A tourist hotel in the Canary Islands was placed in quarantine Tuesday after an Italian doctor staying there tested positive for the new coronavirus, evidence that the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe is spreading with vacationing Italians.
The doctor hailed from Italy’s north, which has registered most of Italy’s 283 cases. He was placed in isolation at a clinic in Tenerife. The H10 Adeje Palace hotel was locked down, and its 1,000 tourists prevented from leaving, according to Spanish news media and town officials in Adeje.
The Canary Islands, an archipelago located around 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the African coast, is a popular vacation destination that attracts Europeans year-round. Many Italians are vacationing this week as schools have a mid-winter break.A police officer discusses with a woman as he checks transit to and from the cordoned area in Guardamiglio, Italy, Feb. 25, 2020.The virus also spread via tourists traveling within Italy, as the southern island of Sicily reported a positive case from a woman vacationing from Bergamo, in northern Lombardy. Two cases were also reported in Tuscany, well south of the epicenter.
Croatia, meanwhile, confirmed its first case — in a man who had been to Milan, the capital of Lombardy and Italy’s business hub.
Civil protection officials on Tuesday reported a large jump of cases in Italy, from 222 to 283. Seven people have died, all of them elderly people suffering from other ailments.
Italy has closed schools, museums and theaters and canceled Venice’s Carnival and Roman Catholic Masses in the two regions where clusters have formed — Lombardy and Veneto. Police and soldiers are enforcing quarantines around 10 towns in Lombardy and the epicenter of the Veneto cluster, Vo’Euganeo.
Premier Giuseppe Conte shocked Lombardy officials by taking to task the hospital in Codogno, southeast of Milan, where Italy’s first positive patient went on Feb. 18 with flu-like symptoms. The man was sent home, only to return a short time later with worsening conditions, at which point he was tested for the virus.
Many of Lombardy’s 200-plus positive tests have a traceable connection to the Codogno hospital, including several doctors and nurses, patients and relatives who visited them.
Conte told reporters that the Lombardy cluster grew “because of the hospital management that wasn’t completely proper according to the protocols that are recommended for these cases.”
“This surely contributed to the spread,” he said.
Lombardy’s chief health official, Giulio Gallera, expressed shock at Conte’s remarks and defended the region’s handling of the crisis.
 “It’s offensive. It’s unacceptable,” Gallera said, noting that the man presented none of the main risk factors for the virus — travel to China or contact with an infected person — when he first went to the emergency room.
The man was eventually tested after doctors ascertained from his wife that he had met with someone who had recently returned from China. But officials have excluded that contact as the source of the outbreak since that person tested negative.
As officials worked to get ahead of the spread nationally, the reality of a two-week quarantine was setting in for residents of Italy’s “red zones” — the cluster of 10 towns in Lombardy and Veneto’s tiny Vo’Euganeo where residents were barred from leaving by police and army checkpoints.Tourists are wearing protective masks against coronavirus in Venice, Italy, Feb. 23, 2020. (Sabina Castelfranco/VOA)”The concern is palpable, people are worried, partly because of what they hear on television, information, on social media,” said Davide Passerini, the mayor of Fombio, one of the 10 Lombardy towns under lockdown. “Life is like it is in other isolated villages: Everything is shut, people go out just to do their shopping.”
And they wait to see if they develop symptoms.
Italy initially tested anyone who came into contact with an infected person. But with the numbers growing and some supply issues with test kits, Italy’s national health system has revised its containment strategies.
People who live or have visited the quarantined areas, or who who have been in contact with positive cases, are advised to self-quarantine for two weeks. They are instructed to take their temperatures twice a day, and stay in touch with their doctors or the national health service via an overwhelmed toll-free number.A cyclist talks to police officers controlling movements to and from the cordoned area in Casalpusterlengo, Northern Italy, Feb. 23, 2020.Only if they develop symptoms are they tested, most often by a team performing house calls to prevent hospitals and clinics being overwhelmed by possibly infected patients, said Elia Delmiglio, mayor of Casalpusterlengo, another of the 10 towns in Lombardy’s “red zone.”
 
“That’s why we are asking people to call only when they develop symptoms, so we are not forced to test everyone,” he said. The town — with more than 15,000 inhabitants — doesn’t have a working emergency room, but only a hospital mainly specialized in cancer patients, who are particularly at risk for contracting the virus.
“Local health structures are doing their best, but in some cases they were not ready to face such an emergency,” Delmiglio said.
In another hotbed of the virus outbreak — Veneto’s tiny town of Vo’Euganeo, which has 30 of Veneto’s 38 cases — local authorities were still planning to test all 3,300 residents and 600 acting hospital staff.
 
“I’m being optimistic and I feel well,” said resident Andrea Casalis, as he waited to be tested. “People continue to go out here and talk in the streets, but we try to keep some security distance.”  
 
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The field of candidates hoping to take over leadership of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party narrowed Tuesday, as one top contender announced that he was bowing out of the race to support another in his bid.Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters that it is a pivotal time for Germany and the Christian Democratic Party amid broad global challenges like climate change and migration, and that he hoped his decision to back North Rhine-Westphalia governor Armin Laschet would lead to a quick decision and a clear course.”It is about the future of the country and the future of our party,” he said.The leader of the CDU will be chosen at a special party convention in Berlin on April 25, and would be the presumptive candidate to run for chancellor for Merkel’s conservative bloc in 2021 since Merkel has said she will not run again.Spahn said Laschet’s track record as governor of Germany’s most populous state had convinced him that he was the right choice. Spahn would serve as deputy CDU leader if Laschet is elected.”Armin Laschet has demonstrated, and demonstrates every day in North Rhine-Westphalia, his liberal, social and conservative leadership,” Spahn said.Laschet said despite Germany’s low unemployment rate and current prosperity, there is growing concern over rising rents, climate change, migration, digitalization and other issues, and a rise in “hate and anger” against many groups, including increasing anti-Semitism.”We cannot allow that,” he said.He pledged to work to bridge gaps between older and younger Germans, between people in the former East Germany and West Germany, to push ahead with Germany’s energy plan to end the use of nuclear and coal power in favor of renewable energies, and to work on a European level with other nations so as to be an anchor of stability for Europe.”We need more Europe,” he said.The decision to work together suggests Laschet and Spahn learned a lesson from the internal competition that saw outgoing party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer narrowly elected to succeed Merkel as party leader in 2018. Since then the CDU has had a string of poor showings in state elections and Kramp-Karrenbauer has struggled to establish her authority over the party, leading to her decision earlier this month to step down.Former environment minister Norbert Roettgen, announced last week that he would seek the CDU leadership.The third main contender to replace Kramp-Karrenbauer, former parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz, was expected to announce his candidacy later Tuesday. Merz, who has been in the private sector in recent years, is widely thought to have the support of the conservative side of the CDU.
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Turkish forces have suffered more casualties in the latest round of fighting in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. But despite Russia backing Syrian government forces in the ongoing attacks on Turkish forces, Ankara has refrained from confronting Moscow — a sign, analysts suggest, of the considerable economic leverage Russia retains over Turkey.Officials say a Turkish convoy in Idlib was hit Monday in an airstrike that caused several injuries. During the weekend, a Turkish soldier was killed in another attack, bringing the number of deaths to at least 18 since Turkey sent significant reinforcements to counter a Damascus government offensive against Syria’s last rebel enclave.  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Istanbul, Jan. 8, 2020.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, facing growing domestic pressure over the number of casualties in Syria, spoke Friday with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Erdogan described the talks as productive, but analysts say the latest casualties indicate little was achieved in ensuring the safety of Turkish forces.”Putin just doesn’t keep his promises, but we [Turkey] seem to be beholden to him,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of New York-based Global Source Partners.Moscow robustly defends the Damascus government offensive against rebels and accuses Ankara of failing to fulfill a commitment to disarm radical groups in Idlib.  Despite Moscow’s defense of Damascus’ increasing number of deadly attacks on Turkish forces, analysts believe Erdogan is avoiding a confrontation with Putin, maintaining that Turkish-Russian relations remain intact.  Experts say Erdogan is well aware of the significant economic clout Moscow possesses.”Russians do have a lot of leverage over Turkey,” said international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.  “Tomatoes may no longer cross the border,” he added, “along with other fruits and vegetables. Russian charter flights out to Antalya [a Turkish Mediterranean resort] may become rarer or may stop.”Russia is a significant market for Turkish produce, along with Russian tourists being among the most numerous for Turkey’s large tourism industry.  Following Turkey’s 2015 downing of a Russian bomber operating in Syria, Moscow banned Turkish tomato imports and dramatically curtailed Russian tourists as part of significant economic sanctions, eventually forcing Erdogan into apologizing to Putin.  Five thousand tons of Turkish tomatoes are stranded on the Russian border. Officially the Russians cite regulation anomalies, but Ankara sees the delays as Moscow again flexing its economic muscle. Earlier this month, a Turkish ship carrying tomatoes was sent back from Russia.  People walk in central Istanbul’s Istiklal Avenue, the main shopping road of Istanbul, Aug. 22, 2018.Last year’s record numbers of Russian tourists helped to contribute to a historically high number of visitors to Turkey, surging to 45 million in 2019 from 39 million in the previous year.Tourism is a labor-intensive industry, as well as a critical source of foreign currency, vital, analysts say, to support a lira that increasingly is under pressure.The Turkish economy is still struggling to recover from a currency crash of 2018, with sluggish growth and youth unemployment running at around 25%. Analysts suggest Erdogan will be reluctant to risk a new economic war with Moscow.Energy, however, is where Moscow can especially inflict pain on Ankara.”Turkey is engaged in the construction of a Russian nuclear power station due to come on stream in 2023,” said Mehmet Ogutcu, chairman of the London Energy Club. “Turkey is already buying through Russia’s Blue Stream [pipeline] almost 16 bcm [billion cubic meters] of gas. There are two other projects from Russia.  “Turkey wants to reduce its dependence on Russian gas, which is running at 52% because we have experienced Turkey shooting down a Russian plane; this was a cold shower. What if Russia cuts off supply during winter?” asked Ogutcu.  Ankara is taking steps to reduce its dependence on Russia’s energy by seeking alternative gas supplies. Turkey is increasing its capacity to receive and store liquid natural gas. Last year saw record amounts of LNG imported by Turkey, much of it from the United States.  Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, attends the opening ceremony of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, a key pipeline that will carry natural gas from Azerbaijan’s gas fields to Turkish markets.Rising Russian-Turkish tensions are putting the spotlight on the number and nature of energy deals Ankara agreed to with Moscow. With Turkey paying among the highest gas prices in the world, criticism is growing that the deals greatly favor Russia. At the same time, Ankara has committed to buying gas it doesn’t need.”We don’t need that gas; look at Turkish gas consumption. It’s been declining for three years,” said Yesilada. “We just agreed to get 4 billion new cubic meters per annum plus 6 billion from Tanap [a pipeline from Azerbaijan]. We are suddenly stuck with 10 billion cubic meters of gas at the same time our gas power stations are all going bankrupt due to lack of demand and high gas prices.”In the next two years, several long-term Russian gas contracts are due for renewal. Their renewal is seen as an opportunity for Ankara to rebalance its relationship with Moscow.”I think the Turks are quite aware of the fact that they depend heavily on Russian gas and that it has to be at a manageable level,” said Ogutcu.”There is an asymmetric relationship between Russia and Turkey, that Turkey does whatever Russia wants. But there needs to be a change, a rebalancing of the relationship. The renewing of the contracts will be one step,” he added.
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The death toll in Italy from the coronavirus outbreak stands at seven with more than 200 cases confirmed. At least 10 towns in the north are in lockdown mode and the army is ensuring no one enters of leaves them during a quarantine period.Italian authorities are working around the clock putting in place unprecedented measures in an effort to curb the surge in coronavirus cases. In at least six regions in Italy’s industrial north, schools and universities are closed. People have been told to stay away from their offices and remain indoors as much as possible.Theaters and museums have also been closed as have bars and discos. Venice carnival events have been cut short for the first time ever.Tourists are wearing protective masks against coronavirus in Venice, Italy, Feb. 23, 2020. (S. Castelfranco/VOA)Authorities have banned all demonstrations and public gatherings, including sporting events and church services as Italy deals with the biggest outbreak in Europe. The head of Italy’s civil defense department, Andrea Borrelli, said authorities were surprised by how fast the virus has spread. He said a plan is in place to house people who have contracted the virus and for those in quarantine.
Borrelli says thousands of beds are available throughout the national territory and that army barracks and hotels have been made available. He also says extra food and medical supplies will be taken to the towns in lockdown in northern Italy.Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says residents in affected towns could face weeks in lockdown.In Milan over the weekend, many residents raided supermarkets, leaving empty shelves, fearing they would not be able to go to the shops. The Lombardy region is Italy’s hardest hit region and streets are deserted. Many people have been told to stay home and work from there. Those who venture out have been wearing surgical masks. One vendor outside a Milan railway station said he was selling the masks for $11 each.University students in affected areas were unable to sit for their exams.
This student says she had three exams this week and all of them have been canceled. The student says she does not know when she will be able to take them.According to the student, the Milan mayor said for the moment, colleges will be closed for a week but that this closure could be extended to a fortnight or more.Italians have been told to avoid traveling to affected areas. At the airports, passengers are being checked for symptoms of the virus with heat sensors. Some regional train lines have canceled service, but fast trains between the major cities are still operating normally.
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Germany’s center-right CDU said Monday it would choose a new leader at a special congress on April 25, as the crisis-racked party hopes to halt a slide in the polls and end speculation about who could succeed veteran Chancellor Angela Merkel.Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union has been in turmoil after her heir apparent, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, resigned as party leader this month over her supposed failure to stop regional MPs from cooperating with the far right.Speaking after talks with party grandees in Berlin, Kramp-Karrenbauer said they had agreed to hold an extraordinary congress to elect the next leader of the CDU, a party that has dominated politics in Germany for 70 years.The winner is then also expected to be the CDU’s candidate for the chancellery in a general election set for 2021, when Merkel plans to bow out after 14 years at the helm of Europe’s top economy.Kramp-Karrenbauer, widely known as “AKK,” told reporters the leadership vote would send “a very clear signal,” adding: “It answers the question of who will be the CDU’s candidate for the chancellery.”For the first time, AKK also named the four party members expected to throw their hat in the ring, confirming widespread media speculation.They include Merkel’s longtime rival Friedrich Merz, popular with the CDU’s more conservative factions, and the centrist state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet.Monday’s top-level talks in Berlin came a day after the CDU suffered its second-worst result ever in a regional election, coming third in Hamburg with just 11.5 percent of the vote.The party is also engulfed in an internal debate as to how it should position itself against the extremes of right and left that have reshaped Germany’s political landscape.Far-right crisisAfter barely a year as head of the party, AKK announced her resignation on February 10 after regional lawmakers in the eastern state of Thuringia voted with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), defying an edict from Berlin not to ally with the extremes.It was another sign that the defense minister had failed to stamp her authority on the CDU and become a credible candidate to succeed Merkel, who according to polls is still Germany’s most popular politician.But AKK’s downfall also laid bare the challenge for her potential successor: how to make their mark while Merkel remains chancellor.”The CDU is a party in the stranglehold of a lame-duck leader,” the Bild newspaper wrote.The next chancellor candidate “must first of all pull the CDU back from the abyss, otherwise they can forget about winning the next election,” it added.In the starting blocks are two politicians who promise to break with Merkel’s centrist course and lead the CDU rightwards, in a bid to win back voters from AfD.While the pro-business Merz recently described her fourth government as “abysmal,” young Health Minister Jens Spahn is a rising party star.Facing them are two centrist candidates: Merkel loyalist Laschet who wants Germany to take a leading role in closer EU integration and Norbert Roettgen, a former environment minister dismissed by Merkel in 2012.’Self-destruction’
The choice of leader will set the tone for the future of the party as polls highlight the urgent need for action, with only 27 percent saying they would back the CDU, ahead of 23 percent for the Greens and 14 percent for the far right.Beyond the high-profile personalities, the conservatives also need to clarify what they stand for in an increasingly splintered political landscape that hinders stable majorities, be it in Berlin or the 16 state parliaments.Top of the list is whether the CDU will stick to its rigid policy of refusing to cooperate with either the far right or the far left, an increasingly difficult position to maintain.Thuringia is a textbook case, as last year’s regional elections produced no clear governing majority following a surge by the AfD.CDU state lawmakers voted with the far right, breaching a historic political taboo, to install a liberal state premier.But after a nationwide outcry, the regional CDU retreated — only to be publicly rebuked by Berlin chiefs for its plan to “tolerate” a minority government led by radical-left successors of the one-party state in communist East Germany.Der Spiegel magazine labeled the CDU’s zig-zagging as “self-destruction” by “a party without direction or a strategic center.”
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The U.S. government began outlining its extradition case against Julian Assange in a London court on Monday, arguing that the WikiLeaks founder is not a free-speech champion but an “ordinary” criminal who put many lives at risk with his secret-spilling.
U.S. authorities want to try Assange on espionage charges that carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison over the 2010 publication of hundreds of thousands of secret military documents and diplomatic cables. Assange argues he was acting as a journalist entitled to First Amendment protection.
Lawyer James Lewis, representing the U.S. government, called WikiLeaks’ 2010 document deluge “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.”
“Reporting or journalism is not an excuse for criminal activities or a license to break ordinary criminal laws,” he said.
Dozens of Assange supporters protested outside the high-security courthouse,chanting and setting off a horn as District Judge Vanessa Baraitser began hearing the case. Just before the lunch break, Assange complained that he was having difficulty concentrating and called the noise from outside “not helpful.”
Assange, 48, watched proceedings from the dock in the courtroom at Woolwich Crown Court — brought there from Belmarsh Prison next door, where he has been imprisoned for 10 months. He spoke to confirm his name and date ofbirth. He nodded towards reporters before taking his seat.
The extradition hearing follows years of subterfuge, diplomatic dispute and legal drama that have led the Australian computer expert from fame as an international secret-spiller through self-imposed exile inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to incarceration in a maximum-security British prison.
Assange has been indicted in the U.S. on 18 charges over the publication of classified documents. Prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password and hack into a Pentagon computer and release secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Assange says the leaked documents exposed U.S. military wrongdoing. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
But Lewis said Assange was guilty of “straightforward” criminal activity in trying to hack the computer. And he said WikiLeaks’ activities created a “grave and imminent risk” to U.S. intelligence sources in war zones, who were named in the documents.
 “What Mr. Assange seeks to defend by free speech is not the publication of the classified materials, but he seeks to defend the publication of sources — the names of people who put themselves at risk to assist the U.S. and its allies,“ the lawyer said.
Lewis said some informants who had been assisting the Americans had to be relocated after the leak, and others “subsequently disappeared.”
He said it wasn’t the role of the British court to determine whether Assange was guilty.
“This is an extradition hearing, not a trial,” he said. “The guilt or innocence of Mr. Assange will be determined at trial in the United States, not in this court.”
Journalism organizations and civil liberties groups including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders say the charges against Assange set a chilling precedent for freedom of the press.
Among the supporters outside court was fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who wore a headband with the word “angel” on it and said she was “the angel of democracy.”
 “It is not a crime to publish American war crimes,” she said. “It’s in the public interest, it is democracy, that he is allowed to do this.”
Assange’s legal saga began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. He refused to go to Stockholm, saying he feared extradition or illegal rendition to the United States or the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In 2012, Assange sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of U.K. and Swedish authorities.
For seven years Assange led an isolated and increasingly surreal existence in the tiny embassy, which occupies an apartment in an upscale block near the ritzy Harrod’s department store. The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him for jumping bail in 2012.
Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November because so much time had elapsed, but Assange remains in London’s Belmarsh Prison as he awaits a decision on the U.S. extradition request.
For his supporters around the world, Assange remains a hero. But many others are critical of the way WikiLeaks has published classified documents without redacting details that could endanger individuals. WikiLeaks has also been accused of serving as a conduit for Russian misinformation, and Assange has alienated some supporters by dallying with populist politicians including Brexit-promoter Nigel Farage.
An end to the saga could still be years away. After a week of opening arguments, the extradition case is due to break until May, when the two sides will lay out their evidence. The judge isn’t expected to rule until several months after that, with the losing side likely to appeal.
If the courts approve extradition, the British government will have the final say.
The case comes at delicate time for trans-Atlantic relations. The U.K. has left the European Union and is keen to strike a trade deal with the U.S.  
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A hearing on the United States request for the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange opened in London Monday.A judge at Woolwich Crown Court is hearing arguments from lawyers representing U.S. that has leveled 17 charges on espionage and one of computer hacking.If found guilty, the 48-year-old detained Australian would face a maximum sentence of 175 years behind bars.The charges are related to WikiLeaks release of classified materials from State Department and the Pentagon detailing the U.S. military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as cables sent to State Department officials from U.S. embassies in various countries, and information provided from government agents and individuals who cooperated with the United States.Assange’s supporters, among which are many celebrities from the realm of music to fashion, have argued that his prosecution has been political and personal from the start, and have demanded his release.Journalism organizations have rallied in support of Assange, calling the charges against him an assault on freedom of the press.Assange spent seven years in self-imposed exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and after his eviction from there, British authorities sent him to a maximum-security prison in 2019.Assange was first arrested in 2010 in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault.
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China’s leader said Sunday the new coronavirus epidemic is the communist country’s largest-ever public health emergency, but other nations were also increasingly under pressure from the deadly outbreak’s relentless global march.Italy and Iran began introducing the sort of containment measures previously seen only in China, which has put tens of millions of people under lockdown in Hubei province, the outbreak’s epicenter.Italy reported a third death while cases spiked and the country’s Venice carnival closed early.Tourists are wearing protective masks against coronavirus in Venice, Italy, Feb. 23, 2020. (S. Castelfranco/VOA)Iran’s confirmed death toll rose to eight, prompting travel bans from neighboring countries.The virus has so far killed more than 2,400 people, with about 80,000 infected globally, though China remains by far the worst hit.President Xi Jinping said the epidemic was the “largest public health emergency” since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.”This is a crisis for us and it is a big test,” he said during remarks carried by state television.In a rare admission, at a meeting to coordinate the fight against the virus, Xi added that China must learn from “obvious shortcomings exposed” during its response.The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised Beijing for its handling of the epidemic, but China has been criticized at home for silencing early warnings from a whistleblower doctor who later died from the virus.South Korea said it was raising its alert to the highest level, after the number of infections nearly tripled over the weekend to 602.  Workers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant at a market in the southeastern city of Daegu, South Korea, as a preventive measure after the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.The country now has the most infections outside of China, apart from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan.South Korea reported three deaths on Sunday, taking the countrywide fatality toll to five. The Yonhap news agency later reported a sixth death.Around half of South Korea’s cases have been linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus sect in the southern city of Daegu, where thousands of members have been quarantined or asked to stay at home.Police checkpointsItaly’s cases spiked to 152 on Sunday, including three deaths.Virus panic crept onto catwalks, leading to the cancellation of some runway shows at Milan Fashion Week. Others were held behind closed doors and livestreamed.Most cases are confined to the northern town of Codogno, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) southeast of Milan.  More than 50,000 people in about a dozen northern Italian towns have been told to stay home, and police set up checkpoints to enforce a blockade.Austrian railways said traffic on a major route to Italy through the Brenner Pass would be suspended, after a train was stopped because of two suspected cases of the virus.Neighboring Slovenia asked vacationers returning from ski resorts in northern Italy to be particularly vigilant for symptoms.Italy became the first European country to report one of its nationals died from the virus on Friday.Two more fatalities came over the weekend but Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte urged people “not to give in to panic”, and asked them to follow the advice of health authorities.”The rapid increase in reported cases in Italy over the past two days is of concern,” World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said.Not all reported cases seem to have clear epidemiological links, such as travel history to China or contact with a confirmed case, Jasarevic added.”At this stage, we need to focus on limiting further human to human transmission.”Iran ordered the closure of schools, universities and cultural centers across 14 provinces following eight deaths — the most outside East Asia.The outbreak in the Islamic Republic surfaced Wednesday and quickly grew to 43 confirmed infections, a sudden rise that prompted regional travel restrictions.Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian said his country will close its border with Iran and suspend flights.Like the Italian leader, he, too, said there is no reason to panic.But Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia, said the situation in Iran has “major implications” for the Middle East.”It is unlikely that Iran will have the resources and facilities to adequately identify cases and adequately manage them if case numbers are large,” Hunter said.Pakistan and Turkey announced the closure of land crossings with Iran while Afghanistan said it was suspending travel to the country.Japan criticizedThe outbreak in China remains concentrated in the city of Wuhan — locked down one month ago — where the virus is believed to have emanated from a live animal market in December.China’s infection rate has slowed, but flip-flopping over counting methods has sown confusion over its data.There also was growing concern over the difficulty of detecting the virus.Japan on Sunday confirmed a woman who tested negative and disembarked from the virus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship later tested positive.Similarly in Israel, authorities confirmed that a second Israeli citizen who returned from the ship had tested positive. They were among 11 Israelis allowed off the ship and flown home after initially testing negative.Japan has been criticized over its handling of cases aboard the vessel quarantined off Yokohama.A third passenger died Sunday, Japan’s health ministry said, without specifying if it was as a result of the virus.Four Britons who returned from the Diamond Princess on Saturday also tested positive for the COVID-19 illness, the NHS health service said.
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Pope Francis has cautioned against “unfair” solutions aimed at ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.In a speech Sunday during a visit to the Italian southern port city of Bari to reflect on peace in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Francis lamented the many areas of war and conflict, including in the Middle East and Northern Africa.Francis spoke of “the still unresolved conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, with the danger of not fair solutions, and, thus, presaging new crises.”The pope didn’t cite any specific proposals.A new U.S. peace plan would let Israel annex all of its settlements along with the strategic Jordan Valley. It would give the Palestinians limited autonomy in several chunks of territory with a capital on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but only if they meet stringent conditions.In the same speech, Francis took a swipe at populist politics. “It scares me when I hear some speeches by some leaders of the new forms of popularism,” he said. He also lamented that waves of refugees fleeing conflicts, climate change consequences and other adversity are “depicted as an invasion.”Among the prelates gathered for his speech in Bari’s Pontifical Basilica of St. Nicholas were churchmen from the Balkans, Jerusalem and Algeria. 
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More than 130 people have contracted the coronavirus in Italy, the majority in the north of the country. Italy, which has confirmed at least two coronavirus deaths, has the highest number of cases in Europe. With an emergency decree, the Italian government has adopted special powers to deal with the situation. Strict measures have been adopted in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.Military police wearing surgical masks are guarding the nearly a dozen northern Italian towns that are on lockdown following an outbreak of coronavirus. The towns have a combined population of about 50,000. The police were deployed to ensure no one enters or leaves the towns that have been sealed and placed under quarantine.A cyclist talks to police officers controlling movements to and from the cordoned area in Casalpusterlengo, Northern Italy, Feb. 23, 2020.Most of Italy’s coronavirus cases are in the wealthy industrial north of the country, in the regions of Lombardy and Veneto. To deal with this emergency, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte explained the government’s decisions.He said an emergency decree was approved immediately that gives special powers to the government in order to be able to safeguard in the best possible way the health of Italians.Very strict measures were adopted in the two most affected regions in Italy on Sunday including closure of schools, universities, cinemas and museums for at least one week. No public gatherings or church services will be permitted to take place and four Serie A soccer games were postponed.Tourists are wearing protective masks against coronavirus in Venice, Italy, Feb. 23, 2020. (S. Castelfranco/VOA)In Venice, checks were being carried out at the airport on all arriving passengers and leaflets handed out with an emergency number for the health ministry and a list of precautions to take. Authorities canceled all carnival events from Sunday.The governor of the Veneto  region Luca Zaia confirmed two elderly people had contracted the virus in Venice and were hospitalized.In Milan, Giorgio Armani was holding his womenswear fashion show behind closed doors as a precaution. Italian designer Laura Biagiotti canceled her show.Italian health officials are struggling to figure out how the outbreak began. Very early on the Italian government took measures against the coronavirus including the suspension of all incoming and outgoing flights from China.  
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Serbia has received a sophisticated anti-aircraft system from Russia, despite possible U.S. sanctions against the Balkan state, which is formally seeking European Union membership.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told the pro-government TV Prva on Sunday that the Pantsir S1 air-defense system was purchased after suggestions from Russian President Vladimir Putin.”Buy Pantsir, it showed its best efficiency in Syria,” Vucic quoted Putin as saying during one of their recent, frequent meetings.”This anti-aircraft system is very efficient for targeting drones which are becoming crucial in modern warfare,” Vucic said.Despite seeking to join the EU, Serbia under Vucic’s populist leadership has strengthened close political and military ties with its Slavic ally Russia.Serbia has pledged to stay out of NATO and refused to join Western sanctions against Russia for its policies in Ukraine.Russia’s arming of Serbia is watched with unease in the West amid growing tensions in the Balkans which went through a devastating civil war in the 1990s. NATO intervened in Serbia to stop a bloody Serb crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists in 1999.U.S. officials have openly spoken about introducing sanctions against Serbia in case Moscow sells more arms to the country, especially with weapons that could jeopardize the security of neighboring NATO-member states.Vucic said he hoped there would be no sanctions because he has spoken openly about the Pantsir purchase. He said he believed the sanctions threat was focused on possible purchase of the S-400 anti-aircraft systems that have a much larger range and are more offensive weapons.The delivery on Saturday of two of the purchased six Russian missile systems comes just days after Russia’s defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, visited Belgrade where he declared that the military cooperation between the two states has reached a “fundamentally” new level.Pantsir is a rapid-fire missile system intended for defense against cruise missiles, drones and low flying aircraft with a range of about 20 kilometers (12 miles). 
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Bus drivers in Moscow kept their WhatsApp group chat buzzing with questions this week about what to do if they spotted passengers who might be from China riding with them in the Russian capital.”Some Asian-looking [people] have just got on. Probably Chinese. Should I call [the police]?” one driver messaged his peers. “How do I figure out if they’re Chinese? Should I ask them?” a colleague wondered.
    
The befuddlement reflected in screenshots of the group exchanges seen by The Associated Press had a common source — instructions from Moscow’s public transit operator Wednesday for drivers to call a dispatcher if Chinese nationals boarded their buses, Russian media reported.
    
A leaked email that the media reports said was sent by the state-owned transportation company Mosgortrans told dispatchers who took such calls to notify the police. The email, which the company immediately described on Twitter as fake, carried a one-word subject line: coronavirus.
    
Since the outbreak of the new virus that has infected more than 76,000 people and killed more than 2,300 in mainland China, Russia has reported two cases. Both patients, Chinese nationals hospitalized in Siberia, recovered quickly. Russian authorities nevertheless are going to significant — some argue discriminatory — lengths to keep the virus from resurfacing and spreading.
    
Moscow officials ordered police raids of hotels, dormitories, apartment buildings and businesses to track down the shrinking number of Chinese people remaining in the city. They also authorized the use of facial recognition technology to find those suspected of evading a 14-day self-quarantine period upon their arrival in Russia.
    
“Conducting raids is an unpleasant task, but it is necessary, for the potential carriers of the virus as well,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a statement outlining various methods to find and track Chinese people the city approved as a virus prevention strategy.
    
The effort to identify Chinese citizens on public transportation applies not only to buses, but underground trains and street trams in Moscow, Russian media reported Wednesday.
    
Metro workers were instructed to stop riders from China and ask them to fill out questionnaires asking why they were in Russia and whether they observed the two-week quarantine, the reports said. The forms also ask respondents for their health condition and the address of where they are were staying.
    
In Yekaterinburg, a city located 1,790 kilometers (1,112 miles) away from Moscow in the Urals Mountains, members of the local Chinese community also are under watch. Self-styled Cossack patrols in the city hand out medical masks along with strong recommendations to visit a health clinic to Chinese residents.
    
Human rights advocates have condemned the targeting of Chinese nationals as racial profiling, not an effective epidemic control strategy.
    
“Prevention of any serious virus, be it a flu or the new coronavirus, should involve a proper information campaign and not discrimination of other people,” said Alyona Popova, an activist engaged in a year-long court challenge of Moscow’s use of facial recognition technology.
    
The containment measures in the capital came as the Russian government instituted an indefinite ban on Chinese nationals entering the country that could block up to 90% of travelers coming to Russia from China. Weeks before, Russia shut down the country’s long land border with China, suspended all trains and most flights between the two countries.
    
The Moscow Metro confirmed to The Associated Press that the underground system was “actively monitoring the stations” and has a protocol in place for dealing with people who have recently returned from the People’s Republic of China.
    
“We ask to see their documents and to show us documents [proving] that if they have recently returned from the People’s Republic of China, they have undergone a two-week quarantine period,” Yulia Temnikova, Moscow Metro’s deputy chief of client and passenger services, said.
    
If an individual does not show proof of completing the quarantine, Metro workers ask the person to fill out the form and call an ambulance, Temnikova said.
    
Bus and tram drivers contacted their labor union about the instructions to look for Chinese nationals and report them to the dispatch center. The drivers were outraged and didn’t know what to do, Public Transport Workers Union chairman Yuri Dashkov said.
    
“So he saw a Chinese national, and then what?” Dashkov said. “How can he ascertain that he saw a Chinese national, or a Vietnamese national, or a Japanese, or [someone from the Russian region of] Yakutia?”
     
Dashkov showed the AP a photo of the email that officials at Mosgortrans were said to have sent out. He also showed three photos of on-bus electronic displays reading, “If Chinese nationals are discovered in the carriage, inform the dispatcher.”
    
The AP was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the email and the photos. Dashkov shared screenshots of what appeared to be a genuine bus drivers’ group chat in WhatsApp.
    
While Moscow public transit operator Mosgortrans dismissed the email as phony on its official Twitter account Wednesday, the company told the AP in a statement two days later that it does “conduct monitoring” and “sends data to the medics when necessary.”
    
Mosgortrans referred additional questions to the detailed statement from Moscow’s mayor, who on Friday acknowledged the sharp focus on Chinese people in the city’s virus-control plan.
    
Officials ordered everyone arriving from China to isolate themselves for two weeks, and those who skip the quarantine step will be identified through video surveillance and facial recognition technology, Sobyanin said. The systems give authorities the ability to “constantly control compliance with the protocol,” he said in the statement.
    
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the city’s containment approach and the accusation that it’s discriminatory. But rights activist Popova insists the facial recognition program is unlawful whether the searches are seeking Russian or Chinese faces.
    
“We have a constitutional right to privacy, and citizens of [other countries] have it according to foreign and international legal norms,” she said.
    
Temnikova from the Moscow Metro rejected accusations of racial profiling. Subway workers “mainly look at the passenger’s [health] condition,” she said, and approach “people who need help.”
    
Addressing identification questions like the ones that worried the bus drivers, Temnikova said it should be “clear who could have arrived from China” because “it is obvious.”
    
The Cossacks of Yekaterinburg — men in conservative, often pro-Kremlin groups claiming to be successors of the proud guards who policed the Russian Empire’s frontiers — took fighting the virus into their own hands three weeks ago. They also have a system of sorts for deciding who needs a face mask and advice to see a medical professional.
    
“Mainly [we approach] people from China because it is from them that the coronavirus came. They are the main source,” Igor Gorbunov, elder of the Ural Volunteer Cossack Corps, told the AP during one such patrol Friday.
    
“But not only them,” Gorbunov continued. “There are different nationalities, there are many people of Asian appearance, and they seem to be vulnerable to this disease, the coronavirus, because it is them who are most often affected. Europeans are not yet affected much.”
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Eight people were killed in Turkey in a magnitude 5.7 earthquake that struck western Iran early Sunday morning, Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu said.The quake centered on the Iranian city of Khoy and affected villages in the Turkish province of Van.Soylu told a news conference in Ankara that three children and four adults were killed in Turkey’s Baskule district. He later said another person had died.Some of the wounded remain trapped under the debris of fallen buildings, he added.Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said at least 21 people had been injured, including eight who are in a critical condition.Emergency teams have been sent to the remote mountainous region.Iran’s official IRNA news agency said the earthquake affected 43 villages in the mountainous Qotour area. It reported some residents were injured but didn’t say any were in critical condition.According to the European Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC), the quake struck at 9:22 a.m. local time (0552GMT) at a depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles).A man carries a wounded boy to an ambulance after an earthquake hit villages in Baskale town in Van province, Turkey, at the border with Iran, Feb. 23, 2020.The region has a history of powerful earthquakes. Last month a quake centered on the eastern Turkish city of Elazig killed more than 40 people.Turkish broadcaster NTV showed images of locals and soldiers digging through the rubble of collapsed buildings as families fearing further tremors sat in snowy streets. The EMSC reported several aftershocks that measured up to magnitude 3.9.The effects of the quake hit four villages in Van. Six of the fatalities occurred in Ozpinar village, where Soylu said search and rescue teams had arrived.
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A few years ago, the newly elected Kosovo prime minister overturned Serbian trucks. But Albin Kurti now says he is ready to revoke tariffs introduced by his predecessor on Serbian goods.Kurti, who took office in early February, is backed by most of 1.8 million inhabitants of the former Serbian province for such a move but is nonetheless walking on eggshells.Under intense international pressure to abolish tariffs and resume stalled talks with Serbia, Kurti also faces a fierce backlash from veterans who fought for independence and dominated politics for decades.The former student leader wrote recently on his Facebook account that he was ready to “abolish the 100 percent tariffs” on Serbian goods.A municipality worker hangs Kosovo’s flag to decorate the main street, during the 12th anniversary of the country’s independence in the capital Pristina, Feb. 17, 2020. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.Principle of reciprocityThey were introduced in late 2018 by Ramush Haradinaj as retaliation for a Serbian blockade of Kosovo’s Interpol membership. Belgrade still refuses to recognize the independence declared by the breakaway territory in 2008.The tariffs “will be replaced by the principle of reciprocity between the two states” in political, economic and commercial affairs, Kurti said.The concept, commonly in use in international relations, could mean for example a ban for Serbian license plates in Kosovo, as Kosovar plates are prohibited in Serbia.U.S. envoy for Belgrade-Pristina talks Richard Grenell urged Pristina to abolish tariffs as “it hurts Kosovo and chases businesses away from creating jobs.”‘National pride’But opposition parties that emerged from the guerilla movement that fought Serb forces during the 1998-1999 war that claimed 13,000 lives, are against commercial concessions.To mobilize the public, the opposition is trying to collect a third of the votes in Kosovo’s 120-seat parliament to call an extraordinary session on the issue.Haradinaj urged the new prime minister to refrain from removing tariffs “for some temporary political points you might gain from the international community.“We have to stand united in opposing Serbia until mutual recognition,” he said. His AAK party threatened to hold street protests against the move.The tariffs are a “response to Serbia’s constant attacks against Kosovo,” said Kadri Veseli, leader of the largest opposition party PDK.For Shpetim Gashi, analyst at the American think-thank Council for Inclusive Governance, the issue goes beyond tariffs and is now a question of “national pride.”“Kurti will be walking on a tightrope when replacing it with reciprocity,” Gashi told AFP.The European Union, like Washington, made normalization of ties between Serbia and Kosovo a priority for the sake of economic development and future integration into the EU.FILE – People protest Kosovo’s decision to raise customs tariffs on Serbian and Bosnian goods, in the village of Rudare near Mitrovica, Kosovo, Nov. 23, 2018.‘Not forever’A recent survey by the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies showed that about 60% of those questioned backed the move while 35% were against it.“I supported my government’s decision to retaliate with the tariffs, but it cannot last forever,” Ekrem Hoxha, a 40-year-old technician told AFP.Muhamet Sejdiu, a 32-year-old grocery store owner, echoed his words.“I understand what brought the tariffs. Serbia really has gone too far,” he said. But “I think it is time to return to normalcy. On the shelves I have goods from Bulgaria, (North) Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Europe. … I don’t mind having among them goods from Serbia.”Serbia’s exports to Kosovo amount to around 400 million euros ($433 million) annually and economists like Safet Gerxhaliu call for normalization between the two neighbors.“It is time to think about opening up a dialogue on eliminating barriers and doing business, not just between Kosovo and Serbia, but also in the whole region,” he said.In exchange, Brussels and Washington are asking Belgrade to end its campaign to persuade other countries to withdraw their recognitions of Kosovo’s independence.According to Pristina, Kosovo is recognized by more than 115 states, although Belgrade claims the number is less than a 100.Kurti said he was ready to resume a dialogue “focused on mutual recognition.”The former rebel seems to have turned the page on his tumultuous past when he was prisoner of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime and rioted against Serbia’s rule and later the Kosovo establishment by spraying the parliament with tear gas.“It is clear that Kurti is evolving,” said Agron Bajrami, editor in chief of prominent Koha Ditore daily.“The time for overturning Serbian trucks has passed.”
 
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French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday promised to safeguard European farm subsidies, secure compensation for wine producers hit by U.S. tariffs and defend fishermen in talks with Britain, as France’s farming world faces an uncertain year. Opening the annual Paris farm show, Macron said France would continue to oppose cuts to agricultural subsidies, a day after discussions broke down on a new European Union budget without Britain. Like his predecessors, Macron vowed to maintain a large budget for the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), of which France is the main beneficiary. “On the CAP we defend an ambitious budget. CAP cannot be the adjustment variable of Brexit. We need to support our farmers,” Macron told farmers. “We did not yield to those who wanted to reduce the [CAP] budget,” he added. Compensation for tariffsMeeting wine industry representatives, the president pledged to get compensation for U.S. tariffs in place by the spring, Jerome Despey, secretary-general of France’s main farmer union, the FNSEA, said afterward. Macron has previously backed tariff relief for wine producers and said he has raised the issue with the European Commission. The sector fears it could lose 300 million to 400 million euros in annual sales in its main export market if the 25% tariff imposed by Washington in October remains in place, Despey said. French President Emmanuel Macron samples cheese during a visit to the 57th International Agriculture Fair (Salon international de l’Agriculture) at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France Feb. 22, 2020.French wine is among EU products subject to the U.S. tariffs as part of an aircraft subsidy dispute. French wine exporters estimate the duties led to a 40 million-euro drop in sales to the United States in the last quarter. Fishing tensions Macron also voiced support for the fishing sector, which risks losing current access to British waters as the EU negotiates a new relationship with Britain. “Boris Johnson has a card in his hand, and it is fishing,” he told representatives of the French fishing industry, warning it was unclear if the EU and Britain could reach an overall trade agreement before a transition period expires at the end of the year. He reiterated that he would seek compensation for French fishermen for any losses they suffered. Macron spent over 12 hours at the Paris farm show, a major event for politicians in the EU’s biggest agricultural economy. During the customary presidential visit to the weeklong event, which attracts 600,000 visitors, he tasted French specialities like Charolais beef and Cotes de Provence rose wine, and he served draft beer at the French brewers’ stand. PesticidesHe also faced stern questioning from farmers, with whom he has had an uneasy relationship, particularly over pesticide policy. Macron told farmers that the common weedkiller glyphosate would not be scrapped where there were no alternatives, while safety rules on pesticide spraying would be adopted progressively. There were glimpses of wider tensions in France, with a heated exchange with a woman about pension reform and police violence in street protests. Eric Drouet, a leading figure in the “yellow vest” protest movement that rocked Macron’s government a year ago, was expelled from the show when he tried to approach the president. 
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A respected Catholic figure who worked to improve conditions for the developmentally disabled for more than half a century sexually abused at least six women during most of that period, according to a report released Saturday by the France-based charity he founded.The report produced for L’Arche International said the women’s descriptions provided enough evidence to show that Jean Vanier engaged in “manipulative sexual relationships” from 1970 to 2005, usually with a “psychological hold” over the alleged victims.Although he was a layman and not a priest, many Catholics hailed Vanier, who was Canadian, as a living saint for his work with the disabled. He died last year at age 90.“The alleged victims felt deprived of their free will and so the sexual activity was coerced or took place under coercive conditions,” the report, commissioned by L’Arche last year and prepared by the U.K.-based GCPS Consulting group, said. It did not rule out potential other victims.Power imbalanceNone of the women was disabled, a significant point given the Catholic hierarchy has long sought to portray any sexual relationship between religious leaders and other adults as consensual unless there was clear evidence of disability.The #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements, however, have forced a recognition that power imbalances such as those in spiritual relationships can breed abuse.During the charity-commissioned inquiry, six adult women without links to each other said Vanier engaged in sexual relations with them as they were seeking spiritual direction.The women reported similar facts, and Vanier’s sexual misconduct was often associated with alleged “spiritual and mystical justifications,” the report states.A statement released by L’Arche France Saturday stressed that some women still have “deep wounds.”The report noted similarities with the pattern of abuse of the Rev. Thomas Philippe, a Catholic priest Vanier called his “spiritual father.” Philippe, who died in 1993, has been accused of sexual abuse by several women.Painful truthA statement from L’Arche International said analysis of archives shows that Vanier “adopted some of Father Thomas Philippe’s deviant theories and practices.” Philippe was banned from exercising any public or private ministry in a trial led by the Catholic Church in 1956 for his theories and the sexual practices that stemmed from them.In a letter to the charity members, the Leaders of L’Arche International, Stephan Posner and Stacy Cates Carney, told of their shock at the news, and condemned Vanier’s actions.“For many of us, Jean was one of the people we loved and respected the most. … While the considerable good he did throughout his life is not in question, we will nevertheless have to mourn a certain image we may have had of Jean and of the origins of L’Arche,” they wrote.Other devoted fans and Catholic commentators voiced soulful disappointment at the findings. Some held up the case as a reason to bring long waits back to the saint-making process to make sure candidates for canonization hold up to scrutiny long after death.John Gehring, program director at the U.S. advocacy network Faith in Public Life, said Vanier attracted so many devotees because he was a “quiet refugee from that chaos” of the institutional Catholic Church.“Part of why the Vanier news is so gutting, I think, is that he offered an authentic path into deep spirituality for many detached from the institutional church and disillusioned with clerical leaders who abused power,” he tweeted. “The truth is painful.”L’Arche founded in 1964Vanier worked as a Canadian navy officer and professor before turning to charity work. A visit to a psychiatric facility prompted him to found L’Arche in 1964 as an alternative living environment where people with developmental disabilities could be participants in their community instead of patients.The charity now has facilities in 38 countries that are home to thousands of people, both with and without disabilities.Vanier, who was unmarried, also traveled the world to encourage dialogue across religions, and was awarded the 2015 Templeton Prize for spiritual work, as well as France’s Legion of Honor. He was the subject of a documentary shown at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival called “Jean Vanier, the Sacrament of Tenderness.”The allegations against Vanier reveal a major gap in the Catholic Church’s handling of sex abuse allegations, even for Vatican-recognized associations of the faithful, such as L’Arche. Because he was a layman, Vanier was exempt from the church’s in-house sanctioning procedures for abuse, which only cover priests, bishops and cardinals. For these offenders, the worst penalty the Vatican can impose is defrocking — essentially, making the priests laymen again.
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The U.S. government warned Spain this week about the security risk inherent in opening its fifth-generation communications networks to Chinese mobile technology providers. In meetings Thursday and Friday, U.S. officials warned Spanish officials and telecommunications executives that the U.S. could stop sharing sensitive information with Spain if the Chinese firms reportedly involved in 5G technology were not excluded from local markets. Robert Strayer, U.S. deputy assistant secretary for cyber and international communications and information policy, told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid that 5G pioneer Huawei was under the control of the Chinese government.Defense implications  “We cannot put our important information at the risk of being accessed by the Chinese Communist Party,” Strayer said, stressing that technology developed by Huawei to accelerate connections between billions of objects has inevitable defense implications. Huawei offers better 5G network equipment at lower prices than its competitors, according to telecommunications analysts. U.S. efforts to restrict the company’s access to major international markets have been rebuffed by allies in Europe and Asia. The U.K. announced in late January that it would allow Huawei to equip parts of its 5G networks. Similar decisions have been made by Germany and other EU governments. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks on the tarmac as he leaves Germany after taking part in the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany, Feb. 15, 2020.At an international security conference in Munich last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the creation of a Western alliance against China aimed at blocking cyberespionage.  “In recent years, we have witnessed an intense communications campaign to raise consciousness over the interference of the People’s Republic of China in companies that manufacture telecommunications equipment,” said Javier Cremades, a Spanish lawyer specializing in cybersecurity. ‘Criminalizing’ competitionCremades said Chinese laws allow official access to all information handled by technology firms. That provision, however, does not extend to European affiliates or commercial activity outside China, he said, adding that U.S. accusations against China might be aimed at “criminalizing” the competition in the rivalry with Beijing to control the world’s phone technology market. Spokesmen from the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Center said it was “feasible” to implement security measures to separate “high-risk vendors” from sensitive data and functions, although it could require design restrictions that may slow 5G network performance. U.S. officials said other European and Asian firms that have been cleared to operate in American markets, including Sweden’s Ericsson and South Korea’s Samsung, offer 5G technology as advanced as China’s. Spain’s biggest telecommunications companies, including Telefonica and Vodafone, say they have taken steps to reduce Chinese input for their core systems of future data management in mobile telephones, according to the newspaper El Mundo. But U.S. appeals to European countries to restrict access to Chinese tech giants come at a sensitive moment in transatlantic commercial relations. Serious disagreement over European Union efforts to impose a new tax on American high-tech providers has already shaken the telecommunications sector. U.S. diplomats have threatened to retaliate against Spain and other countries for imposing taxes that target American firms that operate a majority of Europe’s digital networks.  U.S. President Donald Trump “cannot become a boss who tells European countries what they can do in the EU,” said Spain’s Treasury Minister Maria Jesus Montero, who defends the tax as a way of protecting local competitors. Spain has a had a close commercial and military relationship with the U.S. since the middle of the last century. But the influence of China has grown recently, with nearly 50% of Spain’s national debt now owned by Chinese banks. 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said he would hold a summit with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany on March 5 to discuss the situation in Syria’s last rebel enclave of Idlib.”We will come together on March 5 and discuss these issues,” Erdogan said in a televised speech, following a phone call on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his tele-conference with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.The Turkish leader did not say where the summit would be held but his announcement comes a day after Macron and Merkel called for a four-party Syria summit also involving the Russian leader.  A months-long offensive by Russia-backed Syrian troops against rebels backed by Turkey in northwest Idlib has seen close to one million civilians flee the violence.The two European Union heavyweights on Friday “expressed their willingness to meet President Putin and Turkish President Erdogan to find a political solution to the crisis,” the chancellor’s office said.Russia on Wednesday objected to the U.N. Security Council adopting a statement that would have called for a cease-fire in Idlib, diplomats said, after a tense closed-door meeting.Turkey, which has threatened an “imminent” operation in Idlib after its troops have come under intense fire from regime forces, has given Damascus until the end of this month to drive back its army positions.Syrian regime fire has killed 17 Turkish personnel this month alone, sparking a war of words between Ankara and Moscow, a key Damascus ally.
 
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European Union leaders are still seeking a compromise on their next seven-year, trillion-plus-dollar budget. But they ended two days of talks so divided they couldn’t set a date for their next meeting.European unity over Brexit was nowhere to be seen during this first meeting since Britain’s departure from the EU. Leaders of the 27 remaining members ended budget talks Friday acknowledging the gridlock.The tone was set by the EU’s most powerful members. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the differences were too big to overcome, while French President Emmanuel Macron said the deadlock was deeply regrettable. “We don’t need Britain to show disunity,” he added.But inaugurating the annual agricultural fair in Paris Saturday, Macron underscored just why the divisions remain so strong. He told French farmers he remained firm in defending the EU’s biggest budget item — agricultural subsidies — of which France is a top beneficiary.These kinds of no-go zones are being staked out by other member states. Poorer, mostly eastern European nations and five countries that currently get rebates want a more generous budget. Meanwhile the so-called frugal four, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, don’t want the budget to exceed one percent of the bloc’s gross national income.At the same time, the EU’s new executive arm has outlined ambitious new goals — including achieving zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. Those also will need funding — or risk being scaled down. Then there’s the $65 billion budget hole left by Britain’s departure, which needs filling.Yet EU leaders say they are confident a compromise will be struck.European Council President Charles Michel says the bloc has no choice but to reach a decision. The question is when.  Analyst Marta Pilati, of the Brussels-based European Policy Center research group, says the longer talks drag on, the more likely EU-funded programs will be affected next year.”The first consequence of non-agreement is … that we have a delay in implementation, which in practice means that the EU will not be able to disburse funding to the programs so that they can start in January, but maybe that will happen in March and April next year,” Pilati said.The current budget expires in December. After EU leaders reach agreement on the next one, the European Parliament will need to ratify it, which also promises to be complicated. 
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Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is condemning any Russian efforts to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election. The Vermont senator issued a statement immediately after The Washington Post reported U.S. officials told Sanders that Russia was trying to help his campaign. The statement did not confirm the report. Sanders wrote: “I don’t care, frankly, who Putin wants to be president. My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do.” Sanders continued: “Unlike Donald Trump, I do not consider Vladimir Putin a good friend. He is an autocratic thug who is attempting to destroy democracy and crush dissent in Russia. Let’s be clear, the Russians want to undermine American democracy by dividing us up and, unlike the current president, I stand firmly against their efforts, and any other foreign power that wants to interfere in our election.” 
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Greece says it will deport “migrant troublemakers” to their homelands in a bid to combat rising crime and surging migration inflows that have reached a breaking point for the refugee-swollen country.The announcement by Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis follows the recent deadly shooting of a 23-year-old Afghan man in a heated standoff with a rival Pakistani gang in central Athens. It also follows violent clashes between police and thousands of asylum seekers who took to the streets of Lesbos earlier this month to protest living conditions on the island’s overcrowded camp, and tougher asylum regulations enforced by the new conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.Greek Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis, arrives to participate on the first cabinet meeting of the new government, in Athens, on July 10, 2019.“These troublemakers and criminal offenders have no place in Greece,” Chrysochoidis said. “They have chosen the wrong country and society to behave criminally against.”“Rest assured,” he told Apotipomata, a leading current affairs program, “that migrant troublemakers will be hunted down and forced to leave.”More than 100 migrant arrests have been made in the past days in Athens alone. An additional 40 asylum seekers have been rounded up in Lesbos, the start of what authorities call sweeping operations to crack down on rival ethnic groups’ criminal activities, including sex trafficking and drug trafficking, while waiting for their asylum requests to be processed.“For years,” Chrysochoidis said, “there was no real attempt to penalize them. They would be rounded up, detained and then released, allowing them to resume their criminal conduct while waiting for their asylums to be processed.”Now, under new legislation adopted by the government, offenders will instantly be stripped of their asylum rights and detained until deportation, in closed facilities on a host of Greek islands.“You cannot expect a country to be rewarding criminal offenders and troublemakers with asylum,” Chrysochoidis said.Riot police scuffle with migrants during a protest in Mytilene port on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, on Feb. 4, 2020.Nearly 60,000 migrants and refugees illegally crossed to the Greek islands from Turkey last year, roughly double the rate recorded in 2017 and 2018, according to the U.N. refugee agency.  The dramatic rise adds to more than 100,000 asylum seekers already in the country, mainly on the Greek mainland, waiting for their legal claims to be processed, with a backlog expected to last more than five years.Mitsotakis’ government surged to power in July vowing to combat rising crime and enforce a tougher stance on migration. That position includes plans to set up a floating barricade off the coast of Lesbos and reject 95% of asylum claims. Officials say it is a bid to sift through some 75,000 requests in fast-track procedures intended to ease overcrowded camps on five Greek islands at the forefront of Europe’s lingering refugee crisis.State data released this week showed authorities approving 79 of a total of 1,881 cases reviewed in the last month alone.Children play next to the fence of the Moria migrant camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Feb. 18, 2020.The government’s hardened stance has stoked concerns by human rights and aid organizations that say the new fast-track asylum rules would allow only days for requests to be reviewed — a process that ordinarily requires months to be fairly considered.Aid works and charity groups have urged the government to ease overcrowded conditions at islands camps, adding that asylum procedures must be fair.”The government must urgently implement its plan to move people to the mainland, improve conditions and enforce a fast and fair asylum procedure,” said Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesperson for UNHCR Greece. He said it was also important for other regions in the country to accept migrants and that the EU should re-open an ill-fated relocation scheme.Meanwhile, residents of refugee-swollen islands are voicing anger over the government’s intention to set up new camps there, to serve as migrant holding centers.Locals on the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Kos, Samos and Leros warn that their economies have already been shattered by the migration crisis with the business of many hotels and restaurants falling off by more than 50% in recent years.A new camp for migrants with a capacity of 1200 people is pictured in Zervou, on the island of Samos on Feb. 21, 2020.Tensions with the local communities are expected to heighten in the coming weeks as the government plans to use emergency legal powers to requisition large swathes of forest land on the five islands to create the contentious detention centers as it also speeds up deportations.Greece has been grappling with rising tides of illegal migration since the summer, receiving the biggest inflow in four years, or since the EU signed a landmark accord with Turkey to stem a mass migration move of some 1.2 million mainly Syrian refugees to Europe.While the 2016 deal has helped dramatically decrease illegal arrivals by as much as 97%, the contentious measures now adopted by the new government underscore how four years since the landmark EU agreement deal, Greece still remains ground zero for Europe’s migration crisis.“We’re changing the rules,” Chrysochoidis said. “And it’s not out of spite or because of some racist belief. We finally have to defend out people from the fallouts of this crisis.”
 
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Italian officials ordered schools, public buildings, restaurants and coffee shops closed in a tiny town in northern Italy Friday after six people tested positive for the new virus, including some who had not been to China or the source of the global health emergency.
    
The new cases represented the first infections in Italy acquired through secondary contagion and tripled the country’s total to nine. The first to fall ill met with someone in early February who had returned from China on Jan. 21 without presenting any symptoms of the new virus, health authorities said.
    
Authorities think that person passed the virus onto the 38-year-old Italian, who went to a hospital in the town of Codogno with flu-like symptoms on Feb. 18 but was sent home. He returned to the hospital after his conditions worsened and is now in intensive care, Lombardy region public welfare director Giulio Gallera said.
    
The man’s wife and a friend who did sports with him have also tested positive for the virus. The Italian Health Ministry ordered anyone who came into direct contact with the three to be quarantined for 14 days. About 150 people, including medical personnel, were in isolation undergoing tests.
    
Another three people in the Lombardy region also tested positive Friday, the health ministry said later.
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The salvage firm that has plucked silverware, china and gold coins from the wreckage of the Titanic now wants to recover the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Machine that transmitted the doomed ship’s increasingly frantic distress calls.
    
Lawyers for the company, R.M.S. Titanic, Inc., called witnesses before a federal judge on Thursday to explain why the company should be allowed to possibly cut into the rapidly deteriorating ship to recover the device before it’s irretrievable.
    
“It’s one of those iconic artifacts, like the signal flares (that the sinking ship launched),” testified David Gallo, an oceanographer who retired from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and is now a paid consultant for the firm.
    
Gallo, who testified in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, said that salvaging the device would not be “grave robbery” but a way to connect people to the ship’s legacy and honor its passengers.
    
U. S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, the maritime jurist who presides over Titanic salvage matters, said it was too early for her to make any decisions on the proposal. She said she needed more details and proposed scheduling another hearing sometime in the future.
    
The Titanic was traveling from England to New York when it struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912. The large and luxurious ocean liner sent out distress signals using the relatively new Marconi wireless radio system.
    
The messages were picked up by other ships and onshore receiving stations. They included: “We require immediate assistance”  … “Have struck iceberg and sinking” … “We are putting women off in boats.”
    
The ship sank in less than three hours, with the loss of all but 700 of the 2,208 passengers and crew.
    
An international team led by oceanographer Robert Ballard located the wreckage in 1985 on the North Atlantic seabed, about 400 miles (645 kilometers) off Newfoundland, Canada.
    
RMS Titanic Inc., oversees a collection of thousands of items recovered from the site over the years as the court-recognized salvor, or steward of the artifacts.
    
The company has argued that time is running out to retrieve the telegraph machine. It has been referred to as the voice'' of the Titanic, which also delivered the ship's last words.
    
The device is located in a room on the ship's deck. A gymnasium on the other side of the grand staircase has already collapsed. The roof above the telegraph machine has begun to perforate.
    
“I'm not sure if we go in 2020 that the roof won't be collapsed on everything”  testified Paul Henry Nargeolet, director of the company's underwater research program.
    
The company is already facing resistance from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which represents the public's interest in the wreck site.
    
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Virginia represents NOAA. Its attorneys argued in court documents that the proposed retrieval runs contrary to prior court orders that prohibit the firm from cutting holes or taking items from the wreck.
    
The items that the firm has salvaged came from a debris field outside the ship.
   
 “It seems clear that this is not simply a `one-off' proposal for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph, but a placeholder for future requests to take similar actions in order to recover other artifacts from inside the wreck,'' federal attorney Kent P. Porter wrote.
    
Porter also wrote that the court must consider international agreements involving the wreck as well as archaelogical standards to determine whether the retrieval is justified. He cited the United Kingdom-based Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee, which said the company has failed to adequately justify its proposal.
    
Karen Kamuda, president of the Massachusetts-based Titanic Historical Society, Inc., told The Associated Press in an email that the societyhas been against disturbing the wreck since 1985 because it is a gravesite.”
    
“As usual, its all about money,” she wrote.
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The Kremlin was scrambling Friday to reach a stopgap agreement with Ankara to halt fighting in northwest Syria amid growing fears that Russia and Turkey are on the brink of open warfare.  Clashes between the Turks and their Syrian rebel allies with troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Idlib province have already killed two Turkish soldiers this week and dozens of Syrian government troops.The skirmishes between the Turks and Assad’s forces were triggered when Syrian rebels supported by Turkish artillery stormed a village east of Idlib city on a strategic highway. Turkish media said the Turkish army was directly involved in the ground attack. Kremlin officials say their forces weren’t involved and that their warplanes held off striking Turkish positions.While expressing hope an open conflict between Russia and Turkey can be averted, Kremlin officials warned that Russia would support al-Assad’s forces militarily if the fighting escalates and Turkey increases its military operations.Desperate situation for displaced SyriansThe new developments in Idlib, roiling months of cooperation between Moscow and Ankara on the Syrian conflict, are rapidly raising the stakes in Idlib — as well as adding to the desperation of nearly a million displaced Syrians who have fled in the past few months toward the Turkish border, which remains closed to them.Since the Syria conflict erupted nearly nine years ago, Turkey has taken in more than 3 million Syrian refugees but refuses to accept any more. Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies have carved out a swathe of territory in northwest Syria and are relocating some Syrian refugees there, using land snatched from Kurdish forces.FILE – Civilians flee from Idlib toward the north to find safety inside Syria near the border with Turkey, Feb. 15, 2020.The United Nations has warned of possible catastrophe in Syria’s northwest unless the Assad government shows restraint. Syrian government forces, which for weeks have been advancing in the province, have been shelling areas where displaced Syrians are camped, say U.N. officials.The U.N. deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Mark Cutts, told Britain’s Sky News that even by the Syrian war’s brutal standards, the situation is now desperate. If the shelling and airstrikes move any further into the areas where refugees are camped out, “We’re going to see a bloodbath, we’re going to see a massacre on a scale that has never been seen in this entire war,” he said.The Turkish-backed attack on Assad’s forces underscored the seriousness of the threat issued this week by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan warned Turkish troops would go on the offensive in Idlib unless President Assad calls off his offensive on the enclave — the last remaining stronghold of anti-Assad rebel forces and part of an area Ankara has earmarked as a buffer zone and the future home of Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.Russian defense officials condemned the Turkish military action and urged Turkey “to cease support of the actions of terrorists and handing them arms.”Political ramificationsAnalysts say the Turkish leader can ill-afford to see his plans for Idlib dashed, which would amount to a personal and political setback.But conversely a defeat for Assad would wreck Moscow’s efforts in Syria over the past five years, eroding the Kremlin’s growing clout in the region.FILE – Russian troops with military vehicles are seen on patrol outside the town of Darbasiyah in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province, on the border with Turkey, Nov. 1, 2019.”It is very hard to tell how far Turkey is willing to go in Idlib,” according to Assaad al-Achi, director of Baytna Syria, a pro-democracy civil society support organization.  “Negotiations with Russia have not stopped, but have failed so far to produce any lasting cessation of hostilities. Therefore, Turkey is in a conundrum. It wants to avoid at all costs a humanitarian disaster on its southwestern border, but at the same time it doesn’t want to ruin its relationship with Russia.” he said in a commentary for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based research group.There were reports circulating in the Turkish capital, Ankara, Friday that President Erdogan has been sounding out Washington on whether the U.S. would deploy two Patriot anti-aircraft missile batteries on its southern border in readiness for escalating hostilities.On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump praised his Turkish counterpart, calling him a “tough guy” who doesn’t want to see people killed in great numbers. “We are working together on seeing what can be done. You have a lot of warring going on right now,” he added.Some analysts say Trump is taking a keener interest in Syria and some U.S. officials appear to see the growing conflict in Idlib as an opportunity to pull Erdogan more firmly into the West’s camp. Other U.S. officials say the administration is wary of being drawn in and highlight Trump’s determination to disentangle the U.S. from Middle East conflicts.With the perceived danger the situation could trigger a general standoff between Russia and NATO, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron told Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a phone call Thursday they want to meet him and Turkey’s president to discuss ways to defuse the burgeoning crisis in Syria.FILE – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are seen during their joint news conference after talks at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in Sochi, Russia, Oct. 22, 2019.Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations are discussing trying to form a “peace team” of former and retired world leaders to try to persuade all warring parties to observe a cease-fire.Western diplomats say both Moscow and Ankara appear at this stage desperate to avoid an open clash. But their conflicting interests are making it harder to shape an interim agreement and that the situation on the ground risks spinning out of anyone’s control. An agreement has eluded negotiators after two rounds of talks in Ankara and Moscow earlier this month. On Friday, more columns of Turkish armor and howitzers crossed into Syria.Russian officials appear to believe that Ankara will blink because, they say, Turkey has much to lose. The last time Moscow and Ankara were drawn into a standoff over Syria was in 2015 when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane. Russia imposed sanctions on Turkish exports and businesses, crippling Turkey’s agriculture and tourism sectors. 
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