RIYADMEDIA

Pope Francis’s Angelus prayer on Sunday will be livestreamed in a break with centuries-old tradition, the Vatican announced as the number of coronavirus deaths in Italy soared past 200.Worldwide, the number of cases exceeded 100,000 and the overall death toll was more than 3,500 across 95 nations and territories.The World Health Organization called the spread “deeply concerning” as several countries reported their first cases of the COVID-19 disease.In Rome, the Angelus prayers — normally delivered by the 83-year-old pontiff from his window — will “be broadcast via livestream by Vatican News and on screens in Saint Peter’s Square,” the Vatican said.Italy is the worst-hit European country and its toll shot up Saturday by a single-day record of 1,247 cases to 5,883, along with 233 deaths.Retired doctors were being recruited to bolster the health care system with 20,000 more staff, but civil protection officials said the northern Lombardy region was “experiencing difficulties with the [number of] beds available in hospitals.”Export data from ChinaIn China, where the outbreak began in December, the virus wreaked havoc on the world’s second-largest economy, shutting down businesses and disrupting global supply chains.The negative impact was shown in official data Saturday, with Chinese exports plunging 17.2 percent in the first two months of the year.However, the number of new cases reported Saturday in China was the lowest in weeks.The government has hinted it may soon lift the quarantine imposed on Hubei province, the locked-down epicenter where some 56 million people have been effectively housebound since late January.For the second consecutive day, there were no new cases reported in Hubei outside Wuhan, the province’s capital.But the number of infections beyond the epicenter rose for the third straight day, fueling fears about cases being brought into the country from overseas.
…

The tent camps sprouting around Paris are a potent affirmation that Europe has never figured out a sustainable migration strategy since its 2015-16 migrant crisis. In periodic pre-dawn raids, police dismantle them. But eventually they sprout back, often in tougher, grimier places.   Today, fears of another mass influx of asylum-seekers have come roaring back, and not just in France. The trigger came a week ago, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would no longer comply with a 2016 migrant deal with the European Union to keep Syrians and other asylum-seekers on Turkish soil.Those now pressing to cross Turkey’s border with Greece number in the thousands, rather than the nearly 1 million migrants that flooded into the European Union a few years ago.But they have again fueled nationalist rhetoric and, on the other side, concerns that the EU risks breaching international humanitarian law and its own values. More broadly, the current situation underscores Europe’s piecemeal strategy at best of handling another mass influx.FILE – Migrants are seen near a bus station in Edirne, Turkey, March 6, 2020.“The EU-Turkey deal was always presented as a temporary measure that would allow EU member states and leaders to catch their breath and stop firefighting, and really look at how they could improve their asylum system,” said Hanne Beirens, director of Migration Policy Institute Europe, a Brussels research group.But, she added, “nearly four years onwards, we have not reached a new agreement on how we will reform the common European asylum system, or how we will share responsibility for newcomers who ask for asylum.”A positive gestureOn Saturday, Ankara offered one positive gesture, as officials announced they would no longer allow migrants to reach Greece through the Aegean Sea because of safety concerns. But it has put no similar restrictions on its land borders with Bulgaria and Greece, where days of clashes between migrants and Greek border guards are exacerbating tensions.   In back-to-back emergency meetings of European interior and foreign ministers this week, along with visits to the Greek border by senior EU officials, member states pushed back, saying they would not be blackmailed by Ankara. Turkey must fully honor the migrant agreement, they said, before they will consider further assistance.   “Encouraging refugees and migrants to attempt illegal crossing into the European Union is not an acceptable way for Turkey to push for further support of the European Union,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Friday.The 2016 deal saw Turkey keeping asylum-seekers within its territory, in return for nearly $6.8 million in humanitarian assistance. But today, Ankara complains the money has been slow to arrive and it is funneled through aid agencies rather than its government. Adding to the pressure of hosting roughly 3.7 million refugees is another wave of refugees pressing to enter Turkey following fighting in Idlib.   FILE – Migrants walk on a dirt road following their arrival on a dinghy on a beach near the village of Skala Sikamias, after crossing part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the island of Lesbos, Greece, March 5, 2020.Even as they stood by member state Greece this week, the Europeans also expressed empathy for Turkey.   “We understand the big pressure that Turkey is suffering,” Borrell said.Analyst Beirens doesn’t believe the current standoff with Ankara will lead to another mass influx of asylum-seekers into Europe. For one, she said, Turkey needs support from its European NATO allies in its conflict in Syria. For another, European governments have too much at stake.   “A lot of governments that came to power have campaigned on the issue of migration,” she said, “and have publicly announced they would never allow a new migration of the size and proportion of 2015-16 to happen again.”Outsourcing migrant managementEurope has also reached out to countries across the Mediterranean Sea, including Tunisia and Morocco, to help reduce migration flows. In Niger, a French outpost screens asylum claims from West African migrants before they get anywhere near the coast.   The EU has also channeled millions of dollars to Libya, funding coast guard efforts to apprehend migrants off its shores. But an Associated Press investigation in December found that accompanying European promises of improved migrant detention centers in Libya were never realized, with the funds diverted to militiamen, traffickers and coast guard members.   While controversial, the outsourcing has produced results. Fewer than 129,000 migrants arrived in Europe in 2019, according to the International Organization for Migration.   Less successful have been Europe’s own efforts to handle its migrant influx. Central and Eastern European nations have long opposed burden sharing, leaving front-line Mediterranean states like Greece and Italy shouldering outsized caseloads.   FILE – Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks at a news conference in Prague, Czech Republic, March 4, 2020.Meanwhile, nationalist rhetoric is again heating up. In Budapest this week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed to defend the EU border against the potential influx from Turkey. “As a last resort, as in 2015, there are the Hungarians,” he said.In France, far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused Erdogan of trying to “Islamize” Europe and described the migrants now on the Greek-Turkish border as trying to “invade” Europe.   For their part, rights groups have sharply criticized a number of Europe’s migration measures, both inside and outside its borders. An Amnesty International report this month, for example, claimed European activists trying to help refugees and migrants were being harassed and prosecuted using “flawed anti-smuggling laws and counterterrorism measures.”  The recent border clashes between Greek riot police and migrants have fueled more criticism, with Human Rights Watch calling for EU migrant policies to be “guided by solidarity, humanity and respect of international law.”  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced she will present a new EU migration pact in the first half of 2020.   Beirens of the Migration Policy Institute believes the current EU-Turkish faceoff could prove a tipping point.   “It could go in two directions,” she said. “If it strengthens and unites member states to come up with an agreement to deal with migration internally, that’s a very good thing. But it could actually deepen tensions.”
…

North Korea accused several European nations of “illogical thinking” Saturday after they called a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting to condemn missile launches by the reclusive state earlier this week.Britain, Germany, France, Estonia and Belgium raised North Korea’s latest missile firings at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, calling them a provocative action that violated U.N. resolutions.North Korea fired two short-range missiles off the east coast into the sea on Monday after a three-month halt. The launches, which officials have said were routine military drills, were personally overseen by its leader Kim Jong Un.”The illogical thinking and sophism of these countries are just gradually bearing a close resemblance to the United States, which is hostile to us,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement to the state-run KCNA news agency.The spokesperson, who was not named, described the European action as “reckless behavior … instigated by the United States.”Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea’s leader and a senior government official, defended Monday’s launches as military drills, saying they were not meant to threaten anyone. 
…

Employees at the government-run General Hospital in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, fear the day when the first coronavirus patient checks in.Dr. Jacques Mackenzie told VOA that no measures have been taken to protect the staff at the nation’s largest health facility.“It’s sad to say this but the hospital receives a lot of patients daily and we are not — I repeat — we are not ready, as far as I know, to diagnose a person who has the coronavirus,” he said, adding that they don’t even have the test to determine if someone is infected.“The diagnosis is biological so the laboratory has to confirm the diagnosis. We don’t have the test. We, the medical personnel, have not received any instructions at all with regards to detecting coronavirus cases, nor how to protect ourselves. We are seeing (in the news) all the equipment other countries have to deal with the coronavirus, their doctors, their technicians are well equipped. We, on the other hand, have never received anything that would allow us to face the possible arrival of coronavirus in the country.”The statement was in sharp contrast to the assurances given by Public Health Minister Greta Roy Clement earlier this week during a National Palace press event, where she detailed steps the administration is taking to handle possible coronavirus cases.FILE – Minister of Public Health and Population of Haiti, Marie-Greta Roy Clément, left, and Minister of Health of Brazil Ricardo Barros, center, visit the Dr. Zilda Arns Lieu Hospital in Bon Repos, Port-au-Prince, June 23, 2017.Health Ministry initiativeClement told reporters that health officials had been meeting with professionals at institutions such as the Haitian College of Internal Medicine, and epidemiologists and private hospitals, on how to handle coronavirus patients. She said Haiti would follow the World Health Organization (WHO) protocols being adapted for the country. She said those directives were published online this week for anyone who needs them.For security reasons, “we are not identifying the hospitals which have been designated to receive coronavirus patients, but I will say we have approximately 200 beds available to receive those patients, nationwide at private and public hospitals,” she said.Clement said the National Health Ministry laboratory received coronavirus test kits on Feb. 12, which will be administered to patients suspected of being infected with the virus. She said samples will be taken from the hospital to the national lab for testing.Confirmed Caribbean coronavirus casesThere have been no confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Haiti. However, the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti, announced one confirmed case. The French island of Guadeloupe also reported its first confirmed case of the coronavirus this week. There were no other known cases of coronavirus in the Caribbean as of Friday.The health minister told reporters that in addition to the protocols in place, the government would be relying on the experience of health professionals who were trained to handle Ebola and cholera patients, and that measures are already in place to screen all passengers before they board planes for Haiti.Nurse Marie Catherine is disappointed in the lack of communication and support from the Public Health Ministry. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)At the general hospital, nurse Mary Catherine was unaware of the directives Clement spoke about. She told VOA the arrival of any coronavirus patient would be like pouring salt on an open wound.“We are already working under conditions that are not normal for most hospitals and now it’s gotten worse. The Ministry of Public Health has never discussed with us its policy for what to do when we receive the first coronavirus case in Haiti,” she said. “The General Hospital is the first place people come. It’s people’s ‘go to’ place when they are ill. But nothing has been said, nothing has been done about the eventuality of coronavirus.”Haiti’s hospitals were hit hard during the mass anti-government and anti-corruption protests last year, during which roads were barricaded, public sanitation employees stayed home and basic supplies were critically low. As conditions deteriorated, ‘In God’s hands’Lebien Joseph, president of the medical employees union, says the general hospital staff is basically in God’s hands.Lebien Joseph, the General Hospital employers union president prays they will be spared from the Coronavirus. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)“I don’t think God will allow the coronavirus to enter Haiti,” he said. “Our government operates under a fireman mentality — they wait for the disaster to hit and then they start asking if there is water to extinguish the fire. Then, if they don’t see any water they go out and search for it.”Inside the hospital’s laundry room, a small group of women were hand-washing items such as gowns and bed linens. The hospital does not have washing machines and dryers. The women told VOA they are not optimistic about surviving the virus, which currently has a mortality rate in the single digits worldwide.“I believe in God’s grace but believe me, if that virus comes into the country it will kill us all. That’s what I believe,” a female employee said. “I don’t know what others believe, but I believe there’s no way that virus reaches us, and doesn’t destroy us.”In the General Hospital laundry room, linens are washed by hand. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)If that happens under the current circumstances, the hospital employees VOA spoke with agree that they do not plan to stick around.“There are people I’ve spoken to at the hospital who say they plan to leave when the first coronavirus patient arrives, because they don’t want to risk their lives when the government has not given them any tools to face this,” Dr. Mackenzie said.Nurse Marie Catherine says she is not willing to risk her life if the government doesn’t take proactive measures.“A lot of the women, the nurses are saying as soon as the coronavirus patients enters the front door they will be exiting from the back door,” she said “They don’t want to risk their own health if the government health officials don’t act to address the situation.”A female hospital employee agreed.“They have to do something to prepare us to treat patients adequately. Otherwise we will not risk our lives — we don’t want to die alongside the patients,” she said.Patients and vendors stand in front of the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Matiado Vilme / VOA Creole)A male patient undergoing treatment told VOA he is anxious about the possibility of coronavirus patients being admitted.“If I wasn’t sick I’d head home, but I don’t have a choice so I’ll just deal with whatever happens,” he said.The only thing Clement and the people VOA spoke with at the hospital agree on is that “coronavirus is everyone’s problem.”More than 100,000 people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus, and 3,400 have died. Most of the deaths were in China, where the pandemic is believed to have originated.VOA’s Renan Toussaint in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.
…

The European Union said Friday that it would host an international donors conference in June for refugees from Syria and surrounding countries, even as the bloc criticized Turkey for using asylum-seekers as political pawns.Announcement of the June 29-30 donors conference came during an EU foreign ministers meeting in Zagreb that addressed two related refugee crises. The first involved the roughly 1 million Syrians hoping to cross Turkey’s now-closed borders to safety, following an uptick in fighting in Idlib. It remains unclear whether their situation might ease under a new cease-fire in the region, agreed upon by Ankara and Moscow.  Europe’s second migrant concern relates to the thousands now clamoring to cross Turkey’s borders with Greece and Bulgaria, which now are also closed. Their massive arrival over the past few days came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country needed more EU support to handle its Syrian refugee burden.  Under a 2016 deal, the Europeans earmarked nearly $6.8 billion in assistance for Turkey to care for the refugees within its borders and block them from moving on to Europe. But Ankara says the EU has been slow to pay up, and the money goes to aid agencies rather than directly to the government.  European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a news conference after an EU foreign affairs council in Zagreb, Croatia, March 6, 2020.The Europeans say they will not be blackmailed with the migrant surge. That also was the message sent by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.“Encouraging refugees and migrants to attempt illegal crossing into the European Union is not an acceptable way for Turkey to push for further support of the European Union,” he said.The migrants put the EU in a difficult spot. Those now clamoring at the frontier have helped to sharpen tensions between Turkey and EU member Greece. At the same time, it needs Turkey to prevent another major migrant influx, as happened a few years ago. And, like Greece, Turkey is a NATO ally.  ‘Big pressure’So, along with criticizing Ankara, the Europeans are expressing sympathy for Turkey’s migrant dilemma.“We understand the big pressure that Turkey is suffering,” Borrell said. “Four million people. Four million refugees. It’s the biggest number of refugees that any country in the world is facing.”The EU is considering increasing assistance to Turkey. But diplomats say Ankara first must fully honor its migrant deal with Europe.
…

European Union health ministers held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the latest developments regarding the coronavirus outbreak. The continental bloc is trying to improve its collective response to the coronavirus outbreak, aside from some members’ decision to ban the export of protective equipment such as masks.
 
The last time EU health ministers met, on Feb. 13, no deaths had yet been reported in Europe.  Now there have been more than 110 coronavius fatalities on the continent, according to the latest figures from the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC).
 
With confirmed cases being reported daily in Italy and France, some member states are moving unilaterally to protect against the outbreak, but officials say a coordinated approach is most effective.EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides says each state’s readiness is important but so is acting in coordination.
 
“We need to remain calm, we need to remain focused but the greatest strength that we all have, as an EU is our solidarity. And we need to work together and work closely because it is on this strength that we would be able to overcome these difficulties,” Kyriakides said.
   
Some EU member-states publicly criticized countries that blocked the export of some medical supplies to protect against the coronavirus. Germany has banned the export of face masks and gloves and France has requisitioned all its own supplies.
 
The European commissioner for risk management, Janet Lenarcic, called on countries to consider the interests of all member states in addition to their own.”Restrictions are possible under the treaty, they can be introduced under certain conditions. However, the commission believes that such measures should be taken in a such way that they would ensure that they would be protective equipment available to all citizens across the European Union on equal footing. We would not favor measures that would favor one member state at the expense of others,” Lenarcic said.
 
Some EU members — notably Italy, where at least 148 people have died as of Thursday — have been hit harder than others and some ministers, like Italy’s Roberto Speranza, called for shared resources.
 
“We don’t have problems at this moment. What we think is that the European level we need a coordination. Not every country, not every region will need masks at the same moment. If we have a European coordination, everyone could give a better solution to the problem with have,” Speranza said.
    
The European Union also increased its research funding by an additional $42 million, which together with the $11 million announced in January, will finance 17 projects involving 136 research teams from across the EU.
  
…

Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignation of a French cardinal who was convicted and then acquitted of covering up for a pedophile priest in a case that fueled a reckoning over clergy sexual abuse in France.
    
Lyon Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 69, had offered to resign when the Lyon court in March 2019 first convicted him and gave him a six-month suspended sentence for failing to report the predator priest to police.
    
Francis declined to accept it then, saying he wanted to wait for the outcome of the appeal. He allowed Barbarin to step aside and turn the day-to-day running of the archdiocese over to his deputy.
    
In January, after an appeals court acquitted Barbarin, the cardinal said he would again ask Francis to accept his resignation. He said he hoped his departure would allow for the church in Lyon to open a new chapter with new leadership.
    
In a tweet sent Friday from an account that now labels him emeritus archbishop, Barbarin thanked members of his flock and offered them a final prayer: Follow Jesus closely.
    
Francis didn’t name a replacement archbishop on Friday. A brief Vatican statement merely said he had accepted the resignation. At 69, Barbarin is six years shy of the normal retirement age for bishops.
    
The French bishops’ conference said Monsignor Michel Dubost would continue serving as temporary administrator until a new archbishop is announced. The bishops said in a statement that they prayed the Lyon church would follow the work of truth and reconciliation that it has begun and renew its missionary zeal with a pure heart.
    
Barbarin had been accused of failing to report the Rev. Bernard Preynat to civil authorities when he learned of his abuse. Preynat has confessed to abusing Boy Scouts in the 1970s and 1980s. His victims accuse Barbarin and other church authorities of covering up for him for years.
    
Barbarin told the appeal hearing that he followed Vatican instructions in his handling of the case.
    
Preynat’s is on trial in Lyon. During days of testimony earlier this year, he said he couldn’t recall exactly how many boys he abused but gave an estimate of at least 75.
    
He testified that his bishops knew of his attraction to young boys but that none of them acted to stop or report him. Preynat was defrocked in July, about 40 years after parents first wrote to the Lyon diocese to raise alarms about the priest.
…

Britain’s biggest domestic airline is the latest casualty of the coronavirus outbreak. Flybe was rescued from near collapse in January but finally went bankrupt Thursday, hit by low demand and customer cancellations in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. Britain had reported close to 100 infections as of Thursday.
 
Flybe served mainly British and European regional airports rather than major hubs. Its collapse is being seen as a setback for government efforts to improve connectivity and re-balance the British economy away from London.”We feel really sad, just really sad,” Flybe crew member Katherine Denscham said as she prepared to leave her workplace at Exeter airport in Britain’s southwest.
 
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned Thursday that the entire global airline industry is suffering amid a huge downturn in bookings.
 
“We could see the effect on revenues exceed $100 billion, around about 19 percent of global passenger revenue. So this would be a revenue shock equivalent to what was seen in the global financial crisis,” IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce told a press conference in Singapore.
 
Cases of Covid-19 in Britain have risen sharply in recent days. The government said Thursday the focus is moving from containment to delaying its peak impact. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters that planning is underway for the worst-case scenario: a breakdown in law and order.”There are long established plans by which the police will… obviously keep the public safe, but they will prioritize those things that they have to do. And the army is, of course, always ready to backfill as and when. But that is under the reasonable worst-case scenario,” Johnson said this week.An electronic flight departure board displays ‘cancelled’ statuses for all Flybe flights at Exeter Airport in Exeter, England, March 5, 2020, following news that the airline had collapsed into bankruptcy.Across Europe big gatherings are being canceled or postponed, from trade shows to sporting events as the economic impacts are starting to bite. Italy has closed all schools and universities. In Venice, normally packed with visitors year-round, the famous canals are all but empty. Tourism numbers are down across the world.
 
Car sales in China have plunged by 80 percent in a month. Supply chains are disrupted across the globe. The International Monetary Fund has slashed growth forecasts – and announced this week that it will offer up to $50 billion in loans for poorer countries that could struggle to deal with a Coronavirus outbreak.
 
“We do have up to $10 billion available for low income countries to tap in with zero interest rates,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters. “And obviously we would prioritize countries, especially countries in Africa, that have already been faced with difficulties.”
 
Many African countries would struggle to cope with a large outbreak according to a recent study published in the Lancet, which highlighted Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana, and Kenya as being among the most vulnerable.”Preventing the entry of the virus will become increasingly difficult, especially if the international spread continues,” report co-author Marius Gilbert of the Free University of Brussels told VOA. “And given those data that indicate that the quality of care really has a strong impact on how serious it can be and how fatal it can be, I think that moving toward funding better healthcare in general would be quite a useful strategy.”
 
The one bright spot is that new infections in China, the source of the virus, continue to fall. Whether other countries can replicate Beijing’s response remains to be seen. 
…

Greek authorities used tear gas and a water cannon Friday morning to prevent migrants from crossing the border into their country from Turkey.On the other side of the border, Turkish authorities fired volleys of tear gas into the Greek territory.Thousands of refugees have reached Turkey’s eastern border from land and sea, and have been camping out since last week in hopes of making their way to Greece and eventually to other Western European countries.Greece has declared its border closed, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country would no longer serve as the gatekeeper for Europe after airstrikes by Russian-backed government forces in Syria killed 33 Turkish soldiers last week.Erdogan’s decision has alarmed governments in Europe and the EU is insisting that Turkey is obliged to keep the refugees and other migrants since Brussels is disbursing billions of euros as part of a deal reached with Turkey in 2015.More than 3.5 million Syrians have taken refuge in Turkey to escape the civil war in Syria.Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Thursday to a cease-fire in northwestern Syria, following talks on easing tensions in the region.
…

The U.S. Thursday slapped sanctions on Nicaragua’s national police and three top police commissioners for what it calls serious human rights abuses against anti-government demonstrators.“The Ortega regime has utilized the Nicaraguan National Police as a tool in its campaign of violent repression against the Nicaraguan people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “Treasury is committed to holding accountable those who seek to silence pro-democracy voices in Nicaragua.”Any assets the police or the three officials (Juan Antonio Valle Valle, Luis Alberto Perez Olivas and Justo Pastor Urbina) have in the United States are frozen and U.S. citizens are barred from doing business with them.The Trump administration accuses Nicaraguan police of using live ammunition against peaceful protesters, organizing death squads, arbitrary killings, and kidnappings. It says some of the victims have been opposition political leaders.Protests erupted in Nicaragua in 2018 over cuts in welfare benefits and soon grew into overall anger against President Daniel Ortega’s government. The opposition accuses Ortega — a one-time leftist hero — of becoming more and more autocratic, like the dictatorship he helped topple in 1979.He has so far refused resign or to call for early elections.Human rights groups say the police crackdown on protesters has killed more than 300 people, a number Nicaraguan officials dispute.
…

An international press watchdog is calling on Nicaraguan officials to investigate Tuesday’s attack on reporters covering the funeral of poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal.According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, several reporters were chased, shoved, beaten and robbed during Cardenal’s funeral at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital.Local news outlets say the unidentified attackers, clad in red-and-black bandanas — the colors of President Daniel Ortega’s ruling Sandinista party — shouted slogans praising the hard-line ruler.Supporters of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega shout slogans against anti-government people during the funeral mass for Nicaraguan poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua, March 3, 2020.Serious injuriesJennifer Ortiz, director of digital outlet Nicaragua Investiga, said police officers outside the cathedral stood down as the violence unfolded.Police did not respond to requests for comment.“We are a small independent media, and they leave us totally defenseless,” Ortiz told CPJ. “We are outraged by how journalism has been attacked, and we are worried about what might happen in an electoral context.”The assailants punched and kicked Ortiz’s staff reporter, Hans Lawrence, before stealing his phone, tripod and microphones.Lawrence, who is epileptic, was vomiting blood after the attack and remains under medical evaluation.Ortega supporters also beat and robbed Leonor Álvarez of national daily newspaper La Prensa, and David Quintana of Boletin Ecológico, who was also hospitalized briefly.Ongoing violenceThe attack came just days after the FILE – Nicaraguan poet and Catholic priest Ernesto Cardenal sits after he was awarded the Legion of Honor order during a reception in Managua, Nicaragua, Sept. 30, 2013.The clampdown has drawn international condemnation from the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Organization of American States, which, like demonstrators calling for Ortega’s resignation, compare the president to the dictator he helped to overthrow.Ortega’s government calls the uprising, which has claimed 320 lives, part of a U.S.-financed coup attempt.Cardenal, who died of heart and kidney failure in Managua on Sunday at the age of 95, once supported the Sandinista revolution before distancing himself from Ortega, becoming one of the president’s most trenchant critics.In 1983, he was one of three Nicaraguan priests suspended from the priesthood over his support for the Sandinistas. Pope Francis lifted Cardenal’s suspension in February 2019.Paris-based Reporters Without Borders ranks Nicaragua 114th out of 180 countries in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index, a 24-point drop from its 2018 ranking.
…

Russia and Turkey agreed to a cease-fire deal in Syria’s troubled Idlib province following marathon talks in Moscow aimed at preventing the two countries’ often dueling political aims in Syria from spiraling into a direct military conflict.  Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met for six hours of negotiations at the Kremlin — more than three of them alone with their translators — in an effort to find a way out of the Idlib impasse.The area in the northwest of Syria has been the site of intense fighting between Turkish and Syrian government forces in recent weeks — with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russian air power, vowing to retake the territory from a dwindling band of rebel separatists supported by Ankara.Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Kremlin in Moscow, March 5, 2020.Compromise reachedThe escalating tensions put at risk the delicate web of military alliances the Kremlin has developed over its five-year military campaign in Syria — where Russia has come to the rescue of Turkey’s nemesis Assad while simultaneously partnering with Ankara to fight a common enemy in the Islamic State.“We do not always agree with our Turkish partners in our assessments of what is happening in Syria, but each time at critical moments, relying on the achieved high level of bilateral relations, we have thus far managed to find common ground on the disputed issues that have arisen, and come to acceptable solutions,” said Putin following the talks. “And that was the case here.”Indeed, the two sides managed to come up with what essentially amounted to a compromise that reduced tensions while addressing none of the core issues that prompted the crisis to begin with.  In essence, Russia agreed to enforce a previously negotiated de-escalation zone in Idlib that Turkey wants to protect its own border, while Turkey agreed to halt counterattacks on Syria and again acknowledge the Idlib region ultimately belongs to Damascus.Migrants walk on a dirt road following their arrival on a dinghy on a beach near the village of Skala Sikamias, after crossing part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the island of Lesbos, Greece, March 5, 2020.Humanitarian aid, joint patrolsThe deal’s key provision, announced in detail by both countries’ foreign ministers, allowed for a cease-fire to go into effect at midnight Thursday.  The two sides also announced a humanitarian corridor would open to allow an estimated 1 million refugees who had amassed at the Syrian-Turkish border to return home to Idlib.It was a key Turkish demand. Russia had been suggesting that the humanitarian crisis from the fighting in Idlib was overblown.   “We will work together to supply aid for the Syrians in need,” said Erdogan, in announcing the measure.  Russia and Turkey also announced plans to conduct joint patrols over portions of Idlib within seven days — the presence of Russian troops apparently intended to prevent Syrian regime forces from firing on Turkish soldiers in the area.  Indeed, there were immediate reasons to question whether Assad would respect the cease-fire deal.  In an interview with the Kremlin-backed Rossiya 24 channel that aired just minutes after the summit ended, the Syrian leader once again vowed the fall of Idlib to his Syrian government forces was just a matter of time.  For his part, Erdogan insisted Turkey reserved the right to respond to any future Syrian aggression, despite the cease-fire.  Who invited whom?  Before the real talks began, there were hints at gamesmanship over who initiated the summit, with a grim looking Putin noting that he was happy to meet with the Turkish president “at your request.”  In turn, Erdogan countered that he’d agreed to Putin’s offer to hold talks in Moscow instead of Istanbul simply because the Russian leader was consumed with proposed changes to Russia’s constitution.   Certainly, Erdogan was aware that the proposed amendments are widely viewed as a questionably legal effort by Putin to keep sway over Russian political life beyond the end of his fourth and final term in 2024.Either way, the leaders mostly struck conciliatory tones before cameras.  Putin express condolences for the deaths of more than 30 Turkish soldiers in a Syrian-led airstrike last week, saying that Moscow had been unaware the troops were in the area. Ignoring that Ankara has contested that account, the Russian leader added that Syrian forces, too, had suffered heavy losses.  Erdogan, in turn, noted that despite the Idlib tensions, Russian-Turkish relations were at their “peak.”  Moscow-Ankara tiesIndeed, for all the rancor over Idlib, Moscow and Ankara have recently struck important deals in nuclear energy, gas and arms — a growing relationship that has irked Turkey’s NATO allies and the U.S. in particular.  Yet, some analysts suggested, Turkey’s membership in the military alliance played a key role in Moscow’s decision to cut a deal with Ankara, rather than push for outright victory by its allies in the Syrian regime.“It’s obvious that the Russian operation in Syria since 2015 was focused on fighting with the Syrian opposition and terrorists, but not with other governments, not to mention a member of NATO,” wrote foreign policy analyst Vladimir Frolov in the online independent magazine Republic.“The Kremlin didn’t sign up for that.”
…

A London court ruled Thursday that the ruler of Dubai had instilled fear in his estranged wife and had choreographed the kidnapping of their two young daughters.At the end of 2018, Britain’s High Court said, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, 70, began a campaign of intimidation against his ex-wife, Princess Haya, 45, daughter of late King Hussein of Jordan. The princess had become the sheikh’s second official wife and bore him two daughters, Jalila, 12, and Zayed, 8.In April 2019, Princess Haya escaped with her children to Britain, fearing her husband’s threats. High Court of London Judge Andrew McFarlane said the sheikh’s actions were meant “to threaten, intimidate, mistreat and oppress with a total disregard for the rule of law.”By May 2019, Princess Haya had requested that her daughters be made wards of the British court in order to deflect the legal actions Sheikh Mohammed was conducting to try to get the children returned to him in Dubai. He eventually dropped his legal bid to stop the court from issuing Princess Haya a fact-finding judgment.Though Princess Haya is Sheikh Mohammed’s second wife, the sheikh has had multiple unofficial marriages and a total of 25 children.Another daughter, Latifa, 35, tried to escape her father twice, in June 2002 and February 2018. Both times, she was forcibly brought back to Dubai and her father’s custody to be held prisoner.“[Shamsa] has been deprived of her liberty for much if not all of the past two decades,” McFarlane said regarding another one of Sheikh Mohammed’s daughters, who was abducted from Cambridge at age 19. She is now 38 and no investigation has been approved to look into her disappearance.
…

The United States is accusing Russia of opening up its entire disinformation playbook to prey on growing fears about the spread of the coronavirus.Moscow’s effort, underway for weeks, according to officials, includes the use of state-run media outlets, fake news websites and “swarms” of fake online personas to churn out fabricated information in at least five languages.  “We’ve been watching the narratives that are being pushed out — false narratives around coronavirus,” Lea Gabrielle, coordinator for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), told lawmakers Thursday. “We saw the entire ecosystem of Russian disinformation at play.”Gabrielle declined to go into detail about the Russian disinformation efforts, saying she did not want to risk giving them any credence.Bill Gates?But other officials have said the Russian disinformation operation centers on three narratives — that the coronavirus is actually a bioweapon; that the CIA created the virus to hurt China; and that the virus is somehow the brainchild of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.Multiple requests to the Russian Embassy in Washington for comment went unanswered. But Russia has repeatedly denied other U.S. allegations regarding disinformation campaigns, such as charges Moscow has repeatedly sought to meddle in U.S. elections.Gabrielle said the GEC has been working with the State Department’s public diplomacy wing to try to expose and counter Moscow’s efforts, but cautioned it has not been easy.“There’s a lot of disinformation,” she told lawmakers. “It’s not just about the individual platforms. It’s the overall, big picture that we’re seeing develop and how adversaries are using the social media landscape. … I hope that all actors will act in the most responsible manner to support people who are scared around the world in the midst of this crisis.”Social media companies don’t agreeMaking the situation more challenging, some social media companies say they have yet to find evidence on their own of a massive Russian coronavirus influence operation.”At present, we’re not seeing significant coordinated platform manipulation efforts,” Twitter posted in a blog Wednesday. “However, we will remain vigilant and have invested substantially in our proactive abilities.”When contacted by VOA, Twitter confirmed it had been in contact with the GEC and has now been briefed, in broad strokes, on the center’s findings.Queries to Facebook went unanswered.As for the Kremlin’s coronavirus campaign, U.S. officials believe Russia is getting what it wants.”The fact is that many audiences around the world do believe these lies,” Jani Vujica, the GEC’s  director of analytics and research, told an audience in Washington last month about the coronavirus crisis. “For some, it reinforces their views of the West. For others, it shapes these views.”
…

As the coronavirus continues to spread in Europe, extraordinary measures are being put into place on the continent.Organizers of the London Book Fair, one of the publishing industry’s biggest gatherings, have canceled the event. Airlines have also significantly cut back on flights.In Italy, where the number of deaths from coronavirus is second only to China, the government has closed all schools and universities until mid-March and barred all sporting events with fans for the next month. Cases of coronavirus worldwide continue to increase, with the flu-like illness now having reached 80 nations. The fast spread of the virus is forcing authorities in many countries to take drastic measures. Health Secretary Matt Hancock walks past a hand washing station as he leaves after talking about coronavirus at the annual conference of the British Chambers of Commerce in London, March 5, 2020.In Britain, the number of cases has spiked to 90 but so far the authorities, fearful of hurting the economy, have not yet introduced measures to restrict movement or cancel large gatherings.Some events, however are being canceled, such as the London Book Fair, which was scheduled to be held next week. The gathering normally brings together some 25,000 writers, publishers and agents. British Health Minister Matt Hancock Thursday warned of tough weeks ahead in efforts to battle the spread of the virus.  His comments came after British regional airline Flybe collapsed in the wake of the outbreak, which dealt its final blow to the already ailing carrier. Other airlines in Europe are also struggling and having to ground some of their flights.People walk by the Colosseum in Rome, March 5, 2020. Italy has closed all schools and universities and barred fans from all sporting events for the next few weeks.In Italy, the European country worst hit by COVID-19, with the death toll in excess of 148 and the number of cases surpassing 3,850, Italian Education Minister Lucia Azzolina on Wednesday made an announcement few were expecting.She said that with the fast-changing epidemiological situation, the government had decided to close all schools and universities starting on Thursday until March 15.Minister Azzolina added that she was well aware it was “a decision with an impact.” She said that as education minister, she obviously wanted students back in school as soon as possible.Some students celebrated the idea of not going to school for a while even though the education minister made clear all efforts would be made by schools and universities to ensure students continue their studies at home and not fall behind.Eighteen-year-old Riccardo Romano, who attends the Righi Liceum in Rome, expressed concern about the government decision.The closure of schools, Romano said, was the right thing to do to limit the spread of the virus. But he said the government should also have closed discos and stopped bus travel because people are near each other also in these places and risk contracting the virus. He said students are not the ones who are most at risk.The elderly are more of a concern and the Italian government has asked them to stay indoors as much as possible. It also advised everyone to keep at a safe distance of at least one meter from others, and refrain from kissing or hugging each other and shaking hands.  In addition, sporting events, including soccer games, will be played behind closed doors for the next month.  
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday agreed to a cease-fire in northwestern Syria, following talks in Moscow on easing tensions in the region.The two leaders said the cease-fire would take effect at midnight local time in the area of Idlib, where a Syrian and Russian offensive has driven more than one million civilians toward the Turkish border over the past three months. Idlib is the last remaining rebel stronghold.in Syria.“I express hope that these agreements will serve as a good basis for a cessation of military activity in the Idlib de-escalation zone (and) stop the suffering of the peaceful population and the growing humanitarian crisis,” Putin said.Erdogan said they would “work together to supply aid for the Syrians in need” and said he reserved the right “to respond to all (Syrian) regime attacks in the field.”The offensive has triggered what may be the world’s worst-ever humanitarian crisis, the United Nations has said.Putin and Erdogan back opposing sides in the nine-year war, with Erdogan backing some Syrian rebel groups and Putin supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.Russia and Turkey have previously reached multiple cease-fire agreements in Idlib but none has been successful.The two leaders also agreed to secure a key highway in the Idlib area with joint patrols beginning next week.The announcement comes days after Erdogan said he would open his borders to western Europe. Since then, migrants have massed at the Turkish-Greek border, leading to clashes with Greek police. Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million people from Syria. 
…

Four years after Russia-linked groups stoked divisions in the U.S. presidential election on social media platforms, a new report shows that Moscow’s campaign hasn’t let up and has become harder to detect.
The report  from University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Young Mie Kim found that Russia-linked social media accounts are posting about the same divisive issues — race relations, gun laws and immigration — as they did in 2016, when the Kremlin polluted American voters’ feeds with messages about the presidential election.
Since then, however, the Russians have grown better at imitating U.S. campaigns and political fan pages online, said Kim, who analyzed thousands of posts. She studied more than 5 million Facebook ads during the 2016 election, identifying Russia’s fingerprints on some of the messages through an ad-tracking app installed on volunteers’ computers. Her review is co-published by the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy institute, where she is a scholar.
The recent improvements make it harder for voters and social media platforms to identify the foreign interference, Kim said.
“For normal users, it is too subtle to discern the differences,” Kim said. “By mimicking domestic actors, with similar logos [and] similar names, they are trying to avoid verification.”
Kim’s report comes weeks after U.S. intelligence officials briefed lawmakers on Russian efforts to stir chaos in American politics and undermine public confidence in this year’s election. The classified briefing detailed Russian efforts to boost the White House bids of both Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that Russia  was still actively waging “information warfare” with an army of fictional social media personas and bots that spread disinformation.
In a rare, joint statement Monday, the leaders of America’s intelligence agencies cautioned that foreign actors were spreading false information ahead of Super Tuesday to “cause confusion and create doubt in our system.”
But intelligence officials have not released any details about the type of disinformation or explained how Americans should protect themselves from it.
Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the U.S. elections, and did so again on Thursday.
“You just want us to repeat again that we have nothing to do with the U.S. elections,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Facebook, which had not seen Kim’s report, had no immediate comment, though the company has insisted that it is getting better at responding to the evolving tactics of foreign and domestic actors.
After getting caught off-guard with Russia’s 2016 election interference attempts, Facebook, Google, Twitter and others put safeguards in place to prevent it from happening again. This includes taking down posts, groups and accounts that engage in “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” and strengthening verification procedures for political ads.
Cindy Otis, a disinformation expert and former CIA officer who was not involved in the research, said that while disinformation messaging has not changed much, the technology used to disseminate the bad information is evolving and improving.
“Certainly with the Russians, they know what kinds of narratives work in the U.S.,” Otis said. “The whole system of disinformation is very effective and they know that it is.”
Kim’s report pulls back the curtain on some of the online techniques Russia has already used in this year’s presidential race.
Her review identified thousands of posts last year from more than 30 Instagram accounts, which Facebook removed from the site in October after concluding that they originated from Russia and had links to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian operation that targeted U.S. audiences in 2016. Facebook owns Instagram. Analysis from Graphika, a disinformation security firm, also concluded at the time that the accounts went to “great lengths to hide their origins.”
Kim’s analysis found the accounts appeared to mimic existing political ones, including one called “Bernie.2020_” that used campaign logos to make it seem like it was connected to Sanders’ campaign or was a fan page for his supporters, Kim said.
Some presidential candidates also were targeted directly.An account called Stop.Trump2020 posted anti-Trump content. Other Instagram accounts pushed negative messages about Democrat Joe Biden.
“Like for Trump 2020,” said one meme featuring a portrait photo of Trump and a photo of Biden. “Ignore for Biden 2020.”
It was posted by an Instagram account called Iowa.Patriot, one of several accounts that targeted specific communities in crucial swing states like Michigan, Ohio and Iowa with messaging.
The accounts also appeared to capitalize on other divisive American issues that emerged after the 2016 election.
Some Instagram accounts pretended to be liberal, feminist groups as fallout from the (hash)MeToo movement, which has exposed sexual misconduct allegations against high-profile public figures. Other accounts targeted conservative women with posts that criticized abortions.
“I don’t need feminism, because real feminism is about equal opportunity and respect for women. NOT about abortions, free birth control ….” a meme on one account read.
The accounts varied in how often they posted, the size of their following and the traction the posts received. But they carried the hallmarks of a Russian-backed online disinformation campaign, Kim said.
“They’re clearly adapting to current affairs,” Kim said. “Targeting both sides with messages is very unique to Russia.”
  
          
…

Britain’s chief medical officer briefed lawmakers Thursday amid an expected surge in confirmed cases of coronavirus, saying the country is moving from a “containment” phase to one focused on “delaying” the spread, in a bid to avoid high peaks of infections that could overwhelm healthcare services.But confusion was prompted later when Downing Street officials briefed the media, saying the British government is still focused on containment and did not want to move prematurely to implement ramped-up measures that would have broad economic and social impact.The chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, warned that Britain’s national health service could run out of intensive care beds at the peak of a coronavirus outbreak, with half the country’s cases expected to occur in a three-week period. He told lawmakers there is now a “very slim to zero” chance of halting the virus globally and in Britain.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson reacts during a press conference at Downing Street on the government’s coronavirus action plan in London, March 3, 2020.He said moving from containment to delay would not immediately change the government’s response, but the elderly will ultimately be advised to stay away from others during the peak of an outbreak, similar to warnings that the Italian government issued Wednesday in its effort to battle the spread of the novel coronavirus.In Italy there was dismay Thursday when it emerged that a 55-year-old has died from the virus  — breaking the pattern of the virus killing only the elderly. Of the more than 100 deaths in Italy so far, all have been between 63 and 95-years-old and had underlying pre-existing illnesses. The 55-year-old’s death — as well a 61-year-old doctor succumbing to the virus — have broken that pattern. Neither were known to have any serious pre-existing conditions.“We have moved from a situation where we are mainly in contain, with some delay built in, to we are now mainly delay,” Whitty said. “I think we should work on the assumption it is here, on very low levels, at this point in time.”He said a peak is expected in about two months. Britain now has 90 confirmed cases of infection. But privately medical officials say they think there may be many cases that have gone unreported.“One of the things which is clear, if you model out the epidemic, is you will get 50 percent of all the cases over a three-week period and 95 percent of the cases over a nine-week period, if it follows the trajectory we think it’s likely to. If all of those were spaced out on the NHS over two or three years, that would be easily manageable, but it’s the fact they are so heavily concentrated,” he said.Pedestrians wear face masks as they walk at Piccadilly Circus main tourist destination in central London, as the public are asked to take precautions to protect themselves from the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak, March 5, 2020.British medical officials say they are not convinced by the Italian strategy of closing down schools and universities to halt the virus.  And they have a different view on the fatality rate from the Italians and the World Health Organization. They say they are confident that the death rate of the virus would be no higher than one percent. On Tuesday World Health Organization officials say the mortality rate for COVID-19 is at 3.4 percent globally, higher than previous estimates of about two percent.Chinese data has found the elderly to be much more vulnerable, with death rates rising to nine percent in people over 80-years-old.Some medical experts say, though, calculating the “case-fatality-ratio” is tricky.“It is surprisingly difficult to calculate the death rate, during an epidemic,” said John Edmunds, a professor at the Center for the Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “This is because it takes some time to die.  In the case of COVID-19, the time between onset of disease and death is quite long — two to three weeks or more – so the number of cases that you should divide by is not the number of cases that we have seen to this point, but the number of cases that there were a few weeks ago.   Estimating what fraction of the cases might be reported is very tricky,” he added.Also he noted not all cases of infection will be reported because only mild symptoms are suffered.“If there are many more cases in reality, then the case-fatality-ratio will be lower,” he told the Science Media Center website.For the British government — much with their counterparts in European states affected by the outbreak — it is a difficult challenge to try to halt the spread of the virus and prepare for the worst while seeking to allay public alarm. While tamping down talk of moving from a containment phase to one focused on delay, British officials are also making it clear that a spread will prompt more draconian responses.Among those possible responses in Britain would be the likely closing down of parliament. Downing Street advisers and officials at the Palace of Westminster, which houses both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, have been having discussions whether to suspend sittings of the legislature from next month until September. The fear is that the virus could spread quickly in the building because of the large number of people who visit it.Earlier this week the government unveiled its battle plan for different stages of the spread of the virus. The plan would include banning sporting events and mass gatherings, closing schools, suspending some public transportation and urging businesses to encourage employees to work from home.Prime Minister Boris Johnson added some confusion Thursday by telling reporters that some of his science and medical advisers were doubtful about the effectiveness of some of the measures being considered, if infections surge. What they “are telling me is, actually, slightly counter-intuitively, things like closing schools and stopping big gatherings don’t work as well perhaps as people think in stopping the spread,” he said.
…

British regional airline Flybe collapsed Thursday after a plunge in travel demand, making the long-struggling carrier one of the first big corporate casualties of the coronavirus outbreak.The failure of an airline that connects all corners of the United Kingdom with major European destinations not only puts around 2,400 jobs at risk but could also see some airports struggle and regional economies hit.“All flights have been grounded and the UK business has ceased trading with immediate effect,” Flybe said after the government walked away from a rescue package agreed to in January.Virus hits airlines’ bottom linesAirlines around the world have been canceling flights and warning of a hit to profitability after coronavirus first emerged in China, hitting flights across Asia, before it spread to Europe and beyond.British Airways, easyJet, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Norwegian Air and United Airlines are among those warning about the impact of a virus that looks set to hit the industry harder than the 2003 SARS outbreak.Flybe’s collapse will also cause more problems for Prime Minister Boris Johnson who had promised to “level up” Britain by investing in regional transport links.His government had agreed a rescue deal for the 41-year-old airline in January, saying it was important to maintain connections across the country for its 8 million passengers.It said on Thursday there was nothing more it could do.“We are also urgently working with industry to identify how key routes can be re-established by other airlines as soon as possible,” Transport Minister Grant Shapps said.Rescue deal unravelsFlybe, the largest independent regional airline in Europe, operated between 81 airports and was owned by Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group and Cyrus Capital.The owners said they had plowed more than 135 million pounds ($174 million) into the business in the last 14 months, including around 25 million pounds pledged in January.January’s rescue deal had seen the government agree to match the owners’ support for Flybe with a potential loan, a deferral of taxes and a review of local flight tax rules.That briefly formed part of Johnson’s plan to try to boost the regions of Britain beyond London. Without Flybe though, some regional airports like Exeter, Birmingham and Southampton will have much poorer connections.However, rival airlines complained that the state should not prop up failing companies and environmental campaigners argued any move to reduce the cost of flying did not fit with the government’s aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions.Regional airportsFlybe’s 68 aircraft flew to airports including Belfast City in Northern Ireland, Jersey in the Channel Islands, Birmingham in central England and Scotland’s Inverness and provided more than half of UK domestic flights outside London.The pilot’s union said airline staff had been betrayed by the owners and the government.In a sign of the ripple effect the virus can have, Britain’s biggest commercial free-to-air broadcaster ITV warned Thursday its advertising revenue had been hit by travel companies pulling spending.Stobart and Virgin Atlantic said they were deeply disappointed with the outcome.“Sadly, despite the efforts of all involved to turn the airline around, not least the people of Flybe, the impact of COVID-19 on Flybe’s trading means that the consortium can no longer commit to continued financial support,” they said.It is the second major British airline to go bust in six months after the world’s oldest travel firm Thomas Cook collapsed in September, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers and sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history.The country’s broader airline strategy was also thrown into disarray last week when a court ruled a plan to expand Europe’s biggest airport Heathrow was unlawful.
…

Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court gave the green light Thursday for prosecutors to open an investigation targeting the Taliban, Afghan forces and U.S. military and intelligence personnel for war crimes and crimes against humanity.The global court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against a pretrial chamber’s rejection last April of Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s request to open a probe in Afghanistan.Pretrial judges last year acknowledged that widespread crimes have been committed in Afghanistan, but rejected the investigation saying it wouldn’t be in the interests of justice because the likely lack of cooperation meant convictions would ultimately be unlikely.FILE – Public prosecutor Fatou Bensouda attends a trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the Netherlands, July 8, 2019.That decision drew fierce criticism from human rights organizations who said it neglected the desire of victims to seek justice in Afghanistan and effectively rewarded states that refused to cooperate with the Hague-based court.On Thursday, rights groups swiftly hailed ICC for upholding victims’ right to accountability, and paving the way for the United States to be held to account for the first time for actions.“Today, the International Criminal Court breathed new life into the mantra that ‘no one is above the law’ and restored some hope that justice can be available — and applied — to all,” said Katherine Gallagher, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and ICC Victims Legal Representative, told VOA News.“In authorizing this critical and much-delayed investigation into crimes in and related to Afghanistan, the Court made clear that political interference in judicial proceedings will not be tolerated,” she said.Even though an investigation has now been authorized, it remains to be seen if any suspects eventually indicted by prosecutors will appear in court in The Hague — both Afghanistan and the United States have strongly opposed the investigation and the U.S. government refuses to cooperate with the global court.At a hearing in December, prosecutors argued that pretrial judges at the global court overstepped their powers last April when they refused to authorize an investigation. The appeals judges agreed.“The Appeals Chamber considers it appropriate to amend the appealed decision to the effect that the prosecutor is authorized to commence an investigation into alleged crimes committed on the territory of Afghanistan since May 1, 2003, as well as other alleged crimes that have a nexus to the armed conflict in Afghanistan,” Presiding Judge Piotr Hofmanski said.After a preliminary probe in Afghanistan that lasted more than a decade, Bensouda asked judges in November 2017 to authorize a far-reaching investigation.She said there is information that members of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies “committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence against conflict-related detainees in Afghanistan and other locations, principally in the 2003-2004 period.”FILE – Personal attorney to President Donald Trump, Jay Sekulow, speaks to reporters during the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Jan. 23, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.She also said the Taliban and other insurgent groups have killed more than 17,000 Afghan civilians since 2009, including some 7,000 targeted killings, and that Afghan security forces are suspected of torturing prisoners at government detention centers.At a December hearing, the government of Afghanistan said it objected to the investigation and has set up a special unit to investigate war crimes. The ICC is a court of last resort that only takes on cases if domestic jurisdictions are unable or unwilling to prosecute.There was no official U.S. delegation at December’s appeal hearing, but President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, appeared on behalf of the European branch of the American Center for Law and Justice and told judges that the U.S. position wouldn’t change.He told appeals judges that “it is not in the interests of justice to waste the court’s resources while ignoring the reality of principled non-cooperation.”
…

Javier Perez de Cuellar, the two-term United Nations secretary-general who brokered a historic cease-fire between Iran and Iraq in 1988 and who in later life came out of retirement to help re-establish democracy in his Peruvian homeland, has died. He was 100.His son, Francisco Perez de Cuellar, said his father died Wednesday at home of natural causes. Current U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the Peruvian diplomat a “personal inspiration.”“Mr. Perez de Cuellar’s life spanned not only a century but also the entire history of the United Nations, dating back to his participation in the first meeting of the General Assembly in 1946,” said Guterres in a statement late Wednesday.Perez de Cuellar’s death ends a long diplomatic career that brought him full circle from his first posting as secretary at the Peruvian embassy in Paris in 1944 to his later job as Peru’s ambassador to France.When he began his tenure as U.N. secretary-general on Jan. 1, 1982, he was a little-known Peruvian who was a compromise candidate at a time when the United Nations was held in low esteem.Serving as U.N. undersecretary-general for special political affairs, he emerged as the dark horse candidate in December 1981 after a six-week election deadlock between U.N. chief Kurt Waldheim and Tanzanian Foreign Minister Salim Ahmed Salim.Once elected, he quickly made his mark.Shaking the UN houseDisturbed by the United Nations’ dwindling effectiveness, he sought to revitalize the world body’s faulty peacekeeping machinery.His first step was to “shake the house” with a highly critical report in which he warned: “We are perilously near to a new international anarchy.”With the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and with conflicts raging in Afghanistan and Cambodia and between Iran and Iraq, he complained to the General Assembly that U.N. resolutions “are increasingly defied or ignored by those that feel themselves strong enough to do so.”During his decade as U.N. chief, Perez de Cuellar would earn a reputation more for diligent, quiet diplomacy than charisma.“He has an amiable look about him that people mistake for through and through softness,” said an aide, who described him as tough and courageous.Quiet diplomacyFaced early in his first term with a threatened U.S. cutoff of funds in the event of Israel’s ouster, he worked behind the scenes to stop Arab efforts to deprive the Jewish state of its General Assembly seat. There was muted criticism from the Arab camp that he had given the Americans the right of way in the Middle East.In dealing with human rights issues, he chose the path of “discreet diplomacy.” He refrained from publicly rebuking Poland for refusing to allow his special representative into the country to investigate allegations of human rights violations during the Warsaw regime’s 1982 crackdown on the Solidarity trade union movement.He came back for a second term after a groundswell of support for his candidacy, including a conversation with President Ronald Reagan, who — in the words of the U.N. chief’s spokesman — expressed “his personal support for the secretary-general.”“Just about all the Western countries have told him they’d like to see him stay on,” a Western diplomatic source said at the time. “There is no visible alternative.”Unlike his predecessor, Kurt Waldheim who was regarded as a “workaholic” and who spent long hours in his office, Perez de Cuellar liked to get away from it all. “He is very jealous of his own privacy,” a close aide said.“When I can, I read everything but United Nations documents,” Perez de Cuellar confided to a reporter. Once on a flight to Moscow, an aide observed that “in the midst of it all, the secretary-general had time for splendid literature.”Trilingual, Perez de Cuellar read French, English and Spanish literature.Lebanon hostagesPerez de Cuellar spent much of his second term working behind the scenes on the hostage issue, resulting in the release of Westerners held in Lebanon, including the last and longest held American hostage, journalist Terry Anderson, who was freed Dec. 4, 1991.All told, Perez de Cuellar’s diplomacy helped bring an end to fighting in Cambodia and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.Shortly after midnight on Jan. 1, 1992, he walked out of U.N. headquarters to his waiting limousine, no longer the secretary-general, but having attained his final goal after hours of tough negotiations: a peace pact between the Salvadoran government and leftist rebels.“Mr. Perez de Cuellar played a crucial role in a number of diplomatic successes, including the independence of Namibia, an end to the Iran-Iraq War, the release of American hostages held in Lebanon, the peace accord in Cambodia and, in his very last days in office, a historic peace agreement in El Salvador,” Guterres said.Became diplomat 1944Javier Perez de Cuellar was born in Lima on Jan. 19, 1920. His father a “modest businessman,” was an accomplished amateur pianist, according to the former secretary-general. The family traced its roots to the Spanish town of Cuellar, north of Segovia.In Peru, the family belonged to the educated rather than the landowning class.He received a law degree from Lima’s Catholic University in 1943 and joined the Peruvian diplomatic service a year later. He would go on to postings in France, Britain, Bolivia and Brazil before returning to Lima in 1961, where he served in a number of high-level ministry posts.He was ambassador to Switzerland and then became Peru’s first ambassador to the Soviet Union while concurrently accredited to Poland. Other assignments included the post of secretary-general of the Peruvian Foreign Ministry and chief delegate to the United Nations.After leaving the U.N., Perez de Cuellar made an unsuccessful bid for Peru’s presidency in 1995 against the authoritarian leader Alberto Fujimori, whose 10-year autocratic regime crumbled in November 2000 amid corruption scandals.At the age of 80, Perez de Cuellar emerged from retirement in Paris and returned to Peru to take on the mantle of foreign minister and cabinet chief for provisional President Valentin Paniagua.His impeccable democratic credentials lent credibility to an interim government whose mandate was to deliver free and fair elections. Eight months later, newly elected President Alejandro Toledo asked him to serve as Ambassador to France.Between foreign assignments, he was professor of diplomatic law at the Academia Diplomatica del Peru and of international relations at the Peruvian Academy for Air Warfare.At UN in 1975Transferring to the United Nations in 1975, he was appointed by Waldheim as the secretary-general’s special representative in Cyprus. During his two years on the divided island he helped to promote intercommunal peace talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.After a brief stint as Peru’s ambassador to Venezuela, he returned to the United Nations in 1979 as undersecretary-general for special political affairs. In that capacity, he undertook delicate diplomatic missions to Indochina and Afghanistan.Perez de Cuellar resigned his U.N. post in May 1981, just before the election campaign for U.N. secretary-general heated up, and returned to the Peruvian diplomatic service.President Fernando Belaunde Terry recommended Perez de Cuellar for nomination as U.N. secretary-general.Perez de Cuellar married the former Marcela Temple. He had a son, Francisco, and a daughter, Cristina, by a previous marriage.His funeral will be Friday.
…

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads to Moscow on Thursday for a high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at de-escalating tensions between the armies of Turkey, a NATO member, and Russia, a nuclear superpower, in Syria’s war-torn Idlib province. While nominally partners in a fight against terrorism in the region, Moscow and Ankara have been cast on a seemingly unavoidable collision course in Idlib — the territory in northwest Syria where Russia is helping its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, wipe out one of the last bastions of opposition to his rule. Turkey, along with Western governments, accuses the Syrian government of carrying out a bombing campaign with Russian support that has provoked a humanitarian crisis, with nearly a million civilians fleeing the fighting for the Syria-Turkey border.    The siege has also met with forceful pushback from Ankara because it opposes Assad’s rule. In response, Turkey has launched a military campaign intended to protect what it says are largely anti-Assad rebels, not terrorists, in the Idlib stronghold.   During his briefing with reporters Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia hoped for a compromise with Erdogan, despite those differences.   “We expect to reach a common understanding on the crisis, the cause of the crisis, the harmful effects of the crisis, and arrive at a set of necessary joint measures,” Peskov said.    FILE – Syrian army soldiers fire a weapon as they advance on the town of Kfar Nabl, Syria, March 2, 2020.In turn, Erdogan has indicated he expects to negotiate a cease-fire with Putin over Idlib, despite vowing that a recent spate of Turkish attacks against Syrian government targets were “only the beginning” of revenge for the deaths of several dozen Turkish soldiers in Syrian bombing raids last week.    Injecting more uncertainty ahead of the talks was Assad.  In an interview with the Kremlin-backed Rossiya-24 channel, the Syrian leader said his forces would finish the operation in Idlib before moving on to mop up remaining pockets of resistance.    “I’ve said many times that Idlib, from a military point of view, is a steppingstone, and they put all their forces to stop its liberation so we can’t proceed to the east,” Assad said, accusing Turkey and its NATO alliance partner, the United States, of trying to thwart his inevitable military progress.   The art of diplomacy  On the eve of the Putin-Erdogan summit, events surrounding the Idlib battlefield continued to churn unpredictably, a sign that all sides were trying to increase bargaining positions ahead of the talks.  On Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Turkey had violated earlier negotiated agreements with Moscow, accusing Ankara of providing direct military aid to terrorist groups in Idlib who routinely fire on Russia’s main base in the region.   Russia also seized the strategic town of Saraqeb from Turkish-backed rebels, a move that according to Russian media reports put Russian soldiers in the immediate line of fire from Turkish forces. No injuries were reported.   Multiple reports also suggested Russia had beefed up its naval presence by dispatching a fourth warship to the region. Meanwhile, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov insisted that Western reports of mass refugee flows and a humanitarian crisis along the Turkey-Syria border were overblown and reflected “fake concern” over the issue.   Turkey, Konashenkov argued, had instead been intentionally pushing refugees from other countries toward Europe to try to gain concessions and backing from the European Union in Ankara’s standoff with Moscow.   FILE – Turkish soldiers hold their positions with their tanks on a hilltop on the outskirts of Suruc, at the Turkey-Syria border, overlooking Kobani, Syria, during fighting between Syrian Kurds and Islamic State militants, Oct. 12, 2014.’Tsar vs. sultan’ Russia entered the Syrian civil war in 2015, aiding Assad in what the Kremlin insisted was an anti-terrorist campaign against Islamic State, and what Western powers have billed as a ruthless effort to root out opposition to Assad’s rule.   For a time, Moscow and Ankara papered over those differences, choosing to focus on a common enemy in Islamic State, which had carried out terrorist attacks in both countries, killing scores of people. Later deals involving trade, energy and oil also helped their alliance.   Yet the standoff over Assad has always been at the core of the relationship between Putin and Erdogan, which Russian media have billed as ‘”the tsar vs. the sultan.” Analysts in Moscow see a dangerous game in which Russia’s ambitions to become a Middle East power broker through Syria have bumped into Turkey’s ascension as a key regional player. “For Turkey, it’s about its own internal stability, and of course, huge ambitions,” Alexey Malashenko, chief researcher at the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute, told VOA in an interview.  “But the presence of Russia in the south of Syria proves once again that Russia is still a power. If there’s no Assad, Russia’s not in Syria, and we’re not in the Middle East.” The facts of war   Despite its role as a Middle East powerbroker, Russia’s presence has struggled to stem recent fighting between Damascus and Ankara. FILE – Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during the funeralof Turkish soldier Emre Baysal, killed in Syria’s Idlib region, in Istanbul, Turkey, Feb. 29, 2020.Turkey said Syrian government airstrikes killed 54 Turkish soldiers in February alone, including 33 airstrikes in Idlib last week.  Turkish forces responded by shooting down three Syrian government warplanes and striking a military airport deep inside Syrian territory, which killed what Turkey said were over 100 Assad regime loyalists.    “We said that we would avenge the death of our martyrs,” Erdogan said this week. “By destroying the regime’s warplanes and tanks, we are making it pay a very heavy price.” As casualties mounted on both sides, analysts in Moscow openly questioned whether Russia could assert pressure to stop the fighting, even if it wanted to.  “Of course, Russia has a certain degree of influence on Damascus. But you could also look it at from another angle — that it’s Russia who is trapped,” Alexey Khlebnikov, a Middle East and North Africa expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, said in an interview. “It cannot say to Damascus, ‘If you don’t do this, we’ll withdraw our forces and leave.’ It won’t happen.” The implication? Despite any agreements between Putin and Erdogan in Thursday’s meeting, Assad may not follow the script. 
 
…

Its doomed maiden voyage happened more than a century ago, but the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 remains the stuff of popular culture and the object of deep-sea salvage.  A firm has recovered more than 5,000 of its artifacts, but as VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, time may be running out to raise the ship’s Holy Grail.
…

President Nicolas Maduro wants Venezuelan women to have many children as a way to boost the country, which has seen millions of people flee in recent years to escape its economic crisis.Maduro made the exhortation during a televised event Tuesday evening for a government program promoting various birth methods.”God bless you for giving the country six little boys and girls,” the socialist president told a woman at the event. “To give birth, then, to give birth, all women to have six children, all. Let the homeland grow!”The comments drew criticism from human rights activists and others who noted Venezuelans already are struggling to provide food, clothes and health care for their families.”It is irresponsible, on the part of a president of the Republic, to encourage women to have six children simply to make a homeland, when there is a homeland that does not guarantee children their lives,” said Oscar Misle, founder of CECODAP, a group that defends the rights of young people.FILE – Pastor, 3, and Josue, 4, both of whom have been hospitalized in the past for malnutrition according to their mother Gregoria Hernandez, walk outside their house in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Nov. 28, 2019.The country’s economic collapse, coupled with its deep political divisions, led more than 4.5 million Venezuelans to emigrate since 2015, according to the United Nations.The U.N. World Food Program also recently said that 9.3 million people — nearly one-third of Venezuela’s population — are unable to meet their basic dietary needs.”You have to be very cynical to ask that we have six children,” said Magdalena de Machado, a housewife picking through scraggly vegetables at a street market in the center of Caracas for making soup for her sons, ages 2 and 4.”Only two days a week we can serve some meat and chicken. For years we were late having children. We had them when we thought we were better off, but in the last year we’ve been buying less and less food,” she said.De Machado and others also questioned how women could be expected to increase births amid the deterioration in the country’s health care, both for adults and children.A report by Humans Rights Watch in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health concluded last year that the health system in Venezuela has “totally collapsed.” Among other problems, it cited rising levels of maternal and child mortality as well as the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
 
…