Mexico has declared a month-long health emergency, with new restrictions on the size of gatherings, to contain the surging coronavirus that already exceeds 1,000 cases, with 28 deaths.  Reuters news agency said Mexico will now only allow gatherings of no more than 50 people, and it is extending its ban on non-essential activities. Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Monday violators of the new rules will face penalties. Mexico’s latest move to contain the virus stops short of measures in place in some other Latin American countries in the grips of the virus, including lockdowns.  
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Nearly 200 Cubans returning home from trips out of the country just began a two-week quarantine in government centers until medical authorities are sure clear they have no signs of coronavirus.  The government is keeping a close watch on Cuban nationals and monitoring travelers from overseas at dozens of quarantine centers set up across the island.  The manager of one quarantine center, Daniel Diaz, says the centers are staffed with doctors and nurses around the clock, who check patients three times day.  Diaz says, so far, nobody has shown any symptoms of the coronavirus, but those who do will be taken to a hospital. Health officials in Cuba say there are 170 coronavirus cases, and three people have died. Cuban officials say the nation is on lockdown until the end of April, meaning only Cuban citizens or foreign residents returning home are allowed entry into the country.  
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Security measures have increased on the Colombia-Venezuela border after both governments decided to close the International Simon Bolivar bridge in Cucuta in mid-March to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. An estimated 40 thousand Venezuelans had been crossing each day to buy food, medicine or supplies. Now most Venezuelans have to take other, often dangerous routes to cross the border into Colombia. Cristina Caicedo Smit narrates this report filed by Hugo Echeverry from Cucuta, Colombia.
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Russia tightened controls aimed at combating the spread of the coronavirus on Monday, with Moscow introducing temporary quarantine measures, and the Kremlin moving to extend the lockdown nationwide. The new restrictions came as President Vladimir Putin discussed the coronavirus, among other issues, with President Donald Trump in a phone call that the Kremlin insisted was at Washington’s request.The conversation came as Putin made clear he recognized the growing threat of the COVID-19 outbreak. He appeared for his second televised national address on the issue Monday afternoon with a new sense of urgency.“If you value your life, you should remain home,” he said, addressing elderly Russians, in particular. “God helps those who help themselves,” added the Russian leader. A doctor observes through a glass window the condition of the patient in a ward in the Moscow Sklifosovsky emergency hospital in Moscow, Russia, March 25, 2020.The new tone came as a  government task force said suspected cases of COVID-19 had swelled past the 1,800 mark with nine deaths — numbers that continued to place Russia far lower than other global coronavirus hotspots but that Kremlin allies and critics alike now acknowledge reflect some degree of underreporting.Moscow through the looking glass  Under new rules that went into effect midnight Sunday, the vast majority of Moscow’s 15 million inhabitants now face a blanket “home isolation quarantine” — with exceptions for trips to local supermarkets and pharmacies, as well as walking pets or taking out trash. A police officer wearing a protective mask and glasses stops a car driver to check his documents in Grozny, Russia, March 30, 2020.City authorities also announced that a system of smart QR codes would be developed to track people moving about the capital, as well as plans to retrofit additional public hospitals and private clinics to accept COVID-19 patients.“The situation with the spread of coronavirus has entered a new phase,” Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote in a blog post explaining the new rules with Moscow now an epicenter of the virus threat.  “The extremely negative turn of events that we see in the largest cities of Europe and the USA is cause for enormous concern for the lives and health of our citizens,” Sobyanin said.Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin later issued an appeal to Russia’s far-flung regional governors to follow Moscow’s lead — calling the quarantine a “logical extension of the president and the government’s policies to battle the coronavirus.” Putin’s ‘workless week’Moscow’s restrictions seemed to upstage the “workless week” introduced by Putin in an address to the nation last week.While the Russian leader requested people to stay home, his appeal fell far short of the quarantines and self-isolation measures now commonplace in cities across Europe, the United States and Asia.Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with Russian regional officials via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, March 30, 2020.Some Russians seemed to interpret the “workless week” as an unexpected paid vacation — a factor that Sobyanin said played a role in the decision to close Moscow down. “Movement across the city has been cut by two-thirds, and that’s very good,” Sobaynin wrote in the blog. “But it’s also obvious that far from everyone has heard us.” Amid a spell of spring-like weather over the weekend, parks were so crowded that authorities resorted to blasting public service announcements from passing ambulances. The message: Go home. Media reports also noted a run on meat and charcoal at local supermarkets, suggesting the outdoor barbecue season was, or soon would be, in full swing.  Meanwhile, there was a spike in booked flights from Moscow to the southern resort city of Sochi — so much so that the region’s local governor, Benjamin Kondratiev, warned on social media that “this is not a week of extra leave or a holiday,” and ordered city attractions closed.  Good cop, bad copRussia’s political chatter centered on the seeming gulf between Sobyanin and Putin over how to respond to the contagion.  Had the mayor undermined the president? And who was in charge?“The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing,” Genady Gudkov, a former member of Parliament with ties to the opposition, wrote in a post on Facebook. “Either Putin is losing control, or differences among the elite are dangerously strong.”Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin attends a cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Moscow, Russia, March 30, 2020.Others argued that Putin was merely distancing himself from more unpopular restrictions — at least until they were trial-ballooned by the hapless Moscow mayor — in effect, playing good cop to Sobyanin’s bad. Putin threw Sobyanin “before the firing squad, and himself remained in the shadows, giving speculation that Sobyanin is acting on his own,” wrote Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst with R.Politik, in a post to her Telegram channel. Stanovaya chalked the showdown to the shifting improvisational nature of Putin’s rule, one in which “circumstances rule.” “And who rules the circumstances, rules Russia,” added Stanovaya.
 
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Spain will delay a planned auction of 5G spectrum due to the coronavirus outbreak, the government said on Monday.
 
As part of a Europe-wide drive to speed up the roll out of fast Internet and broaden coverage, Spain had been due to free up space in the 700 MHz band of its network by switching from analog to digital terrestrial television by June 30.
 
One of the world’s worst national outbreaks of the virus, which had infected 85,915 people and killed 7,340 as of Monday, constitutes force majeure, making it impossible to stick to that deadline, the government said in a statement.
 
Madrid has told Brussels it will set a new deadline for the 700 MHz band depending on the eventual end-date for emergency measures including restrictions on people’s movements, it added.
 
Austria postponed a planned 5G auction last week, and the CEO of French group Iliad said one coming up in France would likely meet the same fate. 
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Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has approved the firing of Finance Minister Ihor Umanskiy and Health Minister Illya Yemets just weeks into their mandates, but failed to approve new candidates to the posts.At an extraordinary session on March 30, lawmakers also failed to approve the first reading of a revised 2020 state budget that takes into account the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.Umanskiy and Yemets became ministers on March 4 when parliament approved President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s cabinet shuffle.A reason for their firing was not given.Serhiy Marchenko was proposed as the new finance minister, but his approval fell three votes shy of the 226 needed in the legislature. The revised state budget for 2020 also failed by the same tally.The nomination of Maksym Stepanov as health minister also failed when he received 217 votes, nine short of what he needed.The budget draft will now return to lawmakers for revision. 
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British heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, who had tested positive for coronavirus, is out of self-isolation after seven days and is in good health, his spokesman said on Monday. Last week, his Clarence House office revealed that Charles, 71, had been tested after displaying mild symptoms of the virus and had been in self-isolation at his Birkhall home in Scotland where he had continued to work. After consultation with his doctor, he is now out of self-isolation, Clarence House said. He will resume meetings and take exercise in accordance with government and medical guidelines. However, his wife Camilla, who tested negative for coronavirus, will remain in self-isolation until the end of the week in case she too develops symptoms. Buckingham Palace has previously said Queen Elizabeth, who left London for Windsor Castle on March 19 along with her 98-year-old husband, Philip, is in good health.  
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Members of a church group gobbled fast food upon their return to West Virginia after becoming stuck in Honduras for two weeks during a mission trip.Sixteen members of the Morgantown Church of Christ arrived back home early Friday, The Dominion Post reported.”We all sat down and ate Wendy’s cheeseburgers when we got back to the airport,” church member Devinne Sparks said.The mission trip that was supposed to last a week turned into 14 days when the new coronavirus pandemic prompted the Honduran government to shut its borders.Church elder Richard Moore said the group learned Thursday that despite the Honduras border shutdown, empty United Airlines planes were being allowed to land to retrieve U.S. citizens.The group spent $20,000 for tickets, and “they doubled in price in just the time we were on the phone,” Moore said. “If we would have waited another three or four hours, it would have been over $45,000.”The church group boarded a plane Thursday afternoon. Moore said he was surprised no one mentioned checking the health of the group members, who will self-quarantine for 14 days.Sparks said the group plans to build its finances back up and return to Honduras.For now, the 22-year-old and her mother, Cynthia Shultz, have to spend even more time apart.  “She’s in quarantine, but we saw each other through the door today,” Shultz said Friday. “I’m just so much happier today — so much more at peace.”
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Britain is on an emergency footing for the first time since World War II. The move means the British government is setting up what it calls strategic coordination centers across the U.K. to distribute supplies to citizens to help combat the coronavirus outbreak.  There are more than 22,000 British confirmed cases of coronavirus – Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles are among them. More than 1,200 have died. The government’s deputy chief medical officer says the lockdown could last as long as six months but says if people do as they’re told and conditions improve, the lockdown and other restrictions can start to be eased.Prince Charles tests positive for Coronavirus. Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Intelligence Agencies, visits the Headquarters of GCHQ, on July, 12, 2019.In Moscow, the lockdown is just getting started. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says beginning Monday, people will be allowed out of their homes only to shop for food and medicine, takeout the garbage, walk the dog, or for urgent medical care. Police will issue special passes to those who cannot work from home. Moscow reports 1,000 cases and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is telling worshippers to pray at home “before someone dies.”  While the number of cases in Italy – the European epicenter – slowed slightly for the second straight day Sunday, Spain’s death toll rose 838 overnight Sunday – a record climb for that country which, like Italy, remains on total lockdown.  In Asia, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked that country’s poor to forgive him for the difficulties that country’s lockdown is causing them. He acknowledged the steps he ordered are harsh and knows people are angry with him.  “But these tough measures were needed to win this battle,” he said Sunday. With a population of 1.3 billion, India’s lockdown is by far the world’s largest, leaving countless millions with no food or homes. Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, is banning public gathering of more than two people. The state government says people should leave their homes only under “exceptional circumstances.” Australia’s nationwide death toll stands at 4,000.A nurse speaks with patients at the door of a new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) clinic opening at Mount Barker Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, March 17, 2020.Syria Sunday reported its first confirmed coronavirus death, but human rights groups warn of a looming catastrophe, saying the country’s war-torn health care system is ill-equipped to handle an outbreak among refugees.  Also Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump has extended the government’s recommended guidelines for social distancing for another 30 days. The U.S. has the world’s biggest number of confirmed cases. Finally, in Brazil, a federal judge has banned the government’s social media campaign that downplayed the coronavirus threat. President Jair Bolsonaro’s “Brazil Can’t Stop” campaign said there was no need for most Brazilians to lock down inside their homes. “I’m sorry, some people will die, they will die, that’s life,” Bolsonaro said in a television interview. 
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Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have no plans to ask the U.S. government for help with security costs, the couple said in a statement on Sunday in response to a tweet from President Donald Trump that the United States would not pay for their protection.In January, the couple said they would step away from their royal duties and according to media reports, recently relocated to Los Angeles. Earlier on Sunday, Trump tweeted: “Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!”A spokeswoman for the couple said later in a statement: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have no plans to ask the U.S. government for security resources. Privately funded security arrangements have been made.”The duchess, Meghan Markle, who married Prince Harry, the grandson of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, in 2018, criticized Trump during his 2016 election campaign as misogynistic and divisive.Last year, Trump, on being told of Meghan’s criticism, said: “I didn’t know that. What can I say? I didn’t know that she was nasty.” But he also wished her well in her new life as a British royal.The couple stunned the royal family in early January with an announcement they would be stepping down from their roles as senior royals, in order to gain freedom from the intense media scrutiny that has followed them for several years.They had been living for several months with their son, Archie, on Vancouver Island in Canada.Britain’s Sun newspaper reported last week that the couple took a private flight to Los Angeles, but did not say when. Earlier this month, the United States and Canada agreed to close their border to non-essential travel at land crossings to ease the strain on health systems caused by the coronavirus.Meghan Markle was raised in the Los Angeles area and her mother, Doria, still lives there. Walt Disney Co said last week that Meghan had narrated a nature documentary that will be released on its Disney+ streaming platform on Friday.Last month, Canada said it would no longer provide security once the couple were no longer working members of the British royal family.The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had been assisting London’s Metropolitan Police with security for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “intermittently” since November, when the couple began a six-week vacation in Canada, Reuters reported in February.
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Football leagues around the world have canceled soccer games for the foreseeable future as one of the measures to slow a rapid COVID-19 spread. But soccer, or football, as it is called in much of the world, continues to be played in Belarus where the number of confirmed infections is still relatively low.The country’s autocratic leader Alexander Lukashenko has dismissed the virus scare as overblown and has advised his people to continue business as usual, especially agriculture. Local media published photos of the Belarus president playing ice hockey.Top Belarusian football division, Vysheyshaya Liga, is run by the Belarusian Football Federation and currently includes 16 teams. The country has never excelled in soccer and has never qualified for the World Cup or the European football championships.But with sports fans around the world deprived of their favorite pastime, Belarus is getting attention and signing broadcasting contracts with a growing number of countries to carry their games. People in India and Israel, not just neighboring Russia, could soon become familiar with members of teams such as FC Minsk or Dinamo Minsk and their individual styles.Belarus soccer fans hope the exposure will inspire their teams to play better and qualify for the next UEFA (The Union of European Football Associations) champions league. UEFA Championship is also known as the European Cup.The spokesman for the Belarus Football Federation Aleksandr Aleinik said the organization is respecting the recommendations by the Sports Ministry.  “All those who are in contact with fans were given protective gloves,” he said. But images of fans from some of the games Saturday show very few wearing masks and some of them cheering without any shirts on.The outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has been especially deadly for the northern city of Bergamo. The unprecedented toll has been traced to a February football match in Milan. More than 2,000 fans traveled from Bergamo to Milan to watch the Atlanta vs. Valencia match at Milan’s San Siro Stadium February 19. As they chanted in the packed stadium it is believed they picked up the new coronavirus strain and took it home to Bergamo. Two days later, Italy confirmed the first case of locally transmitted COVID-19.  Six weeks later, Italy reported that the number of deaths from the coronavirus had topped 10,000. Bergamo is struggling to bury and cremate the number of bodies after several hundred people sometimes die in one day.   European football leagues have canceled local soccer matches until at least the end of April to help slow the rapid spread of COVID-19. The European championship has been postponed until the summer of 2021 because the domestic competition cannot be completed in time for this summer.Most European countries have locked their borders and ordered closures of schools and all but essential businesses. People are asked to stay at home, gather in very limited numbers, sometimes no more than two, and keep a distance from others when they have to go out. In some cases, governments have imposed strict measures such as curfews and mandatory quarantine.  But measures vary from country to country.  In Sweden, restaurants and bars in some cities seemed as lively this month as ever, with the government allowing people to choose how to protect themselves. Schools, day care centers, gyms and beauty salons remained open even as they closed in neighboring Denmark and Norway.  The government announced tougher measures last week after the number of infections and COVID-19 deaths suddenly soared.  But Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said you cannot legislate everything and that individuals also have to take responsibility.Some experts also say that it is counterproductive to impose measures that cannot be sustained for a long period of time. Meanwhile, ordinary people in countries hit by the virus may have to weigh daily the pros and cons of stepping out of the house for weeks or months yet to come.   
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President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States would not pay for security protection for Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, who, according to media reports, have settled in Los Angeles.Trump wrote on Twitter that “now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!” In January, the couple said they would step away from their royal duties.
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In her first address to the nation on the coronavirus pandemic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel calmly appealed to citizens’ reason and discipline to slow the spread of the virus, acknowledging as a woman who grew up in communist East Germany how difficult it is to give up freedoms, yet as a trained scientist emphasizing that the facts don’t lie. Then, wearing the same blue pantsuit from the televised address, the 65-year-old popped into her local supermarket to pick up food, wine and toilet paper to take back to her Berlin apartment. For her, it was a regular shopping stop, but photos snapped by someone at the grocery store were shared worldwide as a reassuring sign of calm leadership amid a global crisis. With the coronavirus outbreak, Merkel is reasserting her traditional strengths and putting her stamp firmly on domestic policy after two years in which her star seemed to be fading, with attention focused on constant bickering in her governing coalition and her own party’s troubled efforts to find a successor. Merkel has run Germany for more than 14 years and has over a decade’s experience of managing crises. She reassured her compatriots in the 2008 financial crisis that their savings were safe, led a hard-nosed but domestically popular response to the eurozone debt crisis, and then took an initially welcoming — but divisive — approach to an influx of migrants in 2015. In the twilight of her chancellorship, she faces her biggest crisis yet — a fact underlined by her decision last week to make her first television address to the nation other than her annual New Year’s message. “This is serious — take it seriously,” she told her compatriots. “Since German unification — no, since World War II — there has been no challenge to our country in which our acting together in solidarity matters so much.” With Germany largely shutting down public life, she alluded to her youth in communist East Germany as she spelled out the scale of the challenge and made clear how hard she found the prospect of clamping down on people’s movement. “For someone like me, for whom freedom of travel and movement were a hard-won right, such restrictions can only be justified by absolute necessity,” she said. But they were, she said, “indispensable at the moment to save lives.” The drama was evident in Merkel’s words, but the manner was familiar: Matter-of-fact and calm, reasoning rather than rousing, creating a message that hit home. It is a style that has served the former physicist well in juggling Germany’s often-fractious coalitions and maintaining public support over the years. “Merkel painted a picture of the greatest challenge since World War II, but she did not speak of war,” the influential Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper wrote. “She did not rely on martial words or gestures, but on people’s reason. … Nobody knows if that will be enough, but her tone will at least not lead the people to sink into uncertainty and fear.” Merkel’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is still very much a work in progress, but a poll released Friday by ZDF television showed 89% of Germans thought the government was handling it well. The poll saw Merkel strengthen her lead as the country’s most important politician, and a strong 7% rise for her center-right Union bloc after months in which it was weighed down by questions over its future leadership. The poll, done by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The 65-year-old chancellor initially had Health Minister Jens Spahn be the public face of the government’s response, drawing some criticism but has taken center stage over the past two weeks. She kept that up after going into quarantine on Sunday after a doctor who gave her a vaccination tested positive for the coronavirus. Since then she has twice tested negative for the virus herself but continues to work from home. On Monday, she led a Cabinet meeting by phone from home and then issued an audio message setting out a huge government relief package to cushion the blow of the crisis to business — a format she said was “unusual, but it was important to me.” Her vice chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who is also finance minister and a member of her coalition partner Social Democrats, has also had a chance to shine in the crisis, leading the way with the aid package that will allow Germany to offer businesses more than 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) that he described as a “bazooka.” The jury is still out on how the government’s approach will work, but after having run a budget surplus for a half-decade, Germany is well-prepared to offer the massive aid program. Its health care system has been in good enough shape to be taking in patients from overwhelmed Italy and France, with intensive care beds still available. Although Germany has registered the third-highest number of coronavirus infections in Europe with 57,695, it has only seen 433 people die, placing it sixth in Europe behind Italy, Spain, France, Britain and even the Netherlands. Italy alone has over 10,000 dead. Experts have attributed Germany’s success partially to widespread and early testing for the virus, among other things. In an audio message Thursday night, Merkel cautioned, however, that it was far too early to declare victory over COVID-19, saying “now is not the time to talk about easing measures.” No matter what the outcome of Germany’s virus-fighting efforts, it won’t change the fact that the Merkel era is drawing to a close. Merkel has never shown any signs of backing off her 2018 vow to leave politics at Germany’s next election, due next year. But the crisis may burnish her government’s lackluster image and improve its chances of making it through to the fall of 2021, after persistent speculation that it wouldn’t last the full legislative term. And it certainly could put her successor on a better footing —though just who that will be is also up in the air. Merkel stepped down as her party’s leader in 2018 but her own choice as a successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, lasted just over a year before declaring that she would step down after failing to establish her authority. The decision on who will take over the leadership of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party was supposed to be made in April, but has been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. 
 
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The husband of the jailed British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says his wife has had her temporary release extended for another two weeks by the Iranian government.“Nazanin’s father got told today that it has been extended until Saturday, April 18, an extra two weeks,” husband Richard Ratcliffe told AFP in an e-mail on March 28.He added that the news had brought “a lot of relief in our house.”Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 41, currently on leave from Evin Prison at her parents’ house in the Iranian capital, had been due to return to custody on April 4.Her husband had previously said she was required to wear an ankle bracelet and to remain within 300 meters of her parents’ home.Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been detained in Iran since April 2016. In September 2016, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison for allegedly “plotting to topple the Iranian government.” She denied the charges, as did her employer and the British government.Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, his daughter Gabriella and his mother arrive at Downing Street in London, Jan. 23, 2020.On March 17, her husband said Zaghari-Ratcliffe was among up to 80,000 prisoners temporarily released by the Iranian government — a measure that authorities said was meant to help curb the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.Iranian President Hassan Rohani on March 24 said that the “government’s coronavirus crisis team has decided to extend [the overall prisoner] parole from April 3 to April 19,” adding that it could be extended again if the situation requires.Iran is the hardest-hit country in the Middle East by the coronavirus pandemic. As of March 28, it has reported more than 25,000 cases of infections and 2,517 deaths. However, experts warn that ascertaining an accurate number of cases anywhere in the world is impossible because of the lack of testing.Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 after visiting relatives in Iran with her young daughter.She worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the time.Britain has demanded her release and that of other dual nationals imprisoned in Iran. Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship.Former British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt wrote in a tweet that the latest development was “a glimmer of hope amidst the darkness.””Let’s pray that this remarkable family are reunited soon,” he added. 
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Italy, the European country hardest hit by the coronavirus, confirmed 10,023 people dead and 92,472 infected as of Saturday.Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte made the announcement Saturday evening in a joint appearance with Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri.On a somewhat positive note, Conte said that on Saturday Italy also had more than 1,400 people who recovered, the highest number to date.Conte said that under the solidarity fund for the municipalities program, which has an advance payment of $4.8 billion, mayors will soon be issuing food vouchers for low-income and poor people facing challenges due to the lockdown of the country and the shutdown of nonessential factories and businesses. Many Italians have seen a drastic decrease of income.Relatives attend the funeral of a woman who died from the coronavirus disease, as Italy struggles to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Seriate, March 28, 2020.”With a Civil Protection order we will add to this fund (the solidarity fund for the municipalities) 400 million euros. We are distributing this fund to the municipalities, but they must use it to support poor people who cannot afford food shopping. With these 400 million that will be distributed to the 8,000 municipalities of our territory it will be possible to issue vouchers and to give food,” Conte said.Local municipalities are obliged to use the fund for food, medicines and other essential goods for citizens of the poorest segments of Italian society.Conte also said that if data collected show a decrease in the intensity of the coronavirus and if it is feasible, schools may open Friday.In Spain, the health ministry confirmed 832 deaths Saturday, bringing the total number of victims to 5,690.  The country has the highest death toll in Europe after Italy.Health authorities said Friday the country was getting closer to the peak of the virus outbreak. In the meantime, hospitals have surpassed their capacities and patients infected with coronavirus continue to arrive, which has forced medical personnel to accommodate them elsewhere.As of Saturday, France had 37,575 confirmed cases of infection and 2,314 deaths, with 319 new deaths in the last 24 hours, health authorities said.Sheep walk back to their shelter near the Mont-Saint-Michel, northwestern France, on March 28, 2020, during a lockdown in France aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the country has not seen the worst yet, warning that the first 15 days of April will be crucial.”We must all together face a considerable challenge and make an intense effort. An effort that will endure because I want to tell you things with clarity, the fight has just begun. The first 15 days of April will be difficult, even more difficult than the 15 days that have just passed,” Philippe said.Meanwhile, Health Minister Olivier Veran said France had ordered more than a billion protective masks, mostly from China, as the country was running short of the much-needed item to fight the spread of COVID-19.In Germany the number of deaths has been relatively low, compared to other European countries. According to Die Zeit newspaper, Germany had 397 victims – a death rate below 1 percent — as of Saturday, and 53,340 people tested positive for the coronavirus.Experts believe that strict measures, extensive testing and a strong health care system have helped the country to deal more effectively to keep the death toll lower, while the number of infections is high.Germany has closed nonessential services and has banned public gatherings of more than two people until April 20. 
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Russia’s Rosneft oil company said Saturday that it’s halting operations in Venezuela and selling its assets there to a company fully owned by the Russian government, a move apparently intended to protect Russia’s largest oil producer from U.S. sanctions while Moscow continues supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.The sale follows the U.S. imposition of sanctions on two Rosneft subsidiaries in an effort to cut a critical lifeline Russia extended to Maduro after the U.S. government made it illegal for Americans to buy crude from Venezuela.Rosneft, led by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s longtime associate Igor Sechin, said that its move meant that “all assets and trading operations of Rosneft in Venezuela and/or connected with Venezuela will be disposed of, terminated or liquidated.”It said in a statement that it “concluded an agreement with a company 100% owned by the government of the Russian Federation, to sell all of its interest and cease participation in its Venezuelan businesses,” including multiple joint ventures, oil-field services companies and other activities.The sale could help shield Rosneft by handing over control of the Venezuelan operations to a fully state-owned venture that unlike the state-controlled Rosneft isn’t answerable to private investors.U.S. pressureIn February, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Rosneft subsidiary based in Geneva that sells crude to European customers. U.S. authorities vowed to keep applying pressure and hit a second Rosneft subsidiary with sanctions earlier this month.FILE – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, March 12, 2020.Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said the company’s decision was aimed at “protecting the interests of our shareholders.” He added in remarks carried by Russia’s Tass news agency that Rosneft expected the U.S. to now waive sanctions against its subsidiaries.”We really have the right to expect American regulators to fulfill their public promises,” he said.Konstantin Kosachev, the Kremlin-connected head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, reiterated that Russia’s view is that “unilateral U.S. sanctions against Venezuela are unlawful and inhumane.””Moscow and Caracas will remain partners amid the U.S. sanctions against Venezuela,” he told the Interfax news agency.Recognition of GuaidoThe U.S. was first among nearly 60 nations to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido a year ago as Venezuela’s rightful leader. The international coalition considers Maduro illegitimate after 2018 elections widely deemed fraudulent because the most popular opposition candidates were banned from running against him. Russia’s support has helped Maduro to face down U.S.-backed efforts to unseat him.Rosneft said in its statement that “the concluded transaction and the sale of assets will result in Rosneft receiving as a settlement payment a 9.6% share of Rosneft’s equity capital that will be held by a 100% subsidiary of Rosneft and accounted for as treasury stock.”
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Guatemala’s fractured relationship with the press is being put to the test during the fight to contain the coronavirus, a report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists found.At a time when Guatemalans need access to independent reporting on the coronavirus, conditions for press freedom are “unsound,” CPJ said.   The FILE – Alejandro Giammattei, accompanied by his daughter, Ana Marcela, waves to the crowd after he was sworn in as president of Guatemala at the National Theater in Guatemala City, Jan. 14, 2020.President Alejandro Giammattei, who was elected in August, has an opportunity to redress challenges for the media and regain their trust, CPJ said.The press freedom group called on officials to decriminalize defamation, investigate digital and physical attacks on the press, and ensure the media have easy access to information.Natalie Southwick, head of CPJ’s Central and South America program, told VOA that Giammattei appeared open to better relations with the press.“It is encouraging to see that Guatemala has not followed the troubling example of some other countries in the region that have used the pandemic as a pretext to roll back constitutional protections for free expression or closed off access to information,” Southwick said.“However, it’s important to remember that the Guatemalan government has previously implemented similar measures imposing martial law and other restrictions in some regions of the country due to violence or other incidents, and those conditions have absolutely restricted the work of journalists,” she said.Risk in environmental reportingEnvironmental reporting, including coverage of corruption or illegal mining and extraction industries, increased the risk of attack or arrest for indigenous journalists or those reporting from rural regions, the report found.CPJ interviewed Carlos Choc, a reporter from the local news website Prensa Comunitaria, who was forced into hiding after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest.At the time, Choc and his outlet were investigating allegations of pollution in Guatemala’s Lake Izabal region and clashes between police and protesters.
 
Choc told CPJ he believed the warrant, which accused him of illegal protest and other crimes, was an attempt by authorities to silence him.The report found indigenous radio stations were also at a disadvantage, with license frequencies auctioned at prices beyond their means. Because of the cost and other challenges, local broadcasters often operate on illegal frequencies.“Even without the context of a global pandemic, it’s absolutely fundamental that rural and indigenous journalists and communities outside of the major cities have access to radio frequencies as a means to share information and keep their communities informed and safe,” Southwick said.Radio is the preferred means of communication in remote regions, where internet access is limited or Spanish is not the predominant language, she said.The Guatemala Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to VOA’s request for comment.Positive stepsThe report noted some positive developments from the government. The attorney general in December announced it was expanding a special prosecutor’s office that investigates crimes against journalists, and the president’s office has said it is committed to greater transparency.  The CPJ said that the government needed to do more to tackle online harassment and smear campaigns against journalists who report critically on politics or business, and that it should set up a journalist protection plan that officials committed to eight years ago.Editor’s note: An editor of this article formerly worked at the Committee to Protect Journalists and helped edit its Guatemala report.
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A prominent member of the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday issued a highly critical statement on U.S. policy toward Kosovo.Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. Since than the country has been recognized by more than 110 countries, including the United States, but not by Serbia and its ally Russia.House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, a Democrat, said there is something wrong with the U.S. foreign policy toward Kosovo and “we need to correct it.”In his statement, Engel expressed his serious concerns “with the heavy-handed tactics the Trump administration is using with Prishtina,” Kosovo’s capital.Engel was referring to State Department pressure on Prishtina, especially on the government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, to lift tariffs the country had imposed on Serbia.“This administration turned to economic penalties just a few short weeks after the Kurti government took office. Rather than letting a new government facing a pandemic staff its agencies and set up internal procedures, the U.S. contributed to a political crisis in Prishtina over the tariffs on Serbia,” Engel said.On March 25, after only 50 days in office, the Kurti government did not survive a no-confidence vote in parliament, initiated by its ruling coalition partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK).The government was dismissed following political bickering over whether to declare a state of emergency to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and after Kurti dismissed the LDK internal affairs minister, Agim Veliu.Kurti’s government is expected to continue as a caretaker government, pending creation of a new government.“There are good reasons for Kosovo to lift tariffs, mostly that they are hurting Kosovo more than they are providing leverage to reach a peace deal with Serbia,” Engel said.“Regardless, tariffs are a legitimate tool of a sovereign nation. As such, they’ve been imposed around the world by [U.S.] President [Donald] Trump against friends and foes, alike, for economic and political reasons,” Engel said.Engel said the Trump administration used “overbearing tactics with a friend which relies on our support” instead of working with Kurti government, “as it sought to work with the previous Kosovo government” to forge policies that promote lasting peace and prosperity.“Strong-arming a small democracy is the act of a bully,” Engel said.While Serbian diplomats are campaigning around the world to “derecognize” Kosovo’s independence, and Serbia is purchasing heavy weaponry from Russia and strengthening the relationship with Moscow, the pressure imposed on Prishtina for its tariffs on Serbia has been “decidedly unbalanced,” Engel said.The U.S., he added, should work with European allies “to treat both countries as independent and sovereign partners, applying consistent standards to both sides as we try to restart peace talks.”The arms purchases from Russia require U.S. sanctions on Serbia under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, passed in the aftermath of 2016 Russian interference in U.S. elections, Engel said.“Neither have we imposed those sanctions, nor have we energetically pressed Serbia to end its derecognition efforts,” Engel said.“When U.S. law says we should sanction Serbia due to its security ties with Russia, we should.”    
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A Chinese company offered Friday to replace thousands of faulty coronavirus test kits after Spanish health authorities – desperate for materials to cope with the world’s second highest COVID-19 death toll – complained they did not work as promised.China has sold face masks and other medical equipment through a series of personal contacts with Spanish authorities, including discussions between chief executives of Chinese tech giant Alibaba and Spain’s King Felipe.But the first shipment of 640,000 test kits was found to have “insufficient sensibility” to reliably identify infected patients, according to Health Minister Salvador Illa, who announced Thursday that 58,000 kits had been returned.FILE – This undated file photo provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows CDC’s laboratory test kit for the new coronavirus.The Chinese company supplying the test kits, Shenzhen Bioeasy Technology, said in a statement quoted by Reuters that the incorrect results may have resulted from a failure to collect samples or use the kits correctly.The firm said it had not adequately communicated with clients how to use the kits and would resend them “assuring the sensitivity and specificity needed to help Spain fight against COVID-19.”Spanish medical experts, who have examined the 9,000 kits delivered last week, said they have only a 30 percent probability of detecting the virus.“They are useless,” said Victor Jimenez Cid, a senior professor in microbiology at Madrid’s Complutense University. For a test to be effective it must have a 70 percent to 80 percent probability of detecting the virus, Cid said.The failure of Bioeasy’s testing kits is a painful setback for Spanish medical authorities, who are struggling to cope with more than 64,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 4,900 deaths, second only to Italy.It is also hugely embarrassing to China, which is seeking to rehabilitate a national image tarnished by its faulty early response to the virus in Wuhan by offering assistance to other hard-hit countries.“First they send us the virus, then they sell us the medications to stop it and then defraud us. It’s great for China” said a guest in a panel discussion on a broadcast on the Spanish TV channel La Sexta.An emergency worker wearing a protective suit closes the door of an ambulance transferring a COVID-19 patient in Barcelona, Spain, March 27, 2020.The test is performed by dipping a swab with a sample of a patient’s saliva in a protein extraction that gives color indications of the virus’s presence. The speedy method is essential for emergency examinations by hospitals as well as improvised drive-through facilities that Spanish authorities are setting up to isolate and quickly treat cases of contamination.Until now, Spanish hospitals have relied on slower molecular laboratory testing, which requires specialized personnel and take four hours to produce a result. Tests like those offered by Bioeasy are supposed to produce a diagnosis in 15 minutes.Mass testing methods proved essential in South Korea’s successful effort against coronavirus and they are recommended by the World Health Organization as an essential way of controlling the pandemic’s spread.A priest wearing a gloves to protect against coronavirus waits in front the cemetery chapel during the coronavirus outbreak in Madrid, Spain, March 27, 2020.The Chinese embassy in Spain tweeted that Shenzen Bioeasy is not licensed to sell the product and is not included on a list of “recommended suppliers,” which its ministry of commerce offered the Spanish government.Spain’s health ministry said Bioeasy products have been approved by European Union quality control agencies and that the “specifications of this test, at least of the lot that was received, do not correspond with EU quality certifications.”Officials said the deal with Bioeasy was made through an unidentified intermediary.Health ministry emergency coordinator Fernando Simon said Spain is trying to import 6 million testing kits from China and other EU countries. He also said that “intense efforts” are underway with Spanish biotechnology firms to produce them. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday he had tested positive for coronavirus and was in self-isolation at his Downing Street office.
 
Here is reaction to the news.
   Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of UK’s Opposition Labor Party 
 
“I wish the Prime Minister a speedy recovery and hope his family are safe and healthy. Coronavirus can and does affect anyone. Everyone be safe. Our own health depends on everybody else.”   
 Indain Prime Minister Narendra Modi 
 
“You’re a fighter and you will overcome this challenge as well. Prayers for your good health and best wishes in ensuring a healthy UK.”
 Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster 
 
“Best wishes to the Prime Minister and Carrie (Symonds, Johnson’s fiancee). No one is immune. Let’s all follow the guidelines.”
 Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon 
 
“I send my very best wishes to Boris Johnson and his family. I don’t underestimate for anybody how difficult it is to be positive for this virus so I certainly send my best wishes to him for a very speedy recovery.”
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Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reports that as of Friday, there were 1,059 cases of COVID-19 in Scotland — an increase of 165 from Thursday.
 
At a news conference Friday in Edinburgh, Sturgeon also reported an additional eight deaths from the virus overnight, bringing the total number of fatalities in Scotland to 33.
 
The first minister said she expects those numbers to be an underestimate. She urged people to stay indoors, and to go out only for essential shopping and exercise, or care for others.   
 
Sturgeon also stressed the importance of supporting mental health during the coronavirus crisis, and she announced Friday about $4.7 billion in additional funding for National Health Service mental health support services, including 24-hour support phone lines and internet services. 
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