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Ukraine’s parliament voted in favor of appointing the president’s choice for a new prime minister, 44-year-old Denys Shmyhal, after overwhelmingly accepting the resignation of his predecessor, Oleksiy Honcharuk.In all, 291 members of the Verkhovna Rada voted for Shmyhal’s appointment on Wednesday with 59 opposing, 46 abstaining, and nine not voting.Earlier, 353 lawmakers voted to accept Honcharuk’s resignation, paving the way for Shmyhal to take over the post as part of a reshuffle of the government by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.A total of 49 deputies abstained, while nine did not vote.Ukrainian sources have told RFE/RL that other cabinet members will likely also lose their positions in the shake-up.In a speech before parliament ahead of the votes, Zelenskiy blamed Honcharuk for failing to halt an industrial slump and for not meeting tax collection targets.“We need new brains and new hearts in the government,” said the president, whose approval ratings have been dipping lately.The reshuffling comes less than a year after Zelenskiy ushered in the youngest and freshest government to reduce the influence of oligarchs and eliminate opportunities for corruption — two aspects that have dominated Ukrainian life since the country gained independence in 1991.However, public trust in Zelenskiy has slid from nearly 80 percent in September to around 50 percent last month, polling figures from Kyiv-based policy center Razumkov Center show.The shake-up also comes days after a mission from the International Monetary Fund visited Kyiv to discuss a long-delayed $5.5 billion loan that Ukraine has failed to unlock over policy and legislative disagreements.Shmyhal was named deputy prime minister in February. He previously served as head of the regional administration in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region, where he made a name for himself as a business-friendly governor.In 2017-2019, Shmyhal worked as an executive at DTEK, an energy holding owned by Ukraine’s richest billionaire, Rinat Akhmetov. Shmyhal has rejected allegations that he was close to Akhmetov, saying he never met him and was hired to work for DTEK through a competitive process.A native of Lviv, he headed several business enterprises for most of the previous decade before entering the civil service at the Lviv regional administration. He has studied abroad, including in Belgium, Canada, Georgia, and Finland.A 35-year-old former lawyer and a political newcomer, Honcharuk was named prime minister in August 2019.He previously submitted his resignation on January 17, amid a scandal surrounding an audio recording in which he allegedly disparages the economic knowledge and competence of both himself and Zelenskiy.Zelenskiy at the time declined to accept it. 
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The Louvre is no longer taking cash, because of the coronavirus outbreak.   The world’s most-visited museum is shifting to card-only payments as part of new measures that helped persuade employees worried about getting sick to return to work Wednesday. Louvre workers who guard Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and other masterpieces walked off the job on Sunday, fearful of being contaminated by the museum’s flow of tourists from around the world.
    
The Louvre’s move could bring it into conflict with the Bank of France, which said refusing cash is illegal and unnecessary.
    
Fears that banknotes might be vectors of disease aren’t restricted to the Louvre.   Visitors stand in line to enter the Chateau de Versailles, west of Paris, March 3, 2020.At the Versailles Palace, another huge tourist draw on the outskirts of Paris, employees also are worrying about handling banknotes and tickets during the virus epidemic, although the former residence of French royalty still takes cash for now.
    
Public health historian Patrick Zylberman says the fear of getting diseases from money is age-old. In the Middle Ages, banknotes were cleansed with smoke because it was thought their use contributed to the spread of plague, Zylberman said. Egypt also smoked banknotes during a 1940s cholera epidemic, he said.
    
Zylberman laughed when told of the Louvre’s new refusal of cash payments from the museum’s tens of thousands of daily visitors.
    
“It’s a bit risible to go backwards by several centuries and act as our predecessors did in the 17th century,” he said. “That shows how nervous people are during an epidemic.”
    
But the Bank of France said said vendors aren’t allowed to refuse cash payments because banknotes are legal tender and because banks from the 19-country eurozone regularly test them to see if they present a danger to public health.
    
“There is no proof that the coronavirus has been spread by euro banknotes,” the bank said in a statement to The Associated Press.
    FILE – The Louvre museum is pictured in Paris, March 2, 2020.The Louvre’s decision to only accept bank cards for payments was among the anti-virus measures laid out in detail in a document sent to staff Tuesday and seen by the AP.
    
The Louvre confirmed Wednesday that the museum will no longer accept cash, although it also noted that half of its tickets sales already take place online.
    
“Cash is finished,” said Andre Sacristin, a union representative at the Louvre. “It is a temporary measure during the epidemic.”
    
“Money is very dirty and a vector of bacteria,” Sacristin added. “It’s hand-to-hand and there are direct physical contacts.”
    
Louvre employees will also be distanced from the snaking line of visitors in the room where the “Mona Lisa” is displayed. Instead of rubbing shoulders with visitors in the room itself, workers will be posted at entrances and on the edges of the habitually large crowds waiting to see the iconic portrait.
    
There have also been discussions between Eiffel Tower workers and managers over the use of banknotes, but no decision has been made.
    
At the Versailles Palace, union representative Damien Bodereau said staff members also are worried about handling cash and “worried about checking tickets.”
   
But refusing cash might not be practical, because “some people don’t have bank cards,” he said. “It could be complicated.”
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Italian media reported Wednesday Italy was closing all schools and universities until mid-March amid a coronavirus outbreak as governments around the world continue to take measures to keep the virus from spreading.Italy reported a sharp increase in coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, up to 79, the most outside of China. Iran, meanwhile, has again canceled Friday prayers in major cities.With China seeing a slowdown of new cases of the virus, the focus on containing the outbreak has shifted to places such as Italy and Iran, which have not only seen their own cases steadily increase, but have also had their citizens and others who traveled from those areas test positive while in other countries.India, which has linked cases to Italian tourists, said Wednesday the number of cases there jumped from five to 28.South Korea reported more than 500 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, as health officials said more than 2,000 people in the city hardest hit by the outbreak, Daegu, were waiting for open spaces in hospitals.South Korea has seen the most cases outside of China, and is planning to spend about $10 billion on medical resources and measures to counteract the economic impact of the outbreak.Wednesday also brought news of the first death in Iraq, where so far all of its cases are connected to Iran.Medical staff treat a critical patient infected by the COVID-19 with an Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) at the Red Cross hospital in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province, March 1, 2020.Worldwide, the coronavirus has infected more than 93,000 people and killed more than 3,100, with the vast majority in both categories in China.The expansion of the outbreak has reached several new countries, including Jordan, Morocco, Senegal, Portugal and Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Arabia has banned its citizens from performing the Muslim pilgrimage in Mecca.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged people around the world Tuesday to stop hoarding masks and other protective gear, saying health care workers need them.People wearing masks stand in a line to buy face masks in front of a drug store amid the rise in confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease of COVID-19 in Daegu, South Korea, March 3, 2020.Experts say surgical masks are not guaranteed protection against the virus, but say they are essential equipment for doctors and nurses.Tedros said he is concerned about the “severe and increasing disruption to the global supply of personal protective equipment caused by rising demand.”
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Amazon and other big companies are trying to keep their employees healthy by banning business trips, but they’ve dealt a gut punch to a travel industry already reeling from the virus outbreak.The Seattle-based online retail giant has told its nearly 800,000 workers to postpone any non-essential travel within the United States or around the globe. Swiss food giant Nestle told its 291,000 employees worldwide to limit domestic business travel and halt international travel until March 15. French cosmetics maker L’Oreal, which employs 86,000 people, issued a similar ban until March 31.
Other companies, like Twitter, are telling their employees worldwide to work from home. Google gave that directive to its staff of 8,000 at its European headquarters in Dublin on Tuesday.
Major business gatherings, like the Geneva International Motor Show and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, have also been canceled.
On Tuesday, Facebook confirmed it will no longer attend the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, which is scheduled to begin March 13. And the 189-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending organization, the World Bank, announced they will replace their regular spring meetings in Washington — scheduled for mid-April — with a “virtual format.”
Michael Dunne, the CEO of ZoZo Go, an automotive consulting company that specializes in the Chinese market, normally travels from California to Asia every six weeks. But right now he’s not planning to cross the Pacific until June.
“With everything at a standstill, I do not feel a sense of missing the action,” Dunne said. “But there is no better catalyst for business than meeting people in person.”
Robin Ottaway, president of Brooklyn Brewery, canceled a trip to Seoul and Tokyo last week. He has indefinitely suspended all travel to Asia and also just canceled a trip to Copenhagen that was scheduled for March.
“I wasn’t worried about getting sick. I’m a healthy 46-year-old man with no preexisting conditions,” Ottaway said. “My only worry was getting stuck in Asia or quarantined after returning to the U.S. And I’d hate to be a spreader of the virus.”
The cancellations and travel restrictions are a major blow to business travel, which makes up around 26% of the total travel spending, or around $1.5 trillion per year, according to the Global Business Travel Association.
The association estimates the virus is costing the business travel industry $47 billion per month. In a recent poll of 400 member companies, the group found that 95% have suspended business trips to China, 45% have cut trips to Japan and South Korea and 23% have canceled trips to Europe.
“It’s a big deal,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst in San Francisco who estimates that airlines get 55% of their revenue from business travelers, since they’re more likely to sit in pricier business or first-class seats.
“On a long-haul flight to Europe or Asia, a business-class traveler can be five times more profitable than someone in coach,” Harteveldt said.
Figures from the Airlines Reporting Corp. indicate that airline ticket sales fell about 9% during one week in late February, compared with a year earlier.
Hotels are also worried about declines in business travel. In the U.S. alone, hotel bookings for business travel were expected to reach $46.8 billion this year, according to Phocuswright, a travel research firm.
In the week through Feb. 22, San Francisco saw an 11% decline in hotel occupancy, according to STR, a hotel data company. AT&T, Verizon and IBM were among the companies that pulled out of the city’s RSA cybersecurity conference, which began Feb. 24.
Backing out of industry events can be a tough call for businesses. Luke Sorter, owner of Pavel’s Yogurt, spent last weekend agonizing over whether his company should attend Natural Products Expo West, a major industry gathering in Anaheim, California.
Sorter spent nearly $20,000 on conference fees and travel expenses, but then rumors began circulating that nearly all the major retailers he was hoping to pitch were pulling out.
“This was going to be our big push to make some sales and open up some new accounts, and we were really disappointed because all of the major buying groups had pulled out of the show,” said Sorter, whose San Leandro, California-based company pulls in about $1.2 million to $1.5 million in revenue per year.
On Tuesday, Expo West announced it would be postponed until a later date.
“I was relieved because it just didn’t seem safe to put 50, 60, 70,000 people in a building together and the whole show is predicated on sharing and sampling food and handshakes, and person-to-person interaction,” Sorter said.
Some experts say it’s smart for companies to curtail travel before things get worse. Worldwide, 92,000 people have been sickened by the virus and 3,100 have died.
“If you knowingly put your employees in harm’s way during travel, you can be held responsible for their injury or their death,” said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, which advocates for corporations and governments that hire travel management companies.
In some cases, workers themselves are demanding a halt to travel. The pilots’ union at American Airlines sued last month to make the airline stop flying to China. American agreed to suspend flights to mainland China but initially tried to keep serving Hong Kong. Pilots wouldn’t do it.
When pilots began reporting nervousness about going to Milan and flights were less full, American suspended that service much more quickly, said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the union.
In some cases, companies are also asking employees to cancel meetings with outside visitors to cut down on the risk of transmission. In a memo sent to Ford Motor Co.’s nearly 200,000 employees Tuesday, Ford CEO Jim Hackett asked employees to meet with suppliers and others by phone or virtually.
Ford also said only the most critical travel will be approved for employees through March 27.
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Wednesday, the nonprofit group, Freedom House, releases its annual report on freedom and the state of democracy around the world.  Continuing a 14-year trend, some of the findings are discouraging.  As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, the group says individual freedoms and democratic systems are under attack.
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The European Union has pledged over three-quarters of a billion dollars to help Greece cope with a surge in the number of migrants trying to cross into the country from Turkey, as the bloc fears a repeat of the 2015 crisis. Greece has closed down the land border and ramped up security across the frontier. The EU says Ankara is fully to blame for the crisis, as tens of thousands of migrants remain camped out along the border. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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The European Union has pledged over $780 million to help Greece cope with a surge in the number of migrants trying to cross into the country from Turkey, as the bloc fears a repeat of the 2015 refugee crisis.Greece has closed down the land border and ramped up security around islands in the Aegean Sea close to Turkey. Athens and the EU say Ankara is fully to blame for the crisis, as tens of thousands of migrants remain camped out along the border.Turkish authorities released video Tuesday appearing to show Greek security forces firing into the water close to a migrant boat off Lesbos Island.Meanwhile, Greece released its own video purporting to show a Turkish government patrol boat apparently helping a dinghy full of migrants cross towards Lesbos island.Greece is deploying soldiers and military hardware along the frontier. Athens received a show of solidarity Tuesday as the presidents of the European Union Commission, Council and Parliament joined the Greek prime minister on a visit to the land border.Migrants scuffle with Greek police at the port of Mytilene after locals block access to the Moria refugee camp, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, March 3, 2020.“This border is not only a Greek border, but it is also a European border,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters after the visit. “And I stand here today as a European at your side. I also want to express my compassion for the migrants that have been lured through false promises into this desperate situation. We have come here today to send a very clear statement of European solidarity and support to Greece.”Thousands of migrants descended on Turkey’s western border beginning last Friday, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan encouraged them to head for Europe.“The EU needs to keep its word, has to keep its promises,” Erdogan said at the weekend. “We are not obliged to look after and feed so many refugees. If you’re honest, if you’re sincere, then you need to share (the burden). We are hosting 3.7 million Syrians in our country. We are in not in a position to endure a new wave of migration. … The number of people going to the border will soon be expressed in millions,” he warned.Turkey has accused the EU of failing to offer support following the intense fighting in Syria’s Idlib province, which has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Dozens of Turkish soldiers have been killed in the fighting between Russian-backed Syrian government forces and Turkish-back rebels in recent weeks.The majority of migrants heading for Greece appear to be Afghans, alongside people from Iran, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused Ankara of blackmail Tuesday.“The tens of thousands of people who tried to enter Greece for the past few days did not come from Idlib, they have been living safely in Turkey for a long period of time. Europe will not be blackmailed by Turkey over the refugee issue,” Mitsotakis said. “What has happened here over the past days is painfully obvious to everyone. Turkey, in full breach of the EU-Turkey statement, has systematically encouraged and assisted tens of thousands of refugees and migrants to illegally enter Greece. … This is a blatant attempt by Turkey to use desperate people to promote its geopolitical agenda and to divert attention from the horrible situation in Syria.”Migrants walk on the road near the Ipsala border gate in Edirne, at the Turkish-Greek border, March 3, 2020.Many migrants are attempting to cross the Evros river that runs along part of the frontier. Afghan migrant Sinan Yilmaz is among thousands of asylum-seekers camping along the Turkish side of the border.“Friends of ours came through last night, but they took everything, their money, their shoes, and sent them back here. That’s why we don’t consider it, unless the doors open, God willing,” Yilmaz said.Human rights groups have criticized Europe’s response.“Solidarity is absolutely the key, but the kind of solidarity needs to be sharing responsibility for hosting and processing asylum-seekers rather than solidarity which is about keeping people away from Europe,” Ben Ward of Human Rights Watch told VOA. He also criticized Turkey’s recent actions. “Asylum-seekers are people, with families, with loved ones, with hopes and dreams. And they ought to be treated with dignity and respect. And obviously treating them like pawns is never acceptable.”Among Greeks attitudes appear to have hardened. On Lesbos island local residents tried to prevent a migrant boat from coming ashore Sunday. Greece and Europe are counting on public support for the hard-line stance and put the blame squarely on Turkey.Caught in the middle are tens of thousands of desperate migrants, the pawns in a game of diplomatic brinkmanship.
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A Mexican scientist pleaded not guilty Tuesday to U.S. charges that he spied for Russia in Miami.
The plea was entered in a brief hearing by Ronald Gainor, attorney for 35-year-old Hector Cabrera Fuentes. Cabrera stood nearby in chains and a tan jail outfit but did not speak.
Cabrera also has now been formally indicted on a charge of acting as a Russian agent without registering as required with the U.S. attorney general. He is not charged with espionage, but this allegation still carries a potential prison sentence of 10 years.
According to an FBI affidavit, a Russian government official tasked Cabrera with tracking down a vehicle owned by a U.S. government informant in the Miami area. The job was simply to take a photo of its license plate.
The FBI says Cabrera and his Mexican wife went to a condominium complex on Valentine’s Day to take the photo and were recorded by surveillance video. They attracted the notice of security by driving directly behind another car through a gate.
It’s not clear exactly what the Russians were seeking, but the FBI affidavit says the informant had previously provided information about Russian intelligence operations and implications for U.S. national security.
After he was detained Feb. 16 at Miami International Airport, Cabrera told the FBI he has two wives — the Mexican one and a Russian one. The Russian woman and her two daughters were living in Germany but returned to Moscow last spring to attend to some administrative matters. Then, the Russian government wouldn’t let them leave, the affidavit says.
That prompted Cabrera in May 2019 to visit his family in Moscow, where he was approached by a Russian official whom he had met previously at professional events and exchanges. Cabrera told the FBI he believed the official was an intelligence officer and that person gave him the job of photographing the Miami informant’s license plate.
Cabrera, a microbiologist who has held several prestigious posts, is originally from El Espinal in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Cabrera had been working as an associate professor at the medical school jointly run by Duke University and the National University of Singapore, and was working in Singapore. He said at a previous hearing that his contract there has been terminated.
Before Cabrera’s license plate mission, the FBI says the Russian official asked him to rent an apartment in the same complex as the informant but not in his real name. Cabrera paid an associate $20,000 to do so in late 2019. It’s not clear if anything was done in connection with that unit.
Cabrera is being held without bail. No trial date has been set.  
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Victims of clerical sex abuse have expressed skepticism over a Vatican investigative commission that will collect statements and information about abuse in Mexico, though most said they would meet with Pope Francis’ investigators.
    
“Only by speaking with them can you demand results,” said Biani Lopez-Antunez, who was abused by a Legion of Christ school director in Cancun between the ages of 8 and 10 years old. “The results of this visit must be measured only based on the facts, the reports, because I’m already tired of the fake action that operates at all levels of the Church.”
    
The Vatican announced Tuesday that two investigators, Charles Scicluna, archbishop of Malta and deputy secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Jordi Bertomeu, will be in Mexico City March 20-27. They will meet with bishops, leaders of religious orders and victims who want to speak with them. They promise confidentiality.
    
Mexico, which has the second highest number of Catholics in the world, has been accumulating cases of abuse and cover-ups for years. Meanwhile more and more victims like Lopez-Antunez are speaking up in the face of Vatican claims of “zero tolerance” to say that they are still waiting for justice.
    
The Mexican Episcopal Conference says the commission is coming at its request. It is made up by the same church officials who went to Chile in 2018 to investigate one case and returned with 2,600 pages of statements from more than 60 victims. It led Pope Francis to ask forgiveness and led to legal action.
    
“There has to be intervention from some other external authority to determine criminal responsibility because if it is only the ecclesiastic commission, it’s very difficult for something to happen,”said Alberto Athie, a former Mexican priest who has campaigned for more than 20 years for victims of clerical abuse. If not, the commission could become just another example of the Vatican going through the motions but not getting to the bottom of it.
    
For that reason, Athie believes a proposal before the Mexican Senate to create an independent investigative commission is critical, because it could “reconstruct the truth and turn over to the proper authorities all of those responsible,” including the abusers and those who covered up their actions.
    
The number of victims in Mexico is unknown.
    
The best known case in Mexico is that of Rev. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legion of Christ religious order. The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 after revelations that Maciel, sexually abused dozens of his seminarians, fathered at least three children and built a secretive, cult-like order to hide his double life.
    
The Mexican Episcopal Conference, which scheduled a news conference for Tuesday to announce the investigative mission, said in January that it was investigating 271 priests for abuse in the past decade – 155 of whom have been referred to prosecutors – but it did not provide a number of victims.
    
Jesus Romero Colin, a psychologist and director of Inscide, a nongovernmental organization that supports victims of sexual abuse, said there could be thousands. Romero Colin himself was abused by a priest in his church when he was 11 years old.
    
“In my case, there were 20 victims and I was the only one who came forward,” he said. “Of 50 victims that have come to our organization, only two filed formal complaints and there are priests who abused 100 or 130 victims.”
    
Romero Colin’s case is an exception. His abuser, Carlos Lopez Valdez was the first priest convicted in Mexico of pederasty and is currently serving a 63-year prison sentence.
    
He said he will meet with the investigators. “The important thing is that the survivors have a direct line to the Vatican, we skip all the intermediaries,” he said.
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A German cruise ship with 1,200 passengers is moored in southern Norway waiting for the test results of two passengers who had been on land to be tested for the new coronavirus, officials said Tuesday.
The town of Haugesund, 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Bergen, Norway’s second largest city, was alerted Monday by the ship’s agent that two passengers on the Aida Aura had been in contact with a third person a week ago who tested positive for the virus. That person was not on the ship.
The 202-meter (663-foot) long and 28-meter (92-foot) Aida Aura is operated by the German cruise line AIDA Cruises.
After visiting the ship, a doctor with the municipality of Haugesund said none of the passengers showed symptoms of having the COVID-19 illness.
“The guests were contacted by health authorities in Germany as part of a routine investigation into a medical situation. All guests on board have already been informed about this. All passengers remain on board, visits on land aren’t taking place,” the cruise company said in a statement.
Both cruise ship passengers were tested on land and the results were expected later Tuesday.
The nationality of the passengers on the German ship was not immediately known.
In recent weeks, cruise liners have been either moored with passengers stuck aboard or banned from entering harbors amid growing worry about the spread of the virus.
In Japan, some 3,700 people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship were forced to endure a long quarantine in their cabins. Hundreds of passengers on that ship tested positive for the illness and several people died from it.
Cruise ships have also been turned away from Caribbean ports due to concerns over the virus, though no passengers on any of those ships has been confirmed to have the disease.
Norway’s coastline is a popular destination for cruise ships because of its breath-taking landscapes and fjords. 
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Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny says his finances, along those of his wife, children, parents, and the head of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) have been frozen without explanation in a move to discredit and disgrace him.The staunch Kremlin critic wrote on his website on Tuesday that bank accounts and payment cards for his family, and for FBK head Ivan Zhdanov and his family, had been blocked.At the same time, Navalny said he obtained information that billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who has strong links to Russia’s leadership, was suing him for unknown reasons.According to Navalny and Zhdanov, a check of their banks online showed that they both had negative balances of 75.5 million rubles ($1,130,000).Navalny accused President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating the situation, alleging that by freezing his and his associate’s accounts, the Kremlin was trying to impede the FBK’s activities at a time when many Russians are becoming disillusioned with the country’s current leadership.Navalny and the FBK regularly publish materials exposing the luxurious properties and wealth of Russian officials, accusing them of corruption. None of the reports, however, have sparked legal investigations by the authorities.Navalny, a lawyer by training who has doggedly pursued evidence of corruption at the highest level of Russian politics, founded the FBK in 2011.Its investigations regularly provoke public uproar over the misuse of state funds, such as in 2017, when an FBK probe into Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s wealth became a catalyst for a wave of mass rallies that erupted across Russia.
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Firefighters who run into burning buildings or attack wildfires face considerable risks despite their protective gear.  Until recent trials in Spain, central command centers had no way to monitor the health of their teams.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports that recently changed because of one inventive firefighter and a large cash prize.
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For nearly five years, Russia has managed to balance a delicate alliance of rivals in Syria —  joining Iran in backing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad while partnering with Turkey – Damascus’s enemy –  to tackle the Islamic State. The latest flareup of fighting in Syria’s Idlib province — where Moscow’s allies in Damascus are engaged in an increasingly bloody standoff with Turkish forces — could undermine the Kremlin’s growing clout as a Middle East power broker, say some experts. From Moscow, Charles Maynes reports.
 
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Scientists say that half of the world’s sandy beaches could disappear by the end of the century if climate change continues unchecked.Researchers at the European Union’s Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, used satellite images to track the way beaches have changed over the past 30 years and simulated how global warming might affect them in the future.“What we find is that by the end of the century around half of the beaches in the world will experience erosion that is more than 100 meters,” said Michalis Vousdoukas. “It’s likely that they will be lost.”The study, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, found that the extent to which beaches are at risk depends on how much average global temperatures increase by the year 2100. Greater temperature increases mean more sea level rise and more violent storms in some regions, causing more beaches to vanish beneath the waves.“The projected shoreline changes will substantially impact the shape of the world’s coastline,” more than a third of which is sandy beach, the authors wrote.Beaches are valuable for recreation, tourism and wildlife, while also providing a natural barrier that protects coastal communities from waves and storms.Many coastal areas, including beaches, are already heavily affected by human activity such as seashore construction and inland dams, which reduce the amount of silt flowing into oceans that’s crucial for beach recovery.Some countries will be more affected than others, the researchers said. Gambia and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa could lose more than 60% of their beaches, while predictions for Iraq, Pakistan, the island of Jersey in the English Channel and the Pacific island of Palau are similarly dire.Australia would be hardest-hit in terms of total beach coastline lost, with over 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) at risk. The United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Iran, Argentina and Chile would also lose thousands of kilometers (miles) of beach, according to the study.Andres Payo, an expert on coastal hazards and resilience at the British Geological Survey, said that while the study’s methods were sound, its claims should be treated with caution.“There are many assumptions and generalizations that could change the outcome of the analysis both qualitatively and quantitatively,” said Payo, who wasn’t involved in the study.However, Vousdoukas said the amount of beach loss estimated by his team was in fact “a bit conservative” and could be higher.The group considered two different warming scenarios _ one in which average global temperatures rise by 2.4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century and another that predicts an increase twice as high. The Paris climate accord’s most ambitious target, of capping warming at 1.5 C, wasn’t considered because scientists consider it unlikely to be achieved, Vousdoukas said.The study’s authors calculated that up to 40% of shoreline retreat could be prevented by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change, but said that large and growing populations living along the coast will also need to be protected through other measures.Citing the example of the Netherlands, which has battled the sea for centuries and even reclaimed substantial areas of low-lying land, the authors said “past experience has shown that effective site-specific coastal planning can mitigate beach erosion, eventually resulting in a stable coastline.” 
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Authorities in Greece are facing the biggest mass migration push in years and the government in Athens is laying blame with Turkey.Greece is beefing up its defenses along its land and sea borders with its neighbor; but, the heightened controls are starting to take a deadly toll.On Monday, Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas openly accused Turkey of engineering an organized invasion after Ankara opened its border to allow migrants to pass through to the West.Petsas said Greece is being targeted with an illegal attempt to violate its borders and will repel any such efforts.Authorities have already beefed up border controls and repeatedly tear-gassed asylum-seekers trying to enter Greece.Police block a road as migrants look on during clashes outside the Moria refugee camp on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, March 2, 2020.And on the high seas, the Greek Coast Guard has been pushing back scores of rubber rafts packed with migrants.Turkish authorities have suggested those maneuvers may have caused the drowning of a young Syrian boy Monday. Greek officials said the child died after the boat in which he was traveling capsized off the island of Lesbos. Authorities tell the Reuters news agency the boat had been escorted to Lesbos by a Turkish vessel.Lesbos residents, meanwhile, staged protests, calling on police to block migrants from setting foot on the island.The residents say they are still reeling from an earlier migration crisis, and after seeing their economies shattered and tourism related-business fall by 60% … they want the 25,000 remaining refugees to leave.The island’s mayor explains. Stratos Kytelis said the government in Athens needs to “heed our demands and safeguard our interests also.”He said if that does not happen, the people of Lesbos will take the situation into their own hands.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. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has in the past warned Europe to share the refugee burden or face a new wave of migrants, as Turkey fears a new influx of Syrian refugees fleeing war. Turkey is hosting more than 3.5 million Syrians.
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Syrian government forces have recaptured the strategic town of Saraqeb on the Damascus to Aleppo highway, one day after Turkish fighter jets reportedly shot down two Syrian government SU-24 warplanes. Damascus is also claiming it shot down three Turkish drones.  Syrian state TV showed its correspondent standing next to the strategic Damascus to Aleppo highway, which crosses through the center of the town of Saraqeb, as several rockets exploded in the distance. The Syrian Army said it had recaptured the town and the highway, which it lost to Turkish-backed rebels last week.Qatari-owned Al Jazeera TV (Arabic) claimed that rebels “continue to control the outskirts of Saraqeb and that fighting has not ended.” VOA could not independently confirm the claim.  Syrian TV reported that “Turkish-backed forces keep trying to block the advance of government troops as they attempt to reopen the country’s strategic highway grid.”A Syrian army officer told Syrian TV that his men were trying to reopen the highway to the coast, which also passes through the same area.He says his men are continuing to push forward, despite attacks by Turkish forces and Turkish drones, and that the battle is over reopening the M4 highway from Aleppo to the Syrian coastal city of Latakiya.Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told supporters Monday that Turkey has exacted a heavy toll on Syrian government forces.He claims that Turkish troops have destroyed 135 regime tanks, 22 armored vehicles, 45 artillery pieces, 44 multi-barrel rocket launchers, five air defense systems, four mortars, 29 pickup-mounted antiaircraft batteries, nine ammunition depot buildings, two Syrian government warplanes on Sunday, and killed 2,557 Syrian soldiers, at last count.
Erdogan claimed he was receiving numerous phone calls from world leaders, including German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, as well as a visit Monday from Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Both Russia and Turkey confirmed that Erdogan would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
Arab media reported that the Russian Defense Ministry warned Turkey Monday that it can “no longer guarantee the safety of Turkish planes inside Syria, due to the closure of Syrian airspace by the government.” At least one Turkish drone was shot down near Idlib over the weekend.Migrants walk to reach Pazarakule border gate, Edirne, Turkey, at the Turkish-Greek border, March 1, 2020.As thousands of refugees attempted to cross into Greece after the Turkish government transported them to the border over the weekend, Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas called the influx of migrants at the border “an active, serious, severe and asymmetrical threat to the national security of the country.”
Arab media broadcast amateur video of a young Syrian man who appeared to have died after reportedly being shot by Greek border police. VOA could not independently confirm the claim. 
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A Russian court has sent the high-profile case of an opposition activist imprisoned for repeatedly taking part in unsanctioned rallies to an appeals unit of the Moscow City Court.Moscow’s Court Of Cassations No. 2 said on March 2 that it rejected a motion by Konstantin Kotov’s lawyers and prosecutors to annul a four-year prison term handed to the activist.His lawyers wanted the case against their client to be closed and the charge to be dropped, while prosecutors had asked the court to cut the prison term to one year.The court also ruled that Kotov must be kept in pretrial detention until May 2.The 35-year-old computer programmer was detained on August 10 for taking part in a rally to demand that opposition and independent candidates be put on the ballot for the Moscow City Duma election that was held on September 8.The barring of the would-be candidates sparked a wave of protests in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia last summer, some of which were violently suppressed by police as thousands were briefly detained, sparking international condemnation.Kotov was one of several activists punished with prison following the protests in what has been dubbed the Moscow Case.His conviction and sentencing on September 5 sparked a public outcry in Russia because of its severity.On January 25, amid protests against Kotov’s imprisonment, President Vladimir Putin ordered the Prosecutor-General’s Office to review the legality of the sentencing.Two days later, Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the case must be reviewed.
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Two patients died of coronavirus in northern France, bringing the death toll in the country to four, Le Parisien newspaper said on Monday, citing the mayor of the city of Compiegne and other sources.”As of Monday, according to the latest information I have, there were another two deaths in the hospital of Compiegne,” Philippe Marini, the mayor of Compiegne, was reported as saying by Le Parisien.As of Sunday, France had 130 confirmed cases of the flu-like disease. The French Health Ministry did not return calls for comment. 
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Tourists trying to visit the Louvre Museum on Monday are out of luck, as the world’s most visited museum stayed closed for a second straight day because of workers’ worries about the potential spread of the new virus.
Most of the Paris landmark’s 9.6 million visitors last year came from other countries, and the museum that houses the Mona Lisa and other treasures welcomes tens of thousands of people every day.
While unions held meetings with management and the Culture Ministry on Monday, disappointed crowds huddled under umbrellas outside the Louvre’s famed pyramid.
By afternoon no compromise had been reached, and the museum remained shuttered.
The French government on Saturday banned any indoor gatherings larger than 5,000 people to prevent the spread of the virus, so on Sunday, Louvre workers said that should apply to their workplace too and blocked the museum from opening.
About 250 Louvre workers, mainly those who guard the treasured artworks or greet visitors, voted Monday to stay off the job until management presents a clearer plan of how it’s dealing with the virus threat, said Andre Sacristin, a Louvre employee and union representative for its staffers.
He acknowledged that there have been no cases traced to the Louvre thus far, but said, “If tomorrow there is a case at the Louvre, we need to know the plan” for workers and visitors.
Some workers want masks, or for visitors to undergo temperature checks.
Addressing the frustration of tourists from around the world stuck in the rain, he said, “We regret this. It’s not our wish to close the Louvre. … What we want to welcome tourists is to have measures that protect them as well as us.”
The museum’s managing director, Maxence Langlois-Berthelot, said it’s “keeping a close eye on the situation and is ready to take action as and when necessary.”
He acknowledged the “legitimate concern” of the workers, but said the number of visitors in each room of the Louvre is well below 5,000 at any given time, so that doesn’t warrant closing the museum.
France has reported 130 cases of the virus, and more than half of the country’s regions now have at least one case. 
 
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The Italian government is ramping up public health measures in a bid to halt the abrupt spike in Coronavirus infections, which rose by 50% Sunday from 24 hours earlier, the biggest one day jump in cases since the virus emerged in Italy.Italy’s Civil Protection Authority reported the country has 1,694 confirmed cases, up from 1,128, despite a weeks-long lockdown of a dozen towns in the worst affected regions of Lombardy and Veneto in the north of the country. Five more people infected with COVID-19 have died, bringing the deaths from the virus in Italy to 34, while 83 people have fully recovered, officials say, and 140 are in serious or critical condition.Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced Sunday that the government is now going to split the country into three parts, a red zone in the north, covering the currently closed-off towns in Lombardy and Veneto, and then a yellow zone, covering the rest of Lombardy and Veneto, as well as the region of Emilia Romagna and two provinces on the Adriatic coast. In the yellow zone all sports events and competitions are to be suspended and cinemas, theaters and discos closed. Churches and other places of worship will be allowed to function but will be required to minimize the numbers of attendees. Schools will remain closed. Bars and restaurants will be allowed to carry on business but customers must be seated with tables set apart from each other by at least one meter.Under the terms of the decree issued by the government Sunday, large shopping malls in some provinces must remain closed on weekends. All educational trips are to be suspended until March 15.In the rest of the country the government’s focus is on intensifying preventive measures. Hand-sanitizers must be made available in all public buildings and town mayors must promote information on hygiene in business premises.“Public transport companies will take extraordinary sanitization measures,” the decree states.The spiking numbers are likely to fuel a growing fear in Italy that the virus might not be containable. Last week when there were only 374 confirmed cases, the prime minister urged his countrymen to remain calm as more Italians joined in bouts of panic food shopping, especially in the north and center of the country.Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, also warned Italians Friday against allowing “irrational fears” to take hold of them.Italian President Sergio Mattarella arrives for the ceremony marking the first anniversary of the collapse of a motorway Morandi Bridge that killed 43 people in Genoa, Aug. 14, 2019.“Knowledge helps responsibility and is a strong antidote to irrational and unmotivated fears that lead to unreasonable behavior without benefits, as has sometimes happened these days,” the president said.Lombardy and Veneto account for two-thirds of the confirmed cases but there is growing evidence of a spread, with cases now recorded in the south in the region of Campania. Emilia Romagna now has 285 cases, more than Veneto’s 263. Tuscany has 13, while the regions of Marche and Liguria have reported 25 each.Public health officials said Sunday they had anticipated a spike in infections as containment measures tend to take at least two weeks to start having an effect.“This acceleration was expected, unfortunately,” Giovanni Rezza, director of the infectious disease department at the National Health Institute, told AP.But those predictions weren’t made public last week when the Conte government was urging countries, including the U.S., to refrain from advising their citizens not to travel to Italy. On Friday, American Airlines announced a suspension of all flights to Milan. The next day the U.S. State Department issued its strongest travel warning yet, advising Americans against any travel to the two regions in northern Italy that have been hard hit by the virus that first emerged in China in December.Delta Air Lines announced Sunday it is to suspend flights to Milan. The last flight out will depart New York on Monday and the last return flight will be on Tuesday. Rome flights are not affected.The virus emergency has left the Italian economy reeling with the chances mounting that it will push the country into its fourth recession since the 2008 global financial crash. On Sunday, Roberto Gualtieri, Italy’s economy minister, announced that the government will inject almost $4 billion into its economy to try to mitigate the impact of the largest outbreak of coronavirus in Europe.He told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the government will introduce tax credits for businesses that report a 25% drop in revenues as well as tax cuts. Extra cash will be made available for the county’s health service. The eurozone’s third-largest economy was contracting even before the appearance of the disease.
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A right-of-center president took office in Uruguay on Sunday, promising to crack down on crime and tighten government finances after a 15-year string of left-leaning governments.Luis Lacalle Pou, a 46-year-old surfing enthusiast and son of a former president, narrowly won the election in November in his second try for the top office.Lacalle Pou thanked outgoing President Tabaré Vázquez who gave him the presidential sash.“The country has built a democracy with this ceremony,” he said, celebrating the seventh presidential change since the restoration of democracy in 1985.Lacalle Pou inherits a country of nearly 3.4 million people that had grown steadily under the outgoing Broad Front government, but rising crime in recent years dented its popularity and economists have grown concerned about a rising fiscal deficit that reached 4.9% of gross domestic product last year.In his inaugural address, the new leader promised “to promote what was done well (and) correct what was done badly.”Lacalle Pou, who has promised to cap government spending, said he wanted reduce the costs of production and services “to recover national competitiveness.”He said the country faces “an emergency” of insecurity, adding that “the enormous majority of Uruguayans feel unprotected.” He campaigned on calls to bolster the country’s security forces and toughening sentences.“In the interior of the country we used to sleep with the door open…. Even vehicles were left with doors and windows open and the key in the ignition. But lately the houses are all fenced…. We hope that this government takes some measures and can change that,” said Natalia Cardozo, a 37-year-old teacher who was participating on horseback in the inaugural; day parade.Lacalle Pou, who spent many years in Uruguay’s congress, grew up in an intensely political family. He father Luis Lacalle Herrera was president from 1990 to 1995 and his mother, Julia Pou, was a senator. His great-grandfather Luis Alberto de Herrera was a major figure in the National Party.He will have to depend on an ideologically diverse four-party coalition to get his programs through Congress.
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British health authorities on Sunday confirmed 12 more cases of the new coronavirus, bringing the country’s overall tally to 35, and the Czech Republic announced its first three infections.The British government’s chief medical officer, Prof. Chris Whitty, said one of the new patients “had no relevant travel and it is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad.” Whitty said medical workers were still investigating the cause of that infection.Three of the new COVID-19 patients in Britain were contacts of an existing patient while six newly infected people had recently traveled from Italy and two had arrived from Iran. Both countries have been hard hit by the coronavirus that emerged late last year in central China.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters Sunday at a health center in London that he was “very, very confident” that Britain’s National Health Service can cope with the virus outbreak.″(It’s) likely to spread a bit more, and it’s vital therefore that people understand that we do have a great plan, a plan to tackle the spread of coronavirus,” he said.Coronavirus infections in Italy rose 50% Sunday and the U.S. government issued its strongest travel warning yet, advising Americans against any travel to two regions in northern Italy — Lombardy and Veneto. Authorities said the total number of people infected in Italy had risen to 1,694, a 50% jump from just 24 hours earlier and the highest figure by far in Europe. Five more people infected with the virus have died, bringing the deaths in Italy to 34, while 83 people have fully recovered.In London, the Foreign Office confirmed that non-essential staff, as well as dependants, are to be pulled out of the British Embassy in Tehran due to the spread of the virus in Iran.Elsewhere in Europe, France raised its number of reported cases to 130 on Sunday, including one in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, the first in France’s overseas territories.The spreading virus epidemic shut down France’s Louvre Museum on Sunday, with workers who guard its famous trove of artworks fearful of being contaminated by the museum’s flow of tourists from around the world. Almost three-quarters of the Louvre’s 9.6 million visitors last year came from abroad.Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech said Sunday that two COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in Prague and another in northern city of Usti nad Labem. All three had travel ties to northern Italy.Spain said it now has 71 virus cases, many of them linked to Italy.The Dutch health minister announced three new virus cases, bringing the country’s overall tally to 10, while new cases elsewhere brought national totals to Norway 19, Sweden 14 and Finland six.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has called current oil price levels “acceptable” in a possible sign that Moscow is willing to bend when the world’s biggest oil exporters gather this week in Vienna to discuss supply curbs as coronavirus effects pummel oil demand and prices.Putin also said Moscow was approaching a so-called OPEC+ meeting this week in Vienna as an “instrument for long-term stability,” according to Interfax.Reports last week quoted sources saying some influential OPEC members, including Saudi Arabia, were likely to call for a larger-than-expected reduction in oil output by the group as the global spread of coronavirus and related effects slow economies and depress international demand for oil.But Russia was said to be resisting further curbs too far beyond an existing deal that has kept a lid on demand through the end of March.”I want to stress that for the Russian budget, for our economy, the current oil price level is acceptable,” Putin told Russian energy officials and producers gathered in Moscow to discuss the coronavirus and its implications on March 1.He said Russia’s budget assumes an average Brent crude price of $42.40 a barrel for supplies from the estimated $560 billion in oil reserves under Russian territory.Russia’s economy has recovered significantly from a downturn that followed its 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and a falling-off of oil prices around the same time, prompting painful measures that dented Putin’s popularity well into his fourth overall term as president.”Our accumulated reserves, including the National Wealth Fund, are enough for ensuring a stable situation, the fulfillment of all budget and social liabilities, even under a possible deterioration of the global economic situation,” Putin said on March 1.OPEC+, a group of OPEC’s 14 members and 10 other major oil producers, has “proved to be an effective instrument to ensure long-term stability on global energy markets,” Putin said, saying the cooperation had resulted in “extra revenues.”Last week, the ruble slumped to more than 67 to the U.S. dollar, its weakest level since early 2019, and its stock market slid amid a global sell-off and fears of tensions between Russia and Turkey amid competing military interests in Syria.
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Pope Francis said Sunday he would not be taking part in a planned six-day spiritual retreat south of Rome after coming down with a “cold”.The 83-year-old pontiff suffered two coughing spells that forced him to turn away from the crowd and cover his mouth with his fist on a windy and cloudy day on Saint Peter’s Square.”Unfortunately, a cold forced me not to take part this year,” he said after reciting the traditional Angelus Prayer and addressing the unfolding migrant crisis on Turkey’s border with Greece.The annual retreat will still start Sunday but only include members of the Roman Curia administration team of the Holy See.The pope will be staying home while the rest of Italy battles Europe’s worst outbreak of the novel coronavirus that has spread from China to every continent except for Antarctica.The number of cases in Italy surpassed 1,000 on Saturday and the toll continues to mount.There have been 29 confirmed deaths and 105 people were receiving intensive care treatment in hospital — all of them in three adjacent northern regions near Milan.The Vatican quickly shot down speculation that the pope himself had come down with COVID-19.”There is no evidence to suggest a diagnosis of anything other than a slight ailment,” a Vatican spokesman told AFP Sunday.The pope himself looked relatively strong on Sunday despite the coughing fits.He smiled a few times and addressed a range of theological issues before turning his attention to the plight of thousands of migrants from Turkey who have been blocked at the rugged frontier with Greece.”I am a little saddened by the news coming from many displaced people, so many men, women and children chased because of war,” Francis said.The pontiff asked the faithful to share a prayer for “so many migrants who seek refuge in the world — and help”.Italy shuts downConcerns about the pope’s health have been mounting for days in a country where mass closures of public institutions and businesses due to the coronavirus are affecting the lives of millions.He first looked like he might be sick on Wednesday and lightened his workload for the rest of the week.The Vatican used the “mild ailment” term for the first time on Thursday to explain why the pope was spending his day around his Saint Martha’s guest house in the Vatican.But he still continued celebrating the morning mass and receiving visitors even as football matches were being canceled and businesses were telling their employees to work from home.He met with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church head Sviatoslav Shevchuk on Saturday and spent almost 15 minutes speaking on Sunday from his Vatican window.The Argentine-born pontiff has enjoyed a life of good health despite losing part of a lung as a young man and suffered from sciatica — a nerve condition that causes pain in his hip.Yet he rarely cancels appointments and normally takes extra time to mingle with supporters and the faithful. 
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