Cincunri Sakia

Jumat, 15 Mei 2020

Smugglers stealing boats to transport migrants across channel - Sky News

It wasn't easy getting to our vantage point.

Climbing up steep and deep sand dunes in the black of the night, unable to use torches or lights for fear of alerting anyone on the beach below us.

At the top, we have a clear view of a cluster of small wooden beach huts along the shore near Calais.

We'd heard the locks on three of the huts had been prised open in the last few hours and our local contact - a fisherman who knows this coastline like the back of his hand - is sure what that means. Smugglers are preparing to launch migrants on their way to the UK.

He tell us the huts are used by the smugglers to hide inflatables, outboard motors and often migrants themselves ahead of any trip. And we wait and watch in silence to see who and what may turn up in the coming hours.

And then we see torchlight. Not one beam, but multiple beams of light moving around the huts.

On his long lens, our cameraman soon confirms this will not be a successful night for the smugglers. Those torches are in the hands of the Border Force and police officers who also had been informed about the break-ins.

They scour the area fanning out along the beach. And then the torchlight heads towards us. We are soon surrounded by officers demanding to know who we are, insisting on seeing our paperwork and passports.

They escort us down to check our vehicles and authenticity. An hour later they are satisfied and we are free to go.

The checks and the night's operation are part of a fresh push to crack down on cross-Channel migrant operations being partly financed by the UK.

A helicopter is on standby along the coast in case any boats had launched.

But it is an ongoing struggle for the authorities around Calais. Record numbers of attempts have taken place in recent weeks - and as we drive away in the early hours of the morning, we see for ourselves the difficulties the police face.

We pass three young men on bicycles heading towards another section of beach. We follow them after our contact tells us they are migrants he recognises.

They get off their bikes and walk a distance. We watch, hidden again in the darkness as the men wait. For what? For stolen boats, we are told by our contact.

The migrants are the middlemen between the smugglers and those now paying about £3,000 a head to get a seat on a boat heading to England. Perhaps because of the police activity, no boats turn up while we were there.

But there is plenty of demand for the smuggler's illegal trade. In our time in Calais, we met migrants from Iran and Afghanistan who had already handed over the money and were heading for the location they had been told to go to.

No specific date had been given. They were simply told to be ready for the green light. The dangers of crossing the Channel - often with as many as 20 people in an inflatable RIB designed for eight - are no deterrent.

Nor indeed is the prospect of being caught and sent back. They were prepared to take the risk anyway.

But such a lucrative operation demands a constant supply of equipment and is fuelling crime in Calais.

Boats, RIBs and motors have been stolen from the harbour - the smugglers even more brazen during the lockdown with fewer people out.

In the last month, they've even targeted the very equipment used to save migrants who get into difficulty during their cross-Channel attempts.

Close to the harbour is the headquarters of the coastal rescue. The windows are boarded up and grills have been placed on the equipment stores after three break-ins in just over a month.

Lifeguard Lucy Gambart takes us inside and tells us five of their inflatable RIBs have been stolen, 14 marine radios, life jackets and medical kits including defibrillators.

She holds up a picture on a phone showing one of their RIBs now in England. She has no idea who has possession of it or who the boat transported to the UK.

The smugglers, she says, are risking lives. Sending people on a dangerous journey and denying them the resources to save them if they get into trouble.

The French and UK governments may be committing more equipment and effort into fighting the cross-Channel illegal trade but from what we saw it won't be easy.

There are plenty of people still determined to make it to England and plenty of smugglers willing to make vast sums by taking advantage of them.

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2020-05-15 15:07:41Z
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China may have 640,000 coronavirus cases, leaked data suggests - Daily Mail

China may have 640,000 coronavirus cases instead of 84,000, leaked data from country's military-run university suggests

China has officially reported 84,029 cases of coronavirus and 4,673 deaths
But doubt remains over the figures amid criticism for a lack of transparency
Database leaked from Chinese university suggests true toll could be far higher
Table contains 640,000 entries from at least 230 cities - suggesting actual case total could be in six figures
Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline

Published: 14:07 BST, 15 May 2020 | Updated: 14:48 BST, 15 May 2020

China may have logged hundreds of thousands more cases of coronavirus than it is publicly admitting to, new data leaked from a university suggests.

Officially, the country has reported just 84,029 cases of the virus but there has been widespread skepticism over this figure amid a lack of transparency from Beijing.

But now, a database leaked from the National University of Defence Technology in the city of Changsha suggests the country could have 640,000 cases.

China may have suffered 640,00 cases of coronavirus - far higher than the country's official death toll, leaked data suggests

The information comes from a database leaked to Foreign Policy and 100 Reporters, which carried out a brief analysis of the information it contains.

They say the dataset contains 640,000 individual entries taken from at least 230 cities spread across the country.

Each entry contains latitude, longitude, and 'confirmed' number of cases at the location on a specific date, which range from early February to late April.

The locations include hospitals but also apartment compounds, hotels, supermarkets, railway stations, restaurants, schools and even a branch of KFC.

Assuming that each entry contains at least one case, that would mean at least 640,000 cases of the virus which have been recorded.

The number could also be far higher. A single data entry outlined by those with access to the database contains two cases of the virus, reported at a church in the city of Harbin on March 17.

The number could also be lower. Reporters say it is not clear how the data was gathered - although the university website says it used a range of public resources.

A dataset from the National University of Defence Technology (pictured) has 640,000 entries charting coronavirus cases across the country, potentially suggesting 640,000 cases

It is also not clear why data was taken from specific locations on particular dates.

Inconsistencies in data gathering methods means it is possible that single cases could have been counted several times, skewing the figures.

The data set also does not make it clear what was classified as a 'confirmed' case of the virus, which had led to discrepancies in reporting in other countries.

Since no names or identifying details were included with the data, both Foreign Policy and 100Reporters said it has been impossible to verify any of the cases.

MailOnline has not seen the dataset, which has not been released publicly.

Despite its shortcomings, the existence of such a large database will add to existing suspicions that China is not being honest about its virus toll.

China, like most other countries, has struggled to provide accurate data on a disease that has spread across the world rapidly, especially since scientists believe up to 80 per cent of those who catch it may have no or mild symptoms.

But allegations against Beijing go further, namely that it has deliberately covered up figures in an attempt to convince world leaders it out-performed them in terms of its response - or to buy time to stockpile PPE and medicines before the virus spread.

The US Centers for Disease Control refused to comment to Foreign Policy and 100reporters, while the WHO said it was unaware such a database existed.

China has officially reported just 84,029 cases of the virus - though widespread doubt has been cast on this figure (file image)

Since the first cases of the virus were recorded around a wet market in the city of Wuhan in December last year, coronavirus has swept across the globe.

As of Friday, 4.4million cases of the virus had been confirmed worldwide and more than 300,000 people had died from the disease it causes, official figures showed.

However, both figures are believed to widely under-estimate the true scale of the virus because of widespread problems with testing.

The virus has forced most major nations to enact unprecedented and sweeping lockdown measures which have largely confined people to their homes for the last several months.

Countries, including China, are only just starting to emerge from those lockdowns, amid fears of a second - more serious - spike in infections and deaths.

Some hope has been offered by the development of reliable antibody tests that can detect whether a person has ever had the virus, potentially offering the first comprehensive look at how many cases there were in the world.

A vaccine being developed at Oxford University has also shown promising results in rhesus monkeys by stopping the virus penetrating deep into their lungs, where it can be fatal.

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2020-05-15 14:06:24Z
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Baby SURVIVES after being shot twice in ISIS maternity ward massacre - Daily Mail

Baby SURVIVES after being shot twice in ISIS maternity ward massacre that claimed the lives of 24 people including mothers, nurses and newborns

Three gunmen stormed maternity unit in Afghan capital on Tuesday morning
At least two newborns were among those shot dead by the attackers
Surviving newborn whose mother was killed was operated on after being shot
The little girl, named Nazia after her mother, was shot twice in the leg
She and her mother came under attack just three hours after she was born

By Harry Howard For Mailonline and Kate Dennett For Mailonline

Published: 10:46 BST, 15 May 2020 | Updated: 11:06 BST, 15 May 2020

A baby which was shot twice in the leg during an attack on a Kabul maternity unit which killed 24 people including mothers, nurses and newborns has survived.

Three gunmen, suspected to be members of terror group ISIS, entered the building in the Afghan capital dressed as police officers before throwing grenades and opening fire with rifles on Tuesday.

At least two of those shot dead were newborn babies and 15 men, women and children were injured. The attackers were later shot dead.

But one of the newborns, who was born just three hours before the attack, survived after doctors operated on her shattered right leg, the Times reported.

A baby which was shot twice in the leg during an attack on a Kabul maternity unit which killed 24 people including mothers, nurses and newborns has survived

Three gunmen entered the building in the Afghan capital dressed as police officers before throwing grenades and opening fire with rifles on Tuesday. Pictured: A surviving baby is carried out of the wrecked building by a soldier

She was among several of the surviving babies which have been taken to be cared for at the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul.

Her mother, Nazia, died in the attack and the newborn was given the same name by her father Rafiullah after he had laid his wife to rest.

Dr Noor ul-Haq Yousafzai, a director at the hospital, told the Times: 'We set Nazia's fracture, so she will be able to walk when she grows up.'

'But to see a newborn baby, just three hours old, shot twice. Everyone is shocked. This is inhuman.'

It comes after an Afghan mother volunteered to breastfeed 20 of the surviving newborns after their mothers were killed and injured in the attack on the Doctors Without Borders maternity unit.

At least two of those shot dead were newborn babies and 15 men, women and children were injured. The attackers were later shot dead

But one of the newborns, who was born just three hours before the attack, survived after doctors operated on her 'shattered' right leg

Feroza Younis Omar, who is the mother of a 14-month-old child and works at the country's Economic Ministry, is helping the recovering newborns at Ataturk Hospital in Kabul.

She said: 'All of us have been damaged by criminals who are destroying humanity in Afghanistan. I am one of those.'

After storming the maternity unity, the gunmen then got into a shootout with security forces which ended several hours later when all three were shot dead.

A lengthy clearance operation saw heavily armed Afghan security forces carry babies from the scene - at least one wrapped in a blood-soaked blanket.

Khadija, one of the few survivors of the attack, revealed that she had been forced to wait to hug her newborn son for the first time as the armed group stormed the unit just hours after she gave birth.

It comes after Afghan mother Feroza Younis Omar (pictured) volunteered to breastfeed 20 of the surviving newborns after their mothers were killed and injured in the attack on the Doctors Without Borders maternity unit

The mother(pictured), who works at the country's Economic Ministry, has a 14-month-old child and is breastfeeding babies who were in the maternity unit targeted by gunmen on Tuesday

She said the intensive care ward had been full of smoke and bullets but both she and her son survived, with Khadija herself having to hide under a table to avoid the bullets.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but President Ashraf Ghani blamed both the Taliban and the Islamic State group but singled out the former and ordered the military to switch tactics from 'defensive to offensive' when dealing with the insurgents.

The Taliban has responded by warning it is 'fully prepared' to counter Afghan forces.

Following the attack, at least twenty newborns were left without caretakers and were transferred to the Ataturk Hospital in Kabul.

Pictured, a nurse cares for a newborn baby who survived the attack. At least twenty newborns were left without caretakers. Some were transferred to the Ataturk Hospital in Kabul while others are being cared for at the city's Indira Gandhi's Children's Hospital

An Afghan mother feeds a newborn baby at the Ataturk Hospital in Kabul

On Wednesday, the families of around 15 babies, whose mothers were killed, were awaiting news on what will happen to the children, according to the New York Times.

The hospital's head doctor Jannat Gul Askarzada told reporters: 'Twenty babies have been brought to Ataturk Hospital. One of them was sent to the children's health hospital for orthopedic treatment.'

As the news hit the headlines in Afghanistan, many people took to Twitter to praise Feroza Younis Omar for her efforts and a hashtag bearing her name went viral.

'Masoom Musakhail' tweeted: 'That is the Humanity to feed the baby of martyred Mothers.'

On Wednesday, the families of around 15 babies, whose mothers were killed, were awaiting news on what will happen to the children. Pictured, a rescued mother and her newborn baby receive medical attention

Meanwhile, Senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment 'Karim Sadjadpour' called the mother 'a true hero'.

Others have now stepped forward to lead by her example and assist families involved in the attack.

Aziza Kermani, from Kabul, told local media: 'I am ready to adopt one of the babies who have lost their mother or whose families do not have the financial ability to raise them.'

Meanwhile, another resident of the capital who only gave her name as Fatima told a local outlet that she came to the hospital to help the children.

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2020-05-15 11:38:19Z
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Baby SURVIVES after being shot twice in ISIS maternity ward massacre - Daily Mail

Baby SURVIVES after being shot twice in ISIS maternity ward massacre that claimed the lives of 24 people including mothers, nurses and newborns

Three gunmen stormed maternity unit in Afghan capital on Tuesday morning
At least two newborns were among those shot dead by the attackers
Surviving newborn whose mother was killed was operated on after being shot
The little girl, named Nazia after her mother, was shot twice in the leg
She and her mother came under attack just three hours after she was born