Senin, 03 Februari 2020

Turkey suffers first deaths in direct combat with Syria since start of war - CNN

Nine other troops were also wounded in northwest Syria's Idlib province after they came under heavy artillery fire from the Syrian government Sunday, according to a Turkey defense department statement which added that the troops were reinforcements.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said up to 35 Syrian government soldiers had been killed Monday in response, and pledged further retaliation.
Children bearing the brunt of latest escalation in Syrian civil war
Erdogan said up to 40 Syrian targets were being considered as part of the operation, and warned Russia -- the most powerful backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- to "not stand in our way."
"We told the Russian authorities you are not party to this it is totally the regime and do not stand in our way. Because we have martyrs, we cannot remain silent. We will continue to respond, including with our F-16s, our howitzers, our artillery, it is all in the field firing on the targets determined by our national intelligence," Erdogan said.
Russia's military said Monday that Turkey had not given advance warning of Turkish troop reinforcements in Idlib.
"Overnight from February 2 to 3, units of the Turkish forces conducted maneuvers inside the Idlib de-escalation zone without giving notice to the Russian side and came under the fire of Syrian government troops on terrorists in the area west of the settlement of Saraqib," the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria said, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti.
Turkish soldiers are in the last rebel-held area of Syria as part of a 2018 de-escalation agreement between Ankara and Moscow. The Syrian government has mounted an aggressive air campaign in Idlib in recent weeks, amassing troops along strategic highways leading to the rebel enclave.
On January 12, Russia and Turkey announced a ceasefire that has failed to end the violence.
A Turkish military convoy of passes through the Syrian town of Dana on February 2.

Civilians killed in northwest Syria

Syrian government attacks killed 20 people in opposition-held parts of northwest Syria on Sunday and Monday, according to the volunteer rescue group, the White Helmets.
Nine were killed in an attack on a vehicle carrying members of the same family in the western countryside of Aleppo on Monday. An airstrike on a house in Idlib also killed eight on Sunday, according to the rescue group.
The recent violence has pushed people out of multiple towns. Syria announced the capture of the opposition-held city of Maraat Al Nouman on Thursday.
UNICEF estimates that more than 300,000 people have been displaced since December and that 1.2 million children are in desperate need.
The Syrian government and Russia deny targeting civilians and say they are targeting terrorists, pointing to the dominance of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), a former al Qaeda affiliate, in the area.

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2020-02-03 12:49:00Z
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China Arrested Doctors Who Warned About Coronavirus Outbreak. Now Death Toll's Rising, Stocks Are Plunging. - The Daily Beast

HONG KONG—The new coronavirus that has spread consternation around the world over the last few weeks has now killed more people in China than the SARS epidemic of 2002-2003. China’s health commission reported Sunday that there were 361 deaths nationwide. During the SARS outbreak, 349 people died in mainland China and 774 altogether around the world. The Chinese stock markets took major hits Monday, and the whole nation feels its growing isolation.

Yet last December—before people all over China were falling sick with pneumonia-like symptoms, before people around the world grew alarmed about a disease leaping from captured wild animals to human shoppers in dense Chinese food markets, and before coronavirus reached new shores after being carried onto planes by human hosts, forcing the World Health Organization to declare a global emergency—eight people discussed how several patients in Wuhan were experiencing severe, rapid breakdowns in their respiratory systems.

They were part of a medical school’s alumni group on WeChat, a popular social network in China, and they were concerned that SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, was back. 

It wasn’t long before police detained them. The authorities said these eight doctors and medical technicians were “misinforming” the public, that there was no SARS, that the information was obviously wrong, and that everyone in the city must remain calm. On the first day of 2020, Wuhan police said they had “taken legal measures” against the eight individuals who had “spread rumors.”

Since then, the phenomenal spread of the virus has created cracks even within the normally united front of the Chinese Communist Party. “It might have been fortunate if the public had believed the ‘rumor’ and started to wear masks, carry out sanitization measures, and avoid the wild animal market,” a judge of China’s Supreme People’s Court wrote online last Tuesday.

Li Wenliang, a doctor who was among the eight people who tried to sound the alarm before the coronavirus infected many thousands and killed hundreds, has been diagnosed as someone infected with the coronavirus and is being treated at a hospital.

As of 5 p.m. Monday, the official tally of coronavirus damage runs at more than 17,000 confirmed infections, more than 21,000 under observation, 361 dead. But the actual numbers must be far higher, possibly by a considerable magnitude, according to estimations by doctors in China and infectious-disease experts around the world.

Authorities are still actively censoring social-media posts and news articles that are questioning the government response to the outbreak. One local man, Fang Bin, uploaded footage of corpses in a van and a hospital in Wuhan, and was then tracked down and taken into custody. His laptop was confiscated, and he had to pedal for three hours on a bicycle to get home after he was questioned, warned, and released. His coronavirus video went viral.

The Chinese government is eager to project the image that everything is under control. Beijing pushed back the post-Lunar New Year opening of financial markets by a few days, and traders returned to their posts Monday morning. The Shanghai Composite Index and Shenzhen Composite Index quickly dropped 8.7 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively. By lunch time, more than 2,600 stocks had tripped regulator-imposed breakers after losing 10 percent in value. At market closing at 3 p.m., the indices were unable to recover from their nosedives.

This was the worst plummet in China’s markets since an equity bubble burst in 2015, and it isn’t difficult to see why. Schools have been closed indefinitely. Flights have been grounded, and domestic travel has been limited or even halted. Office buildings, restaurants, and malls are empty. Public functions have been canceled. Overwhelmingly, white-collar workers across the country are telecommuting. The country, it seems, is a network of ghost towns with wide boulevards and glass towers. Combined with the ongoing swine flu and a new outbreak of avian flu south of Wuhan, the coronavirus is hitting China’s economy on many fronts.

Perhaps the most striking development in China is how borders became tangible. Villages, towns, and cities are physically blocked off from each other, sometimes with local officials posted on roads to stop anyone except emergency relief personnel from passing through. Married couples who hail from different parts of the country have been separated if they chose to travel over the Lunar New Year; as they returned home after the break, local officials in some locations barred one spouse, whoever is an “outlander,” from entering city limits.

The coronavirus is isolating China from the rest of the world, too. Many countries have imposed travel restrictions on Chinese nationals, or even banned visitors who have recently been in mainland China. Over in Hong Kong, medical workers who joined a newly formed union voted to begin a strike Monday to pressure the city’s officials into sealing the border with mainland China. Clashes have broken out at sites where the government had attempted to set up mass quarantine facilities in Hong Kong.

Back in Wuhan, one of two speed-build hospitals began absorbing patients on Monday. It took 10 days to build, has 1,000 beds, and is staffed by 1,400 military doctors who are managing the symptoms of those under their care. The additions are welcome, but people living in Hubei, the province where Wuhan is the capital, have doubts about how effective the facilities will be. There’s a severe shortage of testing kits, and sick people are still being turned away from hospitals. It is common for patients to wander between several emergency rooms before giving up to head home and tough it out.

This outbreak has given new meaning to a well-worn adage: When China sneezes, the world catches a cold. People recall a lack of transparency when SARS was hitting China, even though the WHO has praised Beijing repeatedly for improving its performance this time around. But that may not be enough. Right now, every country in the world is trying to prevent the epidemic from flaring up on its own shores.

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2020-02-03 13:44:00Z
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Iran plane pilot heard in leaked air traffic control audio talking about "missile" hitting Ukraine passenger jet - CBS News

Kiev, Ukraine — A leaked recording of an exchange between an Iranian air-traffic controller and an Iranian pilot purportedly shows that authorities immediately knew a missile had downed a Ukrainian jetliner after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 176 people aboard, despite days of denials by the Islamic Republic.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged the recording's authenticity in a report aired by a Ukrainian television channel on Sunday night.

In Tehran on Monday, the head of the Iranian investigation team, Hassan Rezaeifar, acknowledged the recording was legitimate and said that it was handed over to Ukrainian officials.

After the January 8 disaster, Iran's civilian government maintained for days that it didn't know the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had shot down the aircraft. The downing of the jetliner came just hours after the Guard launched a ballistic missile attack on Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for an earlier American drone strike that killed the Guard's top general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad.

U.S. forces harmed by missiles get treatment

A transcript of the recording, published by Ukrainian 1+1 TV channel, contains a conversation in Farsi between an air-traffic controller and a pilot reportedly flying a Fokker 100 jet for Iran's Aseman Airlines from Iran's southern city of Shiraz to Tehran.

"A series of lights like ... yes, it is a missile, is there something?" the pilot calls out to the controller.

"No, how many miles? Where?" the controller asks.

The pilot responds that he saw the light by the Payam airport, near where the Guard's Tor M-1 anti-aircraft missile was launched from. The controller says nothing has been reported to them, but the pilot remains insistent.

"It is the light of a missile," the pilot says.

"Don't you see anything anymore?" the controller asks.

"Dear engineer, it was an explosion. We saw a very big light there, I don't really know what it was," the pilot responds.

The controller then tries to contract the Ukrainian jetliner, but unsuccessfully.

IRAN-UKRAINE-CANADA-AVIATION-ACCIDENT
Rescue teams are seen on January 8, 2020 at the scene of a Ukrainian airliner that crashed shortly after take-off near Imam Khomeini airport in the Iranian capital Tehran. AKBAR TAVAKOLI/Getty Images

Publicly accessible flight-tracking radar information suggests the Aseman Airlines aircraft, flight No. 3768, was close enough to Tehran to see the blast.

Iranian civil aviation authorities for days insisted it wasn't a missile that brought down the plane, even after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. officials began saying they believed it had been shot down.

Iranian officials should have immediately had access to the air-traffic control recordings and Zelensky told 1+1 that "the recording, indeed, shows that the Iranian side knew from the start that our plane was shot down by a missile, they were aware of this at the moment of the shooting."

Ukraine's president repeated his demands to decode the plane's flight recorders in Kiev - something Iranian officials had promised last month but later backtracked on. On Monday, Ukrainian investigators were to travel to Tehran to participate in the decoding effort, but Zelensky insisted on bringing the so-called "black boxes" back to Kiev.

"It is very important for us," he said.

Iranian authorities, however, condemned the publication of the recording as "unprofessional," saying it was part of a confidential report.

"This action by the Ukrainians makes us not want to give them any more evidence," said Rezaifar, the head of the Iranian investigators, according to a report by the semiofficial Mehr news agency.

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2020-02-03 12:46:00Z
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China accuses US of spreading 'panic' over coronavirus outbreak - New York Post

The Chinese government on Monday accused the US of spreading “panic” over the coronavirus outbreak by pulling its citizens out of the country and restricting travel instead of offering significant assistance.

The US was the first country to begin evacuations, issued a travel warning against going to China, and from Sunday barred entry to foreigners recently in China.

Washington has “unceasingly manufactured and spread panic,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, noting that the World Health Organization had advised against trade and travel restrictions, according to Reuters.

“It is precisely developed countries like the United States with strong epidemic prevention capabilities and facilities that have taken the lead in imposing excessive restrictions contrary to WHO recommendations,” she added, saying countries should make reasoned and science-based judgments.

There are more than 17,000 confirmed cases of the virus in China. More than 360 people have died, all but one in the country.

At least another 171 cases have been reported in more than two dozen other countries and regions, including the US, where 11 cases have been confirmed, officials said Sunday.

There are three suspected cases in the Big Apple. The results of their tests are pending.

Conducting her daily news briefing via the WeChat app, Hua criticized Washington for lack of help, despite President Trump’s weekend comments that US officials had offered “tremendous help.”

“So far, the US government has yet to provide any substantial assistance to China,” she said.
But national security adviser Robert O’Brien told an interviewer that China had not yet accepted American offers of aid.

Trump said this weekend that the US had “shut down” the coronavirus threat.

“We can’t have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem,” he said on Fox.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said Monday it was working around the clock with internet and social media giants to fight widespread misinformation about the outbreak.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of the dangers posed by “the spread of rumors and misinformation,” according to Agence France-Presses.

“We have worked with Google to make sure people searching for information about coronavirus see WHO information at the top of their search results,” Tedros said in opening remarks to the UN health agency’s Executive Board meeting in Geneva.

“Social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Tencent and Tiktok have also taken steps to limit the spread of misinformation,” he said.

The WHO chief’s comments were interrupted by a fit of coughing, but he assured the assembly that there was no need to worry.

“It is not corona,” he said.

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2020-02-03 11:18:00Z
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China's coronavirus hospital built in 10 days opens its doors, state media says - NBCNews.com

A 1,000-bed hospital built in just 10 days to handle the coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan, China, welcomed its first patients Monday.

Built specifically to handle patients infected with the novel coronavirus that has sickened thousands of people and left more than 360 dead, it took workers just 10 days to complete work on the Huoshenshan Hospital on the outskirts of the city with its 11 million residents, where the outbreak is believed to have originated.

On Monday, the hospital — which covers 60,000 square meters (645,000 square ft) — opened its doors and welcomed its first patients, according to Chinese state media. There was no information about the patients or their conditions.

Construction of the hospital began on Jan. 24 with a crew of 7,000 people working around the clock. Live video of the construction site was carried by Chinese state media and showed the sheer scale and speed of the project.

A second dedicated hospital with 1,300 beds is also expected to be ready later this week.

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Medical equipment at the Huoshenshan temporary field hospital in Wuhan.AP

China's state news agency Xinhua reported Sunday the new hospital has a capacity for 1,000 beds, intensive care units and sections for diagnosis and infection control.

Hundreds of doctors and medical personnel have been drafted in from China's military to treat patients at the hospital, Xinhua also said.

Many of the 1,400 medical specialists have worked in the past to treat Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which the novel coronavirus is related to, and the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the agency added.

The Huoshenshan hospital in Wuhan seen from the air. AP

Project manager Fang Xiang whose team worked on the hospital was quoted by China Central Television (CCTV) Monday as saying that a project of this scale usually takes at least two years.

"It takes at least a month to construct a temporary building, not to mention a new hospital for infectious diseases," he said, according to CCTV.

Thousands of workers worked in shifts to complete the construction, CCTV said.

China's state CGTN network showed a video of several workers who said they slept only two hours in three days while completing the construction of the hospital.

It’s not the first time China has had to build a specialized medical facility on a tight deadline. During the SARS epidemic in 2003, a hospital in Beijing was constructed in just a week.

Wuhan has been on lockdown for nearly two weeks with millions of its inhabitants barred from leaving the city. The Chinese government has not yet signaled when the lockdown could be lifted.

Associated Press contributed.

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2020-02-03 10:38:00Z
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China’s reopened stock markets plunge as coronavirus outbreak set to become pandemic - The Washington Post

Jason Lee Reuters Security personnel wearing masks cross a road at the Financial Street in central Beijing, Feb. 3, 2020.

Coronavirus cases continue to surge in China while new infections are being reported around the world. Stock markets in China, reopening after the Lunar New Year holiday, recorded their sharpest falls in more than four years on Monday, reflecting increasing concern about the damage the outbreak is inflicting on the local economy. Here’s what we know:

● China’s National Health Commission reported Monday that there are now 17,205 confirmed cases in mainland China, plus 15 in Hong Kong and eight in Macao, as well as 10 in Taiwan. The World Health Organization reported 146 confirmed cases in 23 countries outside China.

● China’s main share indexes plunged more than 8 percent, reopening after a 10-day break following the Lunar New Year holiday, as economists continue to revise down growth forecasts.

● Hong Kong has closed nearly all its border crossings with mainland China. Concerns are also rising about possible outbreaks in Japan and South Korea after indications of tertiary transmissions of the virus there.

● China’s new “super-fast” hospital has opened in Wuhan, taking just eight days to build. With 1,000 beds, it will relieve pressure on Wuhan’s overwhelmed medical facilities.

● U.S. restrictions on travelers from China set to take effect as four more airports were added to list of those that can screen arrivals, raising the total to 11.

5:00 AM: Facing hospital strike, Hong Kong further restricts border crossings, but avoids total closure

HONG KONG — Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Monday said she would close more border crossings with mainland China, leaving only three open, but stopped short of fully closing the door to arrivals from the virus-hit country.

Her announcement on Monday came as thousands of medical workers in the city started the first wave of a strike designed to pressure the government into a full border closure. Medical workers are also demanding sufficient protective supplies like masks, which are in very short supply in the city. They are backed in their strike by a large swath of Hong Kong society.

Jerome Favre

EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Supporters of medical workers rally to demand the government the closing of the border with mainland China in Hong Kong, Feb. 3, 2020.

Hong Kong had closed six of its 15 border checkpoints with mainland China last Thursday, but Lam said there was a need to take further steps on Monday “because of the latest developments in the outbreak.”

She said she hoped the closure would make it inconvenient for people to travel to mainland China, and discourage people crossing between the two territories. Hong Kong has its own immigration system, but Beijing has ultimate sovereignty over the territory.

The decision, Lam said, has “absolutely nothing to do” with the five-day strike launched by health care workers on Monday.

Tyrone Siu

Reuters

Medical workers hold a strike near Queen Elizabeth Hospital as they demand Hong Kong close its border with China to reduce the coronavirus spreading, Feb. 3, 2020.

“If anyone thinks that by resorting to such extreme measures, the government will be made to do something that is not rational or will harm the public good, they will not get anywhere,” she said.

The medical workers striking, which include doctors and nurses, are from a union — the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance — that was formed in the wake of anti-government protests that rocked Hong Kong last year.

The pro-democracy union has some 18, 000 members, and they say they will expand their strike to include more of their members if the government does not respond to their demands.

By: Shibani Mahtani

4:57 AM: China shares closed nearly 8 percent lower as virus weakens the economy

TOKYO — China’s main share index closed down nearly 8 percent on Monday, reflecting a buildup in negative sentiment during the long Lunar New Year holiday.

The CSI composite index of 300 leading shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen ended 7.9 percent lower, its biggest daily fall since an equity bubble burst in 2015. The Chinese yuan fell below 7 to a dollar, while commodity prices traded in Shanghai also fell sharply.

The fall was a reflection of 10 days of unrelenting bad news since the Chinese markets were last open on Jan. 23, when the index also fell 3 percent. Many Chinese cities have postponed the reopening of nonessential businesses and offices, while a drop-off in Chinese tourists is also impacting the economies of nearby countries in Asia.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed 0.2 percent higher after falling 5.9 percent last week, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1.0 percent after falling 2.6 percent last week, while South Korea’s Kospi index was flat after falling 5.7 percent last week.

In Europe, London’s FTSE-100 index and Germany’s DAX opened slightly higher.

By: Simon Denyer

4:43 AM: Coronavirus got you stressed? Chinese therapists recommend a good cry — or hitting something

TOKYO — If the relentless negative news about coronavirus is all getting too much, or if you’re trapped at home in China feeling bored and fidgety, or starting to panic, Chinese psychologists have some suggestions.

Calligraphy and e-sports, reading, singing, exercise and meditation were just some of the ideas proposed at a news conference organized by China’s National Health Commission on Monday.

“Companionship from family and friends is important social support,” said Chen Xuefeng, the vice director of Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Science.

“Think about what valuable life experience you can get from this chapter of experience.”

China Daily

Reuters

Medical workers inspect the CT scan image of a patient at the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Hubei province, China Feb. 2, 2020.

But for overworked medical professionals and community workers on the front line of the battle against the virus, more radical measures might be needed.

“They should master some methods and solutions to get the negative feelings off their chests,” said Yang Fude, the Communist Party chief of Beijing’s Huilongguan Hospital. “For instance, if you feel depressed, you can find a place with no one around and cry out loud for a few minutes,” he said. “You’ll really feel relaxed after crying. It’s like how a downpour of rain can clear a cloudy sky.”

Yang said work shifts need to be arranged so everyone can get a reasonable amount of rest.

“Also if conditions allow, you can put a sandbag or a punch bag in the workplace, and take some minutes to do some boxing, which will return you to a relaxed state right away.”

By: Simon Denyer

4:15 AM: South Korea’s Moon calls for more intense measures to halt virus spread

SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on Monday for “exhaustive” monitoring to prevent the spread of coronavirus, with hundreds of schools closing and evidence emerging of the tertiary spread of infections in the East Asian nation.

On Sunday, South Korea joined the growing list of countries to impose restrictions on travelers from China, with Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announcing a ban on foreigners who have traveled to Hubei Province in the past 14 days, and a mandatory 14-day quarantine on South Koreans returning from Hubei.

Opposition lawmakers called for a total ban on all travelers from mainland China but Moon resisted those calls.

“China is our biggest partner in human exchange and trade,” Moon told a meeting with aides in Seoul. “China’s hardship is directly connected to our own hardship.”

Heo Ran

Reuters

Tourists wear masks to protect themselves against the new coronavirus in Seoul, Feb. 3, 2020.

The number of infected people in South Korea rose to 15 over the weekend. One was among 701 South Koreans evacuated from Wuhan by charter flight, according to Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (KCDC), while nine others were South Korean and Chinese citizens who had recently been there.

But others contracted the disease through more indirect routes.

A 54-year-old South Korean man tested positive for the virus on Thursday, eight days after he had dined in Seoul with an infected person who had returned from Wuhan. On Friday, two members of his family were also diagnosed with the virus.

South Korea’s Education Ministry has recommended schools close to stop the spread of the virus and announced on Monday that 336 had done so.

The United States military in South Korea has also instituted a 14-day self-quarantine for service members returning from mainland China.

By: Min Joo Kim

4:03 AM: Russia can now deport those infected with coronavirus

MOSCOW — A new Russian plan to prevent the spread of coronavirus allows for the deportation of foreign citizens who test positive for the disease, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a government meeting on Monday, according to the Interfax news agency.

The new coronavirus, which has infected thousands of people in China, has been added to the country’s list of dangerous diseases, he said.

“That will allow us to deport foreign citizens who test positive for the virus and to impose special restrictive measures, such as isolation and quarantine,” he added.

Russia announced its first two cases of coronavirus on Friday — both Chinese citizens — and Anna Popova, the head of the country’s consumer safety watchdog, said “there’s no threat of the situation’s spreading further” because they’re in isolation rooms, according to Interfax.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced that Russia will send aircraft to the locked-down Chinese city of Wuhan on Monday to evacuate Russian citizens currently staying there, estimating there are more than 130 there.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it would allot five planes with military doctors and virology specialists to the evacuation effort.

By: Isabelle Khurshudyan

3:44 AM: China accuses the United States of ‘overreaction’ to coronavirus outbreak

BEIJING — China accused the United States Monday of creating mass hysteria with its “overreaction” to the coronavirus outbreak, part of a broader effort to portray Washington as using the health crisis for political gain.

“The U.S. government hasn’t provided any substantial assistance to us,” Hua Chunying, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told reporters during the daily briefing, which was carried out on the WeChat messaging app rather than the usual in-person news conference to avoid potential transmission of the virus.

“But it was the first to evacuate personnel from its consulate in Wuhan, the first to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff, and the first to impose a travel ban on Chinese travelers. All it has done could only create and spread fear, which is a bad example,” she continued, according to translated remarks supplied by the Foreign Ministry.

“The U.S. is turning from overconfidence to fear and overreaction,” she said, taking aim at the Trump administration’s decision to ban travelers from China — despite the fact that a host of other countries, from Australia and the Philippines to Iraq and Indonesia have done the same.

She noted that the coronavirus outbreak was far less deadly that influenza in the United States, quoting a Center for Diseases Control and Prevention report that said 19 million people were infected and at least 10,000 died from the flu in the United States in 2019 and the first part of 2020.

“We hope countries will make reasonable, calm and science-based judgments and responses,” she said.

Hua also noted that the World Health Organization, the United Nations agency, “continues to have confidence in China’s capacity to control the outbreak.”

“There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade,” she said.

Hua had previously slammed the “certain U.S. officials” for inappropriate remarks, an apparent reference to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who last week said the coronavirus could “help” to bring jobs to the United States as companies moved operations away from China.

By: Anna Fifield

3:38 AM: Chinese authorities authorize evacuation of Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan

HONG KONG — For weeks, Taiwanese authorities have been badgering counterparts in mainland China to allow them to repatriate the 500 or so Taiwanese stranded in Hubei province. On Monday, the first batch of Taiwanese people were finally allowed to evacuate, slated to fly back home in the evening.

Those stranded in Wuhan include business executives, some of whom were on short-term trips in the city, students and tourists. The Taiwanese Mainland Affairs Office had no immediate details on who were among the first batch of 200 allowed to leave. At least one of the Taiwanese people in Wuhan has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and will have to stay behind for treatment.

China has a tense relationship with the self-governing island of Taiwan, which it claims under the “one China” policy. Taiwan under the leadership of President Tsai Ing-wen has pushed back against that interpretation of the island’s sovereignty.

Taiwan has also been excluded from major international organizations over protests from China, which believes it should represent Taiwan in any international forums. Tsai and other Taiwanese leaders have repeatedly balked at this arrangement, particularly as the coronavirus outbreak spreads, and says it must be included and can contribute to the global fight against the disease.

The charter flight carrying the first batch of Taiwanese evacuated from Wuhan is due to arrive in Taiwan on Monday night.

By: Shibani Mahtani

3:15 AM: China’s ‘super-fast’ hospital opens for patients in Wuhan

TOKYO — It’s a race between the power of the Chinese construction industry and the fast-spreading coronavirus.

A new Chinese hospital opened in the virus-hit city of Wuhan on Monday, after taking just eight days to build, state media reported.

Ten ambulances were at the ready on Monday morning to take the first batch of patients to the Huoshenshan (“fire-god mountain”) Hospital, state China Central Television reported.

The hospital is designed to have 1,000 beds for patients with confirmed coronavirus infections and was handed over to military medics on Sunday. It will be staffed by 1,400 medical personnel from the People’s Liberation Army.

China Daily called it the “super-fast hospital.”

China Daily

Reuters

An aerial view shows the newly completed Huoshenshan Hospital, built in eight days to treat coronavirus patients, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China Feb. 2, 2020.

Its construction was modeled on a similar hospital build in Beijing in 2003 during the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and involved 7,500 construction workers.

But no sooner had worked begun on the hospital on Jan. 25, than it became apparent it would not be large enough to relieve the massive shortage of beds in Wuhan as the virus spreads.

Another hospital, Leishenshan (“thunder-god mountain”), is scheduled to be completed on Feb. 5 with a further 1,600 beds. Similar hospitals are also being built in Beijing and other Chinese cities.

According to official figures, there are more than 11,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the central province of Hubei, but medical experts believe the actual number is many times higher. Many residents of Wuhan are staying home even if they fall sick, because there are few testing kits and no beds at hospitals in the city, and they fear catching the virus there.

By: Simon Denyer

2:47 AM: War on mah-jongg! Chinese police smash up tables to prevent public gatherings

TOKYO — China’s Communist Party seems to be launching an unofficial war on the popular Chinese game of mah-jongg, as police intensify efforts to prevent public gatherings that might spread coronavirus.

Videos circulating on Chinese social media and the Internet show police swinging hammers and axes to smash mah-jongg tables, not only the province of Hubei at the epicenter of the virus, but also in neighboring Anhui and in faraway provinces such as Yunnan in the southwest, and Gansu in the northwest.

Nicole Tung

for The Washington Post

Men play mah-jongg in a shop in the Prince Edward neighborhood of Hong Kong, S.A.R. on Wednesday, August 21, 2019.

Sichuan province in the southwest issued a ban on mah-jongg parlors on Jan. 28, and police in the capital Chengdu asked young people to report locations where their parents were playing mah-jongg, as many elderly people were apparently refusing to follow official advice to stay home. In Heilongjiang, in the far northeast, the owner of one parlor was among those arrested for defying a ban and keeping his parlors open, while players were “severely criticized and educated,” Heilongjiang Daily reported.

[Kimchi, cow poop and other spurious coronavirus remedies]

China’s provincial and municipal governments granted themselves far-reaching emergency powers last week to stem the spread of the virus, including enforcing blockades, closing business and schools and banning mass gatherings.

Mah-jongg, a strategic four-player game using small tiles, is one of the most popular pastimes in China, especially among the elderly, but it’s not the first time it has been in the Communist Party’s crosshairs.

Last October, police in several parts of China shut down unlicensed mah-jongg parlors, or those that they considered encouraged gambling, the BBC reported.

The latest videos drew a mixed reaction on China’s heavily censored social media platforms, with some people arguing people should wait to play until the virus had subsided, but others asking why the tables could not have been confiscated rather than smashed up.

By: Simon Denyer

2:35 AM: India reports third coronavirus case from Kerala, suspends visas from China

NEW DELHI — India on Monday confirmed a third case of coronavirus from the southern state of Kerala. The condition of the patient, a student, is stable. All three reported cases had recently returned from China, two of them from Wuhan, where the epidemic originated.

The cases have been reported from three different cities in Kerala, said Rajan Khobragade, a senior health department official in the state. As a precaution, he said, authorities have put nearly 2,000 people with a history of travel from Wuhan under house isolation.

India has asked its nationals to refrain from traveling to China. An updated advisory from the Health Ministry said that anyone coming from China post Jan. 15 could be quarantined. The Indian Embassy in Beijing temporarily suspended e-visas for Chinese passport holders and foreign nationals in China. Existing visas have been canceled. Over 58,000 incoming passengers from China have been screened at airports across the country.

Over the weekend, India evacuated over 600 nationals from Wuhan and are now quarantined for 14 days at an army-run camp, 55 miles outside of New Delhi.

By: Niha Masih

2:30 AM: ‘Handful’ more flights planned to evacuate Americans in Hubei

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that there will be a “handful more flights” to bring Americans stranded in China’s Hubei province back to the United States, according to Reuters news agency.

Pompeo spoke during the Uzbekistan leg of his Central Asia Trip. He said the flights would also bring medical supplies to China and could bring back other nationalities as well.

Hubei Province has been largely cut off from the rest of the country in a bid to stem the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak centered in the regional capital of Wuhan. Thousands of foreigners have been trapped in the city and surrounding province, prompting several countries to send evacuation flights.

By: Paul Schemm

1:40 AM: China backtracks on Holocaust comparison over Israel border closure

JERUSALEM — A Chinese diplomat compared Israel’s closure of its borders to visitors from China over coronavirus fears to the Holocaust, beseeching the country not to bar Chinese travelers as Jewish refugees were barred by many countries in the World War II era, according to Israeli media reports.

Acting Chinese Ambassador Dai Yuming made the comments Sunday at a Tel Aviv news conference after Israel joined a growing list of nations trying to insulate themselves from the pathogen’s spread. The government has halted flights from China and barred noncitizens who had traveled to China recently from entering Israel. The Health Ministry advised Israelis returning from China to quarantine themselves at home for two weeks.

“I feel bad and sad,” Dai said, according to the Times of Israel. “Because it actually recalled [for] me, the old days, the old stories, that happened in World War II, the Holocaust. Many Jewish [people] were refused when they tried to seek assistance. Only very, very few countries opened their doors. One of them is China. I hope Israel will never close their door to the Chinese.”

Thousands of European Jews traveled to Shanghai after Nazis rose to power, at time when many countries closed their doors to the growing flood of Jewish seeking safe havens. Historians here acknowledged China’s role, but many pointed out that the Chinese government actually had little control over Shanghai entry ports at the time.

The Chinese embassy backtracked after the comparison was criticized.

“Regarding the news conference held today by the Chinese Embassy in Israel, we would like to clarify that there was no intention whatsoever to compare the dark days of the Holocaust with the current situation and the efforts taken by the Israeli government to protect its citizens,” the embassy said in a statement conveyed by Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “We would like to apologize if someone understood our message the wrong way.”

By: Steve Hendrix

1:16 AM: Japan girds for coronavirus outbreak as transmission fears grow

TOKYO — Japan needs to brace for a major outbreak in coronavirus, a leading expert said on Monday, with evidence mounting that even people with mild or no symptoms can infect others, and a high probability that a transmission chain has already established itself in the country.

Behrouz Mehri

Afp Via Getty Images

A man wears a face mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus while praying at the Sensoji temple in Tokyo on Monday.

“My assessment is that the spread of this virus is inevitable in Japan,” said Hitoshi Oshitani, a virology professor at Tohoko University Graduate School of Medicine and an adviser to the World Health Organization during the 2002-3 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as SARS.

“People have the ability to infect others even if they don’t have any symptoms or have very mild symptoms, so it’s not possible to find the whole transmission chain — an invisible transmission chain might already have been established in Japan.”

Japan has confirmed 20 cases of coronavirus. Eight of that number were Japanese citizens among more than 500 evacuated from Wuhan, and nine were Chinese tourists from Wuhan or people who had recently visited that city.

[Tokyo Olympics organizers look on anxiously as coronavirus menaces the Games]

But the other three had never been to Wuhan. A tour bus driver and tour guide fell ill after taking around a group of Chinese tourists from Wuhan, and another tour guide fell ill after working with the bus driver, taking around a different group of Chinese tourists from the northern city of Dalian.

Oshitani said Japan’s decision on Friday to bar foreigners who had visited China’s Hubei province probably came too late.

“Suddenly we may see a large number of cases somewhere in Japan,” he said. “It’s impossible to contain this virus.”

Oshitani believes there could be as many as 100,000 people infected with the virus in Wuhan, but says the mortality rate is “definitely” much lower than SARS, which killed nearly one in 10 of those infected. Still, the fact that the virus is so easily transmitted means a large number of cases “and more deaths unfortunately.”

By: Simon Denyer

12:04 AM: China markets, reopening after extended break, plunge on coronavirus concerns

TOKYO — China’s main stock indexes were down more than 8 percent on Monday, reflecting a buildup in negative sentiment during the long Lunar New Year holiday.

The CSI composite index of 300 leading shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen was 8.2 percent lower in early afternoon trade, marking the biggest one-day fall since an equity bubble burst in 2015, according to Bloomberg, and approaching the 10 percent limit which triggers a suspension in trade.

[Coronavirus infections predicted to grow exponentially; first death outside China; outbreak becomes political]

The fall reflected 10 days of unrelenting bad news since the Chinese markets were last open on Jan. 23, when the index also fell 3 percent. Many Chinese cities have postponed the reopening of nonessential businesses and offices, while many people are simply staying home.

Lian Weiliang, vice director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the key state economic planning agency, said the virus had its biggest impact on transportation, tourism, hotels and catering.

“It needs to be emphasized that the influence is interim and temporary, and it will not change the long-term good prospects of Chinese economy,” he told a news conference.

Aly Song

Reuters

A security guard stands at the Shanghai Stock Exchange building at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, Feb. 3, 2020.

Other markets around Asia were calmer on Monday, but have all suffered from the fallout of the deadly virus.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was up 0.1 percent after falling 5.9 percent last week, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was down 1.1 percent after falling 2.6 percent last week, while South Korea’s Kospi index was flat after falling 5.7 percent last week.

In a research note, Oxford Economics said it was revising down its China growth prediction by two percentage points for the first quarter, and to 5.4 percent from 6 percent for the year as a whole, but warned “a more serious and long-lasting impact cannot be ruled out.”

By: Simon Denyer

10:02 PM: China virus cases jump to 17,205, with 361 fatalities

BEIJING — The National Health Commission in China reported Sunday that there have been 17,205 confirmed cases of illness caused by the coronavirus, plus 15 in Hong Kong and eight in Macao. The WHO reported 146 confirmed cases in 23 countries outside China. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday confirmed an additional case in California, involving a patient who had recently returned to the United States from Wuhan. That brings the U.S. case number to nine, with no deaths.

Aly Song

Reuters

People wearing masks are seen on a bridge in front of the financial district of Pudong, in Shanghai, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus, February 3, 2020.

Scientists suspect the true number of infections may be many times higher than the official count. So far, 361 people have died, all but one in China.

The most serious illnesses appear to be in the elderly and people with preexisting medical problems, and it is highly contagious. Unless contained soon, it could become a pandemic — a disease that travels almost everywhere on the planet in the same manner as influenza.

By: Anna Fifield

7:35 PM: Officials add four additional airports to those already screening for the coronavirus

On Sunday evening, just as new restrictions on passengers arriving in the United States took effect, the Department of Homeland Security added four additional airports to the seven where passengers arriving from China would be funneled for screening.

In additional to airports in New York, Atlanta, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle, passengers will also be funneled to airports in Dallas, Detroit, Newark and Washington’s Dulles International, where they will be screened for the coronavirus.

Under new protocols announced Friday, U.S. citizens who have been in Hubei province within 14 days of their return will be subject to 14 days of mandatory quarantine to ensure they receive proper medical care. Those citizens who have been in other areas of mainland China within 14 days of their return will been screened when they enter the U.S. and may be subject to up to 14 das of self-quarantine to ensure they haven’t contracted the virus. Under the policy, non-U.S. citizens who have traveled in China within 14 days of their arrival will not be allowed to enter the U.S.

David Paul Morris

Bloomberg

Travelers wearing disposable face masks check-in at the Air China Ltd. counter at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020.

According to U.S. Department of Transportation data analyzed by Airlines for America, an industry trade group, there were an average of about 49 daily passenger flights between the U.S. and China for the 12-month period that ended in July. That number includes flights on both U.S. and foreign carriers.

However, the number of flights between the United States and China has dropped dramatically since the outbreak of the virus after Chinese officials closed the airport in Wuhan and began restricting travel in the country. Several U.S. carriers also canceled some flights. The U.S. Department of State also raised its China travel advisory to Level 4, its highest level of caution and said Americans should not travel to the region.

[Perspective: Past epidemics prove fighting coronavirus with travel bans is a mistake]

Last week, three major U.S. carriers — American, Delta and United, announced they would stop flying to and from China. American began halting flights on Friday, but Delta and United said they would continue operating some flights until this week to give customers and its own employees the ability to leave China.

Delta officials said their last China-bound flight will leave the United States on Monday. Its last flight from China is set to depart Wednesday. United said it will suspend all operations between its hub cities in Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai beginning Thursday.

By: Lori Aratani

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2020-02-03 10:22:00Z
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Turkish soldiers killed in Syrian army shelling in Idlib - BBC News

Four Turkish soldiers have been killed and nine wounded in shelling by Syrian government forces in Syria's north-western Idlib province, Turkey said.

It said up to 35 Syrian troops had been killed in retaliatory fire. Syria's media said there were no casualties.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled an offensive by Syrian troops and their Russian backers against the last opposition stronghold in Idlib.

Many have moved towards the border with Turkey, which supports the opposition.

Turkey and Russia - a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - signed a de-escalation deal for Idlib in 2017, but it has been frequently violated.

What did Turkey say?

Speaking to reporters on Monday morning, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 46 Syrian "regime targets" had been hit by the Turkish military.

He said that "30-35 Syrians on the other side have been neutralised [killed].

"Those who question our determination will soon understand they made a mistake," Mr Erdogan said.

He warned Russia not to get involved in Ankara's dealing with Damascus over the shelling, telling Moscow "not to stand in our way".

Turkey has previously said its troops were in Idlib to prevent clashes there, and that their positions were being co-ordinated beforehand.

Mr Erdogan warned last week that Turkey would respond militarily if its soldiers in the region were threatened in any way.

How has Syria reacted?

Syria's Sana state news agency said that "no injuries or damage were reported" in the Turkish strikes.

It said Syrian government troops were continuing their offensive in Idlib, liberating several villages in the province.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported that six Syrian soldiers were killed in the Turkish strikes.

What's the background to this?

In 2017, Turkey and Russia signed a "de-escalation" deal on Idlib, which came into force a year later.

The two sides agreed to jointly patrol the area to prevent clashes between the opposition and Syrian government troops.

Turkey, which has 12 military observation posts in the region, has accused Russia of violating the agreement, a claim Moscow denies.

There are 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, and the president has said it would not be able to handle a fresh influx of displaced people.

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2020-02-03 07:55:24Z
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