NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India hanged four men on Friday who were convicted for the rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi in 2012, in a case that shocked the world and shamed the country over its appalling record for crimes against women.
The men were executed at dawn in Tihar jail, on the outskirts of the capital, four television news channels reported.
Hundreds of police men were deployed outside the jail premises to control the jubilant crowd that waited with placards to celebrate the execution of the men for the attack that shone a spotlight on women’s safety across India.
The crime, which happened on the night of 16 December, 2012, sparked massive protests and global outrage. The victim was dubbed Nirbhaya - the fearless one - by the Indian press, as she could not be named under Indian law.
Six men were arrested for the attack. One suspect, Ram Singh, was found dead in his jail cell in March 2013, having apparently taken his own life.
Another, who was aged 17 at the time, was released in 2015 after serving three years in a reform facility - the maximum term possible for a juvenile in India.
The four - gym instructor Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Thakur, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta and unemployed Mukesh Singh were sentenced to death by a fast-track court in 2013.
In 2017, the Supreme Court upheld death sentences against four men, with judges ruling the crime met the “rarest of the rare” standard required to justify capital punishment in India.
India’s president rejected pleas for clemency from the condemned men, after the Supreme Court dismissed their pleas for a review of the death sentences.
Attacked on a moving bus and left for dead on roadside, the victim, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, clung to life for two weeks before succumbing to her injuries. She died in a hospital in Singapore, where she had been transferred in a desperate attempt to save her.
Outrage over her death led to India passing tough new laws against sexual violence, including the death penalty for rape in some cases.
Reporting by Rupam Jain; Additional reporting Suchitra Mohanty; Editing by Lincoln Feast.
(Reuters) - Struck down by coronavirus at the age of 83, the long life of Alfredo Visioli ended with a short ceremony at a graveyard near Cremona, his hometown in northern Italy.
FILE PHOTO: Cemetery workers and funeral agency workers in protective masks transport a coffin of a person who died from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), into a cemetery in Bergamo, Italy March 16, 2020. REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo/File Photo
“They buried him like that, without a funeral, without his loved ones, with just a blessing from the priest,” said his granddaughter Marta Manfredi who couldn’t attend. Like most of the old man’s family - like most of Italy - she was confined to her home.
“When all this is over,” she vows, “we will give him a real funeral.”
Everywhere the coronavirus has struck, regardless of culture or religion, ancient rituals to honor the dead and comfort the bereaved have been cut short or abandoned for fear of spreading it further.
The virus, which has killed nearly 9,000 people worldwide, is reshaping many aspects of death, from the practicalities of handling infected bodies to meeting the spiritual and emotional needs of those left behind.
In Ireland, the health authority is advising mortuary workers to put face masks on dead bodies to reduce even the minor risk of infection. In Italy, a funeral company is using video links to allow quarantined families to watch a priest bless the deceased. And in South Korea, fear of the virus has caused such a drop in the number of mourners that funeral caterers are struggling for business.
There is little time for ceremony in hard-hit cities such as Bergamo, northeast of Milan, where the mortuaries are full and the crematorium is working around the clock, said Giacomo Angeloni, a local official in charge of cemeteries.
Bergamo, home to about 120,000 people, has been dealing with 5-6 times the number of dead it would in normal times, he said.
Italy has now reported nearly 3,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus - the highest outside China where the virus first emerged. The Italian army sent 50 troops and 15 trucks to Bergamo on Wednesday to take bodies to less overwhelmed provinces.
A ban on gatherings has shattered the vital rituals that help us grieve, said Andy Langford, the chief operating officer of Cruse Bereavement Care, a British charity providing free care and counseling to those in grief.
“Funerals allow a community to come together, express emotion, talk about that person and formally say goodbye,” he said.
“When you feel you have no control over how you can grieve, and over how you can experience those last moments with someone, that can complicate how you grieve and make you feel worse,” he said.
EXTRA STAFF
In Iran as in northern Italy, hospital and funeral workers are overwhelmed with bodies, as the virus has torn across the country, killing 1,284 people and infecting thousands, according to state TV.
The authorities have hired new people to dig graves, said a manager at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery. “We work day and night,” he said. “I have never seen such a sad situation. There are no funerals.”
Most corpses arrive by truck and are buried without the ritual washing that Islam dictates, he said.
Some Iranians suspect that the official haste to bury them has more to do with obscuring the spiraling death toll than halting the spread of the virus.
Deaths from COVID-19 have been recorded as heart attacks or lung infections, a hospital worker in Kashan, a city about a three-hour drive from Tehran, told Reuters.
“The officials are lying about the death toll,” the worker said. “I have seen dozens of corpses in the past few days, but they have told us not to talk about it.” Two nurses at Iranian hospitals also told Reuters they thought the death toll was higher than the official tally.
Iranian authorities have rejected allegations of a cover-up, and President Hassan Rouhani, in a televised speech on Mar. 18, said his government had been “honest and straightforward with the nation.”
INFECTION RISK
In several countries, clusters of infection have followed funerals. In South Korea, where more than 90 people have died, the government has urged the families of COVID-19 victims to cremate their loved ones first, and hold the funeral later.
Korean funerals usually take place in hospitals, and involve three days of prayers and feasting. Most of the country’s early cases were linked to a church in Daegu city and a hospital in a nearby county. In February, several members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus attended a funeral at the hospital for the brother of the church’s founder.
Since the outbreak, the number of mourners at funerals has plunged by 90%, regardless of whether the deceased had the virus, said Choi Min-ho, secretary general of the Korea Funeral Association.
“The culture of funerals has changed significantly,” he said. “A handful of mourners quickly offer condolences and leave the place without dining together out of infection worries.”
Condolence money, traditionally handed over in cash, is now sent via bank transfer, he added.
Authorities in Wuhan, the epicenter of China’s outbreak and location of the majority of its deaths, quickly identified the funeral business as a potential source of transmission.
The local civil affairs bureau in late January ordered all funerals for confirmed COVID-19 victims to be handled at a single funeral home in the city’s Hankou district. Mourning ceremonies, usually boisterous social events in China, were curtailed along with all other public gatherings.
Those restrictions are still in place, even though the number of new cases has dwindled in recent weeks. Bereaved families are not even allowed to see the bodies of their loved ones, a worker at the funeral home told Reuters.
In China, the ashes of the deceased tend to be kept in funeral homes until they are taken to a family plot on public holidays such as the Tomb Sweeping Festival in April. That’s also canceled this year.
“DEATH MANAGEMENT”
In Spain, too, a large cluster of cases has been traced to a funeral in the northern town of Vitoria in late February. At least 60 people who attended tested positive after the event, said local media reports.
With over 600 deaths, Spain is the second-worst hit country in Europe after Italy, and most people are now confined to their homes. Referring to these restrictions, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called coronavirus a “cruel” disease that paralyses the human need to socialize.
In Ireland, up to 100 guests are still allowed at all funerals - for now. But most families are opting for small private ceremonies and encouraging others to express their condolences online through websites such as RIP.ie, where death notices and funeral invitations are usually posted.
Open casket funerals are out for any victim of coronavirus, and “the family should be advised not to kiss the deceased,” according to new guidelines from Ireland’s Health and Safety Executive to its funeral directors.
The risk of catching coronavirus from a dead body is slim, public health officials say, but some countries are recommending extra measures.
Israel has reported no coronavirus deaths, but its health ministry says the deceased should be double-wrapped in impermeable plastic. Ritual washing and rites will be performed in full protective gear and the corpse re-wrapped in plastic for burial. Normally Israel’s Jewish dead are laid to rest in a cloth smock and shroud.
Ireland’s guidelines advise workers in funeral parlors to put face masks on dead bodies before moving them, in case they “expel a very small amount of air and viral droplets from the lungs” and infect the living.
In Britain, where the pandemic is still gathering pace, there is widespread anxiety about the likely death toll.
Britain has been slower in implementing the strict measures seen elsewhere in Europe, and expert estimates of how many will die from COVID-19 have ranged wildly from the tens to the hundreds of thousands.
An emergency bill to tackle the virus, which has killed 104 people in Britain, includes a number of measures the government says will “streamline the death management process.” The measures include allowing funeral directors to register a death on behalf of a self-isolating family.
Deborah Smith, a spokesperson for the National Association of Funeral Directors, said the bill will help the profession “preserve the dignity of those who die and care for their bereaved families with compassion - even if they are not able to have the kind of funeral they would have wanted.”
Smith would not be drawn on the expected numbers, but said “funeral directors are preparing for a variety of scenarios.”
“NOT ALONE”
One scenario is already playing out in Wuhan.
Last month, a worker at the funeral home in Hankou district, identifying himself only as Huang, wrote an essay that was circulated on social media. He said funeral workers were as overwhelmed as the city’s medics but had received less recognition.
He said staff had worked without a break since the start of the epidemic. “Some of our employees don’t even drink water because they need to go to the toilet and it’s difficult to take off the protective clothing,” he wrote.
Half a world away, in the virus-stricken Italian town of Bergamo, funeral workers wage a near-identical struggle.
“It’s like being in a war with an invisible enemy,” said Roberta Caprini, a partner in Centro Funerario Bergamasco, a funeral service in Bergamo. “We’ve been working without interruption for two weeks and sleeping 3-4 hours a night when we manage it. Everyone in our area, us included, has lost someone or have someone sick in their home.”
FILE PHOTO: Cemetery workers and funeral agency workers in protective masks transport a coffin of a person who died from coronavirus disease (COVID-19), into a cemetery in Bergamo, Italy March 16, 2020. REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo/File Photo
Bergamo’s Church of All Saints has become a makeshift mortuary, its pews pushed aside to accommodate the dead. Caprini said she had counted at least 60 coffins when she visited on Tuesday.
She spoke of the “real torture” felt by families who watched sick relatives taken away to hospital and never saw them again. Her company has arranged video links to burials, to allow families to watch the priest bless the deceased.
Sometimes, she said, they drive the hearses past the bereaved family’s home, so mourners “can at least come down at the moment and offer a quick prayer.”
Reporting by Elisa Anzolin and Emilio Parodi in Milan; Angelo Amante in Rome; Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; David Stanway in Shanghai; Joan Faus in Barcelona; Hayoung Choi in Seoul, Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Emma Farge in Zurich; Kate Kelland in London and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing and additional reporting by Andrew RC Marshall; Edited by Sara Ledwith and Jason Szep
A medical worker wearing a face mask talks on her mobile phone inside the new coronavirus intensive care unit of the Brescia Poliambulanza hospital, Lombardy, on March 17, 2020.
PIERO CRUCIATTI
The number of people who have died from the coronavirus in Italy has hit 3,405, according to Reuters, meaning the country has now reported more deaths than China as a result of the pandemic.
The death toll in China, where the coronavirus started in Wuhan, in Hubei province late 2019, currently stands at 3,249, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Health officials in Italy said Thursday that the death toll had risen by 427 in the last 24 hours, with 475 deaths recorded the day before.
After sweeping through China in early 2020, the virus spread to Europe where Italy — and particularly the northern Lombardy region, which is home to financial hub Milan — became the epicenter.
The country, like many others in Europe, remains under lockdown as authorities attempt to stem the human cost of the virus. And closures will have to be extended beyond the current end-date of April 3, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte confirmed earlier in the day.
"The total blockade will go on," Conte said. "The measures taken, both the closure of (public) activities and the ones concerning schools, can only be extended," he told the paper.
Under the lockdown rules, people can only leave their homes to get food or medicines (grocery stores and pharmacies are the only stores that remain open), or to perform other essential services or to go to work. Most shops had been forced to close until March 25 but that deadline also looks set to be extended.
Meanwhile on Thursday, China said that there were no new domestic transmissions of the coronavirus in the country for the first time since its outbreak, although 21 "imported" infections were confirmed in Beijing as people returned from trips abroad.
A medical worker wearing a face mask talks on her mobile phone inside the new coronavirus intensive care unit of the Brescia Poliambulanza hospital, Lombardy, on March 17, 2020.
PIERO CRUCIATTI
The number of people who have died from the coronavirus in Italy has hit 3,405, according to Reuters, meaning the country has now reported more deaths than China as a result of the pandemic.
The death toll in China, where the coronavirus started in Wuhan, in Hubei province late 2019, currently stands at 3,249, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Health officials in Italy said Thursday that the death toll had risen by 427 in the last 24 hours, with 475 deaths recorded the day before.
After sweeping through China in early 2020, the virus spread to Europe where Italy — and particularly the northern Lombardy region, which is home to financial hub Milan — became the epicenter.
The country, like many others in Europe, remains under lockdown as authorities attempt to stem the human cost of the virus.
Meanwhile on Thursday, China said that there were no new domestic transmissions of the coronavirus in the country for the first time since its outbreak, although 21 "imported" infections were confirmed in Beijing as people returned from trips abroad.
China's health ministry says the city of Wuhan — the original epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic — and the surrounding Hubei province reported no new cases in the last 24 hours, providing hope in the global fight against the virus. The announcement Thursday suggests the country's strict containment measures have been effective in decreasing the number of cases.
The ministry said results over the past 24 hours showed 34 new cases in all of mainland China, and claimed all of them were detected in people arriving from abroad. Just weeks ago, Wuhan at the peak reported thousands of new cases of coronavirus infections daily, overwhelming its health care system.
"Today, we have seen the dawn after so many days of hard effort," said Jiao Yahui, a senior inspector at the National Health Commission, The Associated Press reported.
While the country's health ministry did not report any new cases, it recorded eight new deaths.
China has begun loosening some of the draconian travel restrictions within the country, but has imposed 14-day quarantine regulations on those arriving in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere from overseas, amid expectations of a new influx of students and others returning home. European countries such as Italy, France and Spain that are currently grappling with the devastating virus have followed China's model in imposing lockdowns.
The Trump administration and many health experts around the world criticized China for attempting to hide the early extent of the outbreak, slowing the global response. But more recently, World Health Organization officials have offered praise for China's cooperation.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, told "CBS This Morning" Thursday that U.S. officials are monitoring information from China and elsewhere fighting COVID-19.
"We're encouraged by the recent reports from China of no new cases," Birx said. "We're watching carefully about China going back to work and seeing if that impacts the spread of the virus. So, we're learning from other countries if our profile looks like China. ... We're evaluating every single country and the data coming from that country."
“We know with respiratory diseases they have a peak and often fall off during the summer months… we're tracking carefully about what would happen if it came back in the fall or came back in the fall after that.” -- Dr. Deborah Birx, Response Coordinator for the @WhiteHousepic.twitter.com/0kMSWpcivV
However, Ben Cowling, a professor at Hong Kong University's School of Public Health, told The New York Times that while China's methods have worked so far, they're not in the clear yet.
"It's very clear that the actions taken in China have almost brought to an end their first wave of infections," Cowling said. "The question is what will happen if there's a second wave, because the kind of measures that China has implemented are not necessarily sustainable in the long term."
China has reported a total of 80,928 confirmed coronavirus cases with 3,245 deaths. Another 70,420 people have been released from hospitals and 7,263 remain in treatment.
Lawmakers wrestled with details of an emergency aid package that could put $1,000 in the pocket of American adult as the life-changing pandemic continued to rattle the nation Thursday.
Stocks fell again, and Italy was poised to surpass China in total deaths. China reached a milestone: The epicenter city of Wuhan and the surrounding province reported no new domestic cases.
In the U.S., deaths jumped to 150 across 22 states – including the first reported fatalities in Connecticut, Michigan, Missouri and Pennsylvania. There were more than 9,400 confirmed cases, up from about 1,600 a week earlier, when there were 40 reported deaths.
The global death toll passed 9,100; there were more than 222,000 confirmed cases.
Our live blog on the coronavirus is being updated throughout the day. Refresh for the latest news. More headlines:
Coronavirus could be bad news for the 2020 census - and may mean many Americans may not be counted.
ARDS is a common killer among critically ill patients hospitalized with COVID-19. But even if they survive, it’s a long road to recovery.
New York leads the nation in confirmed cases. But other states could be close behind.
Does ibuprofen make coronavirus symptoms worse? We found out.
Coronavirus travel restrictions around the world: A country-by-country list
About that $1,000 for each of us...
The Trump administration wants checks of $1,000 per person and $500 per child to go out within three weeks of Congress passing a stimulus package, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said a deal was close.
"The plan is $500 billion in two tranches,” Mnuchin said on Fox Business’ "Mornings with Maria." “The first one would be $1,000 per person, $500 per child."
Six weeks later, if needed, "we'll deliver another $3,000," he said. Mnuchin said he also wanted $300 billion to go toward small businesses for “hiring people, keeping people on the payroll." Another $200 billion would secure lending to airlines and other critical industries, he said.
– Nicholas Wu
US trajectory: Will we follow Italy?
The U.S. could soon find out whether it's likely to be the next South Korea or Italy when it comes to the acceleration of coronavirus cases and deaths. South Korea managed to "flatten the curve" with aggressive action. A data analysis by USA TODAY finds that America’s trajectory is trending toward Italy’s, where circumstances are more dire.
"When you're on an exponential curve every moment is dangerous," Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, told USA TODAY.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's worst-case-scenario is that up to 210 million Americans will be infected by December. Under this forecast, 21 million people would need hospitalization and 200,000 to 1.7 million could die. Collins said that if the U.S. takes drastic measures "we should certainly be able to blunt" the U.S. curve. "But let's be clear: There's going to be a very rough road." Read more here.
– Kim Hjelmgaard and Jim Sergent
Congressman: 'Worst cold I've ever had'
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., announced that he has tested positive, becoming the first known member of Congress to contract the rapidly spreading virus. Hours later, Rep. Ben McAdams, a Democrat from Utah, announced he had tested positive.
“I'm feeling pretty bad. I think this is probably the worst cold I've ever had, but (I am) getting by," McAdams told NBC News’ TODAY from quarantine Thursday. He said his family is "not leaving the house for anything.” McAdams and some other members of Congress say lawmakers should be able to vote remotely to avoid traveling back and forth to Washington. At least 15 lawmakers so far have gone into self-quarantine.
– Christal Hayes, USA TODAY, and David DeMille, St. George (Utah) Spectrum & Daily News
Stock market opens lower – again
U.S. stocks opened lower once again Thursday, but the early numbers were far less numbing than Wednesday's 6%-plus crash. The Dow has lost nearly all of its gains since Donald Trump's inauguration. Shares in Asia failed to hold onto opening gains Thursday, skidding further after the latest selloff on Wall Street amid fears of a prolonged coronavirus-induced recession.
The New York Stock Exchange said it will temporarily close its trading floor and move to electronic trading effective next Monday. “NYSE’s trading floors provide unique value to issuers and investors, but our markets are fully capable of operating in an all-electronic fashion,” said Stacey Cunningham, president of the New York Stock Exchange.
– Jessica Menton
Italy's deaths spike, approach China's total toll
Italy's death toll rose by 475 on Wednesday, bringing the national total to 2,978, Italian Emergency Commissioner and Civil Protection Chief Angelo Borrelli said. Italy appeared likely to pass China on Thursday for the most deaths from the coronavirus crisis that began in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December.
Italy, which is under national lockdown, has reported a total of 35,713 cases. Borrelli said the number of people recovering was on the rise, while the number of new cases appeared to be flattening out.
"It is necessary to limit movements as much as possible," he said. "Today's figures help us to think positively, but correct conduct must be adopted."
Get daily coronavirus updates in your inbox: Sign up for Coronavirus Watch now
NYC mayor mobilizing Medical Reserve Corps
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio urged retired health care workers to join the city's battle against COVID-19, saying the 9,000-member Medical Reserve Corps would be mobilized immediately on a voluntary basis. The group includes mostly retired health care workers, but de Blasio said anyone with health care training would be welcome to volunteer.
"If you are a health care worker, you have any appropriate training, we need you and we need you right away," de Blasio said in a recording published Thursday on social media. "Your city needs you now."
The city is seeing a boom in cases, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the USNS Comfort will be deployed to New York harbor next month. The 1,000-bed hospital ship has 12 fully equipped operating rooms and "will significantly increase New York's hospital surge capacity," Cuomo said in a statement.
Wuhan, China, reports no new coronavirus cases
China's National Commission reported no domestically transmitted cases of the virus Thursday, the first time since it started recording them in January. COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province, in December.
But the announcement also comes as China, South Korea and Singapore faced a spike in infections from abroad that could be the start of a second coronavirus wave. And in China's case, it's also not clear how reliable its data is because the country has clamped down hard on domestic and foreign reporting on the virus that has killed more than 3,200 people in China amid over 81,000 infections. Seventy-thousand have recovered.
Places in Asia such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Japan have been praised for their quick and effective testing, tracing and "social distancing" measures. China aggressively deployed similar tactics.
– Kim Hjelmgaard
More coronavirus headlines, tips and information:
Canned goods and non-perishables are selling out – here's where you can still buy them.
Stuck inside? Here's 100 ways to pass the time.
Some people refuse to "social distance." Psychologists explain why.
Is there any "good news" related to the coronavirus? Perhaps, in reduced air pollution and carbon emissions — and in some places, lives saved.
Fed moves to bolster ailing financial system
The Federal Reserve took another step to ease strains in the financial system as the coronavirus hammers the economy and markets, making loans available to financial institutions that buy assets from stressed money market mutual funds.
The Fed said the lending program, called the money market mutual fund liquidity facility, will be very similar to one launched during the financial crisis. At that time, money funds inundated with redemption demands could have had to sell short-term business loans, known as commercial paper, to meet the requests. Commercial paper provides companies with funding to meet payroll, buy inventories and pay other daily operating expenses.
– Paul Davidson
Florida distillery drops booze for sanitizer
A Florida craft distillery has halted making alcoholic beverages in favor of hand sanitizer – and it's giving the stuff away for free. Copper Bottom Craft Distillery in Holly Hill announced the BYOB offer – you bring the bottle, they will fill it – on Wednesday. Within hours they had given away 20 gallons, mostly in 4-ounce pours. Customers included representatives from a sheriff’s office and a fire department. There were obstetricians, medical clinic workers, school teachers and service industry professionals.
“We’re just trying to spread some goodwill,” said Jenni Craig, who owns the business with her husband, Jeremy, and his parents. “This is a crazy time going on right now, and we want to do what we can to help.”
– Suzanne Hirt, Daytona Beach News-Journal
How many cases of coronavirus in US?
Here are additional important stories from USA TODAY on coronavirus:
The risk to pregnant women from coronavirus appears low. But there's not enough data.
Nursing home residents are trapped inside. Cards and letters are brightening their days.
Amazon is prioritizing shipments for medical supplies, household staples. Here's where else you can buy toilet paper.
When will school reopen? No date in sight.
They booked Palm Springs trips before the pandemic. Now they can't get refunds.
When will coronavirus end? What wartime and human kindness can tell us about what happens next.
