European markets are mixed Monday as investors pull back in response to last week’s dismal U.S. retail figures, along with the worsening COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the January 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol building.   
 
Britain’s FTSE index is down 0.3% at midday.  France’s CAC-40 index is also 0.3% lower, while the DAX index in Germany is up 10 points but unchanged percentage-wise (+0.08%).   
 
Asian markets began the trading week on a downward spiral hours earlier.  Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index fell 0.9%.  Australia’s S&P/ASX index closed down 0.7%.  The KOSPI index in South Korea plunged 2.3%, while Taiwan’s TSEC lost just over 4 points, but was virtually unchanged percentage-wise (0.03%) and the Sensex in Mumbai was down 0.9%.
 
Shanghai’s Composite index closed 0.8% higher and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose just over one percent, spurred by news that China’s economy grew 2.3% in 2020, overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic that has shattered much of the global economy.   
 
In commodities trading, gold is up 0.1%, selling at $1,831.80.  U.S. crude oil is selling at $52.19, down 0.3%, and Brent crude is selling at $54.82, down 0.5%.    
 
All three major U.S. indices are closed in observance of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. federal  holiday.  
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A leading Greek sporting official has resigned over allegations that he sexually assaulted Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou. The revelation has sparked an urgent judicial investigation, prompting more alleged victims to speak out about similar sexual assaults. But prosecuting the alleged offenders may prove impossible due to ineffective laws. 
Greeks are already calling her the silence breaker. And 23 years after the alleged rape took place during qualifying matches for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Sofia Bekatorou now says she wants more women victims to speak out.   “The messages I am receiving are hugely positive and supportive,” she said. Bekatorou says she knows more victims are out there in the field of sport and is calling on them all to make their accusations known.   A gold medalist at the 2004 Olympics in her homeland, Bekatorou referred to the alleged rape during an online conference organized by the Greek Sports Ministry over the weekend. She refused to name the official at the time, but when a local prosecutor called her in during an urgent probe, she is said to have identified Aristides Adamopoulos, then a senior member of the Hellenic Sailing federation. He is also a local official of the ruling New Democracy party.   Bekatorou is due to reappear before the prosecutor by Tuesday to provide additional details – accusations that Adamopoulos has not denied. Adamopoulos has urged he public to refrain from reaching what he called any rash decision.   Andonis Dimitrakopoulos, the president of the federation, said he pushed Adamopoulos to resign over the weekend to clear his name. Dimitrakopoulos said the sporting organization was not aware of the alleged assault and more importantly, would have helped put a lid on the entire affair if Adamopoulos had sought out the support of the federation. Bekatorou says the admission left her stunned. “That the federation would respond to such a serious accusation in such a way is just regrettable,” she said.   Two other leading athletes have since spoken out about similar alleged assaults, including national water polo champion Mania Bikoff, who alleges her team doctor sexually harassed her decades ago. The doctor, who was not named, did not respond to the accusation.    “I was going in for shoulder treatments and he was asking me to instead pull down my pants. He never did anything but would sit there and observe me naked,” said Bikoff. The Hellenic Olympic Committee has also opened an investigation.   For a small, close-knit society like Greece, public revelations of this sort are uncommon, even as #MeToo movements grip countries across the globe.     But even if a subtle change in the country’s cultural mindset is starting to take form, pundits warn that laws lag far behind.   Rape offenders in Greece can face between five and 20 years in prison if convicted. A statue of limitations has already expired in the case of Adamopoulos.   Legal experts contacted by VOA say related laws should now be revised to have the timing on the statute of limitations begin when alleged victims like Bekatorou report the offense.  
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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday dismissed a claim by France that Tehran was in the process of building up its nuclear weapons, calling it “absurd nonsense”. French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche published on Saturday, said Iran was building up its nuclear weapons’ capacity and it was urgent that Tehran and Washington return to a 2015 nuclear agreement.”Dear colleague: You kick-started your cabinet career with arms sales to Saudi war criminals. Avoid absurd nonsense about Iran,” Zarif said in a Twitter post, in which he tagged his French counterpart @JY_LeDrian. French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has drawn criticism from some countries and rights groups over its support of Saudi Arabia’s actions and allowing weapons it has sold to Riyadh potentially to be used in its Yemen operations. “Reality check: YOU are destabilizing OUR region. Stop protecting criminals who chainsaw their critics and use YOUR arms to slaughter children in Yemen,” Zarif tweeted, referring to Le Drian’s previous post as French defense minister. Iran, which denies seeking to make nuclear bombs, rejected a statement on Saturday by three European powers party that warned the Islamic Republic against starting work on uranium metal-based fuel for a research reactor, saying it violated the nuclear pact and had serious military implications. Zarif criticized France, Germany and Britain — which remain in the deal with China and Russia – for failing to enforce the agreement since 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal and restored harsh economic sanctions on Iran. “E3 leaders — who rely on [the] signature of OFAC functionaries to carry out their obligations under JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] have done ZILCH to maintain JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]. Remember @EmmanuelMacron’s stillborn initiative or UK non-payment of court-ordered debt? JCPOA is alive because of Iran and not E3,” Zarif tweeted. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, has pledged to return the United States to the deal “if Iran resumes strict compliance” with the agreement that imposed strict curbs on its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions. In reaction to Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy, Iran has gradually breached many of the deal’s restrictions. But Tehran says it could quickly reverse those steps if Washington first lifts its sanctions. 
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Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny is on his way back to Russia from Germany despite the Russian authorities’ stated desire to arrest him and potentially jail him for years.Navalny is flying to Moscow from Berlin, where he has received months of medical treatment for a poisoning that he has blamed on the Russian authorities.The outspoken Kremlin critic announced on January 13 that he would return to Russia despite having received a notice that the country’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) would seek his arrest.His return sets the stage for a potentially dramatic new showdown between the Kremlin and Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken foes.Police patrol the arrival hall of Vnukovo airport outside Moscow, Russia, prior to opposition figure Alexei Navalny’s arrival, Jan. 17, 2021.Late last month, FSIN demanded Navalny return immediately from Germany or face jail in Russia for violating the terms of a suspended prison sentence relating to a 2014 fraud conviction and for evading criminal inspectors.According to court documents, he could face a jail sentence of as much as 3 1/2 years.“The question ‘to return or not’ never stood before me as I didn’t leave on my own. I ended up in Germany in an intensive care box. On January 17, Sunday, I will return home on a Pobeda flight,” he said in a tweet on January 13, referring to a Russian airline whose name means Victory.His supporters plan to meet him at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. About 2,000 people have used a Facebook page to say they plan to be there, with another 6,000 expressing an interest. Pro-Kremlin activists are also expected to turn up.The Moscow Prosecutor-General’s Office has said the event is illegal because it is not sanctioned by the authorities.Citing COVID-19 restrictions, the airport has said it will not allow media inside.ComaNavalny fell ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow and was treated and placed in an induced coma in a Siberian hospital before being transferred to a medical facility in Germany.Lab tests in three European countries, confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent of the Novichok class. The findings led the European Union to imposed sanctions on six Russian officials and a state research institute.Russian authorities have claimed that no trace of poison was found in Navalny’s body before he was airlifted to Germany, and have refused to open a criminal investigation into the incident.FILE – Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny poses for a selfie picture with his family at Berlin’s Charite hospital, Germany, Sept. 15, 2020. (Credit: Instagram @navalny)On the eve of his return, Navalny thanked the German people in a Facebook post and said they don’t fit the stereotype that they are unfriendly and only want to give and follow orders.“The five months I’ve been here, I’ve been amazed how much the Germans don’t match the stereotypical idea of them,” Navalny wrote. “These are really the sweetest people with a great sense of humor, always trying to help.””Thank you friends!” he wrote in German.Earlier on January 16, Germany demanded that Moscow carry out a full investigation into the poisoning and sent to Russia the transcripts of interviews its authorities conducted with him.The German Justice Ministry said that, with the sending of the information requested by Moscow — including blood and tissue samples — the Russian government now has all the information it needs to carry out a criminal investigation.A ministry spokesman said Berlin expects that “the Russian government will now immediately take all necessary steps to clarify the crime against Mr. Navalny.””This crime must be solved in Russia. This requires investigations commensurate with the seriousness of this crime,” the spokesman added. 
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Turkey has often been described as the gateway between Asia and Europe and because of its location, millions of refugees have arrived in the country as a way station in their effort to migrate to Europe. VOA’s Hilmi Hacaloglu and Umut Colak filed this report on how Afghan refugees are struggling to survive in Istanbul. Bezhan Hamdard narrated their report. 
Camera: Umut Colak         Producers: Hilmi Hacaloglu and Umut Colak
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Germany, France and Britain pressed Iran on Saturday to back off the latest planned violation of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, saying that Tehran has “no credible civilian use” for uranium metal.The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that Iran had informed it that Iran began installing equipment for the production of uranium metal. It said Tehran maintained its plans to conduct research and development on uranium metal production were part of its “declared aim to design an improved type of fuel.”Uranium metal can also be used for a nuclear bomb, however, and research on its production is specifically prohibited under the nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — that Tehran signed with Germany, France, Britain, China, Russia and the United States in 2015.Since the unilateral American withdrawal from the deal in 2018, the other members have been working to preserve the accord. Iran has been using violations of the deal to put pressure on the other signatories to provide more incentives to Iran to offset crippling American sanctions reimposed after the U.S. pullout.’Grave’ implicationsA joint statement from the German, French and British foreign ministries said they were “deeply concerned” by the latest Iranian announcement.”Iran has no credible civilian use for uranium metal,” it said. “The production of uranium metal has potentially grave military implications.””We strongly urge Iran to halt this activity and return to compliance with its JCPoA commitments without further delay if it is serious about preserving the deal,” the statement added.The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something Iran insists it does not want to do.President-elect Joe Biden, who was vice president when the deal was signed during the Obama administration, has said he hopes to return the U.S. to the deal.
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Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) Saturday chose Armin Laschet, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, as their new leader. The pick suggests the party favors continuing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s middle-of-the-road policies when she steps down in September after 16 years in office.Laschet’s win puts him in position to succeed Merkel when the CDU and its sister party, the Christian Social Union, decide in March who should become the center-right bloc’s candidate for chancellor in national elections.The CDU has led Germany’s federal government for 52 of the past 72 years.Laschet, 59, now replaces as chair of the party Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the defense secretary whom Merkel had been grooming as her successor. Kramp-Karrenbauer largely failed to assert her authority over the party and announced her resignation in February after blaming Merkel for not being supportive enough.A longtime Merkel loyalist — some see Laschet as the male version of her — he said during the campaign that a change of direction for the party would “send exactly the wrong signal,” as he touted himself as the continuity candidate in a contest that saw him pitched against corporate lawyer Friedrich Merz, a far more conservative figure and Merkel critic, and Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs panel.Röttgen, also a centrist, was eliminated in the first round of voting. The party’s 1,000 delegates, who voted in a virtual conference, then gave Laschet his win in a runoff that saw him beat Merz by 55 votes.’Stick together’“I want to do everything so that we can stick together through this year,” he told his CDU colleagues after his win. ” … And then make sure that the next chancellor in the federal elections will be from the [CDU/CSU] union.”For months, Laschet, who’s pro-immigrant, was Merkel’s preferred candidate. He defended her during the 2015 refugee crisis. But their relations turned frosty earlier this year when he pressed for an early relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, forcing him to scramble to repair the political damage he sustained inside and outside the CDU.New Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Armin Laschet, left, and German Health Minister Jens Spahn bump fists as Deputy CDU Chairman Thomas Strobl watches at the end of the party’s 33rd congress, in Berlin, Germany, Jan. 16, 2021.During his campaign he repeatedly stressed the importance of continuing with Merkel’s overall approach of expanding the CDU’s voter base, dismissing suggestions the party needs to be fearful of conservative voters defecting to the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD.“We will only win if we remain strong in the center of society,” Laschet said Saturday, emphasizing the dangers of perpetuating political polarization.Party leaders across the political spectrum joined Merkel in speedily offering congratulations.So, too, did Laschet’s rivals, Merz and Röttgen.“Now there is no competition within the CDU anymore but with others,” Röttgen said, adding that now is the time to “build a team with team spirit.” Merz thanked party members for “good cooperation over the past 10 months,” admitting he had not made life easy for Kramp-Karrenbauer.“It’s going to be an enormously trying time for all of us now over the next few weeks and months,” Merz said.Some criticsOther German politicians were not so favorable. AfD’s Jörg Meuthen said the result was “bad news for Germany” because Laschet’s selection would see a continuation of Merkel’s centrist policies.The co-leader of the left-wing Die Linke, Katja Kipping, said Laschet’s victory didn’t mean he would become the CDU’s chancellor candidate, adding: “No matter who wins the race for the CDU candidate for chancellor, the CDU will not be ready to set the course to get us out of the crisis in a fair manner.”Laschet’s speech Saturday in the run-up to voting attracted a positive response from many German commentators.Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute, an independent think tank in Berlin, tweeted: Candidate speeches: Laschet clear winner. He had compelling personal narrative & presented it well. Also one that works in September 2021. Merz incredibly flat. Röttgen surprisingly non-personal. He could have presented compelling story of picking yourself up but didn’t.Newly elected Christian Democratic Union leader Armin Laschet, center, is pictured with delegates following his election during the second day of the party’s 33rd congress in Berlin, Germany, Jan. 16, 2021.An aide to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden said he predicted the incoming administration could clash with Laschet on Russia and China if he’s elected chancellor.“Laschet favors a less confrontational approach to Moscow and Beijing,” said the aide, who asked not to be identified.But, the Biden aide noted, Laschet favors maintaining very close transatlantic relations.“The U.S. is our most significant partner outside the European Union,” Laschet said in 2019. “It is the world’s leading technology nation, and it is of critical importance to security in Europe.”Laschet did, however, prompt anger in 2014 in Washington and was accused of trading in conspiracy theories when he criticized the Obama administration for its support of rebels in Syria, tweeting to then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry: “You supported ISIS and Al-Nusra against President Assad in Syria. And they are financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.”Analysts are divided on whether the CDU can win the September election under Laschet’s leadership.“While Laschet has convinced a majority of delegates at the party congress, it’s questionable whether this message of pragmatism and continuity will be enough to win national elections,” tweeted Ulrich Speck, senior visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Berlin. “And more important: whether it will be enough to make sure that Germany’s success story continues.”But Peter Neumann, a professor at King’s College, University of London, said Laschet is a gifted politician.“Often underestimated, he’s smarter, more skillful, and tenacious than people think,” he tweeted.
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India began its COVID-19 vaccine campaign Saturday.   Frontline workers are slated to receive the first inoculations.  The campaign began after Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a nationally televised speech. “We are launching the world’s biggest vaccination drive and it shows the world our capability,” Modi said. COVID-19 deaths worldwide exceeded 2 million Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University, a year after the coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China. “Behind this terrible number are names and faces, the smile that will now only be a memory, the seat forever empty at the dinner table, the room that echoes with the silence of a loved one,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Friday. Worldwide COVID-19 Deaths Top 2 MillionUN secretary-general says death toll worsened by lack of global coordination   Guterres also said the death toll “has been made worse by the absence of a global coordinated effort,” and added that, “science has succeeded, but solidarity has failed.”  The United States remains at the top of the COVID case list with the most cases and deaths. Johns Hopkins reports more than 23 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S., with a death toll rapidly approaching 400,000.  Some states, having vaccinated their front-line workers, have opened vaccinations to older people but have been overrun with requests. Medical facilities are on the verge of running out of vaccines. In many instances, the technology used to take the requests has crashed.   President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a plan Friday to speed up the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine rollout, including increased federal funding, setting up thousands of vaccination centers, and invoking the Defense Production Act to expand the production of vaccination supplies.Biden Will Seek to Increase Federal Support to Speed Up Vaccine Rollout President-elect says he will invoke Defense Production Act The wide-ranging plan is part of Biden’s effort to achieve his goal for 100 million Americans to be vaccinated within 100 days. “You have my word: We will manage the hell out of this operation,” he told reporters near his home in Wilmington, Delaware. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Friday that a newly detected and highly contagious variant of the coronavirus may become the dominant strain in the U.S. by March.  The variant, first detected in Britain, threatens to exacerbate the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., where daily infection and hospitalization records are commonplace. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 29 MB1080p | 59 MBOriginal | 75 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioCampaign Aims to Convince Americans COVID Vaccine SafeThe CDC said the variant apparently does not cause more severe illness but is more contagious than the current dominant strain. Later Friday, the Oregon Health Authority reported that an individual with “no known travel history” had tested positive for the British variant.   “As we learn more about this case and the individual who tested positive for this strain, OHA continues to promote effective public health measures, including wearing masks, maintaining six feet of physical distance, staying home, washing your hands, and avoiding gatherings and travel,” the agency said in a statement.  Also Friday, some U.S. governors accused the Trump administration of deceiving states about the amount of COVID-19 vaccine they can expect to receive. Government officials say states were misguided in their expectations of vaccine amounts. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told NBC News on Friday that the U.S. does not have a reserve stockpile of COVID vaccines as many had believed. However, he said he is confident that there will enough vaccine produced to provide a second dose for people.Biden Announces $1.9 Trillion Coronavirus Relief PackageTransition team describes plan as ‘ambitious but achievable’The two COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the U.S. — made by Pfizer and Moderna – are designed to be given in two doses several weeks apart.Pfizer said in a statement Friday that has been holding onto supplies of second doses for each of its COVID-19 vaccinations shipped so far, and anticipates no problems supplying them to Americans.  As of Friday, the U.S. government said it had distributed over 31 million doses of the vaccine. The CDC said about 12.3 million doses had been administered.Earlier on Friday, Pfizer announced there would be a temporary impact on shipments of its vaccine to European countries in late January to early February caused by changes to its manufacturing processes in an effort boost output.The health ministers of six EU countries — Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – said the Pfizer situation is “unacceptable.””Not only does it impact the planned vaccination schedules, it also decreases the credibility of the vaccination process,” they said in a letter to the EU Commission about the vaccine delays.In Brazil, the country’s air force flew emergency oxygen supplies Friday to the jungle state of Amazonas, which is facing a growing surge in the virus. Health authorities in the state said oxygen supplies had run out at some hospitals because of the high numbers of patients. Brazil’s Health Ministry reported 1,151 deaths from COVID-19 Thursday, the fourth consecutive day with more than 1,000 fatalities. China reported its first COVID-19 death in eight months Thursday amid a surge in the country’s northeast as a World Health Organization team arrived in Wuhan to investigate the beginning of the pandemic. China’s death toll is 4,796, a relatively low number resulting from the country’s stringent containment and tracing measures.  China has imposed various lockdown measures on more than 20 million people in Beijing, Hebei and other areas to contain the spread of infections before the Lunar New Year holiday in February. The relatively low number of COVID-related deaths in China has raised questions about China’s tight control of information about the outbreak.  The WHO investigative team arrived Thursday after nearly a year of talks with the WHO and diplomatic disagreements between China and other countries that demanded that China allow a thorough independent investigation.   Two members of the 10-member team were stopped in Singapore after tests revealed antibodies to the virus in their blood, while the rest of the team immediately entered a 14-day quarantine period in Wuhan before launching their investigation.  The coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world.   Officials said Thursday that infections in the northeastern Heilongjiang province have surged to their highest levels in 10 months, nearly tripling during that period.   Elsewhere in Asia, Japanese authorities have expanded a state of emergency to stop a surge in coronavirus cases.   Coronavirus infections and related deaths have roughly doubled in Japan over the past month to more than 317,000 cases and more than 4,200 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.  The emergency was initially declared a week ago and was expanded to cover seven new regions. The restrictions are not binding, and many people have ignored requests to avoid nonessential travel, prompting the governor to voice concern about the lack of commitment to the guidelines.  Indonesia reported 12,818 new infections Friday, its largest daily tally.  
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British lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party’s Human Rights Commission are saying the Chinese Communist Party has intensified an assault on all human rights throughout China — and that those interacting with the regime should do so in the knowledge that they are interacting with “a criminal state.” Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell
 
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he hoped positive steps will be taken on Turkey’s role in the F-35 jet program once U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office, describing Ankara’s exclusion for purchasing Russian defenses as a “serious wrong.”Last month, Washington imposed long-anticipated sanctions on Turkey’s defense industry over its acquisition of S-400 missile defense systems from Moscow, in a move Turkey called a “grave mistake.”The United States has also removed fellow NATO member Turkey from the F-35 program over the move.Washington says the S-400s pose a threat to its F-35 fighter jets and to NATO’s broader defense systems. Turkey rejects this, saying S-400s will not be integrated into NATO and purchasing them was a necessity as it was unable to procure air defense systems from any NATO ally on satisfactory terms.”No country can determine the steps we will take toward the defense industry, that fully depends on the decisions we make,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul, adding Ankara was in talks to procure a second shipment of S-400s from Russia and would hold talks on the issue later this month.”We don’t know what the Biden administration will say at this stage [on the S-400s],” he added. “Despite having paid a serious fee on the F-35s, the F-35s still have not been given to us. This is a serious wrong the United States did against us as a NATO ally,” he said.”My hope is that, after we hold talks with Biden as he takes office, we will take much more positive steps and put these back on track.”Biden will be inaugurated on January 20, replacing incumbent Donald Trump, with whom Erdogan had a close relationship.  
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Friday that travel corridors into the nation would be closed to fight the spread of COVID-19.At a news briefing at his residence, Johnson said that effective Monday at 4 a.m. Britain time, all travelers into the country must show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours and then self-quarantine for 10 days. They can take another test after five days and leave quarantine if that test is again negative.Johnson said that the British government would be stepping up enforcement of the rules at the border and elsewhere in the country and that substantial fines would be imposed on those who refused or failed to comply with the measures. The border closures will be in effect until at least February 15.The prime minister said these measures were being taken to prevent new strains of COVID-19 from entering the country, just as the government has begun to make progress with its vaccination program. “What we don’t want to see is all that hard work undone by the arrival of a new variant that is vaccine busting,” he said.On Thursday, Britain banned arrivals from South America, Portugal and some other countries over fears about a strain of the virus detected in Brazil.Friday, Britain reported 55,761 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, up from 48,682 the previous day. The prime minister warned that the National Health Service was facing “extraordinary pressures,” having had the highest number of hospital admissions on a single day of the pandemic earlier this week.
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The recent arrest by Turkish authorities of an alleged Iranian spy ring is seen as a sign of increasing rivalry between the two neighbors.  The arrest comes as Turkey seeks to expand its influence in the Caucasus, an area considered by Tehran as its backyard. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. 
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Thursday called last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump “shocking” and unacceptable, and he said those responsible must be held accountable.Stoltenberg’s comments were his first public reaction since Trump supporters stormed the Capitol January 6, seeking to stop the U.S. Congress from formally certifying the presidential election. Stoltenberg did comment from his personal Twitter account during the attacks and called for the democratic election to be respected.During a news briefing in Brussels, after being asked for his reaction to the incident, the NATO chief called it a deadly attack on the “heart of the democratic institutions of the United States of America.” He termed it “absolutely unacceptable” and said it is important that those responsible pay the consequences for their actions.
 
He said, “Democracy must always prevail over violence, and I’m confident that the democratic institutions of the United States will handle this challenge.”
 
Regarding the incoming administration, Stoltenberg said he looks forward to working with Joe Biden as the next U.S. president. “I know that Joe Biden is strongly committed to our transatlantic cooperation, to NATO. And I know that he also, of course, would strongly support the idea of further strengthening the cooperation between North America and Europe.” 
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Europe’s populist leaders are outraged by the decision of U.S. social-media giants to block U.S. President Donald Trump from posting on their sites. They fear Facebook, Twitter and other major social media companies could start banning them, too.  
 
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki condemned the internet giants Tuesday. “The censorship of freedom of speech, the domain of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, is returning today in the form of a new, commercial mechanism fighting against those who think differently,” he wrote on Facebook.
 
Poland’s ruling populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) already has introduced legislation aimed at limiting the power of social media giants to remove content or ban users.  
 
The draft law was proposed after Twitter started flagging as misleading content tweets by Trump and supporters disputing the U.S. election result. PiS lawmakers say there shouldn’t be any censorship by social media companies or curtailment of speech because debate is the essence of democracy.
 
Opposition critics say the proposed measure sits oddly with the ruling party’s efforts to muzzle the national media and to turn the public broadcaster into a propaganda vehicle. Those moves are currently being investigated by the European Union, which has accused the PiS government of rolling back democratic norms.
 
The Polish government also has vowed to bring foreign-owned media outlets in the country under Polish control, which critics fear means turning them into government propaganda outlets.  
 
Under the draft law, if content is removed, a social media company would have 24 hours to respond to a complaint from a user and any decision could be appealed to a newly created special court.
 
Populist leaders aren’t alone in denouncing the moves by social media giants. Across Europe there is unease regardless of political affiliation at censorship by social media giants and their expulsion of Trump, a response to last week’s bid to derail the certification of the U.S. election results by pro-Trump agitators storming the U.S. Capitol. Twitter cited violations of its civic integrity policies to block Trump.
 
Facebook is blocking and deleting content that uses the phrase “stop the steal,” which refers to false claims by Trump supporters of election fraud. And Twitter says it has suspended more than 70,000 accounts of adherents of the QAnon conspiracy, who believe Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping pedophiles in government, business and the media.FILE – A figure representing hate speech on Facebook is seen featured during a carnival parade in Duesseldorf, Germany, Feb. 24, 2020.German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her concerns about the actions of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, saying they are a step too far.  
 
“The right to freedom of opinion is of fundamental importance,” her spokesperson Steffen Seibert told reporters this week. But campaigns are mounting in Germany and in other European countries for social media giants to block hate speech, populist misinformation and fake news from their sites, regardless of authorship.  
 
Additionally, political pressure is mounting for a tightening of regulatory restrictions that some European governments have already introduced aimed at policing social media.  
 
When voicing concern about the social media blocking of Trump, Merkel’s spokesperson cited Germany’s Network Enforcement Act, which was approved in 2018 and requires social media platforms to remove potentially illegal material within 24 hours of being told to do so, or face fines of up to $60 million.  
 
Seibert said free speech should only be restricted in line “with the laws and within a framework defined by the legislature, not by the decision of the management of social media platforms.”  
 
But some German lawmakers want the law toughened and are also urging social media companies to be more forward-leaning in efforts to block what they see as dangerous speech. German Social Democrat lawmaker Helge Lindh told broadcaster Deutsche Welle that Germany is “not doing enough,” saying more restrictions are needed.  
 
The German parliament approved legislation last year that would ensure prosecution for those perpetrating hate or for inciting it online. Under the legislation, social media companies would have been obliged to report hate comments to the police and identify the online authors.
 
Final passage of the legislation was halted, though, because of objections raised by the country’s Constitutional Court, which ruled parts of the new legislation were in conflict with data protection laws. The court called for adjustments that are scheduled to be debated this month by German lawmakers.  
 
Populist politicians stand to lose more from the renewed focus on misinformation on the internet, whether the outcome from the new focus is more stringent state regulations or just social media giants being more restrictive in Europe.
 
Populists tend to be able to galvanize support using social media more than mainstream politicians and parties have managed, says Ralph Schroeder, an academic at the Oxford Internet Institute, part of Britain’s University of Oxford.  
 
“They stand to lose most along with other politicians, on the left and the right and beyond, that seek a politics that is anti-establishment and exclusionary toward outsiders,” he told VOA. “The reason is that social media gives them a means to express ideas that cannot be expressed in traditional news media or in traditional party affiliations.”
 
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Police in Belgium made 116 arrests after a demonstration in Brussels over the death of a young Black man who collapsed while in police custody turned violent.
Police said most of violence took place after a largely peaceful demonstration Wednesday of about 500 protesters — some holding Black Lives Matter signs — ended in downtown Brussels.
“A group of demonstrators (50-100 people) remained on the spot and caused various incidents and degradations,” police said, adding that several police officers were injured in the clashes.
According to a police statement, protesters threw projectiles, set fires, damaged street furniture and police vehicles. They also smashed a window and a door at a police station. In all, 116 people were arrested, including 30 minors, and one protester was tended to by ambulance services, police said.
“Justice must bring to court those who have vandalized and have injured five policemen, including a policewoman who is hospitalized,” federal police captain Marc De Mesmaeker told broadcaster RTBF on Thursday. “This must be done with care, just as the other aspect of the event, the tragic death of Ibrahima, must be treated with care.”
Belgian prosecutors have requested that an investigative judge be appointed following the death of a 23-year-old Black man identified by authorities only as I.B. The prosecutor’s office said he was arrested on Jan. 9 after he allegedly tried to run away from police who were checking people gathered in the city center despite COVID-19 restrictions on social gatherings. He was taken to a police station where he fainted, and then transferred to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the office said.
The prosecutor’s office said Belgium’s Comité P, an independent body overseeing police services, is investigating and a coroner has been appointed to perform an autopsy as well as toxicology tests. Belgian media reported the man had started to record the police with his phone on Saturday when officers decided to carry out an ID check on him.
The prosecutor’s office said it has seized video surveillance images, both from the police station and at the scene of the man’s arrest.
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Ireland’s prime minister apologized Wednesday after a commission of inquiry released its final report on the harm done to unmarried women and their children in church-run homes in the 20th century.Micheal Martin’s formal state apology followed the release of the final report of a probe into the deaths of 9,000 children in 18 mother-and-baby homes from 1922 to 1998. These homes provided shelter for women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage.In Ireland’s lower house of parliament, the Dail, Martin apologized for the country’s “profound and generational wrong” against women and children who should not have been there in the first place.”The state failed you, mothers and children in these homes,” Martin said Wednesday as he urged the country to show remorse and admit this “dark, difficult and shameful chapter” as part of its history.About 15% of the children born in the homes died from disease and infections, almost double the nationwide infant mortality rate, the report found.The report said, “The very high mortality rates were known to local and national authorities at the time and were recorded in official publications,” according to The Associated Press.”We had a completely warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy,” Martin said Tuesday, ahead of his formal apology. “Young mothers and their sons and daughters paid a terrible price for that dysfunction.”Church-run homes in Ireland accommodated orphans, unmarried pregnant women and their babies for much of the previous century. Many unmarried pregnant women were abandoned by their families out of shame or fear of being judged and stigmatized.Many children were later separated from their mothers for adoption.The commission noted that while mother-and-baby homes were not unique to Ireland, its quota of unmarried mothers at the homes was unmatched.The commission said about 56,000 unmarried mothers and about 57,000 children had lived in the homes it investigated.
 
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Dutch authorities began a mass testing program Wednesday in a coastal town after 30 cases of the new, more easily transmissible strain of COVID-19 was discovered at a grade school. Authorities set up a testing center in a sports hall in Bergschenhoek, part of the municipality of Lansingerland, near the port city of Rotterdam. While testing is mandatory, officials sent notices to the roughly 60,000 residents of the municipality requesting that anyone over the age of two be screened. Doctors say they want to learn as much as they can about a new COVID-19 variant first identified in Britain last month. They want to determine just how fast it is spreading and if it is spreading from children to adults. Health officials confirmed the variant virus does appear to be more easily transmissible, though it has not shown to lead to more severe infections.On Tuesday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte extended his country’s five-week lockdown amid concerns that infection rates are not falling quickly enough. Rutte also expressed concern about the new variant.    The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reports the Netherlands has seen a total of 895,543 cases and 12,664 deaths. 
 
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The symptoms came on almost laughably textbook.
 
One morning in late November, my sense of smell suddenly disappeared. Soon my muscles ached and I developed a headache that resembled a spike dancing on my head.
 
Then there was the hacking cough, the nausea, the sweats, the chills.
 
It took a few days before tests confirmed what was already obvious to me: I had contracted the coronavirus.
 
After unsuccessfully convalescing at home for the better part of a week, city paramedics came to my Moscow apartment and insisted I was overdue for a CT scan of my lungs.
 
The ambulance brought me to a nearby clinic retrofitted for assessing coronavirus patients. Medics in now standard PPE “spacesuits” manned a cavernous reception area full of worn-out benches with scattered X’s taped to them to encourage social distancing.
 
Everyone looked sad. I probably did too.
 
Whether you think the coronavirus is dangerous or not — there’s a deep-seated belief in everyone, I suspect, that you can outrun it. Or that it can’t hurt you. Or that you’ve been careful enough.
 
But here we all were. On the benches. Our turn had come.
 
A CT scan showed “up to” 49% damage to my lungs — a number that, combined with a preexisting condition, was enough to convince my examiner, Olga, that I should be under more steady observation in a hospital.
 
Noticing that I was an American, Olga mentioned she had worked in a COVID ward in New York during the first wave of the epidemic in the U.S. last spring. She had been granted an emergency medical license allowing her to treat Americans with the coronavirus.
 
“Thanks for doing that,” I said. I meant it. Like many, I had followed the news as New York was overtaken by the virus last spring — killing thousands.
 
“You’re welcome,” she said.
 
She also confessed she’d never been paid so much in her life.
 
I could understand why.
 
Health care worker salaries are shamefully low by even Russian standards — a fact that prompted President Vladimir Putin to rightly offer danger pay bonuses to frontline staff amid the pandemic.
 
Let me be clear: The vast majority of Russian health care workers are dedicated professionals. But why else should they risk their lives for next to nothing? And those of their families?
 
Why would anyone?
 
Under the new Putin rules, doctors in the “red zone” collect just over $1,000 a month, with pay scaled down for nurses, EMTs, and other personnel.
 
In Russia’s current economic climate, that has made caring for COVID patients a dangerous but fairly lucrative profession — at least for those who’ve managed to collect. And survive.
 
Complaints about money gone missing abounded in the early days of the pandemic. Meanwhile, an informal In Memoriam list of health care workers felled by the virus sits at 1,000 and counting.
 The kitchen debates
 
I was transferred to a makeshift hospital in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park — a location that struck me as comically appropriate given its history with the U.S.
 
The park was host to the so-called American National Exhibition in 1959 — a moment made famous by the impromptu so-called ‘kitchen debate’ between Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and then Vice President Richard Nixon over which society was more advanced: the United States or the USSR.
 
Today, that competition is playing out in the realm of vaccines. Russia was quick — too quick, international health experts ague — to claim it had won the race to develop a COVID vaccine with its “Sputnik V.”
 
The U.S. has since green-lighted the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Russia says it has alternatives nearly ready for approval. Moscow and Washington have been dueling with efficacy rates for months.
 
Given the state of U.S.-Russian relations, it feels like a new front in the new Cold War. Only this one fought with needles.
 Pop-up hospitals
 
To some, I imagine, the idea of a stay in a Russian hospital conjures up images of horror.
 
Frankly, my own impressions haven’t been great, either.
 
Russian friends have come out of city clinics even before the epidemic with little good to say about the experience.
 
Even as a foreigner I’d been in Moscow hospitals that were dilapidated and filthy.
 
Only that wasn’t the case here.FILE – A general view of a makeshift hospital for coronavirus patients set up at the Sokolniki Exhibition and Convention Center in Moscow, Russia, Nov. 9, 2020.My bed was in a large exhibition pavilion hangar that authorities converted into a makeshift COVID ward as the pandemic surged in Moscow. It was a massive building organized open office-style, with waist-high dividers between beds, with separate sections for men and women.
 
But each patient cubby was equipped with an oxygen feed and a small dresser. There was even a flight attendant-style buzzer should you need anything. (It seemed to work the one time I did).
 
There was WIFI — along with rules to not photograph patients or staff, which I respected. The common areas and toilets were clean.
 
The food? Not great but decent enough. And there was plenty.
 
Another amenity: a lounge area with soft-cushioned couches and a TV. It usually sat empty.
 
While I’m on comforts: I’d been admitted to the hospital without warning — and, accordingly, hadn’t had time to bring any personal items. When I told them so, a nurse gave me a dock kit with toothpaste and other essentials to tide me over until Russian friends could deliver the rest at a drop off point outside the park.
 
Less pleasant: patients were told not to wear masks, a concept I found hard to understand as I watched and listened to those around me.
 
And that is what we all did.
 
The clinic wasn’t a chatty place. I got to know my neighbors mainly through observing.
 
The patient opposite me listened to endless sitcom sketches and the news from the recent cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh on his phone — without headphones.
 
Given that he seemed to have relatively minor symptoms, he was the first of ‘us’ to be released. (I swore if we ever met again, I’d gift him a set of earbuds.)
 
Kitty corner: a pudgy gentleman who wheezed like a carburetor in need of deep repair. I felt badly for him. But when he started coughing, I felt badly for me, too. I quickly turned in the other direction and slipped on my oxygen mask.
 
There was also an older couple in their 80s — a husband and wife, if I was to guess — whom I’d see meeting daily in the corridor to take a slow walk, holding hands.
 Treatment-bound
 
The ward was staffed by medical students in their early 20’s — their youth underscored by how they’d written their names in abbreviated form on their uniforms. Names like ‘Polya’ (Polina) ‘Sasha’ (Alexander) and ‘Dima’ (Dmitry).
 
The staff I met all seemed to be from southern Russia — cities like Makhachkala, Krasnodar, and Rostov — who said they’d volunteered to work in Moscow for the experience and higher pay.
But what they lacked in years they made up in enthusiasm.
 
“Good morrrrrning!” chimed ‘Vova’ (Vladimir), who greeted me in English followed by an anticoagulant shot to my gut every morning at 7 am.
 
“Damn I wish I could speak English,” he added switching back into Russian. “Moscow has all these foreigners and I can’t say a word to them.”
 
He asked to look through my passport. “I would love to go sometime,” he said.  
 
I hope he will. After all, he’s only 21.FILE – A general view of a makeshift hospital for coronavirus patients set up at the Sokolniki Exhibition and Convention Center in Moscow, Russia, Nov. 9, 2020.Doctor Anatoly’s therapy
 
The senior doctor in our ward was “Doctor Anatoly” — whose few wrinkles I could see through his goggles I found oddly comforting.
 
He made his rounds among the patients every morning in a whirl — his impending arrival announced by the rapid sounds emanating nearby.
 
‘Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!’
‘Thump! Thump! Thump!
 
Instructing patients to lie on their stomachs — a common practice —- Doctor Anatoly would proceed to pound them with blows to the back in an effort to dislodge the virus as patients heaved and sucked for oxygen.
 
And it seemed to work. At least with me.
 
I hacked and coughed and slept and read. Read and slept and coughed and hacked. It was a routine that after a week had me feeling…if not good, then certainly not as bad as when I’d come in.
 
No doubt administered medication — a combination of antivirals (triazavirin), antibiotics (amoxicillin) and three doses of the rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib (until they ran out) helped, too.
 
On Day 6, I was invited to take part in a group exercise class. I took it as acknowledgment of my progress.
 
We gathered near the pavilion windows and proceeded to mimic our doctor’s motions — bad ballerinas all. Simple movements taxed our lungs. We fell over given easy balancing exercises.
 
But I could tell: I was clearly feeling better.
 
“You should be grateful,” Doctor Anatoly said quietly when he came to check on me the next day. “Look around you.”
 
I had. I’d taken walks around the pavilion enough to see the ICU ward of patients on ventilators.
 
It was time for me to go home,
 
Besides, Russia has 20,000-plus new cases daily — with a nearly a quarter of them in Moscow. Others would surely need my bed.
 Road to recovery
 
Over the past month I’ve recuperated at home and thought about my experience.
 
Of course, I realize the care I was getting isn’t typical for everyone. But it was typical for Moscow. I’ve seen pictures of similar makeshift COVID wards from around the city that looked identical.
 
The capital is the epicenter of the virus and demands resources. Yet the pandemic has again highlighted how the city benefits from lavish funding the rest of the country lacks.
 
The evidence is everywhere — streets and sidewalks immediately shoveled when it snows, in holiday decorations to mark the New Year, and in seemingly having enough beds to treat the sick amid a pandemic.
 
Even one for me.
 
If that sounds overly rosy, let me add: I’ve done enough reporting on the Russian fight against the coronavirus to know the picture is far from ideal.
 
There’s more than enough evidence to suggest the infection numbers — and deaths — are worse than official statistics would suggest.
 
I’ve also spoken to medical professionals in the regions fighting for the same heightened pay doled out in Moscow. The situation has improved but hardly resolved.
 
And there were other negative moments.
 
My experience with Russia’s ‘social monitoring’ system — rightfully launched to prevent those with the virus from leaving their homes and infecting others — raises legitimate concerns of abuse by the state security apparatus.
 
But I’ve had health crises before and one thing I know is they provoke is a terrible sense of sentimentality and gratitude. So bear with me.
 
For those who cared for me under difficult circumstances — thank you. Stay healthy and good luck with your lives and careers.For those who were ill with me — I hope you’ve since recovered and are home with your families and loved ones.
 
For friends who gave (and the many others who offered) help — my eternal gratitude. You’re family to me. (Whether you want to be is another issue…).
 
And for those who are nervously waiting for a vaccine — Sputnik? Pfizer? Moderna? AstraZenica? Who cares?
 
Let’s hope they all work.
Wherever you are.
 
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The world’s leading democracies should form a coalition to counter China’s human rights abuses at home and its support for authoritarianism overseas, according to a prominent group of British lawmakers.Several members of parliament from Britain’s ruling Conservative Party have formed the “China Research Group” to monitor Beijing’s influence. They say Britain is in desperate need of a coherent policy on China and recently published a self-styled “policy toolkit” of recommendations.Tom Tugendhat, chairman of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, is co-founder of the group. “What we’re trying to do is to change China. We’re not trying to cut it off,” Tugendhat told VOA in a recent interview. “We’re trying to encourage it to change within a rules-based international system, so that the people of China have the opportunity they deserve and so the rest of the world is not threatened.”Analyst Steve Tsang, who is director of the China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said it is a battle with global implications.“China under (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping is interested in exporting and supporting authoritarianism in the world. So, there is a bit of a contest of two different ideas: liberal democracies and Chinese-supported authoritarianism,” Tsang told VOA.  Among the policy recommendations from the China Research Group are the formation of a coalition of 10 leading democracies to counterbalance Chinese influence, and sanctioning Chinese individuals accused of human rights abuses.Tugendhat said a growing catalogue of atrocities carried out by Beijing must be confronted. “We know about the mass sterilization and detention and indeed enslavement of Uighur Muslims; we know about the persecution of Mongols in Inner Mongolia; we know about the persecution of Tibetans; and we now know very clearly about the repression of democratic rights in Hong Kong. And all of these should be met with sanctions.”Ben Chung, 2nd right, of a pro-democracy political group is arrested by police in the Central district after as many as 50 Hong Kong opposition figures were arrested in Hong Kong, Jan. 6, 2021.In a speech to parliament Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stopped short of calling for sanctions on individuals in the Chinese government, instead outlining new regulations for businesses to prevent any links with forced labor practices in China.“Here in the U.K., we must take action to make sure that U.K. businesses are not part of the supply chains that lead to the gates of the internment camps in Xinjiang, and to make sure that the products of the human rights violations that take place in those camps don’t end up on the shelves of supermarkets that we shop in here at home week in, week out,” Raab told members of parliament. The China Research Group’s recommendations include forcing greater legal obligations on foreign banks and financial institutions to prevent the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy by Beijing.But the West has limited leverage, said Tsang. “We are looking at some of the leading Western banking and financial institutions. So, they will be the ones that will be hurt much more than the Chinese party state itself.”China is both the United States’ and Europe’s biggest trading partner.“Trade relationships normally do get ahead of political ones, that’s the entrepreneurial nature of business; it’s a good thing,” said Tugendhat. “But sometimes we need to remember that there are other challenges that need to be reined in or changed or tweaked. Because actually, what we’re seeing is not fair trade; it may be intellectual property theft. It may be effectively asset stripping.”Any “policy toolkit” will have a limited impact – and global democracies must instead win the battle of ideas, said Tsang. “If we cannot win the argument with the reality of democracies, then we will not be able to outcompete China’s approach to supporting authoritarianism.”China has reacted angrily to Western accusations that it is curtailing freedoms in Hong Kong and committing human rights abuses. “The relevant countries should face up to the reality that Hong Kong has already returned to China,” Foreign Ministry spokersperson Zhao Lijian told reporters at a press conference Monday.“They should abide by the basic principles of international law and international relations, discard double standards, earnestly respect China’s national sovereignty, respect Hong Kong’s rule of law, and immediately cease all forms of interference in Hong Kong’s internal affairs, and China’s domestic affairs,” he added.Britain handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997.Meanwhile, China has denied accusations that it is incarcerating millions of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang province and conducting forced sterilizations, despite widespread evidence that such practices are taking place. 
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British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Wednesday he is hoping the nation’s current situation is the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as infection rates and hospitalizations are at or near record levels.
In televised interviews. Hancock said Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is facing intense pressure due to the high number of COVID-19 cases, treating 55 percent more people than during the first pandemic peak in April, with more than 30,000 patients across the country.
He said the government is considering many options to ease the strain on the NHS. Authorities have reopened temporary field facilities – known as “Nightingale Hospitals” in London and elsewhere and are even considering using hotels for patient overflow.  
The health secretary said if hotels were used it would only be “for step-down patients… who no longer need full hospital care.”
Britain on Monday launched an ambitious program to vaccinate 14 million people by the middle of next month. Hancock said that program is still on track to meet that goal, but as of now, it difficult to determine when enough people will be vaccinated to lift some of the COVID lockdown restrictions that are in place. He said they would remain “long as they are necessary.”
The government opened seven mass vaccination centers Monday as it moved into the most perilous moment of the COVID-19 pandemic, with exhausted medical staff reeling under the pressure of packed hospitals and increasing admissions.
Hancock said the single most important thing people can do to ensure the situation does not get worse is to stay home.  
Britain has so far had at least 3,180,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and more than 83,000 deaths the world’s fifth-highest official toll.
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Testimony begins Wednesday in Italy in the country’s largest organized crime trial in more than three decades.   More than 350 defendants will stand in the dock in a specially-built high security courtroom in the southern town of Lamezia Terme, in Italy’s Calabrian region, home of the powerful mafia-like ‘Ndrangheta empire.  As many as 900 witnesses will testify in a trial that is expected to last as long as a year, if not longer. Prosecutors are focusing their efforts primarily on the ‘Ndrangheta’s Mancuso family, which controls the Vibo Valentia area of Calabria. The defendants, including Mancuso blood relatives, disgraced politicians, lawyers, businessmen, law enforcement officials and others, are facing a host of crimes dating back decades, including murder, drug trafficking, extortion and money laundering.   The ‘Ndrangheta’s various worldwide illicit and legitimate enterprises bring in an estimated $61 billion per year for the syndicate.  A similar so-called “maxi-trial” in 1986 led to the convictions of more than 300 members and associates of Sicily’s notorious Cosa Nostra crime family.  
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Turkey has been providing refuge for Uighurs fleeing Chinese persecution, but rights groups are worried that Turkey’s parliament is poised to pass an extradition treaty with China. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, this also has alarmed the Uighur community in Turkey. 
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Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced Tuesday the government is extending its COVID-19 restrictions by three weeks, to February 9, expressing concern about the new so-called “British variant” of the virus. At a televised news conference in The Hague, Rutte said he was certain the news was no surprise and that most people would understand there was no choice but to extend the pandemic-related restrictions, which had been scheduled to expire January 19. FILE – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte speaks during his news conference in the Hague, Netherlands, March 19, 2020.Rutte said reports about the spread of the variant, identified last month in Britain, were “alarming.” The variant has been shown to spread more easily than the original form of the virus, though it is not been found to cause a more severe infection. Under the current restrictions, the toughest yet imposed in the nation, schools and nonessential businesses have been closed, and people are banned from having more than two people in their homes. There are limits on the size of outdoor gatherings, as well, and Rutte said they were considering imposing an evening curfew.  COVID-19 infection rates had started to drop in recent weeks following the start of the lockdown last month. But health officials say daily rates are still too high. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the Netherlands have had a total of 890,000 cases and 12,512 deaths from the virus. The Netherlands rolled out its initial vaccination program last Wednesday, the last nation in the European Union to do so.  
 
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A top British police official Tuesday said officers have issued about 45,000 fines for violations of COVID-19 restrictions and that they will issue more to keep the infection from spreading. The chair of Britain’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, Martin Hewitt, made the comments at a news conference, along with Home Secretary Priti Patel. Hewitt said he makes no apology for the fines levied because too many people were still choosing not to abide by the rules. He warned there would be more officers out on patrol to catch those who he said were “endangering us all.” Britain is among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic and is in the midst of a third national lockdown to stop rapidly spreading infections. The nation reported 1,243 more deaths Tuesday, bringing the current number of fatalities to 83,203. Patel described the figures as “horrifying” and stressed the “absolutely critical” need for people to follow the rules. Patel said she supported the efforts of police officers, and that a minority of people were putting the entire nation at risk by not following the rules. She said, “Our ability to get through the coming weeks and months depends on each and every one of us contributing to what is truly a national effort.” 
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