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Jumat, 03 April 2020

Pakistan re-arrests four men acquitted in Daniel Pearl murder case - Reuters

KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities ordered on Friday four men, including a British militant, convicted of the 2002 murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, to be detained for three months despite a lower court’s ruling to overturn their convictions.

FILE PHOTO: British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is surrounded by armed police as he arrives at a court in Karachi, Pakistan March 29, 2002. REUTERS/Zahid Hussein/

The High Court in the province of Sindh on Thursday acquitted the four, including Briton Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in 2002 for masterminding Pearl’s murder. The other three were sentenced to life.

Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl, 38, was investigating Islamist militants in the city of Karachi, the capital of Sindh, after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when he was kidnapped in January 2002. He was beheaded weeks later.

The Sindh provincial government’s Home Department issued the order to arrest and detain the four before they were released from prison.

“The government of Sindh has sufficient reason that Ahmed Omar Sheikh and Fahad Nasim Ahmed, Syed Salman Saqib, Sheikh Muhammad Adil be arrested and detained for a period of three months from the date of arrest (April 2, 2020),” a top official of the department said in the order, seen by Reuters.

The official cited concern that the released men may act “against the interest of the country”.

The law to keep them in detention is one that the government has often used to keep high-profile suspects, particularly militants, in custody after being unable to successfully prosecute them in court.

The United States denounced Thursday’s court acquittal of the four, with the top U.S. diplomat for South Asia writing on Twitter that it was “an affront to victims of terrorism everywhere.”

SCRUTINY

Pakistan joined the U.S.-led “war on terrorism” after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States but it has been dogged by suspicion that it has for years secretly backed some militant factions as tools in its decades-old confrontation with rival India.

Pakistan denies that but it has been under the close scrutiny of a global watchdog on terror financing, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), with its frequent inability to prosecute terrorism cases a particular concern of the agency.

The re-arrest of the four gives the government time to put together a legal appeal against their acquittal.

A senior Pakistani government law officer told Reuters that the state would appeal against the Sindh High Court’s Thursday ruling, which the United States welcomed.

“We welcome Pakistan’s decision to appeal the verdict,” acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells said.

Sheikh was born in Britain and enjoyed a privileged upbringing and studied at the London School of Economics.

He was arrested in India for his involvement in the kidnapping of Western tourists in 1994 as part of his support for Muslim separatists battling Indian security forces in the disputed Kashmir region.

He was one of three men released from an Indian prison after militants hijacked an Indian airliner in late 1999 and flew it to Afghanistan, where the then-ruling Taliban government helped negotiate an exchange.

Writing by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Robert Birsel

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-03 09:33:56Z
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Coronavirus: UK plans 'immunity passports' so people can leave lockdown - Business Insider - Business Insider

The UK plans to roll out "immunity passports" to allow people who have contracted COVID-19 to leave the lockdown early.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the certificates would be issued to people who have built up immunity to the coronavirus so they can return to "normal life."
Citizens would need to test positive in an antibody test before being issued with the certificates.
However, the UK has yet to identify a reliable test for antibodies to the virus.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The UK plans to roll out "immunity passports" to people who have already contracted COVID-19 to allow them to return to "normal life," the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Thursday.

"We are looking at an immunity certificate," Hancock said at a Downing Street press conference.

"People who have had the disease have got the antibodies and then have immunity can show that and therefore get back as much as possible to normal life."

He added: "That is something we will be doing and will look at, but it is too early in the science … to be able to put clarity around that."

The UK has already ordered millions of antibody tests. However, the tests have so far proven ineffective, and the government has yet to approve them for use.

"The early results of some of them have not performed well," Hancock said. "But we hope the later tests we have got are reliable enough for people to be confident in using."

Hancock said hundreds of thousands of tests could take place every day once an antibody test is identified.

However, coronavirus testing has so far had mixed success around the world. Spain was recently forced to return tens of thousands of rapid coronavirus tests from a Chinese company after they were found to provide inconsistent results.

Some tests have demonstrated false positives, detecting antibodies to much more common coronaviruses, Quartz reported.

Scientists also remain unsure about the extent to which a past infection could prevent reinfection and how long an immunity would remain.

Germany is also examining the possibility of issuing immunity passports.

Researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany plan to send out hundreds of thousands of antibody tests over the coming weeks that could allow people to break free of their lockdowns, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

If the project is approved, the researchers will test 100,000 people at a time starting this month, Der Spiegel said.

The tests are designed to detect whether a person has developed antibodies to the COVID-19 virus. The antibodies indicate that the tested person was at one time a carrier and may have built up immunity.

A positive test could allow the person to leave the lockdown while many positive tests could allow governments to ease restrictions in areas with "herd immunity."

Gerard Krause, the epidemiologist leading the project, told the magazine that people who are immune "could be given a type of vaccination card that, for example, allows them to be exempted" from "restrictions on their work."

Germany has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates, which some experts and commentators have said is a result of the extensive testing rolled out by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.

Do you have a personal experience with the coronavirus you'd like to share? Or a tip on how your town or community is handling the pandemic? Please email covidtips@businessinsider.com and tell us your story.

And get the latest coronavirus analysis and research from Business Insider Intelligence on how COVID-19 is impacting businesses.

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2020-04-03 08:25:03Z
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The Virus Will Force Europe to Make a Decision About Italy - Bloomberg

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The Virus Will Force Europe to Make a Decision About Italy Bloomberg
European leaders warn coronavirus could lead to the breakup of their union The Washington Post
Berlin and Paris pitch competing solutions to 'corona bonds' conundrum Politico
Italy says EU has abandoned them during coronavirus pandemic Washington Times
Coronavirus could be final straw for EU, European experts warn The Guardian
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2020-04-03 08:06:53Z
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Australia closes internal borders to capitalise on fall in new coronavirus cases - Reuters

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian officials closed internal borders on Friday and warned people to stay home over the upcoming Easter holiday as the country seeks to capitalise on a further fall in the rate of new coronavirus cases.

FILE PHOTO: A man walks in a corridor near a sign with instructions about the coronavirus and social distancing following the implementation of stricter social-distancing and self-isolation rules to limit the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sydney, Australia, March 31, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott/File Photo

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was shifting to a “suppression” phase in its fight against the highly contagious illness, but stressed that people had to continue to follow orders restricting socialising in public.

“We must continue to do this. Doesn’t matter what the temperature is,” Morrison said in a televised media conference. “If it’s a warm day, don’t go on masses down to the beach. A simple instruction that all Australians expect other Australians to abide by.”

Chief Health Officer Brendan Murphy said the daily increase in new infections had fallen to about 5% from between 25% and 30% two weeks ago. Australia has now reported around 5,200 cases and 28 deaths.

However, Murphy and state leaders cautioned that while imported cases, via returning overseas travellers, still accounted for the majority of the infections in Australia, there were a rising number of “local transmission” cases where a source could not be determined.

“If we can’t identify the source it means we can’t deal with the spread - that is something we’re worried about,” said Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s most populous state.

Several states in Australia were placing checkpoints at their borders to prevent all but essential travel from neighbouring territories, the first time such drastic measures have been taken since the Spanish flu epidemic 100 years ago.

Queensland state erected water barriers and road checkpoints along its border with NSW on Friday. The island state of Tasmania has already isolated itself, while the iron ore-rich state of Western Australia is enforcing a “hard border close” from Sunday night.

Western Australian authorities were also restricting access to the northern Kimberley region, a remote area with a large indigenous population that has been deemed at high risk because existing health standards fall below the rest of the country.

Several states have given police the power to impose hefty fines and potential prison terms on anybody found breaching strict social distancing rules, including restrictions on leaving home and reducing public gatherings to just two people.

While Morrison told people not to travel over the Easter break, he loosened restrictions that had previously forced places of worship to shut down. Under the new rules, churches and other religious centres will be allowed to open to enable leaders and support staff to officiate online services for the wider congregation.

CRUISE SHIPS

As a popular Pacific port destination, Australia is among numerous countries around the world negotiating arrangements with cruise ships unable to find somewhere to dock.

The issue has been a source of public angst in Australia after hundreds of infections were traced to cruise ship passengers and returning travellers.

NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller said on Friday that five Royal Caribbean ships off the country’s east coast will depart for their port of origin after refuelling and restocking on the weekend.

On Australia’s western coast, state authorities are in a stand-off with a German cruise ship docked in Fremantle which is refusing to leave.

Two cruise ships in Florida with coronavirus patients aboard will dock at a port near Fort Lauderdale, resolving a days-long impasse that drew the attention of President Donald Trump.

There are about 130 Australians on the two Holland America vessels who will fly home promptly, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday.

($1 = 1.6507 Australian dollars)

Reporting by Jonathan Barrett and Renju Jose; additional reporting by John Mair; Editing by Jane Wardell

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2020-04-03 06:14:06Z
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Kamis, 02 April 2020

Bodies pile up on streets in Ecuador as coronavirus spreads - CBS News

Caution: Some readers may find the details and images in this story disturbing.

The novel coronavirus has ravaged the coastal Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, which has struggled to cope with the number of corpses as hospitals, morgues and funeral parlors have been overwhelmed. Some social media videos show unattended bodies lying on the street with nowhere else to go.

The outbreak in Ecuador has sickened at least 3,100 people, according to John Hopkins' latest data map. The epicenter in the country is in Guayaquil, where residents have criticized the government's response.

ECUADOR-HEALTH-VIRUS — Wrapped coffins are stacked up on the back of a pickup truck and wait on the sidewalk outside a hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador. ENRIQUE ORTIZ/AFP via Getty Images

Because of the strict quarantine measures taken to restrict the spread of COVID-19, people have been limited in what they can do for loved ones or neighbors who die at home. Some, such as Guayaquil resident Stalin Briones, have been sharing disturbing photos or videos to get attention about what's going on.

Coronavirus: The Race To Respond ›

More in Coronavirus: The Race To Respond

Briones tweeted about his neighbor's body — wrapped in a blanket and left outside on Sunday — pleading for someone to pick it up. He told CBS News on Thursday that eventually it was taken care of. While he said he doesn't feel like citizens are being ignored, he believes this is the consequence of the health care system collapsing.

Otro fallecido tirado en la calle en Guayaquil , Padre Solano y Boyacá, pleno centro. Los cadáveres se apilan en la ciudad, cuidado y aparecen otras epidemias porque los cuerpos se descomponen y traen más problemas, por humanidad recojan a ese hombre. pic.twitter.com/FZrsy7qNBx
— Stalin Briones (@stalinbriones) March 29, 2020

"All of this is a consequence of the bad direction that authorities took and not taking precautions nor being prepared for this despite knowing what was going on in Europe," he told CBS News in Spanish. "Adding the fact that people didn't worry — because more so than the government, the blame falls more so on people that didn't collaborate and took this as a regular cold."

The city's mayor, Cynthia Viteri, announced in Twitter message Wednesday that three refrigerated trucks have been deployed to help store corpses.

Hoy entregamos 1 de los 3 contenedores, al Hospital de Monte Sinaí, que coordinamos con ell Ministerio de Salud para refrigerar temporalmente los cuerpos de los fallecidos por #COVID19. pic.twitter.com/GAbgdHmYMW
— Cynthia Viteri (@CynthiaViteri6) March 31, 2020

She also blamed the federal government for not doing more.

"What is happening is with the public health system in his country?" she said in a recent video message. "They're not recovering bodies from homes. They're left in the sidewalks. They fall in front of hospitals. No one wants to recover them."

Ecuador's Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner told reporters earlier this week, "The government's intention is that everyone who passes away these days in Guayaquil, not just those who have died from COVID-19, can have a dignified burial."

According to the Los Angeles Times, municipal officials said 400 bodies have been recovered over the past few days. While majority of deaths are believed to be coronavirus-related, it has been difficult to confirm because of limited virus testing in the country.

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2020-04-02 22:53:16Z
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Coronavirus: UK plans 'immunity passports' so people can leave lockdown - Business Insider - Business Insider

The UK plans to roll out "immunity passports" to allow people who have contracted COVID-19 to leave the lockdown early.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the certificates would be issued to people who have built up immunity to the coronavirus so they can return to "normal life."
Citizens would need to test positive in an antibody test before being issued with the certificates.
However, the UK has yet to identify a reliable test for antibodies to the virus.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The UK plans to roll out "immunity passports" to people who have already contracted COVID-19 to allow them to return to "normal life," the Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Thursday.

"We are looking at an immunity certificate," Hancock said at a Downing Street press conference. "People who have had the disease have got the antibodies and then have immunity can show that and therefore get back as much as possible to normal life."

He added: "That is something we will be doing and will look at, but it is too early in the science … to be able to put clarity around that."

The UK has already ordered millions of antibody tests. However, the tests have so far proven ineffective, and the government has yet to approve them for use.

"The early results of some of them have not performed well," Hancock said. "But we hope the later tests we have got are reliable enough for people to be confident in using."

Hancock said hundreds of thousands of tests could take place every day once an antibody test is identified.

Some tests have demonstrated false positives, detecting antibodies to much more common coronaviruses, Quartz reported.

Scientists also remain unsure about the extent to which a past infection could prevent reinfection and how long an immunity would remain.

Germany is also examining the possibility of issuing immunity passports.

If the project is approved, the researchers will test 100,000 people at a time starting this month, Der Spiegel said.

A positive test could allow the person to leave the lockdown while many positive tests could allow governments to ease restrictions in areas with "herd immunity."

Germany has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates, which some experts and commentators have said is a result of the extensive testing rolled out by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.

And get the latest coronavirus analysis and research from Business Insider Intelligence on how COVID-19 is impacting businesses.

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Greece quarantines camp after migrants test coronavirus positive - Reuters

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece has quarantined a migrant camp after 23 asylum seekers tested positive for the coronavirus, authorities said on Thursday, its first such facility to be hit since the outbreak of the disease.

A man wearing a protective face mask carries packages of food in the Ritsona migrant camp, after authorities found 20 coronavirus cases and placed the camp under quarantine following the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ritsona, Greece, April 2, 2020. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Tests were conducted after a 19-year-old female migrant living in the camp in central Greece was found infected after giving birth at an Athens hospital last week. She was the first recorded case among thousands of asylum seekers living in overcrowded camps across Greece.

None of the confirmed cases showed any symptoms, the ministry said, adding that it was continuing its tests.

Authorities said 119 of 380 people on board a ferry which authorities said had been prevented from docking in Turkey and was now anchored off Athens, had tested positive for the virus.

Greece recorded its first coronavirus case at the end of February. It has reported 1,425 cases and 53 deaths, excluding the cases on the ferry.

It is the gateway to Europe for people fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and beyond, with more than a million passing through Greece during the migrant crisis of 2015-2016.

Any movement in and out of the once-open Ritsona camp, which is 75 km (45 miles) northeast of Athens and hosts hundreds of people, will be restricted for 14 days, the ministry said. Police would monitor movements.

The camp has an isolation area for coronavirus patients should the need arise, sources have said.

Aid agencies renewed their call for more concerted action at the European level to tackle the migration crisis.

“It is urgently needed to evacuate migrants out of the Greek islands to EU countries,” said Leila Bodeux, policy and advocacy officer for Caritas Europa, an aid agency.

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said it was a stark “warning signal” of what might happen if the virus spilled over into less organised facilities on the Greek islands.

“(This) may result in a massive humanitarian crisis. This is a danger both for refugees hosted in certain countries outside the EU and for those living in unbearable conditions on the Greek islands,” she said during a European Parliament debate conducted by video link.

More than 40,000 asylum-seekers are stuck in overcrowded refugee camps on the Greek islands, in conditions which the government itself has described as a “ticking health bomb”.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said Greece is ready to protect its islands, where no case has been recorded so far, but urged the EU to provide more help.

“The conditions are far from ideal but I should also point out that Greece is dealing with this problem basically on its own... We haven’t had as much support from the European Union as we wanted,” he told CNN.

Additional reporting by Angeliki Koutantou and George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Gareth Jones and Nick Macfie

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2020-04-02 21:48:35Z
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