NO MENTION OF BERISIMA
Biden says US will 'never' accept 'aggressive' Russia's Ukraine annexation

Issued on: 26/02/2021 -

In this file photo taken on December 07, 2015, then-US Vice President
Joe Biden speaks in Kiev, Ukraine Sergey SUPINSKI POOL/AFP/File


Washington (AFP)

President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States will "never" accept Russia's annexation of part of Ukraine seven years ago.

"The United States does not and will never recognize Russia's purported annexation of the peninsula, and we will stand with Ukraine against Russia's aggressive acts," Biden said in a statement marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Crimea.

"The United States continues to stand with Ukraine and its allies and partners today, as it has from the beginning of this conflict. On this somber anniversary, we reaffirm a simple truth: Crimea is Ukraine," Biden said.

Russian troops seized the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea coast of Ukraine in 2014 and President Vladimir Putin then incorporated the region under Moscow's rule.

Simultaneously, the Kremlin backed an armed uprising in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian separatists declared independence, sparking a war that continues to simmer, with swaths of territory remaining out of the Ukrainian government's control.

In the latest fighting, two people were killed and two injured, the government in Kiev said Wednesday.

The latest casualties came as Kiev accused Moscow and the separatists of using heavy weaponry and ramping up attacks in violation of a ceasefire agreed in July of last year.

© 2021 AFP

- 'Shocking lack of urgency' -

Latest climate pledges 'very far' from Paris goals: UN


Issued on: 26/02/2021 -

UN Climate Change said that only around 30 percent of global emissions were covered in the commitments 

INA FASSBENDER AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

Renewed promises to slash greenhouse gas emissions from countries as part of the Paris climate deal are "very far" from what is required to avert catastrophic global warming, the United Nations said Friday.

In its assessment of the pledges made in recent months by around 75 countries and the European Union, UN Climate Change said that only around 30 percent of global emissions were covered in the commitments.

"It's incredible to think that just when nations are facing an emergency that could eventually end human life on this planet -- despite every study, every report and clear warnings from scientists throughout the world -- many nations are sticking to their business as usual approach," said the UN's climate chief Patricia Espinosa.

Under the landmark 2015 Paris deal, nations promised to work to limit global temperature rises to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 Farenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

To achieve this, and to gun for a safer temperature cap of 1.5C, nations committed to slash emissions, as well as to provide assistance to the most climate-vulnerable countries.

The deal included a "ratchet" mechanism in which signatories agreed to a rolling five-year review of their climate pledges -- known as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs -- in which they are supposed to display ever greater ambition for action.

The first deadline for renewed NDCs passed last year.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the world's pre-eminent body on global warming -- says that emissions should be around 45 percent lower by 2030 compared with 2010 levels to meet the 1.5C goal.

The UN said on Friday that the combined impact of the renewed NDCs would constitute a less than one percent drop in emissions in the same timeframe.

Espinosa urged major emitters, particularly G20 nations, to "lead the way" in showing greater ambition to cut emissions.

Many leading polluters -- including China, the US and Japan -- either missed the NDC deadline or failed to build upon existing pledges, according to Climate Action Tracker.

- 'Shocking lack of urgency' -

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday's assessment was a "red alert for our planet".

"Decision makers must walk the talk," he said.

"Long-term commitments must be matched by immediate actions to launch the decade of transformation that people and planet so desperately need."

With just over 1C of warming so far, Earth is already plagued with increasingly intense droughts, wildfires and superstorms made more potent by rising seas.

Many of the countries that did submit renewed NDC targets are among those most threatened by climate-driven extreme weather events.

Aubrey Webson, chair of the AOSIS negotiating bloc of small island states, said the UN assessment confirmed a "shocking lack of urgency, and genuine action" from big emitters.

"We are flirting dangerously with the 1.5C warming limit that the world agreed we need to stay within. It is small island developing States like ours that will pay the ultimate price if we do not," he said.

2021 is being billed as a key year for the climate, with the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow providing a new informal deadline for renewed NDCs after the pandemic year.

Espinosa said that it was in some cases understandable that countries battling Covid-19 had neglected to meet the NDC deadline.

"However we also note that the climate change emergency did not stop for the pandemic and that it won't go away because of another emergency," she told reporters.

© 2021 AFP

Fear and tension in Myanmar as police clear protests

Issued on: 26/02/2021 

Protesters have rallied daily in Myanmar's largest city 

against a junta that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi from power Sai Aung Main AFP


Yangon (AFP)

Riot police in Myanmar on Friday dispersed hundreds of anti-coup protesters who have rallied daily in the country's largest city against a junta that toppled civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The nation has seen an outpouring of anger and defiance from hundreds of thousands of protesters who have gathered to call for Suu Kyi's release and a return to democracy.

In some cities, security forces have steadily increased their use of force, but in commercial hub Yangon, authorities have exercised restraint, largely relying on barricades and troop presence to prevent gatherings around city landmarks and embassies.

Protesters have bypassed restrictions by moving fluidly through the city, organising around central junctions Hledan and Myaynigone.

But on Friday riot police advanced on the demonstrators -- mostly sitting and chanting pro-democracy slogans -- and warned them to disperse.

Six protesters and a Japanese journalist were arrested after officers cleared a busy traffic artery.

Yuki Kitazumi, a freelance reporter, "was beaten on the head by baton but he was wearing a helmet", his assistant Linn Nyan Htun said on Facebook.

A police officer denied that Kitazumi was beaten, and later said he had been released.

On a smaller residential street off Myaynigone, some demonstrators assembled makeshift barricades -- using barbed wire and stacked tables -- to halt police.

Wearing hard hats, protesters shouted the regular anti-junta refrain: "Failure to the dictatorship is our cause, our cause!"

And uptown off Hledan junction, demonstrators sprinted away in alarm as police warned: "If people do not disperse, we will have to disperse by force!"

One frightened protester ran into a nearby house to hide, telling AFP that police had deployed stun grenades.

"We had to run," Nyo Hlaing told AFP, adding that some protesters retaliated by shooting projectiles using slingshots.

AFP reporters on the ground heard several stun grenades go off with a sharp bang and saw police arrest more people.

As officers searched apartments, residents around Hledan protested by banging pots and pans -- a common act of defiance against the military regime.

Back on the main traffic junction, officers allowed buses and cars to go through.

Some passengers flashed a three-finger salute -- a symbol of resistance borrowed from neighbouring Thailand's pro-democracy movement.

There were also protests in Mandalay on Friday, where thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the city's biggest shopping mall, dressed mostly in white with face masks and hats in red -- the colour of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

As the protesters spread out, police used slingshots to disperse them, according to an AFP reporter. Five people were injured, including one seriously, said Thet Htay, a doctor.

- Tensions high -

Tensions in Yangon are particularly high, with many rattled after a pro-junta rally was allowed to move through the city's downtown area Thursday.

The military supporters carried slingshots, knives and pipes, which they used to attack people living near the site of their protest, according to reporters and residents.

State-run media blamed the clashes on pro-democracy demonstrators.

On Thursday night soldiers and police gathered in a Yangon township to break up a small rally against a junta-appointed municipal administrator, alarming residents who scattered back to their homes to avoid arrests after the 8 pm curfew.

State-run media reported Friday that authorities had deployed stun grenades and fired live rounds in the air to disperse the protesters in Tamwe township.

Twenty-three people will "face action according to the law", it said.

Myanmar coup: Protesters accuse China of backing military junta

Riot police in Myanmar on Friday dispersed hundreds of anti-coup protesters who have rallied daily in the country's largest city against a junta that toppled civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar's giant neighbour China, which has traditionally taken a soft line, said any international action should contribute to stability, promote reconciliation and avoid complicating the situation. Is Beijing backing the military junta as some protesters suspect? FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin tells us more.

UN rights chief hails US shift from Trump migration policies

Issued on: 26/02/2021 - 

Trump mounted a hardline effort to halt illegal immigration, slash legal immigration and drive out undocumented immigrants 

Luis ACOSTA AFP/File


Geneva (AFP)

The UN rights chief on Friday celebrated the shift in the United States under President Joe Biden away from a range of immigration policies introduced under his predecessor Donald Trump.

In her annual global overview of the human rights situation around the world, Michelle Bachelet voiced deep concern over violations committed in a wide range of countries, but was upbeat when her attention turned to the United States.

Speaking in a video message to the UN Human Rights Council, Bachelet said she welcomed "new steps to end several migration policies that violated the human rights of migrants and refugees".

Trump mounted a hardline effort to halt illegal immigration, slash legal immigration and drive out undocumented immigrants, even those in the country for decades.

Bachelet highlighted in particular Biden's executive orders ending a widely criticised Trump policy which separated children from thousands of migrant families.

She urged Washington to "tackle remaining issues, such as the massive detention of migrants" and hailed "broad new measures to tackle structural inequalities and systemic racism," including executive actions by Biden "to redress racially discriminatory federal housing policies (and) combat xenophobia."

- Xinjiang 'assessment' needed -

In her speech, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights meanwhile was less optimistic about the rights situation in Washington's top rivals China and Russia.

She voiced concern over China's curtailment of "fundamental rights and civic freedoms... in the name of national security and the Covid-19 response."

"Activists, lawyers and human rights defenders, as well as some foreign nationals, face arbitrary criminal charges, detention or unfair trials," she said.

The former Chilean president highlighted in particular abuses in Hong Kong since the introduction of a controversial new national security law, pointing out that more than 600 people there were "being investigated for participating in various forms of protests".

Bachelet also voiced concern about the situation in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, where rights groups believe at least one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps.

After initially denying the camps existed, Beijing later defended them as vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism.

"Information that is in the public domain indicates the need for independent and comprehensive assessment of the human rights situation," Bachelet said.

She said her office was continuing to "assess the alleged patterns of human rights violations, including reports of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and sexual violence in institutions, coercive labour practices, and erosion of social and cultural rights."

- No mention of Navalny -

As for Russia, Bachelet voiced particular concern over new legal provisions that took effect last year that "further limit fundamental freedoms, including the constitutionally guaranteed rights to free expression, peaceful assembly and association."

At the same time, "existing restrictive laws have continued to be harshly enforced, including during recent demonstrations across the country," she said.

However, Bachelet made no mention of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's most prominent opponent who was transferred Thursday to a penal colony after being sentenced this month to two years and six months there for breaching parole terms while recovering in Germany from a poisoning attack.

© 2021 AFP

THE NEW BOND VILLAN
Powerful Georgian oligarch looms over political crisis

Issued on: 26/02/2021 - 

Bidzina Ivanishvili lives in a lavish mansion overlooking Tbilisi, where he keeps a priceless collection of contemporary paintings and a giant aquarium with sharks

 VANO SHLAMOV AFP/File

Tbilisi (AFP)

A simmering political crisis in Georgia came to a head this week, with the surprise resignation of the prime minister and the dramatic arrest of an opposition leader in a police raid.

For government critics, this turning point in unrest sparked by disputed elections last year had the hallmark signature of one enigmatic figure towering over the ex-Soviet country's political landscape.

Reclusive billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who formally resigned from politics this year, lives in a lavish glass-and-steel mansion overlooking the capital Tbilisi, where he keeps a priceless collection of contemporary paintings and a giant aquarium with sharks.

He insists he is no longer a political stakeholder in the country that has weathered revolutions and civil war since it broke from the Soviet Union three decades ago. But many believe otherwise.

"Ivanishvili's former bodyguard is interior minister. The defence minister and head of secret service are former managers in his bank," said Salome Samadashvili, a leader of the opposition United National Movement (UNM).

"He is in full control of the government and owns the country like other oligarchs own companies or islands," the seasoned former diplomat told AFP.

- 'Mission accomplished' -

Born into poverty in the village of Chorvila in western Georgia, Ivanishvili made his fortune in Russia during the cutthroat 1990s when oligarchs amassed huge wealth in privatisation deals.

But his Cartu Bank founded in 1996 along with the luxurious Paragraph hotel on the Black Sea are his only businesses in Georgia where he has bought up property and land worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ivanishvili, 65, now with a splash of grey in his neatly coiffured hair, cemented his position on the Caucasus country's political landscape in 2012 when his party Georgian Dream ousted the ruling UMN party.

Having removed the party of then-president and flamboyant reformer Mikheil Saakashvili, Ivanishvili stepped down as prime minister in 2013.

In January, he unexpectedly announced his departure from politics entirely and even removed himself as chairman of the party that he named after a song written by his rapper son.

"I have made the decision to finally retire from politics and fully distance myself from the reins of power," he wrote at the time in an open letter, where he also declared that his "mission has been accomplished".

Georgian Dream leaders have since flatly denied claims that he retains a hidden influence over the country's politics.

But with the government mainly composed of his loyal lieutenants, many believe Ivanishvili is ultimately responsible for the latest dent in Georgia's reputation as a democracy among former Soviet countries.

- 'Strong grip on power' -

"All the key positions in the executive and legislative branches, as well as in the judciary system are held by Ivanishvili's people," said Gela Vasadze, an analyst with Georgian Strategic Analysis Centre think tank.

"His grip on power is as strong as it was before his so-called resignation," he added.

Georgia's three decades of independence since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 have been marked by a civil war, separatist conflicts, and a series of political upheavals.

The current political crisis was sparked by the elections, which opposition parties said were rigged, leading them to boycott the formation of the new parliament.

The standoff took on dangerous dimensions on Monday when police used tear gas to raid the UMN's headquarters and arrest party leader Nika Melia.

Melia, 41, a charismatic politician who united Georgia's traditionally divided opposition against Georgian Dream, has said his prosecution on "spurious" charges of "organising mass violence" during anti-government protests in 2019 was "Ivanishvili's whim".

On Friday, prime minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned over plans to arrest Melia and was replaced by Ivanishvili's former personal assistant, an ex-prime minister and defence minister Irakli Garibashvili, whom Ivanishvili calls "my beloved boy."

Samadashvili said that Ivanishvili's system, where private interests permeate politics and opposition leaders are either in jail or exiled, "is undoing Georgia's democratic achievements and derails the country from its pro-Western trajectory".

Thousands rally in Georgia after opposition chief's arrest

Issued on: 26/02/2021 

The opposition has staged mass rallies since October 

Vano SHLAMOV AFP


Tbilisi (AFP)

Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied in the Georgian capital Friday to demand early elections after the arrest of a top opposition leader.

Protesters marched through the city's main street, led by the leaders of all of Georgia's opposition parties waving Georgian, EU, and US flags, before staging a rally outside parliament.

Georgia plunged deeper into political crisis following this week's arrest of Nika Melia -- the leader of the country's main opposition force, the United National Movement (UNM), and a violent police raid on the party headquarters.

"I am in prison, but I am free," Melia wrote in an address to demonstrators read out at the rally.

"We are fighting for freedom and we will prevail in this struggle."

Supporters said they were energised by Melia's resolve.

"Nika's example inspires all of us," 20-year-old student Tornike Beridze told AFP.

"We will not stop until he is set free, until Georgia is free from Georgian Dream's authoritarianism," he said referring to the ruling party.

Nata Shavishvili, 46, said Melia had become "an icon of Georgians' aspirations to build a democratic, European country."

Ex-Soviet Georgia has faced political turmoil since parliamentary elections in October that the opposition said was rigged to give the ruling party a narrow victory.

Opposition members have refused to enter the new parliament in a boycott that weighs heavily on the ruling party's legitimacy.

- 'Democratic setback' -

Melia, a 41-year-old who has united Georgia's traditionally divided opposition forces, his prosecution on charges of "organising mass violence" during anti-government protests in 2019 as politically motivated.

A court in Tbilisi last week ordered Melia to be placed in pre-trial detention after he refused to pay an increased bail fee in the case.

Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned over plans to arrest Melia, warning it would escalate tensions, but police moved in anyway and detained him on Tuesday.

Friday's rally was the latest in a series of mass protests the opposition has staged since October, to denounce what it says is political repression and to demand fresh polls.

More protests have been announced for the coming weeks.

The United States led a chorus of international condemnation against Melia's arrest, saying the move was a setback for pro-Western Georgia "on its path toward becoming a stronger democracy in the Euro-Atlantic family of nations".

© 2021 AFP

Armenia opposition supporters rally in Yerevan, demand Pashinyan's resignation

Issued on: 26/02/2021 -

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan defied calls to resign and accused the military of an attempted coup on Thursday, as divisions over his handling of last year's war with Azerbaijan brought thousands to the streets. Several hundred opposition supporters were camped out in tents outside Armenia's parliament on Friday demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's resignation.

Armenian protesters camp outside parliament demanding PM’s resignation

Issued on: 26/02/2021 -

Several hundred opposition supporters were camped out in tents outside Armenia's parliament on Friday demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's resignation over his handling of last year's war with Azerbaijan.

The small South Caucasus nation plunged Thursday into a fresh political crisis as Pashinyan defied calls to resign, accused the military of an attempted coup and rallied some 20,000 supporters in the capital Yerevan.

The opposition gathered some 10,000 of its own supporters, who put up tents outside the parliament building, erected barricades and vowed to hold round-the-clock demonstrations.

On Friday morning, opposition supporters blocked streets near the parliament building as they prepared to stage a new rally set for 0900 GMT.

A leader of the opposition Dashnaktsutyun party, Gegham Manukyan, told reporters that opposition parties would only speak with Pashinyan about "his resignation."

Pashinyan has said he is ready to start talks with the opposition to defuse tensions, but also threatened to arrest any opponents if they violate the law.

Pashinyan has faced fierce criticism since he signed a peace deal brokered by Russia that ended the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian region that broke from Azerbaijan's control during a war in the early 1990s.

Fresh fighting erupted over the region in late September with Azerbaijani forces backed by ally Turkey making steady gains.

After six weeks of clashes and bombardments that claimed some 6,000 lives, a ceasefire agreement was signed that handed over significant territory to Azerbaijan and allowed for the deployment of Russian peacekeepers.

The agreement was seen as a national humiliation for many in Armenia, though Pashinyan has said he had no choice but to agree or see his country's forces suffer even bigger losses.

Armenia's military had backed Pashinyan for months but on Thursday the military's general staff joined calls for him to step down, saying in a statement that he and his cabinet were "not capable of taking adequate decisions".

(AFP)

Thousands march in Armenia to demand PM's resignation

Issued on: 26/02/2021 -

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has defied calls to resign 

Karen MINASYAN AFP

Yerevan (AFP)

Several thousand opposition supporters marched through the capital of Armenia on Friday to demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's resignation over his handling of last year's war with Azerbaijan which many see as a national humiliation.

Columns of people angry with the prime minister flooded the streets of central Yerevan, waving Armenian flags and chanting anti-government slogans, hours before a planned meeting with the ex-Soviet country's president.

Former Prime Minister Vazgen Manukyan, who has been put forward by the opposition to replace Pashinyan, called on all Armenians to join the protest.

"The people must take to the street and express their will so that we can avoid bloodshed and turmoil," he said at the rally.

"Either we get rid of them," Manukyan said, referring to Pashinyan and his allies who control parliament, "or we will lose Armenia."

The small South Caucasus nation plunged Thursday into a fresh political crisis as Pashinyan defied calls to resign, accused the military of an attempted coup and rallied some 20,000 supporters in Yerevan.

But the opposition gathered some 10,000 of its own supporters, who erected barricades and set up tents and stoves outside the parliament building and vowed to hold round-the-clock demonstrations.

The crisis spilled into a second day after Pashinyan's critics spent the night, then blocked streets near the parliament building in preparation for Friday's rally.

The march led them to the presidency and then to the prime minister's residence, ahead of a meeting with President Armen Sarkisian at 15:40 local time (1140 GMT).

- War with Azerbaijan -

A leader of the opposition Dashnaktsutyun party, Gegham Manukyan, told reporters that opposition parties would only speak with Pashinyan about "his resignation."

Pashinyan has said he is ready to start talks with the opposition to defuse tensions, but also threatened to arrest any opponents if they violate the law.

France on Friday urged talks based on the legitimacy of President Armen Sarkisian, who holds a largely ceremonial role but has vowed to resolve this crisis peacefully, and Pashinyan himself.

"France would like that a dialogue takes hold in this country," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said after talks with Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

"The elements of Armenian democracy must be able to be preserved," he added.

Pashinyan has faced fierce criticism since he signed a peace deal brokered by Russia that ended the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian region that broke from Azerbaijan's control during a war in the early 1990s.

Fresh fighting erupted over the region in late September with Azerbaijani forces backed by ally Turkey making steady gains.

After six weeks of clashes and bombardments that claimed some 6,000 lives, a ceasefire agreement was signed that handed over significant territory to Azerbaijan and allowed for the deployment of Russian peacekeepers.

The agreement was seen as a national humiliation for many in Armenia, though Pashinyan has said he had no choice but to agree or see his country's forces suffer even bigger losses.

"Nikol's time is over," Grigor Airapetyan, a 68-year-old pensioner, told AFP at Friday's rally.

Armenia's military had backed Pashinyan for months, but on Thursday the military's general staff joined calls for him to step down, saying in a statement that he and his cabinet were "not capable of taking adequate decisions".

© 2021 AFP

Chinese coronavirus jab brings relief, and concern in Hungary

Issued on: 26/02/2021 - 

Laszlo Cservak, a 75-year-old pensioner, receives his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinopharm company and approved by Hungarian authorities ATTILA KISBENEDEK AFP



Budapest (AFP)

"We should be happy to get any vaccine," said Laszlo Cservak, a pensioner queueing in Budapest for China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine shot after Hungary became the first EU member to start using it.

The inoculations began Thursday as some Hungarian doctors fret that Sinopharm's Chinese maker has provided only minimal information on clinical trials of its vaccine, particularly for those aged over 60.

Neither Sinopharm nor Russia's Sputnik V jab, which Budapest also started rolling out this month in another EU first, are approved by the EU's European Medicines Agency (EMA).

In surveys of preferences among the five vaccines now used in Hungary, Sinopharm ranks last behind three western-developed vaccines -- Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca -- as well as Sputnik V.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban and health officials have urged citizens to put aside concerns about the Chinese vaccine while pro-government media have promoted its benefits.

For Cservak, waiting restlessly to be called into a vaccination centre -- a pensioners club near the river Danube -- scepticism about the Chinese drug is unwarranted.

"We are a country of 10 million virus experts, and some media are guilty of raising doubts in people who then hesitate to choose non-western vaccines," the 75-year-old told AFP.

- "Can't wait" -

The first batch of 550,000 Sinopharm jabs from China arrived earlier this month accompanied by fanfare in public media.

Hungary expects to get a further one million doses in March and April in total, with 3.5 million more doses arriving in May, a senior minister said Thursday.

Some 50-55 doses each have already been dispatched to family doctors, who have been tasked with arranging appointments with patients on their roster.

"About 70 percent of the 67 patients on my list accepted to come in for a shot," Dr. Emese Bone told AFP while staff helped arriving patients to fill out forms.

"But several elderly heard that there is not enough data on its effects on their age group, and while they think anything is better than getting Covid they decided to wait," said Bone.

"A few worried about the lack of EMA approval, while three changed their mind about coming after hearing they might not be able to travel in Europe if they get non-EU jabs," she said.

According to Szilvi Eszes, a nurse administering the jabs, those in the queue unsurprisingly had few reservations about the Chinese vaccines as they had already registered on a government vaccination website signed so far by around 2.5 million people.

"They might prefer Pfizer or Moderna but this is what is here now, they are free to say no, although who knows what will be available later and when," she told AFP.

After receiving her shot Ilona Mester, 59, said she "can hardly wait" for the second dose in a month's time.

"When they told me yesterday it would be the Chinese vaccine I wasn't worried, I had read good things about it, and only had to think for a bit before accepting the appointment, I would have taken any vaccine, to be honest," she said.

- Inoculation drive -

So far, almost half a million Hungarians have received at least one vaccine dose, mostly Pfizer shots, but officials said Thursday that the pace of inoculations will double with the newly procured Chinese jabs.

All those who have registered on the government's website can be vaccinated by early April, said the country's chief surgeon.

The inoculation drive comes as an extension of a partial lockdown in place since November until March 15 was announced Thursday following a steep rise in new infection cases.

"Without the Chinese and Russian vaccines we would be in big trouble," Orban said Friday in an interview, while criticising the "slow" pace of deliveries from the EU.

"Hungary can be the most vaccinated country in Europe by Easter," he said, pledging to receive his own Sinopharm jab next week.

Critics have accused the 57-year-old premier of pressuring health authorities to green-light non-EU vaccines to win favour from China and Russia.

A government decree last month drastically loosened approval criteria of vaccines worldwide.

A leading doctors association said it could not recommend the Chinese or Russian drugs to colleagues "in good conscience" due to inadequate documentation.

But among those leaving the vaccination centre relief was the main emotion.

"A year ago I felt myself a young man, now I am an old man, I horribly miss not going to the pool or gym, and travelling, so I came here to get liberated and my old life back," said Laszlo Cservak.

© 2021 AFP

ITS NOT A SPORT IT'S SADISM

British gymnasts to begin legal action against governing body over alleged abuse

Issued on: 26/02/2021 -

Britain's Jennifer Pinches performs at the 2012 Olympics in London 

BEN STANSALL 

London (AFP)

A group of 17 former gymnasts including three Olympians are to launch legal action against British Gymnastics for alleged "systemic physical and psychological abuse" by coaches targeting children as young as six.

The athletes have served a letter before action on the sport's governing body in the UK.

The letter says athletes were aged between six and 23 at the time of the alleged abuses, which included "widespread inappropriate use of physical force" by coaches and enforcement of "baseless" weight-management techniques.

An independent review to look into complaints of mistreatment within the sport is currently under way.

Jennifer Pinches, who retired from international competition after helping Team GB reach the final at the 2012 London Olympics, said British Gymnastics had spent too long prioritising "podiums over people".

"It is a heart-breaking truth to face, knowing the level of abuse that we and so many others were subjected to," added Pinches, who is now the community director of the Gymnasts for Change group.

"This is just the beginning of the sweeping changes that we are demanding, and the justice that we will fight for."

Gymnasts for Change campaign director Claire Heafford said: "This is not and has never been about a few bad apples, this is about decades of systemic abuse, encouraged and covered up by those at the top.

"The hopes and dreams of countless children and young adults of competing as professional gymnasts have been destroyed and their love for the sport is now shrouded in fear and suffering."

The group is demanding a response from British Gymnastics, which includes a formal apology, compensation and improved coaching guidelines.

© 2021 AFP