Minggu, 09 Februari 2020
Coronavirus: China under pressure as toll exceeds SARS - Al Jazeera English
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2020-02-09 15:15:32Z
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‘Do Not Make Any Loud Noises’: A Thai Soldier’s 18-Hour Shooting Rampage - The New York Times
KORAT, Thailand — The authorities killed the gunman near the cold storage refrigerators of the Foodland supermarket in the mall he terrorized during Thailand’s deadliest mass shooting.
It was just before 9 local time on Sunday morning — 18 hours after he fired the first shots in a relentless spree that left at least 29 people dead and 58 injured in the city of Korat, north of Bangkok.
Thailand’s prime minister said the rampage started with a real estate dispute. The gunman was bitter and lugging weapons stolen from a military base. It ended with hundreds of shoppers fleeing for their lives, their shoes slapping on the mall’s white tile floors as gunshots cracked, leading to a failed police raid, a follow-up — and finally, the lifeless body of the 32-year-old gunman, dressed in military gear and surrounded by red plastic grocery bins.
“My two children are at home with their grandma now,” said Viparat Wansaboiy, who was watching a movie at the mall with her husband when the shooting broke out. “Luckily they didn’t come today.”
The mix of bloodshed and the banal has become all too common in the United States, even as it bursts into lands less accustomed to violence like New Zealand and Norway. In a sign of what some psychologists call a contagion, the gunman mimicked other perpetrators of mass shootings by posting messages and video to Facebook, which shut down his account within minutes.
But in a nation where mass killings are still rare despite high levels of gun ownership, the sudden appearance of such grisly horror in a seven-story complex of consumerism has already prompted deeper questions about what happened, the government’s response and the underlying forces that led a young man to kill so many who were so innocent.
“This will be seen as not just an individual case, but as a sign of underlying tensions,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “It’s about the fact that people are really getting desperate — the economic situation is really not going well. A lot of people are very unhappy.”
Thai officials initially said the man, Sgt. Jakkrapanth Thomma, simply “went mad.” Later, on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha suggested that the gunman was enraged over a “land problem,” citing a dispute about selling a house. It was a conflict, he said, that had been simmering for days and could have been resolved without violence.
Korat, a bustling city of 166,000 between the central plains and Thailand’s underdeveloped northeast, is supposed to be where people come together. Sitting on the so-called Friendship Highway originally built by the United States in the 1950s, the unassuming city is a strategic hub for both the Thai military, which has several bases in the area, and regional agriculture, with processing plants for rice, sugar cane, sesame and fruit.
Sergeant Jakkrapanth believed he was owed money. On Saturday, he arrived for a meeting about a payment from a deal with Anong Mitrchan, who was well known for selling real estate to military officers in Korat.
It is unclear whether she was the target of his ire, or whether she did anything wrong. But she was at the center of a long-running dispute, the authorities said, and she was not alone. Her son-in-law, a superior officer from the sergeant’s command — Col. Anantharot Krasae — was there at her house, along with her business partner, according to Mrs. Anong’s husband.
The soldier shot all three of them. Only the partner survived, with serious wounds.
After the initial surge of violence, a photo of bullets appeared on the soldier’s Facebook page. “Nobody can escape death,” he wrote. “Rich from cheating and taking advantage of people … Do they think they can take money to spend in hell?”
Sergeant Jakkrapanth fled, speeding toward a military base where the authorities said he shot and killed a third person before stealing a military Humvee and an arsenal of weapons. Firing out the window, he reached the parking lot of the Terminal 21 shopping center some time after 3 p.m., around the time the police received their first call about the shooting at Mrs. Anong’s house.
The mall — a tower of exuberance, with floors dedicated to different parts of the world, from the Caribbean to London, Paris and Hollywood — pulsed with the rhythm of a busy Saturday. Movie theaters were filled. Families, couples, teenagers were all oblivious, crammed into cellphone stores, Toys “R” Us and the food court.
Then, they heard gunshots. Video taken outside showed people diving for cover as bullets carried across the area. Several people were killed outside the mall, some while walking, others in cars.
It wasn’t clear to everyone what was going on. Kul Kaemthong, 53, a cleaner, said she was on a break around 5 p.m. when she first heard people had been shot. Looking out the windows of the fourth floor food court, she saw a body next to motorcycle, another by a car.
She started running. Then she heard more gunfire.
The sound — one, two, three, then a dozen in rapid succession, also heard in at least one video from the scene — suggested heavy firepower and more than one gun.
Mike Picard, the research director for GunPolicy.org, which tracks firearm use around the world, said the images and sounds captured by people at the scene pointed to at least six weapons: one or two handguns, including the shooter’s personal firearm, three HK33 assault rifles and two larger M60 machine guns.
The gunman, he said, also appears to have been carrying about 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Local news media reported Sergeant Jakkrapanth was a specialist in long-range sniper fire.
Ms. Viparat, 39, and her husband, Somwang Kwangchaithale, 39, were sitting in a movie theater on the fifth floor of the mall when the lights came on and an emergency announcement came over the loudspeaker t around 5:30 p.m. Initially, they stayed in the theater. Then the mall’s staff moved them to an office with a locked door. They huddled together there, 100 of them all together, until around 10 p.m., when the message from the authorities landed: They were about to be evacuated.
“They told us they’re going to turn the lights off, said Mr. Somwang. “‘Stay low and do not make any loud noises.’”
When they reached the basement, the gunman heard them. He started shooting.
“All of the people who gathered at the parking lot started screaming and running for their lives,” said Ms. Viparat. “Rescuers helped us out. Police, rescuers, military, different officers.”
By that time, the authorities had launched into full operation mode. Shortly after 8 p.m., the police declared the gunman a most-wanted person and urged the public to call in tips, presenting a photo that showed him looking bored, with indifferent eyes.
They also started moving large numbers of people out. They urged evacuees to “raise their hands” and identify themselves. They were wary that the gunman was hiding in the crowd.
Outside, dozens of orange-clad emergency workers set up triage areas, helping victims and the rescued. Relatives and friends of those believed to be trapped in the mall anxiously awaited word of their fate. The stalemate lingered for hours. The entire city seemed to be awake.
At 3 a.m., the authorities staged what appeared to be an attempt to capture or kill the gunman. A barrage of gunfire pounded and ricocheted, but the authorities had to retreat. An officer had been hit. He later died. One official said he was the last one killed — shy of the gunman.
The final raid occurred as officials seemed to be in lockdown, tense, refusing to answer questions from reporters. Details eventually came out through a video posted to Twitter, with officials confirming what people inside had witnessed. The gunman was dead, his body lying outside a cooler with an open door, near two other bodies — one of them a police officer; another a woman who seemed to be a supermarket employee.
Prime Minister Prayuth sounded defensive when asked about the operation and why it had taken so long for the siege to end.
“Don’t you guys understand when there are civilians in the mall,” he said. Without evidence, he suggested that the gunman had been troubled for a long time.
“We have to look at mental health,” he added. “I was an army chief before. And we have to acknowledge if they have problems.”
But for those who experienced the attack, his mental health mattered far less than the lives of his victims. In the elevator at the Maharaj hospital, a young woman sobbed as she spoke on the phone about a relative on life support.
On Sunday evening, hundreds gathered near the mall for a vigil, lining up to write tributes to the dead and to express support for peace and the living — a ritual as familiar, sadly, as the mass shootings.
“The society nowadays has turned into this?” said Thusanee Witchartorntakul, 53, a university lecturer, who came to the vigil on Sunday night, shedding tears after a night without sleep. “It’s devastating. My heart can’t handle it.”
Muktita Suhartono reported from Korat, Thailand, and Damien Cave from Sydney, Australia. Ryn Jirenuwat contributed reporting from Bangkok, and Richard C. Paddock from Denpasar, Indonesia.
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2020-02-09 16:18:00Z
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2 US soldiers killed, 6 injured in Afghanistan 'insider attack' - New York Post
Two US soldiers were killed and six others wounded in Afghanistan in a so-called insider attack by a local soldier firing a machine gun, military officials said Sunday.
The Afghan soldier in full military uniform had argued with the US troops before launching his deadly attack in eastern Afghanistan’s province late Saturday, officials said.
The “individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun,” Sonny Leggett, the spokesman for US Forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement on Sunday.
“We are still collecting information and the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time,” the statement added.
The shooter is believed to be dead, according to the reports. Up to three Afghan National Army members were also injured in the attack.
The wounded service members are receiving medical treatment at a US facility. The names of the service members killed in action will be withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin is complete, in accordance with US Department of Defense policy.
The Taliban has not claimed responsibility, and senior officials were investigating if it was an insider attack — often known as “green-on-blue” attacks that have been a regular feature of the conflict in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s defense ministry set up an investigations team headed by the country’s chief of army staff to investigate the attack.
“Attacks such as this by our enemies fail to have negative effects on the friendship and spirit of cooperation and between the Afghan National Security Forces and the US military,” the ministry insisted.
Nangarhar is among the volatile provinces where the Taliban and Islamic State militants have a foothold.
Six US service members have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2020, including Saturday’s casualties. Last year, 22 US service personnel died in combat there.
With Post wires
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2020-02-09 15:02:00Z
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Storm Ciara helps plane beat transatlantic flight record - BBC News
Experts are hailing a British Airways flight as the fastest subsonic New York to London journey.
The Boeing 747-436 reached speeds of 825 mph (1,327 km/h) as it rode a jet stream accelerated by Storm Ciara.
The four hours and 56 minutes flight arrived at Heathrow Airport 80 minutes ahead of schedule on Sunday morning.
According to Flightradar24, an online flight tracking service, it beat a previous five hours 13 minutes record held by Norwegian.
The BBC has been unable to independently verify the record as no complete database of flight times was available.
Aviation consultant and former BA pilot Alastair Rosenschein said the aeroplane reached a "phenomenal speed".
'Prioritise safety'
"The pilot will have sat their aircraft in the core of the jet stream and at this time of year it's quite strong.
"Turbulence in those jet streams can be quite severe, but you can also find it can be a very smooth journey."
The jet stream reached speeds of 260 mph (418 km/h) on Sunday morning, according to BBC Weather.
Despite travelling faster than the speed of sound the plane would not have broken the sonic barrier as it was helped along by fast-moving air.
Relative to the air, the plane was travelling slower than 801mph.
Modern passenger planes usually travel at about 85% the speed of sound, according to Mr Rosenschein.
British Airways said: "We always prioritise safety over speed records.
"Our highly-trained pilots made the most of the conditions to get customers back to London well ahead of time."
The fastest transatlantic crossing belongs to BA Concorde, which flew from New York to London in two hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds in 1996 - hitting a top speed of 1,350 mph.
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2020-02-09 13:58:03Z
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Two US service members killed in insider attack in Afghanistan | TheHill - The Hill
Two U.S. service members were killed on Saturday when someone wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on them with a machine gun, according to multiple reports.
Six other U.S. service members were injured in the insider attack in Nangahar province, officials said.
“Current reports indicate an individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun,” Colonel Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said a statement, according to Reuters.
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“We are still collecting information," he said, adding that the motive behind the attack is unknown.
Officials also said that U.S. and Afghan military personnel were targeted while conducting an operation, The Associated Press noted.
The gunman was killed, a member of Nangarhar’s provincial council told the AP.
An unidentified Afghan defense ministry official also said the shooter was an Afghan soldier who had earlier argued with the U.S. forces, the news service reported, adding that the official said the gunman was not a Taliban infiltrator.
Officials said Afghan troops were also killed in the incident, but details on those casualties were not released.
During a surprise Thanksgiving visit to U.S. forces in Afghanistan, President Trump
Donald John Trump Biden says Buttigieg is 'not a Barack Obama' on NH campaign trail Democrats make final pitch at rowdy NH political spectacle Pelosi: Vindman ouster is 'shameful' MORE announced the resumption of peace talks with the Taliban after negotiations broke down earlier last year.
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2020-02-09 12:53:38Z
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Coronavirus updates: Number of confirmed cases drops disease's epicenter, China confirms - NBC News
• Deaths in mainland China go up to 811, confirmed cases reach more than 37,100
• Chinese authorities warn about use of masks
• Passengers, crew of quarantined cruise ship in Hong Kong are allowed to disembark
• Four passengers on cruise ship docked in New Jersey test negative for novel coronavirus
• Videos appears to show people forcibly taken for quarantine in China
• Six more coronavirus cases confirmed on cruise ship off Japan; total at 70
Coronavirus deaths in mainland China rise to 811, surpass SARS fatalities
The number of deaths from novel coronavirus in mainland China increased to 811 Sunday, health officials with China’s National Health Commission said.
This exceeds the number of deaths reported from the SARS outbreak in 2003, which killed 774 people, according to the World Health Organization.
Outside of China, two people died from the disease in the last two week, one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong, bringing total number of global deaths to at least 813.
As of Sunday, more than 37,198 confirmed cases have been reported on mainland China.
However, officials at China's National Health Commission said the number of confirmed cases reported daily in provinces other than Hubei — the region in central China were the virus is believed to have originated — has dropped from 890 on Feb. 3 to 509 on Feb. 8 — a decrease of nearly 43 percent.
They said this indicated "that preventative and control measures such as joint prevention, control mechanisms and strict management are being implemented and they are effective.” — Leou Chen, Yuliya Talmazan and Reuters
Chinese authorities warn about use of masks
Officials with China’s National Development and Reform Commission warned against “excessive and improper” use of protective masks.
The demand for respiratory masks has surged in China during the outbreak.
“With regard to the use of masks, we once again propose that you use them scientifically,” said Chen Da, deputy director of economic and trade department at the state body.
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“Avoid excessive and improper use and save mask resources,” he added.
The World Health Organization has also advised “rational use of medical masks” to avoid “unnecessary wastage of precious resources and potential mis-use of masks.”
The organization advised using masks only if one has respiratory symptoms (coughing or sneezing) or is caring for someone with suspected infection. — Leou Chen and Yuliya Talmazan
Passengers, crew of quarantined cruise ship in Hong Kong allowed to leave
Hong Kong health officials said Sunday all passengers and crew members aboard a cruise ship that has been in quarantine in Hong Kong over fears of coronavirus spread aboard can now leave the ship.
"With the help of the cruise company and people on board, the Health Department already completed sample collection yesterday,” said Leung Yiu-hung, chief port health officer from Hong Kong’s health ministry.
"The results show that all people on board are negative to coronavirus tests,” Leung said, adding that all passengers and crew members are allowed to disembark.
Feb. 6, 202001:12
Earlier this week, Hong Kong’s health ministry said three people who tested positive were on board the ship during a previous voyage that took place between Jan. 19 and 24.
That prompted a mass health screening of the 3,600 passengers and crew members on board. — Jasmine Leung
Four passengers on cruise ship docked in New Jersey test negative
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy confirmed Sunday four passengers from a cruise ship docked in Bayonne tested negative for novel coronavirus.
Royal Caribbean said Saturday that the departure of its Anthem of the Seas cruise from New Jersey will be delayed another two days, until Monday, to allow continued testing of passengers from the ship's prior cruise.
When the ship returned to Bayonne, New Jersey, on Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention boarded the vessel to screen 27 passengers who had recently traveled from mainland China.
Four of those passengers were taken to a hospital for evaluation and tested negative. Another 23 people were to return to China.
“New Jersey currently has no confirmed cases of novel coronavirus and the risk to residents remains low,” Murphy said. — Phil McCausland and Yuliya Talmazan
Videos appears to show people forcibly taken for quarantine in China
Two videos have surfaced on social media that appear to show people in China being taken into quarantine over the coronavirus.
Posted to Twitter on Friday, one of them showed several people wearing white protective suits apparently forcibly removing three people from an apartment. One of the people appeared to struggled before they were led away.
The video was taken in the city of Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, at the home of a family who had returned from Hubei Province, according to The Associated Press, citing a report Wednesday in the official provincial media outlet, Jiangsu Communication Broadcasting Station.
A second video posted to Twitter Thursday, appeared to show two people hugging in the city of Suzhou, also in Jiangsu Province. One of them was then escorted into what looks like an isolation container on the back of a government vehicle.
It's unclear when either video was filmed. — Minyvonne Burke, Suzanne Ciechalski, Leou Chen and Dawn Liu
Six more coronavirus cases confirmed on cruise ship off Japan; total at 70
Six more people aboard a cruise ship quarantined in Japan have tested positive for novel coronavirus, bringing the total on the Diamond Princess to 70, Japan’s health ministry said Sunday.
The ministry said there were foreigners among the six newly confirmed cases, but their nationalities were not disclosed.
Feb. 8, 202002:28
Earlier this week, 13 American passengers were confirmed to have the virus, along with people from Japan, Canada, Australia and other countries.
About 3,700 passengers and crew are aboard the ship, but those who tested positive were taken to hospitals.
The Diamond Princess was quarantined off Yokohama and testing was conducted on 336 passengers after a man who had been on the ship last month was later confirmed to have the virus.
Princess Cruises, the company that owns the ship, said in a statement Saturday the ship has received more medication, which is being distributed based on medical and urgent priority.
Telephone access with trained counselors has also been arranged for guests experiencing mental stress, the company said.
The quarantine is expected to last until Feb. 19.— Arata Yamamoto and Phil Helsel
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2020-02-09 11:32:00Z
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Two U.S. Service Members Killed in Eastern Afghanistan - The Wall Street Journal
Afghan soldiers on patrol in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on Sunday.
Photo: ghulamullah habibi/ShutterstockKABUL—An Afghan soldier killed two American service members and wounded six other U.S. military personnel in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.
The incident occurred in Nangarhar province, an area where U.S. and Afghan forces have been fighting both Taliban and Islamic State fighters. Nangarhar is considered one of the more dangerous areas in the country.
“Current reports indicate an individual in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun,” said Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the U.S. command in Afghanistan early Sunday.
Ajmal Omar, deputy chief of the Nangarhar provincial council, said both American and Afghan forces were visiting an army base in Sherzad district on Saturday afternoon when an Afghan soldier opened fire on American troops. American soldiers then killed the shooter, he added.
Another member of the provincial council, Obaidullah Shinwari, said the attack was caused by a verbal argument between the two sides.
Six injured U.S. service members are receiving medical treatment at a U.S. facility, Col. Leggett said in a statement Sunday. He added that the incident is under investigation and “the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time.”
In accordance with Pentagon policy, the service members killed in the incident weren’t identified.
More than 2,400 troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.
Saturday’s attack comes as the Trump administration struggles to determine the way forward in the war, now in its 18th year. Mr. Trump has sought to end so-called endless wars, including in Afghanistan, but the Pentagon still maintains about 13,000 troops there.
Officials have worked toward a peace agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban, but the path remains elusive and such talks, which restarted in December, haven’t made substantive progress, officials said.
Regardless of the outcome of that process, Mr. Trump has vowed to reduce the number of American forces in Afghanistan, and officials have said the initial reduction could bring home as many as 4,000 troops, leaving a total of about 8,600 troops on the ground there.
—Gordon Lubold and Nancy A. Youssef contributed to this article
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2020-02-09 10:53:00Z
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