NOT THE ONION

Myanmar junta leader asks Thai counterpart for help on democracy

APAC
FEBRUARY 10, 2021

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who himself first seized power in a coup, said on Wednesday he had received a letter from Myanmar’s new junta leader asking for help to support democracy.

Prayuth, who overthrew an elected prime minister in 2014 and stayed in office after a 2019 election his rivals said was badly flawed, told reporters in Bangkok that he had always supported democracy in the neighbouring country.

Min Aung Hlaing’s army overthrew elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1 and detained her, alleging fraud in an election last year that her party won in a landslide. The electoral commission had dismissed the army’s claims.

“We are supportive of the democratic process in Myanmar but what is most important today is to maintain good relations because it impacts the people, the economy, border trade, particularly now,” Prayuth said.

“Thailand supports the democratic process. The rest is up to him to see how to proceed,” he said.

Since the coup, Myanmar has been convulsed by the biggest protests in more than a decade as Suu Kyi’s supporters challenge the coup that halted a tentative decade-long transition to democracy.

Thailand witnessed its biggest protests in decades last year as Prayuth’s opponents demanded that he step down, accusing him of engineering the last election to continue the domination of Thai politics by the army and monarchy. He denies any interference.

The Thai and Myanmar armies have had close working relationships in recent decades despite a distant history of enmity between the countries.

THEY ARE BOTH BEHOLDEN TO CHINA

Myanmar protests resume, West condemns security response

By Reuters Staff
APAC
FEBRUARY 9, 2021

(Reuters) - Protests spread across Myanmar on Wednesday after the most violent day in demonstrations against a coup that brought to a halt a tentative transition to democracy under elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The United States and United Nations condemned the use of force against protesters who are demanding the reversal of the Feb. 1 coup and the release of Suu Kyi and other detained leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) and activists.

“We cannot stay quiet,” youth leader Esther Ze Naw told Reuters. “If there is blood shed during our peaceful protests, then there will be more if we let them take over the country.”

Thousands of people joined demonstrations in the main city of Yangon. In the capital, Naypyitaw, hundreds of government workers marched in support of a growing civil disobedience campaign.

A group of police in Kayah state in the east joined the protesters and marched in uniform with a sign that said “We don’t want dictatorship”, according to pictures published in media.

A clinic that had been treating wounded protesters in Naypyitaw on Tuesday was taken over by soldiers, a doctor there said.

Another doctor said a woman protester was expected to die from a gunshot wound to the head sustained during a confrontation with police in Naypyitaw on Tuesday.

She was wounded when police fired, mostly into the air, to clear the protesters. Three other people were being treated for wounds from suspected rubber bullets, doctors said.

Protesters were also hurt in Mandalay and other cities, where security forces used water cannon and arrested dozens. State media reported injuries to police during their attempts to disperse protesters, who were accused of throwing stones and bricks.

The military has imposed restrictions on gatherings and a night curfew in the biggest cities.

‘DISPROPORTIONATE’ RESPONSE

The protests are the largest in Myanmar in more than a decade, reviving memories of almost half a century of direct army rule and spasms of bloody uprisings until the military began relinquishing some power in 2011.

Western countries have condemned the coup but taken little concrete action to press for the restoration of democracy.

The U.S. State Department said it was reviewing assistance to Myanmar to ensure those responsible for the coup faced “significant consequences”.

“We repeat our calls for the military to relinquish power, restore democratically elected government, release those detained and lift all telecommunication restrictions and to refrain from violence,” spokesman Ned Price said in Washington.

The United Nations called on Myanmar’s security forces to respect people’s right to protest peacefully.

“The use of disproportionate force against demonstrators is unacceptable,” Ola Almgren, the U.N. representative in Myanmar, said.

Avinash Paliwal, a senior lecturer in international relations at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said Myanmar will not be as isolated now as it was in the past, with China, India, Southeast Asian neighbours and Japan unlikely to cut ties.

“The country is too important geo-strategically for that to happen. The U.S. and other Western countries will put sanctions - but this coup and its ramifications will be an Asian story, not a Western one,” Paliwal said.

CRITICAL CONDITION

A doctor in Naypyitaw said the woman who was shot in the head was in a critical condition and not expected to survive. Social media video verified by Reuters showed her with other protesters some distance from a row of riot police as a water cannon sprayed and several shots could be heard.

The woman, wearing a motorcycle helmet, suddenly collapsed. Pictures of her helmet showed what appeared to be a bullet hole.

“Now we see the military takes brutal action against us,” said Htet Shar Ko, an interpreter. “But we young people will keep fighting against the regime under our motto - military dictatorship must fail.”

The military justified its takeover on the grounds of fraud in a Nov. 8 election that Suu Kyi’s NLD party won by a landslide, as expected. The electoral commission dismissed the army’s complaints.

Late on Tuesday, police raided the NLD’s Yangon headquarters, lawmakers said.

Alongside the protests, a civil disobedience movement has affected hospitals, schools and government offices.

Activist Min Ko Naing called in a Facebook post on all government workers to join the disobedience campaign, and for people to take note of who did not participate.

Protesters are seeking the abolition of a 2008 constitution drawn up under military supervision that gave the generals a veto in parliament and control of several ministries, and for a federal system in ethnically diverse Myanmar.

Suu Kyi, 75, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for campaigning for democracy and spent nearly 15 years under house arrest. She faces charges of illegally importing six walkie-talkies and her lawyer said he has not been allowed to see her.

Suu Kyi remains hugely popular at home despite damage to her international reputation over the plight of theMuslim Rohingya minority.


Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Matthew Tostevin and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Robert Birsel

Soldiers shoot live rounds at protesters in Myanmar crisis

Woman shot in head as forces clamp down on demonstrations

Resistance: People rally against the military coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in Yangon, Myanmar. Photo: Reuters

Karla de Wintourz
February 10 2021

A woman was fighting for her life last night after security forces in Myanmar fired live rounds at protesters opposed to last week’s military coup.

The activist was taking part in a demonstration in Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar, when she was shot in the head with the bullet penetrating deep into her skull yesterday, medical sources said.

She is being treated at a Naypyitaw hospital. A doctor at the Thingangyun General Hospital in Yangon said she was unlikely to survive.

“The surgeon told me they won’t be [doing] surgery according to her condition. But the bullet is real ammo,” the doctor said.

“She was shot from behind,” the source added, saying that even though she wore a helmet the bullet penetrated her brain and she had been placed on a ventilator.

The crackdown came as mass rallies erupted for the fourth straight day against last week’s military takeover that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with demonstrators defying a ban on gatherings of more than five people introduced by the junta on Monday.

Police fired on crowds in major cities with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets, injuring at least three in Naypyitaw.

A doctor at an emergency clinic said three people with wounds suspected of being from rubber bullets and one with a head injury had been transferred to a main hospital after treatment at the clinic.

The reports were corroborated by witnesses who said police fired rubber bullets at protesters after earlier blasting them with water cannon.


“They fired warning shots to the sky two times, then they fired [at protesters] with rubber bullets,” said one resident, adding that he saw some people injured.

In Yangon, the country’s commercial centre, and Mandalay, the second-largest city, reports emerged of police firing water cannon on protesters and carrying out mass arrests.

The doctor in Naypyitaw said the hospital was “prepared for disaster” amid the widespread demonstrations and growing crackdown by the military.

“My feeling is not scared. I am devoted to fight against military dictatorship. All my colleagues have the same devotion,” they said.

Human rights activists were swift to condemn the government’s heavy-handed tactics against peaceful mass demonstrations, which have gained pace across the country since thousands first took to the streets on Saturday.

“We are facing a potential human rights catastrophe in Myanmar,” said Ismail Wolff, regional director of the Fortify Rights group.

“This excessive use of force in the military junta’s attempt to suppress peaceful demonstrations is unlawful, unjustified and disproportionate. It threatens to escalate tensions across the country.”

General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the armed forces and chief of the new junta, tried to justify the coup in a televised address, pledging a fresh election that would make the country a “true and disciplined democracy”.

Meanwhile, police carried out a night raid at the headquarters of Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.


Read More

Police fire water cannon at hundreds of demonstrators in Myanmar’s capital

Myanmar coup leader defends action amid pledge to hold election

Telegraph Media Group Limited 

Myanmar junta cracks down on crowds defying protest ban


YANGON, Myanmar — Police cracked down on demonstrators opposing Myanmar’s military coup, firing warning shots and shooting water cannons to disperse crowds that took to the streets again Tuesday in defiance of new protest bans

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

Reports of many injured demonstrators drew strong concern from the U.N.'s office in Myanmar.

“According to reports from Nay Pyi Taw, Mandalay and other cities, numerous demonstrators have been injured, some of them seriously, by security forces in connection with the current protests across the country,” the U.N. said.

“The use of disproportionate force against demonstrators is unacceptable,” said Ola Almgren, the U.N. resident co-ordinator in Myanmar.

Water cannons were used in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, where witnesses said at least two warning shots were fired in early attempts to break up the crowd. Gunfire could be heard on videos from the city, some of which showed riot police flailing wildly with their batons at people trying to flee. Reports on social media said police arrested more than two dozen people there.

Police also used water cannons in the capital, Natpyitaw, for a second day and fired shots into the air. Police were reported to have also shot rubber bullets at the crowd in Naypyitaw, wounding several people. Photos on social media showed an alleged shooter — an officer with a short-barrelled gun — and several injured people. Protesters posted photos online of bullet casings they said they found at the scene.

Unconfirmed social media reports circulated of shootings with live rounds and deaths among the protesters, with the potential of sparking violent retaliation against the authorities — an outcome proponents of the country’s civil disobedience movement have warned against. The AP was unable to immediately confirm the reports.

The weekly magazine 7Day News reported on Twitter that a 19-year-old woman was shot by police in Naypyidaw and was undergoing emergency surgery at the city's main hospital. It cited Min Thu, the local chairman of the National League for Democracy party of ousted national leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Security forces on Tuesday night raided the NLD’s national office in Yangon, following raids of regional party offices last week that the party called illegal. NLD spokesman Kyi Toe wrote on his Facebook page that army personnel took documents and computer hardware.

The protesters are demanding that power be restored to the deposed civilian government and are seeking freedom for Suu Kyi and other governing party members detained since the military took over and blocked the new session of Parliament from convening on Feb. 1.

The growing defiance is striking in a country where past demonstrations have been met with deadly force and are a reminder of previous movements in the Southeast Asian country’s long and bloody struggle for democracy. The military used deadly force to quash a massive 1988 uprising against military dictatorship and a 2007 revolt led by Buddhist monks.

The protests were banned by decrees issued Monday night for some areas of Yangon and Mandalay that made illegal rallies and gatherings of more than five people, along with motorized processions, while also imposing a 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew. It was not clear if restrictions were imposed for other areas. Violators could be punished by up to six months in prison or a fine.

Demonstrations were also held in other cities Tuesday, including Bago — where city elders negotiated with police to avoid a violent confrontation — and Dawei, and in northern Shan state.

In Magwe in central Myanmar, where water cannons were also used, unconfirmed reports on social media said several police officers had crossed over to join the protesters’ ranks. Police in Naypyitaw and Pathein, west of Yangon, were also said to have switched sides. The AP was unable to immediately confirm the reports.

Crowds also gathered in Yangon, the country’s biggest city where thousands of people have been demonstrating since Saturday, despite a heightened security presence. No violence was reported.

Police, not soldiers, appeared to have been deployed to stop the demonstrations, a small indicator of restraint by the military government. The army has a record of brutality in crushing past revolts as well as in fighting ethnic minorities in border areas seeking self-determination. It also has been accused of carrying out genocide in its 2017 counterinsurgency campaign that drove more than 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority across the border to seek safety in Bangladesh.

State media for the first time on Monday referred to the protests, saying they were endangering the country’s stability.

“Democracy can be destroyed if there is no discipline,” declared a statement from the Ministry of Information read on state television station MRTV. “We will have to take legal actions to prevent acts that are violating state stability, public safety and the rule of law.”

However, the military commander who led the coup and is now Myanmar’s leader made no mention of the unrest in a 20-minute televised speech Monday night, his first to the public since the takeover.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing instead repeated claims about voting fraud that have been the justification for the military’s takeover, allegations that were refuted by the state election commission. He added that his junta would hold new elections as promised in a year and hand over power to the winners, and explained the junta’s intended policies for COVID-19 control and the economy.

The general's remarks, which included encouragement for foreign investors, did nothing to assuage concern in the international community.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. condemned violence against the protesters and reiterated the U.S.'s earlier calls for the military to restore power to the elected government. “The international community is attempting every avenue to ensure that democracy and civilian leadership is restored in Burma," Price said in Washington, using Myanmar's former name.

The U.N.’s Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, will meet Friday to consider the human rights implications of the crisis. Britain and the European Union spearheaded the request for the special session, which will amount to a high-profile public debate among diplomats over Myanmar and could lead to a resolution airing concerns or recommendations of international action.

New Zealand suspended all military and high-level political contact with Myanmar, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced Tuesday in Wellington, adding that any New Zealand aid should not go to or benefit Myanmar’s military government.

“We do not recognize the legitimacy of the military-led government and we call on the military to immediately release all detained political leaders and restore civilian rule,” Mahuta said. New Zealand was also placing a travel ban on the military leaders.

___

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.

___

This story has been updated with corrected sourcing for the details on the raid on the ruling party's office.

The Associated Press

WHO virus probe seeks answers beyond Wuhan, discounts lab theory

Although they did not reach definite conclusions, they have all but ruled out the possibility that the virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory.
 

Medical team work at Temple Street in Hong Kong. 

Photo: Liau Chung-Ren/dpa.

 
FOREIGNER.FI/DPA
FEBRUARY 10, 2021 

More research is needed to find out whether the novel coronavirus originated in bats in China or in another country, an expert group led by the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday at the end of a month-long investigation in China.

The most likely hypothesis that has emerged is that the virus came from an animal species, moved to a second intermediary species and jumped to humans, WHO animal disease expert Peter Ben Embarek told a press conference in Wuhan, where the Covid-19 disease was first detected in December 2019.

Scientists from China, 10 other countries and UN organizations spent the past weeks examining markets, health facilities and laboratories in and around the city of Wuhan to find the source of the pandemic.

Although they did not reach definite conclusions, they have all but ruled out the possibility that the virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory.

Embarek said that the "laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the population," given no laboratory in the area had been working with such a virus.

The novel coronavirus, scientifically known as Sars-CoV-2, is most closely related to viruses found in bats and in pangolins.

"However, the viruses identified so far from neither of these species are sufficiently similar to Sars-CoV-2" to determine the winged creatures as the source and the scaled mammals as intermediary hosts, said Chinese investigation team leader Liang Wannian.
Other countries in Asia

Embarek stressed that further investigations should not only focus on China but on other countries in Asia and beyond.

More work is needed to sample bats and other possible host species abroad, he said.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the "jury is still out" on whether China has provided enough transparency regarding the novel coronavirus.

"Broadly speaking we have expressed our concerns regarding the need for full transparency and access from China and the WHO to all information regarding the earliest days of the pandemic," Price added.

The US under former president Donald Trump pushed the theory that the virus originated in a Wuhan lab, while the administration of President Joe Biden has called for more evidence before concluding an origin of the virus.

Embarek also pointed out that the virus may have been introduced to Wuhan by travellers or through frozen wild animal products from other Chinese regions or countries.

Liang highlighted some studies suggesting that the virus was already present abroad in late 2019, in line with theories of a foreign virus origin that have been propagated by Beijing.

The foreign investigation team members did not confirm such theories, but they said that more data from early cases outside China are needed to map the path that the virus took.

While it is clear that the virus can survive on frozen products, there is no proof yet that anyone has been infected in this way, Embarek pointed out.
Huanan market

The WHO-led mission in China focused on Wuhan's Huanan market where the first cluster of Covid-19 infections appeared in late 2019.

The market sells seafood and farmed wild animals, raising the question whether some of the animals carried the virus.

None of the animal samples from the market have tested positive, Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans told the press conference.

However, some of the species, including rabbits, are known to be susceptible to the virus. There are suspicions that ferret-badgers and bamboo rats that were on offer at Huanan market are also able to catch the virus, according to Koopmans.

Some of these animals have been traced back to regions with bat populations, she said, stressing that further investigations on this issue are needed.

The market was not the only place in Wuhan where people started falling ill with Covid-19 in December 2019, according to the WHO team members. However, they did not find evidence of earlier cases in hospital and pharmacy records.

WHO team: Coronavirus unlikely to have leaked from China lab

WUHAN, China — The coronavirus most likely first appeared in humans after jumping from an animal, a team of international and Chinese scientists looking for the origins of COVID-19 said Tuesday, saying an alternate theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab was unlikely.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A closely watched visit by World Health Organization experts to Wuhan — the Chinese city where the first coronavirus cases were discovered — did not dramatically change the current understanding of the early days of the pandemic, said Peter Ben Embarek, the leader of the WHO mission.

But it did “add details to that story,” he said at a news conference as the group wrapped up a four-week visit to the city.

And it allowed the joint Chinese-WHO team to further explore the lab leak theory — which former U.S. President Donald Trump and officials from his administration had put forward without evidence — and decide it was unlikely. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is home to many different virus samples, leading to allegations that it may have been the source of the original outbreak, whether on purpose or accidentally.

Embarek, a WHO food safety and animal disease expert, said experts now consider the possibility of such a leak so improbable that it will not be suggested as an avenue of future study. But another team member, Danish scientist Thea Koelsen Fischer, told reporters that team members could not rule out the possibility of further investigation and new leads.

China had already strongly rejected the possibility of a leak and has promoted other theories. The Chinese and foreign experts considered several ideas for how the disease first ended up in humans, leading to a pandemic that has now killed more than 2.3 million people worldwide.

Embarek said the initial findings suggest the most likely pathway the virus followed was from a bat to another animal and then to humans, adding that would require further research.

“The findings suggest that the laboratory incidents hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population," he said.

Asked why, Embarek said accidental releases are extremely rare and that the team's review of the Wuhan institute's lab operations indicated it would be hard for anything to escape from it.

He also noted that there were no reports of this virus in any lab anywhere before the pandemic. Liang Wannian, the head of the Chinese side, also emphasized that, saying there was no sample of it in the Wuhan institute.

The mission was intended to be an initial step in the process of understanding the origins of the virus, which scientists have posited may have passed to humans through a wild animal, such as a pangolin or bamboo rat. Transmission directly from bats to humans or through the trade in frozen food products are also possibilities, Embarek said.

The WHO team's visit is politically sensitive for Beijing, which is concerned about being blamed for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak. An AP investigation has found that the Chinese government put limits on research into the outbreak and ordered scientists not to speak to reporters.

Still, one member of the WHO team, British-born zoologist Peter Daszak, told The Associated Press last week that they enjoyed a greater level of openness than they had anticipated, and that they were granted full access to all sites and personnel they requested.

Koelsen Fischer said she did not get to see the raw data and had to rely on an analysis of the data that was presented to her. But she said that would be true in most countries.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. looked forward to seeing the report and the underlying data from the WHO investigation.

The team — which includes experts from 10 countries who arrived on Jan. 14 — visited the Huanan Seafood Market, the site of an early cluster of cases in late 2019.

Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist on the team, said that some animals at the market were susceptible or suspected to be susceptible to the virus, including rabbits and bamboo rats. And some could be traced to farms or traders in regions that are home to the bats that carry the closest related virus to the one that causes COVID-19.

She said the next step would be to look more closely at farms.

Liang, the head of the Chinese team, said the virus also appeared to have been spreading in parts of the city other than the market, so it remains possible that the virus originated elsewhere.

The team found no evidence that the disease was spreading widely any earlier than the initial outbreak in the second half of December 2019.

“We haven’t been able to fully do the research, but there is no indication there were clusters before what we saw happen in the later part of December in Wuhan,” Liang said.

The visit by the WHO team took months to negotiate. China only agreed to it amid international pressure at the WHO's World Health Assembly meeting last May, and Beijing has continued to resist calls for a strictly independent investigation.

While China has weathered some localized resurgences of infection since getting the outbreak under control last year, life in Wuhan itself has largely returned to normal.

___

Associated Press writers Ken Moritsugu in Beijing and Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

Emily Wang Fujiyama, The Associated Press

China seizes on lack of WHO breakthrough in Wuhan to claim coronavirus vindication


Reading Chinese state media coverage, you could be forgiven for thinking the World Health Organization's investigation into the origins of Covid-19 had ruled out Wuhan as the potential source of the pandemic

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©  Peter Ben Embarek (L) and Marion Koopmans (R) attend a press conference to wrap up a visit by an international team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) in the city of Wuhan, in China's Hubei province on February 9, 2021. 

(Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)

Ahead of their four-week visit to the central Chinese city, which wrapped up this week, the WHO team had warned their research might not turn up anything particularly groundbreaking. They cited the length of time since infections first started spreading in Wuhan, and the degree to which the city has been disinfected and sterilized since, as residents endured a lengthy lockdown and subsequently returned to relative normality.

And so therefore -- while somewhat disappointing -- it was no shock that the team did not reveal any major surprises in presenting their findings Tuesday. The most definitive the investigators could be was in dismissing suggestions that the virus escaped from a Chinese lab dedicated to studying such infections. On most other issues, the WHO experts prevaricated or admitted there was no clear evidence.

"Did we change dramatically the picture we had beforehand? I don't think so," said Peter Ben Embarek, one of the WHO investigators, at a news conference. "Did we add details? Absolutely."

State media's take

Chinese state media used comments from the fiercely apolitical scientists to vindicate various propaganda priorities, chief of which is the suggestion that the virus could have come from outside China.

China Daily, a state-run newspaper targeting international readers, ran the headline "WHO team: Probe of virus' origin should not be 'geographically bound'," while Global Times, a nationalist tabloid, took it a step further, saying WHO was ready to "scrutinize Southeast Asia" as a potential origin of the virus.

Chinese experts who worked alongside the team went further than their WHO colleagues in describing their conclusions, at least when those findings could be spun to clear Wuhan as a potential origin of the pandemic.

Liang Wannian, a lead expert with China's National Health Commission (NHC), told reporters it was still unclear how the virus arrived at the Huanan Seafood Market, previously identified as the site of the earliest outbreak. He said it could have been brought in by infected people, contaminated products, frozen foods, or animals.

Animals have long been seen as the most likely spreader of the virus before it jumped to humans. Previously it has been hypothesized that the virus evolved inside bats, which are prone to coronaviruses, and then passed to humans, potentially via a third species.

"Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one way that will require more studies and more specific targeted research," Ben Embarek said, adding there was also the possibility of "direct zoonotic spillover," or point to point transmission from the original species -- most likely a bat -- to humans.

In the WHO news conference, Ben Embarek also addressed two other theories: that the virus had escaped from a Wuhan lab, which he said was unlikely, or that it had been transmitted to humans via frozen foods, which he said had not been ruled out.

China's alternative origin theories

For months, Chinese experts have been pushing the theory that the frozen food supply chain could have brought the virus to Wuhan from another country, a possibility considered unlikely by most outside scientists.

Late last year, the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, claimed that "all available evidence suggests that (the coronavirus) did not start in central China's Wuhan, but may come into China through imported frozen food products and their packaging."

Both WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have previously said there is no evidence of the virus being transmitted via food or food packaging, even after it reached pandemic level and was far more prevalent in warehouses and factories.

WHO team members are painfully aware of how much scrutiny they are under, both from a world desperate to understand how the pandemic started, and the Chinese, who are seeking full vindication for their early missteps in handling the pandemic.

It was those initial errors -- undeniable, and largely unrelated to the ultimate origin of the virus -- which the WHO team's findings have inadvertently helped obfuscate.

For months now, China's propaganda apparatus has been attempting to reverse the public relations disaster of being the country where the pandemic first emerged, and Tuesday's news conference offered considerable ammunition.

Speaking to Chinese media after the WHO news conference, Zeng Guang, head of the country's Centers for Disease Control, also dredged up another (baseless) conspiracy theory -- that the virus started in an American lab.

"American biology laboratories are all over the world. Why should America set up so many laboratories? What is the purpose? he said. "In many things, the United States requires others to be open and transparent, only to find that the most opaque thing is the United States itself."

Zeng said the WHO should "trace the source of the virus on a global scale," and the US should be the focus of the investigation.

Suggestions that the novel coronavirus could have evolved outside of China or been introduced to Wuhan via frozen foods are being used by Chinese state media to imply that the country was helpless to stop the virus before it became unstoppable.

Early mishandling of outbreak

While Chinese officials can't be blamed for not identifying a handful of cases of pneumonia as the start of the next great pandemic, that is not what has been faulted when it comes to the Wuhan outbreak. What was egregious about that response wasn't that the government ignored evidence of a potential pandemic when it was staring officials in the face.

According to documents leaked to CNN by whistleblowers, as well as other reports and publicly available information, Wuhan and national officials downplayed the risk of the virus even when there was clear evidence of transmission from person to person. Action was not taken until it was too late to stop widespread transmission of the virus during the 2020 Lunar New Year travel period, even though officials had been warned it was "likely to develop into a major public health event." In Wuhan, the government even held a mass banquet in an attempt to break a world record.

The first cases in Wuhan occurred between December 12 and December 29, 2019 according to city authorities. The cases weren't reported to WHO until December 31. By the time Wuhan went into lockdown on January 23, 2020, the virus had already spread to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and the US.

"It was clear they did make mistakes -- and not just mistakes that happen when you're dealing with a novel virus -- also bureaucratic and politically-motivated errors in how they handled it," Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told CNN last year.

Last month, the Switzerland-based Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response said Beijing could have been more vigorous in applying public health measures when cases were first detected in Wuhan.

"What is clear to the panel is that public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January (2020)," the panel said in a report.

Ultimately, these are political and historical questions, not scientific ones. The virus may be found to have evolved outside of China, maybe even spread to Wuhan via frozen foods, as the country's health officials have claimed. But this would not alter the fact that Wuhan was the site of the initial major outbreak, or that officials there failed to stop it from spreading.

When it comes to the coronavirus however, there is plenty of blame to go around, and the leaders of other countries that were slow to respond must share some of it.

If Chinese officials should have acted faster when faced by the evidence they had in January 2020, what of authorities elsewhere in the world -- including the US -- who ignored the even greater evidence of an incoming pandemic weeks and months later?

As for how the virus itself evolved and first jumped to humans, that quest continues. Speaking to CNN Tuesday, WHO team member Peter Daszak said that eventually scientists will "get a really clear picture" of how the virus originated but that may take weeks, months or even a "couple of years."

"There is still a lot of work to do," he said.

U.N. experts point finger at North Korea for $281 million cyber theft, KuCoin likely victim

By Michelle Nichols and Raphael Satter   

© Reuters/DADO RUVIC 

Representations of cryptocurrency is seen in front of a Kucoin logo in this illustration

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A preliminary United Nations inquiry into the theft of $281 million worth of assets from a cryptocurrency exchange last September "strongly suggests" links to North Korea - with industry analysts pointing to Seychelles-based KuCoin as the victim of one of the largest reported digital currency heists.

A confidential report by independent sanctions monitors to U.N. Security Council members said blockchain transactions related to the hack also appeared to be tied to a second hack last October when $23 million was stolen.

"Preliminary analysis, based on the attack vectors and subsequent efforts to launder the illicit proceeds, strongly suggests links to the DPRK," the monitors wrote, using North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. They accuse Pyongyang of using stolen funds to support its nuclear and ballistic missile programs to circumvent sanctions.

While the report did not name the victim of the attack, digital currency exchange KuCoin reported the theft of $281 million in bitcoin and various other tokens on Sept. 25.

"This must be the KuCoin hack," said Frank van Weert, an analyst with Whale Alert – an Amsterdam-based group which tracks large cryptocurrency movements across the internet. "There were no other significant hacks during that period."

Attempts to reach KuCoin and its chief executive, Johnny Lyu, were not immediately successful.




Industry experts said the hackers were trying to funnel the money through decentralized exchanges - which work by arranging individual-to-individual currency swaps - in a bid to bypass centrally-managed trading platforms, many of which had quickly flagged the stolen money as illicit.

"According to sources familiar with both hacks, the attackers exploited 'defi' protocols — i.e., smart contracts that facilitate automated transactions," the U.N. report said.

North Korea's U.N. mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

KuCoin has previously said that it managed to recover more than 80 percent of the digital currency stolen in September thanks in part to the work of other exchanges who froze the funds as they transited through their respective systems.

CEO Lyu has also said that KuCoin had discovered who the hackers were but said that, at the request of law enforcement, it would only be making their identity public "once the case is closed." In an update posted to Twitter last week, Lyu said that the hunt for the suspects was still in progress.

North Korea has generated an estimated $2 billion using "widespread and increasingly sophisticated" cyberattacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, the monitors reported in 2019.

In their latest report, seen by Reuters on Monday, they said North Korea-linked hackers continued to target financial institutions and virtual currency houses in 2020. "According to one member state, the DPRK total theft of virtual assets, from 2019 to November 2020" was approximately $316.4 million, the report said.

North Korea has been subjected to U.N. sanctions since 2006. They have been strengthened by the 15-member Security Council over the years.

The latest report by the U.N. sanctions monitors also noted "a clear trend in 2020 was that the DPRK cyber actors have been conducting attacks against defense industries around the globe."

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Raphael Satter; Editing by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool)

NASA technology can help save whale sharks says Australian marine biologist and ECOCEAN founder, 

Brad Norman


Thousands of people around the world are lending a hand to help save the world's biggest fish. By taking photos of whale sharks, these "citizen scientists" are providing researchers with critical information about the giant sharks' population hotspots and migration routes.

© Provided by CNN Whale shark

Whale sharks are endangered, with estimates suggesting populations worldwide have plummeted by more than 50% over the past 75 years. Although they are protected in many countries, whale sharks are still killed by the fishing industry -- caught deliberately for their fins (shark fin soup is a delicacy in parts of Asia) and as accidental bycatch, especially in tuna fishing areas where whale sharks and tuna swim close together. Whale sharks are also threatened by oil and gas drilling, vessel strikes and climate change 

.

© Jess Leask The world's biggest fish, whale sharks are endangered by human activity, including fishing, oil and gas drilling and climate change.

To help protect the species, Australian marine biologist Brad Norman co-founded The Wildbook for Whale Sharks, a photo identification database that went online in 2003.

Members of the public, scientists and whale shark tour operators around the world contribute photos of whale sharks to the system, which uses NASA technology to map their locations and track their movements. Today, the database holds over 70,000 submissions from more than 50 countries -- making it one of the biggest crowd-sourced conservation projects in the world.

Adventures with giant fish

Despite their imposing size -- whale sharks can grow up to 20 meters (65 feet) long -- these gentle giants don't pose a danger to swimmers. Feeding on plankton and tiny marine organisms, they cruise at a leisurely maximum of three miles per hour, allowing snorkelers and divers to get up close.

Norman has been studying these charismatic creatures for over 25 years. He first swam with a whale shark in the turquoise waters of Ningaloo reef on Western Australia's northern coast. "It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had," he recalls. "I'll never forget it."

Marine biologist Brad Norman photographing a whale shark.

That whale shark -- nicknamed Stumpy because of his deformed tail -- was the first entry in a photo-identification library that Norman created in 1995. The library, later operated by Norman's conservation organization ECOCEAN, became the foundation of The Wildbook for Whale Sharks.

Read: She filmed sharks for 'Jaws' - then she dedicated her life to protecting them

Video: NASA technology helps save the world's largest shark (CNN)

A slow swimmer, Stumpy is relatively easy to keep up with, says Norman. "I see him nearly every year and ... I think 'G'day mate, how you goin'?"

Since that first encounter, Norman has swum with whale sharks on thousands of occasions -- and says he still gets a buzz out of it every time.

Why NASA tech works for whale sharks

Images submitted to The Wildbook for Whale Sharks are analysed by an algorithm that scans the spots and stripes on the animal's skin, which are as unique as a human fingerprint, says Norman. The algorithm identifies the shark by searching the database for a matching pattern.

Whale sharks are identified by the markings on their skin.

Adapted from technology first developed for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope program, the algorithm works for whale sharks because their skin markings form patterns similar to stars in the night sky.

Norman says that collectively, the data on whale shark locations and migration routes informs decisions on management strategies for habitat protection. "I can only be in one place one at one time," he says. "It's so important to have members of the public assisting with our project."

Is swimming with whale sharks good for them?

Norman says he would "encourage anybody that gets the opportunity to swim with a whale shark."

But more boats, snorkelers and divers in whale shark areas could be problematic. Norman cautions that impact on the sharks must be minimized.

In Western Australia, whale shark tour operators are strictly regulated with limits on the numbers of people and licensed vessels in the water near the animals at any one time -- and a percentage of sales going towards whale shark industry management.

However, regulation and enforcement are weaker in other places.

In the Maldives, whale sharks are a popular attraction but government guidelines designed to protect the sharks from harassment are frequently breached. This can cause stress for the animals, while boat collision injuries can impact their development and ability to travel long distances.

Whale sharks in the Philippines are routinely provided with food to attract them to places where visitors can easily see them. This can change the sharks' diving patterns and metabolism, while a high level of scarring indicates increased boat strikes. The crowding from tourist activity and feeding can also lead to coral reef degradation.

But where whale shark tourism is practiced responsibly, it can help save the species. Norman hopes to see more data collection around the world, plugging information gaps and strengthening conservation efforts. He's seeking what he calls "the Holy Grail" -- finding out where the whale sharks go to mate. Protecting their breeding grounds is the "one big thing" needed to save the species in the long run, he says. The help of thousands of citizen scientists gives him a better chance of making that possible.

#METOOUNITEDWAY

United Way Worldwide CEO Gallagher resigns amid turmoil

Brian A. Gallagher, who has led United Way Worldwide, the world’s largest privately funded non-profit since 2009, abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday amid claims that the charity mishandled internal allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Gallagher’s resignation, announced in a farewell note, takes effect March 1. The group’s board of directors plans to announce an interim CEO before he leaves.

In November, after complaints filed by three former female employees with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and published reports in HuffPost, United Way Worldwide hired a law firm to investigate the claims and the way the non-profit’s leadership handled them. Last week, the firm, Proskauer Rose, concluded that management’s handling of the complaints was appropriate and that the dismissals were “based on legitimate, non-discriminatory, and non-retaliatory reasons.”

Gallagher said in his farewell note that the report’s release made him decide to move up his planned exit.

“We were actively working toward a transition for me sometime later in 2021 at the conclusion of a CEO search process,” Gallagher wrote to his colleagues. “But, I and the board think it’s best for United Way if I step down as CEO sooner. It was important to me that I stay through this period so my colleagues and I could be cleared of any wrongdoing. That’s done; and now it feels like the right time.”

Lisa Bowman, who was executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at United Way Worldwide until she said she was fired by Gallagher as retaliation for reporting sexual harassment by another executive, said the investigation was “not fair, balanced or thorough” because the investigators did not talk with any of the women involved.

“I was pleased to hear that United Way has decided to do the right thing and make a change in leadership,” Bowman told the Associated Press. “This was a necessary step -- but only the first step -- toward creating a safe, equitable workplace where women are treated with respect and allowed to reach their full potential.”

Bowman’s complaint with the EEOC is still pending.

“I hope that United Way will take this opportunity to listen and learn, so that it can continue and improve upon its important work to support communities around the world,” she said.

United Way Worldwide oversees charity work in 1,800 communities in more than 40 countries.

Gallagher, who began his career at United Way in 1981, worked at five local United Ways before becoming president and CEO of United Way of America in 2002. He took over the helm of United Way Worldwide in 2009.

“We are grateful for Brian’s four decades of leadership and service in the name of the United Way mission,” Dr. Juliette Tuakli, chairwoman of United Way Worldwide’s board of trustees, wrote in a statement. “Brian has always said that a great United Way leader is one who puts community interests first, their organization next, and their own interests last. Brian embodied that standard.”

United Way Worldwide officials had declined in recent weeks to comment on rumblings of local United Ways withholding their dues payments because of the allegations of misconduct. But Gallagher acknowledged that his exit comes at a tough time for United Way Worldwide, which recently instituted some layoffs at its Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters and temporary salary reductions for senior staff.

“It’s been a very difficult year,” Gallagher wrote to his colleagues. “The global pandemic, the resulting economic fallout, and stark inequities in our communities have led to great suffering for so many. The response of United Ways all over the world, and at United Way Worldwide, has been inspirational. We got back to our roots by helping those in most need through any means necessary, and we did it together; a lesson we should pull forward.”
___

The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Glenn Gamboa, The Associated Press

French far-right leader Le Pen on trial over IS tweets

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen goes on trial Wednesday on charges she broke hate speech laws by tweeting pictures of Islamic State atrocities, a case she has slammed as a violation of free speech.

© Lionel BONAVENTURE

 Marine Le Pen was stripped of her parliamentary immunity over the pictures

The trial comes as opinion polls show Le Pen will likely face off again against Emmanuel Macron in next year's presidential contest, after her National Rally made its strongest showing ever in the 2017 vote.

Le Pen shared the gruesome images in December 2015, a few weeks after Islamic State group jihadists killed 130 people in attacks in Paris, in response to a journalist who drew a comparison between IS and her party.

© THOMAS SAMSON 

Le Pen shared the gruesome images a few weeks after Islamic State group jihadists killed 130 people in attacks in Paris in 2015

One of the pictures showed the body of James Foley, an American journalist beheaded by the Islamist militants.

Another showed a man in an orange jumpsuit being run over by a tank, and the third a Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage.

"Daesh is this!" Le Pen wrote in a caption, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Le Pen later deleted the picture of Foley after a request from his family, saying she had been unaware of his identity.

In 2018 a judge charged her as well as Gilbert Collard, a National Rally colleague who also tweeted the pictures, with circulating "violent messages that incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity" and that can be viewed by a minor.

A trial was ordered last year but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The crime is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros ($90,000).

- 'Deforming the spirit of the law' -

Le Pen, a lawyer by training, has said she is the victim of a political witch-hunt -- she refused an order to undergo psychiatric tests as part of the inquiry.

She was also stripped of her parliamentary immunity over the pictures.

"Marine Le Pen had no intention, nor even any awareness, of endangering any minor. She was responding to an attack, a provocation, by a journalist," her lawyer David Dassa-Le Deist told AFP.

He accused prosecutors of "discrimination" by "deforming the spirit and the letter of the law... to limit Mrs Le Pen's freedom of speech."

Since taking over France's main far-right party from her father, Le Pen has run twice for the French presidency, and recent polling shows her closer than ever to her ultimate prize.

That has rekindled speculation about whether the anti-EU, anti-immigration populist could finally enter the Elysee Palace.

On Thursday, she is set to have a prime-time TV debate with Macron's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, which will be closely watched after critics panned her debate performance against Macron before the 2017 vote.

Le Pen has another legal challenge looming, over claims that she and other party officials improperly spent millions of euros in public funds to pay their assistants while serving in the EU Parliament.

Investigators say almost seven million euros ($7.7 million) was diverted from the European Parliament between 2009 and 2017. An eventual trial date has not yet been set.

bur-js/sjw/txw

Who's left of the Kadhafi clan 10 years after revolt?

Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi was ousted and killed in the 2011 uprising, but several of his family members survived.

© JOSEPH EID Several members of Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi's family survived the 2011 uprising

A decade on, what has happened to them?

Three of Kadhafi's seven sons died in the uprising, including Mutassim, who was killed by rebels in the dictator's home town of Sirte on October 20, 2011, the same day as his father.

Another son, Seif al-Arab, perished in a NATO air raid in April 2011, and his brother Khamis died in combat four months later, at the height of the revolt.

But other members of the Kadhafi clan survived, including his wife Safiya, his eldest son Mohammed -- from his first marriage -- and his daughter Aisha, who are known to be living in exile.

© - From left to right, Kadhafi's wife Safiya, his sons Hannibal and Mohammed and his daughter Aisha

Mystery, however, surrounds the whereabouts of the dictator's erstwhile heir apparent, Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

- The family -

After the fall of Tripoli to rebels in August 2011, Safiya, Mohammed and Aisha escaped to neighbouring Algeria.

They were later granted refuge in the Gulf sultanate of Oman on condition they do not carry out political activities, the country's then foreign minister Mohammed Abdelaziz told AFP in 2013.

Aisha, a lawyer by profession and a former UN goodwill ambassador, had been part of an international defence team for Saddam Hussein after the Iraqi leader was ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion. 

© MAHMUD TURKIA Seif al-Islam (L) has not been seen or heard from since June 2014, when he appeared via video from Zintan during his trial by a Tripoli court

High-rolling son Hannibal also sought refuge in Algeria after the uprising, before trying to sneak into Lebanon to join his wife, Lebanese model Aline Skaf.

But Lebanese authorities arrested and charged him in 2015 with withholding information about prominent Muslim Shiite cleric Mussa Sadr, who went missing in 1978 during a visit to Libya.

Hannibal and his wife had sparked a diplomatic incident with Switzerland in 2008, when they were arrested in a luxury Geneva hotel for assaulting two former domestic employees.

Playboy son Saadi Kadhafi -- once a professional footballer in Italy -- fled to Niger after the uprising but was later extradited to Libya, where he was wanted for murder and repression during the revolt.

© MAHMUD TURKIA Saadi Kadhafi, once a professional footballer, is currently held in a Tripoli prison

He is currently held in a Tripoli prison, accused of crimes committed against protesters in 2011 and of the 2005 killing of Libyan football player Bashir al-Rayani.

- Heir apparent -

Seif al-Islam, whose name means "sword of Islam", was captured by a Libyan militia in November 2011, days after his father was killed.

Four years later, a Tripoli court sentenced him in absentia to death for crimes committed during the revolt.

The armed group which captured him announced in 2017 that Seif al-Islam had been released.

The claim was never confirmed independently, and in 2019, the ICC prosecutor said there was "reliable" information that he was in Zintan, western Libya.

But Seif al-Islam has not been seen or heard from since June 2014, when he appeared via video from Zintan during his trial by the Tripoli court.

- Clan and tribe -

During his glory days, Kadhafi considered himself the "Leader of the Revolution" and declared Libya a "Jamahiriya", or "state of the masses" run by local committees.

Thousands of his supporters, including from his own Kadhadfa tribe, fled Libya during and after the regime's fall, with many settling in Egypt and Tunisia.

"Contrary to what is thought, the Kadhadfa tribe suffered under the regime of Kadhafi, and several members who had opposed him landed in jail," said Libyan law professor Amani al-Hejrissi.

The clan also included members of Kadhafi's revolutionary guard -- a paramilitary force tasked with protecting the regime against its detractors -- who were not necessarily blood relatives.

Some pined for home, and a group in Cairo later revived the Al-Jamahiriya television network, Kadhafi's propaganda arm.

But could Kadhafi's exiled supporters play a political role in the now divided country?

"I don't think so," said Hejrissi.

"Most Libyans see the fallen regime as the root of the corruption and destruction of the political system."

bur-hme-rb/nd/vl/gk/hkb/lg/pjm/fz/kjm

THEY ARE CLUELESS

U.S. warns against moves that damage institutions in Haiti amid political gridlock

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" about Haiti's fragile institutions, although it stopped short of chastising President Jovenel Moise after his government retired three Supreme Court judges who posed a threat to his leadership.

© Reuters/VALERIE BAERISWYL Motorcyclists ride near a street barricade after protests against Haiti's President Jovenel Moise, in Port-au-Prince

© Reuters/VALERIE BAERISWYL People walk near a street market in Port-au-Prince

Fresh political turmoil engulfed the volatile Caribbean nation this weekend after Moise alleged there was an attempt to overthrow the government and 23 people were arrested, including a Supreme Court judge and a senior police official.

© Reuters/VALERIE BAERISWYL Police sit on the back of a pick-up truck while patrolling the area, in Port-au-Prince

The detained judge was one of three Supreme Court justices who the opposition approached as possible candidates to be interim leaders of a transitional government to take over from Moise until elections are held.

On Monday, the government issued an executive decree ordering the three judges to be retired from the court.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-Au-Prince said in a statement that it had seen the executive order about the judges.

"We are deeply concerned about any actions that risk damaging Haiti's democratic institutions. The Executive Order is now being scrutinized to determine whether it conforms to Haiti's constitutions and laws," the embassy said.

Haiti's opposition claims Moise should step down as his five-year term in office expired on Feb. 7 following 2015 elections, which were disputed and the result cancelled by the electoral counsel.

Moise rejects those claims, pointing out he took power in February 2017 after winning fresh elections in 2016 and has pledged to step down next year.

Washington last week appeared to back Moise's timeline, with a State Department spokesperson saying a new leader should replace Moise in February 2022.

The U.S. Embassy said "all political actors should focus on restoring to the Haiti people the right to choose their lawmakers by organizing overdue legislative elections as soon as technically feasible and presidential elections soon after".

The opposition accused Moise of violating the constitution as his government failed to hold legislative elections in 2019, leaving the parliament without lawmakers and allowing the president to rule by decree since January 2020.

(Reporting by Andre Paultre; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)