Kamis, 26 Maret 2020

U.S. Officials Believe Ex-FBI Agent Who Disappeared In Iran In 2007 Is Dead - NPR

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An FBI poster from 2012 showing former FBI agent Robert Levinson before his capture, left; in a video released by his kidnappers, center; and a composite image of what he might look like after five years in captivity, right. The FBI said Levinson was the longest-held American hostage. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP hide caption

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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Updated at 4:50 a.m. ET

Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in 2007 while on an unauthorized mission in Iran for the CIA, is now presumed dead, White House officials and his family said Wednesday.

"We recently received information from U.S. officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody," his family announced in a post on the group "Help Bob Levinson" on Facebook. "We don't know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic."

The family blamed the "cruel, heartless actions of the Iranian regime " for his death and said they had no idea when or if his body would be returned, calling that uncertainty "the very definition of cruelty."

A spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations, Alireza Miryousefi, said in a tweet, "Iran has always maintained that its officials have no knowledge of Mr. Levinson's whereabouts, and that he is not in Iranian custody. Those facts have not changed."

National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, in a statement issued Wednesday evening, said that "the investigation is ongoing" but that the U.S. believes Levinson "may have passed away some time ago."

In a tweet, Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, said he mourns for the Levinsons.

However, President Trump himself seemed less certain of Levinson's death. "It's not looking great, but I won't accept that he's dead," he said.

"They haven't told us that he's dead, but a lot of people are thinking that that's the case," the president said.

Levinson disappeared on Iran's Persian Gulf island of Kish in March 2007 while working for a group of CIA analysts on an investigation that had not been officially approved by the agency. Levinson had retired from the FBI and was working as a private investigator.

In a 2016 interview that aired on NPR's Morning Edition, Daniel Levinson said his father had traveled to Kish to meet with an American who had fled Iran in 1980.

"My dad was working as a contractor for the CIA at the time," Levinson said. "And as far as we can tell that my dad checked out of the hotel. And according to the other man, he was approached by Iranian security forces. So a couple weeks after that, he went missing."

"The Iranian state-run Press TV reported that he was, quote, 'in the hands of Iranian security forces,' " Levinson said. "So we've been focused on that ever since."

The last images of Levinson taken by his unidentified captors were released in 2011.

Late last year, amid tense relations with Tehran, the Trump administration offered $20 million, on top of the $5 million previously offered by the FBI, for information about Levinson.

At the time, Iran, in a filing to the United Nations, said: "According to the last statement of Tehran's Justice Department, Mr. Robert Alan Levinson has an ongoing case in the Public Prosecution and Revolutionary Court of Tehran." Iran later said the "ongoing case" was an investigation into his disappearance.

The Levinson family thanked FBI Director Chris Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and O'Brien for their efforts.

However, the family also called out those they said were responsible for what happened, "including those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind."

The statement said the family would "spend the rest of our lives" seeking justice for Levinson, "and the Iranian regime must know we will not be going away."

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2020-03-26 09:14:38Z
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U.S. Officials Believe Ex-FBI Agent Who Disappeared In Iran In 2007 Is Dead - NPR

Enlarge this image

An FBI poster from 2012 showing former FBI agent Robert Levinson before his capture, left; in a video released by his kidnappers, center; and a composite image of what he might look like after five years in captivity, right. The FBI said Levinson was the longest-held American hostage. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Updated at 4:50 a.m. ET

Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in 2007 while on an unauthorized mission in Iran for the CIA, is now presumed dead, White House officials and his family said Wednesday.

"We recently received information from U.S. officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody," his family announced in a post on the group "Help Bob Levinson" on Facebook. "We don't know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic."

The family blamed the "cruel, heartless actions of the Iranian regime " for his death and said they had no idea when or if his body would be returned, calling that uncertainty "the very definition of cruelty."

A spokesman for Iran's mission to the United Nations, Alireza Miryousefi, said in a tweet, "Iran has always maintained that its officials have no knowledge of Mr. Levinson's whereabouts, and that he is not in Iranian custody. Those facts have not changed."

National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, in a statement issued Wednesday evening, said that "the investigation is ongoing" but that the U.S. believes Levinson "may have passed away some time ago."

In a tweet, Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, said he mourns for the Levinsons.

However, President Trump himself seemed less certain of Levinson's death. "It's not looking great, but I won't accept that he's dead," he said.

"They haven't told us that he's dead, but a lot of people are thinking that that's the case," the president said.

Levinson disappeared on Iran's Persian Gulf island of Kish in March 2007 while working for a group of CIA analysts on an investigation that had not been officially approved by the agency. Levinson had retired from the FBI and was working as a private investigator.

In a 2016 interview that aired on NPR's Morning Edition, Daniel Levinson said his father had traveled to Kish to meet with an American who had fled Iran in 1980.

"My dad was working as a contractor for the CIA at the time," Levinson said. "And as far as we can tell that my dad checked out of the hotel. And according to the other man, he was approached by Iranian security forces. So a couple weeks after that, he went missing."

"The Iranian state-run Press TV reported that he was, quote, 'in the hands of Iranian security forces,' " Levinson said. "So we've been focused on that ever since."

The last images of Levinson taken by his unidentified captors were released in 2011.

Late last year, amid tense relations with Tehran, the Trump administration offered $20 million, on top of the $5 million previously offered by the FBI, for information about Levinson.

At the time, Iran, in a filing to the United Nations, said: "According to the last statement of Tehran's Justice Department, Mr. Robert Alan Levinson has an ongoing case in the Public Prosecution and Revolutionary Court of Tehran." Iran later said the "ongoing case" was an investigation into his disappearance.

The Levinson family thanked FBI Director Chris Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and O'Brien for their efforts.

However, the family also called out those they said were responsible for what happened, "including those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind."

The statement said the family would "spend the rest of our lives" seeking justice for Levinson, "and the Iranian regime must know we will not be going away."

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2020-03-26 08:56:37Z
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UN says coronavirus threat to 'whole of humanity': Live updates - Al Jazeera English

The United States has registered more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths as the country confirmed more than 69,000 cases.

The US Senate passed a sweeping $2 trillion measure to aid workers, businesses, and the healthcare system. It has gone back to the lower house for approval.

Meanwhile, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has launched an appeal for $2bn in international humanitarian aid to help poorer countries tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

More:

More than 472,000 people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. More than 114,000 have recovered, while more than 21,000 people have died.

Spain recorded more than 700 fatalities in 24 hours. It is now the second-worst affected country in the world after Italy.

Here are the latest updates:

Thursday, March 26

08:20 GMT - China says no new cases confirmed locally

China's National Health Commission (NHC) said six more people died of the virus and 67 new cases were confirmed, but all of them were imported.

"Hubei reported no new cases of confirmed infection, no new cases of suspected infections, and 6 deaths, 5 in Wuhan," the NHC said.

People wearing face masks line up outside Xianning Central Hospital in Xianning

People wearing face masks line up outside Xianning Central Hospital in Xianning [Aly Song/Reuters]

08:09 GMT - South Korea: 97-year-old recovers from coronavirus

A woman, 97, has recovered from the coronavirus after a two-week treatment in South Korea's Pohang Medical Centre.

She was discharged and placed in self-isolation at home to protect her from re-infection, The Korea Times reported.

The oldest patient on the course of recovery in the same hospital is a 104-year-old woman, the report said.

07:52 GMT - Moscow to close all non-essential shops

Moscow will close all shops except for pharmacies and grocery stores, the city's mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

This measure, which also includes the closure of restaurants, cafes and bars, will last from March 28 until April 5, Sobyanin said in a statement.

07:43 GMT - Nine doctors die from coronavirus in Philippines

Nine doctors have died in the Philippines from the coronavirus, the country's top medical association said, as hospitals were overwhelmed and medics complained about a lack of protection on the front lines.

The Philippine Medical Association said that health workers were not getting enough protection.

"If it were up to me, test the frontliners first and test them again after seven days. Doctors could be carriers themselves," Benito Atienza, vice president of the Philippine Medical Association, told AFP news agency.

UN launches virus aid plan, says 'all of humanity' at risk (03:44)

07:37 GMT - UK says 560,000 volunteers sign up to help NHS

Britain's health Minister Matt Hancock said 560,000 people had volunteered to help the National Health Service during the coronavirus crisis, more than double the number he had hoped to recruit.

Britain had on Tuesday issued a call for 250,000 volunteers to sign up to help the NHS and vulnerable people hit by the coronavirus crisis.

Writing on Twitter, Hancock called the news "fantastic".

07:25 GMT - Tokyo reports more than 40 new cases

The Japanese capital of Tokyo reported more than 40 new cases of coronavirus infections for the second day running, Jiji News reported.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike held an emergency news conference to warn of the risk of an explosive rise in infections, asking residents to avoid non-essential outings until April 12.

The city has become the centre of Japan's coronavirus epidemic, with more than 250 cases.

07:15 GMT - Kashmir registers its first COVID-19 death

A 65-year-old man who had a recent travel history outside the region, became the first COVID-19 fatality in Indian-administered Kashmir, sparking fear and causing a stricter lockdown.

Rohit Kansal, the spokesperson of the region's government, said the "first death due to coronavirus is a 65-year-old man from Srinagar", he said, referring to the Srinagar man who tested positive two days ago.

Kansal said that four of his contacts have also tested positive for the virus.

Spanish medics demand protection as death toll overtakes China's (02:28)

07:08 GMT - Russia's Gazprom says 20 workers isolated at gas field

Gas giant Gazprom said 20 workers have been quarantined at Bovanenkovo gas field, one of its largest in northern Russia, after contact with a person who has coronavirus.

It said the contact occurred on March 16 and the isolation will last until March 30. Production has not been affected.

06:47 GMT - Iran starts intercity travel ban

Iran started an intercity travel ban, an Iranian official said in a televised news conference, amid fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections in the Middle East's worst-hit country.

"Those who have travelled for the Iranian New Year holidays should immediately return to their cities without making any stop in the cities on their way back home," said Hossein Zolfaghari, a member of Iran's national headquarters for fighting the coronavirus.

"The closure of universities and schools as well as suspension of gatherings has been extended," he said, adding that violators of the measures will face legal consequences.

05:45 GMT

I'll be handing over this blog to my colleague Tamila Varshalomidze in Doha shortly.

Here are the main developments this morning:

It was a bit touch and go for a while, but the US Senate has finally passed a $2 trillion relief bill for those affected by the coronavirus. Now it goes back to the House of Representatives. 

A number of countries are preparing to impose emergencies (Thailand) or extend them (Spain).

South Korea says it will deny entry to people travelling from overseas who refuse to download an app that tracks their self-isolation, while China says all its new cases continue to be "imported" - most of them Chinese nationals returning home.

US Senate approves $2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill (02:20)

05:35 GMT - China shifts narrative on coronavirus outbreak

With China's own outbreak of coronavirus appearing to have calmed, the country's state media is devoting considerable space to championing China's efforts to help Italy, Iran and other countries that are now struggling to control a disease that first appeared in the city of Wuhan late last year. 

Shawn Yuan, who is in China, has been following the shifting narrative.

05:25 GMT - Russia to suspend all international flights from March 27

The Russian government has ordered the civil aviation authority to suspend all regular and charter flights to and from Russia from March 27, the government said on its website.

Russian airlines will still be allowed to fly to other countries to bring Russian citizens back or if they are authorised by special government decisions.

05:10 GMT - Airlines, small businesses, hospitals: Who benefits?

A little more detail on the $2 trillion relief bill that finally made its way through the Senate on Wednesday and should get final approval later this week.

The measures include: 

  • $500bn for a Treasury Department lending facility to support US companies, including airlines, with public oversight
  • $350bn for small businesses. 
  • $100bn for hospitals, nurses and doctors to battle the outbreak
  • $150bn for state and local governments
  • $300bn in direct payments to most Americans of up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child within about three weeks. 
  • $250bn in federal unemployment benefits of $600 per week for individual employees as well as gig workers and independent contractors 

You can find out more about what's at stake in this story from Al Jazeera's William Roberts.

05:05 GMT - Nigerian army preparing for strict lockdown, forced transfers of sick

The Nigerian Army is preparing to forcibly transfer the sick to hospital and enforce strict curbs on movement to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Africa's most populous country, according to Reuters news agency.

A memo from army headquarters seen by the news agency outlines measures to protect government food storage from looters and says the military is also leasing equipment for "possible mass burial".

04:25 GMT - Thailand announces 111 new confirmed cases

Thailand has announced 111 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, after declaring a state of emergency to come into effect at midnight (17:00 GMT).

The measures will include the closure of all border crossings except to Thai nationals, diplomats and their families and people with permission to work in Thailand. 

The total known cases of the virus now stands at 1,045.

Thailand Myanmar

Migrant workers from Myanmar have been trying to return home through the border at Mae Sot with an emergency due to come into force at midnight [Reuters]

03:30 GMT - US Senate passes $2 trillion coronavirus package

After a series of last-minute hiccups, the US Senate has finally passed a $2 trillion package to support the health system, workers and business hurt by the coronavirus outbreak.

We'll have more on that story shortly.

03:30 GMT - Parliament in Spain votes to extend state of emergency until April 11

Spain's parliament has voted in favour of the government's request to extend the state of emergency - and a nationwide lockdown - by two weeks.

The emergency was first declared on March 14 and includes strict stay-at-home rules.

More people have died in Spain from COVID-19 than any other country except for Italy.

02:50 GMT - Cases in US near 70,000, with more than 1,000 dead

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US is nearing 70,000 with more than 1,000 people now reported to have died from COVID-19, according to AFP news agency.

More on how each state is handling the outbreak here.

02:45 GMT - Japan to set up coronavirus HQ, possible emergency declaration

Japan's government is preparing to set up a special headquarters on coronavirus as early as Thursday afternoon, in a move that could set the stage for declaring a state of emergency over the outbreak, the Kyodo news agency reported.

The prime minister can declare a state of emergency if the disease is seen as posing a "grave danger" to lives and if its spread threatens the economy.

02:30 GMT - Overseas arrivals to South Korea to be refused entry without app

Yonhap news agency is reporting that South Korea will deny entry to people arriving in the country from overseas if they refuse to install an app to monitor them while they are in self-isolation.

South Korea South Korea has been tightening restrictions on people who arrive in the country from overseas [Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters]

02:25 GMT - Border closures, flight suspensions leave people stranded

Countries around the world have advised their citizens overseas to return home as quickly as they can as lockdowns accelerate, borders are sealed off and even transit passengers banned.

But that is easier said than done.

Al Jazeera's Ian Neubauer spoke to people stuck in limbo at Kuala Lumpur's international airport.

01:50 GMT - Mexico to suspend all non-essential activity from Thursday

Mexico's Deputy Health Minister Dr Hugo Lopez-Gatell says all non-essential activities in the country will be suspended from Thursday. 

Mexico has reported 475 confirmed cases of coronavirus and six deaths.

01:20 GMT - South Korea cases rise by 104, five more deaths

South Korea's just given its latest update. The country confirmed 104 new cases, bringing the total to 9,241, with five more deaths.

Some 414 people were discharged from hospital after making a full recovery. In all, 4,144 people in South Korea have been cured of the virus.

00:10 GMT - China cases climb again; all from overseas

Mainland China has reported a further increase in coronavirus cases - all of them in people returning to the country from overseas.

The National Health Commission reported 67 new cases as of the end of Wednesday, compared with 47 a day earlier.

The number of deaths rose by six to 3,287.

00:00 GMT - Trump administration cut CDC China staff

Reuters news agency is reporting that the administration of US President Donald Trump cut the staff of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) working in China by two-thirds in the two years before the coronavirus emerged.

Most of the reductions were at the Beijing office. The CDC's headcount in China has dropped from about 47 when Trump took office in January 2017 to about 14 now, Reuters said.

21:59 GMT (Wednesday) - $2 trillion virus rescue bill hits delay in Senate

The $2 trillion economic rescue package to provide aid to American businesses, workers and healthcare systems strained by the coronavirus outbreak has run into last-minute delays in the Senate.

The measure is the largest economic relief bill in US history. More on that story here.

I'm Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur with Al Jazeera's continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic/

Read all the updates from yesterday (March 24) here.

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2020-03-26 07:58:34Z
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China's Wuhan is touting 'zero' new coronavirus cases. But is the battle over? - The - The Washington Post

China Daily Reuters Residents bid farewell to a medical team from Guizhou province that was leaving Wuhan, China, on March 25, 2020.

China is winning its “people’s war” against the coronavirus. That’s the message being sent by Chinese leaders and diplomats and amplified by the Communist Party-controlled press.

A central part of the narrative is that Wuhan, the onetime center of the outbreak and the site of a recent visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping, has stopped transmission in its tracks. It went five days without reporting new, local cases. On Monday, Wuhan reported one new case.

In a country emerging from a crushing lockdown — and a world looking for answers — lower case counts appear to be genuinely good news. Other countries have closely watched the crisis in Wuhan for lessons on how best to control local outbreaks.

But Wuhan’s near-zero count is being called into question by independent reporting and received with suspicion from experts. It underscores wider issues across China. The country’s overall coronavirus numbers have been met with some skepticism since the first signs of crisis.

[Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.]

Separate reports from Chinese, Japanese and Hong Kong media suggest the dearth of new cases in Wuhan may reflect a dip in testing. Public health experts also note that China does not include confirmed asymptomatic cases in its figures — a potential blind spot.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/great-wall-of-china-re-opens-despite-ongoing-concerns-over-the-coronavirus-pandemic/2020/03/24/e51f18cc-a9cd-43fc-9bf6-68020d78bff4_video.html

These gaps are particularly worrying because as of Wednesday, tens of millions of residents of Hubei province will be able to move around for the first time in months. Though Wuhan, the provincial capital, will remain in lockdown, some fear another wave of cases could be possible as people start to travel into and around the Chinese heartland.

“Zero cases, in this case, has more of a symbolic meaning,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“It is telling people, ‘everything is safe, it is time to go back to work, it is time for business to go back to normal.’ ” He continued, “To show the outside world how effective the Chinese approach is and how it can provide a viable alternative to Western approaches.”

[Live updates: The latest on the coronavirus pandemic]

But even China’s premier, Li Keqiang, warned local governments Monday not to “cover up” reporting on the coronavirus “for the sake of keeping new case numbers at zero.”

AFP/Getty Images

Employees eat their lunch while staying two meters apart at the Dongfeng Fengshen plant on March 24 in Wuhan, China.

China’s lockdown of Wuhan and much Hubei province was unprecedented. Flights and trains were stopped, public transportation was suspended and businesses were shuttered — not for days, or weeks, but for two months.

Though China’s methods included draconian tactics, such as locking people in their apartments and intensive surveillance, the world is looking to Hubei to see what might work.

It is clear that the situation in Wuhan has improved dramatically.

Reporting from Wuhan in late January and February showed desperately overburdened hospitals where doctors were collapsing and patients were being treated in corridors.

On March 10, more than two months after the lockdown started, Xi visited the city, a signal to local officials that ordinary life should soon resume. The next week, Wuhan reported zero new cases for the first time since the outbreak began.

But independent reporting has tested the claim. A March 23 report from Caixin, a Chinese outlet that has done groundbreaking coverage of the crisis, found that the virus may still be spreading in the city.

AFP/Getty Images

Residents get out of a bus in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on March 25, after public transportation partly resumed in the city.

“There are still a few or a dozen asymptomatic people every day,” an unidentified official at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention was quoted by Caixin as saying. “It can’t be determined whether transmission has been completely cut off.”

China, unlike other countries, only counts patients with both a positive test and symptoms, meaning someone who is tested and is confirmed to have the virus but remains asymptomatic may be statistically invisible.

[Mapping the virus spread]

The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that it saw classified Chinese government data suggesting more than 43,000 people in China had tested positive for the virus by the end of February without showing symptoms. If that figure is true, about a third of China’s cases were asymptomatic — a type of case that researchers around the world are still desperately trying to understand.

There are questions, too, about the rate of testing. Another Hong Kong news outlet, RTHK, talked to people in Wuhan who claimed they were being denied testing in an attempt to keep case counts low.

Japan’s Kyodo news quoted an unnamed Wuhan doctor as saying testing was being suspended in the wake of Xi’s visit to shore up the premise that the battle has been won.

The Washington Post has not independently confirmed these accounts, but the strategies they describe — keeping case counts low, withholding data — are consistent with earlier efforts.

A Post account of the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan showed how secrecy and censorship fueled the virus’s spread across China and around the world. In January, local officials stopped recording new cases ahead of a Communist Party conclave in Hubei province. China also failed to share critical data with the World Health Organization.

By putting a positive spin on data from Wuhan, local officials are probably trying to heed Xi’s call to get the economy moving.

China is struggling to “find a balance between fighting the virus and killing the economy,” said Dali Yang, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of Chicago.

As Wuhan looks ahead to the end of its lockdown on April 8, authorities will need to step up testing, not reduce it, said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

“It is critically important to maintain vigilance,” she said. “Now is not the time to declare victory.”

Read more

Locked down in Beijing, I watched China beat back the coronavirus

First, China. Then, Italy. What the U.S. can learn from extreme coronavirus lockdowns.

Conspiracy theorists blame U.S. for coronavirus. China is happy to encourage them.

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

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2020-03-26 07:51:48Z
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U.S. Officials Believe Ex-FBI Agent Who Disappeared In Iran In 2007 Is Dead - Getaka.co.in

Enlarge this image

An FBI poster from 2012 showing former FBI agent Robert Levinson before his capture, left; in a video released by his kidnappers, center; and a composite image of what he might look like after five years in captivity, right. The FBI said Levinson was the longest-held American hostage. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP hide caption

toggle caption

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in 2007 while on an unauthorized mission in Iran for the CIA, is now presumed dead, White House officials and his family said Wednesday.

“We recently received information from U.S. officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody,” his family announced in a post on the group “Help Bob Levinson” on Facebook. “We don’t know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The family blamed the “cruel, heartless actions of the Iranian regime ” for his death and said they had no idea when or if his body would be returned, calling that uncertainty “the very definition of cruelty.”

National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, in a statement issued Wednesday evening, said that “the investigation is ongoing” but that the U.S. believes Levinson “may have passed away some time ago.”

In a tweet, Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, said he mourns for the Levinsons.

However, President Trump himself seemed less certain of Levinson’s death. “It’s not looking great, but I won’t accept that he’s dead,” he said.

“They haven’t told us that he’s dead, but a lot of people are thinking that that’s the case,” the president said.

Levinson disappeared on Iran’s Persian Gulf island of Kish in March 2007 while working for a group of CIA analysts on an investigation that had not been officially approved by the agency. Levinson had retired from the FBI and was working as a private investigator.

In a 2016 interview that aired on NPR’s Morning Edition, Daniel Levinson said his father had traveled to Kish to meet with an American who had fled Iran in 1980.

“My dad was working as a contractor for the CIA at the time,” Levinson said. “And as far as we can tell that my dad checked out of the hotel. And according to the other man, he was approached by Iranian security forces. So a couple weeks after that, he went missing.”

“The Iranian state-run Press TV reported that he was, quote, ‘in the hands of Iranian security forces,’ ” Levinson said. “So we’ve been focused on that ever since.”

Iran’s government never acknowledged holding the elder Levinson. The last images of Levinson taken by his unidentified captors were released in 2011.

Late last year, amid tense relations with Tehran, the Trump administration offered $20 million, on top of the $5 million previously offered by the FBI, for information about Levinson.

At the time, Iran, in a filing to the United Nations, said: “According to the last statement of Tehran’s Justice Department, Mr. Robert Alan Levinson has an ongoing case in the Public Prosecution and Revolutionary Court of Tehran.” Iran later said the “ongoing case” was an investigation into his disappearance.

The Levinson family thanked FBI Director Chris Wray, CIA Director Gina Haspel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and O’Brien for their efforts.

However, the family also called out those they said were responsible for what happened, “including those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind.”

The statement said the family would “spend the rest of our lives” seeking justice for Levinson, “and the Iranian regime must know we will not be going away.”

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2020-03-26 07:48:08Z
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Rabu, 25 Maret 2020

India, Day 1: World’s Largest Coronavirus Lockdown Begins - The New York Times

NEW DELHI — India’s economy was sputtering even before its leader announced the world’s largest coronavirus lockdown. Now the state-ordered paralysis of virtually all commerce in the country has put millions of people out of work and left many families struggling to eat.

On the first day of the nationwide 21-day shutdown of nearly all services on Wednesday, the streets of Mumbai, India’s largest metropolis — usually so busy it’s known as Maximum City — were silent. Shuttered shops, empty train tracks, closed airports and idle factories all across the country were signs of the economic impact of the social distancing that the Indian government said was necessary to prevent new coronavirus infections.

India has reported 606 coronavirus cases so far, but with the population density so high and the public health system so weak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the country’s 1.3 billion residents to stay inside to keep India from sliding into a disaster that could potentially dwarf what China, Italy, Spain, the United States and other countries have faced.

But Mr. Modi’s effort to prevent the spread of the virus will lead to its own calamitous damage.

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The eastern expressway in Mumbai on Wednesday.CreditCredit...Video by Atul Loke

Manual laborers have no work, farmers cannot tend fields, online retailers and pharmacists have been harassed by overzealous police officers. Countless people have been running out of cash.

“The kind of devastation that is going to be faced by the bottom 50 percent of the workers in the informal sector is unimaginable,” said Jayati Ghosh, an economist and professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

In some places, police officers have staked out roads and highways, stopping motorists and demanding to know why they were outside. Several states have closed their borders, forcing cargo trucks to simply park by the roadside.

Flipkart, the country’s largest online retailer, found it so difficult to move people and goods that it suspended delivery of everything except food.

Grocery stores were allowed to remain open, and in the cities, crowds swarmed and emptied the shelves. At an upscale market in New Delhi, one man stuffed his Mercedes with groceries on Wednesday afternoon, jumped behind the wheel and zoomed off — wearing blue rubber dishwashing gloves and a snorkeling mask.

The National Restaurant Association of India estimated that perhaps 20 percent of the 7.3 million restaurant workers will permanently lose their jobs as employers go out of business. “Many companies may not survive this onslaught,” said Anurag Katriar, the association’s chief executive and the owner of a chain of upscale eateries.

Harcharan Singh, a vendor in rural Punjab state who usually goes door to door peddling everything from oranges to cauliflower, has had nothing to sell for days. The big wholesale food markets he normally relies on have all been closed.

“Our business is completely shut,” he said. “We need this money to survive, get food for our families.”

Hundreds of millions of Indians are like Mr. Singh, with little or no savings. Rickshaw drivers, for example, buy food for their families with the money they make that day. Banned from the roads, many drivers don’t know how they will survive.

Economists at Barclays predicted Wednesday that the lockdown would last a month and shave two percentage points off India’s anemic economic growth rate. Although India is likely to escape a recession, Barclays said, such a significant slowdown would mean rising joblessness in a country where millions of young people enter the work force every year.

Mr. Modi acknowledged the trade-offs in a televised address on Tuesday night, when he first announced the nationwide lockdown.

“No doubt this lockdown will entail an economic cost for the country, but saving the life of each and every Indian is the first priority for me,” he said. “If we are not able to manage the next 21 days, then many families will be destroyed forever.”

Economists are urging the government to create a huge stimulus package to blunt the effects of the lockdown.

India’s government stores an enormous grain supply, which could quickly be distributed to the poor, said Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist at CRISIL, a Mumbai-based credit ratings agency.

Mr. Joshi also urged direct cash payments to individuals, and loans to small and medium-size businesses. “Give a clear signal that you will help,” he said.

The Modi administration is deliberating what kind of stimulus to offer, and a plan is expected to be unveiled within days.

For now, people can only hunker down at home.

One chief minister, in Telangana state, in the center of the country, threatened to issue “shoot on sight” orders if people did not take the lockdown seriously.

In the Andamans, Jagadishan, a taxi driver who uses only one name, has been cooped up in his house in Port Blair, longing to “walk past the sea and smell fresh sea air.”

“All shops are shut, not even groceries or chemists are open,” he said, which should not be the case, according to the government’s rules. “The uncertainty is killing me.”

The lockdown includes schools, offices, factories, parks, temples, railways, even the airspace. To impose social distancing where people are ordinarily squeezed together, exempted businesses and the authorities are looking to devise solutions.

In the city of Meerut, the police began shaming people caught evading the lockdown, forcing them to hold signs — later posted on social media — stating they did not care about protecting society.

Outside Mother Dairy, a national milk cooperative, shopkeepers drew circles and squares on the pavement using chalk to indicate where people should stand and wait.

In Veergaon, a farming village in central Maharashtra state, a few farmers were still tilling the fields. But many stayed indoors, in small cramped houses with sheet metal roofs.

“They fear the disease,” said Kapil Wagarhande, a villager.

During his address on Tuesday night, Mr. Modi spoke forcefully about the dangers of social interaction and how Indians must make big, immediate sacrifices. Mr. Modi remains widely popular in India. In many quarters, what he says goes.

“Everybody appreciates the steps taken by Modi ji,” said Kailash Dhoot, a textile trader in Mr. Modi’s home state of Gujarat, using a term of respect. “Of course people are facing problems like how to spend the whole day. What do you do?”

Still, rumors and misinformation have led to the closure of essential businesses and the harassment of citizens, outcomes that the government likely did not intend.

Gaurav Gupta, chief operating officer of Zomato, one of the country’s largest restaurant delivery services, said his couriers had been turned back and in some cases detained by the police, despite clear orders from the government permitting such deliveries.

In a video message, Sandeep Nangia, president of a pharmacists’ association in New Delhi, said the police were “raining sticks” on pharmacists for trying to do their jobs.

Doctors and airline employees have reported landlords forcibly evicting them as “dirty” tenants.

Amrita Saha, an employee at IndiGo, India’s largest airline, said her neighbors in Kolkata were spreading rumors that she had the coronavirus and harassing her mother, who lives with her.

“She cannot go to the market to buy groceries, because people are refusing her, saying, ‘Your daughter has the corona and you might also have it,’” Ms. Saha said in a recent video, nearly in tears.

An association of doctors in New Delhi wrote to India’s home minister, Amit Shah, on Tuesday, urging the government to protect medical personnel from home eviction.

“Many doctors are now stranded on the roads with all their luggage,” the letter read.

Karan Deep Singh, Hari Kumar and Jeffrey Gettleman reported from New Delhi. Vindu Goel reported from Mumbai, India. Reporting was contributed by Suhasini Raj, Kai Schultz, Shalini Venugopal and Sameer Yasir from New Delhi.

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2020-03-25 18:30:01Z
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Spain's Coronavirus Death Toll Soars Past China's, Trailing Only Italy - NPR

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The Spanish Ministry of Health says the country has 47,610 coronavirus cases — and more than 3,400 people have died from COVID-19. Here, a member of the Emergency Military Unit disinfects buildings in Getafe. Sergio Perez/Reuters hide caption

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Sergio Perez/Reuters

Spain is now reporting more than 3,400 COVID-19 deaths, making it the second European country with a death toll higher than in China, where the new coronavirus was first detected in late 2019.

Italy is reporting 7,503 deaths from the viral respiratory disease — the most in the world, and more than double the 3,285 deaths reported in China.

The pandemic has severely disrupted life in Spain and Italy, countries that have much smaller populations than China (1.4 billion). Both European countries are more closely comparable to Hubei province, the area in China where the outbreak was first detected. Italy has around 62 million people, according to the most recent CIA World Factbook data, similar to Hubei's nearly 60 million residents. By comparison, Spain has just 50 million people.

Spain now has at least 47,610 coronavirus cases, the country's Ministry of Health says. Of that number, nearly 8,000 people were confirmed to have the virus in the past 24 hours.

As of Wednesday, nearly 27,000 people were hospitalized in Spain because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health ministry said in its latest update on the coronavirus.

As it detailed the toll the outbreak is taking on Spain, the health ministry also announced that it will buy more than $460 million worth of coronavirus-fighting equipment and supplies from China — including more than 5 million "quick tests" to help diagnose people who are infected.

The deal also includes face masks, gloves and respirators.

Spain is now in its second week of a national lockdown that was ordered as the number of coronavirus cases spiked.

The dire news about the outbreak comes after Spain's Defense Minister Margarita Robles said this week that soldiers who were tasked with bolstering cleaning and relief efforts had found elderly people in some care facilities "completely abandoned" and even "dead in their beds," as Lucía Benavides reported for NPR.

"Spanish prosecutors have already launched an investigation into the matter," Benavides told NPR's Newscast unit. "Spain has a large elderly population — and the coronavirus has hit nursing homes especially hard. Some centers have already reported dozens of deaths."

Spain's worst-hit areas include the Madrid region (nearly 15,000 cases) and Catalonia (nearly 10,000), which includes Barcelona. In recent days, cases have also risen sharply in Rioja, Navarra and the Basque region.

Some 1,825 people have died from COVID-19 in Madrid — more than half of the country's total.

"As bodies piled up, Madrid took over a public skating rink as a makeshift morgue after the city facility overflowed," the Associated Press reports.

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2020-03-25 17:38:40Z
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