China says death toll from coronavirus rises to 106, confirmed cases hits 4,515

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People with face masks arrive at a BTS Sky train station in Bangkok on January 27, 2020. (AFP)
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A man wearing a protective facemask walks along a street in Wuhan on January 26, 2020, a city at the epicentre of a viral outbreak that has killed at least 56 people and infected nearly 2,000. (AFP)
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This photo taken on January 26, 2020 shows workers producing facemasks at a factory in Yangzhou in China's eastern Jiangsu province, to support the supply of medical materials during a deadly virus outbreak which began in Wuhan. (AFP)
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A discarded facemask sits on a street in Wuhan on January 26, 2020, a city at the epicentre of a viral outbreak that has killed many people. (AFP)
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Updated 28 January 2020
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China says death toll from coronavirus rises to 106, confirmed cases hits 4,515

  • On China’s heavily censored social media, officials have faced mounting anger over the virus, which is thought to have originated from a market where wildlife was sold illegally

SHANGHAI: The United States warned against travel to China on Monday and Canada issued a more narrow travel warning as the death toll from the spreading coronavirus passed 106, with tens of millions stranded during the biggest holiday of the year and global markets rattled.
Global stocks fell, oil prices hit three-month lows, and China’s yuan dipped to its weakest level in 2020 as investors fretted about damage to the world’s second-biggest economy from travel bans and the Lunar New Year holiday, which China extended in a bid to keep people at home.
The health commission of China’s Hubei province said on Tuesday that 106 people had died from the virus as of Jan. 27, according to an online statement, up from the previous toll of 76, with the number of confirmed cases in the province rose to 4,515.
Other fatalities have been reported elsewhere in China, including the first in Beijing, bringing the deal toll to 106 so far, according to the People’s Daily. The state newspaper put the total number of confirmed cases in China at 4,193, though some experts suspect a much higher number.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump offered China whatever help it needed, while the State Department said Americans should “reconsider” visiting all of China due to the virus.
Canada, which has two confirmed cases of the virus and is investigating 19 more potential cases, warned its citizens to avoid travel to China’s Hubei province, at the heart of the outbreak.
Authorities in Hubei province are taking increasing flak from the public over their initial response to the virus. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the city of Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak, to encourage medical workers and promise reinforcements.
Visiting Wuhan in blue protective suit and mask, Li praised medics, said 2,500 more workers would join them in the next two days, and visited the site of a new hospital to be built in days.
The most senior leader to visit Wuhan since the outbreak, Li was shown on state TV leading medical workers in chants of “Wuhan jiayou!” — an exhortation to keep their strength up.
China’s ambassador to the United Nations, following a meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday, said “the Chinese government attaches paramount importance to prevention and control of the epidemic, and President Xi Jinping has given important instructions. ...
“China has been working with the international community in the spirit of openness, transparency and scientific coordination,” he said.
Guterres said in a statement, “The UN appreciates China’s effort, has full confidence in China’s ability of controlling the outbreak, and stands ready to provide any support and assistance.”

MOUNTING ANGER
On China’s heavily censored social media, officials have faced mounting anger over the virus, which is thought to have originated from a market where wildlife was sold illegally.
Some criticized the governor of Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, after he corrected himself twice during a news conference over the number of face masks being produced.
“If he can mess up the data multiple times, no wonder the disease has spread so severely,” said one user of the Weibo social media platform.
In rare public self-criticism, Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang said the city’s management of the crisis was “not good enough” and indicated he was willing to resign.
The central Chinese city of 11 million people is in virtual lockdown and much of Hubei, home to nearly 60 million people, is under travel curbs.
Elsewhere in China, people from the region faced questioning about their movements. “Hubei people are getting discriminated against,” a Wuhan resident complained on Weibo.
Cases linked to people who traveled from Wuhan have been confirmed in a dozen countries, from Japan to the United States, where authorities said they had 110 people under investigation in 26 states. Sri Lanka was the latest to confirm a case.

INVESTORS WORRIED
Investors are worried about the impact. The consensus is that in the short term, economic output will be hit as authorities limit travel and extend the week-long New Year holiday — when millions traditionally travel by rail, road and plane — by three days to limit spread of the virus.
Asian and European shares tumbled, with Japan’s Nikkei average sliding 2%, its biggest one-day fall in five months. Demand spiked for safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and Treasury notes. European stocks fell more than 2%.
The US S&P 500 closed down nearly 1.6%.
“China is the biggest driver of global growth so this couldn’t have started in a worse place,” said Alec Young, FTSE Russell’s managing director of global markets research.
During the 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which originated in China and killed nearly 800 people globally, air passenger demand in Asia plunged 45%. The travel industry is more reliant on Chinese travelers now.
Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which has had eight cases, banned entry to people who had visited Hubei recently.
Some European tour operators canceled trips to China, while governments around the world worked on repatriating nationals.
Officially known as 2019-nCoV, the newly identified coronavirus can cause pneumonia, but it is still too early to know just how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads.
“What we know about this virus it that transmission occurs through human contact but we are speaking of close contact, i.e. less than a meter,” said Jerome Salomon, a senior official with France’s health ministry.
“Crossing someone (infected) in the street poses no threat,” he said. “The risk is low when you spend a little time near that person and becomes higher when you spend a lot of time near that person.”


Protesters clash with police in Georgia over government’s EU application delay

Updated 29 November 2024
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Protesters clash with police in Georgia over government’s EU application delay

  • Government suspends EU accession talks until 2028
  • Georgian Dream has deepened ties with Russia amid EU tensions

TBILISI: Police clashed with protesters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi early on Friday, after the country’s ruling party said the government would suspend talks on European Union accession and refuse budgetary grants until 2028.
The country’s interior ministry said three police officers were injured.
Police ordered protesters to disperse, fired water cannon and deployed pepper spray and tear gas as masked young people tried to smash their way into the parliament. Some protesters tossed fireworks at police while shouting “Russians” and “Slaves!“
Georgia’s relations with the EU have deteriorated sharply in recent months as Brussels has alleged that the government had resorted to authoritarian measures and adopted pro-Russian stands.
Thousands of pro-EU protesters had blocked streets in the capital before the altercations began. The country’s figurehead president accused the government of declaring “war” on its own people and confronted riot police, asking whether they served Georgia or Russia.
The Georgian Dream governing bloc accused the EU of “a cascade of insults,” saying in a statement it was using the prospect of accession talks to “blackmail” the country, and to “organize a revolution in the country.”
As a result, it said: “We have decided not to put the issue of opening negotiations with the European Union on the agenda until the end of 2028. Also, we refuse any budgetary grant from the European Union until the end of 2028.”
The South Caucasus country of 3.7 million has the aim of EU accession written into its constitution and has long been among the most pro-Western of the Soviet Union’s successor states.
With months of downturn in relations between Tbilisi and Brussels, the EU had already said that Georgia’s application for membership was frozen.
Georgian Dream says it is not pro-Russian, and that it is committed to democracy and integration with the West.
It says it still wants to join the EU eventually, but has repeatedly engaged in diplomatic feuds with Brussels in recent years, whilst deepening ties with neighboring Russia.
There was no immediate formal comment from the EU on Georgian Dream’s statement. But an EU official said the impact of Thursday’s move was huge, adding the government was doing what the EU had feared and had hoped it would not.
Opinion polls show that around 80 percent of Georgians support EU membership, and the bloc’s flag flies alongside the national flag outside virtually all government buildings in the country.
The pro-Western opposition reacted to Georgian Dream’s announcement with fury as protesters massed. Local media reported that protests that erupted in provincial cities.

’WAR’ AGAINST PEOPLE
Giorgi Vashadze, a prominent opposition leader, wrote on Facebook: “the self-proclaimed, illegitimate government has already legally signed the betrayal of Georgia and the Georgian people.”
President Salome Zourabichvili, a pro-EU critic of Georgian Dream whose powers are mostly ceremonial, said the ruling party had “declared not peace, but war against its own people, its past and future.”
Zourabichvili’s term ends in December, and Georgian Dream has nominated a former lawmaker with hard-line anti-Western views to replace her.
The opposition says that an October election, in which official results gave the Georgian Dream bloc almost 54 percent of the vote, was fraudulent and have refused to take their seats. Western countries demand a probe into irregularities.
Both Georgian Dream and the country’s election commission say the election was free and fair.
Earlier on Thursday, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists that EU membership might harm Georgia’s economy, as it would require Tbilisi to cancel visa-free agreements and trade deals with other countries.
The EU gave Georgia candidate status in December 2023, but has said that a raft of laws passed since by Georgian Dream, including curbs on “foreign agents” and LGBT rights, are authoritarian, Russian-inspired, and obstacles to EU membership.
Foreign and domestic critics of Georgian Dream say the party, which is seen as dominated by its billionaire founder, ex-prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, is steering Georgia back toward Moscow, from which it gained independence in 1991.
Russia and Georgia have had no formal diplomatic relations since Moscow won a brief 2008 war, but have had a limited rapprochement recently.
Opinion polls show most Georgians dislike Russia, which continues to back two breakaway Georgian regions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking during a visit to Kazakhstan, praised the “courage and character” he said Georgian authorities had shown in passing the law on foreign agents, which domestic critics have likened to Russian legislation. (Reporting by Felix Light Additional reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels Editing by Mark Trevelyan, Andrew Osborn, William Maclean, Frances Kerry and Ron Popeski)


Russian air defenses destroy, down 30 Ukrainian drones in Rostov region

Updated 29 November 2024
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Russian air defenses destroy, down 30 Ukrainian drones in Rostov region

Russian air defenses destroyed or downed 30 Ukrainian drones in southern Rostov region early on Friday, Regional Governor Yuri Slyusar said.
Slyusar, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said some private homes in two villages had sustained some damage, but there were no casualties.


For the first time, Macron calls 1944 killings of West African troops by French army as massacre

Updated 29 November 2024
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For the first time, Macron calls 1944 killings of West African troops by French army as massacre

  • Up to 400 West African soldiers who fought for the French Army in the Battle of France in 1940 were massacred on Dec. 1, 1944 by French soldiers over a dispute on unpaid wages
  • Macron recognized the criminal act in a letter to Senegal's President Faye, at a time when France’s influence is declining in the region, with Paris losing its sway in the former French colonies in West Africa

DAKAR, Senegal: French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday for the first time recognized the killing of West African soldiers by the French Army in 1944 as a massacre in a letter addressed to the Senegalese authorities.
Macron’s move, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the World War II killings in Thiaroye — a fishing village on the outskirts of the Senegalese capital of Dakar — comes as France’s influence is declining in the region, with Paris losing its sway in the former French colonies in West Africa.
Between 35 and 400 West African soldiers who fought for the French Army in the Battle of France in 1940 were killed on Dec. 1, 1944 by French soldiers after what the French described as a mutiny over unpaid wages.
The West Africans were members of the unit called Tirailleurs Senegalais, a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army. According to historians, there were disputes over unpaid wages in the days before the massacre but on that Dec. 1, French troops rounded up the West African soldiers, mostly unarmed, and shot and killed them.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said he received the letter, which was seen by The Associated Pres.
Speaking to reporters late on Thursday, Faye said Macron’s step should “open the door” so that the “whole truth about this painful event of Thiaroye” can finally come out.
“We have long sought closure on this story and we believe that, this time, France’s commitment will be full, frank and collaborative,” he added.
“France must recognize that on that day, the confrontation between soldiers and riflemen who demanded their full legitimate wages be paid, triggered a chain of events that resulted in a massacre,” read Macron’s letter.
“It is also important to establish, as far as possible, the causes and facts that led to this tragedy,” Macron added. “I have asked my services to inform me of the progress of the work of the Committee for the Restoration of the Facts, which your government has decided to set up, under the direction of Professor Mamadou Diouf, whose eminence and qualities are recognized by all.”
The letter comes weeks after the Senegalese legislative elections, in which the ruling party PASTEF secured a definite majority. The win granted newly elected President Faye a clear mandate to carry out ambitious reforms promised during the campaign, which include more economic independence from foreign companies, including French ones, which are heavily invested in the country.
France still has around 350 troops in its former colony, mainly in a supportive role. Asked about the presence of French forces, Faye alluded that it would not be something the Senegalese would want.
“Historically, France enslaved, colonized and stayed here,” he said. “Obviously, I think that when you reverse the roles a little, you will have a hard time conceiving that another army, China, Russia, Senegal, or any other country could have a military base in France.”
 


ICC’s decisions must be respected, EU’s Borrell says

Updated 29 November 2024
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ICC’s decisions must be respected, EU’s Borrell says

  • Josep Borrell: “They’re not political. It’s a legal body formed by respected people who are the best among the profession of judges.”

BRUSSEL: Outgoing EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called on all EU member states to respect decisions by the International Criminal Court, including the arrest warrant against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We cannot undermine the International Criminal Court. It is the only way of having global justice,” Borrell, whose term as the EU’s top diplomat ends this month, said in Brussels.
“They’re not political. It’s a legal body formed by respected people who are the best among the profession of judges.”
The ICC issued arrest warrants last week for Netanyahu, his former defense chief Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.
Though all EU member states are signatories to the ICC’s founding treaty, France said on Wednesday it believed Netanyahu had immunity to actions by the ICC, given Israel has not signed up to the court statutes.
Italy has said it is not feasible to arrest Netanyahu as long as he remains head of Israel’s government.
ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution, and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”
Israel, which launched its offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, has said it will appeal against the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Asked if France would arrest Netanyahu if he stepped on French territory, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot did not give a specific answer in an interview with Franceinfo radio.
He said France “is very committed to international justice and will apply international law based on its obligations to cooperate with the ICC.”
But he added that the court’s statute “deals with questions of immunity for certain leaders.”
“It is ultimately up to the judicial authorities to decide,” he added.
Unconfirmed media reports have said that Netanyahu angrily raised the issue in telephone talks with President Emmanuel Macron and urged Paris not to enforce the decision. France has been instrumental in efforts to end fighting in the Middle East and, with the US helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
Article 27 of the Rome Statute — the foundation of the ICC — states that immunity “shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person.”
However, Article 98 says a state cannot “act inconsistently with its obligations under international law concerning the ... diplomatic immunity of a person.”
France’s stance on potential immunity for Netanyahu prompted some strong reactions at home and abroad. Amnesty International called the French stance “deeply problematic,” saying it ran counter to the government’s obligations as an ICC member.
“Rather than inferring that ICC indictees may enjoy immunity, France should expressly confirm its acceptance of the unequivocal legal duty under the Rome Statute to carry out arrest warrants,” said Anne Savinel Barras, president of Amnesty International France.
French Green party boss Marine Tondelier, calling the government’s stance “shameful,” said it was probably the result of an agreement between the French and Israeli leaders.


Somali leaders face reciprocal arrest warrants over disputed regional election

Updated 28 November 2024
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Somali leaders face reciprocal arrest warrants over disputed regional election

MOGADISHU: Somalia’s federal government and the country’s Jubbaland region have issued reciprocal arrest warrants for their respective leaders in an escalating dispute over the conduct of elections in Jubbaland.
Jubbaland, which borders Kenya and Ethiopia and is one of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous states, reelected regional president Ahmed Mohamed Islam Madobe for a third term in elections on Monday.
However, the national government based in Mogadishu, led by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, opposed the election, saying it was held without federal involvement. Jubbaland’s Attorney General issued an arrest warrant for Mohamud late on Wednesday via the First Instance Court in Kismayo, accusing him of treason, inciting a civil war, and organizing an armed uprising to disrupt the constitutional order in the country.
It did not provide evidence supporting the accusations.
This warrant was in response to a similar one issued by a regional court in Mogadishu for Madobe’s arrest, which accused him of treason and revealing classified information to foreign entities.
The execution of these warrants remains uncertain, as Madobe and Mohamud command troops.
Somalia’s information minister, Daud Aweis, said that the matter was in the hands of the judiciary, which was tasked with enforcing laws through its rulings and judgments.
Jubbaland’s security minister, Yusuf Dhumal, did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this week, the national government dispatched additional troops to Jubbaland in response to the election.
In 2021, Jubbaland was among other regional governments that nearly clashed with the national government over plans to extend the time in office of the then-president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.