Author: CensorBiz

In a world gripped by a pandemic, global unrest and a fast-moving news cycle, it can be difficult to remember that the war in Syria is still happening.Even before the coronavirus outbreak took over daily lives around the globe, the conflict, which began in early 2011, had largely fallen off the world’s collective radars — reduced to a never-ending fight involving an ever-more complex web of players and refugees that few remember once lived in a country they called home.But as it enters its tenth year, the war — which gave rise to the Islamic State group and triggered the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century — has shown it is still creating new tragedies that can have an outsized impact on global politics.Migrants walk in Edirne at the Turkish-Greek border, March 9, 2020.Earlier this month, Turkish and Syrian troops were clashing in Syria’s northwest. That brought NATO-member Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides of the war, to the brink of direct confrontation, and produced an unprecedented wave of displaced people. Arguing that it faces a potential new influx of refugees from Syria, Turkey announced it would no longer stop its vast migrant and refugee population from illegally entering Greece, touching off a new crisis for the European Union.More than half of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million people have been driven from their homes, and a staggering 80% of the population live beneath the poverty line, according to the United Nations. Half the country lies in ruins. A political process does not exist. Contrary to what some may hope, the Syrian war is nowhere near its end-game.Chaos in the North
A cease-fire brokered by the Turkish and Russian presidents in Moscow last week may have put the brakes on the Syrian government’s devastating military campaign to retake the northwestern Idlib province. But the halt is not a long-term solution, and the war’s final and most devastating chapter is yet to come.An explosion is seen following Russian airstrikes on the village of al-Bara in the southern part of Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, March 5, 2020.In the three months before it was paused, the Syrian offensive triggered the largest single wave of displacement of the entire war. That may be dwarfed by the flight of humanity toward Turkey if Syrian President Bashar Assad resumes the assault to retake Idlib, home to some 3 million people. The area is the last remaining rebel-controlled area in Syria, and from Assad’s perspective, the only place standing in the way of complete military victory.
 
“Even if Idlib is somehow retaken and an estimated 3 million people are accommodated in Turkey or elsewhere, it is unlikely that Damascus has the capacity or even the tools to rule over formerly opposition-controlled areas for long periods of time without trouble,”  said Danny Makki, a London-based Syrian journalist.
Similarly, a Turkey-Russia deal brokered in October ended a Turkish military campaign against U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters in the country’s northeast. But the oil-rich region is still contested. There are hundreds American troops there, ostensibly on a mission to protect Kurdish-controlled oil fields from remnants of the Islamic State group.
Both U.S. and Russian troops patrol the tense area separately, and thousands of Iranian-backed militias are stationed nearby.’A perfect storm of devastation’ Nearly a decade of fighting has transformed the Mideast country into a failed state providing free-for-all proxy battlefield where world powers can settle their scores.Russia, Iran, Turkey and the U.S. all have boots on the ground in Syria. The Lebanese Hezbollah group and a slew of other Iranian-backed militias are fighting there. Israel bombs inside Syria frequently and at will. The war has pulled in so many international players that one Syrian joke says perhaps the Syrian people are the ones who need to leave the country, so as not to disturb those foreign powers fighting on their soil.A man loads his belongings into a truck as he prepares to flee the village of al-Nayrab, about 14 kilometers southeast of the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria, on March 7, 2020.Assad, who has been able to keep his grip on the central government from Damascus throughout the war, continues to chip away at rebel-held territory with Russian help. The rebel hold has shrunk in size from more than half of the country at one point to a tiny strip in Idlib province by the Turkish border now.But many areas recovered by the government are a wasteland of wrecked buildings. Few refugees have dared to return, and reconstruction efforts are on hold, pending a political resolution.Meanwhile, the economic situation is deteriorating so fast that ordinary Syrians struggle keep up with prices that rise even over the course of a day. The currency is collapsing: it now takes 500 Syrian pounds to get a dollar, 20 times the pre-2011 amount. The economic squeeze has been worsened by neighboring Lebanon’s acute financial crisis.”It is a devastating dynamic, almost a perfect storm,” David Beasley, head of the World Food Program, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “You’ve got the war, the devastation of the war on the economy for the last eight, nine, 10 years. But now you compound the Lebanese economic collapse because the Syria and Lebanon economy are tied together, and this is really becoming a perfect storm of devastation,” he said.Full circle? Even if Assad were to recapture remaining rebel-controlled territory, ruling it is another issue. His government’s policy of “reconciliation” in areas it already seized — effectively forced surrender of all opposition — has proven futile.
In Damascus, there has been a series of mysterious blasts targeting civilians and military personnel using explosive devices in the past three weeks.
In the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, a reconciliation between the government and insurgents reached two years ago has crumbled with acts of violence reported almost on daily basis.
Ambushes, explosions and shootings left scores of fighters dead on both sides, and anti-government protests have re-erupted in some areas. Government forces responded with brute force earlier this year when tensions with insurgents turning into uprisings in several parts of Daraa, including the village of Sanamein.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said 217 people have been killed in violence in Daraa over the past months, including 45 civilians, 113 soldiers and pro-government gunmen, and 37 rebels who signed deals with the state in 2018.
 
“The growing insurgency in Daraa and the poor economic situation in Damascus is evidence that the war will not abruptly end, and in fact the socio-political and military circumstances are present to indicate that this will rumble on for many years to come,” Makki said.    
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Sairagul Sauytbay, who said she faced torture in the Chinese detention camps in the Xinjiang region, never thought her story of survival would gain international attention one day.The 43-year-old Kazakh woman said she was stunned last Wednesday when U.S. first lady Melania Trump handed Sauytbay the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award for providing firsthand details of the human rights situation in the camps.“I am also thankful to this country and the Trump administration for upholding values of democracy and human rights, and for sending a strong signal to China to stop its abuses against both Kazakhs and Uighurs who are being oppressed,” Sauytbay told VOA.She said she hoped her story of survival could inspire other Xinjiang residents to speak up about the harsh conditions they are facing. “I strongly hope that this award would help raise awareness to the human tragedy in East Turkestan, and other countries around the world also step out and help the plight of the voiceless Uighurs and Kazakhs oppressed in China,” she said. East Turkestan is a term often used by the Muslim community in China to refer to Xinjiang.Stepped-up campaignSauytbay worked as a medical doctor when the Chinese authorities stepped up their campaign in Xinjiang in early 2017.Before her detention by the authorities, she said, she was forced to work in a camp as an instructor, teaching other detainees Mandarin and Chinese Communist Party propaganda.“Chinese authorities confiscated my passport long before I was first detained in 2017,” Sauytbay told VOA, adding that she was prevented from moving to Kazakhstan with her husband and two children in early 2016.She was allegedly tortured and imprisoned in the detention camps for about six months before her release in March 2018.She crossed the border illegally into Kazakhstan in April 2018 because of fears that she could be detained again.“The only dream I had at the time was to unite with my family in Kazakhstan. So I decided to take the risk to cross the border without legal documents,” she told VOA.While in Kazakhstan, Sauytbay was jailed for illegal border-crossing and denied asylum. Sauytbay and her family later moved to Sweden, where she gained international attention as a female activist spreading awareness of the alleged Chinese crackdown in Xinjiang.U.S. first lady Melania Trump, Sairagul Sauytbay and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are pictured at the State Department, March 4, 2020. (State Department photo)’Continues to inspire’During the award ceremony Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sauytbay “bravely” gave details of the detention camps and “continues to inspire other former detainees and family members to come forward to tell their stories to the world.”Xinjiang is a majority Uighur autonomous region but also hosts about 1.5 million Kazakhs. Many Chinese Kazakhs who flee the region slip into neighboring Kazakhstan, which shares a 1,770-kilometer border with ChinaThose who arrive in Kazakhstan say that Kazakhs, along with Uighurs, are facing a severe government crackdown by the Chinese government. More than a million people are believed to be detained in the camps.China, however, has denied such allegations, claiming the facilities are “vocational training centers” that help the local community obtain “new skills.”Chinese officials have said the measures taken in Xinjiang are part of China’s “war on three evils”: extremism, terrorism and separatism.During his visit to Kazakhstan in February, Pompeo urged Kazakh officials to offer “safe refuge and asylum” to those fleeing China. The U.S. official met with five Chinese Kazakhs who said their family members were either held in camps or sentenced to long prison terms, and some were forced to work in factories as cheap labor. One of the five Kazakhs, Aqiqat Qaliolla, became a naturalized Kazakhstan citizen in 2018, four years after his move from China. He told VOA that he had yet to learn the whereabouts of his parents and two brothers who were put in camps in early 2018.“I first lost contact with my family in March 2018. Later, friends told me that my father, mother and two brothers were taken to concentration camps. I also heard that China even sentenced my father to 20 years in prison,” he said. Immigrating to Kazakhstan For years, the government in Kazakhstan has said it welcomes the influx of Kazakhs living around the world, including from Xinjiang. By 2016, nearly 1 million Kazakhs had acquired Kazakhstan citizenship, with almost 15% of them believed to have come from China. The Chinese Kazakhs, aided by shared language and culture, were quick to assimilate in Kazakhstan but still maintained close ties with their relatives in Xinjiang. However, those ties were cut in 2017 during the Chinese crackdown in the region.Aidin Aghimolda, a Kazakh from Xinjiang, went to Kazakhstan in 2003 as a student and later became a Kazakhstan citizen. He told VOA he had recently learned that his three siblings and a sister-in-law in Xinjiang were taken to detention camps in August 2018.“Two of my brothers, a sister and a sister-in-law were all taken to camps on the same day in August of 2018 for no apparent reason,” Aghimolda told VOA, adding that all of them were given long prison sentences, ranging from 11 to 14 years.Another victim, Muhamet Qizilbek, immigrated with his family to Kazakhstan in 2014 and obtained his citizenship in 2018. He said his wife went to visit her parents with a Chinese passport and Kazakh residence card in 2017, and she has not been able to come back since then. “When my wife arrived in China, they took away her passport and Kazakh residence card, and she had been first put in house arrest for 90 days before being taken to an internment camp. She was in the camp for a year and then was moved to a factory with an 800-yuan monthly salary,” he told VOA.Kazakhstan’s dilemma Nargis Kassenova, a senior fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, told VOA that the Xinjiang issue has put Kazakhstan’s government in a difficult position because of the country’s close economic ties to China.“It tries not to make strong moves that would upset too much the domestic public opinion and China, keeping both moderately upset,” Kassenova told VOA. She said Kazakh officials are trying to maintain the “delicate balance” by “downplaying the plight of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang, at the same time increasing the number of visas issued to ethnic Kazakhs from China.”
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In the darkness, the team suits up quietly, putting on their helmets and tactical gear. Federal agents lug battering rams, bolt cutters and heavy weaponry by foot up a hill on a residential California street that’s softly aglow from street lamps. Then the agents turn onto the walkway of their target’s home.”Police! Search warrant!” one officer yells as agents bang on the front door. “Police search warrant!” And then three thunderous bangs as the task force breaks down the front door.Moments later, a reputed member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG, is walked out in handcuffs.In early-morning raids Wednesday, agents fanned out across the United States, culminating a six-month investigation with the primary goal of dismantling the upper echelon of CJNG and hoping to get closer to capturing its leader, one of the most wanted men in America. There’s a $10 million reward for the arrest of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera.The gang controls between one-third and two-thirds of the U.S. drug market. It is so violent that members leave piles of bodies in streets and hanging from overpasses in Mexico, and they fill the city of Guadalajara with mass graves. They carry machine guns and hand grenades. They once used rocket launchers to shoot down a Mexican military helicopter.More than 600 people have been arrested during the operation in recent months, more than 15,000 kilos of meth was seized and nearly $20 million was taken as search and arrest warrants were executed. About 250 were arrested Wednesday.Wendy Woolcok, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s special operations division, speaks during an interview at a command center in Chantilly, Va., March 11, 2020.”El Mencho and his associates prey on the addicts, and they prey on small towns where they can act as bullies and infiltrate these small towns,” said Wendy Woolcok, the special agent in charge of Drug Enforcement Administration’s special operations division. “They promise hope, and they deliver despair.”A top targetFor the U.S, combating Mexico’s fastest-growing and most violent gang is a top priority. Law enforcement officials believe the gang has drug distribution hubs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta. It is believed to have a presence in 24 of Mexico’s 32 states.Unlike other cartels, CJNG shows no reluctance in directly attacking police and army patrols and is blamed for the deadliest attacks against law enforcement forces in Mexico. In eliminating rivals, it has carried out spectacular acts of violence.”Their propensity to violence is a big part of it. They’re a very violent organization, they’re a well-armed organization. But really, the gasoline that was thrown on the fire was synthetic drugs,” said Bill Bodner, the special agent in charge of the DEA’s field office in Los Angeles.The Associated Press had exclusive access to the raid outside Los Angeles and the national command center.In California, about a dozen team members prepped early Wednesday for their target. They searched the home, a stately, salmon-colored Spanish Colonial-style with a large chandelier in the foyer, palm trees in the front yard, and crawled on the ground to look under cars, including a black Lexus, in the driveway. No shots were fired.Victor Ochoa, 34, was arrested on drug charges. The DEA alleges he acts as a stash house manger for the cartel.Drug Enforcement Administration agents and intelligence analysts gather information from field operations across the country at their command center in Chantilly, Va., March 11, 2020.Command centerAt the command center tucked inside a nondescript government building in northern Virginia, a group of a dozen analysts and agents sat behind computer screens. As agents were banging down doors across the country, the phones rang at the command center and analysts recorded the number of arrests and amount of drugs seized on printed worksheets.An analyst entered the information into a DEA computer as other analysts ran phone numbers, addresses and nicknames found inside the homes being searched.The special agent in charge of the special operations division assembled with her team in front of a heat map — red dots glowing darker and darker as more arrests are made, primarily in Texas, California and New Jersey. By 9 a.m., more than 60 people had been taken into custody.Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, called the operation “the most comprehensive action to date in the Department of Justice’s effort to disrupt, dismantle and ultimately destroy CJNG”While Mexican drug cartels made their money predominantly from marijuana in past decades, the market has somewhat dissipated with the state-level legalization of cannabis in dozens of states across the U.S.Now, they’ve turned to methamphetamine and fentanyl, selling it at almost 14 times the price it cost to make and flooding the streets of the U.S., fueling homelessness and the opioid crisis, and leaving behind another trail of bodies: from overdoses.Multidrug shipmentsThe Jalisco Cartel was formed in 2010 from a wing of the Sinaloa cartel based in the western city of Guadalajara. While it once specialized in producing methamphetamine, like most Mexican cartels it has expanded into multidrug shipments including fentanyl, cocaine, meth and heroin.The cartel is led by the elusive Oseguera, whose bodyguards once shot down a Mexican military helicopter to prevent his arrest. In recent weeks, prosecutors have brought charges against his son, Nemesio Oseguera, also known as “El Menchito,” and his daughter, Jessica Johanna Oseguera.And officials say he’s more dangerous than reputed Mexican drug kingpin and escape artist Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who as leader of the Sinaloa cartel ran a massive drug conspiracy that spread murder and mayhem for more than two decades.”I think the threat from El Mencho and CJNG is greater right now because in my opinion, at the time Chapo was captured or at the time he was kind of at his at his heyday, so to speak, the Sinaloa Cartel was fractured. It was a little broken up,” Bodner said.FILE – Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by Mexican marines at a navy hangar in Mexico City, Feb. 22, 2014.El Chapo was a little flashier, but Mencho and the Jalisco gang see their drug business as just that — business, Bodner said.”They have a little bit more discipline. They’re not necessarily into the partying and living the good life. It’s just about the business of drug trafficking and control, and that’s what makes them scarier,” Bodner said.The Jalisco cartel is also known for brazen tactics such as driving around in convoys of pickup trucks marked with the letters “CJNG” and for circulating videos of heavily armed cartel gunmen in military-style dress. While Mexico says it is no longer concentrating on detaining drug lords, the Mexican government has extradited Oseguera’s son and has detained some of his associates.
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Haiti’s first suspected coronavirus case has tested negative, the country’s new prime minister says.Joseph Jouthe held a news conference Friday at his official residence along with the director general of the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Laure Adrien, to try to calm citizens anxious about the country’s potential first case of the deadly infection.The health official described the tested patient as a female foreigner who had returned to Haiti after traveling to her native country, where coronavirus has spread. The woman was experiencing symptoms, which prompted concern and led to tests administered at the national laboratory in Port-au-Prince. The tests came back negative, officials said.   No further details about the patient were given. Cause for concern The prime minister also addressed a case that sparked rumors and fear among residents of the capital, regarding a group of 16 people who arrived in Haiti on Wednesday by bus from the Dominican Republic.   Minister of Public Health Marie Greta Roy Clement told VOA that the neighboring country had nine confirmed cases of the virus.Haitian officials quarantined the bus passengers Wednesday in the neighborhood of Tabarre, after one bus passenger died before crossing the border into Haiti. Prior the death, officials said, the person exhibited coronavirus-like symptoms such as fever and coughing.   The remaining passengers were tested for the virus, and results of those lab test results were still pending. A passenger wears gloves to use his phone while waiting to board a flight at Toussaint Louverture International Airport, March 14, 2020, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As of Saturday, there were no reported cases of COVID-19 in Haiti.Awareness campaignMeanwhile, mayors belonging to the Federation of National Mayors (FENAHM), who represent Haiti’s 10 departments, are launching a national coronavirus public awareness campaign.“Previous governments never made public health a priority. That’s why we don’t have adequate infrastructure to confront this virus,” FENAHM leader Jude Edouard Pierre told reporters. “So we want to help the government inform the public and we are starting today [Friday] in 146 communities nationwide.”Pierre said they were working with the health ministry to roll out the program and were asking the government to announce broad measures that would help the nation face the pandemic.  He said officials must identify all local enterprises that sell or produce masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and oxygen; make them available to those who need them; and keep them off the black market.“We are asking the government to act quickly to announce the names of companies operating in this sector and tell us which measures it is taking to prevent profiteering, which we have seen happen in other countries.  Black market sales have already begun here in Haiti,” Pierre said.He also discussed future school closures and stockpiling of food items to make sure those who are quarantined have adequate sustenance should that become necessary.“If we get hit with this virus — we are a small country. We don’t have adequate health facilities. We can expect big problems,” he said.Cayman Islands death Elsewhere in the Caribbean, the Cayman Islands announced its first coronavirus death Saturday.According to health officials, a 68-year-old Italian patient died early Saturday morning at a health facility in Health City.  He was transported into the country from a cruise ship on which he was a passenger on February 29 for critical cardiac care.  The man originally had no COVID-19 symptoms, according to officials, but after six days he began to show flu-like symptoms and tested positive for the disease.Yves Manuel Matiado Vilme contributed to this report.
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The Afghan government Saturday postponed the release of 1,500 Taliban prisoners, an Afghan official said, a decision that could sabotage a peace deal signed last month between the Taliban and the United States.Jawed Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan National Security Adviser’s office, said the releases were being delayed because more time was needed to review the list of prisoners. The move came despite President Ashraf Ghani’s decree earlier this week promising the start of the releases Saturday as a goodwill gesture to get intra-Afghan negotiations started.The U.S.-Taliban deal was touted at the time as the best chance at ending Afghanistan’s wars and bringing U.S. troops home after nearly 19 years.There was no immediate response from the Taliban to the delayed prisoner release.Faisal said Ghani’s government wanted more time to review the list of prisoners. The U.S.-Taliban deal called for the release of up to 5,000 Taliban as well as 1,000 Afghan government captives ahead of intra-Afghan negotiations, considered a critical next step to reaching a lasting peace in Afghanistan.Ghani’s decree promised the release of 100 prisoners a day beginning Saturday until 1,500 prisoners were released. He would then release the remaining 3,500 after intra-Afghan talks began and those releases would be staggered and would go ahead only if talks progressed and Taliban reduced violence.Although Ghani’s decree differs from the U.S.-Taliban deal, Faisal insisted Ghani was committed to releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners.FILE – Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, left, and Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah attend a NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland, July 8, 2016.Political turmoilHowever, Ghani is embroiled in political turmoil in Kabul, where he is battling his leading political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who has also declared himself president. Abdullah has so far refused to accept the results of last year’s presidential results charging widespread irregularities and abuse of power by Ghani. Still, the national election commission last month declared Ghani the winner despite allegations lodged also by the elections complaints commission.Meanwhile, the decree Ghani announced Wednesday said the first round of 1,500 prisoners to be freed would be selected based on age, health and the length of their sentences already served. The released prisoners, who would be biometrically identified, would also have to give a written guarantee that they would not return to the battlefield.The Taliban handed off their list of 5,000 to an American negotiator, who delivered it to the Afghan government administration. The Taliban’s spokesman in Qatar, where the insurgent group maintains a political office, said the Taliban would accept only those on the pre-approved list and warned Kabul against offering substitutes.The Taliban said they were committed to the deal they made with the United States but would not start negotiations with the Kabul government or other political leaders until the prisoners were freed.Even if the Taliban were ready to talk, it’s not clear when Kabul would be ready to field a negotiating team, as the feud between opposing politicians has yet to be resolved.U.S. exit not tied talksThe United States has said its withdrawal of troops — which has already begun — was not dependent on successful negotiations between Afghans on both sides of the conflict.However, the U.S. State Department has issued statements urging Kabul’s feuding politicians to find a compromise. It has also urged an end to “posturing” and has said many of the Taliban prisoners on the list have already served their sentence and that the names were decided upon after lengthy negotiations.Washington also chastised the Taliban for resuming attacks on Afghanistan’s security forces, even though they promised not to attack U.S. and NATO troops. Washington said that the level of Taliban violence was too high and that it  wanted to see a reduction.Despite the political chaos in Kabul and increased violence on the battlefield, the United States has started withdrawing its troops in keeping with the deal it signed February 29 with the Taliban. In the first phase, Washington will reduce its troop contingent to 8,600, down from the current 13,000.If the Taliban adhere to their commitments to deny terrorists safe havens in Afghanistan, Washington will withdraw the remainder of its troops over 14 months, according to the agreement.
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Spain decided Saturday to follow Italy in declaring a nationwide lockdown to slow the accelerating spread of the coronavirus epidemic, Spanish media reported.Spain’s decision came as European countries took ever more severe, though widely varying, measures to reduce contact between their citizens and slow the pandemic. China — where the virus first emerged late last year — continued to ease up lockdown measures in its hardest-hit region.According to a copy of the royal decree seen by The Associated Press, Spain’s government was to announce Saturday that it is placing tight restrictions on movement for the nation of 46 million people while declaring a two-week state of emergency. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was due to address the nation in the afternoon.Health authorities in Spain said Saturday that coronavirus infections have reached 5,753 people, half of them in the capital, Madrid. That represents a national increase of over 1,500 in 24 hours. The country had 136 deaths, up from 120.The number of new cases has dwindled in China, but the virus has in recent weeks spread exponentially in the Middle East, Europe and North America, leading President Donald Trump to declare a state of emergency for the United States on Friday. By Saturday, more than 145,000 infections and over 5,400 deaths had been confirmed worldwide.Europe has now become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with countries imposing a cascade of restrictions in efforts to prevent their health systems collapsing under the load of cases. Schools, bars and shops not selling essential goods are among the facilities being closed in many places.Residents in Madrid, which has around half the infections, and northeastern Catalonia had already awoken Saturday to shuttered bars and restaurants and other non-essential commercial outlets as ordered by regional authorities. Madrid ordered city parks closed and Seville canceled its Easter Week processions — one of Spain’s most important religious and cultural events.A man wearing a protective face mask walks at the usually crowded Plaza Mayor in central Madrid, Spain, March 14, 2020, after authorities ordered all shops in the region be shuttered die to the coronavirus.Coronavirus elsewhereSpain’s measures to date, though, had fallen short of those ordered by Italy, the worst-hit European country, which has reached a total of over 17,600 confirmed cases — the largest outbreak after China — with 1,266 deaths. The government in Rome has ordered an unprecedented lockdown, ordering businesses to close and restricting people’s movement.
Mayors of many Italian cities, including Rome and Milan, decided to close public playgrounds and parks. Under a government decree issued earlier in the week, people had been allowed in parks as long as they kept at least a distance of 1 meter between each other.While limiting public life to a minimum, Premier Giuseppe Conte has said production — particularly of food and health supplies — must not stop. On Saturday morning, union and industrial leaders reached an agreement on special measures to keep factories running.At noon, people around Italy came out on their balconies, terraces, gardens or simply leaned out from open windows to clap for several minutes in a gesture of thanks to medical staff.For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.The vast majority of people recover. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.Elsewhere in Europe, some countries moved to isolate themselves from their neighbors.Denmark closed its borders and halted passenger traffic to and from the country, a measure that was due to last through April 13. Travelers were to be turned away at the border if they are unable to show that they have “a legitimate reason” to enter, for example they are Danish citizens or residents.“I know that the overall list of measures is very extreme and will be seen as very extreme, but I am convinced that it’s worth it,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.Poland was closing its borders starting at midnight and denying all foreigners entry unless they lived in Poland or had personal ties there. Non-citizens allowed in will be quarantined for 14 days. The Czech Republic and Slovakia took similar action.A man sits inside an empty tram amid an outbreak of the coronavirus, in Warsaw, Poland, March 14, 2020.Russia said its land borders with Norway and Poland will be closed to most foreigners beginning Sunday.On the other side of the globe, New Zealand announced that all incoming passengers, including New Zealand citizens, will be required to isolate themselves for 14 days, with few exceptions. Philippine officials announced a night curfew in the capital and said millions of people in the densely populated region should only go out of their homes during the daytime for work or urgent errands.The steps being implemented globally increasingly mirror those taken by China, which in January made the unprecedented decision to halt outbound transportation from cities with a combined population of more than 60 million people, starting with the epicenter, Wuhan in the central province of Hubei.The spread of COVID-19 in the country has slowed dramatically, according to China’s National Health Commission. Whereas the commission reported thousands of new cases daily only one month ago, it said Saturday that there were 13 new deaths and just 11 new cases, including people who recently arrived in China from other affected countries like Italy.The government of Hubei lowered its health risk assessments for all counties in the province outside of Wuhan, the only city that remains “high-risk.” Several Hubei municipalities are gradually resuming public transportation services and reopening businesses.Hundreds of parks, museums and art galleries have re-opened in Shanghai in another sign that epidemic-related restrictions are lifting.The waning outbreak in China stands in contrast with an escalating number of infections elsewhere.In the U.S., which reported its 50th death Friday, Trump said the new emergency decree will open up $50 billion for state and local governments to respond to the crisis. The president said the decree also gave the secretary of health and human services emergency powers to waive federal regulations to give doctors and hospitals “flexibility” in treating patients.Drug company executives vowed to work together and with the government to quickly expand the country’s coronavirus testing capabilities, which are far behind those in many countries.Cases topped 2,100 across the U.S., where thousands of schools have been closed, concerts and sporting events canceled and Broadway theaters shut down. Trump has halted his trademark political rallies, following the lead of Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
 
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As Syria’s war enters its 10th year, the United Nations reports that alarming conditions of extreme deprivation and danger continue to engulf millions of people in the country.Most at imminent risk of their lives are the 960,000 people displaced in Syria’s northwest Idlib province, where Russian-backed Syrian forces are fighting to regain control of this last rebel-controlled region in Syria.  This huge displaced population, most of whom are women and children, is squeezed into an overcrowded area near the Turkish border. The United Nations reports about one-third are staying in camps and tents.  Many are living with host families. Hundreds of thousands of others are in unfinished buildings, collective centers or sheltering under trees, with little cover to protect them from the elements.Spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jens Laerke briefed reporters Friday. He said there has been a de-escalation of fighting in Idlib since Turkey and Russia agreed to a cease-fire a week ago.  However, he notes the dangers have not gone away.”Instances of shelling continue to be reported from areas along the front lines and the risk of death and injury from explosive hazards, such as unexploded ordnance, has increased over the past months due to artillery and aerial bombardments.  Humanitarian needs are acute and people’s survival and wellbeing, including children’s mental health, is at risk,” he said.Laerke said there is very little protection inside Idlib, and displaced women and girls are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.  He said many feel exposed and unsafe.”Aid workers are reporting incidents of exploitation and abuse of displaced women and girls by men in positions of power such as property owners, in exchange for cash or material assistance. We also have reports of women not being able to shower for several weeks due to lack of privacy, and refusing to eat or drink so they do not need to use a bathroom,”  Laerke said.The U.N. is scaling up its humanitarian assistance in response to this situation.  So far this month, Laerke said the U.N. has sent 512 trucks across the border from Turkey into Idlib laden with food, shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance. 
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An official of the United Nations mission in Mali says two people who were kidnapped in Burkina Faso in December 2018 have been released.  Mission officials say the Canadian woman and the Italian man were found near Kidal, in northern Mali, and were turned over to U.N. peacekeepers in good health.  The two are identified as Edith Blais and Luca Tacchetto.
 
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India prides itself on popularizing yoga and meditation in many parts of the world. Now it is watching to see if the country’s traditional greeting, the namaste, described as “virus-proof,” goes global as some world leaders adopt it amid the coronavirus pandemic.
 
As health authorities advise people to avoid shaking hands to curb the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus, U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Britain’s Prince Charles this week used something resembling the Indian greeting, which involves welcoming a guest with palms pressed together.   “Namaste,” a combination of two Sanskrit words, translates into “bowing to you” and does not involve skin contact and allows people to maintain a distance.   
 
Macron folded his palms in the traditional Indian manner and bowed slightly while greeting Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia at the Elysee Palace in Paris earlier this week.FILE – France’s President Emmanuel Macron (L), with his wife Brigitte Macron, welcomes King Felipe VI (R) and Queen Letizia of Spain (2nd R) with what appears to be a “namaste” greeting, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, March 11, 2020.The French ambassador to New Delhi, Emmanuel Lenain, tweeted, “President Macron has decided to greet all his counterparts with a namaste, a graceful gesture that he has retained from his India visit in 2018.”
 
When Trump was asked by reporters how he greeted the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar during their meeting in Washington Thursday, both leaders put their hands together to demonstrate what they did.
“I just got back from India. And I did not shake any hands there, and it was very easy because they go like this and Japan goes like this,” Trump said doing a quick demonstration of the Indian namaste and the Japanese ojigi — bowing.”They are ahead of the curve,” he said.
 
Of course, it is not easy to forego the customary handshake, the usual photo opportunity in the halls of power that is often carefully watched to see how long or warm it is.FILE – President Donald Trump (R) and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar hold up their hands in a “namaste” gesture, joking about not shaking hands, during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, March 12, 2020.Trump said “we looked at each other and said what are we going to do? Sort of a weird feeling.”  “It almost feels impersonal. It feels like you’re being rude,” Varadkar said. “But we just can’t afford to think like that for the next few weeks.”
 
In Britain, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, also used the namaste-style greeting instead of a handshake as he met guests at a London event.Again, replacing the deeply ingrained habit was not easy.
 
A video shows him putting his hand forward to greet Sir Kenneth Olisa, the lord lieutenant of Greater London, Queen Elizabeth’s representative in Greater London, and then quickly withdrawing it and folding his hands instead.”It’s just so hard to remember not to,” he is reported to have said.FILE – Britain’s Prince Charles, with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at his side, folds his hands in a “namaste” greeting, during a reception at Marlborough House, in London, Britain, March 9, 2020.Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advocated the Indian-style greeting to his country and went on to demonstrate it by folding his hands at a press conference.     
 
In India, too, where handshakes and hugs have become popular, especially in cities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminded the country of the benefits of sticking to the traditional greeting.
 
Saying that the world is picking up the habit, he advised citizens who had junked the namaste that this is the right time to revert to it.Most people are heeding the advice amid mounting fears of the spread of the coronavirus.
 
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Once subject to strict Islamic State (IS) rules, women in the group’s former self-proclaimed capital Raqqa are now trying to bring a sense of normalcy back to their lives. Dozens of school girls across the city have participated in a basketball tournament for the first time since the defeat of the group by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the U.S., in October 2017. VOA’s Reber Kalo filed this report from Raqqa, Syria.
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As new coronavirus cases continue to rise, efforts are underway to provide a safety net for the most vulnerable people in and around Washington D.C. Free clinics and homeless shelters are working with health officials to draw up contingency plans. VOA’s Eunjung Cho looks at how the uninsured population are bracing for the outbreak.
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Kosovo will not lift its 100% tariffs on goods from Serbia and Bosnia anytime soon because the coalition government cannot agree on whether the import taxes should be phased out or abolished all at once, the country’s prime minister said Friday.Prime Minister Albin Kurti said his left-wing Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje, wanted to lift the tariffs in phases, starting Sunday with raw materials imported from Serbia, as a goodwill gesture.The party’s main governing partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, wants the import taxes dropped completely. Kurti wants abolishment of the tariffs made conditional on Serbia’s stopping an international campaign against Kosovo’s recognition as a country.The coalition partners have not found a compromise, Kurti said.“In the absence of a government decision, everything remains as it is, the 100% tax remains,” he said.The United States and European Union also want Kosovo to do away with the tariffs and to resume talks with Serbia on normalizing ties.Pause in fundingThe Millenium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. independent government agency, said on Friday it would pause implementation of a $49 million funding program for Kosovo until the tariffs issue was settled.Kosovo imposed the punitive tariffs in November 2018 over Serbian efforts to block Kosovo from joining international organizations. The dispute led to the suspension of the EU-mediated talks, which started in 2011.Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic has described Kurti’s proposed phase-out as a trick.Kosovo was formerly a part of Serbia and won independence after a 1999 NATO bombing campaign that ended a bloody Serb crackdown on an armed uprising by members of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority. Serbia refuses to accept Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.
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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Friday he is stepping down from the company’s board to focus on philanthropy.Gates was Microsoft’s CEO until 2000 and since then has gradually scaled back his involvement in the company he started with Paul Allen in 1975.He transitioned out of a day-to-day role in Microsoft in 2008 and served as chairman of the board until 2014.The billionaire announced Friday that he’s leaving the Microsoft board entirely as well as his seat on the board of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate headed by fellow billionaire Warren Buffett.Gates said he plans to dedicate more time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He will also remain a technology adviser to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other company leaders.
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With cases reaching double digits in just a week, the coronavirus has hit home in the U.S. capital and surrounding areas.Just three miles from Washington, Arlington County, Virginia, also has confirmed cases of the disease.  Big medical bills for testing and treating coronavirus are a source of concern for the 11,000 low-income and uninsured adults in the county of more than 200,000 residents.”They will be hit harder by the virus. If people aren’t able to go to restaurants, if all of a sudden the schools closed and they can’t go to work because their children are at home, they don’t have a financial cushion, so they could easily be affected financially by it,” Nancy White, president of the Arlington Free Clinic, told VOA.Off-site TestingArlington Free Clinic has been serving an average of 1,600 patients per year since 1994. Now, amid the coronavirus outbreak, it is working with county health officials to set up an off-site coronavirus testing center.Such a center would give the clinic “the ability to do testing away from the hospital with a primary focus on people who are hard to reach, hard to serve, and are low income and may be afraid to access the health system,” White said, noting that details were still under discussion.White said she expected hospitals to waive medical bills for those who needed treatment, or to charge on a sliding scale for those who were eligible for reduction in cost.FILE – Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar looks on as President Donald Trump shows a spending bill to combat the coronavirus, at the White House, March 6, 2020, in Washington.Out of the $8.3 billion federal emergency fund approved by Congress and the president to combat the coronavirus, about $1 billion will go to state and local public health efforts around the United States, including community health centers catering to uninsured and underinsured people.Care for homelessThe nonprofit group N Street Village, supporting Washington’s homeless women, is working with the District of Columbia Health Department and the Emergency Management Office to set up ways to provide aid in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials said the key was to screen for symptoms, identify infected patients and isolate them to avoid spreading the disease.”If they were showing symptoms, we would refer them to see the doctors or nurses directly on site. And that person could then make a recommendation about whether they thought they needed to go somewhere,” said Schroeder Stribling, CEO of N Street Village.She said homeless people are particularly vulnerable to infections. They do not have a place to go to self-quarantine and often have underlying health conditions, such as chronic lung disease.
Stribling added that the lack of health insurance would not keep people from seeing doctors, as many homeless people have Medicare or Medicaid, the U.S. government’s health care programs for older and low-income people, respectively.N Street Village is also providing coronavirus information to residents through handouts and flyers and a series of meetings.Global health securityWorking to provide a stronger safety net for the vulnerable is an urgent task not only in the U.S. but also around the world, where at least 123 countries have seen coronavirus cases.Ubaldina Calderon, 92, exits a clinic after receiving a pneumonia vaccine, in Lima, Peru, March 13, 2020. The Ministry of Health is encouraging seniors to get a pneumonia vaccine to reduce the risks of those who might contract the new coronavirus.The Global Health Security Index, a study released last October by Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and other organizations, has found severe weaknesses in each country’s preparedness for epidemics. Countries with weak health care systems were cited as a particular concern.
 
“There are certainly countries in sub-Saharan Africa, some countries in Asia, some countries in South America. One thing about our index, which is important, is that the U.S. did score better — and the U.S. has been spending a lot of money on preparedness programs — but even the U.S. did not get a perfect score,” said Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
 
Inglesby said countries with weak systems might lack personal protective equipment, capacity to care for critically ill patients, and the ability to ramp up testing.Dr. Jonathan Quick, adjunct professor of global health at the Duke Global Health Institute, said a number of low-income countries do not have universal health insurance coverage, whereas Western European countries like Germany and Britain have a very high level of insurance coverage.
 
His colleague, Dr. Wenhui Mao, expressed concern about the spread of coronavirus, particularly in Africa.”In African countries, maybe it takes one hour to visit the clinics,” she said. “We need to pay attention to them. If they can’t come, then maybe we should take outreach methods to provide treatment for them.”
 
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The World Health Organization said Friday that Europe had now replaced China as the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva that in Europe, “more cases are now being reported every day than were reported in China at the height of its epidemic.”Italy said Friday that the number of coronavirus infections had soared by more than 2,500 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number infected in the country to 17,660. The number of coronavirus deaths in Italy was 1,266.New cases and deaths also accelerated Friday in Spain and Germany, while in the United States, President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency.President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference on the coronavirus, in the Rose Garden at the White House, March 13, 2020, in Washington.Trump said at a news conference outside the White House that the move would “unleash the full power of the federal government” and would allow states and cities to receive $50 billion to combat the pandemic.Trump also said the U.S. government was partnering with the private sector to accelerate the capacity to test for the virus and said another 1.4 million tests would be available next week. The United States has been criticized for its slow rollout of coronavirus test kits.Emergency in SpainSpain also declared a state of emergency Friday, saying it would last two weeks and would allow the military to help the country contain the pandemic. The government put 60,000 people in four towns on mandatory lockdown in measures similar to those taken in Italy. Spain had 4,200 cases of infection, with more than 2,000 of them in Madrid.More than 138,000 people have been infected by the new coronavirus worldwide, with the most in China, where over 3,000 patients have died and upward of 62,000 people already have recovered. While China still accounts for more than 60% of global infections, it reported just eight new COVID-19 infections Friday.It was an astonishing turnaround for China, where thousands of new infections had been recorded in one day.The virus first emerged in China’s Wuhan province late last year.The single-digit increase of new cases does not mean, however, the virus is on its way out of the Asian nation. There are still thousands of Chinese who remain infected with the virus that has now spread around the world.China state media said  President Xi Jinping told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a telephone conversation Thursday that his nation would “carry on its prevention and control efforts in an unrelenting, solid and meticulous fashion.”  A woman wearing a protective face mask is seen at a residential community following an outbreak of coronavirus, in downtown Shanghai, China, March 13, 2020.In addition, Xinhua reported the president said China was ready to share its experiences with the virus with other countries and conduct joint drug and vaccine research and development.G-7 videoconferenceFrance’s president announced Friday that leaders of the world’s largest democracies, the G-7, would hold a videoconference summit Monday to discuss coordinating a response to the pandemic.Trump said on Twitter Friday morning that there would soon be COVID testing “on a very large scale basis.” He added that “All the Red Tape has been cut,” but he did not give any details or indication about when or how the testing would begin.The pandemic was turning life upside down and inside out for nearly every man, woman and child. New travel restrictions, closures and cancellations were taking place in countries around the globe virtually every hour.Schools in many countries around the world have been closed for tens of millions of students, forcing parents to scramble to find child care or a way to work from home.Few in the United States have avoided being affected by the coronavirus outbreak in some way, including the president.Brazilian communication secretary Fabio Wajngarten tested positive for the virus, days after he met with Trump at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The White House said the president had not been tested, and Trump said Thursday that he was “not concerned,” even though he sat next to Wajngarten for some time.Brazilian officials said Friday that President Jair Bolsonaro had tested negative for the virus.The wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tested positive for the virus, Canada announced late Thursday. The couple went into isolation Wednesday after she showed mild symptoms after returning from a speaking engagement in London.FILE – Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland looks over a putt during practice for the 2019 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., April 10, 2019. The PGA Tour has canceled several events because of the coronavirus outbreak.Sports cancellationsThe PGA Tour became the latest sports organization to cancel events, announcing that one of golf’s most prestigious events, the Masters, would not be held in April. That followed cancellations by Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Hockey League and college basketball.Iran asked for a $5 billion emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund. Officials reported more than 10,000 confirmed cases with 429 deaths Thursday.Iranian global health scholar Kamair Alaei told VOA Persian that he believed the actual number was 40,000.Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif appealed to the U.N.’s Guterres to demand international support for an end to U.S. sanctions, saying they were hurting Iranian efforts to fight the disease.Zarif called the sanctions “economic terrorism.”Lisa Schlein in Geneva, Margaret Besheer in New York and VOA Persian’s Farhad Pouladi and Arian Risbaf contributed to this report.
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After the Turkish Health Ministry recently confirmed the country’s first coronavirus case, people have been flocking to pharmacies, grocery stores, and other outlets to prepare for a potential nationwide pandemic. VOA’s Umut Colak in Istanbul, in collaboration with Murat Karabulut in Ankara, filed this report on the shortage of supplies like face masks and sanitizers, and the sudden price hikes on such items. Bezhan Hamdard narrates.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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Kenya on Friday confirmed its first coronavirus case — a 27-year-old Kenyan national who was studying abroad.   In a press briefing on national television, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the patient is a woman who returned from the United States via London last week.   “The government has traced all the contacts of the patient since her arrival in Kenya,” Kagwe said. “Kenyans are reminded that all people who become infected will experience only mild illness and recover easily, but the disease can be more severe in others, especially the elderly persons and others with chronic illnesses.”Kagwe said the patient was in a stable condition and that her temperature had returned to normal.The minister said Kenya was taking additional measures to prevent the virus from spreading further, including prohibiting travel to high-risk countries that have numerous cases of the virus, known as COVID-19.”We have suspended all public gatherings, meetings, religious crusades, games and all events that are of a huge public nature,” Kagwe said. “Normal church services can go on provided they provide sanitizing and hand washing as people go into the worshiping areas. We have suspended all interschool events, school to school events. But the schools at this moment remain open.”Kenya is the 11th sub-Saharan African country to confirm the coronavirus since the December outbreak in Wuhan, China.  
The coronavirus has since become a pandemic, infecting more than 128,000 people globally — close to 5,000 of those infected have died.   
 
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