Italy calls in military to enforce coronavirus lockdown as 627 people die in 24 hours - CNN

Desperate scenes have unfolded in the north of the country, particularly the hard-hit Lombardy region where infections first exploded last month, as hospitals struggle to treat thousands of cases.

And Chinese medical experts helping Italy deal with the crisis have said the restrictions imposed in Lombardy are "not strict enough."

The government has now agreed that the military can be used to help enforce the lockdown, the president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, told a news conference on Friday.

"(The request to use the army) has been accepted... and 114 soldiers will be on the ground throughout Lombardy... it is still too little, but it is positive," Fontana said. "Unfortunately we are not seeing a change of trend in the numbers, which are rising."

The soldiers had until now been deployed in the region to ensure general security in the streets.

More than 4,000 people have now died from the disease in Italy, the country's civil protection agency said Friday -- more than any other nation -- and nearly 6,000 new infections were confirmed in the past day, bringing the total to more than 47,000 cases.

Daniela Confalonieri, an Italian nurse in Milan, the region's capital, said the situation was so dire that the dead were no longer being counted.

"We're working in a state of very high stress and tension," Confalonieri told Reuters. "Unfortunately we can't contain the situation in Lombardy, there's a high level of contagion and we're not even counting the dead any more.

"Look at the news that's coming out of Italy and take note of what the situation really is like. It's unimaginable."

A hospital doctor in Bergamo, another Lombardy city, told CNN it had been hit so hard by the coronavirus that it is now sending patients who need intensive care to other parts of the country.

"Bergamo is sending ICU patients to other regions because we ran out (of space)," Dr. Stefano Magnone told CNN on Friday, adding that intensive care units in hospitals in nearby Brescia were also full. Brescia is the second-worst affected province, according to the civil protection agency.

"Around 50 patients were sent out of Lombardy to other regions, mainly in the south," Magnone said. Less than half of those were Covid-19 cases, according to the civil protection agency.

Bergamo's mayor on Thursday announced plans to build a field hospital in the city to help manage the situation.

A doctor in the Lombardy city of Cremona, Romano Paolucci, told Reuters that he had "seen a lot of dead here" and that medical staff were battling to cope with a lack of equipment, long hours and increasing sickness within their own ranks.

"I would say that we are at the end of our strength," he said. "This is a small hospital and we are taking in a lot of people, I would say the capacity is finished.

"We do not have sufficient resources and especially staff because apart from everything else now the staff are beginning to get sick."

About 70% of those treated at the hospital for Covid-19 are surviving, he added.

Patients 'often die on their own'

The disease has taken the greatest toll on Italy's elderly population. Figures released Thursday by the Health Institute of Italy indicated that 86% of fatalities were among those aged over 70. People aged 60 to 69 made up a further 10% of the deaths.

Paolucci said his hospital was trying to help patients keep in touch with their family by phone, particularly the elderly who were less used to making calls.

"The greatest problem which is emerging in these days, I would say, is that the patients cannot be visited by their relatives and often die on their own," he said.

Footage from Reuters showed army trucks collecting the bodies of coronavirus victims overnight in Lombardy.

The Prime Minister's office said a taskforce of up to 300 additional volunteer doctors would be sent to the areas of Italy worst affected by the pandemic.

This year's medical school graduates have also been told they can start working as fully qualified doctors immediately, months ahead of schedule, as Italy's authorities grapple with the crisis.

'I don't know what everyone is thinking'

Meanwhile, the Chinese Red Cross vice president, Sun Shuopeng, urged tougher measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The situation "is similar to what we experienced two months ago in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of Covid-19," he said Thursday at a news conference in Milan.

"In the city of Wuhan after one month since the adoption of the lockdown policy, we see a decreasing trend from the peak of the disease," Sun Shuopeng said. "Here in Milan, the hardest-hit area by Covid-19, there isn't a very strict lockdown: public transportation is still working and people are still moving around, you're still having dinners and parties in the hotels and you're not wearing masks."

"I don't know what everyone is thinking."

He advised Italians to stop all "economic activities and cut the mobility of people," calling on everyone to just stay at home. "We need every citizen to be involved in the fight of Covid-19 and follow this policy."

Lockdown extension?

Italian authorities are considering lengthening school closures beyond April 3, amid rumors of the nationwide lockdown, affecting more than 60 million people, also being extended.

"I think we are going toward an extension," Italian Education minister Lucia Azzolina said Thursday, adding that schools would reopen once there is "certainty of absolute safety."

Corriere della Sera quoted Italian PM Giuseppe Conte as saying Thursday that "it is clear" the measures to tackle the outbreak, "both the one that has closed a lot of the country's businesses and individual activities, and the one that concerns the school, can only be extended to the deadline."

The Prime Minister's spokesperson told CNN no official decision had yet been taken.

Two convents in Rome have been placed into lockdown after reports of a high number of coronavirus cases, a notice from the Lazio region health assessor Alessio D'Amato said Friday.

CNN's Valentina Di Donato, Nicola Ruotolo and Barbie Latza Nadeau reported from Rome and Mia Alberti from Lisbon. CNN's Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Livia Borghese, Sharon Braithwaite and Pierre Bairin contributed to this report.

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2020-03-20 18:12:59Z
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Italy calls in military to enforce lockdown as coronavirus crisis intensifies in north - CNN

Desperate scenes have unfolded in the north of the country, particularly the hard-hit Lombardy region where infections first exploded last month, as hospitals struggle to treat thousands of cases.

And Chinese medical experts helping Italy deal with the crisis have said the restrictions imposed in Lombardy are "not strict enough."

The government has now agreed that the military can be used to help enforce the lockdown, the president of the Lombardy region, Attilio Fontana, told a news conference on Friday.

"(The request to use the army) has been accepted... and 114 soldiers will be on the ground throughout Lombardy... it is still too little, but it is positive," Fontana said. "Unfortunately we are not seeing a change of trend in the numbers, which are rising."

The soldiers had until now been deployed in the region to ensure general security in the streets.

More than 3,400 people have now died from the disease in Italy, the Italian Civil Protection Agency said. The number of deaths in China currently stands at 3,242, according to the World Health Organization.

Daniela Confalonieri, an Italian nurse in Milan, the region's capital, said the situation was so dire that the dead were no longer being counted.

"We're working in a state of very high stress and tension," Confalonieri told Reuters. "Unfortunately we can't contain the situation in Lombardy, there's a high level of contagion and we're not even counting the dead any more.

"Look at the news that's coming out of Italy and take note of what the situation really is like. It's unimaginable."

A hospital doctor in Bergamo, another Lombardy city, told CNN it had been hit so hard by the coronavirus that it is now sending patients who need intensive care to other parts of the country.

"Bergamo is sending ICU patients to other regions because we ran out (of space)," Dr. Stefano Magnone told CNN on Friday, adding that intensive care units in hospitals in nearby Brescia were also full. Brescia is the second-worst affected province, according to the Italian Civil Protection Department.

"Around 50 patients were sent out of Lombardy to other regions, mainly in the south," Magnone said. Less than half of those were Covid-19 cases, according to Italy's Civil Protection Agency.

Bergamo's mayor on Thursday announced plans to build a field hospital in the city to help manage the situation.

A doctor in the Lombardy city of Cremona, Romano Paolucci, told Reuters that he had "seen a lot of dead here" and that medical staff were battling to cope with a lack of equipment, long hours and increasing sickness within their own ranks.

"I would say that we are at the end of our strength," he said. "This is a small hospital and we are taking in a lot of people, I would say the capacity is finished.

"We do not have sufficient resources and especially staff because apart from everything else now the staff are beginning to get sick."

About 70% of those treated at the hospital for Covid-19 are surviving, he added.

Patients 'often die on their own'

The disease has taken the greatest toll on Italy's elderly population. Figures released Thursday by the Health Institute of Italy indicated that 86% of fatalities were among those aged over 70. People aged 60 to 69 made up a further 10% of the deaths.

Paolucci said his hospital was trying to help patients keep in touch with their family by phone, particularly the elderly who were less used to making calls.

"The greatest problem which is emerging in these days, I would say, is that the patients cannot be visited by their relatives and often die on their own," he said.

Footage from Reuters showed army trucks collecting the bodies of coronavirus victims overnight in Lombardy.

The Prime Minister's office said a taskforce of up to 300 additional volunteer doctors would be sent to the areas of Italy worst affected by the pandemic.

This year's medical school graduates have also been told they can start working as fully qualified doctors immediately, months ahead of schedule, as Italy's authorities grapple with the crisis.

'I don't know what everyone is thinking'

Meanwhile, the Chinese Red Cross vice president, Sun Shuopeng, urged tougher measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The situation "is similar to what we experienced two months ago in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of Covid-19," he said Thursday at a news conference in Milan.

"In the city of Wuhan after one month since the adoption of the lockdown policy, we see a decreasing trend from the peak of the disease," Sun Shuopeng said. "Here in Milan, the hardest-hit area by Covid-19, there isn't a very strict lockdown: public transportation is still working and people are still moving around, you're still having dinners and parties in the hotels and you're not wearing masks."

"I don't know what everyone is thinking."

He advised Italians to stop all "economic activities and cut the mobility of people," calling on everyone to just stay at home. "We need every citizen to be involved in the fight of Covid-19 and follow this policy."

Lockdown extension?

Italian authorities are considering lengthening school closures beyond April 3, amid rumors of the nationwide lockdown, affecting more than 60 million people, also being extended.

"I think we are going toward an extension," Italian Education minister Lucia Azzolina said Thursday, adding that schools would reopen once there is "certainty of absolute safety."

Corriere della Sera quoted Italian PM Giuseppe Conte as saying Thursday that "it is clear" the measures to tackle the outbreak, "both the one that has closed a lot of the country's businesses and individual activities, and the one that concerns the school, can only be extended to the deadline."

The Prime Minister's spokesperson told CNN no official decision had yet been taken.

Two convents in Rome have been placed into lockdown after reports of a high number of coronavirus cases, a notice from the Lazio region health assessor Alessio D'Amato said Friday.

CNN's Valentina Di Donato, Nicola Ruotolo and Barbie Latza Nadeau reported from Rome and Mia Alberti from Lisbon. CNN's Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Livia Borghese, Sharon Braithwaite and Pierre Bairin contributed to this report.

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2020-03-20 16:54:55Z
52780672521026

UK PM Boris Johnson announces lockdown measures in London, telling cafes, pubs and restaurants to close - CNBC

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures as he speaks during a coronavirus news conference inside number 10 Downing Street on March 19, 2020 in London, England.

Leon Neal - WPA Pool | Getty Images

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced lockdown measures in the capital city of London, telling cafes, bars and restaurants to close from Friday.

Speaking at a daily press conference on the coronavirus outbreak, Johnson said: "We are collectively telling cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants to close tonight as soon as they reasonably can and not to open tomorrow."

He clarified takeout services for these businesses would be able to continue.  

"We are also telling nightclubs, theaters, cinemas, gyms, and leisure centers to close on the same timescale."

"These are places where people come together, and indeed the whole purpose of these businesses in many cases is to bring people together. But, the sad thing is, I'm afraid today for now at least physically we need to keep people apart," Johnson said.

It was not immediately clear whether the recommendations were enforceable by law, although Johnson said licensing laws would allow the government to order these businesses to close.

The prime minister said the newly announced measures would be reviewed on a monthly basis.

To date, the U.K. has reported 3,297 cases of the coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, with 168 deaths. 

Sterling rose on the news, trading up 1.5% to reach $1.1657 Friday evening London time

'Unprecedented' measures

Standing alongside Johnson at the daily press conference Friday, U.K. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak announced the government would pay 80% of wages for employees not working — up to a limit of £2,500 a month.

Sunak described the extra measures as "unprecedented" in the history of the British state.

It comes roughly 24 hours after the prime minister warned further restrictive measures might be needed in the capital city, with evidence suggesting the flu-like virus is spreading faster in London.

On Thursday, he suggested the U.K. could turn the tide against the coronavirus within 12 weeks if the right measures were taken.

Schools in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will all close until further notice from Friday.

The former mayor of London has ruled out the prospect of stopping public transport in London, despite speculation about possible travel restrictions where approximately 9 million people live. 

The U.K. government has been criticized for being too cautious with their approach to the outbreak. 

Separately, Transport for London (TfL) announced Thursday that up to 40 Tube stations on the London Underground had closed as part of a partial network shutdown.

TfL also said there would be no night Tube and bus services would be reduced. 

Epicenter of the outbreak

The U.K. has reported the sixth-highest number of coronavirus cases in Europe, behind Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Switzerland. The WHO recently declared Europe as the new epicenter of the outbreak.

Italy has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 infections on the continent. It has also registered more deaths than any other country worldwide, overtaking China — where the outbreak first started in December last year.

Earlier this week, the U.K.'s finance minister announced a £330 billion ($398 billion) aid package of loans for businesses, as well as a business rates holiday and grants.

— CNBC's Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

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2020-03-20 17:49:56Z
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Trump administration announces US, Mexico limiting non-essential travel across border amid coronavirus - Fox News

The Trump administration on Friday announced sweeping new travel restrictions between U.S. and Mexico in the latest step by the administration to curb the spread of the coronavirus -- halting non-essential travel and moving to turn back any illegal immigrants trying to enter the country.

"The United States and Mexico have agreed to restrict non-essential travel across our shared border," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a White House press briefing with other top officials.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, LAWMAKERS HUDDLE TO NEGOTIATE MASSIVE $1T STIMULUS, AMID CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

Officials emphasized that the restrictions would not affect lawful trade and commerce, as the administration seeks to keep the economic supply chain going amid the ongoing crisis.

Moments later, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf announced that the Center for Disease Control has directed DHS to "suspend the introduction of all individuals without proper documentation" into the U.S. from both the northern and southern borders.

Those entering the country illegally between the ports of entry are frequently detained for a period of time, particularly if they claim asylum. But under this policy, they will be sent back immediately and not detained in a center where they could possibly spread or catch the highly contagious virus.

TRUMP ANNOUNCES SUSPENSION OF FEDERAL STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS, STANDARDIZED TESTING REQUIREMENTS BECAUSE OF CORONAVIRUS

Wolf said the restrictions will go into place at midnight tonight, and that anyone caught entering the country illegally would immediately be returned to Mexico, Canada or a number of other countries from where they have originated. The restrictions come amid fears that a wave of migration could bring disease and overwhelm the American health care system.

“These measures will protect the health of all three nations and reduce the incentive for mass global migration that would badly deplete the health care resources needed for our people,” President Trump said.

Also during Friday's press conference, Trump announced that the administration would allow federal student loan borrowers to suspend their payments without penalty for at least 60 days, and that standardized test requirements would not be enforced for elementary and high school students amid the coronavirus pandemic.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The press conference threatened to get derailed on a number of occasions. He objected to one question by NBC News reporter Peter Alexander that he deemed "nasty" and called him a "terrible reporter." That led to a number of other reporters choosing instead to use their questions to ask both Trump and Pompeo about that remark. Trump refused to back off.

In another unusual moment, former Press Secretary Sean Spicer was called on to ask Trump a question.

Trump has slapped travel bans on China, Iran and the European Union. This week, Trump announced that the U.S. and Canada had agreed to stop all non-essential travel across the border -- that also goes into effect at midnight.

Trump said Friday the crisis threatens to “create a perfect storm that would spread infections to our border agents, migrants, and to the public at large. Left unchecked this would cripple our system, overwhelm the health care system and threaten national security -- we’re not going to let that happen.”

It's one of a host of measures by the administration to combat the spread of the virus. A number of states have imposed significant restrictions on daily life. California and New York have issued orders for residents to stay at home, and businesses and schools have closed across the country.

The administration is also seeking to provide economic relief to Americans affected by the crisis. The Senate appears to be nearing agreement on a $1 trillion stimulus package that includes sending checks to Americans. Trump on Friday confirmed that Tax Day is being shifted to July 15.

As of Friday morning, the U.S. had 14,250 confirmed cases of coronavirus in all 50 states, including Washington, D.C. The U.S., so far, has seen 205 COVID-19-related deaths.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

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2020-03-20 16:10:27Z
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China's new imported coronavirus cases at record; no domestic transfers for second day - Reuters

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s imported coronavirus cases have risen to a record 228, data showed on Friday, as infected travellers spread to ever more provinces, adding pressure on authorities to toughen entry rules and health protocols.

For a second day in a row, China found no domestically transmitted cases of the virus that emerged in its central province of Hubei late last year, according to new daily figures registered on Thursday.

Fears of a second wave of infections are growing just as China brings its epidemic under control, with the spread of the virus in Europe and North America spurring a rush homewards by Chinese expatriates, many of them students.

“The number of imported cases in China has further increased, and so the pressure to be on guard has also increased,” Wang Bin, an official of the National Health Commission, told a news conference in Beijing on Friday.

Mainland China had 39 new imported infections on Thursday, the commission said. Fourteen of these were in the southern province of Guangdong, eight in the commercial hub of Shanghai and six in the capital, Beijing, it said in a statement.

The main entrypoints for infected travellers have been key transport hubs such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, including the city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.

A smattering of imported cases were also reported in the city of Tianjin and the provinces of Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Shandong and Gansu in the north, as well as in the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Sichuan, and the region of Guangxi further south, taking China’s total imported infections to 228.

The commission did not say where the cases were believed to have originated, but provincial authorities said some of the travellers had been in Britain, Spain and the United States.

“Everyone is being very vigilant about those coming back from abroad. We must absolutely not let our guard down,” Cao, a Beijing resident who gave only his surname, told Reuters.

A police officer in a protective suit keeps watch on inbound travellers at Shanghai Pudong International Airport following a global outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Shanghai, China March 20, 2020. cnsphoto via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT.

“We cannot relax this vigilance so much that we see a rebound.”

In Gansu, five officials were punished for picking up travellers returning from overseas without permission, including two who have tested positive, the official Xinhua news agency said.

As concern grows over infected arrivals from overseas, the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held a video conference on Friday to discuss cooperation to rein in the pandemic.

NO SYMPTOMS

The new imported case in Tianjin, a city of 11 million, was a 23-year-old woman studying in London who came home via Zurich, Tokyo and Beijing, Xinhua said.

The northeastern city of Shenyang said its first imported case was a traveller arriving from London via Seoul, who displayed no fever or respiratory tract symptoms at the airport on March 16.

Many outbreaks overseas were caused by travellers from China who were pre-symptomatic and so had not been screened or isolated, the Yale School of Public Health said in a study.

China has long recommended self-isolation by returning travellers, but authorities in some regions now enforce 14 days in quarantine in a medical facility for people returning from any of 24 badly-hit nations, to limit the risk of spread by those not yet showing symptoms.

For a second day, there were no new cases in the outbreak epicentre of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, the National Health Commission said.

Slideshow (5 Images)

Mainland China’s tally of infections stands at 80,967, with the death toll at 3,248 by Thursday, an increase of three from the previous day.

Globally, 245,000 people have been infected and more than 10,000 have died.

Reporting by Ryan Woo, Gao Liangping, Brenda Goh, David Stanway, Thomas Suen, Zhang Yan, and Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Stephen Coates and Clarence Fernandez

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-03-20 15:35:43Z
CAIiEGvtotlJucI1ybEZfKsbgWgqFggEKg0IACoGCAowt6AMMLAmMLT5lwM

7 years after bus rape and murder shocked the world, attackers hanged in New Delhi - CNN

Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma were hanged at a jail in the Indian capital on Friday, March 20, more than six years after being convicted of raping and killing the woman, known only as "Nirbhaya."

The four men were convicted in 2013, but three of them appealed their death sentence to India's top court, the Supreme Court. All appeals were denied, including mercy pleas to India's President Ram Nath Kovind.

The case prompted outrage around the world and in India, where protesters demanded justice for Nirbhaya, a pseudonym given to the student that means "fearless." Under Indian law, victims of certain crimes cannot be named.

Campaigners called for tougher laws on sexual assault in a country where, based on official figures from 2018, the rape of a woman is reported every 16 minutes.

While reports of rape are all too common, the execution of prisoners for any type of crime in India is rare.

In 2018, trial courts imposed 162 death sentences -- the highest number in nearly two decades -- according to data collated by National Law University in Delhi.

However, there were no recorded executions that year, according to Amnesty International. Only a handful of people have been executed over the past 20 years, including three terrorists, and Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was executed in 2004 over the rape and murder of a school girl. Recently, the Supreme Court has commuted a number of death penalties to life imprisonment.

A horrific attack

At about 8:30 p.m. on December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya and her boyfriend took a chartered bus home after watching the film "Life of Pi" at a Delhi movie theater. It's common in India for chartered buses to pick up additional passengers during odd hours.

While the bus was moving, a group of men stole the pair's belongings, then took the victim to the back of the bus where they raped and assaulted Nirbhaya with iron rods, according to court documents. They also stripped and beat her boyfriend, who they held down during the attack.

• December 16: 23-year-old physiotherapy student Nirbhaya is brutally gang raped on a bus in New Delhi. She is left in a critical condition.

  December 29: Nirbhaya dies in a Singapore hospital after suffering serious injuries.

• January 21: The trial of five adult suspects begins in New Delhi.

  March 11: One of the accused takes his own life in prison, according to authorities.

  August 31: A teenager who was 17 at the time of the attack is sentenced to three years in a juvenile correctional facility.

  September 10: Four adult suspects are found guilty of the gang rape and murder of Nirbhaya.

  September 13: All four are sentenced to death for Nirbhaya's rape and murder. They appeal their sentence.

• March 13: Delhi High Court quashes their appeal and upholds the death sentence. The four men take it to the Supreme Court.

• December 20: The youngest attacker is released from the special juvenile correctional facility. Indian law enforcement and lawmakers had asked for continued custody, but the Delhi High Court could not find legal grounds to issue a stay.

• May 5: India's top court, the Supreme Court, upholds the decision to sentence the four men to death.

• July 9: The Supreme Court rejects a petition for clemency filed by three of the men convicted of Nirbhaya's rape and murder.

• January 7: All four men issued with death warrants.

Source: CNN reporting

Afterward, the men threw the naked victims from the front door of the moving bus and tried to run them over. They then cleaned the bus with the victims' clothes, before burning them and dividing the "loot" among themselves, including two mobile phones, a wrist watch, and a pair of shoes.

Nirbhaya died two weeks after the attack in a Singapore hospital, where doctors had been treating her for serious injuries to her body and brain. Before she died, she made statements to the authorities about the attack.

The men involved

Soon after the attack, police located six suspects, who knew each other before the incident.

The oldest was 34-year-old school bus driver Ram Singh, who "routinely" drove the vehicle where the attack took place, according to court documents.

He was accused of the victim's rape and murder but was never convicted as he allegedly killed himself in prison shortly after the trial began. His family claimed that he was murdered, according to media reports.

The youngest, who was only 17 at the time of the attack and who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced to three years in a juvenile correctional facility, and was released in 2015.

The other four, aged between 28 and 19 at the time of the attack, were convicted and sentenced to death less than a year later.

They include bus cleaner Akshay Thakur, part-time gym instructor Vinay Sharma, fruit seller Pawan Gupta, and Ram Singh's younger brother Mukesh Singh.

In a 2015 BBC interview, the younger Singh said "a decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy."

A wider issue of rape

In 2018, more than 33,000 cases of alleged rape were reported -- roughly 91 cases each day, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau.

The number of reported rapes has risen since 2012, potentially because of greater awareness and the perception that something will be done.

Legal reforms and more severe penalties for rape were introduced following Nirbhaya's death.

Those included fast track courts to move rape cases through the justice system swiftly, an amended definition of rape to include anal and oral penetration, and the publication of new government guidelines intended to do away with the two-finger test which purportedly assessed whether a woman had sexual intercourse recently.

The authorities also updated the law to allow the death sentence for repeat rape offenders. Prior to that, the maximum punishment for rape was life imprisonment. In 2018, the law was amended so that the death penalty can be handed down in cases where the victim is a girl under the age of 12.

Experts say that the outrage following Nirbhaya's death has helped to lift the shame around discussing rape. However, many of the problems associated with India's rape crisis continue.

And high-profile rape cases have continued to hit headlines. Last year, four men confessed to the gang rape and murder of a 27-year-old woman, whom they set on fire. The four were shot dead by police in custody after allegedly snatching weapons from police and firing at them while visiting the scene to reconstruct the crime.

CNN's Esha Mitra contributed reporting from New Delhi.

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2020-03-20 14:37:45Z
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China's new imported coronavirus cases at record; no domestic transfers for second day - Reuters

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s imported coronavirus cases have risen to a record 228, data showed on Friday, as infected travellers spread to ever more provinces, adding pressure on authorities to toughen entry rules and health protocols.

For a second day in a row, China found no domestically transmitted cases of the virus that emerged in its central province of Hubei late last year, according to new daily figures registered on Thursday.

Fears of a second wave of infections are growing just as China brings its epidemic under control, with the spread of the virus in Europe and North America spurring a rush homewards by Chinese expatriates, many of them students.

“The number of imported cases in China has further increased, and so the pressure to be on guard has also increased,” Wang Bin, an official of the National Health Commission, told a news conference in Beijing on Friday.

Mainland China had 39 new imported infections on Thursday, the commission said. Fourteen of these were in the southern province of Guangdong, eight in the commercial hub of Shanghai and six in the capital, Beijing, it said in a statement.

The main entrypoints for infected travellers have been key transport hubs such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, including the city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.

A smattering of imported cases were also reported in the city of Tianjin and the provinces of Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Shandong and Gansu in the north, as well as in the provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Sichuan, and the region of Guangxi further south, taking China’s total imported infections to 228.

The commission did not say where the cases were believed to have originated, but provincial authorities said some of the travellers had been in Britain, Spain and the United States.

“Everyone is being very vigilant about those coming back from abroad. We must absolutely not let our guard down,” Cao, a Beijing resident who gave only his surname, told Reuters.

A police officer in a protective suit keeps watch on inbound travellers at Shanghai Pudong International Airport following a global outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Shanghai, China March 20, 2020. cnsphoto via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT.

“We cannot relax this vigilance so much that we see a rebound.”

In Gansu, five officials were punished for picking up travellers returning from overseas without permission, including two who have tested positive, the official Xinhua news agency said.

As concern grows over infected arrivals from overseas, the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held a video conference on Friday to discuss cooperation to rein in the pandemic.

NO SYMPTOMS

The new imported case in Tianjin, a city of 11 million, was a 23-year-old woman studying in London who came home via Zurich, Tokyo and Beijing, Xinhua said.

The northeastern city of Shenyang said its first imported case was a traveller arriving from London via Seoul, who displayed no fever or respiratory tract symptoms at the airport on March 16.

Many outbreaks overseas were caused by travellers from China who were pre-symptomatic and so had not been screened or isolated, the Yale School of Public Health said in a study.

China has long recommended self-isolation by returning travellers, but authorities in some regions now enforce 14 days in quarantine in a medical facility for people returning from any of 24 badly-hit nations, to limit the risk of spread by those not yet showing symptoms.

For a second day, there were no new cases in the outbreak epicentre of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, the National Health Commission said.

Slideshow (5 Images)

Mainland China’s tally of infections stands at 80,967, with the death toll at 3,248 by Thursday, an increase of three from the previous day.

Globally, 245,000 people have been infected and more than 10,000 have died.

Reporting by Ryan Woo, Gao Liangping, Brenda Goh, David Stanway, Thomas Suen, Zhang Yan, and Gabriel Crossley; Editing by Stephen Coates and Clarence Fernandez

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-03-20 14:40:13Z
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