Category: Judicial

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic has rejected accusations that four of its personnel who were arrested Monday were engaged in suspicious activity. The C.A.R.’s public prosecutor said the four men, arrested at the airport shortly before the arrival of the country’s president, were heavily armed.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSCA, is demanding the release of the four peacekeepers, all French soldiers.

C.A.R. authorities have not filed any charges against the men, but the country’s public prosecutor said on national radio that an investigation is open on the case.

He said the four men “were arrested aboard a suspicious vehicle… carrying a heavy military arsenal.”

Right after the arrest, messages on social media accused the peacekeepers of planning to assassinate C.A.R. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, whose plane was about to land at the airport.

MINUSCA spokesperson Vladimir Monteiro dismissed the accusations during a press conference on Wednesday.

“We have nothing to hide, he said. MINUSCA is here as a partner, as a friend. What’s said on social media is disinformation,” he said. “MINUSCA regrets the incident of Monday, February 21st and condemns again the intent to manipulate public opinion and firmly rejects the accusations of attacking state security.”

The four military personnel remain in police custody, but they are being treated well, says a source at the U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The C.A.R. government has refused to comment the case.

Source: Voice of America

South Africa is sending fresh troops and armored vehicles to Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province as part of efforts to fight Islamic State-connected insurgents.

The deployment is part of the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) military intervention, which started in July last year.

More than 3,000 SADC and Rwandan troops have been sent to Mozambique to fight against Islamic State-connected insurgents. The conflict has claimed more than three thousand lives and displaced 800,000 people.

The South African National Defense Force’s spokesperson Brigadier-General Andries Mahapa says the fresh troops will be deployed soon.

“We are just confirming the mode of transport. It could be air, land or sea. Remember in terms of security we cannot come out straight to say we are coming through by land or so forth. So that will compromise us. But we are combat ready to deploy,” said Mahapa.

The joint force is known as the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique or SAMIM.

Willem Els, security analyst and counter terrorism trainer from the Institute of Security Studies, says to this point South Africa has mainly sent special forces to Mozambique.

He says that will change with the latest deployment.

“They now are sending in some mechanized infantry, they sending in some para-bats. They sending in some of your path finder troops as well as well as some of the special forces so it is a more balanced sort of contingent that is moving in to go and stabilize the situation even further,” he said.

Other SADC members with forces in Mozambique include Botswana, Lesotho, Angola, and Zambia.

Rwanda deployed a separate force on the invitation of Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi. It’s believed Rwanda is being backed by the French government as French energy company TotalEnergies SE has a huge gas concession in Cabo Delgado.

Els says the multiplicity of forces can make things complicated.

“You have the SAMIM forces deployed, then you have the Mozambican forces deployed along with them, then you have the Rwandan forces you know your chances of friendly fire are quite high if you have an area operation that overflows, etc. So fortunately, that has not happened as yet and we also notice that some real effort has been put in, in terms of SAMIM and the Rwandan forces to better coordinate and cooperate in terms of their operations,” said Els.

Asked whether the force has been successful, military spokesman Mahapa had this to say.

“The force under the current situation they are doing fairly well. Remember that it is not only South Africans. So we are as SAMIM forces there are successes that we are achieving. The insurgents are withdrawing. We are gaining ground,” he said.

Els says besides the military intervention efforts must also be made to make the people of northern Mozambique feel like they are being taken care of by their government. Otherwise, he says, they’re ripe for recruitment by the insurgents.

Source: Voice of America

U.S. consumer prices jumped 7% in December compared to a year earlier, the highest inflation rate in 40 years, the government’s Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Higher prices coursed throughout the U.S. economy in 2021, with the biggest increases since 1982. The annualized jump in December was up from the 6.8% figure in November and was a half-percentage point gain over the course of a month.

Analysts say robust consumer demand collided with coronavirus-related supply shortages, pushing up prices over the year for big ticket items like cars and furniture, but more importantly for must-buy, everyday purchases like food and gasoline for motorists.

Despite the year-over-year inflation surge, President Joe Biden said the report “shows a meaningful reduction in headline inflation over last month, with gas prices and food prices falling.”

He said it “demonstrates that we are making progress in slowing the rate of price increases. At the same time, this report underscores that we still have more work to do, with price increases still too high and squeezing family budgets.”

The rapidly rising costs for consumers have caught the attention of the White House and policy makers at the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, even as they say they expect inflation to remain high throughout 2022.

In November, Biden called for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate “mounting evidence of anti-consumer behavior by oil and gas companies.” The Fed is signaling new efforts to rein in inflation by ending its direct financial support of the economy in March, sooner than originally planned, and to increase its benchmark interest rate that influences borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a congressional committee Tuesday that getting prices down to more stable levels was key to ensure a lasting recovery from the pandemic.

“If inflation does become too persistent, if these high levels of inflation become too entrenched in the economy or people’s thinking, that will lead to much tighter monetary policy from us, and that could lead to a recession and that would be bad for workers,” Powell told lawmakers.

For consumers, inflation is often more of a daily fact of life than other aspects of the American economy that have recovered smartly since the coronavirus pandemic first swept into the U.S. in March 2020.

The U.S. economy added a record-setting 6.4 million jobs last year, the unemployment rate dropped from 6.3% in January to 3.9% in December and rank-and-file workers’ hourly paychecks rose by 5.8%. Government assistance checks sent to all but the wealthiest American households helped many families.

But prices consumers paid rose markedly.

Government statistics showed that gasoline prices paid by motorists at service stations were up 58% last year, while the price of used cars and trucks were up 31% and new vehicles by 11%.

Meat, poultry and fish prices were up 13%, furniture and bedding by nearly 12%. Fast-food and casual dining places raised their prices by nearly 8%.

Source: Voice of America

With more than two dozen states poised to ban abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court gives them the OK next year, California clinics and their allies in the state legislature on Wednesday revealed a plan to make the state a safe place for those seeking reproductive care, including possibly paying for travel, lodging and procedures for people from other states.

The California Future of Abortion Council, made up of more than 40 abortion providers and advocacy groups, released a list of 45 recommendations for the state to consider if the high court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 48-year-old decision that forbids states from outlawing abortion.

The recommendations are not just a liberal fantasy. Some of the state’s most important policymakers helped write them, including Toni Atkins, the San Diego Democrat who leads the state Senate and attended multiple meetings.

Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom started the group himself. In an interview last week with The Associated Press he said some of the report’s details would be included in his budget proposal in January.

“We’ll be a sanctuary,” Newsom said, adding he’s aware patients will likely travel to California from other states to seek abortions. “We are looking at ways to support that inevitability and looking at ways to expand our protections.”

California already pays for abortions for many low-income residents through the state’s Medicaid program. And California is one of six states that require private insurance companies to cover abortions, although many patients still end up paying deductibles and co-payments.

Enough money

But money won’t be a problem for state-funded abortion services for patients from other states. California’s coffers have soared throughout the pandemic, fueling a record budget surplus this year. Next year, the state’s independent Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts California will have a surplus of about $31 billion.

California’s affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, got a preview of how people might seek abortions outside their home states this year when a Texas law that outlawed abortion after six weeks of pregnancy was allowed to take effect. California clinics reported a slight increase in patients from Texas.

Now, California abortion providers are asking California to make it easier for those people to get to the state.

The report recommends funding — including public spending — to support patients seeking abortion for travel expenses such as gas, lodging, transportation and child care. It asks lawmakers to reimburse abortion providers for services to those who can’t afford to pay — including those who travel to California from other states whose income is low enough that they would qualify for state-funded abortions under Medicaid if they lived there.

It’s unclear how many people would come to California for abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. California does not collect or report abortion statistics. The Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, said 132,680 abortions were performed in California in 2017, or about 15% of all abortions nationally. That number includes people from out of state as well as teenagers, who are not required to have their parents’ permission for an abortion in California.

Planned Parenthood, which accounts for about half of California’s abortion clinics, said it served 7,000 people from other states last year.

A huge influx of people from other states “will definitely destabilize the abortion provider network,” said Fabiola Carrion, interim director for reproductive and sexual health at the national Health Law Program. She said out-of-state abortions would also likely be later-term procedures, which are more complicated and expensive.

More workers

The report asks lawmakers to help clinics increase their workforce to prepare for more patients by giving scholarships to medical students who pledge to offer abortion services in rural areas, help them pay off their student loans and assist with their monthly liability insurance premiums.

“We’re looking at how to build capacity and build workforce,” said Jodi Hicks, CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. “It will take a partnership and investment with the state.”

Abortion opponents in California, meanwhile, are also preparing for a potential surge of patients from other states seeking the procedure — only they hope to persuade them not to do it.

Jonathan Keller, president and CEO of the California Family Council, said California has about 160 pregnancy resource centers whose aim is to persuade women not to get abortions. He said about half of those centers are medical clinics, while the rest are faith-based counseling centers.

Many of the centers are located near abortion clinics in an attempt to entice people to seek their counseling before opting to end pregnancies. Keller said many are already planning on increasing their staffing if California gets more patients.

“Even if we are not facing any immediate legislative opportunities or legislative victories, it’s a reminder that the work of changing hearts and minds and also providing real support and resources to women facing unplanned pregnancies — that work will always continue,” Keller said.

He added: “In many ways, that work is going to be even more important, both in light of [the] Supreme Court’s decision and in light of whatever Sacramento decides they are going to do in response.”

Source: Voice of America

News outlets say the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is planning to spend $5 billion to purchase Pfizer’s new experimental antiviral pill designed to treat COVID-19, enough to cover 10 million courses of treatment.

The revelation comes a day after the U.S. drugmaker announced it had signed a deal with Geneva-based Medicines Patent Pool, a United Nations-backed public health group, to authorize generic drugmakers to produce its experimental COVID-19 pill for 95 countries.

The deal will make the pill available for low- and middle-income countries comprising about 53% of the world’s population.

Pfizer says its new pill, called Paxlovid, reduces the risks of hospitalization and death by nearly 90% in people with mild to moderate coronavirus cases. Independent experts recommended ending Pfizer’s study because of its encouraging results.

Tuesday’s agreement between Pfizer and the Medicines Patent Pool coincided with Pfizer’s application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize use of the drug on an emergency basis.

“It’s quite significant that we will be able to provide access to a drug that appears to be effective and has just been developed, to more than 4 billion people,” said the Medicines Patent Pool’s Esteban Burrone.

Yuanqiong Hu, a senior legal policy adviser at Doctors Without Borders, said the organization is disappointed the agreement does not make the pill available to all countries.

“The world knows by now that access to COVID-19 medical tools needs to be guaranteed for everyone, everywhere, if we really want to control this pandemic,” she said.

Pfizer will not receive payments on sales in low-income countries, where fewer than 1% of its COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided. It also will waive royalties on sales in all countries covered by the deal while COVID-19 remains a public health emergency.

The Medicines Patent Pool announced in October that another U.S. drugmaker, Merck, agreed to allow other companies to make its COVID-19 pill available in 105 poorer countries.

Merck says its antiviral pill reduces the risk of severe illness from COVID-19 by half when administered soon after the appearance of the first symptoms.

The Biden administration has pledged to spend about $2.2 billion to purchase about 3.1 million doses of Merck’s pill once it has been approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration. An FDA advisory panel will meet on November 30 to discuss Merck’s COVID-19 pill. British drug regulators granted authorization for Merck’s pill earlier this month.

Despite decisions by Pfizer and Merck to share their COVID-19 drug patents, Pfizer and other vaccine-makers have refused to release their vaccine formulas for broader production.

Source: Voice of America

Seats are once again packed at professional baseball games in South Korea. Just as in pre-pandemic times, fans can drink beer and eat fried chicken. They can clap their hands, stomp their feet, and wave inflatable noisemakers to support their team.

What they are not allowed to do, though, at least not yet, is shout or sing fight songs, a key feature of Korean baseball crowds.

“If you shout a lot, the virus will leak through your mask,” Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum pleaded with fans on a radio show this week, after crowds were seen as being too vocally supportive of their teams during tense playoff games.

It is a microcosm of how life is going in South Korea: basically, things are returning to normal, but they are not quite there yet.

Although South Korea never locked down during the coronavirus pandemic, it was never fully open either, especially as the country has battled a fourth wave of infections since July.

However, starting this week, the government rolled out the first step of its “living with COVID-19” plan. Bigger crowds can now gather in Seoul. Restaurants and cafes, including those that serve alcohol, are no longer subject to a nighttime curfew. Sports fans have returned to stadiums and arenas.

Barring setbacks, South Korea will phase out all social distancing rules by the end of February, two years after the country experienced one of the world’s first COVID-19 outbreaks.

South Korea’s COVID-19 approach has unquestionably been a success so far. It is one of very few countries to avoid both mass lockdowns and mass deaths.

Now, after outperforming its global peers at nearly every stage of the pandemic, South Korea hopes it can demonstrate how to live with COVID-19.

A cautious opening

For starters, few in South Korea are declaring victory. That is in contrast to countries such as the United States and Britain, where leaders announced independence from the virus and quickly eased social distancing, only to see the delta variant sweep through their populations, killing tens of thousands more in each country.

“The goal here is to set up a system where the government can relax the restrictions, but at the same time has criteria for moving back,” said Jerome Kim, director-general of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul.

There are good reasons for caution. Although over 75% of South Koreans are vaccinated, the number of daily confirmed COVID-19 cases has not fallen since the fourth wave began.

“We do, I think at this point, have a realization that the vaccines are doing what they’re supposed to do, which is preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death. But they don’t necessarily prevent infection,” Kim said.

Officials have repeatedly warned the opening up could be reversed. And they say some precautions, such as mandatory facemasks, may be around for the foreseeable future.

South Koreans seem receptive. According to a recent poll by Seoul National University, about 49% of South Koreans have mixed feelings about the loosened restrictions. Twenty-seven percent think it will be impossible to ever stop wearing masks, according to a survey by Gallup Korea.

Getting public support

Unlike many countries, South Korea has seen almost no domestic backlash to its pandemic approach.

Businesses largely complied with mandatory curfews. There has been no successful anti-vaccine movement. Virtually everyone wears masks, even when running alone outside on empty paths.

That public buy-in has been at the heart of South Korea’s COVID-19 success, according to public health experts. Not only has it given authorities more anti-pandemic tools, those tools are less coercive and more precise.

For instance, no vaccine mandates have been necessary; about 90% of adults have received the COVID-19 vaccine. Mass lockdowns, too, are unheard of; during the pandemic it has always been possible to go shopping or eat at a restaurant.

Perhaps the most invasive tool is South Korea’s system of contact tracing.

Using cellphone, credit card, and other personal data, authorities can quickly determine where those infected with COVID-19 have gone and who they may have contacted.

The contact tracing only became possible after South Korea’s National Assembly loosened privacy laws following a public outcry over the government’s handling of a deadly 2015 outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS.

“I think there are a number of choices that people here have made in order to have freedom, which is really what it is,” Kim said.

Moving ahead

As South Korea makes the transition toward living with the virus, it will continue to use many of those same tools, which have become a part of daily life.

Customers at every restaurant in Seoul are required to check in either via their phones or on a sign-up sheet at the counter. Temperature checks remain at the entrance of almost every business. Soon, electronic vaccine passes will be required to enter sporting events, concerts, and other large venues.

Some health experts caution that new standards may be necessary for defining COVID-19 success, though.

While many news outlets continue to focus on the number of confirmed daily cases, it will soon be important to pay attention to more meaningful measurements, such as the number of intensive care unit beds available or the number of serious illnesses.

“Even if there are 10,000 confirmed cases, it will still be more important to know the number of serious cases or what the fatality rate is,” said Chun Eun-mi, a respiratory disease specialist at Ewha Womans University Medical Center in Seoul.

Experts also warn inconsistencies may need to be addressed as authorities figure out the best path to follow.

During a previous round of social distancing, many South Korean newspapers mocked the strangely specific guidelines for Seoul fitness centers, which were prohibited from playing music with a tempo higher than 120 beats per minute. Joggers were also prevented from running faster than 6 kph on the treadmill.

More recently, Korean baseball fans are the ones questioning the rules against cheering. Why are they allowed to attend baseball games, they ask, but remain forbidden to vocally support their team?

South Korean officials insist that cheering may be allowed during future rounds of opening up.

For now, South Korea’s prime minister asked fans, “please reduce your shouts by just a little.”

Source: Voice of America