horrific!”Kerawa appealed for President Muhammadu Buhari to send security forces to protect the area.Last month 21 people, 16 of them belonging to one family, were killed in similar attacks on the village of Bakali in the neighboring Giwa district.VOA’s Hausa Service contributed to this report.
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Virus Fuels Dread and Angst Even as China Sees Signs of Hope
The number of new virus cases in China dropped to its lowest level in six weeks Monday and hundreds of patients at the outbreak’s epicenter were being released, while a grimmer reality set in elsewhere, with swelling infection numbers and growing dread that no area could fend off the illness.Clusters of infections in South Korea, Italy and Iran continued to expand and COVID-19 was raising distress and reshaping routines around Europe and across the Atlantic in the United States. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that the world economy risked contracting this quarter for the first time since the international financial crisis more than a decade ago.Major cities including Jakarta, New York and Berlin grappled with their first recorded cases. Schools emptied across Japan, mobile hospitals were planned in Iran, and the Mona Lisa, accustomed to droves of staring tourists, hung in a vacant room of the shuttered Louvre in Paris.“Just about everywhere, the cases are rising quite quickly in a number of countries,” said Ian Mackey, who studies viruses at the University of Queensland in Australia.Malaysia and Portugal were the newest places to detect the virus. More than 60 countries around the world — including nine of the 10 most populous— have found infections, with a global count of nearly 89,000 people affected by the illness. Even as alarms grew louder in much of the world, Monday brought positive signs from China, where the outbreak started.China’s economy delivered hopeful cues, with mainland Chinese stock benchmarks charging back 3% and data showing progress in restoring factory output after weeks of disruptions related to the outbreak.The country reported 202 new cases of the virus, its lowest daily count since Jan. 21, and the stricken heart of the health crisis, Wuhan, said 2,570 patients were released. At the largest of 16 temporary hospitals that were hastily built in Wuhan in response to the outbreak, worries over the availability of supplies and protective gear abated and pressure on medical staff eased.Dr. Zhang Junjian, who leads a temporary hospital at an exhibition center in Wuhan which has a staff of 1,260, said optimism was high that the facility would no longer be needed in the coming weeks.“If nothing special happens, I expect the operation of our makeshift hospital … could complete its historical mission by the end of March,” Zhang said.China’s sunnier news came two months into its outbreak. In the places the virus has spread more recently, the problems continued to magnify.South Korea, with the worst outbreak outside of China, said it recorded 599 new cases of the virus Monday, bringing the total to 4,335. The death toll there rose to 26.To cope, the country said hospitals would be reserved for patients with serious symptoms or preexisting conditions, with mild cases now routed to other designated facilities.“If we continue to hospitalize mild patients amid the continued surge in infections, we would be risking overworking medical professionals and putting them at greater risk of infections,” said the country’s vice health minister, Kim Gang-lip.South Korea said it would keep its schools closed longer than previously announced, with a planned reopening of March 9 delayed another two weeks to March 23. And the leader of a church that’s blamed for being the source of the country’s largest cluster of infections bowed in apology.“We also did our best but weren’t able to contain it fully,” said Lee Man-hee, the 88-year-old leader of the Shincheonji church, which some mainstream Christian groups reject as a cult.In the Middle East, a worsening situation in Iran was accompanied by concern for its top leaders after a member of the council that advises Iran’s supreme leader died of COVID-19.Iran has confirmed 1,501 cases of the virus and 66 deaths, but many believe the true number is larger. Its caseload surged more than 250% in just 24 hours.Major Shiite shrines remain open despite civilian authorities’ calls to close them. The holy cities of Mashad and Qom, where Shiites often touch and kiss shrines in a show of faith, have had high numbers of infections. The Revolutionary Guard said it would install some mobile hospitals in response and authorities have been cleaning the shrines and even spraying down city streets with disinfectant.“We will have two difficult weeks ahead,” said Ali Raibiei, a spokesman for the Iranian government.Meantime, Israel, an enemy of Iran, was deciding whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power. Among the voting sites were 15 stations especially for quarantined people who may have been exposed to the virus.In Europe, leaders braced for worsening caseloads after the count surged in France, Italy and to a lesser degree Spain over the weekend. Italy’s number of infection ballooned by 50% in 24 hours to 1,694. Health officials in northern Italy sought to bring doctors out of retirement and to accelerate nursing students’ graduations to help an overwhelmed public health system.The Louvre, the world’s most popular museum, remained closed as its 2,300 workers expressed fears the site’s international appeal could make it a prime target. At Fashion Week in Paris, attendees passed up kisses, instead greeting each other with elbow touches. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s outstretched hand was rebuffed by her interior minister at a meeting with migrant groups.In the United States, authorities have counted at least 80 cases of the virus, two fatal, and concern was driving some to wipe store shelves clean of bottled water, hand sanitizer and other necessities. Both deaths were men with existing health problems who were hospitalized in Washington state.Investors awaited Wall Street’s opening after rallies in Asian markets. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, though, lowered its forecasts for global growth this year and said the world economy could shrink this quarter for the first time in more than a decade.“Global economic prospects remain subdued and very uncertain,” the agency said.
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OECD Warns of Severe Economic Hit From Virus Outbreak
The coronavirus outbreak will have a major impact on economic growth worldwide this year, the OECD warned Monday as it lowered its global GDP forecast by half a percentage point to 2.4 percent, the lowest rate since the 2008-09 financial crisis.That forecast assumes the virus outbreak fades this year, but a more severe outbreak “would weaken prospects considerably,” the group of free-market economies said.Already the global economy risks an outright contraction in the first quarter, the OECD said, in its first comprehensive study of the impact on the world’s major economies.Stocks reflect declines on monitors as people work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Feb. 27, 2020.Stock markets plummeted worldwide last week as investors fled to bonds and other safe havens on fears that consumer and business spending will freeze up as the virus spreads, curtailing corporate profits.In China, where the virus COVID-19 emerged in December, annual GDP growth is expected to reach just 4.9 percent, a 0.8 point drop from the OECD’s original growth forecasts announced last November.On Saturday, the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of activity at Chinese factories plunged to 35.7 points in February, well below the 50-point mark that separates growth and contraction.It was the worst level since China began recording the figure in 2005.”Output contractions in China are being felt around the world,” the 36-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said, as the outbreak continues to batter production, trade, tourism and business travel.Efforts to contain the virus in China have entailed quarantines and work and travel restrictions that caused delays in restarting factories after the Lunar New Year holiday, as well as sharp cutbacks in service sector activities.A virtual cessation of outbound tourism from China represented “a sizeable near-term adverse demand shock,” the OECD added.Nearly 90,000 people have been infected in over 60 countries, and more than 3,000 people have been killed as governments scramble to keep the outbreak from spiralling into a pandemic.Major caveatCompared to similar events in the past, such as the SARS outbreak of 2003, “the global economy has become substantially more interconnected, and China plays a far greater role in global output, trade, tourism and commodity markets.””This magnifies the economic spillovers to other countries from an adverse shock in China,” it said.Italy, Japan and Russia saw their 2020 forecasts trimmed by 0.4 points, while Canada, France, South Korea, Turkey and Argentina had declines of 0.3 points.Growth in the euro area was projected to remain “sub-par” at about one percent per year on average in 2020 and 2021, the OECD said.The OECD lowered its forecast for India for 2020 by 1.1 percentage points, for South Africa by 0.6 points, and for the G20, Australia and Mexico by 0.5 points each.But the forecasts are based on the assumption that the epidemic peaks in China in the first quarter of 2020, and that outbreaks in other countries prove mild.”A longer lasting and more intensive coronavirus outbreak, spreading widely throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and North America, would weaken prospects considerably,” the OECD warned.”In this event, global growth could drop to 1.5 percent in 2020, half the rate projected prior to the virus outbreak,” it said.If the virus fades “as assumed,” global growth could recover to 3.3 percent in 2021, and Chinese growth to 6.4 percent, it said.Swift action neededThe OECD urged governments to “act swiftly and forcefully” to overcome the outbreak and take measures to protect the incomes of vulnerable social groups and businesses.Governments could help by providing unemployment insurance for workers placed on unpaid leave and by covering virus-related health costs for all.Measures that reduce or delay tax or debt payments or lower energy costs for firms in hard-hit regions and sectors should be considered, the OECD said, as well as temporary reductions in the level of reserves that banks are required to hold at the central bank.Other risks for the economy, it said, include the trade tensions between the United States and China, and uncertainty about the future trade relationship between the European Union and Britain in the wake of Brexit.
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Tractor Giant Sows Uber High-Tech Seeds in Africa
In the near future, farmers in Africa could boldly go where no farmers have gone before. Major manufacturers look to launch the industry into the 21st Century by tying tractors to cell phones. With a high-tech device, can follow a tractor’s movement and productivity. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi ploughs through this story.
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Italy’s Coronavirus Cases Jump 50% in One Day
The Italian government is ramping up public health measures in a bid to halt the abrupt spike in Coronavirus infections, which rose by 50% Sunday from 24 hours earlier, the biggest one day jump in cases since the virus emerged in Italy.Italy’s Civil Protection Authority reported the country has 1,694 confirmed cases, up from 1,128, despite a weeks-long lockdown of a dozen towns in the worst affected regions of Lombardy and Veneto in the north of the country. Five more people infected with COVID-19 have died, bringing the deaths from the virus in Italy to 34, while 83 people have fully recovered, officials say, and 140 are in serious or critical condition.Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced Sunday that the government is now going to split the country into three parts, a red zone in the north, covering the currently closed-off towns in Lombardy and Veneto, and then a yellow zone, covering the rest of Lombardy and Veneto, as well as the region of Emilia Romagna and two provinces on the Adriatic coast. In the yellow zone all sports events and competitions are to be suspended and cinemas, theaters and discos closed. Churches and other places of worship will be allowed to function but will be required to minimize the numbers of attendees. Schools will remain closed. Bars and restaurants will be allowed to carry on business but customers must be seated with tables set apart from each other by at least one meter.Under the terms of the decree issued by the government Sunday, large shopping malls in some provinces must remain closed on weekends. All educational trips are to be suspended until March 15.In the rest of the country the government’s focus is on intensifying preventive measures. Hand-sanitizers must be made available in all public buildings and town mayors must promote information on hygiene in business premises.“Public transport companies will take extraordinary sanitization measures,” the decree states.The spiking numbers are likely to fuel a growing fear in Italy that the virus might not be containable. Last week when there were only 374 confirmed cases, the prime minister urged his countrymen to remain calm as more Italians joined in bouts of panic food shopping, especially in the north and center of the country.Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, also warned Italians Friday against allowing “irrational fears” to take hold of them.Italian President Sergio Mattarella arrives for the ceremony marking the first anniversary of the collapse of a motorway Morandi Bridge that killed 43 people in Genoa, Aug. 14, 2019.“Knowledge helps responsibility and is a strong antidote to irrational and unmotivated fears that lead to unreasonable behavior without benefits, as has sometimes happened these days,” the president said.Lombardy and Veneto account for two-thirds of the confirmed cases but there is growing evidence of a spread, with cases now recorded in the south in the region of Campania. Emilia Romagna now has 285 cases, more than Veneto’s 263. Tuscany has 13, while the regions of Marche and Liguria have reported 25 each.Public health officials said Sunday they had anticipated a spike in infections as containment measures tend to take at least two weeks to start having an effect.“This acceleration was expected, unfortunately,” Giovanni Rezza, director of the infectious disease department at the National Health Institute, told AP.But those predictions weren’t made public last week when the Conte government was urging countries, including the U.S., to refrain from advising their citizens not to travel to Italy. On Friday, American Airlines announced a suspension of all flights to Milan. The next day the U.S. State Department issued its strongest travel warning yet, advising Americans against any travel to the two regions in northern Italy that have been hard hit by the virus that first emerged in China in December.Delta Air Lines announced Sunday it is to suspend flights to Milan. The last flight out will depart New York on Monday and the last return flight will be on Tuesday. Rome flights are not affected.The virus emergency has left the Italian economy reeling with the chances mounting that it will push the country into its fourth recession since the 2008 global financial crash. On Sunday, Roberto Gualtieri, Italy’s economy minister, announced that the government will inject almost $4 billion into its economy to try to mitigate the impact of the largest outbreak of coronavirus in Europe.He told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the government will introduce tax credits for businesses that report a 25% drop in revenues as well as tax cuts. Extra cash will be made available for the county’s health service. The eurozone’s third-largest economy was contracting even before the appearance of the disease.
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Even Amid Virus Scare, N. Korea Continues Weapons Tests
North Korea launched two short-range projectiles Monday, South Korea’s military said — a move that comes as the North scrambles to prevent a potentially disastrous coronavirus outbreak within its borders.The two weapons were fired from the Wonsan area toward the sea off North Korea’s east coast, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The projectiles traveled approximately 240 kilometers at a maximum height of 35 kilometers, it added.North Korea has not commented on the launch. But officials in Seoul say the test was likely part of North Korean military drills that started last week. South Korea’s National Security Council expressed “strong concern” about the moves, which it said do not help military tensions.North Korea last year launched 13 rounds of short- or medium-range missiles or rockets, amid stalled nuclear talks with the United States. But this is North Korea’s first detected launch since the beginning of the year.In recent weeks, North Korea has focused on emergency coronavirus prevention efforts, which authorities have called a matter of “national survival.”Though North Korea continues to insist it has found no coronavirus cases, authorities have shut down foreign tourism, quarantined all arriving foreigners, and even prevented foreign diplomats from leaving their compounds. State media say nearly 7,000 people are being medically monitored.Some experts said the coronavirus concerns could help reduce military tensions, especially after the United States and South Korea last week indefinitely postponed joint military drills that North Korea sees as a provocation.In this Feb. 21, 2020, photo, a South Korean marine wearing a mask stands in front of the Navy Base after a soldier of the unit was confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus on Jeju Island, South Korea.But the latest launch suggests North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sees little benefit in restarting diplomacy and instead intends to raise the stakes ahead of important elections in both the United States and South Korea, says Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.“North Korea is making clear with these missile tests it will continue to improve military capabilities and make outsized demands, despite the political and public health preoccupations of Beijing, Seoul and Washington,” Easley said.Kim has kept a low-profile during the coronavirus scare. But on Friday he led a military exercise alongside other top military officials — all of whom, unlike Kim, wore face masks. It is not clear what weapons North Korea used in the drill, but state media said a “target islet” was reduced to “a sea of flames.”Bigger tests could be coming. In a New Year’s speech, Kim said he no longer felt bound by his self-imposed suspension on long-range missile and nuclear tests. He also warned the world would soon witness a “new strategic weapon.”The weapons tests appear designed in part to increase North Korean leverage in nuclear talks add to help build deterrence against U.S. military power.But the launches also could serve as an attempt to shore up domestic political strength, stressed Park Won-gon, professor of international politics at Handong Global University. “The purpose of the test has more to do with the outbreak of the coronavirus in North Korea and less to do with it being a provocation,” Park said. He says North Korea may be “showing off deterrence to its people” as a precursor to accepting international emergency aid. “With the spread of the virus, North Korea has to strengthen its solidarity and convince its people,” he said. “It is very typical North Korean behavior — to provoke and raise tensions just before accepting external aid.”There have been recent signs of domestic political friction in North Korea. On Saturday, the official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim dismissed a pair of senior political leaders following what officials characterized as a corruption scandal.KCNA did not describe the scandal in detail, but spoke of “unpopular and anti-socialist acts.” The article seemed to link the alleged corruption to coronavirus prevention efforts, saying “no special cases must be allowed within the state anti-epidemic system.”Experts have warned that North Korea, parts of which are impoverished, does not have adequate medical supplies to deal with a serious disease outbreak.Several international aid groups are preparing to deliver emergency medical supplies to North Korea. Some have had to apply for special exemptions, since interaction with North Korea is tightly restricted due to international sanctions.
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Authorities Announce 2nd Coronavirus Death in US
Health officials in Washington state said Sunday night that a second person had died from the coronavirus.Researchers said the virus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in the greater Seattle area.In a statement, Public Health—Seattle & King County said a man in his 70s died Saturday. On Friday, health officials said a man in his 50s died of coronavirus. Both had underlying health conditions, and both were being treated at a hospital in Kirkland, Washington, east of Seattle.Washington state now has 12 confirmed cases.State and local authorities stepped up testing for the illness as the number of new cases grew nationwide, with new infections announced in California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and Washington state.Authorities in the Seattle area said two more people had been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus, both men in their 60s who were in critical condition, and two health care workers in California were also diagnosed.A man in his 50s died in Washington on Saturday, and health officials said 50 more people in a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, are sick and being tested for the virus. On Sunday night, the International Association of Fire Fighters said 25 members who responded to calls for help at the nursing facility are being quarantined.The first U.S. case was a Washington state man who had visited China, where the virus first emerged, but several recent cases in the U.S. have had no known connection to travelers.In California, two health care workers in the San Francisco Bay area who cared for an earlier coronavirus patient were diagnosed with the virus on Sunday, the Alameda and Solano counties said in a joint statement.The health care workers are both employed at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, California, and had exposure to a patient treated there before being transferred to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, the statement said. That patient was the first person in the U.S. discovered to have contracted the coronavirus with no known overseas travel.Alameda County declared a state of emergency on Sunday following the news.Elsewhere, authorities announced Sunday a third case in Illinois and Rhode Island and New York’s first cases as worried Americans swarmed stores to stock up on basic goods such as bottled water, canned foods and toilet paper.The hospitalized patient in Rhode Island is a man in his 40s who had traveled to Italy in February. New York confirmed Sunday that a woman in her late 30s contracted the virus while traveling in Iran. The patient is not in serious condition. She has respiratory symptoms and has been in a controlled situation since arriving in New York, according to a statement from the governor’s office.As the fallout continued, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar sought to reassure the American public that the federal government is working to make sure state and local authorities are able to test for the virus. Both said during a round of TV talk show appearances Sunday that thousands more testing kits had been distributed to state and local officials, with thousands more to come.“They should know we have the best public health system in the world looking out for them,” Azar said, adding that additional cases will be reported and the overall risk to Americans is low.As the cases ticked up, some Americans stocked up on basic supplies — particularly in areas with diagnosed cases — and began to take note of the impact on daily life. Stores such as Costco sold out of toilet paper, bottled water and hand sanitizer outside Portland, Oregon, where a case was announced Friday. Sports games and practices were canceled into the coming school week. Some churches said they would not offer communion because of fears of viral spread.As Americans prepared, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington on Sunday said they had evidence the virus may have been circulating in the state for up to six weeks undetected — a finding that, if true, could mean hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the area. They posted their research online, but it was not published in a scientific journal or reviewed by other scientists.Trevor Bedford, an associate professor who announced the preliminary findings on the virus in Washington state, said on Twitter late Saturday that genetic similarities between the state’s first case on Jan. 20 and a case announced Friday indicated the newer case may have descended from the earlier one. The Jan. 20 case was the first known case in the U.S.“I believe we’re facing an already substantial outbreak in Washington State that was not detected until now due to narrow case definition requiring direct travel to China,” he said on Twitter.Bedford did not immediately reply to an e-mail requesting an interview Sunday.Scientists not affiliated with the research said the results did not necessarily surprise them and pointed out that for many people — especially younger, healthier ones — the symptoms are not much worse than a flu or bad cold.“We think that this has a pretty high rate of mild symptoms and can be asymptomatic. The symptoms are pretty non-specific and testing criteria has been pretty strict, so those combinations of factors means that it easily could have been circulating for a bit without us knowing,” said Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.Dr. Adam Lauring of University of Michigan called the findings “high quality work” from scientists who’ve done similar work with the flu virus for years.“They show their data and they show their work,” Lauring said. “It’s more than a series of tweets” because the researchers back up what they found with data that they’ve shared online. “If there’s something wrong, someone will find it.”Dr. Carlos del Rio of Emory University School of Medicine said the findings are from respected researchers in genomic sequencing and they make sense because of the geographic proximity of the two cases.“This is a good time to reinforce the things we all should be doing to stop the spread of flu. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. If you have a cold, stay home … It’s a good time to remind ourselves of that,” he said.Pence, named by the president to be the point-person overseeing the government’s response, said more than 15,000 virus testing kits had been released over the weekend. And, the administration is working with a commercial provider to distribute 50,000 more, he said.The vice president said testing was among the first issues raised by governors he’s spoken with so far. Several states have begun their own testing, including Washington state, Oregon and Illinois.“We’re leaning into it,” Pence said.Azar said more than 3,600 people already have been tested for coronavirus and the capability exists to test 75,000 people. He forecast a “radical expansion of that” in the coming weeks.Pence and Azar spoke a day after President Donald Trump approved new restrictions on international travel to prevent the spread within the U.S. of the new virus, which originated in China. There are now more than 80,000 cases worldwide and about 3,000 deaths.Two Americans are now known to have died of the virus, one in Washington state and one in China.The new U.S. travel restrictions apply to Iran, although travel there by Americans already is severely limited, as well as heavily affected regions of Italy and South Korea. Trump tweeted Sunday that any travelers from those countries will be screened when they arrive in the U.S.The number of known coronavirus cases in the U.S. had reached76 as of Sunday, counting people evacuated from a cruise ship and the city of Wuhan in China.Trump said Saturday at a White House news conference that he was thinking about closing the southern border with Mexico as a precaution. Azar said Sunday that Mexico has few coronavirus cases and that it would take a dramatic change in the circumstances there to prompt serious consideration of a border shutdown.The president, Azar said, “was trying to say everything’s on the table.”“We will take whatever measures are appropriate and necessary to protect the American people, but we don’t forecast doing that any time soon,” he said of closing the border.Pence noted that an infectious disease expert is joining an existing White House coronavirus task force on Monday. Last week, Pence announced the addition of Debbie Birx, a State Department ambassador-at-large and medical doctor who is the administration’s global HIV/AIDS response coordinator, to the virus panel.Despite calls by Trump and Pence for political unity in the face of the viral threat, the issue has become mired in the partisan rancor in Washington, with both Republicans and Democrats accusing each other of mining the issue for political gain.Trump, at a political rally last week, accused Democrats of “politicizing” the issue and said their criticism of his handling of the public health challenge was their new “hoax.”At the White House on Saturday, Trump said he was not trying to minimize the threat from the virus.“Again, the hoax was used in respect to Democrats and what they were saying,” he said Saturday.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who emerged victorious Saturday night from South Carolina’s primary, criticized the administration over the availability of testing kits.Biden also panned the administration’s decision to have political appointees Pence and Azar, neither of whom are scientists by training, appear on the Sunday shows, instead of an expert like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health infectious disease chief.Biden claimed the administration doesn’t have testing kits. Pence and Azar said thousands of kits had been distributed.Azar said he didn’t know what Biden was talking about when the former vice president said testing kits didn’t exist. Azar said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had developed a lab test for coronavirus with “historic speed.”Pence was interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Azar commented on “Fox News Sunday,” CBS’ “Face the Nation” and ABC’s “This Week.” Biden commented on CNN.
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Democrats Reenact 1965 ‘Bloody Sunday’ March
Democratic presidential candidates were in Selma, Alabama, Sunday — a place where African Americans once risked their lives simply by demanding the right to vote.The Democrats were among those marking the 55th anniversary of what’s known as Bloody Sunday, where police beat and tear-gassed civil rights marchers as they tried to cross a bridge to walk from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery.Fresh off his big win in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, which he won with the support of African American voters, former Vice President Joe Biden spoke to worshippers at Selma’s Brown Chapel AME Church.Biden quoted civil right leader Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Barack Obama to talk about what he sees as the country’s lack of progress under President Donald Trump.”We’ve been dragged backwards and we’ve lost ground. We’ve seen all too clearly that if you give hate any breathing room, it comes back,” Biden told the congregation.Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg got a much chillier reception from the churchgoers.Bloomberg is struggling to find solid support among black voters, many of whom are still angry over New York’s “stop and frisk” policy, a police practice that targeted young black men when Bloomberg was mayor.He has apologized for the crime prevention tactic that called for police to stop and search people they suspected of criminal activity, most of whom were black and Latino. A handful of people turned their backs on Bloomberg when he addressed the Selma church.Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg speaks at the North Carolina Democratic Party’s Blue NC Celebration, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, in Charlotte, N.C.”Dr. King understood that the right to vote was only the first step in the march to true equality, because true equality means that wealth in this country should have no relation to race or ethnicity,” the ex-mayor said.Other Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, joined the thousands who marched across the Edmund Pettis Bridge Sunday, where they would have been beaten and tear gassed if they had tried to do it March 7, 1965.The candidates were overshadowed by congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, who was among those whose attempt to cross the bridge 55 years ago ended with a policeman’s club to his skull.There was doubt whether Lewis would attend. He is battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer. But he said he wanted to be part of the anniversary despite his serious illness and reflect.”I thought I was going to die on this bridge. But somehow and some way, God almighty helped me here. … I’m not going to give up, I’m not going to give in. We’re going to continue to fight,” Lewis said, calling the vote “a nonviolent instrument to redeem the soul of America.”We must go out and vote like we never ever voted before,” he said.Millions of Americans were sickened and horrified watching television pictures of police beating peaceful marchers in 1965.King led a second march two days later that ended peacefully. But more than 20,000 civil rights supporters, including hundreds of clergymen and women from around the country, came to Selma for a third march that made it all the way to Montgomery.The Selma marches was one of the events that led to congressional passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
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Australia and Thailand report first deaths, US tightens travel from Iran
Italy Sunday reported a 50% jump in the number of new coronavirus cases in just one day with 11 villages and towns in the north sealed off.With nearly 1,700 confirmed cases and 34 deaths, Italy is the hardest-hit European country.Italian authorities say they expect the number of cases to rise, pointing out that the virus has a 14-day incubation period and because of the time it takes to enforce containment measures. Italy also has a large elderly population. Health experts say people 65 years and older are among the most susceptible to viruses.U.S. authorities have warned Americans against traveling to northern Italy and two major airlines, Delta and American Airlines, have suspended flights to Milan, the Italian financial capital.These moves along with canceled events are almost certain to have a devastating impact on the tourist industry and business in general.Also Sunday, Paris’ Louvre, the world’s most popular art museum, closed its doors to disappointed visitors after its unionized staff refused to work because of coronavirus fears.The French government has banned gatherings of 5,000 people or more, which is the number of daily visitors the Louvre reportedly attracts.Also Sunday, Australia and Thailand reported their first coronavirus deaths. They include a 78-year-old Australian man who was on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined off Japan.A 35-year-old Thai salesman who had contact with foreign customers has also died.FILE – U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks during the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem, Jan. 23, 2020.In the United States, Vice President Mike Pence, who is heading up the official coronavirus fight, told NBC’s Meet the PressSunday morning that there will be more U.S. cases, but said “it’s all hands on deck to do everything possible to prevent the spread of this disease.””We could have more sad news,” Pence said, “but the American people should know that the risk for the average American remains low.”As of late Sunday, there were 74 coronavirus cases in the U.S. and one death.Pence has strongly defended the administration’s efforts to contain the disease against criticism from the Democratic presidential candidates. Pence said President Donald Trump’s early closure of the borders to foreign nationals coming from China has prevented a much larger outbreak.Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden poses for photos at a primary night election rally in Columbia, S.C., Feb. 29, 2020.Former Vice President Joe Biden pointed out on ABC’s This Week that Trump cut funding for two key government health agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.”You have this president not allowing the scientists to speak,” Biden said. “This is incompetence on the part of the president at the expense of the country.”Senator Bernie Sanders said Trump taking time to campaign in South Carolina, where there wasn’t a Republican on Saturday’s primary ballot, was “pathetic.”Trump said Saturday that while additional coronavirus cases in the United States were “likely, there is no reason to panic at all.”President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the press briefing room at the White House, Feb. 29, 2020, in Washington.The White House has tightened travel restrictions to Iran to include any foreign national who has visited the country in the last 14 days. Along with Italy, a highest level travel advisory has been put in place for South Korea, — the country hit hardest by coronavirus outside of China, where the outbreak began in December.South Korea is reporting more than 3,700 cases while Iran has the largest coronavirus death toll outside China: 54.
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Coronavirus Infection Spreads; Trump Admin Says It Is Ready
The Trump Administration says it is “ready for anything” to deal with the global outbreak of coronavirus as cases in the United States continue grow. Last week, the World Health Organization upgraded the risk of COVID-19’s spread to its highest level. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports
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UK Rises to 35 Coronavirus Cases, Czech Republic Sees 1st 3
British health authorities on Sunday confirmed 12 more cases of the new coronavirus, bringing the country’s overall tally to 35, and the Czech Republic announced its first three infections.The British government’s chief medical officer, Prof. Chris Whitty, said one of the new patients “had no relevant travel and it is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad.” Whitty said medical workers were still investigating the cause of that infection.Three of the new COVID-19 patients in Britain were contacts of an existing patient while six newly infected people had recently traveled from Italy and two had arrived from Iran. Both countries have been hard hit by the coronavirus that emerged late last year in central China.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters Sunday at a health center in London that he was “very, very confident” that Britain’s National Health Service can cope with the virus outbreak.″(It’s) likely to spread a bit more, and it’s vital therefore that people understand that we do have a great plan, a plan to tackle the spread of coronavirus,” he said.Coronavirus infections in Italy rose 50% Sunday and the U.S. government issued its strongest travel warning yet, advising Americans against any travel to two regions in northern Italy — Lombardy and Veneto. Authorities said the total number of people infected in Italy had risen to 1,694, a 50% jump from just 24 hours earlier and the highest figure by far in Europe. Five more people infected with the virus have died, bringing the deaths in Italy to 34, while 83 people have fully recovered.In London, the Foreign Office confirmed that non-essential staff, as well as dependants, are to be pulled out of the British Embassy in Tehran due to the spread of the virus in Iran.Elsewhere in Europe, France raised its number of reported cases to 130 on Sunday, including one in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, the first in France’s overseas territories.The spreading virus epidemic shut down France’s Louvre Museum on Sunday, with workers who guard its famous trove of artworks fearful of being contaminated by the museum’s flow of tourists from around the world. Almost three-quarters of the Louvre’s 9.6 million visitors last year came from abroad.Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech said Sunday that two COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in Prague and another in northern city of Usti nad Labem. All three had travel ties to northern Italy.Spain said it now has 71 virus cases, many of them linked to Italy.The Dutch health minister announced three new virus cases, bringing the country’s overall tally to 10, while new cases elsewhere brought national totals to Norway 19, Sweden 14 and Finland six.
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Officials Seek to Calm Public as New US Virus Cases Reported
The coronavirus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in Washington state, a preliminary finding that could mean hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the state that’s also home to the nation’s first confirmed infection and now the first death, researchers said Sunday after analyzing genetic samples of the pathogens.State and local authorities stepped up testing for the illness Sunday as the number of new cases grew nationwide, with new infections announced in Illinois, Rhode Island and Washington state. Authorities in the Seattle area said two more people had been diagnosed with the coronavirus, both men in their 60s who were in critical condition. Those cases brought the numbers in the Seattle area to six. Fifty more people in a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, are sick and being tested for the virus.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyCoronavirus Infection Spreads; Trump Admin Says It Is ReadyElsewhere, authorities announced on Sunday a third case in Illinois and Rhode Island’s first case as worried Americans swarmed stores to stock up on basic goods such as bottled water, canned foods and toilet paper. The hospitalized patient in Rhode Island is a man in his 40s who had traveled to Italy in February.As the fallout continued, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar sought to reassure the American public that the federal government is working to make sure state and local authorities are able to test for coronavirus. Both said during a round of TV talk show appearances Sunday that thousands more kits to test for coronavirus had been distributed to state and local officials, with thousands more to come.“They should know we have the best public health system in the world looking out for them,” Azar said, adding that additional cases will be reported and the overall risk to Americans is low.As Americans prepared, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington on Sunday said they had evidence that the coronavirus may have been circulating in the state for up to six weeks undetected — a finding that, if true, could mean hundreds of undiagnosed cases in the area. The research was not published in a scientific journal or reviewed by other scientists.Trevor Bedford, an associate professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, said on Twitter late Saturday that genetic similarities between the state’s first case on Jan. 20 and a case announced Friday indicated the newer case may have descended from the earlier one. The Jan. 20 case was the first known case in the U.S.“I believe we’re facing an already substantial outbreak in Washington State that was not detected until now due to narrow case definition requiring direct travel to China,” he said on Twitter.Bedford did not immediately reply to an e-mail requesting an interview Sunday.Scientists not affiliated with the research said the results did not necessarily surprise them and pointed out that for many people — especially younger, healthier ones — the symptoms are not much worse than a flu or bad cold.“We think that this has a pretty high rate of mild symptoms and can be asymptomatic. The symptoms are pretty non-specific and testing criteria has been pretty strict, so those combinations of factors means that it easily could have been circulating for a bit without us knowing,” said Justin Lessler, an associated professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.“And that was what a lot of us was thinking was likely.”Pence, named by the president to be the point-person overseeing the government’s response, said more than 15,000 virus testing kits had been released over the weekend. And, the administration is working with a commercial provider to distribute 50,000 more, he said.The vice president said testing was among the first issues raised by governors he’s spoken with so far.“We’re leaning into it,” Pence said.Azar said more than 3,600 people already have been tested for coronavirus and the capability exists to test 75,000 people. He forecast a “radical expansion of that” in the coming weeks.Pence and Azar spoke a day after President Donald Trump approved new restrictions on international travel to prevent the spread within the U.S. of the new virus, which originated in China. There are now more than 80,000 cases worldwide and nearly 3,000 deaths.The new U.S. travel restrictions apply to Iran, although travel there by Americans already is severely limited, as well as heavily affected regions of Italy and South Korea. Trump tweeted Sunday that any travelers from those countries will be screened when they arrive in the U.S.The number of known coronavirus cases in the U.S. had reached 70 as of Sunday.Trump said Saturday at a White House news conference that he was thinking about closing the southern border with Mexico as a precaution. Azar said Sunday that Mexico has few coronavirus cases and that it would take a dramatic change in the circumstances there to prompt serious consideration of a border shutdown.The president, Azar said, “was trying to say everything’s on the table.”“We will take whatever measures are appropriate and necessary to protect the American people, but we don’t forecast doing that any time soon,” he said of closing the border.Pence noted that an infectious disease expert is joining an existing White House coronavirus task force on Monday. Last week, Pence announced the addition of Debbie Birx, a State Department ambassador-at-large and medical doctor who is the administration’s global HIV/AIDS response coordinator, to the virus panel.Despite calls by Trump and Pence for political unity in the face of the viral threat, the issue has become mired in the partisan rancor in Washington, with both Republicans and Democrats accusing each other of mining the issue for political gain.Trump, at a political rally last week, accused Democrats of “politicizing” the issue and said their criticism of his handling of the public health challenge was their new “hoax.”At the White House on Saturday, Trump said he was not trying to minimize the threat from the virus.“Again, the hoax was used in respect to Democrats and what they were saying,” he said Saturday.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who emerged victorious Saturday night from South Carolina’s primary, criticized the administration over the availability of testing kits.Biden also panned the administration’s decision to have political appointees Pence and Azar, neither of whom are scientists by training, appear on the Sunday shows, instead of an expert like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institute’s of Health infectious disease chief.Biden claimed the administration doesn’t have testing kits. Pence and Azar said thousands of kits had been distributed.Azar said he didn’t know what Biden was talking about when the former vice president said testing kits didn’t exist. Azar said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention had developed a lab test for coronavirus with “historic speed.”Pence was interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Azar commented on “Fox News Sunday,” CBS’ “Face the Nation” and ABC’s “This Week.” Biden commented on CNN.
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Putin Says Oil Prices ‘Acceptable’ Ahead Of OPEC+ Meeting
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called current oil price levels “acceptable” in a possible sign that Moscow is willing to bend when the world’s biggest oil exporters gather this week in Vienna to discuss supply curbs as coronavirus effects pummel oil demand and prices.Putin also said Moscow was approaching a so-called OPEC+ meeting this week in Vienna as an “instrument for long-term stability,” according to Interfax.Reports last week quoted sources saying some influential OPEC members, including Saudi Arabia, were likely to call for a larger-than-expected reduction in oil output by the group as the global spread of coronavirus and related effects slow economies and depress international demand for oil.But Russia was said to be resisting further curbs too far beyond an existing deal that has kept a lid on demand through the end of March.”I want to stress that for the Russian budget, for our economy, the current oil price level is acceptable,” Putin told Russian energy officials and producers gathered in Moscow to discuss the coronavirus and its implications on March 1.He said Russia’s budget assumes an average Brent crude price of $42.40 a barrel for supplies from the estimated $560 billion in oil reserves under Russian territory.Russia’s economy has recovered significantly from a downturn that followed its 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and a falling-off of oil prices around the same time, prompting painful measures that dented Putin’s popularity well into his fourth overall term as president.”Our accumulated reserves, including the National Wealth Fund, are enough for ensuring a stable situation, the fulfillment of all budget and social liabilities, even under a possible deterioration of the global economic situation,” Putin said on March 1.OPEC+, a group of OPEC’s 14 members and 10 other major oil producers, has “proved to be an effective instrument to ensure long-term stability on global energy markets,” Putin said, saying the cooperation had resulted in “extra revenues.”Last week, the ruble slumped to more than 67 to the U.S. dollar, its weakest level since early 2019, and its stock market slid amid a global sell-off and fears of tensions between Russia and Turkey amid competing military interests in Syria.
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Rohingya Activist Urges US to Ramp Up Pressure on Myanmar
The United States should increase pressure on Myanmar to end persecution of ethnic minorities and restore the citizenship rights of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims driven from that country by government-sanctioned violence, said a Rohingya political activist visiting Washington last week.Tun Khin, president of the London-based FILE -Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi leaves in a car after attending a hearing in a case filed by Gambia accusing Myanmar of genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya population, at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands.A day earlier, the South Asian island nation of Maldives announced it would join the Gambia in its ICJ case. The suit, filed at The Hague in November, accuses Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in its treatment of Rohingyas. Both Maldives and Gambia are predominantly Muslim; Myanmar has a Buddhist majority.Celebrity attentionThe Maldives’ case will be represented by human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. She previously had represented the Maldives’ former president, Mohamed Nasheed, getting a U.N. determination that he had been unfairly tried and imprisoned on politically motivated terrorism charges in 2015. The Maldivian Supreme Court FILE – Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi leaves the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the top United Nations court, after court hearings in a case filed by Gambia against Myanmar alleging genocide against the minority Muslim Rohingya population.Tun Khin urged the United States to describe Myanmar’s actions as “genocide” – a determination that the The dome of the U.S. Capitol Building is seen in Washington. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)Encouraging Bangladesh to lift restrictions on education and internet access in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. In January, Bangladesh announced it would expand schooling for youngsters – perhaps as early as April. They currently receive basic lessons in English, Burmese, life skills, math and drawing and only through early primary years. In September, Bangladesh’s government shut down 3G and 4G mobile phone services and internet access in the camps, leaving only limited phone service. The telecommunications minister said the move would enhance “state security” and “public safety.” Human Rights Watch objected, saying the communications block puts refugees “at serious risk” regarding “security, health and other necessary services.” Tun Khin, who left Myanmar in the 1990s after he was blocked from university access, said he appreciated U.S. humanitarian aid for his people. The U.S. government is the top aid contributor to the crisis in Myanmar and Bangladesh, providing more than $669 million since August 2017.
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UN Decries Lack of Reforms and Widespread Abuse in Eritrea
A U.N. investigator is condemning an Eritrean crackdown on fundamental freedoms and religious practice in a new report, as well as the country’s harsh, indefinite military service and widespread abuse.Hopes that Eritrea, which has been accused of human-rights abuses, would institute reforms after it signed a historic peace agreement with Ethiopia in 2018 have not materialized. If anything, a U.N. report on its human rights situation has found widespread human rights violations, including arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearances, sexual violence and torture.Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea Daniela Kravetz deplores the government’s repression of religious freedom. She says Christians practicing without government approval are arrested, as are those who belong to nonrecognized Christian congregations. She says Muslims also are targeted, arrested and jailed.She finds no justification for Eritrea’s failure to reform its compulsory national service. She says that failure cannot be justified on the grounds that economic conditions in the country do not permit job creation or salary hikes for conscripts.“There are, however, immediate measures that the authorities could take that do not depend on economic reforms, such as stopping the ongoing roundups of youth for forced conscription, separating secondary education from military conscription and putting in place mechanisms to monitor and prevent abuses against conscripts, in particular against female conscripts,” she said. Kravetz is calling for the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. She says people are arbitrarily arrested because of their opposition to the government or their beliefs as conscientious objectors. She says they often are jailed for decades, without any recourse to justice or relief.Eritrean Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Tesfamicael Gerahtu, calls the report politically motivated and ill-intentioned. He says it portrays his country in a negative light and does not reflect any of its positive achievements.He notes Eritrea is at peace after two decades of conflict. He says Eritrea is in the process of resolving the many social and economic problems that have arisen during that time but adds there is no quick fix.
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Biden, Sanders Squaring Off in Next Democratic Presidential Voting
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the easy winner of the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, faces an immediate new challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders when 14 states vote Tuesday in party contests across the country.Biden, in three runs for the presidency, had never won a state primary nominating election until Saturday. But pre-election surveys show that Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, is handily leading in California, where the most delegates to the party’s mid-summer national presidential nominating convention are at stake in the next round of voting. The polling shows Biden ahead in seven of the states with Tuesday contests, Sanders in six and Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the lead in her home state of Minnesota.”It’s going to be very hard to make up ground in California,” Biden acknowledged Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week.” But he said, “I feel very good where it’s going” in other states, adding that he’s “not even certain” that he will be trailing Sanders in the overall convention delegate count after the Tuesday voting.Biden declared that he can beat Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election and “bring along [Democratic] candidates and win the Senate” that is now controlled by Republicans.A third of the pledged delegates to the July convention in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are at stake in the Tuesday voting, when former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s name will appear on the ballots for the first time.Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign event, Feb. 28, 2020, in Columbia, S.C.Sanders said on ABC that Biden “did well” in South Carolina. “We’ll see what happens Tuesday, but we have an excellent chance to win some of the largest states,” he said.Some national Democratic figures have voiced concern that Sanders, who has called for a government-run national health care system and an end to the private insurance plans now used by most Americans to help pay their medical bills, would turn off voters with his left-wing political views and lead to Trump’s re-election to a second White House term.Sanders called Biden “a decent guy” and said that both of them of would support the eventual Democratic nominee against Trump. But Sanders said that he, and not Biden, would bring new voters to the Democratic party to defeat Trump, whom he called “a fraud, a liar who has undermined the democratic process” in Washington.The mounting count of delegates to the national party convention is all important. The state-by-state Democratic primary contests award national convention representation based on the vote counts in the primary elections and caucuses, but candidates only win any delegates if they reach a 15% threshold in a given state.Current projections show Sanders possibly reaching the national convention with a plurality of the delegate votes, but not a majority on the first ballot.FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., meets with attendees campaign event, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020, in Spartanburg, S.C.Sanders has argued that if he is close to a majority, the other Democratic candidates should unite behind his candidacy, while Biden and other presidential aspirants have contended that the convention should then move to a second ballot where superdelegates (mostly party officials and elected Democratic officials) would be allowed to vote, allowing them to possibly deny Sanders the nomination.Bloomberg, whose business information company has made him the 12th richest person in the world, has spent upwards of $400 million of his own money on his campaign. But by choice he skipped the voting in the first four primary contests.Polling shows Bloomberg has some support for the Democratic presidential nomination race heading into the Tuesday voting, but often trailing both Sanders and Biden.Other contenders are also looking for a breakthrough in the new contests, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Klobuchar, all of whom have had key moments in the spotlight during a lengthy run of debates among the Democratic challengers. But current polling shows none of the three would reach the Milwaukee convention among the leaders in the count of pledged delegates.In the South Carolina vote, Biden won nearly 50% of the vote. Sanders was in a distant second place, with 19%. Tom Steyer, a billionaire and philanthropist who has invested substantial time and money campaigning in South Carolina, was in third place, with 11% of the vote, but after the result became known, ended his campaign.Trump congratulated Biden after the South Carolina vote, but disparaged Steyer and Bloomberg’s candidacies.”Tom Steyer who, other than Mini Mike Bloomberg, spent more dollars for NOTHING than any candidate in history, quit the race today proclaiming how thrilled he was to be a part of the the Democrat Clown Show. Go away Tom and save whatever little money you have left,” Trump said on Twitter.Tom Steyer who, other than Mini Mike Bloomberg, spent more dollars for NOTHING than any candidate in history, quit the race today proclaiming how thrilled he was to be a part of the the Democrat Clown Show. Go away Tom and save whatever little money you have left!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2020Trump added, “I would find it hard to believe that failed presidential candidates Tom Steyer, or Mini Mike Bloombeg, would contribute to the Democrat Party, even against me, after the way they have been treated – laughed at & mocked. The real politicians ate them up and spit them out!”I would find it hard to believe that failed presidential candidates Tom Steyer, or Mini Mike Bloombeg, would contribute to the Democrat Party, even against me, after the way they have been treated – laughed at & mocked. The real politicians ate them up and spit them out!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2020
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Pope Francis Cancels Planned Retreat Due to ‘Cold’
Pope Francis said Sunday he would not be taking part in a planned six-day spiritual retreat south of Rome after coming down with a “cold”.The 83-year-old pontiff suffered two coughing spells that forced him to turn away from the crowd and cover his mouth with his fist on a windy and cloudy day on Saint Peter’s Square.”Unfortunately, a cold forced me not to take part this year,” he said after reciting the traditional Angelus Prayer and addressing the unfolding migrant crisis on Turkey’s border with Greece.The annual retreat will still start Sunday but only include members of the Roman Curia administration team of the Holy See.The pope will be staying home while the rest of Italy battles Europe’s worst outbreak of the novel coronavirus that has spread from China to every continent except for Antarctica.The number of cases in Italy surpassed 1,000 on Saturday and the toll continues to mount.There have been 29 confirmed deaths and 105 people were receiving intensive care treatment in hospital — all of them in three adjacent northern regions near Milan.The Vatican quickly shot down speculation that the pope himself had come down with COVID-19.”There is no evidence to suggest a diagnosis of anything other than a slight ailment,” a Vatican spokesman told AFP Sunday.The pope himself looked relatively strong on Sunday despite the coughing fits.He smiled a few times and addressed a range of theological issues before turning his attention to the plight of thousands of migrants from Turkey who have been blocked at the rugged frontier with Greece.”I am a little saddened by the news coming from many displaced people, so many men, women and children chased because of war,” Francis said.The pontiff asked the faithful to share a prayer for “so many migrants who seek refuge in the world — and help”.Italy shuts downConcerns about the pope’s health have been mounting for days in a country where mass closures of public institutions and businesses due to the coronavirus are affecting the lives of millions.He first looked like he might be sick on Wednesday and lightened his workload for the rest of the week.The Vatican used the “mild ailment” term for the first time on Thursday to explain why the pope was spending his day around his Saint Martha’s guest house in the Vatican.But he still continued celebrating the morning mass and receiving visitors even as football matches were being canceled and businesses were telling their employees to work from home.He met with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church head Sviatoslav Shevchuk on Saturday and spent almost 15 minutes speaking on Sunday from his Vatican window.The Argentine-born pontiff has enjoyed a life of good health despite losing part of a lung as a young man and suffered from sciatica — a nerve condition that causes pain in his hip.Yet he rarely cancels appointments and normally takes extra time to mingle with supporters and the faithful.
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Virus Fears Close down France’s Louvre Museum
The spreading coronavirus epidemic shut down France’s Louvre Museum on Sunday, with workers who guard its trove of artworks fearful of being contaminated by the museum’s flow of visitors from around the world.”We are very worried because we have visitors from everywhere,” said Andre Sacristin, a Louvre employee and union representative for its staffers.”The risk is very, very, very great,” he said in a phone interview. While there are no known virus infections among the museum’s 2,300 workers, “it’s only a question of time,” he said.A short statement from the Louvre said a staff meeting about virus prevention efforts stopped the museum from opening as scheduled Sunday morning. Would-be visitors were still waiting to get inside on Sunday afternoon.The shutdown followed a government decision Saturday to ban indoor public gatherings of more than 5,000 people.Sacristin said that new measure exacerbated the fears of Louvre workers that they might be in danger of contamination, because the museum welcomes tens of thousands of visitors each day. Also worrying staffers is that museum workers from northern Italy are now visiting the Louvre. They have come to collect works by Leonardo da Vinci that were loaned for a major exhibition, he said.A meeting about virus prevention is scheduled for Monday between union representatives and the museum management, said Sacristin, who will be taking part.He said museum visitors should be subjected to health checks to protect staffers and that if cases of coronavirus contamination are confirmed “then the museum should be closed.”Workers have asked for masks to be distributed but so far have been given only an alcohol-based solution to disinfect their hands, he said.”That didn’t please us at all,” he said.Louvre workers first held their own meeting on Sunday morning and then demanded talks with the museum management, he said, and some staffers were refusing to work because they fear contamination.
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Biden Wins South Carolina Primary
Former Vice President Joe Biden has won the South Carolina primary, a key preference vote in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Biden says he can forge a national coalition to beat President Donald Trump, but he faces tough contests in 14 states this week on Super Tuesday. Mike O’Sullivan reports, the race is tightening after businessman Tom Steyer withdrew late Saturday.
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US-Taliban Deal Hits First Speedbump
Less than 24 hours after the United States signed a landmark agreement with the Afghan Taliban in Doha, its implementation has already hit its first speedbump.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced in Kabul Sunday that his government has made no commitment to release thousands of Taliban prisoners, a precondition to the start of talks between Taliban and other Afghan factions.
“The release of prisoners is not the United States authority, but it is the authority of the government of Afghanistan,” Ghani said.The U.S.-Taliban deal sealed on Saturday requires Afghan parties to the conflict to open direct negotiations on or around March 10 to agree on a nationwide permanent cease-fire and future power-sharing.However, some of the steps required to be taken in the run-up to the dialogue include the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails and of 1,000 government security forces, who are held by the insurgents.The Taliban have so far refused to acknowledge the Ghani administration as a legitimate government or to engage with it directly. As far they are concerned, they say they have settled the prisoner release issue with the Americans.
“We have decided the issue of our 5,000 prisoners with the Americans. They have promised in the agreement that those prisoners will be released before the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations. For us, this issue is settled,” said Khairullah Khairkhwah, a senior member of the Taliban negotiation team.An Afghan delegation from Kabul arrived in Doha ahead of the signing ceremony to discuss prisoner releases and other issues with the Taliban but members of the insurgent group refused to meet them.“We have not decided yet whether we are going to meet them,” Khairkhwah said after the deal signing Saturday. “We don’t know yet who they are and why they are here.”Meanwhile, officials of the host country Qatar say they could facilitate the discussion without the two sides having to sit together.
“Negotiation sometimes does not mean you interact directly and face to face. There’s something which is called shuttle diplomacy. So, we can do this, as an option, to facilitate these talks without physically. . . facing, seeing, watching, and touching each other. Maybe this is something to start with,” said Mutlaq bin Majed Al-Qahtani, Special Envoy of the Qatari Foreign Minister for Counter Terrorism and Mediation of Conflict Resolution.U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban deputy chief for political affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar sign the U.S.-Taliban peace agreement during a ceremony in the Qatari capital Doha, Feb. 29, 2020.The deal, signed Saturday in Doha by chief U.S. negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban political office head Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was a culmination of 18 months of back and forth diplomatic efforts that stalled several times and almost broke off last September.After President Donald Trump called off the negotiations following several deadly attacks that killed an American soldier, the Qatari government, which has hosted the Taliban political team since 2011 to facilitate negotiations, tried to save the process by negotiating incentives for the two sides to come to the table again.
“We thought about two things. Number one, to do a kind of hostage release or swap and the second one to work on reduction in violence,” Mutlaq said.In November 2019, two hostages, an American and an Australian, held by Taliban for a few years, were released in exchange for three Taliban leaders, including Anas Haqqani, the younger brother of Taliban deputy chief and the head of Haqqani network Sirajuddin Haqqani. Soon after, negotiations between Khalilzad’s team and Taliban started again.Mutlaq said along the way Qatar managed to establish two channels with the Taliban, one to facilitate the prisoner exchange and the other, a military channel, to monitor any violation of the agreement.
“Our military is involved in this as part of the discussions in Doha,” he said.The agreement promises the drawdown of U.S. forces to 8,600 from the current 13,000 in the first 135 days. The rest of them will be withdrawn within 14 months conditional to Taliban compliance of the deal.Taliban have to break ties with al-Qaida or any other militant group, fight Islamic State, and prevent territories under their control from being used for terrorist activity. They have to also negotiate with other Afghan factions on the future roadmap of Afghanistan, starting with negotiations on a permanent and comprehensive cease fire. The Taliban promises to respect women’s rights and human rights granted under Islam, but many activists worry that under its severe interpretation of Islam, the group would try to limit their freedoms.President Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday he believed the Taliban would deliver on its counterterrorism pledges, but he warned that “if bad things happen” U.S. troops would swiftly return to AfghanistanMeanwhile, partisan bickering and a post-election dispute in Kabul between Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah has made the formation of a representative team of Afghans more difficult. Many observers doubt the intra-Afghan negotiation would start within two weeks as scheduled.Ayaz Gul contributed to this report.
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New Coronavirus Deaths in US, Australia, Thailand and Japan
Deaths continue to mount from the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, with Australia, Thailand and Japan reporting new fatalities.In Australia, a 78-year-old man who had been quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship died in Perth, becoming that country’s first outbreak fatality, while in Thailand, a 35-year-old salesman described as having had contact with foreign tourists became that country’s first death from the disease. In Japan, a man in his 70s died on the northern island of Hokkaido.U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States was prepared for any circumstance arising from the coronavirus outbreak as U.S. health officials reported the first death in the U.S. from the virus.
While he said additional coronavirus cases in the United States were “likely” he said, “there is no reason to panic at all.”President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the press briefing room at the White House, Feb. 29, 2020, in Washington.Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield said there was “no evidence of a link to travel” in the case of the Washington state patient who died.
The governor of Washington state, Jay Inslee, declared a state of emergency Saturday, directing state agencies to use “all resources necessary” to respond to the virus outbreak.
The White House Saturday also announced tightened travel restrictions to Iran to include any foreign national who has visited the country in the last 14 days. Additionally, it raised to the highest level a travel advisory to avoid Italy and South Korea, countries most affected by the virus other than China.The spread of the virus has contributed to growing concern over the possibility of a global recession.
China reported Saturday that manufacturing activity declined dramatically in February, as the virus slowed the world’s second largest economy.In related news, there are indications that the economic slowdown in China caused by the outbreak has cut into pollution levels over that country.U.S. space agency NASA and the European Space Agency say they have found significant drops in nitrogen dioxide over China, pointing to “evidence that the change is at least partly related to the economic slowdown following the outbreak of coronavirus.”“This is the first time I have seen such a dramatic drop-off over such a wide area for a specific event,” said NASA air quality researcher Fei Liu.The two agencies said Stocks reflect declines on monitors as people work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Feb. 27, 2020.Global stock prices finished the week sharply lower Friday, ending one of the worst weeks for world markets since the 2008 financial crisis. In the Mideast, where markets opened Sunday after their Friday-Saturday weekend, stocks plunged, hit by fears the economic slowdown could hit demand for oil supplies.
Qatar reported its first case of the virus Saturday, three days after leader Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani ordered the evacuation of its citizens from Iran, the Middle East’s epicenter of the outbreak.French lab scientists in protective suits work on developing a quick test for detecting the coronavirus, at Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, Feb. 6, 2020.France announced 16 new coronavirus cases Saturday and a temporary ban on all public gatherings of more than 5,000 people, one day after Mexico, Nigeria, New Zealand, Lithuania, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Iceland reported their first cases.
In Italy, the civil protection agency said eight more patients had died, bringing the total deaths in the country to 29.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration moved Saturday to accelerate hospitals’ abilities to test for the deadly virus. The agency issued guidelines “enabling laboratories to use tests they develop faster in order to achieve more rapid testing capacity in the United States.”This undated photo provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows CDC’s laboratory test kit for the new coronavirus.The World Health Organization raised its global risk assessment of the coronavirus to its highest level on Friday.
“We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
China, where the virus originated, reported 523 new cases and 35 deaths Sunday. China has a total of 79,824 cases.
South Korea, the hardest-hit country outside China, reported the biggest surge Saturday with 376 new cases, raising the total to 3,526.
Iran confirmed 593 cases and 43 deaths, the highest death toll outside China.
The WHO said Saturday that more than 85,000 people worldwide have been infected in nearly 60 countries and that virus-related deaths topped 2,900.
The worldwide outbreak has led government and companies around the globe to implement closures and restrictions.
Switzerland canceled next week’s Geneva international car show, an important event for the auto industry. Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, told its employees to defer all nonessential travel.
Saudi Arabia has closed off Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina to foreign pilgrims.
In Japan, Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan announced closures. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered schools to close at least through March.
The United States and South Korea called off joint military drills.
In Germany, about 1,000 people are being quarantined in the country’s most populous state. The number of confirmed cases in Europe’s biggest economy exceeded 50.
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