Author: CensorBiz

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday called on Russia to get out of Turkey’s way in Syria and allow Turkish forces to deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In a speech to supporters, Erdogan said Turkey had “entered Syria at the demand of the Syrian people and not at the demand of Assad.” Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during the funeral of Turkish soldier Emre Baysal, who was killed in Syria’s Idlib region, in Istanbul, Turkey, Feb. 29, 2020.Erdogan said Turkey had retaliated against Syrian forces for killing 34 of its soldiers this week in the northwestern province of Idlib. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian war, reported Saturday that Turkey had killed 26 pro-Damascus troops around Idlib and the Aleppo countryside. It also reported that Russian planes continued to support Syrian government forces in the battle for Idlib, despite Turkey’s call for Russia to stand aside. Arab media reported Saturday that eight Hezbollah militiamen were killed in a Turkish drone strike on their headquarters near the town of Saraqeb. Talks failTalks between Turkish and Russian military advisers during the past several days apparently failed to produce a cease-fire. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told journalists Saturday that Erdogan would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 5. Migrants camp as they wait to cross the border, near Turkey’s Pazarkule border crossing with Greece’s Kastanies, in Edirne, Turkey, Feb. 29, 2020.Also Saturday, thousands of refugees gathered along the Turkish border with Greece after Turkey announced it was opening its borders with Europe. Greek forces fired tear gas at refugees to stop them from entering Greek soil. Erdogan said earlier Saturday that 18,000 refugees had entered Greece and that the number could rise to 25,000 to 30,000. He said Germany must send money to Turkey to deal with its refugee crisis in order to stop the flow. His decision to open Turkey’s borders with Europe was a departure from previous policy and was seen as a means to pressure Europe.  “We can’t handle a new wave of migration,” Erdogan said Saturday, referencing the crisis in Syria’s Idlib region, where nearly a million people have been displaced. Turkey currently hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees and has sealed its border to new refugees. Edward Yeranian in Cairo contributed to this report. 
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The U.S. has reported its first coronavirus-related death. Officials in the western U.S. state of Washington said it was a patient in a hospital in the city of Kirkland. U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday at a White House news conference the victim was a “medically high-risk patient in her late 50’s” who died overnight.”The U.S. has taken the “most aggressive action in modern history to confront the spread of this disease,” the president said. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, said there was “no evidence of a link to travel” in the case of the woman who died.The White House also announced tightened travel restrictions to Iran to include any foreign national who has visited the country in the last 14 days. Additionally, it raised to the highest level a travel advisory to avoid Italy and South Korea, countries most affected by the virus other than China.The coronavirus continued to spread Saturday amid growing concern over the possibility it could trigger a global recession and the World Health Organization’s decision to raise its impact risk alert to “very high.”China reported Saturday that manufacturing activity declined dramatically in February, as the virus slowed the world’s second largest economy.Global stock prices finished the week sharply lower Friday, ending one of the worst weeks for world markets since the 2008 financial crisis.New cases worldwide
Qatar reported its first case of the virus Saturday, three days after leader Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani ordered the evacuation of its citizens from Iran, the Middle East’s epicenter of the outbreak.France announced 16 new coronavirus cases Saturday and a temporary ban on all public gatherings of more than 5,000 people, one day after Mexico, Nigeria, New Zealand, Lithuania, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Iceland reported their first cases.In Italy, the civil protection agency said eight more patients had died, bringing the total deaths in the country to 29.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration moved Saturday to accelerate hospitals’ abilities to test for the deadly virus. The agency issued guidelines “enabling laboratories to use tests they develop faster in order to achieve more rapid testing capacity in the United States.”A fourth case of the virus was reported Friday in a person who had no known history of travel to a country experiencing an outbreak of the disease, known as COVID-19, or no known close contact with an infected person. U.S. health authorities said they were waiting for confirmation of testing results. There are more than 60 confirmed cases in the U.S.A couple wears protective masks as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus at the airport in Mexico City, Feb. 28, 2020.WHO raises risk assessment
The World Health Organization raised its global risk assessment of the coronavirus to its highest level on Friday.”We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.The outbreak appeared to be easing in China, where the virus originated. China’s National Health Commission reported 427 new cases and 47 deaths Saturday. China has a total of 79,251 cases.South Korea, the hardest-hit country outside China, reported the biggest surge Saturday with 813 new cases, raising the total to 3,150.Iran confirmed 593 cases and 43 deaths, the highest death toll outside China.The WHO said Saturday that more than 85,000 people worldwide have been infected in nearly 60 countries and that virus-related deaths topped 2,900.Two visitors with masks and Minnie Mouse ear headbands leave Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, near Tokyo, Feb. 28, 2020.Closures, restrictions
The worldwide outbreak has led government and companies around the globe to implement closures and restrictions.Switzerland canceled next week’s Geneva international car show, an important event for the auto industry. Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, told its employees to defer all nonessential travel.In Japan, Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan announced closures. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered schools to close at least through March.The United States and South Korea called off joint military drills.In Germany, about 1,000 people are being quarantined in the country’s most populous state. The number of confirmed cases in Europe’s biggest economy exceeded 50.  
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The U.S. is banning travel to Iran in response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus and elevating travel warnings to regions of Italy and South Korea.
Vice President Mike Pence announced the new restrictions and warnings as President Donald Trump said 22 people in the U.S. have been stricken by the new coronavirus and that additional cases are “likely.”
“We want to lower the amount of travel to and from the most impacted areas”said Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human Services. This is a basic containment strategy."
Trump provided an update on the virus after the first reported U.S. death Saturday, of a woman he described as being in her late 50s and having a high medical risk. He said healthy Americans should be able to recover if they contract the new virus.
The virus threat has spooked global markets and the public at large. On Friday, health officials confirmed a second case of coronavirus in the U.S. in a person who didn't travel internationally or have close contact with anyone who had the virus. The U.S. has a total of about 60 confirmed cases.
But Trump encouraged Americans not to alter their daily routines, saying "there's no reason to panic at all.''
He added he wasn't altering his routine either. "You're talking about 22 people right now in this whole very vast country. I think we'll be in very good shape."
Trump spoke a day after he denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a "hoax" cooked up by his political enemies. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina he accused Democrats ofpoliticizing” the coronavirus threat and boasted about preventive steps he’s ordered in an attempt to keep the virus that originated in China from spreading across the United States. Those steps include barring entry by most foreign nationals who had recently visited China.
“They tried the impeachment hoax. … This is their new hoax,” Trump said of Democratic denunciations of his administration’s coronavirus response.
Trump said Saturday he was not trying to minimize the threat of the virus.
“Again, the hoax was used in respect to Democrats and what they were saying,” he said.
Some Democrats have said Trump could have acted sooner to bolster the U.S. response to the virus. Democratic and Republican lawmakers also have said his request for an additional $2.5 billion to defend against the virus isn’t enough. They’ve signaled they will provide substantially more funding.
Trump said Democrats want him to fail and argued that steps he’s taken so far have kept cases to a minimum and prevented virus deaths in the U.S. 
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The leaders of a Sufi Muslim group turned themselves into the custody of the Somali government Saturday after fighting left 22 people dead in central Somalia.Moallim Mohamud Sheikh, the spiritual leader, and Sheikh Mohamed Shakir, the chief of Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jamaa (ASWJ), are in the custody of the Somali national army in the town of Dhusamareb after the group’s militias were overpowered in a battle with government forces. Dhusamareb is the administrative capital of Galmudug state.”Our security forces have ended the standoff and disarmed all ASWJ militias,” Osman Isse Nur, the spokesperson of the newly elected president, told VOA.Speaking in a video posted online, ASWJ chief Sheikh Shakir said his group ceded power to the Somali national army.”We agreed to end the fighting for the sake of the civilians. We agreed to hand over ASWJ militias to the commander general who will, in return, take responsibility for the safety of all our members, including the leader,” Shakir said in the video.At least 22 people were killed in clashes that broke out Thursday night after ASWJ militias fired on a government checkpoint in Dhusamareeb.The fighting continued Friday morning before spreading to the nearby town of Guricel in the Galgadud region.
 
Reports say normalcy returned to Dhusamareb Saturday as residents, who were forced to flee, came back and reopened their businesses.Three rival politicians are claiming to be the leader of Galmudug state. Early this month, the parliament of Galmudug elected Ahmed Abdi Kariye as president. He is a former minister backed by the government. ASWJ chief Sheikh Shakir rejected the action, however, and declared himself president, while former president Ahmed Duale refused to cede power.The Sufi group ASWJ played a pivotal role in the fight against al-Shabab militants, and early this week, a U.S. diplomat said in remarks at the U.N. Security Council briefing that internal rivalries among allies in Somalia could derail the effort to combat al-Qaida-linked insurgents. 
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In another one of its many fallouts, the coronavirus is creating new strains for Europe’s 26-nation Schengen zone that allows for the free movement of people among member states. European officials say, for now, there is no reason to close borders, but the spread of the virus seems to bolster nationalist arguments for the zone to be scrapped altogether.  Like in most places these days, the coronavirus outbreak is topping the French news. Several dozen cases have been reported so far. The government is advising precautionary measures like not shaking hands and forgoing the traditional kiss on both cheeks. The post office has suspended link with China.  The bigger worry, for now, lies in neighboring Italy. For the moment, the borders between France and Italy remain open. However, a recent decision to allow 3,000 Italian fans to travel to the French city of Lyon for a football match sparked controversy.  That’s just one example testing Europe’s decades-old Schengen zone. The concept of open internal borders is a cornerstone of European Union goals for closer integration—although Schengen includes several non-EU members, such as Switzerland.  As yet, the EU has not called for closing Schengen borders. However, its top official for communicable diseases, Andrea Ammon, said Europe must prepare for more serious outbreaks, like Italy’s.  “Our assessment is that we will likely see similar situations in other countries in Europe, and that the picture may, in the coming weeks, vary from country to country,” Ammon said.Experts say closing borders won’t prevent the virus from crossing them but that hasn’t stopped nationalist parties from pushing this move. Here’sAmong them is Marine Le Pen, head of France’s main opposition National Rally party. But speaking on French radio this week, she wrongly claimed the EU has not said a word about the coronavirus outbreak. She said the bloc has only condemned those who want more border control — proving an open-border ideology that is almost a religion.  Nationalist politicians in Austria, Italy and Switzerland have made similar remarks. They have long lobbied for closed borders to stop migration. The coronavirus has reinforced these arguments.  At the same time, Schengen has also been weakened by member states. A few years ago some, such as Hungary, closed their borders to counter the migration crisis. France closed its borders after the 2015 terrorist attacks on its soil.While the Schengen system allows for temporary closures, experts say in practice some countries are turning “temporary” into a more permanent state of affairs. 
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On Jan. 23, Chinese authorities locked down Wuhan, the Chinese city of 11 million at the center of the global coronavirus outbreak.International health experts say A community worker measures the body temperature of a man as police officers inspect his documents at a checkpoint set up at an entrance to a street in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, Feb. 20, 2020.A few days after Yang Yuanyun’s disappearance, Yang Jingjing and her mother discovered he had been in touch with the family’s community social worker for several days via his WeChat. He told the social worker — repeatedly — that he had a fever and his chest was tightening. He begged them to put him in a hospital.His community social worker responded that they could not find a hospital bed for him. Her words sounded indifferent.“I don’t think you have any disease. You just think too much,” she replied in a WeChat text message.  Yang Yuanyun was last seen by a police surveillance camera on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, near Shamao Town in the Hannan district.  The Yangs’ neighborhood community center has not responded to inquiries from VOA.“My mom never knew he asked for help from the community,” Yang Jingjing said, sobbing. “I called the community for accountability. They said I was harassing them. They said they have no liability at all. They asked me, ‘Why didn’t you, as the daughter, take more responsibility?’”According to Chinese official statics, as of midnight Feb. 21, the day Yang Yuanyun’s body was discovered, there were 53,284 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,345 deaths nationwide.  Yang Yuanyun is not counted among these figures. The number of deaths like his — undiagnosed, unseen by medical practioners — remains a mystery.  A helpless firefighterXu Wu, 51, a former firefighter at Wuhan Iron and Steel Company, sobbed over the phone as he recounted his father’s ordeal.On February 4, Wuhan doctors diagnosed his father with coronavirus. The community social workers said no hospital beds were available, and if there had been, there was no transportation available. Xu pushed his 80-year-old father in a wheelchair from one hospital to another. Yes, the old man’s condition was severe. No, he could not be admitted. No resources.  They visited another hospital Feb. 14. It rained heavily that day in Wuhan. On their way home, Xu accidentally dropped his father’s medical records, including lung X-rays representing weeks of effort to obtain a diagnosis. That evening, he watched his father eat a serving of Chinese red kale. Each mouthful was difficult. As for rice, he couldn’t even keep it down.“I was so sad,” Xu said, his voice cracking. “I stayed up until 1 a.m. that day and contacted many people. I thought my father wouldn’t make it. I posted a message online for help.”  One day later, on February 16, a local hospital finally agreed to admit Xu’s father.  Xu was relieved, “It’s better to be treated in hospital than waiting to die at home.”With his father in care, other worries dog Xu. The lockdown means Wuhan residents are banned from leaving their homes to shop for groceries. Instead of bumping into neighbors while selecting the makings for dinner, they rely on community social workers to deliver the basics such as vegetables and rice. The offerings they receive are largely on a take-what-you-get basis.Xu is concerned that soon what feels like rations will run out and his family won’t have enough to eat. Addressing that fear, his mother planted some vegetables on the rooftop of their apartment building.The family has already harvested a first crop of those with quick growing cycles. Xu said these homegrown vegetables are helping them survive the lockdown.Medical workers in protective suits attend to a patient inside an isolated ward of Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, China Feb. 16, 2020.Witnessing tragediesLou Weichen is from Zhejiang province, about 660 kilometers southeast of Wuhan. The 25-year-old office worker made the eight-hour drive to Wuhan days after the lockdown because he wanted to volunteer.  Since then, every day has been the same. He drives from address to address to deliver necessities to those in need. Every day he witnesses unending tragedy.“One family I helped out used to be a happy family of four,” Lou said. “The pneumonia took the father’s life. The mother went into the ICU because of the same disease. Then, the elder sister came down with a confirmed case and had to go to the hospital, too. The youngest son was put under quarantine at a local hotel.”  The sorrow has taken a psychological toll on Lou.“I’ve been suffering from insomnia for a long time. Night after night, I couldn’t fall asleep,” he said.  Unrelenting pressure  One day shortly after the lockdown began, Chen Chen went to the hospital to deliver meals to her aunt, a doctor infected by the coronavirus in mid-January.  This 26-year-old office worker had never seen anything like this in her native Wuhan.“It was around 5 or 6 p.m., nobody was on the street. It felt very much like being in a biochemical crisis type of movie,” said Chen Chen, who did not want VOA Mandarin to use her real name for fear of reprisal from local authorities.“Many ambulances and police cars were parked in front of the hospital,” she said. “The atmosphere was very intense. The hospital was quiet, as if no one was there.”  A few days later, Chen Chen learned her uncle had COVID-19.  Then, after a few more days passed, doctors classified Chen Chen’s mother as a patient likely infected with the coronavirus.The pressure felt unrelenting. Chen Chen wished she could sip milk tea at her favorite shop. Her mom longed for hot pot. But they were stuck inside and able to order only limited groceries for delivery.“In early February, I felt really depressed. I even got a little skeptical of life,” Chen Chen said. “Every time you turn on the news, browse through Weibo, the death toll rises. I just stopped reading them.”Weibo is China’s version of Twitter.Chen Chen said she is angry, as are many other Wuhan residents she knows because news of a mysterious pneumonia began to circulate on WeChat in late December.  Chen Chen discussed the chain of events from then.People shrugged and went about their lives. Then on New Year’s Day, the government issued a special statement saying that news of the mystery illness was a rumor, and arrested eight people it accused of rumor spreading. Everyone applauded and believed the government was very efficient. People let their guard down and went about their business as usual.“Apparently it could have been controlled in the first place, but now we’re in this uncontrollable mess,” Chen Chen said.Dubbed ‘Hubei F4’She also told VOA that after the lockdown started on Jan. 23, she and other netizens would go on Weibo daily to vent their anger at local officials, calling them — the party chiefs of Hubei province as well as the governor and Wuhan’s mayor — “Hubei F4.”The disparaging nickname originated with a Japanese manga series named Boys Over Flower. In it, four young men — F4 or Flower 4 — from Japan’s wealthiest families ruled an elite private high school.Chen Chen and others wondered why the Hubei F4 hadn’t stepped down.On February 13, the central government in Beijing removed the secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and the secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee. The news quickly spread on the internet. Many people said the government had done something great.  But Chen Chen thought things were not that simple and wonders why only two of the four local officials had been targeted. “Who knows what exactly happened? Who gave the order to cover things up?” she said. “It can’t be just the four of them.”Chen Chen then added that in China, for people like her, an ordinary citizen, there are some truths they may never know.  VOA Mandarin Service reporter Ming Di contributed to this report.
 
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Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad will stand for the premiership on behalf of the former ruling coalition, the interim prime minister said Saturday, less than a week after he quit and plunged the country into turmoil.“I am now confident that I have the numbers needed to garner majority support,” Mahathir said in a statement.That meant that Mahathir, who is the world’s oldest government leader at 94, would reunite with on-off ally and long-term rival Anwar Ibrahim, 72, resuming a pact that swept the coalition to a surprise election victory in 2018.Pact appears to be back“Pakatan Harapan states its full support towards Dr. Mahathir as candidate for prime minister,” said a statement from the coalition formed by the two men whose struggle has shaped Malaysian politics for two decades.Mahathir has thus secured the likely support he needs to return as prime minister full-time, less than a week after he resigned and was appointed as interim leader.The political futures of both Mahathir and Anwar had appeared in doubt Friday, with Anwar competing as a candidate in his own right and Mahathir finding little support for a unity government that would have strengthened his power.A new alliance had formed behind former interior minister Muhyiddin Yassin, 72, who had the backing of the old ruling party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO).Promise not mentionedIt was that party, tarnished by corruption, that Mahathir and Anwar united to drive from power in 2018 under then prime minister Najib Razak, who now faces graft charges.Tension had persisted between Mahathir and Anwar over the prime minister’s promise to one day hand power to the younger man. No date for that was ever set, however.Neither Mahathir nor Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) made any mention of that promise in Saturday’s statements.
 
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The U.S. State Department has expressed concern after Chinese-ruled Hong Kong arrested publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken critic of Beijing, and two pro-democracy activists.The arrests come after a period of relative calm following months of anti-government protests over perceptions that China is tightening its grip on the city, something Beijing denies and blames the West for fomenting unrest.Lai and veteran democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, were arrested Friday in the Asian financial hub on charges of illegal assembly, drawing condemnation from international rights groups, media said.FILE – State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus appears on stage with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he speaks at a news conference at the State Department in Washington, Nov. 18, 2019.“We are concerned by the arrest of prominent Hong Kong businessman and publisher Jimmy Lai and two other longtime advocates for civil liberties and democracy,” Morgan Ortagus, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said Friday.“We expect Hong Kong authorities not to use law enforcement selectively for political purposes, and to handle cases fairly and transparently,” she added in a statement.The spokeswoman also called for the rule of law and Hong Kong people’s rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression to be preserved.More than 7,000 arrestsThe police said three local men, aged 63 to 72, were arrested for suspected participation in a nonapproved gathering but did not confirm their names.Authorities in the former British colony have arrested more than 7,000 people for involvement in Hong Kong’s protests, many on charges of rioting that can carry jail terms of up to 10 years. It is unclear how many are still in custody.The arrest of the three men was outrageous, said Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, adding that there was no doubt its government was acting at Beijing’s instructions.“This decision will send yet another signal to the world that the Chinese Communist Party is intent on throttling decency and freedom in Hong Kong,” Patten said.Pro-democracy iconLai, a self-made millionaire who has made financial contributions to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and been a target of criticism by mainland Chinese media, was arrested in 2014 for refusing to leave a key pro-democracy protest site.After the arrest he resigned as editor in chief of Apple Daily. He has also come under scrutiny from Hong Kong’s anti-graft agency, which raided his home in 2014.In an editorial Friday, China’s state-owned Global Times tabloid called Lai “a force of evil,” rather than the “hero” of democracy painted by the West. “… He is a traitor, a criminal and a force of evil who has sowed violence and chaos in arguably one of the freest and most prosperous cities in the world,” it added.
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The United States said Friday that Washington was postponing a special summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as countries around the globe continued to fight the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). “As the international community works together to defeat the novel coronavirus, the United States, in consultation with ASEAN partners, has made the difficult decision to postpone the ASEAN leaders meeting previously scheduled for mid-March,” a senior administration official said. The U.S. and 10 nations from the Southeast Asian bloc have been eyeing a special summit to boost ties at a time when analysts say China continues to expand its influence in Southeast Asia while driving a wedge between Washington and some of its traditional allies in the region.“The United States values our relationships with the nations of this critical region and looks forward to future meetings,” the official said. The summit was scheduled for March 14 in Las Vegas. Bilateral meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and ASEAN leaders were also being planned. VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report from the White House. 
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The coronavirus spread to seven more countries Friday, left stock markets reeling and caused the World Health Organization to raise its impact risk alert to “very high.”Mexico, Nigeria, New Zealand, Lithuania, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Iceland reported their first cases of the virus as the number of countries hit by the outbreak neared 60.The United States confirmed its second case of the virus in a person who had no known history of travel to a country experiencing an outbreak of the disease, known as COVID-19.U.S. health authorities said the patient, a 65-year-old Northern California resident, also had no known connection to the country’s first case of community transmission, a woman also in Northern California.The World Health Organization raised its global risk assessment of the coronavirus to its highest level.”We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.The growing spread of coronavirus led many world stock markets to fall Friday to their lowest levels since the 2008 financial crisis.Passengers wearing protective masks are seen at the International Airport in Mexico City, Mexico, Feb. 28, 2020.In Mexico, health officials said a man in Mexico City who had recently visited Italy tested positive for the virus, and another patient was confirmed in the northern state of Sinaloa. Brazil is the only other country that has coronavirus in Latin America.The case in Nigeria, detected in the economic capital, Lagos, was the first case in sub-Saharan Africa and the third to be confirmed in Africa. Nigerian officials said the case involved an Italian citizen who entered the country this week.In Azerbaijan, a Russian citizen who had arrived from Iran was confirmed with the virus, and in Belarus an Iranian student who arrived from Azerbaijan tested positive.Lithuania also announced that a woman who returned this week from a visit to Italy tested positive.People wearing protective masks walk on street in Minsk, Belarus, Feb. 28, 2020. Belarus, Lithuania and New Zealand have reported their first cases of coronavirus.New Zealand confirmed its first coronavirus case, saying a recent arrival from Iran had tested positive.In the Netherlands, the first case was confirmed late Thursday and another Friday, both of whom had recently traveled in northern Italy.The outbreak appeared to be easing in China, where the virus originated. China’s National Health Commission reported 327 new cases and 44 deaths early Friday — the lowest number of new cases in more than a month. China had a total of 78,824 cases.But the number in South Korea, the hardest-hit country outside China, reached 2,337, with 571 new cases and 13 deaths. Most of the cases were in Daegu, the South’s fourth-largest city.The death toll in Italy rose to 21, with nearly 900 people infected.  The worldwide outbreaks have led governments and companies around the globe to implement closures and restrictions.Switzerland canceled next week’s Geneva international car show, an important event for the auto industry. Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, told its employees to defer all nonessential travel.In Japan, Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan announced closures. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered schools to close at least through March.The United States and South Korea called off joint military drills.In Germany, about 1,000 people were being quarantined in the country’s most populous state. The number of confirmed cases in Europe’s biggest economy exceeded 50.In the United States, California health officials said they were monitoring 8,400 people for symptoms after their arrival on domestic flights.Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar talks with reporters about the coronavirus, at the White House, Feb. 28, 2020, in Washington.Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the United States would invoke special powers to boost the production of masks, gloves and other items to protect against the virus.Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that the federal government was prepared to assist states if a widespread outbreak occurred.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday confirmed two more cases of the coronavirus among Americans evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, bringing the tally among evacuees to 44. The CDC’s head of respiratory diseases, Nancy Messonnier, said the agency’s goal was to have every state testing with the CDC’s coronavirus test kits by the end of next week.
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Outspoken Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai and two prominent opposition politicians were charged Friday with illegal assembly over a pro-democracy march last year as the territory’s Beijing-backed government appeared to move to settle scores over the protests. The months of demonstrations calling for reforms in semiautonomous Hong Kong crippled its economy and put its leaders and police force under unprecedented pressure. Lai was picked up from his home by police officers early Friday, while Yeung Sum, a former pro-democracy legislator, and Lee Cheuk-yan, a former legislator and vice chairman of the Labour Party, were also arrested. Well, the Hong Kong situation is getting tense here, but we have to go on, we have to go on,'' Lai told reporters after speaking with officers. The three left the police station after being charged and are to appear in court on May 5. They could face up to five years in prison along with fines. Senior police officer Wong Tung-kwong said all three were charged with illegal assembly in connection with the August 31 march, which was timed to mark the fifth anniversary of a decision by China against fully democratic elections in Hong Kong. Batons, pepper sprayOrganizers called off the march after police banned it, but hundreds of thousands of people defied the order and filled the streets in several areas of the Asian financial hub. Protesters threw gasoline bombs at government headquarters and set fires in the streets, while police stormed a subway car and hit passengers with batons and pepper spray in some of the most violent scenes up to that point in the protest movement. Hong Kong broadcaster TVB showed police on the platform of the Prince Edward subway station swinging batons at passengers who backed into one end of a train car behind umbrellas. The video also showed pepper spray being shot through an open door at a group seated on the floor while one man held up his hands. Police arrested thousands during the protest movement that began in June but fizzled out toward the end of the year amid harsher tactics by authorities. Prison sentences have been threatened against many on charges including rioting and possessing offensive weapons. The demonstrations initially protested proposed legislation that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be sent to mainland China to stand trial, but later included demands for democratic elections and an investigation into police use of force. Many fear Beijing is steadily eroding the legal guarantees and freedoms Hong Kong was promised after it was handed over from British to Chinese rule in 1997. Lai is an entrepreneur and longtime activist who sold his clothing chain under political pressure and has since focused on media in Hong Kong and Taiwan. 'Shameless' actsFriday's arrests were ashameless attempt to harass and silence those in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement,the director of Amnesty International Hong Kong, Man-Kei Tam, said in a statement.It continues the pattern of the authorities using politically motivated charges to suppress opposition voices. The arrests came days after China sentenced a Swedish seller of books that looked skeptically on the ruling Communist Party to 10 years forillegally providing intelligence overseas,“ in a display of Beijing’s hard line toward its critics. Gui Minhai first disappeared in 2015, when he was believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents from his seaside home in Thailand. He and four others who worked for the same Hong Kong publishing company all went missing about the same time, only to turn up months later in police custody in mainland China. In announcing the sentence Tuesday, the Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court said Gui, a naturalized Swedish citizen, had admitted to his crime, agreed with the sentence and would not appeal. 
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A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily halted a Trump administration policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico while their cases proceed through U.S. immigration courts. The same court decided to keep another major change on hold, one that denies asylum to anyone who enters the U.S. illegally from Mexico. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on the two policies that are central to President Donald Trump’s asylum crackdown, dealing the administration a major setback, even if it proves temporary. The question before the judges was whether to let the policies take effect during legal challenges. The Trump administration has made asylum an increasingly remote possibility at a time when claims have soared. By 2017, the United States had become the world’s top destination for people seeking asylum. FILE – Migrants, many who were returned to Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program, wait in line to get a meal in an encampment near the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, Aug. 30, 2019,The Remain in Mexico'' measure took effect in January 2019 and nearly 60,000 people have been sent back to wait for hearings. The court declared the policy invalid, but acknowledged the ruling applied only to California and Arizona, the only border states in its jurisdiction. The other measure with far-reaching consequences denies asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. border with Mexico without seeking protection there first. That policy took effect in September and is being challenged in a separate lawsuit. President's rightJustice Department lawyers asserted that Trump was within his rights to impose the policies without Congress' approval and that they would help deter asylum claims that lack merit. Opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that the administration violated U.S. law and obligations to international treaties by turning back people who will likely be persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality or political beliefs. Judges William Fletcher and Richard Paez, who were both appointed by President Bill Clinton, sharply questioned government attorneys onRemain in Mexico” during arguments October 1. They voted to block it. Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, dissented. Supporters of the Remain in Mexico policy note it has prevented asylum-seekers from being released in the United States with notices to appear in court, which they consider a major incentive for people to come. Its expansion coincided with a sharp drop in Border Patrol arrests from a 13-year high in May, suggesting it may have had its intended effect. The Homeland Security Department called it an indispensable tool'' in an October 28 report. Opponents say it has exposed asylum-seekers to extreme danger in violent Mexican border cities while they wait for U.S. court hearings. Human Rights First, an advocacy group that has criticized the policy, said in January that there were more than 800 public reports of rape, kidnapping, torture and other violent crimes against asylum-seekers who have been sent back to Mexico. How it progressedThe policy was introduced at the border crossing in San Diego in January and initially focused on asylum-seekers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. It expanded to crossings in Calexico, California, and the Texas cities of El Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo and Brownsville, and included more people from Spanish-speaking countries. The administration on November 22 began busing asylum-seekers who crossed the border in Arizona from Tucson to El Paso, Texas, to be returned to Mexico from there, extending the policy across every major corridor for illegal border crossings. In Laredo and Brownsville, asylum-seekers appear for hearings in tents on U.S. Customs and Border Protection property, connected by video to judges in other locations. Mexicans are exempt, as are unaccompanied children. FILE - Cuban migrants, waiting for their appointment to request asylum in the U.S., rest at a gym being used as a shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, March 19, 2019.The asylum ban on anyone who crosses the border illegally from Mexico also drew pointed questions from the judges during arguments. They asked whether the policy violated U.S. law that says it doesn't matter how people enter the country. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift a ruling blocking the ban following an extraordinary spat last year between Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts. The president denounced the judge who ruled against the ban as anObama judge.“ Roberts said there was no such thing in a strongly worded statement defending judicial independence. Trump stood behind his comments. 
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She wakes every day long before dawn to chat with her three stranded daughters on the other side of the world in China’s locked-down city of Wuhan, anxious to see they have started a new day virus-free.”If I don’t get a reply it worries me, but if I get a reply from any of them I say, 'Thank you, Jesus,'" Margaret Ntale said.Many countries evacuated citizens from Wuhan after the virus outbreak started there, but thousands of students from African countries have been left behind. Despite pleas with governments for evacuation, several African countries have said it's safer to stay in place.More than 4,000 African students have been estimated to be in Wuhan, a result of China's push to expand its influence on the youthful African continent.Bringing them home, governments say, is risky in sub-Saharan Africa, which on Friday confirmed its first case of the virus, in Nigeria's city of Lagos. Just two cases have been confirmed in North Africa, in Egypt and Algeria. Health systems can be weak, and quarantining dozens or hundreds of returning people is a major challenge.That leaves African students stuck on ever-emptier campuses in Wuhan, worrying about running out of food or the money to buy it. Some governments have begun sending thousands of dollars to help them get by."I have a few friends who are not able to get things like detergent, sanitary towels, and then also not having food, like such things like that," said one of Ntale's daughters' roommates, Joanna Aloyo, via a messaging app.On Thursday, Ntale joined other parents in Uganda's capital, Kampala, to talk to local reporters about their fears. And she started to cry."You can never know what is going to happen tomorrow. This is what scares me,"' Ntale said. "The students are traumatized and equally terrified. It makes all of us break down.'The uncertainty about their children is "psychological torture,"' another parent said. At least 70 Ugandan students are stranded in Wuhan.Uganda's health minister, Jane Aceng, could not be reached immediately. But two weeks ago she said the ministry was looking at the cost to"isolate, monitor and manage in the event of an outbreak among the group if repatriated.”Meanwhile she has said the government would send $60,000 in emergency funds to be distributed among students in Wuhan.But the parents said their children had not received the money.”It is a bit upsetting that it appears no serious action has taken place,” said one parent, Cecilia Oyet. “I think that kind of inaction or slow action sends a message to those students out there, and even to the youth within the country. It sends a message either that we as fellow Ugandans, we don’t care or that they as the youth, they don’t matter, and we feel it is not okay.”The parents communicate with their children by phone and the occasional video chat. They are increasingly alarmed as the death toll from the virus has grown, though some speak of trying to remain positive.Oyet, whose daughter is a medical student at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, recalled that about two weeks ago a student sent a message saying that “people are dying here in large numbers and the bodies are being cremated. Can you imagine us dying here and you don’t even see our bodies? Please do something before we become part of the statistics.”Other countries have announced plans to send students money. Botswana’s government has said each of its students in Wuhan will receive an additional allowance of about $144 a month and a local company will be engaged to deliver food, water, face masks and even provide “psychosocial support services.”But that’s not enough, some students and parents say. After some called Ghana’s government “callous” for not evacuating its students, President Nana Akufo-Addo last week said it had not been ruled out but it would be done in a way to avoid “fear and panic among the public.”
 
In Ethiopia, where some worried families gathered in the capital, Addis Ababa, seeking evacuations, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed this week said Chinese President Xi Jinping assured him in a phone call that China would provide “special care and support” to stranded students.Chinese authorities have issued statements saying students are receiving food and other necessities. But Kenya’s government raised eyebrows last week when it announced on Twitter that any communication from the government to stranded Kenyans in Wuhan “must be done through the Chinese government.”Spirits among some students have been low. Until Thursday night when South Africa announced that more than 130 citizens in Wuhan would be evacuated, the small island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius were the only countries in sub-Saharan Africa to bring citizens home.In an open letter to Nigeria’s president published earlier this month by the Sahara Reporters website, a Nigerian stranded in Wuhan, Ayodeji Adetunji Idowu, made an urgent plea, saying the “mood here is fast turning to frustration, helplessness, and despondency because of our failure to receive diplomatic support to be evacuated.”While Nigeria’s ambassador sent the community a personal donation of about $2,850, “it saddens us that days and weeks have gone past … to get a favorable response from authorities,” Idowu wrote.
 
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A deepening health crisis became an economic one too Friday, with the virus outbreak sapping financial markets, emptying shops and businesses, and putting major sites and events off limits.As the list of countries hit by the illness edged toward 60 with Belarus, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands reporting their first cases, the threats to livelihoods were increasingly eyed as warily as the threats to lives.”It’s not cholera or the black plague,” said Simone Venturini, the city councilor for economic development in Venice, Italy, where tourism already hurt by historic flooding last year has sunk with news of virus cases. “The damage that worries us even more is the damage to the economy.”Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said the outbreak “has pandemic potential,” but whatever terminology officials used, the rippling effects were clear.A man wearing a mask walks past an advertisement for the Tokyo Disney Resort at a train station in Urayasu, near Tokyo, Feb. 28, 2020. The amusement park will be closed Feb. 29 to March 15 in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.Attractions including Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan announced closures and events that expected tens of thousands, including a tour by the K-pop group BTS, were called off.Investors watched warily as stocks fell across Asia and girded to see if Wall Street’s brutal run would continue, while businesses both small and large saw weakness and people felt it in their wallets.”There’s almost no one coming here,” said Kim Yun-ok, who sells doughnuts and seaweed rolls at Seoul’s Gwangjang Market, where crowds were thin Friday as South Korea counted 571 new cases — more than China. “I am just hoping that the outbreak will come under control soon.”In Italy, where the count of 650 cases is growing, hotel bookings were dropping and Premier Giuseppe Conte raised the specter of recession. Shopkeepers like Flavio Gastaldi, who has sold souvenirs in Venice for three decades, wondered if they could survive the blow.”We will return the keys to the landlords soon,” he said.The economic hurt came with anger in Bangkok, where tenants at the Platinum Fashion Mall staged a flash mob, shouting “Reduce the rent!” and holding signs that said “Tourists don’t come, shops suffer.”Workers wearing protective gears spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 28, 2020.Kanya Yontararak, a 51-year-old owner of a women’s clothing store, said her sales have sunk as low as 1,000 baht ($32) some days, making it a struggle to pay back a loan for her lease. She’s stopped driving to work, using public transit instead, packs a lunch instead of buying, and is cutting her grocery bills. The situation is more severe than the floods and political crises her store has braved in the past.”Coronavirus is the worst situation they have ever seen,” she said of the merchants.Some saw dollar signs in the crisis, with 20 people in Italy arrested for selling masks they fraudulently claimed provided complete protection from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. Police said they were selling them for as much as 5,000 euros ($5,520) each.Japan’s schools prepared to shutter and the country’s Hokkaido island declared a state of emergency, with its governor urging residents to stay home over the weekend. The Swiss government banned events with more than 1,000 people, while at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, basins of holy water were emptied for fear of spreading germs.Globally, more than 83,000 people have fallen ill with the coronavirus. China, though hardest hit, has seen lower numbers of new infections, with 327 additional cases reported Friday, bringing the country’s total to 78,824. Another 44 people died there for a total of 2,788.South Korea has recorded 2,337 cases, the most outside of China. Emerging clusters in Italy and in Iran, which has had 34 deaths and 388 cases, have in turn led to infections of people in other countries.
 
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Two Baltic countries have reported their first case of coronavirus, each with mild symptoms.Lithuania confirmed its first case Friday, detected in a woman who returned home after attending a conference with colleagues in Italy’s northern city of Verona.The 39-year-old woman has mild symptoms and has been isolated in hospital in the northern town of Siauliai following her return Monday, Lithuanian Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga said at a late night press conference, adding that passengers seated beside the woman on the plane and in adjacent rows are going to undergo tests for the virus.On Thursday, Estonia reported its first coronavirus case, a day after a man returned to the county from a business trip in his homeland, Iran.Estonian Social Affairs Minister Tanel Kiik told public broadcaster ERR that the man is currently hospitalized.“The person, a permanent resident of Estonia who is not a citizen, arrived in Estonia on Wednesday evening,” Kiik said.According to local media, the man contacted Estonian health authorities himself upon his arrival in Tallinn by bus from the Latvian capital Riga, where he flew in from Istanbul.Italy and Iran are among the countries with the largest numbers of COVID-19 cases outside Asia.
 
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Refugees can now gain access to Europe through Turkey.Turkey shares borders with two European Union countries, Greece and Bulgaria.Turkey’s security forces have been ordered not to stop the exodus, at least temporarily reversing an arrangement made with the EU in 2016.The decision comes after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed by Syrian government forces in northern Syria’s Idlib region Thursday.About 1 million Syrian refugees have been displaced and have gathered near the border with Turkey since December.Turkey already houses nearly 4 million Syrian refugees.Early Friday, close to 300 migrants began the trek to Turkey’s Edirne province on the Greek border.Media reports said that in addition to the Syrians making the trip, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Moroccans were also part of the group.Refugees are also heading toward Ayvacik, where they hope to travel by boat to the Greek island of Lesbos. 
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The United States Navy says that a Chinese Navy destroyer targeted a U.S. patrol aircraft with a laser last week while it was flying over the Philippine Sea, about 600 kilometers west of Guam.The U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement that a Chinese ship trained the laser on the American P-8A Poseidon aircraft in an “unsafe” and “unprofessional manner,” while the P-8 was operation “in international airspace in accordance with international rules and regulations.”The U.S. Navy said the Chinese action was in violation of the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), a multilateral agreement reached in 2014, and also inconsistent with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. and China defense departments on safety of air and maritime encounters, the statement said.The laser was captured by a sensor onboard the P-8A and was not visible to the naked eye.“Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems,” the Navy said.The P-8A Poseidon is deployed to Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan and conducts routine operations, maritime patrol, and reconnaissance in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.
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