India imposed a three-week nationwide lockdown from midnight on Tuesday, banning people from leaving their homes as it scrambled to break the chain of transmission of coronavirus in the country. Affecting 1.3 billion people, it will be world’s largest lockdown announced since the coronavirus pandemic began its march in countries across the globe. In a televised address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told citizens that the lockdown should be viewed as a type of curfew. “The only way to save ourselves from coronavirus is if we don’t leave our homes; whatever happens, we stay at home,” he emphasized. It was his second address to the nation in a week. Pointing out that the infection spreads like wildfire, the Indian leader warned: “If we don’t handle these 21 days well, then our country, your family will go backwards by 21 years.” Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Train Terminus wears a deserted look in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, March 24, 2020.Citing health experts, Modi said, “India is today at such a stage, where our actions today will determine our ability to reduce the impact of this disaster.” India’s clampdown comes hours after neighboring Nepal began a weeklong lockdown. The stakes in combating coronavirus are high for South Asia, home to one-quarter of the world’s population, many of them poor. A decrepit health infrastructure has made these countries nervous about how they will cope if the number of cases begins to spiral. India’s official count of 482 cases and nine deaths is widely believed to be an underestimate due to limited testing that has been carried out. Experts are also skeptical about official claims that there is no community transmission so far and warn that cases of coronavirus have begun spilling from big cities where it came via people who had traveled overseas into small towns.Nepal has only reported two cases but fears the numbers could rise because thousands of migrant workers who work in India returned home in recent days. An Indian police, left, and a paramilitary personnel stop a vehicle during a complete lockdown amid growing concerns of coronavirus in Gauhati, India, Tuesday, March 24, 2020.Ahead of India’s strict clampdown, many people were seen venturing out of their homes despite restrictions that came into effect starting Sunday in place in large parts of the country, including major cities like Mumbai and Delhi. The country has been slowly pulling its shutters down in recent days – most big companies have told employees to work from home, large gatherings are banned, shopping malls, businesses educational institutions and tourist sites are shut and even temples have told worshippers to stay away. The perpetually crowded rail stations and airports are already virtually empty as air and train services are suspended. On social media, most people accepted the need for the lockdown and praised the country’s efforts to stop the infection in its tracks. But even as Modi emphasized the importance of social distancing to break the spread of coronavirus in the country, many pointed out that it was difficult to implement for millions of families who are often crowded into a single room in cramped urban slums. There are also growing concerns about how tens of millions of poor people who depend on daily wages and have casual jobs will cope with the economic toll of the strict clampdown on their livelihoods.
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Month: March 2020
Pakistan Detects First Prisoner With COVID-19 in Crowded Jail
Officials in Pakistan Tuesday confirmed the country’s first coronavirus case among thousands of inmates in an overcrowded prison facility, saying the person had been arrested on drug charges in Italy before his recent deportation. Italy has suffered by far the deadliest consequences of the pandemic, reporting more than 6,000 deaths and has the second highest overall number of infections. The prisoner with coronavirus was being held at the central jail in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province, which houses around 3,500 inmates. An official at the Lahore General Hospital told VOA by phone the patient had been swiftly shifted to an isolation ward for treatment and prison authorities had been ordered not to move inmates to the detention center before undergoing tests for the virus. It was not immediately clear how many other inmates and prison staff were inadvertently exposed to the disease. Prisons could become ‘epicenters’ Local and international rights groups have been urging Pakistani authorities to take preventive steps, including social distancing, in the country’s jails, which house more than 77,000 prisoners. “Prisons in Pakistan face massive overcrowding, overruling the possibility of social distancing, with the potential for a large outbreak. Hygiene supplies remain limited as does healthcare,” said Amnesty International in a statement. Amnesty noted that pre-trial detainees are taken to courts, where they may be exposed to the virus. The rights group has demanded that Pakistani authorities seriously consider reducing the prison population. “Should the government fail to act now, Pakistani prisons and detention centers will become epicenters for the transmission of COVID-19,” said Sarah Belal, executive director of Justice Project Pakistan, a non-governmental group working for prisoners’ rights. Cases linked to Iran Pakistan said Tuesday the nationwide number of COVID-19 infections has risen to more than 900, including six deaths. Around half of the cases are located in southern Sindh province. Two diplomats at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad have also tested positive for symptoms of the disease. A soldier wearing a face mask stands guard as buses carry pilgrims returning from Iran via the Pakistan-Iran border town of Taftan, leading to a quarantine facility zone to prevent the spread the COVID-19, in Sukkur in Sindh province, March 18, 2020.Health Minister Zafar Mirza told a nationally televised news conference that experts have also established that 78 percent of the country’s confirmed cases are Shi’ite Muslim pilgrims who recently returned from visiting religious shrines in neighboring Iran. Iranian officials have reported the virus has killed up to 2,000 in their country and infections surged to nearly 25,000. Around 5,000 Pakistani pilgrims and students are still stranded in Iran and expected to return home in coming days, officials say. Mirza said that around 7,800 suspected patients were waiting or undergoing tests for the virus, suggesting the number of cases could increase further. Troops deployed Pakistan called in troops on Monday to help civilian authorities in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic as the country remains under a partial lockdown, with educational institutions, public gatherings and wedding parties banned.All international incoming and outgoing passenger flights also have been halted until April 5, with Pakistan’s borders with Afghanistan, Iran, India and China temporarily sealed. Only hospitals, grocery stores, food and pharmaceutical producing factories and pharmacies are working. Inter-city transport is allowed only to move food and medical supplies while public transport inside the cities is prohibited. Prime Minister Imran Khan, however, has ignored domestic calls for a total lockdown, saying such a curfew-like move would endanger tens of millions of lives of working class and poverty-stricken families in Pakistan.
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Нефтяное фиаско по всем фронтам: мокшандский кремль переоценил свои возможности…
Нефтяное фиаско по всем фронтам: мокшандский кремль переоценил свои возможности…
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Надеждам кремля на то, что нефтяная отрасль Саудовской Аварии не выдержит таких убытков, не суждено сбыться…
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Карлик пукин умоляет запад о пощаде и отменяет контрсанкции в одностороннем порядке
Карлик пукин умоляет запад о пощаде и отменяет контрсанкции в одностороннем порядке.
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Последние новости россии и мира, экономика, бизнес, культура, технологии, спорт
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Кощея взяли за иглу. Саудиты наказывают пукина за понты
Кощея взяли за иглу. Саудиты наказывают пукина за понты.
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Ввязавшись в нефтяную авантюру с саудитами, пукин поставил свою страну на грань экономического краха
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MH17 Trial Resumes Briefly Amid Coronavirus Restrictions
The trial in absentia of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with multiple counts of murder over the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 resumed briefly at The Hague on Tuesday amid coronavirus restrictions.The Dutch judges in the trial read out several preliminary decisions before ruling to adjourn the case until June 8 in order to give the defense lawyers of one of the accused more time to prepare their case.The courtroom was almost empty during the 45-minute session, which was livestreamed on the Internet due to restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.Flight MH17 was shot down July 17, 2014, by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists.FILE – People walk amongst the debris at the crash site of a Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 near the village of Grabove, Ukraine, July 17, 2014.The civilian passenger plane was on a flight from Amsterdam to Malaysia when it was shot down.All 298 passengers and crew were killed.The victims included 193 Dutch citizens as well as 43 Malaysians and 38 Australians.The four accused — Russian citizens Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko — remain at large despite the issuance of international warrants for their arrests.Russian nationals Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov, and Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko, accused of downing of flight MH17, seen on screen as international investigators present their findings, in Nieuwegein, Netherlands, June 19, 2019.Only Pulatov has appointed defense lawyers to represent him at the trial in the Netherlands.When the trial opened on March 9, it was attended by lawyers, judges, family members of victims, and journalists.But the number of prosecutors, lawyers, and other staff on March 23 was reduced over the coronavirus pandemic. Family and media were not allowed to attend the trial in person, and judges sat separated from one another by empty seats.Prosecutors say the four men helped to arrange the supply of the Russian missile system used to shoot down MH17.Girkin, a former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), was the top military commander of a separatist group in eastern Ukraine while Ukrainian Kharchenko was in charge of a combat unit in the region, according to the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT).Dubinsky and Pulatov were connected with Russia’s Military Intelligence Service (GRU), the investigators concluded.Despite evidence that Russia’s military was directly involved in shooting down of Flight MH17, the Kremlin has repeatedly denied any involvement.The Kremlin also denies providing any military or financial support to Ukraine’s pro-Russia separatists, despite evidence assembled by the JIT and the Bellingcat open-source investigative group.
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US Could Become ‘Coronavirus Epicenter’ WHO Says
The United States could become the global epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, as Britain went into lockdown and Olympic organizers considered postponing the 2020 Tokyo Games. But the Chinese province of Hubei, where the virus was first identified in December, said it would lift travel restrictions on people leaving the region as the epidemic there eases. Police officers check a pedestrian in Boulogne Billancourt, March 18, 2020.On the economic side, business activity collapsed from Australia and Japan to Western Europe at a record pace in March, with data for the United States later on Tuesday expected to be just as dire. “The coronavirus outbreak represents a major external shock to the macro outlook, akin to a large-scale natural disaster,” analysts at BlackRock Investment Institute said. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in Geneva there had been a “very large acceleration” in coronavirus infections in the United States which had the potential of becoming the new epicenter. Over the past 24 hours, 85 percent of new cases were from Europe and the United States, she told reporters. Of those, 40 percent were from the United States. Asked whether the United States could become the new epicenter, Harris said: “We are now seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the U.S. So it does have that potential. We cannot say that is the case yet but it does have that potential.” London lockdown Some U.S. state and local officials have decried a lack of coordinated federal action, saying having localities act on their own has put them in competition for supplies. President Donald Trump gestures as he asks a question to Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, during a briefing about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room, March 23, 2020, in Washington.U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged the difficulty in a tweet. “The World market for face masks and ventilators is Crazy. We are helping the states to get equipment, but it is not easy,” he wrote. Confirmed coronavirus cases exceeded 377,000 across 194 countries and territories as of early Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, with over 16,500 deaths linked to the virus. Of the top 10 countries by case numbers, Italy had reported the highest fatality rate, at around 10%, which is reflective of its older population. The fatality rate globally is around 4.3%. Britain, believed by experts to be about two weeks behind Italy in the outbreak cycle, woke up on Tuesday to curbs on movement without precedent in peacetime after Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the country to stay at home. An almost empty Westminster Bridge normally a very busy river crossing as the sun rises in London, March 24, 2020.The streets of the capital were eerily quiet as all but essential shops closed and people only went to work if it was essential. Johnson had resisted pressure to impose a full lockdown even as other European countries had done so, but was forced to change tack as projections showed the health system could become overwhelmed. Olympics under threat A decision on whether to postpone this year’s Tokyo Olympics for the first time will come in days, sources said on Tuesday. The July 24-Aug. 9 Olympics have been the last major sporting event left untouched as the epidemic put most of the world in virtual lockdown. FILE – A woman wearing a protective face mask walks past the Olympic rings in front of the Japan Olympics Museum in Tokyo, March 13, 2020.The International Olympic Committee and Japan repeated their insistence that the event would go ahead as scheduled — and then their weekend announcement of a lengthy, one-month consultation over possible postponement — perplexed many. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and IOC President Thomas Bach were to talk by phone on Tuesday. China’s Hubei province, the original epicenter of the outbreak, will lift travel curbs on people leaving the area, but other regions will tighten controls as new cases double due to imported infections. The provincial capital Wuhan, which has been in total lockdown since Jan. 23, will see its travel restrictions lifted on April 8. However, the risk from overseas infections appears to be on the rise, prompting tougher screening and quarantine measures in major cities such as the capital Beijing.
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Africa’s Jazz Great Manu Dibango Dies in France of Virus
Renowned jazz man Manu Dibango, to many the beloved “Papy Groove” who served as an inspiration and pioneer in his art, died on Tuesday with the coronavirus, his official Facebook page announced. He was 86. The saxophonist who inspired what is known as “world music” was recently hospitalized with an illness “linked to COVID-19,” his official Facebook page said last Wednesday, adding that he was “resting well and calmly recovering.” The announcement did not say where he had been hospitalized, but Dibango, who was born in Cameroon, was known to live in France. “He can’t wait to meet you again,” the earlier message said. That was not to be. The artist inspired “world music” in the 1970s with the song “Soul Makossa.” Funeral services were to be “held in strict privacy” followed by a tribute “when possible,” Tuesday’s announcement said. Funerals in France have been limited to 20 people who are in the closest circle of the deceased because of a lockdown to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.
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Zimbabwean Broadcaster Dies of Coronavirus
A well-known 30-year-old television journalist is the first person to die of the coronavirus in Zimbabwe. Zororo Makamba began showing symptoms similar to those of the virus after returning from a trip to New York. Health authorities say he was hospitalized in early March. Zimbabwean officials are now trying to identify people who encountered Makambaas. Makambaas and another person tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday. Health authorities say the other person with the virus is in self-isolation and they are closely watching several people who encountered her. President Emmerson Mnangagwa is taking steps to slow an outbreak of the virus, banning border entry except for citizens or supplies coming into the country. Mnangagwa also is closing bars and nightclubs and banning gatherings of more than 50 people to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
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Pompeo Visits Afghanistan in Bid to Resolve Political Impasse
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to Afghanistan amid coronavirus outbreak, sending a strong signal about U.S. interest in salvaging the peace process
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Cuba Works to Slow Coronavirus Spread
Cuba is launching its most restrictive measures Tuesday to stop the spread of the coronavirus- banning citizens from leaving the island without authorization and placing foreign tourists under quarantine. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero said in a televised address Monday that just over 32 thousand tourists will have to stay in hotels until they secure a flight home. Cuba had resisted imposing the restrictions because tourism is the lifeblood of the island nation’s economy. Authorities in Cuba on Monday also announced schools and universities will close. Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health on Monday confirmed 40 cases of the virus and doctors are monitoring more than 37- thousand other Cubans showing symptoms similar to the coronavirus. So far, Cuba has confirmed one death, an Italian tourist.
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Hard-Hit Italy Sees Slowing of New Coronavirus Cases, Deaths
Italy, which has suffered by far the deadliest consequences of the novel coronavirus outbreak, reported Tuesday a third consecutive day in which its daily deaths and new infections declined. The 601 deaths recorded Monday are still a staggering figure, but one that is a vast improvement from nearly 800 on Saturday. Italy has reported more than 6,000 deaths and has the second highest overall number of cases. Officials put the entire country on lockdown two weeks ago in hopes of stopping the spread of the virus that has reached nearly every country on the planet. South Korea, which once held the position of being one of the hardest-hit nations showed its own continued progress, reporting Tuesday a daily rise in new cases of 76. That was its 13th consecutive day below 100. Meanwhile China continues to report its own improvements with just four locally transmitted cases in its latest figures Tuesday. But worries persist about a comeback for the virus in China, the place it was first detected in late December, due to cases among people who arrive from elsewhere in the world. China reported 74 such imported cases Tuesday. Medical experts from China stand at the Nikola Tesla airport after arriving with medical supplies to help country’s fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Belgrade, Serbia, March 21, 2020.Those fears have prompted governments all over the world to institute travel restrictions. Beginning Tuesday, Cuba is barring all tourists from entering the country. Those already there will go into mandatory quarantine, while Cuban citizens will not be able to leave the island. In the United States, about one-third of the population is under stay-at-home orders issued by state governors. The latest was the governor of Hawaii telling people to not go out except for essential trips, while the governor of the western state of Washington tightened an existing order to include closing non-essential businesses. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order Monday which criminalizes the stockpiling of personal protective equipment that medical personnel need to stay safe while treating coronavirus patients. With the national and global response to the outbreak taking an economic toll, U.S. political leaders met late into Monday night trying to finalize an agreement on a massive economic rescue package. They expressed confidence they can reach a deal on Tuesday.
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Brazil’s Governor Orders 2 Week Quarantine
Sao Paulo state in Brazil begins a two-week quarantine Tuesday, on the order of Governor Joao Doria. Sao Paulo is the hardest hit area in Brazil, with more than 900 virus cases, including the head of the state’s task force against coronavirus, David Uip, who is said to be in self-isolation. There have been eleven deaths in Sao Paulo, including six in the capital, which carries the same name. The governor’s lockdown also means non-essential businesses and services must shut down. Health care services, public transportation, grocery stores, security services and banks are exempt from the lockdown. The restrictions in Sao Paulo resemble steps already taken in Rio de Janeiro state, where beaches have been closed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
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Lawyers for WikiLeaks Founder to Ask for Bail
Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange say they will file papers Wednesday to have him released on bail because he is at risk of contracting coronavirus. Assange is being held at a London-area prison as he fights extradition to the United States, where he has been charged with espionage for obtaining classified government documents from former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and publishing them on his website. The documents were secret diplomatic cables and military files related to the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Health experts say the prisoners are particularly vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 because of overcrowded conditions. Assange has been imprisoned since he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy last April, where he had sought refuge to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning in a sexual assault case.
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Trial Begins for Former US Marine Accused of Espionage in Russia
The long-awaited trial of a former U.S. Marine facing charges of espionage got under way in Moscow on Monday — with U.S. officials accusing Russia of providing no evidence in a spy case that has proved an added irritant to already troubled relations between the two countries. Paul Whelan, 50, was arrested by FSB security agents in late December 2018 after allegedly accepting classified materials on a computer thumb drive in a central Moscow hotel. Whelan has repeatedly denied those charges, insisting he was in Moscow for a friend’s wedding and had accepted the drive from a Russian acquaintance without ever knowing or viewing its contents. The former Marine, who in addition to U.S. citizenship holds passports from the U.K., Canada and Ireland, also says he’s been mistreated and denied medical treatment while in detention — an assertion that U.S. officials have backed repeatedly and did so again Monday. U.S. Ambassador to Russia John J. Sullivan joined his counterparts from the U.K. and Ireland at the courtroom Monday, where the presiding judge allowed them to speak with Whelan briefly before closing the hearing to the public — a standard practice in Russian-led “top secret” espionage cases. “It’s a sad day for me as an American and a U.S. ambassador, in these circumstances, to come and see a citizen of my country held in such circumstances, with serious health problems unaddressed, with no evidence that’s been produced to justify his incarceration for well over a year, and his inability to communicate with his family despite repeated requests by him and by me to the Russian government,” said Sullivan, in a statement afterward to the press. “I am hoping that, as this process moves forward, we see a fair and transparent judicial process,” Sullivan added. “Every person, every citizen, of every country in the world, deserves that.” In turn, Russia’s foreign ministry has accused Whelan of feigning illness — part of what the ministry says is Whelan’s playbook training as a U.S. intelligence officer after being caught “red-handed” by Russia’s security services. If convicted on existing charges, Whelan faces the possibility of 10-20 years in prison.U.S. ambassador to Russia John Sullivan speaks with journalists after his meeting with Paul Whelan, a U.S. national arrested and accused of espionage, outside a detention centre in Moscow, Russia January 30, 2020.COVID-19, witnesses, and ‘a goat rodeo’ The Whelan trial proved one of the rare court proceedings currently in session in Russia, after the country’s high court postponed most judicial work last week out of fear of the spread of the coronavirus. Whelan’s Russian lawyers, Olga Karla and Vladimir Zherebenkov, said that — barring unforeseen delays because of the contagion — the closed trial would last about a month in which they promised to mount a vigorous defense. Speaking to reporters, Zherebenkov said he planned to call at least a dozen witnesses, all of them Russians with whom Whelan had been in contact during multiple visits to the Russian Federation in recent years. Whelan’s legal team also indicated they planned to call embassy officials to the stand, a move they assured would prove Whelan’s innocence of the spy charges. “We’ll interrogate the embassies to prove that Whelan physically could not be an agent as a citizen of four different countries,” said Zherebenkov, in comments carried by the Interfax News Agency. “It’s simply not possible,” he added. Yet, throughout the run-up to Monday’s hearing, Zherebenkov has repeatedly acknowledged that politics may play a larger role than material evidence in resolving the case. Last December, the lawyer publicly floated the idea of including Whelan in a wider prisoner swap between Russia and the West. “Paul is a citizen of four countries. None of them has asked to organize his exchange yet,” noted Zherebenkov before pleading: “Take the initiative gentlemen!” Meanwhile, Whelan has called on U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene on his behalf, asking the American leader “to tweet your intentions” about a case that Whelan has colorfully labeled “the Moscow goat rodeo.”
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Free Pop-up Vision Clinic Gives Hope in Bangladesh District
The line formed early in the morning, dozens deep, with adults clutching pieces of paper they hoped would be their tickets to an improved outlook. Each paper authorized admission to a free, pop-up vision clinic, organized at the Kutupalong Government Primary School in Bangladesh for a couple of days in mid-February. Teachers, youngsters in blue uniforms and a traffic crossing guard in blaze-orange vest joined mothers and children, merchants, elders and others in the queue. “We’ll see about 500 people today,” including almost everyone in the school community, said Maud Zeller-Tillai, a regional manager with Ridowan from Kutupalong reads the eye chart with his first pair of glasses at the Kutupalong Government Primary School, Feb. 13, 2020. (Hai Do/VOA)One of the first to be screened was 9-year-old Riduwan. Wei Lin, an optometrist from Australia, examined the boy and learned that his vision was blurry beyond an arm’s length. Within half an hour, he was fitted with corrective lenses popped into flexible red frames. “After they’ve given me glasses, it’s clear everywhere,” said Riduwan, whose mother had brought him from the nearby town of Ukhiya. By day’s end, roughly nine out of 10 patients would be outfitted with glasses or referred for more advanced treatment for conditions such as cataracts and glaucoma, Zeller-Tillai said. The vision-testing team – which included 11 optometrists and a support staff of nine – had found consistently high levels of need while examining ethnic Rohingyas living in nearby refugee camps earlier in the week before shifting to this town to treat local Bangladeshis. Rohingya refugees and residents of host community in Cox’s Bazar wait in line for the free eyecare clinic Onesight at Kutupalong Government Primary School, Feb. 13, 2020. (Hai Do/VOA)All told, they examined some 1,700 patients in southeastern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. It’s one of the country’s poorest regions, with residents struggling even before more than 700,000 desperate Rohinyas surged across the border from neighboring Myanmar to escape military-led violence that escalated in August 2017. Now, roughly 855,000 Rohingyas live among 34 crowded camps, with 440,000 people living in the host communities nearby. Governments and aid groups are trying to give more support to those communities to build social cohesion and offset any resentment among locals, who have reported falling wages and rising prices since the Abdul Hakim tries out new eyeglasses at a school in Rajapalong, in southeastern Bangladesh’s poor Cox’s Bazar district. (Carol Guensburg/VOA)“It was heartening to see them smile when they received spectacles and were able to see clearly for the first time,” Marmamula said of the patients. Among them was Abdul Hakim, a slight man of 75. After his appointment, he sat in the school courtyard, surrounded by youngsters. Worsening vision had constrained his daily activities, including his ability to read the Quran. He put on his new glasses, studied a piece of paper and read a few sentences aloud. “With these glasses,” he said, “maybe I’ll be able to read for a long time.” The week’s clinics were the first in Bangladesh for OneSight, which calls its volunteers and allies “visionaries.” The independent nonprofit provides care in at least 49 countries, including the United States.
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