Wednesday, January 08, 2020

A New, Unidentified Virus Is Causing Pneumonia Outbreak in China, Officials Say


(Image: © Shutterstock)
The unidentified viral illness that has sickened dozens in the Chinese city of Wuhan is not severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), according to local health officials.    
In the early 2000s, an outbreak of SARS swept the globe, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The epidemic began in China and hit the country harder than any other, so when an unknown form of pneumonia recently emerged in Wuhan, it stirred rumors of a second SARS outbreak. Now, local health officials have officially crossed SARS off the list of potential culprits, according to The New York Times
Officials also confirmed that the mystery illness is not Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bird flu or an adenovirus
As of Sunday (Jan. 5), 59 people in Wuhan have been diagnosed with the unidentified disease, presenting with symptoms of fever, body aches, breathing difficulties and lung injury. The total number of infected people is up from the 44 cases reported last week
In addition, 21 people who recently visited the city were hospitalized in Hong Kong between Dec. 31 and Jan. 6, according to a report from the Hong Kong health department. The city will also ramp up efforts to spot feverish passengers traveling through its international airport and on its high-speed rail system, according to the report. Health authorities in Singapore are also on the alert for infected travelers and recently quarantined a young girl after her trip to Wuhan. She was later diagnosed with a common viral illness, according to the Singapore Ministry of Health.  
Rumors of a potential SARS outbreak gained traction online earlier this month, but Chinese authorities have since censored the hashtag #WuhanSARS and are now investigating eight people in Wuhan who allegedly spread misleading information about the outbreak on social media, The New York Times reported. The government failed to adequately inform the public and international health agencies during the historic SARS epidemic, which may explain the reaction of Chinese citizens to this new illness.  
"I have to emphasize this is a new disease, and no one on earth has gone through this before," Leo Poon, a public health expert at the University of Hong Kong, told The New York Times. "I hope this pathogen is a less harmful one so it would not cause a major epidemic similar to SARS. It would be a nightmare for all of us."
As of yet, no health workers have contracted the mystery illness, which may indicate that the virus has not begun to spread between people, Wang Linfa, an expert on emerging infectious diseases at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, told the Times. "We should not go into panic mode," he said.  
Originally published on Live Science. 

Hong Kong to add mystery respiratory illness to reportable diseases

Disease has sent 59 people to the hospital in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan


Secretary for Food and Health, Prof. Sophia Chan, speaks about response measures to prevent and control a mysterious infectious disease. (Andy Wong/Associated Press
Hong Kong's health chief said Tuesday that a respiratory illness whose cause remains unknown will be added to an official list of diseases that medical practitioners are required to report to the government.
The disease — an unidentified form of viral pneumonia — has sent 59 people to the hospital in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province. As of Sunday, seven were in critical condition, while the rest were stable. Municipal authorities have ruled out SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed 700 people in 2002 and 2003.
In Hong Kong, a total of 15 patients were being treated Sunday for symptoms including fever and respiratory infection after recent visits to Wuhan. It is not clear whether they have the same illness as the Wuhan patients
Speaking at a news conference, the health chief, Sophia Chan, said the "severe respiratory disease associated with a novel infectious agent" will be added to a list of reportable infectious diseases in Hong Kong's Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance.
The regulation enables the government to take stronger measures against the spread of certain diseases, such as tuberculosis and chicken pox. Actions under the ordinance could include enforcing quarantines or limiting the movement of people who are suspected to have infections.
"Under the amendment, medical practitioners will have to report suspected cases as well as carry out appropriate investigations and follow-ups to the Center for Health Protection under the Department of Health," Chan said.
The U.S. Consulate General in Wuhan issued a health alert Tuesday for the pneumonia outbreak, warning travellers to Wuhan to avoid animals, as well as animal markets and products.
Dr. Gauden Galea, WHO Representative to China, said public health officials in China "remain focused on continued contact tracing, conducting environmental assessments at the wholesale market, and investigations to identify the pathogen causing the outbreak."
WHO is closely monitoring the event and communicating with counterparts in China, Galea added in a emailed statement

Precautions for travellers

Currently, there are no suspected cases in Canada or involving Canadians overseas, Anna Maddison, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said.
Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, is keeping in close contact with her provincial and territorial colleagues, the agency said. PHAC officials are also in close contact with federal partners, the World Health Organization and other international partners.
Maddison pointed to systems to identify, prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases including a global public health intelligence monitoring system that scans the world's open source media
"No matter the destination, travellers should always take precautions against respiratory and other illnesses while travelling, and seek medical attention if they become ill."
During their trip, Canadian travellers to Wuhan city are encouraged to:
  • Avoid high-risk areas such as farms, live animal markets, and areas where animals may be slaughtered.
  • Avoid contact with animals (alive or dead), including pigs, chickens, ducks and wild birds.
  • Avoid surfaces with animal droppings or secretions on them.
Travellers should also wash their hands often, and practise proper cough and sneeze etiquette.
People are encouraged to tell their health-care providers about their travel if they become ill after returning to Canada. 
Toronto Pubic Health said the overall risk to residents is considered very low.
"Given that Toronto Pearson International Airport is an international travel hub, Toronto Public Health is actively monitoring this situation, along with provincial and national health agencies," the department added in a release.
With files from CBC News
The emptying of Spain's interior

Spain's rural regions have lost 28 percent of their populations in the past 50 years.

by Alasdair Fotheringham
6 Jan 2020
The depopulation of Spain's interior has become a focus 
of attention, with under-investment in small communities
 a driving force of emigration [Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP]
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Madrid, Spain - Sitting 2,000 metres above sea level on the southern edge of the province of Teruel, the Javalambre astrological observation station is said to offer one of the clearest night skies in Europe for stargazers.

But cast your eyes back down to earth, and there is a grim reason for Javalambre's much-appreciated dearth of light pollution.

For decades now, Teruel's population has been draining away, and in 2017 some parts had sunk to an average of 1.63 inhabitants per square kilometre - lower than that of Lapland in Sweden, internationally famous for being one of Europe's most remote regions.

And it is not just Teruel. Spain's rural depopulation crisis has reached a point where five of its regions - Aragon, Castilla y Leon, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and La Rioja make up 53 percent of its territory, but now have only 15 percent of its residents.
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In the past 50 years, Spain's rural regions have lost 28 percent of their population, and are now popularly known as la Espana vacia - empty Spain. In Teruel, part of Aragon, with a drop in population of nine percent in the past decade alone, the loss has been particularly noticeable.

"It's a real environmental, human and historic problem - a disaster for the whole country," Tomas Guitarte tells Al Jazeera.

In November's elections, Guitarte became the first MP to represent a Spanish political association specifically created to fight rural depopulation. It is named Teruel Existe ["Teruel Exists"].

Although the industrial development plans forged by Spain's former dictator, General Francisco Franco, kickstarted the rural depopulation process in the 1960s, Guitarte believes 40 years of state inaction in the democracy following Franco has meant it has not been reversed.

"Recently when I met the king, I reminded him how back when, as crown prince, he'd come to Teruel in 2000," he said. "We'd told him the region's biggest problems were depopulation and the lack of infrastructure.

"Nineteen years have passed and those problems become even more serious - and places like Teruel risk ending up completely empty."

Guitarte, whose own family left the region when he was aged 10 - "basically because they wanted us to live somewhere I could get some worthwhile academic qualifications, which was nearly impossible at the time in Teruel" - says one of Franco's ministers, Cruz Martinez Esteruelas, indicated the state's underlying intentions towards his region back in 1974 when opening an education centre.

"He more or less said that if it was the destiny of the people of Teruel to emigrate to benefit other regions, we should at least get some schooling before we left.
The emigration hasn't been natural, it was programmed, thanks to the state's lack of action, and despite Teruel's well-placed geographical location in the middle of Spain

TOMAS GUITARTE

"That's what's most scandalous - the emigration hasn't been natural, it was programmed, thanks to the state's lack of action, and despite Teruel's well-placed geographical location in the middle of Spain.

"That explains, too, why industrialisation back then took place on the Spanish coast, not inland in Teruel. After mining our natural resources, they shipped them away, in what was a form of colonialism," he said.

More than four decades later, the absence of state investment, transport infrastructure and employment opportunities has done nothing to slow down the depopulation process, with Guitarte pointing to the vast areas of Teruel - "around 40 percent still lacking any kind of internet broadband coverage" - as one example of ongoing institutional neglect.
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Should Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez finally succeed in forming a government this week, he has promised universal broadband across Spain, as well as stepping up rural health care.

But the most striking example of Teruel's abandonment is surely the transport sector. Spain is famous for having the greatest length of high-speed railways per inhabitant in the world, but when Madrid's high-speed train connection to Valencia was constructed in the early 2000s, pleas for it to go through Teruel fell on deaf ears.

As for the double-track railway offered in compensation, it has never been built, while a video published by Teruel Existe in 2018 of a tractor overtaking the province's one ultra-slow train, travelling at around 30km/h, remains a Spanish social media hit.

Repeated requests for comment made to Spain's Ministry of Transport and Development for this report were unsuccessful.

Sick of empty promises, Guitarte's decision to head for Madrid as an MP followed an epiphany of sorts.

"We realised we need to be in the seat of power to get anything done," he said. "We've had demonstrations, we've signed petitions. They haven't worked. Getting into Parliament, with the backing of the people, feels like Teruel's last throw of the dice."

Nearly 600 kilometres (370 miles) further south, in the tiny village of Torvizcon in Andalucia, 31-year-old physiotherapist Adrian Moron Sanchez tells Al Jazeera how the population here has plummeted since he was growing up.

"When I was a kid there were 1,200 people in the village," Moron Sánchez says. "Now that has halved to 673, and lots of people from the other villages round here tell me the same kind of drop in population has happened in their towns too."

Climate change, he says, accompanied by increasingly inclement weather and heavy frosts has played a part in the mass emigration "because the almond and olive harvests have been bad, and a construction company went bust in 2012".

"It's really sad, when I go back, I walk through streets which were once full of life, but now they are dying on their feet."
People want to stay in the villages; it's a question of how and what they get in return

MARIA ANDRES

Any plan to slow depopulation requires spending in isolated areas to help retain people in these small communities.

"There needs to be far more investment and subsidies on offer from the regional government for small-scale, agroecological local businesses or crafts as a way of ensuring the benefits, financial or otherwise, remain in the villages," says Maria Andres, an activist with the Ecologistas en Accion pro-environmental movement.

She worked for 15 years on an extensive livestock project in Cuenca in central Spain, and says "people want to stay in the villages; it's a question of how and what they get in return".

In the battle against depopulation, some places like Pescueza, a tiny village of just 172 people in the western region of Extremadura, have developed a strategy called Quedate con nosotros ("Stay with us") making it as attractive as possible to its senior citizens, who make up 65 percent of inhabitants.

READ MORESpanish politics undermining climate change fight

With a new day centre, special free vehicles for pensioners, railings on the slightest slope, even anti-slip paint, the village has seen an upturn not just in its senior citizens but across the generations.

No fewer than 14 children have been born in the village in the past seven years since the day centre opened - after 17 years without any births at all.

"Our project would work well for smaller towns with populations of under 1,000," Andres Rodriguez, mayor of Pescueza, told Al Jazeera. With just 1.3 percent of Spain's population living in villages of fewer than 500 people, "[this] is where the biggest problem in Espana vacia is right now", he said. "It would help them flourish again."

But central government policies attempting to halt the growth of Spain's disappearing regions still appear sorely lacking, say activists.

"Depopulation is a very serious problem for Spain; more important than the questions of Catalonia or the Basque Country - the areas involved [in the depopulation crisis] are more than half the country's territory," concluded Guitarte.

"The state itself has generated this problem of two Spains, the 'developed Spain' and the 'empty Spain'. Now we need some kind of political action by the state to redress the balance."


SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
Who is Zoran Milanovic, Croatia's new president?

Milanovic pledged to make Croatia a 'normal, decent' liberal democracy, with an equal society and independent judiciary.

6 Jan 2020

Zoran Milanovic is a former prime minister of Croatia
 [Marko Djurica/Reuters]
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Zoran Milanovic, Croatia's former leftist prime minister who was elected the country's new president on Sunday, is an experienced politician who made a comeback after being absent from politics for three years.

While intelligent and articulate, the 53-year-old is seen by critics as arrogant and a loner focused on his own ambitions, and lacking the common touch.

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With a serious manner and a stern gaze Milanovic has struggled in the past to woo ordinary voters.

When he was named prime minister in 2011, then aged 45, the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was perceived by many as a promising young politician, free of the corruption plaguing the rival conservative HDZ party.

But his government failed to live up to expectations and implement much-needed reforms, perpetuating widespread patronage and poor economic trends.

READ MOREBosnians deported from Croatia for 'refusing to spy on Muslims'
His SDP lost power following 2015 elections and Milanovic stepped down as party chief after he failed again in the following year's snap vote.

He has since been running a management consultant company whose clients have included Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, according to media reports.

Milanovic threw his hat in the presidential race last June, running as a "President with Character" in a cheeky allusion to his reputation for being stubborn.

He has previously described himself as having a "leftist heart and conservative head", but has been criticised for a standoffish approach towards rivals and the media.

In the campaign, he promised to make Croatia a "normal, decent" liberal democracy, with an equal society and independent judiciary.

Milanovic took 52.7 percent of the vote, while incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who had tried to unite a fractured right wing, garnered 47.3 percent, according to results based on a vote count at nearly all polling stations released by the electoral commission. The turnout was about 55 percent.

Born in Zagreb in 1966, Milanovic was a top law student.

WATCHThe 15-Minute Massacre in Croatia

An avid amateur boxer in his twenties he never took part in matches, preferring to remain a sparring partner. He joined the foreign ministry during the former Yugoslav republic's 1990s independence war.

After the war, Milanovic served for three years with Croatia's European Union and NATO mission in Brussels and eventually joined the SDP in 1999.

He saw the party as the perfect counterweight to the "rural" values promoted by the then ruling HDZ, whose nationalist leader Franjo Tudjman died in December 1999.

Milanovic was elected head of the SDP in mid-2007 as successor to his mentor, Ivica Racan, a former prime minister who died of cancer.

Milanovic is married to a doctor and has two sons.

SOURCE: AFP NEWS AGENCY
Liberian police fire tear gas, water cannon to clear protesters
THE SOURCE OF ALL VIOLENCE THE STATE
Around 3,000 people were protesting 'worsening economic situation' amid deepening economic crisis under President Weah.


6 Jan 2020

This is the second mass demonstration against the president’s
 handling of the economy in less than a year. [Zoom Dosso/AFP]
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Liberian police fired tear gas and a water cannon to clear thousands of anti-government protesters from a central district in the capital Monrovia.

A crowd of some 3,000 people had gathered outside Monrovia's capitol building since Monday morning to protest the deepening economic crisis under President George Weah.

People outside the capitol building had started cooking evening meals, against police orders, when law enforcement began to forcefully clear the area, an AFP journalist reported.
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Dozens of people suffering the effects of tear gas - or the effects of falling during the clearance - were taken to the hospital, the news agency added.

Monday's demonstration follows two mass rallies against the footballer-turned-president last summer, as the impoverished West African country struggles with corruption and inflation.

The government had assured the protesters of security. Dozens of riot police were deployed in the capital although the scene remained calm. Roads were deserted and many civil servants stayed away from work.

The demonstrators want the president to sack his entire economic management team, said Henry Costa, a protest organiser and the head of a group called the Council of Patriots.

"They have performed dismally and created the worsening economic situation we are in," Costa told The Associated Press.

This is the second mass demonstration against the president’s handling of the economy in less than a year.

"We presented a petition containing demands to the president to address the issue of corruption ... bad governance, violation of the constitution - and the president refused to act on any of our demands," Costa told Al Jazeera. 

Economic woes

The Liberian economy has declined dramatically during Weah’s two years in power.

Banks have been unable to pay depositors, salaries have been delayed and the prices of basic commodities have skyrocketed.

"I will be at the front of that protest. If I am unable to walk, I'll carry a stick," Genevieve Badio, a protester, told Al Jazeera.

Bolu Pewe, a vegetable trader in Monrovia, said: "No one is buying. There is no money. Look at my children sitting here in the sun. They are supposed to be going to school. But there is no money to pay their fees."

However, some Liberians believe protests are not the best way to address the challenges.

"We voted for the politicians. If a person wants to change the constitution, they should talk to the politicians. If someone eats your reserve money, go to your representative," said Bendu Dukuly.

Members of the Council of Patriots (COP) hold a flag as 
they protest outside Monrovia's capitol building against
 the deepening economic crisis under Liberian President 
George Weah [Zoom Dosso/ AFP]

The protest was initially dubbed a "Weah Step Down Campaign" with organisers mobilising people to turn out and call on the former football star to leave office.

But many criticised the move as undemocratic, and simply want him to account for finances.

In June, protesters urged Weah to account for $25m his government withdrew from the country’s federal reserve account in New York in 2018 for infusion into the economy. A presidential task force set up to investigate the funds later uncovered discrepancies and misallocations.

Weah, who was voted into office in 2017, has been criticised for building personal properties, including close to 50 apartment buildings, immediately after taking office.

He is also criticised for travelling in a private jet with huge delegations. But the president’s supporters have often rejected these claims, saying Weah came to the job with his own money and his trips have brought back some benefits.

"The issue is that since the president has won the elections, the political elite has not really accepted him as president," Minister of Information Lenn Eugene Nagbe told Al Jazeera.

"So they have been using all sorts of devious means to undermine his authority and to delegitimise his election," he added.


SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Israel approves more than 1,900 new settler homes: NGO

ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS ARE A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Peace Now says settlement building has increased under PM Benjamin Netanyahu and ally US President Donald Trump.

6 Jan 2020
Israeli settlements are deemed illegal under international
 law and widely seen as the main obstacle to peace 
mir Levy/Getty Images]

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Israel has approved the construction of nearly 2,000 new settler homes on occupied Palestinian territories, an anti-settlement watchdog group said on Monday.

Peace Now said that nearly 800 housing units received the final approvals needed for construction to begin. It said initial approvals were given for an additional 1,150 homes. Settlement projects require several rounds of approvals.

The green light was given on Sunday and Monday, the watchdog group said, adding that 89 percent of the new homes will be erected in "settlements that Israel may have to evacuate under a future peace agreement with the Palestinians".
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The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli military body that oversees civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Peace Now, settlement building has vastly increased under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ally US President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu has been fighting for his political survival after being charged with corruption and after failing to form a new coalition government following April and September elections.

The prime minister, who was indicted in November on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, is now facing a third general election in March.

"Despite lacking a clear mandate, for this caretaker government it's business as usual - continue the massive promotion of harmful and unnecessary construction in occupied territory and in places that Israel will have to evacuate," said Peace Now in a statement.

"Netanyahu continues to sabotage the prospects of peace, dragging Israel into an anti-democratic one-state reality resembling apartheid."
Illegal under international law

Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967 in a move never recognised by the international community.

Its settlements are deemed illegal under international law and widely seen as the main obstacle to peace.

Some 600,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem among around 2.9 million Palestinians.

Late last year, the Trump administration said it would no longer consider Israeli settlements in the occupied territories illegal.

The move was hailed by Netanyahu while Palestinians have been outraged.

The European Union, United Nations and others have stressed, however, that they continue to consider the settlements illegal.

Last month, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced that she believes there is a basis for investigating Israel's settlement policies in the occupied West Bank, and that they could constitute a war crime.

The prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has asked the ICC to determine whether she has jurisdiction before opening a formal investigation.

Israel has argued that the occupied West Bank is disputed territory whose fate should be resolved in negotiations and that Bensouda has no jurisdiction in this case.


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INSIDE STORY
Will Israel annex Palestinian territories?


SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
US to send Mexican asylum seekers to Guatemala under new plan

ALSO KNOWN AS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY 
WHICH IS WHY THE USA REFUSES TO RECOGNISE
THE ICC

Under a bilateral agreement, Trump administration to begin sending Mexican asylum seekers in the US to Guatemala.

6 Jan 2020
A migrant sits with his children as they wait to hear if their 
number is called to apply for asylum in the United States
 [File: Gregory Bull/AP Photo]
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Mexicans seeking asylum in the United States could be sent to Guatemala under a bilateral agreement signed by the Central American nation last year, according to documents sent to US asylum officers in recent days and seen by Reuters.

In a January 4 email, field office staff at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) were told Mexican nationals will be included in the populations "amenable" to the agreement with Guatemala.

The controversial agreement, brokered last July between the administration of Republican President Donald Trump and the outgoing Guatemalan government, allows US immigration officials to force migrants requesting asylum at the US-Mexican border to apply for protection there.
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Trump has made clamping down on undocumented migration a top priority of his presidency and a major theme of his 2020 re-election campaign. His administration penned similar deals with Honduras and El Salvador last year.

Democrats and pro-migrant groups have opposed the move and contend asylum seekers will face danger in Guatemala, where the murder rate is five times that of the US, according to 2017 data compiled by the World Bank. The country's asylum office is tiny and thinly staffed and critics have argued it does not have the capacity to properly vet a significant increase in cases.

Guatemalan President-elect Alejandro Giammattei, who takes office this month, has said he will review the agreement.

Acting Deputy US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said in a tweet in December that Mexicans were being considered for inclusion under the agreement.

USCIS referred to Cuccinelli's tweet, and US Customs and Border Protection and Mexico's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Unaccompanied minors cannot be sent to Guatemala under the agreement, which currently applies only to migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico who entered the US after November 19, 2019, according to the guidance documents. Exceptions are made only if the migrants can establish that they are "more likely than not" to be persecuted or tortured in Guatemala based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.

Numbers of Central American migrants apprehended at the border fell sharply in the second part of 2019 after Mexico deployed National Guard troops to stem the flow, under pressure from Trump.

Overall, border arrests are expected to drop again in December for the seventh straight month, a Homeland Security official told Reuters last week, citing preliminary data.

The US government says another reason for the reduction in border crossings is a separate programme, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, that has forced more than 56,000 non-Mexican migrants to wait in Mexico for their US immigration court hearings.

With fewer Central Americans at the border, US attention has turned to Mexicans crossing irregularly or requesting asylum. Around 150,000 Mexican single adults were apprehended at the border in fiscal 2019, down sharply from previous decades but still enough to bother US immigration hawks.


SOURCE: REUTERS NEWS AGENCY
Bangladesh student's rape sparks protests demanding death penalty

Protesters march along city's main roads, halting traffic to demand rapist's arrest and capital punishment for convicts.

6 Jan 2020
Police said about 1,500 students joined the protests, which remained peaceful [Munir Uz Zaman/AFP]

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The sexual assault of a student at a top university in Bangladesh has triggered angry protests in the capital Dhaka, with demonstrators calling for the death penalty for all the convicted rapists.

Demonstrators on Monday linked arms and marched along main roads in Dhaka, halting traffic to demand the perpetrator's arrest within 24 hours.
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Signs held up in the protest included messages such as: "No mercy to rapist" and "Please tell me, am I next?"

"Rape is an unforgivable offence. In Bangladesh, the punishment for rape is very slow," said Shahela, a demonstrator who, like the 21-year-old victim of Sunday's attack, is a student at Dhaka University.

"We want quick executions for the perpetrators so that others are deterred from committing such crimes," she said.

Nurul Haque Nur, vice president of Dhaka University Central Students' Union, said: "Dhaka University is considered the supreme educational institute of the country. It is very shameful that a student of that institute was raped."

"We demand that all the rape cases in the country including this one are processed under a speedy tribunal and that the rapists are brought to justice," he said.

Jannat Ul Firdous, a Dhaka University student, said rapists must be killed.

"We want nothing but the rapists' execution by hanging. How is it possible that women can't move freely in an independent country? We can't just passively witness the assaults of rapists. We demand that the rapists are hanged," the protester said.

Police said about 1,500 students joined the protests, which remained peaceful. AFP news agency estimated that twice as many people joined the rally.
Sunday's assault

The victim in Sunday's attack was travelling to a friend's home when she was gagged, taken to a remote area in Dhaka's outskirts and sexually assaulted.

The victim was taken to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital at about midnight on Sunday, and is being treated there.

"We are working to arrest [the attacker]," Sazzadur Rahman, senior police official, told AFP news agency.

Local rights group Ain o Salish Kendra said there were 1,413 reported rape cases in Bangladesh last year, double the number recorded in 2018. Dozens of victims were killed while 10 committed suicide after they were attacked.

Nationwide protests gripped Bangladesh in April after a 19-year-old student who accused her seminary's head teacher of sexual harassment was doused in kerosene and set on fire.

Sixteen people were later sentenced to death over the attack, including the teacher.

VIDEO
SOUTH 2 NORTH
Behind the global rape epidemic


SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES