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Analysis: Privacy Worries Could Derail Virus Tracking Plans

Worries about the breach of individual privacy rights could undermine Louisiana’s ability to quickly pinpoint those who have encountered someone infected with COVID-19, a tracking plan that public health experts say is critical to slowing the spread of the coronavirus disease.Gov. John Bel Edwards has started reopening much of Louisiana’s economy, saying residents have done well with staying home and apart from others that the state’s no longer at risk of overwhelming its hospitals with COVID-19 patients.  Loosening restrictions means more people are moving around, visiting salons and restaurants, attending churches and encountering others. To avoid overwhelming spikes in coronavirus cases, infectious disease specialists say, requires robust testing to locate virus hot spots and widespread contact tracing to determine who has come into close contact with someone infected so they can be urged to self-isolate.Dr. Alex Billioux, leader of Louisiana’s public health office, said he knows some people will find the process of contact tracing “scary,” to be asked about their interactions with people and businesses or to find out someone else has shared information about where they’ve been.”The goal here, though, is to help protect you. The goal here is to identify where you have risk,” Billioux said.But word that the Edwards administration hired nearly 300 contact tracers on top of 70 already employed — and could eventually build up to 700 disease detectives to track the virus— quickly raised concerns about collecting personal medical information and spreading it improperly.Rep. Raymond Crews, a Shreveport Republican, told health care officials he’s heard a lot of reluctance to contact tracing from people who “put a big, big premium on liberty.””My constituents are very leery. They think it opens a Pandora’s box and it’s going to be very scary,” Crews said.Realizing that widespread reluctance to respond to contact tracers could hamper Louisiana’s efforts to contain the virus, Edwards has appealed to people to be “good neighbors” by participating.The Democratic governor said people who test positive for the coronavirus will be asked to identify people they recently came into close contact with for 15 minutes or more. A contact tracer, working from home, will call those people and tell them they should get tested if they’re symptomatic and should isolate for 14 days even if they’re not showing symptoms.”You can rest assured that your information will remain confidential,” Edwards said.Billioux stressed the contact tracers will follow federal laws for protecting personal health information. He said the information collected is held in a private system similar to those used by hospitals to store health data.”We’re not revealing any details of the individual that they came into contact with,” Billioux said.  Public health agencies have used contact tracing to track and combat the spread of other infectious diseases for years, drawing little attention. Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor, said the nation has laws governing the process.”Privacy is absolutely of greatest importance. Fortunately, we have 25 or 30 or even 40 years of privacy law that we have seen work,” Cassidy said in a conference call with reporters. He added: “We have to reopen the economy safely, and we have to do it in a way which both balances the safety and the reopening. And the way to do that is to know who may be infected.”Rep. Jack McFarland, a Winnfield Republican, said contact tracing concerns are rampant on social media, and he’s been inundated with emails and phone calls from people resisting the idea.  He said the state hasn’t done enough to explain that the contact tracing will be done by phone, that participation will be voluntary and that the “government can’t come into your home and lock you up.” He also said more should be done to explain the benefits to slow the virus’s spread.  McFarland acknowledged he’s not yet “completely comfortable” with contact tracing, and he anticipates the state will have trouble getting some people to participate.”Once people make up their minds, it’s hard to change them,” he said. “The public’s perception is this is big government, an invasion of our privacy. Somebody’s got to do a better job of changing that perception or it’s not going to be successful.”

Virus Heads Upriver in Brazil Amazon, Sickens Native People

In the remote Amazon community of Betania, Tikuna tribe members suspect the coronavirus arrived this month after some returned from a two-hour boat trip down the Solimoes River to pick up their government benefit payments.Dozens subsequently got headaches, fevers and coughs. Two died. And the five government medical workers for the community of about 4,000 are not treating the sick because they lack protective equipment and coronavirus tests, said Sinésio Tikuna, a village leader.So the Tikuna rely on their traditional remedy for respiratory ailments: Inhaling clouds of smoke from burning medicinal plants and beehives.The Tikuna’s plight illustrates the danger from the coronavirus as it spreads to rainforest areas where tribe members live in close quarters with limited medical services. Most are reachable only by boat or small aircraft.”We’re very worried, mainly because help isn’t arriving,” Sinésio Tikuna said in a telephone interview.Brazil has Latin America’s highest COVID-19 death toll, with more than 15,000 as of Sunday. The country’s hardest hit major city per capita is in the Amazon — Manaus, where mass graves are filling up with bodies.Graves for people who have died in the past month fill a new section of the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery, amid the new coronavirus pandemic, in Manaus, Brazil, May 11. 2020.As Sinésio Tikuna described in an interview his belief that beehive smoke saved four sick tribe members, there was no one at a Manaus hospital to help a feverish woman, struggling to breathe, make it inside the emergency room. A police officer put her on a gurney, wheeling it inside with an Associated Press photographer’s help.The indigenous people dwelling up the Solimoes and Negro rivers that merge in Manaus to form the Amazon River tried for weeks to seal their reserves off from the virus, pleading for donations while awaiting government deliveries of food so they could remain isolated. It didn’t come for many, indigenous advocates said.The Upper Solimoes basin has 44 tribal reserves and has emerged as the Brazilian Amazon’s indigenous infection hotspot. Testing is extremely limited, but shows that at least 162 of the area’s approximately 76,000 indigenous people have been infected and 11 have died. There are more than 2,000 confirmed infections in parts of the area not overseen by the government’s indigenous health care provider.In a Tikuna village named Umariacu near the border with Peru and Colombia, the first three COVID-19 deaths were elderly tribe members infected by younger members who left town to receive government welfare payments and trade fish and produce for chicken and other food, said Weydson Pereira, who coordinates the region’s indigenous government health care.”Our biggest anguish today is the indigenous people who aren’t staying in their communities and coming in and out of town. Today the safest place for them is inside their villages,” Pereira said this month, infected and isolating at home with his infected wife and daughter.Two weeks of tribal quarantine for the region would have provided time to identify and isolate cases, but “unfortunately, that hasn’t happened,” he said.In the same area, people of Kokama ethnicity have been unable to get medical treatment fromhealth system in the small city of Tabatinga or from the government’s indigenous care provider, federal prosecutors said in a lawsuit filed this week seeking to expand Tabatinga’s hospital.That hospital’s 10 ventilators are in use for coronavirus patients and the nearest intensive care is 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) downriver in Manaus, also filled with patients, Pereira said.Manaus’ lack of coronavirus treatment prompted Pedro dos Santos, the leader of a slum named Park of Indigenous Nations, to drink tea made of chicory root, garlic and lime to combat a high fever that lasted 10 days. A 62-year-old neighbor of Bare indigenous ethnicity needed an ICU bed, but none were available and he died, said the man’s son, Josué Paulino.Some frightened residents of Manaus, population 2.2 million, are fleeing but they may be asymptomatic carriers and could spread the virus elsewhere, said Miguel Lago, executive director of Brazil’s Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health officials.About 575 miles (925 kilometers) up the Negro River from Manaus is the community of Sao Gabriel Cachoeira, where people of 23 indigenous ethnicities make up more than 75 percent of the population.FILE – A small boat navigates on the Solimoes River near Manaus, Brazil, May 22, 2014.About 46,000 live in the urban area and on rural reserves with frequent back-and-forth transit, said Juliana Radler, an advisor for the Socio-Environmental Institut, an environmental and indigenous advocacy group.Sao Gabriel Cachoeira quickly reacted to the COVID-19 threat within a week of the World Health Organization’s pandemic declaration by cutting off riverboat and plane arrivals in late March — except for essential goods and soldiers.But Radler said some Sao Gabriel Cachoeira residents stuck in Manaus headed home on supply ships — disembarking nearby and sneaking into town under cover of darkness. About 150 others made the voyage on a triple-decker ferry named the Lady Luiza.When it arrived days later, authorities tried but failed to turn passengers away. No quarantine areas were available and some ferry passengers may have brought the virus to Sao Gabriel Cachoeira, Radler said.Brazil’s Navy authorized the ferry’s trip and passengers were desperate to go home because “they felt exposed and vulnerable” in Manaus, the Lady Luiza’s owner said on Facebook.By mid-April, many residents had what they believed was a strong flu. The community’s COVID-19 committee used radio broadcasts, sound trucks and pamphlets to issue warnings about the virus in Portuguese and indigenous languages including Tukano, Nheengatu and Baniwa.One of the first confirmed coronavirus cases was a teacher of Baniwa ethnicity who died after being taken to Manaus for treatment. For most people COVID-19 causes moderate symptoms like fever, but it can result in death.As of this week, Sao Gabriel Cachoeira had 292 confirmed infections and nearby indigenous reserves had registered their first cases.All six functioning ventilators in the hospital were in use and remote tribal health centers were short of supplies, Radler said. “We need a field hospital as fast as possible, in the next 20 days,” she said. “If not, it will be a catastrophe, a true catastrophe.”  

Albanian Police Move to Demolish Country’s National Theater

Albanian police clashed with demonstrators, including artists and opposition supporters Sunday who were protesting the demolition of the country’s National Theater in the capital Tirana.About 40 people were detained early in the morning and police pulled a group of artists away from the building, before heavy machinery started to bring it down.Protesters chanted “Down with the dictatorships.”The leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha, renewed calls on residents to topple the government over the theater’s destruction. Basha said, “This is injustice, this violence will continue, this will not stop until this government is gone. There is no other way.” Albanian artists and right activists, both in Albania and abroad, had been protesting for about two years against the government’s decision to destroy the old National Theater, built by Italians during World War II, and replace it with a new one.The artists and others wanted it renovated instead, arguing that the old theater was part of the country’s national heritage.They have directly accused Prime Minister Edi Rama and Tirana’s Mayor Erjon Veliaj of corruption. President Ilir Meta had labeled the theater’s demolition ‘a criminal activity’ in his filing with the Constitutional Court last week against the move.Meanwhile, the European Union delegation to Albania said in a statement it was following Sunday’s developments “with deep concern” and called on the parties to avoid an escalation of the confrontation. 

Journalist Killed in Mexico, Third This Year

A Mexican journalist was killed Saturday in Ciudad Obregon in the country’s north, the third reporter killed this year in Mexico, authorities said.”An armed attack has been confirmed that took the life of Jorge Armenta,” director of digital media outlet Medios Obson, the regional prosecutor’s office said on Twitter. A municipal police officer was also killed and a second officer was wounded.Regional Governor Claudia Pavlovich condemned the armed attack on Armenta in a message on Twitter, adding that she instructed the prosecutor to “immediately start the investigations to clarify and find those responsible for the damnable attack against the director of the Obson Media, Jorge Armenta and 2 municipal police officers.”Media group Reporters Without Borders, known by its French initials RSF, said in a statement that Armenta had received threats and was under government protection. The organization said it is investigating the type of protection he had.RSF has continuously ranked Mexico, as well as Syria and Afghanistan, as the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists to carry out their duties.The two other journalists killed in Mexico also this year were Víctor Fernando Alvarez, who was found dead on April 11 in the port of Acapulco after he disappeared on April 2; and Maria Elena Ferral, who was shot dead by two assailants on motorbikes in the eastern state of Veracruz in March. 

May 17 Is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, Biphobia

May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.First observed in 2004, the day was designed to focus “attention on the violence and discrimination experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexuals, transgender, intersex people and all other people with diverse sexual orientations, gender, identities or expressions, and sex characteristics,” according the May17.org website.The U.N. secretary general issued a statement in support of May 17, noting that this year’s observation comes “at a time of great challenge.”“Among the many severe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is the increased vulnerability of LGBTI people,” Antonio Guterres said. “Already facing bias, attacks and murder simply for who they are or whom they love, many LGBTI people are experiencing heightened stigma as a result of the virus, as well as new obstacles when seeking health care.”The U.N. chief urged people to “stand united against discrimination and for the right of all to live free and equal in dignity and rights.”Most of the events around the world marking the day have been moved online because of the lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic.The May 17 date was chosen for the worldwide celebration of sexual and gender diversities to commemorate the World Health Organization’s 1990 decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder.  

Fears Mount Over Migrants Dying ‘Out of Sight’ in Mediterranean

More and more migrants are crossing, Europe is closing its ports and no humanitarian ships are carrying out rescues. As the coronavirus pandemic dominates headlines, activists fear the Mediterranean is the scene of an overlooked “tragedy.”A handful of migrant landings have taken place in recent weeks, including 79 people who arrived last weekend in Italy — a country under fire even before the outbreak for refusing to allow private vessels carrying migrants to dock.International organizations and NGOs say the situation is bleak, as all rescue operations were ceased as of last week.”If there is no help at sea and countries drag their feet to rescue and allow people to disembark, we’re going to end up with a fairly serious humanitarian situation,” said Vincent Cochetel, special envoy for the central Mediterranean with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).He estimates that 179 people have died in the area since January.Italy and Malta closed their ports at the beginning of April as the pandemic hit Europe hard. At that time, only two rescue boats were in operation — the Alan Kurdi vessel run by the German NGO Sea-Eye, and Aita Mari chartered by the Spanish organization Maydayterraneo.Both have now been grounded by the Italian coastguard for “technical” problems, a move denounced as unjustified by campaign groups.Meanwhile Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela said last month that he was under investigation for his role in the death of at least five migrants who tried to sail from Libya to Italy. A Maltese patrol boat allegedly cut the cables of the migrant dinghy’s motor.More departuresThe situation is all the more dire, Cochetel said, as departures from the Libyan coast have nearly quadrupled compared with the same period a year ago, with 6,629 attempts to reach Europe between January and the end of April.The number of departures from Tunisia had more than doubled, Cochetel said.”Whether or not there are (rescue) boats at sea, it has no influence on departures — this period of coronavirus has amply proven that,” he said.He said that “75 percent of migrants in Libya have lost their jobs since the lockdown measures, which can lead to despair.”Sophie Beau, general director of SOS Mediterranee, a French-based NGO that charters a rescue boat called the Ocean Viking, questions the motives behind the withdrawal of the two vessels.”Two boats one after the other, it really raises questions about why they were seized,” she said.The Ocean Viking will return to sea “as soon as possible” despite the criminalization of aid groups, Beau said.”It’s very dramatic… and counter to international maritime law, which requires us to help anyone in distress as quickly as possible,” Beau said.”Now, as there are no witnesses, we don’t know the extent of the possible tragedy taking place” in the Mediterranean, she added.’Invisible shipwrecks’The central Mediterranean “remains the most dangerous maritime migration route on Earth,” the International Organization for Migration warned.”In the current context, risks that invisible shipwrecks are occurring out of sight of the international community have grown,” it said.Beau warned that “managing the epidemic, closing ports and borders… in addition to these constraints, there is also the lack of a coordinated mechanism,” referring to the agreement on the distribution of migrants between European countries after they have disembarked.The agreement was drawn up in Malta at the end of 2019 but has been slow to materialize.In a joint letter sent to the European Commission and reviewed by AFP, the French, Italian, Spanish and German interior ministers called for the establishment of a “solidarity mechanism” for “search and rescue” at sea.”Currently, a handful of member states carry an excessive burden, which shows a lack of solidarity and risks making the whole system dysfunctional,” they said in the letter.Pending a European agreement, and in the absence of humanitarian vessels, 162 migrants are currently stranded at sea on two tourist vessels.  

Serbia Deploys Army to ‘Secure’ 3 Migrant Camps

Serbia has deployed troops near a town not far from the border with Croatia, where hundreds of migrants hoping to reach the European Union are located.In a statement issued Saturday, the Serbian Defense Ministry said President Aleksandar Vucic sent the troops to “secure” three migrant camps near the western town of Sid, where about 1,500 people, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are being housed.Vucic said he ordered the deployment to protect the local population from alleged harassment and robberies committed by the migrants.He told TV Prva that, after a state of emergency imposed to fight the coronavirus spread in Serbia was lifted earlier this month, the migrants started venturing outside the camps, committing “petty crimes and illegal entries into houses.””Because of that, people are feeling unsafe,” Vucic said.There are an estimated 4,000 migrants stranded in Serbia, one of the main transit routes through the Balkans and on to the European Union for people fleeing wars and poverty.

Europe at Odds as US, China Fight Over Pandemic at UN

The clash between China and the United States over COVID-19 has caused a rift between European nations at the U.N. Security Council over a call for cease-fires in some conflict zones during the pandemic.For two months, France has been trying to corral Washington and Beijing into a compromise on the resolution, which would urge a halt to fighting in countries like Afghanistan and Yemen as they struggle to cope with COVID-19.France and Tunisia had teamed up to draft the resolution.But on Tuesday, Germany and Estonia threw their hats in the ring with a competing resolution — one they did not coordinate with France, and which includes language that would placate the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.The same day, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke by telephone with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, with the State Department saying they “discussed cooperative efforts” at the Security Council.’Clean up the mess'”Everybody knows who is behind the new draft,” quipped one diplomat under condition of anonymity.”Estonia and Germany are just trying to clean up the mess the U.S. has created,” said Richard Gowan, who follows the United Nations for the International Crisis Group, which studies conflict resolution.At the heart of the dispute is Trump’s offensive against the World Health Organization, from which he has vowed to cut all U.S. funding.President Donald Trump is pictured with the World Health Organization logo in this photo illustration.Trump has accused the WHO of responding too slowly to the illness, which had killed more than 311,000 people worldwide as of Saturday evening EDT, and of blindly accepting China’s initial assurances about the virus first discovered in its metropolis of Wuhan.Beijing denies wrongdoing and, as do others, accuses Trump of seeking to shift attention from his handling of COVID-19 in the United States, which has suffered by far the highest death toll.China has threatened for the past two months to veto any resolution that did not reference the WHO, while the United States has indicated it would do likewise if the text did mention the U.N. agency.Compromise collapsesThe French-Tunisian draft tried to skirt around the rift by speaking of the role of “specialized health agencies.”The United States and China both indicated last week that they were fine with the compromise — but Washington reversed course a day later.That prompted the new initiative by Estonia, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month. The Estonian-German draft makes no mention of the WHO.”The Europeans are united on the substance but disagree on the method,” another diplomat said.Several diplomats said that some countries were taken aback by the Estonian-German effort, and that it would be difficult to resolve the two texts.”The French are not happy,” Gowan said, but he doubted that any council member “really thinks a resolution will make a difference at this stage.””It is just necessary to end this pointless debate at last,” he said.FILE – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Feb. 8, 2020.Violence in Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen has continued despite the virus, and despite calls first led by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for global peace.Even if France and Tunisia press ahead, their room for maneuver is limited.A diplomat doubted that either the United States or China wanted a resolution, believing it would only strengthen the hand of Guterres in the future.Several sources saw growing tension between France, the only EU member with a Security Council veto, and the non-permanent European members, as Paris chose to focus on negotiating with the other permanent members.The three EU members have divergent interests, Gowan noted.France seeks to show its clout as one of the Big Five, Germany hopes to highlight its leadership against the pandemic, and Estonia, a former Soviet republic with historic tensions with Moscow, is prioritizing its security relationship with Washington.After Estonia, France takes over the Security Council presidency and then Germany.The three powers called a news conference this week to celebrate the “European Spring” — but it was abruptly canceled.

Italy Ready to Reopen to Travel, Tourists

The Italian government will begin lifting coronavirus limits on Monday, but tourists will face stringent rules in hotels, restaurants and on beaches.Very strict COVID-19 lockdown measures have been in place in Italy since early March. The government has established general guidelines for reopening for the entire country, while each region may adopt its own changes depending on the particular situation.The national government may decide to close certain areas again at any time should there be a spike in new coronavirus infections.The first death from the coronavirus in Italy occurred February 21. Since then, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics, more than 31,700 people have died in the country from the virus, third highest among the world’s nations.Italians can now be seen again walking the streets of their cities, wearing protective masks and gloves, and beginning Monday, all shops can reopen to the public, with new rules. Social distancing of at least one meter must continue to be maintained, and only a designated number of people at a time will be able to enter stores.Italians will be able to return to bars, restaurants and beauty salons. Social distancing rules apply, and waiters and owners will have to wear face masks at all times.Italians can travel within their regions starting Monday, and from region to region and abroad beginning June 3. Tourists can return starting June 3, as well.Additionally, church services will resume, though only a certain number will be allowed to attend. Churches will be completely sanitized at the end of every day, one parish priest reported.Schools, universities, cinemas and theaters will remain closed for the time being.

Fresh COVID Outbreak in Greek Roma Camp Sparks Violence

Greek police have reinforced security around a community of Roma in central Greece as government health officials prepare to enter the settlement today to remove 35 people infected with the coronavirus.The infections mark a sharp uptick in Greece’s almost spotless record of COVID cases. Even so, members of the Roma community at the settlement of Nea Smyrni are resisting a lockdown order, staging violent protests in response to what they call racial targeting.Dumpsters were set ablaze and a local journalist was brutally beaten, hit with stones and pummeled in the face. Health officials were chased away and residents refused to heed a 14-day lockdown order on the settlement of 3,000, among the biggest in the country. No arrests were made for fear of inflaming the worst COVID-related protests to grip Greece since the outbreak of the pandemic.However, the deputy minister for civil protection and crisis management in the Ministry of Citizen Protection, Nikos Hardalias, said health officials will return again today to remove the infected patients. He is calling for cooperation.”Stopping the spread of this virus will only benefit local communities, so cooperation is imperative,” he said.Hardalias refused to elaborate, but authorities have boosted patrols around the settlement to enforce the quarantine.This is not the first time Nea Smyrni has been struck by the coronavirus, nor is it the first 14-day lockdown authorities have decreed for it. Locals, now though, are defying the order, saying it is more racially than health-motivated.Emerging from the crowd of protesters, one person held a batch of medical tests in his hand to explain why.He said several residents had undergone COVID antibody testing at local private laboratories, and all of them showed they were immune to the virus.Health officials here are dismissing the results. They say such blood screening exams are not reliable enough. They say testing can go wrong in several places and that only detailed screenings at state hospitals should be trusted. Whether the Roma in Nea Smyrni are convinced remains to be seen.
With one of Europe’s lowest infection rates, Greek authorities are not taking any chances.Police say they will remain on standby, ready to intervene and, this time, make arrests if new violence erupts and the infected Roma are prevented from being taken to a local hospital for treatment and observation. 

UN: Violence, COVID-19 Create Displacement Crisis in Central America

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR reports worsening violence and hardship caused by COVID-19 are pushing people in Central America to flee their homes in droves, creating a displacement crisis in the region.By the end of last year, escalating violence and instability had displaced some 720,000 people in northern Central America, about half of them in their home countries.The UNHCR reports Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — the most seriously affected countries — are locked in a vicious circle of chronic violence, poverty and increasing hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The UNHCR finds that criminality, which is endemic in the region is flourishing in this time of coronavirus. Agency spokesman Andrej Mahecic says despite COVID-related lockdowns, criminal gangs are using the confinement to strengthen their control over communities.“This includes the stepping up of extortion, drug trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence, and using forced disappearances, murders, and death threats against those who do not comply. Restrictions of movement made it harder for those that need help and protection to obtain it, and those that need to flee to save their lives are facing increased hurdles to find safety,” Mahecic said.In addition to constant threats to their lives, Mahecic said the lockdowns are destroying livelihoods, making it difficult for people to support themselves and feed their families. He said access to basic services such as health care and running water are limited.“Faced with these dire circumstances, people are increasingly resorting to negative coping mechanisms, including sex work and that puts them at further risks both in terms of health and by exposing them to violence and exploitation by gangs,” Mahecic said.The UNHCR reports local community leaders expect a rapid increase in forced displacement as soon as lockdown measures are lifted. The agency says it is working with state officials and partners in Honduras and El Salvador to try to protect people facing threats and violence. 

France Arrests Rwandan Businessman Wanted in Connection With 1994 Genocide

French police have arrested a man accused of funding militias that massacred hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda 1994 genocide.The French Justice Ministry said police arrested Felicien Kabuga near Paris Saturday after 26 years on the run.The 84-year-old was Rwanda’s most wanted man and one of the last primary suspects in the 1994 slaughter of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists.Kabuga, once one of Rwanda’s wealthiest men, was indicted in 1997 on a charge of genocide and six other criminal counts, according to an international tribunal established by the United Nations.Authorities said Kabuga was living under a false identity in Asnieres-Sur-Seine, north of Paris, with the aid of his children.Kabuga, a Hutu businessman who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, allegedly funded the purchases of large quantities of machetes and agricultural tools that were used as weapons during the genocide, a U.N. news website said.The justice ministry said Kabuga will appear before the Paris appeal court before being brought in front of the international court in The Hague.International justice authorities are still pursuing Rwandan genocide suspects Augustin Bizimana and Protais Mpiranya. 

French-Iranian Academic Sentenced to 6 Years in Iranian Prison

French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah has been sentenced to six-years in prison by an Iranian court, according to her lawyer.The lawyer, Saeid Dehghan, said Adelkhah was sentenced to five years for conspiring against Iran’s national security and one year for propaganda against the Islamic Republic.France has called for Adelkhah’s release, but Iran does not recognize dual citizenship for Iranians.Adelkhah, a sixty-year-old anthropologist, was arrested last June with Roland Marchal, a French academic.Marchal was released by Iran earlier this year as part of a prisoner exchange with France. 

10 People Die in Police Raid on Brazil Shantytown

Ten people died in gunbattles between police and suspected gang members in a shantytown in Brazil on Friday.Police chasing a gang leader raided the Alemao slum in northern Rio de Janeiro, triggering the gunbattles. Authorities said in a statement that there were “multiple clashes.”An elite Brazilian police unit known by its Portuguese acronym BOPE carried out the operation. The local drug kingpin sought in the raid was among the dead, the statement said.Police did not release the man’s identity but said he had escaped prison in 2016 and was on the list of leading drug traffickers in slums, bordering Rio’s iconic Copacabana and Ipanema neighborhoods. 

Montenegrin Priests Released from Detention

A Montenegrin prosecutor on Friday ordered the release from detention of a Serbian Orthodox Church bishop and eight priests, whose arrests had sparked protests and clashes with police.Several hundred people gathered outside the detention facility in the western town of Niksic, greeting Bishop Joanikije and the other priests as they left it late Friday.”Let this fight continue but with God’s means, truth and justice, and with love towards our homeland, ” Joanikije said.The priests were detained Tuesday for leading a procession attended by a few thousand people without wearing surgical masks or respecting distancing rules.Their arrests sparked protests in several towns in Montenegro and Serbia, during which protesters clashed with police, and dozens were arrested.Meanwhile, tensions between the government and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro over a religious law are continuing. The church says the law would strip it of its property.The ban of large gatherings in Montenegro is still in force, as one of the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

US Donating 200 Ventilators to Russia

The United States will donate 200 medical ventilators to Moscow via U.S. military transport beginning next week, to aid against the worsening coronavirus outbreak in Russia.Government communications obtained by VOA reveal that the first 50 ventilators are being produced in California and will be ready for shipment to a surgical center in Moscow on Wednesday. The remaining 150 will be ready for shipment on May 26.The U.S. government is donating 100 percent of the cost of the ventilators, their start-up components and their delivery expenses, which officials said totals roughly $4.7 million.U.S. military aircraft will be used to transport the medical ventilators, considered the “best option” due to extremely limited commercial flights. Officials stressed within the communications that the ventilators are for the Russian people and do not signal a partnership with the Russian military.“There is no cooperation between the U.S. and Russian militaries, as is prohibited under the National Defense Authorization Act,” according to the communications.The COVID-19 outbreak has recently surged in Russia, which now has the second-highest number of cases in the world at nearly 263,000 cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Only the U.S., with 1.4 million cases, has more.The deliveries later this month will fulfill an offer made by President Donald Trump during a news conference in mid-April.Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted Trump’s offer to provide ventilators during a call between the two leaders that focused on the coronavirus as well as arms control, according to the White House.The United States has aided many countries battling the coronavirus pandemic and will continue to do so in the future, according to officials.Ventilator firesOn Wednesday, Russia suspended the use of some Russian-made, Aventa-M medical ventilators following fatal hospital fires in Moscow and St. Petersburg reportedly involving the machines.Russia sent a batch of the same type of ventilators to the United States in the beginning of April due to projected shortages in the states of New York and New Jersey.U.S. officials have said the Russian ventilators were not used or deployed to hospitals due to a flattening of the coronavirus curve, and the two states are returning the ventilators to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “out of an abundance of caution.”  

Facebook Data Help Track COVID-19 Spread

Facebook likely knows a lot about you already. So would you fill out a survey on the social media site about how you are feeling today?What if that information could help researchers and officials navigate the current pandemic? If it meant local businesses, parks and beaches might reopen sooner rather than later, would that make a difference?That’s the idea behind several efforts to tap into people’s social media and internet use to find hot spots and forecast outbreaks of the virus well before hospitals are inundated.As society begins to open up after months-long closures, government officials are looking for leading indicators — data that may forecast that an outbreak is coming — to help them make key decisions about what to open and when.One indicator is through a symptom survey created by Carnegie Mellon University researchers. The survey appears at the top of a person’s Facebook newsfeed and asks whether he or she has experienced COVID-19 symptoms including fever, cough and shortness of breath.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline. Embed” />CopyThe survey is live globally through a partnership with the University of Maryland and is very active in the U.S.“We’re getting something like 150,000 responses a day,” said Laura McGorman, a Facebook policy lead.Carnegie Mellon researchers update the data daily on the university’s  COVIDcast website. Visitors to the site can look at specific counties by date and by data set.“The real-time estimates we’ve derived correlate with the best available data on COVID-19 activity,” Ryan Tibshirani, co-leader of Carnegie Mellon’s COVID-19 Response Team, said in a statement.The information “gives us confidence that we may soon be able to give health care officials forecasts” several weeks into the future, he said.Map of changesFacebook is also sharing user mobility data with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, helping researchers create a map of daily changes in population movement by state and county. People using Facebook’s mobile app with the location history turned on contribute to this data.Policymakers can use this information to understand how communities are responding to physical distancing measures and whether additional measures may be needed.Researchers caution that datasets are merely another layer of information pointing to possible trends in the disease’s spread. They’re not conclusive on their own.“No matter where you are in the world, hopefully some aspect of our data can be useful in a response,” said Facebook’s McGorman.

US Moves to Cut Off Huawei From Global Chip Suppliers

The Trump administration on Friday moved to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei Technologies from global chipmakers, in an action ramping up tensions with China.The U.S. Commerce Department said it was amending an export rule to “strategically target Huawei’s acquisition of semiconductors that are the direct product of certain U.S. software and technology.”The reaction from China  was swift with a report saying it was ready to put U.S. companies on an “unreliable entity list,” as part of countermeasures in response to the new limits on Huawei, FILE – A security personnel stands near the logo of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd (TSMC) during an investor conference in Taipei, July 16, 2014.The rule change is a blow to Huawei, the world’s No. 2 smartphone maker, as well as to Taiwan’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, a major producer of chips for Huawei’s HiSilicon unit as well as mobile phone rivals Apple and Qualcomm. TMSC announced late Thursday it would build a $12 billion chip factory in Arizona.TSMC said Friday it is “working with outside counsels to conduct legal analysis and ensure a comprehensive examination and interpretation of these rules. We expect to have the assessment concluded before the effective date,” the company said, adding the “semiconductor industry supply chain is extremely complex, and is served by a broad collection of international suppliers.”Huawei, which needs semiconductors for its widely used smartphones and telecoms equipment, is at the heart of a battle for global technological dominance between the United States and China.Huawei, which has warned that the Chinese government would retaliate if the rule went into effect, did not immediately comment on Friday. U.S. stock market futures turned negative on the Reuters report.”The Chinese government will not just stand by and watch Huawei be slaughtered on the chopping board,” Huawei Chairman Eric Xu told reporters on March 31.The United States is trying to convince allies to exclude Huawei gear from next generation 5G networks on grounds its equipment could be used by China for spying. Huawei has repeatedly denied the claim.Huawei has continued to use U.S. software and technology to design semiconductors, the Commerce Department said, despite being placed on a U.S. economic blacklist in May 2019.FILE – A chip by Huawei’s subsidiary HiSilicon is displayed in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, March 21, 2019.Under the rule change, foreign companies that use U.S. chipmaking equipment will be required to obtain a U.S. license before supplying certain chips to Huawei, or an affiliate like HiSilicon. The rule targets chips designed or custom-made for Huawei.In order for Huawei to continue to receive some chipsets or use some semiconductor designs tied to certain U.S. software and technology, it would need to receive licenses from the Commerce Department.National security concernsCommerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Fox Business “there has been a very highly technical loophole through which Huawei has been in able, in effect, to use U.S. technology with foreign fab producers.” Ross called the rule change a “highly tailored thing to try to correct that loophole.”Ross said in a written statement Huawei had “stepped-up efforts to undermine these national security-based restrictions.”The Commerce Department said the rule will allow wafers already in production to be shipped to Huawei as long as the shipments are complete within 120 days from Friday. Chipsets would need to be in production by Friday or they would be ineligible under the rule.The United States placed Huawei and 114 affiliates on its economic blacklist citing national security concerns. That forced some U.S. and foreign companies to seek special licenses from the Commerce Department to sell to it, but China hawks in the U.S. government have been frustrated by the vast number of supply chains beyond their reach.Separately, the Commerce Department extended a temporary license that was set to expire Friday to allow U.S. companies, many of which operate wireless networks in rural America, to continue doing business with Huawei through Aug. 13. It warned it expected this would be the final extension.Reuters first reported the administration was considering changes to the Foreign Direct Product Rule, which subjects some foreign-made goods based on U.S. technology or software to U.S. regulations, in November.Most chip manufacturers rely on equipment produced by U.S. companies like KLA, Lam Research and Applied Materials, according to a report last year from China’s Everbright Securities.Other recent actionThe Trump administration has taken a series of steps aimed at Chinese telecom firms in recent weeks.The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last month began the process of shutting down the U.S. operations of three state-controlled Chinese telecommunications companies, citing national security risks. The FCC also in April approved Alphabet Inc. unit Google’s request to use part of an 8,000-mile undersea telecommunications cable between the United States and Taiwan, but not Hong Kong, after U.S. agencies raised national security concerns.This week, President Donald Trump extended for another year a May 2019 executive order barring U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by companies deemed to pose a national security risk, a move seen aimed at Huawei and peer ZTE Corp. 

Swedish Prime Minister Defends COVID-19 Response

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven defended his country’s strategy in fighting the spread of COVID-19, pushing back on the notion Sweden has taken a “business as usual” attitude toward the pandemic.Speaking to foreign correspondents Friday in the capital, Stockholm, Lofven insisted life is not carrying on as normal in Sweden, as he said its international reputation would suggest.Other European nations have expressed concern about Sweden’s relatively “soft approach” to fighting the coronavirus. While they did ban large gatherings, restaurants and schools for younger children have stayed open. The government has urged social distancing, and Swedes have largely complied.A woman sits respecting social distancing at the Gallerian shopping center, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues, in Stockholm, Sweden, May 12, 2020.Lofven said many people have been staying home, which he says has had a positive effect. He did acknowledge Sweden’s 3,500 deaths, which was far higher, per capita, than its Scandanavian neighbors Finland, Norway and Denmark, all which took a stricter approach.Lovgren said most of Sweden’s casualties were among the elderly, which, he says had little to do with people “walking around” the streets.He said Sweden, like several other countries, did not manage to protect the most vulnerable people, including the elderly, despite best intentions.Swedish media in recent weeks have reported cases where retirement homes have seen a large death toll, with staff continuing to work despite a lack of protective gear or despite exhibiting symptoms and potentially infecting residents.Some retirement homes also have seen a shortage of staff because employees either have refused to work or have been encouraged to stay home even with mild symptoms. 
 

Russia’s Media Regulator Asks Google to Block Article Questioning COVID Death Toll

Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has asked Google to block an article about the controversy over official data on coronavirus deaths in the country on the website of MBKh Media independent online publication.MBKh Media said late on May 14 that its article was based on a report by the Financial Times, which estimated that the real number of people who have died in Russia from COVID-19 could be 70 percent higher than reported by the country’s health officials.
 MBKh Media said it had received a message from Google a day earlier, saying that the request to block the article was based on the decision of the Prosecutor-General’s Office that claimed the article contained “calls for riots, extremist activities, [and] participation in mass public events held in violation of the established order.”
 
According to MBKh Media, which is hosted on the Google Cloud Platform, Google asked it to remove the article from its website or make it inaccessible in Russia.
 
The Roskomnadzor request was not listed on the Google transparency report web page as of May 15.
 
MBKh Media also said the article in question indicated that its content was based on the Financial Times report.
 
As of May 15, Russian authorities said the country had 10,598 new infections, bringing the official number of confirmed cases to 262,843, the second-highest total in the world, lagging only behind the United States. The death toll stands at 2,418, up 113 over the previous day.
 
Experts have questioned whether testing procedures were flawed, or whether local and regional officials were misclassifying cases. In some places, such as St. Petersburg, for example, the number of pneumonia cases went sharply above seasonal norms.
 
The Moscow City Health Department issued a statement on May 13 saying that more than 60 percent of coronavirus patients’ deaths in the city had been caused by “alternative causes,” and therefore such deaths had not been included to COVID-19 death toll.
 In a May 13 interview with Current Time, the World Health Organization’s representative in Russia downplayed doubts about the country’s coronavirus statistics.
 
Melita Vujnovic also told the television channel in the interview that the epidemic is “in the stabilization phase and is moving into the decline phase.” Current Time is a Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
 

Montenegrans Protest Priests’ Detention

Protesters in Montenegro took on the streets again Thursday, a day after police arrested dozens of demonstrators demanding the release of priests detained after leading a religious procession in disregard to the lockdown regulations.Protesters had clashed with police at rallies Wednesday over the detainment of eight Serbian Orthodox Church priests who are facing charges of violating health regulations.Authorities said 26 police officers were injured during the clashes in the towns of Niksic and Pljevlja. One policeman has been hospitalized.Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic condemned the clashes in a televised statement on Thursday.”Everything we have achieved in the past three months of devoted work and mutual renunciation has been brought into question,” Markovic said. “We are afraid that in 10 days we could find ourselves in the same situation we were in two months ago with the great danger and consequences to the heath and lives for you all. There is no reasonable explanation or justification for such behavior.”The priests had led a procession Tuesday attended by a few thousand people without wearing surgical masks or respecting distancing rules.In Serbia, meanwhile, a few hundred protesters gathered in the capital, Belgrade, to demand the release of the eight priests.The ban of large gatherings in Montenegro is still in force as one of the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.  

Brazil’s Sao Paulo State Building Thousands of Vertical Cemetery Plots

Brazil’s Sao Paulo state is building thousands of vertical funeral plots in order to meet the demand caused by the surge in coronavirus victims.Heber Vila, director of Evolution Technology Funderaria, the company that manufactures these vertical cemeteries, said the plots being constructed of recyclable materials are safe as it prevents any type of contact between cemetery visitors in the form of liquids or gases from the body.An estimated 13,000 vertical plots are being built in three cemeteries in Sao Paulo state, one of the areas in Brazil hardest-hit by the COVID-19 outbreak.The impact of the virus on Sao Paulo prompted Gov. Joao Doria to repeat his stance of gradually easing lockdown restrictions, although President Jair Bolsonaro has complained that the lockdown measures to contain the spread of the virus have hurt the economy.Brazil leads all Latin America in coronavirus infections with more than 200,000 confirmed cases, and the death toll is nearing 14,000. 

Colombia Tightens COVID-19 Restrictions at Border with Brazil

Colombia launched new measures Thursday night aimed at stopping a rise in coronavirus infections near the border with Brazil.President Iván Duque said residents in the Amazon region are instructed to stay home unless making essential trips for food or medical help.The military has also dispatched troops to strengthen border security.The latest restrictions are aimed at helping Colombia’s overwhelmed hospital system and to provide safeguards for the indigenous people of the Amazon region, where there has been a spike in COVID-19 cases.The Associated Press says the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia reports 146 COVID-19 infections and six deaths among the population.Duque said Colombia finds itself in a situation that could turn critical, given the differences, from an epidemiological viewpoint, with its neighbors.Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro resisted anti-COVID measures and criticized many of the country’s local leaders for closing businesses in Brazil, which has the highest COVID rate in Latin America.   

Taiwanese Chip Company to Build $12 Billion Arizona Plant

A Taiwan-based company is planning a $12 billion semiconductor factory in the U.S. state of Arizona.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is the world’s largest contract manufacturer of computer chips.The firm said Friday the factory will create as many as 1,600 jobs. Thousands more jobs are expected to be created along the supply lines to support production of the 5-nanometer chips.The factory will be able to produce 20,000 of the wafers each month. They’re used in an array of consumer electronics, including the iPhones and defense equipment.Construction of the facility is to begin next year, and the location in Arizona has not been determined.“This project,” the company said, “is of critical, strategic importance to a vibrant and competitive U.S. semiconductor ecosystem that enables leading U.S. companies to fabricate their cutting-edge semiconductor products within the United States.”The firm has another U.S. factory in Washington state.U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross lauded the plan as showing the success of President Donald Trump’s programs.The company’s plan to set up the facility, he said, “is yet another indication that President Trump’s policy agenda has led to a renaissance in American manufacturing and made the United States the most attractive place in the world to invest.”Also praising the move was Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said the facility will “increase U.S. economic independence, bolster our safety and competitiveness, and strengthen our leadership in high-tech manufacturing.”“This historic deal also strengthens our relationship with Taiwan, a vibrant democracy and force for good in the world,” he said.TSMC’s stock rose more than 1.5 percent Friday morning which outperformed the 0.8 percent gain in the main Taiwan stock market.