Long wait times and panic were seen at airports across the United States as authorities work under new regulations imposed to deal with the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“We are aware of the reports of increased wait times at some airports across the nation. CBP along with medical personnel are working diligently to address the longer than usual delays,” acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Mark Morgan wrote in a statement.
“Nothing is more important than the safety, health and security of our citizens,” the statement added.
We are aware of the reports of increased wait times at some airports across the nation. CBP along with medical personnel are working diligently to address the longer than usual delays. Nothing is more important than the safety, health and security of our citizens. Full statement: pic.twitter.com/JyPRSS9snr
— Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) March 15, 2020
U.S. nationals and permanent residents who are returning from countries that are part of a new travel ban will be required to undergo additional screening and questioning to determine if they can return to their communities, Department of Homeland Security officials said.
If not required to seek medical help, they will be sent home and will spend two weeks in self-quarantine. Foreign nationals living in the U.S. who have traveled to countries on the ban, however, will not be allowed to return in the United States. A DHS official said they would have to travel to a third country, not included in the ban, and wait out the two-week period of self-quarantine before traveling to the U.S.
Syria’s bloody civil war enters its 10th year with the government of President Bashar al-Assad appearing to be consolidating his hold on power, backed by crucial military and political support from Russia and Iran. The conflict began when Syrians took to the streets on March 15, 2011, toprotest againstAssad’s government, which then launched a brutal crackdown that has led to a conflict that has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions. GeirPedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, said on the eve of the anniversary: “The suffering of the Syrian people during this tragic and terrible decade still defies comprehension and belief.” U.N. chief Antonio Guterres wrote on Twitter this week that “a decade of fighting has brought nothing but ruin and misery.” The conflict at times has resembled a proxy war among world powers, with Moscow and Tehran backing Assad while the United States and Turkey have supported differing rebel groups. The Islamic State (IS) militant group also entered the fray and were opposed by all other sides. They have been driven from most of their strongholds, although some extremists continue to hold out in Idlib Province in the northwest of the country. “Nine years of revolution illustrates the extent of the suffering we have known, between exile, bombings, and deaths,”HalaIbrahim, a rights activist who lives in Idlib Province, told AFP news agency. “I left my university, my house, which was bombed. We’ve lost everything,” the woman in her 30s said. Syrian forces, backed by Russian warplanes, have heavily bombarded in the province, targeting the remaining rebels, but they have also killed an estimated 500 civilians — along with dozens of Turkish forces, who are attempting to create a buffer zone in the border region, raising the possibility of an armed conflict between Damascus and Ankara. The United Nations says that a million people have been forced to flee, creating a humanitarian disaster and threatening to ignite a new migrant crisis in Europe. A cease-fire came into effect this month in the northwest, with Turkish and Russian forces set to carry out joint patrols in Idlib, but violations of the truce are often reported.
Russian state-run TASS news agency reported that the first joint Russian-Turkish patrol of the M-4 Highway connecting Al-Hasakah and Aleppo in northern Syria will take place on March 15.
The UN has brokered talks among warring parties, while Russia, Turkey, and Iran have held simultaneous negotiations — often in Kazakhstan — but a wide-ranging solution remains difficult to find. The so-called “Astana format” talks have been held in the Kazakh capital since 2015. A new round was scheduled for March, but Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi said it is unlikely they will take place as planned. “[The suggestion to hold the talks in March] was made in December, but now the situation has changed…. It is very likely that the talks will not be held [in March],” Tileuberdi told reporters on March 10, without giving any other details.
Кілька тисяч людей зібралися у центрі столиці України 14 березня з нагоди Дня українського добровольця. Вони рушили від Михайлівської площі до урядового кварталу, де вигукували «Зелю геть», «Ні капітуляції», «Слава добровольцям». Під стінами Офісу президента України, учасники маршу озвучили свої вимоги. Серед них: припинити, на їхню думку, переговори щодо легалізації контрольованих росією угруповань лугандонії. 13 березня голова Офісу президента України Андрій Єрмак повідомив на брифінгу РНБО, що Тристороння контактна група в Мінську планує створення так званої «консультативної ради» для обговорення питань, передбачених у пакеті Мінських домовленостей
Для поширення вашого відео чи повідомлення в Мережі Правди пишіть сюди,
або на email: pravdaua@email.cz
Найкращі пропозиції товарів і послуг в Мережі Купуй!
The Vatican has taken an unprecedented decision due to the coronavirus outbreak. All Holy Week services with Pope Francis will be held without a congregation, including Easter Sunday mass.
It will be a very different Holy Week for the faithful this year, particularly for those in Rome. No one will be allowed to attend any of the services due to the coronavirus outbreak. The large crowds in Saint Peter’s Square will not be possible this year.
A note on the web site of the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household that appeared late Saturday said the faithful will be able to follow the events as they are streamed on the internet or carried on television, but no one will be able to actively participate.
Holy Week is normally one of the busiest times of the year for Pope Francis, with tens of thousands of people arriving from all over the world to join in celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.
FILE – Few tourists walk in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, March 6, 2020.
It is still unclear how the services will be held by the pope, or where exactly, as the Vatican is still to provide further details. Holy Week services begin on Palm Sunday, which marks Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Other important services include Holy Thursday Mass when the oils are blessed. Normally on that day Pope Francis washes the feet of prisoners but this is unlikely to happen this year.
The Lord’s Passion service is normally held in Saint Peter’s Basilica on Good Friday followed by the Way of the Cross around Rome’s ancient Colosseum. This too is likely to be canceled or will take place without public participation. Pope Francis will still be giving his twice-yearly Urbi et Orbi blessing on Easter Sunday.
Italian authorities locked down the entire country last Monday as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak continues to soar. There are currently more than 21,000 positive cases in the country and the death toll has reached 1441. Churches in Rome have been reopened but all masses are canceled to avoid people gathering in one place.
Sairagul Sauytbay, who said she faced torture in the Chinese detention camps in the Xinjiang region, never thought her story of survival would gain international attention one day.
The 43-year-old Kazakh woman said she was stunned last Wednesday when U.S. first lady Melania Trump handed Sauytbay the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award for providing firsthand details of the human rights situation in the camps.
“I am also thankful to this country and the Trump administration for upholding values of democracy and human rights, and for sending a strong signal to China to stop its abuses against both Kazakhs and Uighurs who are being oppressed,” Sauytbay told VOA.
She said she hoped her story of survival could inspire other Xinjiang residents to speak up about the harsh conditions they are facing.
“I strongly hope that this award would help raise awareness to the human tragedy in East Turkestan, and other countries around the world also step out and help the plight of the voiceless Uighurs and Kazakhs oppressed in China,” she said.
East Turkestan is a term often used by the Muslim community in China to refer to Xinjiang.
Stepped-up campaign
Sauytbay worked as a medical doctor when the Chinese authorities stepped up their campaign in Xinjiang in early 2017.
Before her detention by the authorities, she said, she was forced to work in a camp as an instructor, teaching other detainees Mandarin and Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
“Chinese authorities confiscated my passport long before I was first detained in 2017,” Sauytbay told VOA, adding that she was prevented from moving to Kazakhstan with her husband and two children in early 2016.
She was allegedly tortured and imprisoned in the detention camps for about six months before her release in March 2018.
She crossed the border illegally into Kazakhstan in April 2018 because of fears that she could be detained again.
“The only dream I had at the time was to unite with my family in Kazakhstan. So I decided to take the risk to cross the border without legal documents,” she told VOA.
While in Kazakhstan, Sauytbay was jailed for illegal border-crossing and denied asylum. Sauytbay and her family later moved to Sweden, where she gained international attention as a female activist spreading awareness of the alleged Chinese crackdown in Xinjiang.
U.S. first lady Melania Trump, Sairagul Sauytbay and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are pictured at the State Department, March 4, 2020. (State Department photo)
‘Continues to inspire’
During the award ceremony Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sauytbay “bravely” gave details of the detention camps and “continues to inspire other former detainees and family members to come forward to tell their stories to the world.”
Xinjiang is a majority Uighur autonomous region but also hosts about 1.5 million Kazakhs. Many Chinese Kazakhs who flee the region slip into neighboring Kazakhstan, which shares a 1,770-kilometer border with China
Those who arrive in Kazakhstan say that Kazakhs, along with Uighurs, are facing a severe government crackdown by the Chinese government. More than a million people are believed to be detained in the camps.
China, however, has denied such allegations, claiming the facilities are “vocational training centers” that help the local community obtain “new skills.”
Chinese officials have said the measures taken in Xinjiang are part of China’s “war on three evils”: extremism, terrorism and separatism.
During his visit to Kazakhstan in February, Pompeo urged Kazakh officials to offer “safe refuge and asylum” to those fleeing China. The U.S. official met with five Chinese Kazakhs who said their family members were either held in camps or sentenced to long prison terms, and some were forced to work in factories as cheap labor.
One of the five Kazakhs, Aqiqat Qaliolla, became a naturalized Kazakhstan citizen in 2018, four years after his move from China. He told VOA that he had yet to learn the whereabouts of his parents and two brothers who were put in camps in early 2018.
“I first lost contact with my family in March 2018. Later, friends told me that my father, mother and two brothers were taken to concentration camps. I also heard that China even sentenced my father to 20 years in prison,” he said.
Immigrating to Kazakhstan
For years, the government in Kazakhstan has said it welcomes the influx of Kazakhs living around the world, including from Xinjiang. By 2016, nearly 1 million Kazakhs had acquired Kazakhstan citizenship, with almost 15% of them believed to have come from China.
The Chinese Kazakhs, aided by shared language and culture, were quick to assimilate in Kazakhstan but still maintained close ties with their relatives in Xinjiang. However, those ties were cut in 2017 during the Chinese crackdown in the region.
Aidin Aghimolda, a Kazakh from Xinjiang, went to Kazakhstan in 2003 as a student and later became a Kazakhstan citizen. He told VOA he had recently learned that his three siblings and a sister-in-law in Xinjiang were taken to detention camps in August 2018.
“Two of my brothers, a sister and a sister-in-law were all taken to camps on the same day in August of 2018 for no apparent reason,” Aghimolda told VOA, adding that all of them were given long prison sentences, ranging from 11 to 14 years.
Another victim, Muhamet Qizilbek, immigrated with his family to Kazakhstan in 2014 and obtained his citizenship in 2018. He said his wife went to visit her parents with a Chinese passport and Kazakh residence card in 2017, and she has not been able to come back since then.
“When my wife arrived in China, they took away her passport and Kazakh residence card, and she had been first put in house arrest for 90 days before being taken to an internment camp. She was in the camp for a year and then was moved to a factory with an 800-yuan monthly salary,” he told VOA.
Kazakhstan’s dilemma
Nargis Kassenova, a senior fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, told VOA that the Xinjiang issue has put Kazakhstan’s government in a difficult position because of the country’s close economic ties to China.
“It tries not to make strong moves that would upset too much the domestic public opinion and China, keeping both moderately upset,” Kassenova told VOA.
She said Kazakh officials are trying to maintain the “delicate balance” by “downplaying the plight of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang, at the same time increasing the number of visas issued to ethnic Kazakhs from China.”
In the darkness, the team suits up quietly, putting on their helmets and tactical gear. Federal agents lug battering rams, bolt cutters and heavy weaponry by foot up a hill on a residential California street that’s softly aglow from street lamps. Then the agents turn onto the walkway of their target’s home.
“Police! Search warrant!” one officer yells as agents bang on the front door. “Police search warrant!” And then three thunderous bangs as the task force breaks down the front door.
Moments later, a reputed member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG, is walked out in handcuffs.
In early-morning raids Wednesday, agents fanned out across the United States, culminating a six-month investigation with the primary goal of dismantling the upper echelon of CJNG and hoping to get closer to capturing its leader, one of the most wanted men in America. There’s a $10 million reward for the arrest of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera.
The gang controls between one-third and two-thirds of the U.S. drug market. It is so violent that members leave piles of bodies in streets and hanging from overpasses in Mexico, and they fill the city of Guadalajara with mass graves. They carry machine guns and hand grenades. They once used rocket launchers to shoot down a Mexican military helicopter.
More than 600 people have been arrested during the operation in recent months, more than 15,000 kilos of meth was seized and nearly $20 million was taken as search and arrest warrants were executed. About 250 were arrested Wednesday.
Wendy Woolcok, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s special operations division, speaks during an interview at a command center in Chantilly, Va., March 11, 2020.
“El Mencho and his associates prey on the addicts, and they prey on small towns where they can act as bullies and infiltrate these small towns,” said Wendy Woolcok, the special agent in charge of Drug Enforcement Administration’s special operations division. “They promise hope, and they deliver despair.”
A top target
For the U.S, combating Mexico’s fastest-growing and most violent gang is a top priority. Law enforcement officials believe the gang has drug distribution hubs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta. It is believed to have a presence in 24 of Mexico’s 32 states.
Unlike other cartels, CJNG shows no reluctance in directly attacking police and army patrols and is blamed for the deadliest attacks against law enforcement forces in Mexico. In eliminating rivals, it has carried out spectacular acts of violence.
“Their propensity to violence is a big part of it. They’re a very violent organization, they’re a well-armed organization. But really, the gasoline that was thrown on the fire was synthetic drugs,” said Bill Bodner, the special agent in charge of the DEA’s field office in Los Angeles.
The Associated Press had exclusive access to the raid outside Los Angeles and the national command center.
In California, about a dozen team members prepped early Wednesday for their target. They searched the home, a stately, salmon-colored Spanish Colonial-style with a large chandelier in the foyer, palm trees in the front yard, and crawled on the ground to look under cars, including a black Lexus, in the driveway. No shots were fired.
Victor Ochoa, 34, was arrested on drug charges. The DEA alleges he acts as a stash house manger for the cartel.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents and intelligence analysts gather information from field operations across the country at their command center in Chantilly, Va., March 11, 2020.
Command center
At the command center tucked inside a nondescript government building in northern Virginia, a group of a dozen analysts and agents sat behind computer screens. As agents were banging down doors across the country, the phones rang at the command center and analysts recorded the number of arrests and amount of drugs seized on printed worksheets.
An analyst entered the information into a DEA computer as other analysts ran phone numbers, addresses and nicknames found inside the homes being searched.
The special agent in charge of the special operations division assembled with her team in front of a heat map — red dots glowing darker and darker as more arrests are made, primarily in Texas, California and New Jersey. By 9 a.m., more than 60 people had been taken into custody.
Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, called the operation “the most comprehensive action to date in the Department of Justice’s effort to disrupt, dismantle and ultimately destroy CJNG”
While Mexican drug cartels made their money predominantly from marijuana in past decades, the market has somewhat dissipated with the state-level legalization of cannabis in dozens of states across the U.S.
Now, they’ve turned to methamphetamine and fentanyl, selling it at almost 14 times the price it cost to make and flooding the streets of the U.S., fueling homelessness and the opioid crisis, and leaving behind another trail of bodies: from overdoses.
Multidrug shipments
The Jalisco Cartel was formed in 2010 from a wing of the Sinaloa cartel based in the western city of Guadalajara. While it once specialized in producing methamphetamine, like most Mexican cartels it has expanded into multidrug shipments including fentanyl, cocaine, meth and heroin.
The cartel is led by the elusive Oseguera, whose bodyguards once shot down a Mexican military helicopter to prevent his arrest. In recent weeks, prosecutors have brought charges against his son, Nemesio Oseguera, also known as “El Menchito,” and his daughter, Jessica Johanna Oseguera.
And officials say he’s more dangerous than reputed Mexican drug kingpin and escape artist Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who as leader of the Sinaloa cartel ran a massive drug conspiracy that spread murder and mayhem for more than two decades.
“I think the threat from El Mencho and CJNG is greater right now because in my opinion, at the time Chapo was captured or at the time he was kind of at his at his heyday, so to speak, the Sinaloa Cartel was fractured. It was a little broken up,” Bodner said.
FILE – Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by Mexican marines at a navy hangar in Mexico City, Feb. 22, 2014.
El Chapo was a little flashier, but Mencho and the Jalisco gang see their drug business as just that — business, Bodner said.
“They have a little bit more discipline. They’re not necessarily into the partying and living the good life. It’s just about the business of drug trafficking and control, and that’s what makes them scarier,” Bodner said.
The Jalisco cartel is also known for brazen tactics such as driving around in convoys of pickup trucks marked with the letters “CJNG” and for circulating videos of heavily armed cartel gunmen in military-style dress. While Mexico says it is no longer concentrating on detaining drug lords, the Mexican government has extradited Oseguera’s son and has detained some of his associates.
Pacific islands are imposing strict lockdown measures to combat the coronavirus, denying access to supply vessels and prohibiting human-to-human contact during aircraft refueling, amid fears their small health care systems could be overrun.
The region recorded its first case of coronavirus this week, in French Polynesia, although most island nations cannot screen for COVID-19 cases onshore, which is potentially masking its spread.
One of the wealthiest Pacific nations, Fiji, this week opened its first facility capable of testing for the coronavirus, one of only four such facilities in the region, Radio New Zealand reported.
Brad Ives, senior captain on the supply vessel Kwai, said the sailing ship was loaded with supplies for five populated coral atolls in the northern Cook Islands, in the South Pacific, when it received word it would be refused entry.
“Fortunately, we got notice that they were going to refuse the ship before we departed our last port,” Ives told Reuters.
“There’s cargo on it that will expire. It’s a bit of a problem for us that we are solving as we go.”
Kwai is now in the Line Islands reorganizing its route.
Complete isolation
While all Pacific nations have introduced widespread restrictions on international travelers over the past several weeks, some are now completely isolating their island populations.
The United States-backed Marshall Islands this week suspended all incoming air travel, while those on aircraft landing to refuel are being restricted from human-to-human contact.
Cruise ships have been denied port calls in New Caledonia, Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa, among others, over the past fortnight, as local authorities tighten controls.
The island of Pukapuka, a tiny coral atoll in the Cook Islands with a population of 500, has been left short of foods like sugar, flour and rice after turning away the Kwai supply vessel.
Island residents understand that coronavirus infection could be catastrophic because of a lack of medical facilities, said Pukapukan community member Kirianu Nio, who now lives on the more heavily populated island of Rarotonga.
“They are short in processed foods, which are the main supplies they normally order in bulk, but that’s a small price to pay,” said Nio.
Член парламентського комітету зі здоров’я нації, народний депутат від партії «Голос» Ольга Стефанишина розповіла про результати першого етапу медичної реформи в Україні.
В інтерв’ю для Радіо Свобода вона, зокрема, розповіла, що лікарі первинної ланки завдяки цьому заробляють по 20–25 тисяч гривень на місяць.
«Це реформа. Там вона відбулася… Я впевнена, що 90% лікарів первинної ланки сьогодні мають значно вищі зарплати, ніж це було до реформи. Це може бути 18 тисяч. Це може бути 20 тисяч. Це може бути 25 тисяч. Це все залежить від лікаря, від того, скільки в нього пацієнтів. Бо тепер, як я казала вже, є ринковий принцип: ходять пацієнти до лікаря, він є популярним, він є ефективним», – сказала вона.
За словами Стефанишиної, йдеться про десятки тисяч таких лікарів.
Та при цьому вона наголосила: «Якщо не продовжити медичну реформу на вторинній і третинній ланці, воно так і залишиться… Для того, щоб лікарі на вторинній, на третинній ланці почали заробляти нормальні гроші, потрібно продовжити реформу там».
Ольга Стефанишина в 2018–2019 роках була заступницею міністра охорони здоров’я і сама брала участь у втіленні реформи системи охорони здоров’я в Україні, яка була розпочата 2016 року і яку здійснювала попередня українська влада. Наразі був здійснений її перший етап. Ця реформа викликала значну критику прихильників старого становища в українській медицині, які закликали скасувати її. Після приходу нинішньої влади, а особливо після недавньої зміни уряду стали виникати побоювання, що реформу можуть вповільнити чи й спрямувати в іншому напрямку; нинішнє керівництво Міністерства охорони здоров’я заперечує це. …
President Donald Trump has taken a coronavirus test but said on Saturday that his temperature was “totally normal,” and his administration extended a travel ban to Britain and Ireland to try to contain a pandemic that has shut down much of the daily routine of American life.
After White House officials took the unprecedented step of checking the temperatures of journalists entering the briefing room, Trump told reporters he took a test for the virus on Friday night and that he expects the results in “a day or two days.” He met with a Brazilian delegation last week, at least one member of which has since tested positive.
The top U.S. infectious diseases expert, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, said the country has recorded 20,226 case of the new coronavirus, but has not yet reached the peak of the outbreak.
“This will get worse before it gets better,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams said at the briefing.
Vice President Mike Pence, who is running the administration’s response to the outbreak, told reporters that visits to nursing homes were being suspended to protect the most vulnerable.
Earlier on Saturday, officials in New York said an 82-year-old woman became the state’s first coronavirus fatality.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the woman, who had previously suffered from emphysema, was hospitalized in Manhattan on March 3. He told reporters that the state’s tally of cases had risen to 524. Nationwide, more than 2,000 people have been infected and 50 have died.
On Friday, Trump declared a national emergency in a move that he said would bring “the full power of the federal government” to bear on the escalating health crisis by freeing up some $50 billion in aid. He also urged every state to set up emergency centers to help fight the virus.
On Saturday, his administration was expected to extend to Britain and Ireland a ban on travel from Europe that would go into effect on Monday night, U.S. and airlines and officials said.
Signaling a new stage in prevention measures to protect U.S.
leaders from the coronavirus, the White House on Saturday instituted a policy of checking the temperatures of journalists in the White House briefing room.
The pandemic has forced public schools, sports events and cultural and entertainment venues to close across the United States.
On Friday, American shoppers picked grocery store shelves clean of products ranging from disinfectants to rice, causing retailers to race to restock their stores. In response to the run on certain items, major retailers have imposed some purchase limits.
Coronavirus took its biggest toll yet on this year’s U.S.
presidential election when Louisiana announced on Friday it had postponed its Democratic and Republican presidential primaries.
Early on Saturday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a coronavirus aid package that would provide free testing and paid sick leave, in a bid to limit the economic damage from the outbreak.
By a bipartisan vote of 363 to 40, the Democratic-controlled House passed a multi-billion dollar effort that would expand safety-net programs to help those who could be thrown out of work in the weeks to come. Trump said he supported the package, raising the likelihood that it will pass the Republican-controlled Senate next week.
Economists say the impact of the outbreak on businesses could tip the U.S. economy into recession.
The U.N. refugee agency and partners are appealing for $1.3 billion to assist more than two million South Sudanese refugees and five major countries hosting them — Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After seven years of conflict, South Sudan has formed a Transitional Government of National Unity and appears to be on the cusp of peace. But the new government faces many challenges.
One of the biggest is finding solutions for millions of South Sudanese who have been forcibly displaced by years of conflict, both internally and as refugees. In the meantime, the U.N. refugee agency says some 2.2 million refugees and the countries hosting them continue to depend upon international support to provide them with life-saving assistance.
UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told VOA many thousands of refugees who have returned to South Sudan on their own initiative are stuck in limbo in their home country. He says most of those who remain outside the country are in no rush to return. They are waiting to see if peace holds.
“The 270,000 South Sudanese that have returned in the past couple of years or more, the majority of them have not been able to return back home. You are talking a big number — probably 70 percent or more. And, in many areas, access still remains a challenge in terms of the humanitarian work,” he said.
Baloch said humanitarian workers and the South Sudanese displaced are hoping that the new political developments translate into long-lasting peace.
In the meantime, the UNHCR says funding is urgently needed to provide emergency care for the refugees including food, shelter, safe drinking water and health care. It notes money also is needed to care for 65,000 unaccompanied children and action on sexual and gender-based violence.
The agency says many refugees are missing out on education and the gap must be closed. It says refugees must be trained in the skills they need to provide for themselves and their families.
As Syria’s war enters its 10th year, the United Nations reports that alarming conditions of extreme deprivation and danger continue to engulf millions of people in the country.
Most at imminent risk of their lives are the 960,000 people displaced in Syria’s northwest Idlib province, where Russian-backed Syrian forces are fighting to regain control of this last rebel-controlled region in Syria.
This huge displaced population, most of whom are women and children, is squeezed into an overcrowded area near the Turkish border. The United Nations reports about one-third are staying in camps and tents. Many are living with host families. Hundreds of thousands of others are in unfinished buildings, collective centers or sheltering under trees, with little cover to protect them from the elements.
Spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jens Laerke briefed reporters Friday. He said there has been a de-escalation of fighting in Idlib since Turkey and Russia agreed to a cease-fire a week ago. However, he notes the dangers have not gone away.
“Instances of shelling continue to be reported from areas along the front lines and the risk of death and injury from explosive hazards, such as unexploded ordnance, has increased over the past months due to artillery and aerial bombardments. Humanitarian needs are acute and people’s survival and wellbeing, including children’s mental health, is at risk,” he said.
Laerke said there is very little protection inside Idlib, and displaced women and girls are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. He said many feel exposed and unsafe.
“Aid workers are reporting incidents of exploitation and abuse of displaced women and girls by men in positions of power such as property owners, in exchange for cash or material assistance. We also have reports of women not being able to shower for several weeks due to lack of privacy, and refusing to eat or drink so they do not need to use a bathroom,” Laerke said.
The U.N. is scaling up its humanitarian assistance in response to this situation. So far this month, Laerke said the U.N. has sent 512 trucks across the border from Turkey into Idlib laden with food, shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance.
Державна прикордонна служба повідомила 14 березня, що напередодні не впустила до України громадянку Росії, яка планувала проводити тренінг з психології в Києві.
За твердженням пресслужби ДПСУ, жінка, яка прибула в аеропорт «Жуляни», незаконно відвідувала анексований Крим.
«Під час контролю другої лінії росіянка розповіла, що працює психологом, телеведучою, пише книги, проводить різні тренінги та повідомила правоохоронцям, що прибула до столиці України начебто з приватною метою – відвідати подругу. Проте прикордонники з’ясували, що учора жінка мала проводити майстер-клас в Києві, на який навіть були у продажу квитки», – повідомили прикордонники, розмістивши зображення афіші тренінгу під назвою «Теорія неймовірності», на якому вказано, що він мав відбутися 13 березня.
Читайте також: Російську блогерку не впустили до України вдруге за кілька місяців – ДПСУ
За даними сайтів з продажу квитків, цей тренінг планувала в Києві психологиня Тетяна Мужицька. Окрім нього, вона анонсувала ще кілька заходів в Україні.
«Напевно, «Теорія неймовірності» російської психологині спрацювала, адже на найближчі три роки жінка втратить українську аудиторію, тому що прикордонники відмовили їй в пропуску та заборонили в’їзд на територію України», – констатують у пресслужбі ДПСУ.
13 березня прикордонники повідомили, що не впустили до України російського журналіста, який незаконно відвідував Крим.
За даними Державної прикордонної служби, протягом 2019 року прикордонники не дозволили в’їзд в Україну «з об’єктивних причин» 3700 росіянам. …
Vladimir Putin has formally signed off on constitutional amendments that would allow the Russian leader to run again for president in 2024.
His approval comes a day after it was reported that all of Russia’s regional parliaments had voted in favor of the measures.
In January, Putin announced a major shake-up of Russian politics and a constitutional overhaul, which the Kremlin described as a redistribution of power from the presidency to parliament.
But earlier this week, Putin, who has been president or prime minister of Russia for two decades, appeared in the State Duma to back a new amendment that would allow him to ignore a current constitutional ban on him running again in 2024.
The previous rules forbade him from running for a third consecutive mandate, but that changes with the provisions of the amendments, meaning he can seek a fifth overall presidential term in 2024, and conceivably a sixth in 2030.
The Kremlin notes that Putin has not said whether or not he will run again in 2024.
Other constitutional changes further strengthen the presidency and emphasize the priority of Russian law over international norms — a provision reflecting the Kremlin’s irritation with the European Court of Human Rights and other international bodies that have often issued verdicts against Russia.
The changes also outlaw same-sex marriage and mention “a belief in God” as one of Russia’s traditional values.
Both houses of the national parliament have already backed the changes as has every single regional parliament.
“The Federation Council [the upper house of parliament] has received the results of voting in all 85 regional parliaments,” said Andrei Klishas, chairman of the council’s committee on constitutional law. “They are all positive,” RIA cited him as saying on March 13.
The list of 85 regions he referenced includes two which are part of Russian-controlled Crimea, which Moscow forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia’s Constitutional Court must now examine the constitutional changes, which are due to be put to a nationwide vote in April.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, urged its members on March 12 to rally behind Putin against what he said was a foreign campaign to discredit the constitutional reforms.
An official of the United Nations mission in Mali says two people who were kidnapped in Burkina Faso in December 2018 have been released.
Mission officials say the Canadian woman and the Italian man were found near Kidal, in northern Mali, and were turned over to U.N. peacekeepers in good health.
The two are identified as Edith Blais and Luca Tacchetto.
14 березня на майдані Героїв Революції відбулася акція до Дня добровольця. До заходу долучилося декілька сотень ветеранів війни на Донбасі, волонтерів, активістів та пересічних городян.
Учасники акції зачитали імена всіх запорізьких бійців добровольчих підрозділів, що загинули під час війни на Донбасі, та вшанували хвилиною мовчання пам’ять всіх українських військових, які поклали своє життя на сході країни.
«Ми зібралися, незважаючи на коронавірус, щоб згадати хлопців, що поклали своє життя. Це єдиний день, коли збираються ті, хто в 2014-му навесні, починаючи з Майдану, пішли боронити країну. Ми запропонували – і хлопці приїхали: всі, хто вважають себе добровольцем, приєднуються», – розповів один з організаторів акції, ветеран війни на Донбасі, боєць батальйону «Донбас» Олександр Таран.
У акції взяли участь як бійці добровольчих підрозділів, так і бійці, які навесні 2014 року, не чекаючи офіційних повісток, прийшли до військоматів, аби долучитися до оборони країни.
Читайте також: «Бути добровольцем»: чотири історії жінок-військових
«Це день тих, хто першими не стали байдужими до того, що коїться в країні. Це не тільки ті, хто пішов в добробати, а й ті, хто почав допомагати армії, починаючи від шкарпеток і до техніки. Це свято і тих, хто першими пішов у військомат і стукався… Росія не очікувала того, що почнеться такий рух жвавий, чекали, що вони швидко дійдуть до Дніпра, до Криму, аж до Придністров’я мабуть. Але не так сталося, як їм хотілося. І ось це диво, що ми зупинили ворога в 14-му році, це завдячуючи добровольцям, які першими йшли в бій. Так само в термінал Донецького аеропорту не кожен міг – теж їхав добровольцем насправді. Коли були останні дні Дебальцева, то теж кидали добровольців 79-ї бригади, 30-ї бригади та інших», – розповів ветеран війни на Донбасі, боєць 79-ї окремої аеромобільної бригади В’ячеслав Зайцев.
Також після мітингу на майдані Героїв Революції окремі його учасники приїхали до парку Металургів, де поклали квіти до пам’ятних знаків з портретами запорізьких бійців, які загинули під час війни на Донбасі.
Первинно організатори вшанування добровольців у Запоріжжі планували, що всі учасники заходу пройдуться ходою центральним проспектом міста, аби покласти квіти у парку Металургів. Втім, через впровадження карантинних заходів ходу було скасовано.
Уперше українці відзначили День українського 14 березня 2017 року: саме цього дня 2014 року перші 500 бійців-добровольців Самооборони Майдану прибули на полігон «Нові Петрівці» для формування першого добровольчого батальйону.
День добровольця встановлено згідно з рішенням Верховної Ради України від 17 січня 2017 року. …
India prides itself on popularizing yoga and meditation in many parts of the world. Now it is watching to see if the country’s traditional greeting, the namaste, described as “virus-proof,” goes global as some world leaders adopt it amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As health authorities advise people to avoid shaking hands to curb the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus, U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Britain’s Prince Charles this week used something resembling the Indian greeting, which involves welcoming a guest with palms pressed together.
“Namaste,” a combination of two Sanskrit words, translates into “bowing to you” and does not involve skin contact and allows people to maintain a distance.
Macron folded his palms in the traditional Indian manner and bowed slightly while greeting Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia at the Elysee Palace in Paris earlier this week.
FILE – France’s President Emmanuel Macron (L), with his wife Brigitte Macron, welcomes King Felipe VI (R) and Queen Letizia of Spain (2nd R) with what appears to be a “namaste” greeting, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, March 11, 2020.
The French ambassador to New Delhi, Emmanuel Lenain, tweeted, “President Macron has decided to greet all his counterparts with a namaste, a graceful gesture that he has retained from his India visit in 2018.”
When Trump was asked by reporters how he greeted the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar during their meeting in Washington Thursday, both leaders put their hands together to demonstrate what they did.
“I just got back from India. And I did not shake any hands there, and it was very easy because they go like this and Japan goes like this,” Trump said doing a quick demonstration of the Indian namaste and the Japanese ojigi — bowing.
“They are ahead of the curve,” he said.
Of course, it is not easy to forego the customary handshake, the usual photo opportunity in the halls of power that is often carefully watched to see how long or warm it is.
FILE – President Donald Trump (R) and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar hold up their hands in a “namaste” gesture, joking about not shaking hands, during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, March 12, 2020.
Trump said “we looked at each other and said what are we going to do? Sort of a weird feeling.”
“It almost feels impersonal. It feels like you’re being rude,” Varadkar said. “But we just can’t afford to think like that for the next few weeks.”
In Britain, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, also used the namaste-style greeting instead of a handshake as he met guests at a London event.
Again, replacing the deeply ingrained habit was not easy.
A video shows him putting his hand forward to greet Sir Kenneth Olisa, the lord lieutenant of Greater London, Queen Elizabeth’s representative in Greater London, and then quickly withdrawing it and folding his hands instead.
“It’s just so hard to remember not to,” he is reported to have said.
FILE – Britain’s Prince Charles, with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at his side, folds his hands in a “namaste” greeting, during a reception at Marlborough House, in London, Britain, March 9, 2020.
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advocated the Indian-style greeting to his country and went on to demonstrate it by folding his hands at a press conference.
In India, too, where handshakes and hugs have become popular, especially in cities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminded the country of the benefits of sticking to the traditional greeting.
Saying that the world is picking up the habit, he advised citizens who had junked the namaste that this is the right time to revert to it.
Most people are heeding the advice amid mounting fears of the spread of the coronavirus.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Friday he is stepping down from the company’s board to focus on philanthropy.
Gates was Microsoft’s CEO until 2000 and since then has gradually scaled back his involvement in the company he started with Paul Allen in 1975.
He transitioned out of a day-to-day role in Microsoft in 2008 and served as chairman of the board until 2014.
The billionaire announced Friday that he’s leaving the Microsoft board entirely as well as his seat on the board of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate headed by fellow billionaire Warren Buffett.
Gates said he plans to dedicate more time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He will also remain a technology adviser to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other company leaders.
The United States on Friday summoned China’s ambassador after a senior official in Beijing tweeted the “ridiculous” suggestion that the U.S. military started the COVID-19 pandemic, the State Department said.
David Stilwell, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia, issued a “stern representation” to Ambassador Cui Tiankai a day after foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted the conspiracy theory.
“China is seeking to deflect criticism for its role in starting a global pandemic and not telling the world,” a State Department official said.
“Spreading conspiracy theories is dangerous and ridiculous. We wanted to put the government on notice we won’t tolerate it, for the good of the Chinese people and the world,” the official said.
Zhao, in tweets in both Mandarin and English that gained wide traction on Chinese social media, a day earlier suggested that “patient zero” in the global pandemic may have come from the United States, not the Chinese city of Wuhan, where cases were first reported in late 2019.
FILE – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, Feb. 24, 2020.
“It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation,” tweeted Zhao, who is known for his provocative statements on social media.
‘Wuhan virus’
His comment came as President Donald Trump’s administration, which has faced increasing criticism over its own coronavirus response, has been increasingly highlighting the illness’ foreign origins, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dubbing it the “Wuhan virus.”
Cui, in contrast to Zhao, is known for his diplomatic approach. A day before he was summoned, Cui tweeted that China hoped to work closely with the United States to fight COVID-19 for “a more prosperous shared future.”
Scientists widely believe that the pandemic started in a market in Wuhan that sold exotic animals for human consumption.
Trump, speaking to reporters to announce a state of emergency over the pandemic, also dismissed the Chinese conspiracy theory when asked about it.
“They know where it came from. We all know where it came from,” said Trump, who also voiced confidence that the row would not affect a first-phase deal to resolve a trade war.
Rampant conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories have been widely disseminated over social media as the novel coronavirus takes a heavy toll worldwide.
U.S. officials earlier told AFP that Russia had systematically spread disinformation in an effort to damage the U.S. reputation, with coordinated Facebook and Twitter posts that suggested that the United States was behind the novel coronavirus.
Russia denied responsibility for the social media effort, which recalled the former Soviet Union’s campaign in the 1980s to link HIV to the U.S. government.
Iran’s firebrand former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has written the World Health Organization to urge an investigation into the “biological war against humanity,” questioning why U.S. adversaries China and Iran have been so badly hit.
Italy, a close U.S. ally, officially has the most cases of COVID-19 after China.
Pakistan moved Friday to temporarily seal borders with Iran and Afghanistan, close all educational institutions and ban large gatherings at public places for three weeks, including wedding parties, to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from spreading in the region.
The preventative measures were announced on a day when officials raised to 28 the national tally of people infected with the virus. Pakistan, with a population of more than 200 million, has reported no fatalities since detecting its first confirmed case late last month.
State Minister of Health Zafar Mirza said that all of Pakistan’s cases were imported by its nationals returning from countries, including Iran, Syria, China and the United Kingdom. He said there were no local transmissions of the virus as of Friday.
Syrian authorities, however, are reported to have denied the presence of coronavirus on their soil, saying dozens of suspected cases have tested negative.
Dr. Zafar Mirza, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health, speaks to reporters in Quetta, Pakistan, Feb. 26, 2020.
Emergency meeting
Mirza and other senior cabinet colleagues told a Friday night news conference that the decision to introduce emergency measures was taken at a meeting of the national security council chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan and attended by top civilian and military leaders.
“We are completely closing our western border with Iran and Afghanistan for all human and commercial traffic for two weeks,” Mirza said. The only overland border crossing with China will also remain closed for another two weeks for all traffic.
“This will allow us to boost existing screening systems at entry points there to prevent infected people from entering Pakistan,” Mirza said, adding the decision would be reviewed after two weeks.
A health official of an emergency rescue service checks the body temperature of a government employee in Peshawar, Pakistan, March 12, 2020.
Pakistan shares a roughly 900-kilometer border with Iran, where officials have confirmed that COVID-19 has killed more than 500 people and that well over 10,000 others have been infected.
Pakistan’s border with landlocked Afghanistan stretches to nearly 2,600 kilometers, with several authorized entry points for people and trade as well as transit activities. Afghan officials have confirmed seven coronavirus cases, linking them with the Iranian outbreak
Mirza said Pakistan also decided to restrict outgoing and incoming international flights to only three airports in the country, in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore, saying screening measures at those airports would be reinforced immediately.
Pakistan’s air links with Iran and China, where the coronavirus outbreak originated, remain suspended in the wake of the outbreak in both countries.
A barber wears a protective mask as a preventive measure amid coronavirus fears, as he gives a haircut to a customer along a road in Peshawar, Pakistan, March 13, 2020.
Schools closed, gatherings banned
Mirza said public and private schools as well as technical institutions across Pakistan would remain closed for three weeks. All public gatherings will be banned, including wedding halls and cinemas, for two weeks.
Pakistan’s chief justices are being requested to instruct all courts not to schedule cases for three weeks, and no visitors will be allowed to visit prisoners in jails during this period, Mirza said.
Critics note that Pakistan, like other South Asian countries, is ill-equipped to deal with a large-scale health emergency such as coronavirus because of a poor and deteriorating health infrastructure.
Army spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar confirmed to VOA on Friday that the annual national day military parade scheduled for March 23, where thousands of guests are invited, had also been canceled.
Organizers of Pakistan’s largest national cricket competition, which features prominent international players, also shortened and closed its remaining matches to spectators. Many foreign players have opted to leave Pakistan.
