Minggu, 09 Februari 2020
2 service members killed in shootout in Afghanistan - ABC News
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2020-02-09 15:03:57Z
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Storm Ciara helps plane beat transatlantic flight record - BBC News
Experts are hailing a British Airways flight as the fastest subsonic New York to London journey.
The Boeing 747-436 reached speeds of 825 mph (1,327 km/h) as it rode a jet stream accelerated by Storm Ciara.
The four hours and 56 minutes flight arrived at Heathrow Airport 80 minutes ahead of schedule on Sunday morning.
According to Flightradar24, an online flight tracking service, it beat a previous five hours 13 minutes record held by Norwegian.
The BBC has been unable to independently verify the record as no complete database of flight times was available.
Aviation consultant and former BA pilot Alastair Rosenschein said the aeroplane reached a "phenomenal speed".
'Prioritise safety'
"The pilot will have sat their aircraft in the core of the jet stream and at this time of year it's quite strong.
"Turbulence in those jet streams can be quite severe, but you can also find it can be a very smooth journey."
The jet stream reached speeds of 260 mph (418 km/h) on Sunday morning, according to BBC Weather.
Despite travelling faster than the speed of sound the plane would not have broken the sonic barrier as it was helped along by fast-moving air.
Relative to the air, the plane was travelling slower than 801mph.
Modern passenger planes usually travel at about 85% the speed of sound, according to Mr Rosenschein.
British Airways said: "We always prioritise safety over speed records.
"Our highly-trained pilots made the most of the conditions to get customers back to London well ahead of time."
The fastest transatlantic crossing belongs to BA Concorde, which flew from New York to London in two hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds in 1996 - hitting a top speed of 1,350 mph.
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2020-02-09 13:58:03Z
CBMiM2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy91ay1lbmdsYW5kLWxvbmRvbi01MTQzMzcyMNIBN2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy9hbXAvdWstZW5nbGFuZC1sb25kb24tNTE0MzM3MjA
Coronavirus updates: China works on Wuhan quarantine faacilities - The - The Washington Post
China Daily Reuters
The number of infected and killed by the novel coronavirus continues to climb worldwide but the vast majority — and the battle against the virus — is still concentrated in the original outbreak zone of Wuhan, central China. Authorities are struggling to build enough health facilities there in effort to treat the thousands of affected, many of whom have been stuck at home with the virus. Here’s what we know so far:
● The global death toll from the novel coronavirus reached more than 810 on Sunday, surpassing the 774 fatalities attributed to the outbreak of the SARS coronavirus in 2002 and 2003. Among the dead was the first American, a 60-year-old citizen who died Thursday in Wuhan.
● Although Wuhan and Hubei province remain ravaged by the disease, Chinese officials say the number of new cases outside Hubei is declining, in a reflection of strict quarantine measures taking effect nationwide.
● A World Health Organization-led international team is planning to leave for China on Monday or Tuesday to conduct an investigation of the coronavirus.
● Chinese authorities have labeled masks a “strategic resource” and experts call for most protective masks to be reserved for medical workers amid global shortages.
● Hong Kong expands its quarantine orders to more than 160 people who arrived from the Chinese mainland. People who violate the quarantine face up to six months in jail.
BEIJING — China pushed ahead Sunday with emergency measures to isolate coronavirus patients in specialized facilities at the disease-ravaged epicenter, Wuhan, as the number of patient deaths surged past the 774 killed by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-3.
The country’s National Health Commission reported that 89 more people had died Saturday in the two-month epidemic — the highest daily toll to date — as worldwide coronavirus fatalities reached more than 810. Cases have been heavily concentrated in Wuhan and surrounding areas of Hubei province, which has been locked down for two weeks in an attempt to contain the virus.
Even as infections overwhelm the afflicted province, the rest of China may be seeing the effects of strict quarantine measures, Chinese health officials said Sunday. In all parts of China excluding Hubei, the daily number of new infections dropped from nearly 900 on Feb. 3 to 509 on Saturday, the officials said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/health-science/the-coronavirus-and-other-outbreaks-are-hard-to-contain-heres-why/2020/02/06/8c69ef04-cbfd-4251-9323-a12e167ad082_video.html
World Health Organization officials also say they have seen the number of new cases taper in recent days. “That's good news and may reflect the impact of the control measures put in place,” Michael Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, told reporters on Saturday. But he added that many patients have not yet been tested and it remained far too early to make predictions about the number of infections.
An international team of experts led by the WHO will depart for China on Monday or Tuesday to investigate the outbreak, said the director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Medical experts say available data show the disease — officially named “novel coronavirus pneumonia,” or NCP, by Chinese health officials on Saturday — is much more contagious than SARS, but the probability of death for those infected is much lower.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/the-coronavirus-is-forcing-cruise-ships-to-take-drastic-measures/2020/02/07/506902f4-4685-4e53-9c4e-84b2c302fee0_video.html
Around the world, cases continue to tick up. The number of confirmed infections rose on Sunday to 70 onboard the cruise liner Diamond Princess, which has been anchored and quarantined off the coast of Japan.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urged calm as the city-state reported a spike in the number of cases to a total of 40 and raised its alert level. New cases were also reported in Germany and South Korea.
In Hong Kong, where grocery stores have been emptied as worried residents stock up on supplies, the number of cases rose by three to a total of 29 on Sunday. The city’s health authorities said tests for all 3,600 crew and passengers quarantined for the past four days on a cruise ship World Dream came back negative and everyone aboard was released Sunday afternoon.
China faces a crucial test beginning Monday as laborers from across the country trickle back to work in major cities that have been effectively emptied and shut down since the Lunar New Year on Jan. 24.
AP
AP
In this Feb. 6, 2020, photo, workers in protective suits ride on a truck carrying medical supplies into Huoshenshan temporary hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province.
Officials, concerned about another spike in infections, have tried to delay the return to work. Shanghai is asking companies to dissuade nonlocal employees from returning for several more weeks. In Shenzhen, the iPhone assembler Foxconn has told employees that work is suspended until further notice. Officials in cities ranging from Xian in the north to Tianjin on the east coast have warned travelers from other parts of China that they would be immediately quarantined upon their return.
In a sign that governments are still seeking to prolong closures, state media reported Sunday that the populous Hebei province surrounding Beijing would join a number of other major jurisdictions keeping schools closed until March 1 at the earliest.
At the heart of the epidemic in Wuhan, the situation remains dire.
Officials are rushing to transfer patients into three quarantine facilities with 4,000 beds to alleviate a severe shortage of space inside the city’s overwhelmed hospitals. Hotels and university dorms are being requisitioned and converted into spaces for “centralized quarantine” for patients showing symptoms.
Leishenshan, a second makeshift hospital with 1,600 beds, began accepting patients with severe symptoms beginning Saturday night, state media reported.
Wuhan officials had initially asked all but the most ill patients to stay home in recent weeks due to a shortage of hospital beds, but on Saturday Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, the leader of a central government response group, ordered local officials to “take in everyone that should be taken in” to newly established facilities to quarantine confirmed cases.
[Hundreds of miles from Hubei, additional 30 million Chinese are in coronavirus lockdown]
But risks remain inside medical facilities. Doctors from Wuhan’s Zhongnan Hospital reported that 41 percent of coronavirus patients at their hospital became infected while inside the hospital by other patients and medical staff. The doctors announced their findings in a paper published by the Journal of the American Medical Association on Friday.
At another hospital, the Wuhan Mental and Health Center, 50 patients and 30 medical staff were infected due to a lack of caution and protective gear, a doctor, Zhao Ping, told China Newsweek magazine.
Hubei deputy governor Cao Guangjing said Saturday that hospitals in the province only had 80 percent of the masks they required.
Stringer
Reuters
A man wearing a face mask shops for vegetables inside a fresh food store in Wuhan, Hubei province, China Fe. 8, 2020.
One month after patients began surging into area hospitals, many increasingly sick and desperate households say they still cannot secure care and fear time is running out.
Li Lina, a resident in the Hanyang district, beat a gong and shrieked from her high-rise balcony this weekend to beg for help for her and her stricken mother holed up at home. A neighbor filmed her cries and uploaded it to the Internet, where it went viral.
Reached by telephone on Sunday, Li explained that her mother’s condition was steadily worsening but she has not been able to secure a hospital bed since Jan. 29, because city regulations allow only confirmed coronavirus patients to get spots.
Li was finally able to administer a nucleic acid test on Friday; the result returned positive for coronavirus but ambiguous. Doctors gave her mother a second exam and Li is waiting for the result to arrive Tuesday.
“I don’t even know if she’ll hold out that long,” Li said as she tended to her mother, who is too feeble to speak and communicates by ringing a bell. “I feel helpless. I can’t watch my mother die.”
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2020-02-09 13:17:00Z
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Two US service members killed in insider attack in Afghanistan | TheHill - The Hill
Two U.S. service members were killed on Saturday when someone wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on them with a machine gun, according to multiple reports.
Six other U.S. service members were injured in the insider attack in Nangahar province, officials said.
“Current reports indicate an individual in an Afghan uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun,” Colonel Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said a statement, according to Reuters.
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“We are still collecting information," he said, adding that the motive behind the attack is unknown.
Officials also said that U.S. and Afghan military personnel were targeted while conducting an operation, The Associated Press noted.
The gunman was killed, a member of Nangarhar’s provincial council told the AP.
An unidentified Afghan defense ministry official also said the shooter was an Afghan soldier who had earlier argued with the U.S. forces, the news service reported, adding that the official said the gunman was not a Taliban infiltrator.
Officials said Afghan troops were also killed in the incident, but details on those casualties were not released.
During a surprise Thanksgiving visit to U.S. forces in Afghanistan, President Trump
Donald John Trump Biden says Buttigieg is 'not a Barack Obama' on NH campaign trail Democrats make final pitch at rowdy NH political spectacle Pelosi: Vindman ouster is 'shameful' MORE announced the resumption of peace talks with the Taliban after negotiations broke down earlier last year.
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2020-02-09 12:53:38Z
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Coronavirus updates: Number of confirmed cases drops disease's epicenter, China confirms - NBC News
• Deaths in mainland China go up to 811, confirmed cases reach more than 37,100
• Chinese authorities warn about use of masks
• Passengers, crew of quarantined cruise ship in Hong Kong are allowed to disembark
• Four passengers on cruise ship docked in New Jersey test negative for novel coronavirus
• Videos appears to show people forcibly taken for quarantine in China
• Six more coronavirus cases confirmed on cruise ship off Japan; total at 70
Coronavirus deaths in mainland China rise to 811, surpass SARS fatalities
The number of deaths from novel coronavirus in mainland China increased to 811 Sunday, health officials with China’s National Health Commission said.
This exceeds the number of deaths reported from the SARS outbreak in 2003, which killed 774 people, according to the World Health Organization.
Outside of China, two people died from the disease in the last two week, one in the Philippines and one in Hong Kong, bringing total number of global deaths to at least 813.
As of Sunday, more than 37,198 confirmed cases have been reported on mainland China.
However, officials at China's National Health Commission said the number of confirmed cases reported daily in provinces other than Hubei — the region in central China were the virus is believed to have originated — has dropped from 890 on Feb. 3 to 509 on Feb. 8 — a decrease of nearly 43 percent.
They said this indicated "that preventative and control measures such as joint prevention, control mechanisms and strict management are being implemented and they are effective.” — Leou Chen, Yuliya Talmazan and Reuters
Chinese authorities warn about use of masks
Officials with China’s National Development and Reform Commission warned against “excessive and improper” use of protective masks.
The demand for respiratory masks has surged in China during the outbreak.
“With regard to the use of masks, we once again propose that you use them scientifically,” said Chen Da, deputy director of economic and trade department at the state body.
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“Avoid excessive and improper use and save mask resources,” he added.
The World Health Organization has also advised “rational use of medical masks” to avoid “unnecessary wastage of precious resources and potential mis-use of masks.”
The organization advised using masks only if one has respiratory symptoms (coughing or sneezing) or is caring for someone with suspected infection. — Leou Chen and Yuliya Talmazan
Passengers, crew of quarantined cruise ship in Hong Kong allowed to leave
Hong Kong health officials said Sunday all passengers and crew members aboard a cruise ship that has been in quarantine in Hong Kong over fears of coronavirus spread aboard can now leave the ship.
"With the help of the cruise company and people on board, the Health Department already completed sample collection yesterday,” said Leung Yiu-hung, chief port health officer from Hong Kong’s health ministry.
"The results show that all people on board are negative to coronavirus tests,” Leung said, adding that all passengers and crew members are allowed to disembark.
Feb. 6, 202001:12
Earlier this week, Hong Kong’s health ministry said three people who tested positive were on board the ship during a previous voyage that took place between Jan. 19 and 24.
That prompted a mass health screening of the 3,600 passengers and crew members on board. — Jasmine Leung
Four passengers on cruise ship docked in New Jersey test negative
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy confirmed Sunday four passengers from a cruise ship docked in Bayonne tested negative for novel coronavirus.
Royal Caribbean said Saturday that the departure of its Anthem of the Seas cruise from New Jersey will be delayed another two days, until Monday, to allow continued testing of passengers from the ship's prior cruise.
When the ship returned to Bayonne, New Jersey, on Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention boarded the vessel to screen 27 passengers who had recently traveled from mainland China.
Four of those passengers were taken to a hospital for evaluation and tested negative. Another 23 people were to return to China.
“New Jersey currently has no confirmed cases of novel coronavirus and the risk to residents remains low,” Murphy said. — Phil McCausland and Yuliya Talmazan
Videos appears to show people forcibly taken for quarantine in China
Two videos have surfaced on social media that appear to show people in China being taken into quarantine over the coronavirus.
Posted to Twitter on Friday, one of them showed several people wearing white protective suits apparently forcibly removing three people from an apartment. One of the people appeared to struggled before they were led away.
The video was taken in the city of Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, at the home of a family who had returned from Hubei Province, according to The Associated Press, citing a report Wednesday in the official provincial media outlet, Jiangsu Communication Broadcasting Station.
A second video posted to Twitter Thursday, appeared to show two people hugging in the city of Suzhou, also in Jiangsu Province. One of them was then escorted into what looks like an isolation container on the back of a government vehicle.
It's unclear when either video was filmed. — Minyvonne Burke, Suzanne Ciechalski, Leou Chen and Dawn Liu
Six more coronavirus cases confirmed on cruise ship off Japan; total at 70
Six more people aboard a cruise ship quarantined in Japan have tested positive for novel coronavirus, bringing the total on the Diamond Princess to 70, Japan’s health ministry said Sunday.
The ministry said there were foreigners among the six newly confirmed cases, but their nationalities were not disclosed.
Feb. 8, 202002:28
Earlier this week, 13 American passengers were confirmed to have the virus, along with people from Japan, Canada, Australia and other countries.
About 3,700 passengers and crew are aboard the ship, but those who tested positive were taken to hospitals.
The Diamond Princess was quarantined off Yokohama and testing was conducted on 336 passengers after a man who had been on the ship last month was later confirmed to have the virus.
Princess Cruises, the company that owns the ship, said in a statement Saturday the ship has received more medication, which is being distributed based on medical and urgent priority.
Telephone access with trained counselors has also been arranged for guests experiencing mental stress, the company said.
The quarantine is expected to last until Feb. 19.— Arata Yamamoto and Phil Helsel
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2020-02-09 11:32:00Z
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Two U.S. Service Members Killed in Eastern Afghanistan - The Wall Street Journal
Afghan soldiers on patrol in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on Sunday.
Photo: ghulamullah habibi/ShutterstockKABUL—An Afghan soldier killed two American service members and wounded six other U.S. military personnel in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.
The incident occurred in Nangarhar province, an area where U.S. and Afghan forces have been fighting both Taliban and Islamic State fighters. Nangarhar is considered one of the more dangerous areas in the country.
“Current reports indicate an individual in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on the combined U.S. and Afghan force with a machine gun,” said Col. Sonny Leggett, a spokesman for the U.S. command in Afghanistan early Sunday.
Ajmal Omar, deputy chief of the Nangarhar provincial council, said both American and Afghan forces were visiting an army base in Sherzad district on Saturday afternoon when an Afghan soldier opened fire on American troops. American soldiers then killed the shooter, he added.
Another member of the provincial council, Obaidullah Shinwari, said the attack was caused by a verbal argument between the two sides.
Six injured U.S. service members are receiving medical treatment at a U.S. facility, Col. Leggett said in a statement Sunday. He added that the incident is under investigation and “the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time.”
In accordance with Pentagon policy, the service members killed in the incident weren’t identified.
More than 2,400 troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.
Saturday’s attack comes as the Trump administration struggles to determine the way forward in the war, now in its 18th year. Mr. Trump has sought to end so-called endless wars, including in Afghanistan, but the Pentagon still maintains about 13,000 troops there.
Officials have worked toward a peace agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban, but the path remains elusive and such talks, which restarted in December, haven’t made substantive progress, officials said.
Regardless of the outcome of that process, Mr. Trump has vowed to reduce the number of American forces in Afghanistan, and officials have said the initial reduction could bring home as many as 4,000 troops, leaving a total of about 8,600 troops on the ground there.
—Gordon Lubold and Nancy A. Youssef contributed to this article
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2020-02-09 10:53:00Z
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Thailand shooting spree leaves 26 dead, 57 wounded, officials say; suspect is fatally shot - Fox News
NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand — A soldier with a grudge gunned down 26 people and wounded 57 in Thailand's worst shooting spree before he was fatally shot inside a mall in the country's northeast on Sunday, officials said.
Officials said the soldier was angry over a financial dispute, first killing two people on a military base and then went on a far bloodier rampage Saturday, shooting as he drove to the mall where shoppers fled in terror.
It took police sharpshooters 16 hours to end the crisis.
Authorities said Sgt. Maj. Jakrapanth Thomma was behind the attack in Nakhon Ratchasima, a hub for Thailand’s relatively poorer and rural northeastern region. Much of the shooting took place at Terminal 21 Korat, an airport-themed mall filled with colorful Lego sculptures, a merry-go-round and huge replicas of landmarks from around the world.
Medics carry a stretcher towards Terminal 21 Korat mall as commando soldiers work the scene of a shooting at the mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020. (Associated Press)
“This incident was unprecedented in Thailand,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters as he gave the final tally Sunday morning after visiting the wounded in hospitals.
"I hope this is the only one and the last incident, and that it never happens again. No one wants this to happen. It could be because of this person's mental health in this particular moment,” he said.
"This incident was unprecedented in Thailand. I hope this is the only one and the last incident, and that it never happens again."
Prayuth said he was worried that people inside the mall could be accidentally hit by bullets fired by police, but added, "I have checked, that didn’t happen.”
A relative of a victim in the mass shooting is comforted outside the emergency room iwhere victims are being treated in Korat, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020. (Associated Press)
Video taken outside the mall showed people diving for cover as shots rang out mid-afternoon Saturday. Many were killed outside the mall, some in cars, others while walking.
Nattaya Nganiem and her family had just finished eating and were driving away when she heard gunfire.
“First I saw a woman run out from the mall hysterically,” said Nattaya, who shot video of the scene on her phone. “Then a motorcycle rider in front of her just ran and left his motorcycle there.”
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the mall in small batches by police while they searched for the gunman.
"We were scared and ran to hide in toilets," said Sumana Jeerawattanasuk, one of those rescued by police. She said seven or eight people hid in the same room as her.
"I am so glad. I was so scared of getting hurt," she said.
"We were scared and ran to hide in toilets. I am so glad [to be safe]. I was so scared of getting hurt."
Shortly before midnight, police announced they had secured the above-ground portion of the mall, but were still searching for the shooter. About 16 hours later, officials held a news conference outside the mall to announce the gunman was fatally shot.
Defense Ministry spokesman Kongcheep told Thai media that the first person killed was the commanding officer of the 22nd Ammunition Battalion, in which the suspect also served. He said the gunman had fired at others at his base and took guns and ammunition before fleeing in an army Humvee.
Bullet holes mark the glass wall of the Terminal 21 Korat mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020. (Associated Press)
City and neighborhood police officers, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to release information, said the man fired shots as he drove to the mall. Thai Rath television aired mall security camera footage showing a man with what appeared to be an assault rifle.
The man also posted updates to his Facebook page during the rampage.
"No one can escape death," read one post. Another asked, “Should I give up?" In a later post, he wrote, “I have stopped already.”
A photo circulated on social media that appeared to be taken from the Facebook page shows a man wearing a green camouflaged military helmet while a fireball and black smoke rage behind him. Jakrapanth’s profile picture shows him in a mask and dressed in military-style fatigues and armed with a pistol. The background image is of a handgun and bullets. The Facebook page was made inaccessible after the shooting began.
Terminal 21 Korat, a multi-level glass and steel mall, is designed to resemble an airport terminal, complete with a mock control tower and departure gates. A large model passenger jet dangles from wires beside one of the main escalators.
Each of its seven retail floors is decorated to represent a different country. A giant replica of Paris’ Eiffel Tower soars to the ceiling, while a model of London’s Big Ben dominates another area, and a massive model of California’s Golden Gate Bridge spans an open courtyard. A two-story golden Oscar statue towers over a food court.
Armed commando soldiers shout for ambulance outside Terminal 21 Korat mall in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020. (Associated Press)
Many malls in Thailand, including Terminal 21’s namesake in Bangkok, have metal detectors and security cameras at entrances manned by uniformed but unarmed security guards. Checks on those entering are often cursory at best.
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In Bangkok, the original Terminal 21 in the bustling heart of the city was filled with shoppers as usual Sunday morning. There were no signs of increased security or commemoration of the tragedy that unfolded a few hours’ drive away.
Gun violence is not unheard of in Thailand. Firearms can be obtained legally, and many Thais own guns. Mass shootings are rare, though there are occasional gun battles in the far south of the country, where authorities have for years battled a long-running separatist insurgency.
The incident in Korat comes just a month after another high-profile mall shooting, in the central Thai city of Lopburi. In that case, a masked gunman carrying a handgun with a silencer killed three people, including a 2-year-old boy, and wounded four others as he robbed a jewelry store. A suspect, a school director, was arrested less than two weeks later and reportedly confessed, saying he did not mean to shoot anyone.
Vejpongsa reported from Bangkok. Associated Press journalists Grant Peck, Preeyapa T. Khunsong and Adam Schreck contributed to this report.
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2020-02-09 09:22:35Z
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