Six In The Morning Saturday 15 February 2020

Coronavirus: First death confirmed in Europe

A Chinese tourist has died in France after contracting the new coronavirus - the first fatality from the disease outside Asia.

The victim was an 80-year-old man from China's Hubei province, according to French Health Minister Agnès Buzyn.

He arrived in France on 16 January and was placed in quarantine in hospital in Paris on 25 January, she said.

Only three deaths had previously been reported outside mainland China - in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan.

However, more than 1,500 people have died from the virus within China, mostly in Hubei where it first emerged.

Australia's offshore detention is unlawful, says international criminal court prosecutor

Treatment of refugees and asylum seekers ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading’, but does not warrant prosecution, ICC office says

Ben Doherty

 @bendohertycorro

Australia’s offshore detention regime is a “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” and unlawful under international law, the international criminal court’s prosecutor has said.

But the office of the prosecutor has stopped short of deciding to prosecute the Australian government, saying that while the imprisonment of refugees and asylum seekers formed the basis of a crime against humanity, the violations did not rise to the level to warrant further investigation.

In a letter to the independent MP for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, the office of the ICC prosecutor said conditions in the Australian-run camps on Nauru and PNG’s Manus Island were dangerous and harsh, and an “environment rife with sporadic acts of physical and sexual violence committed by staff at the facilities”.

'It’s gonna ruin my lifestyle': Trump supporter upset border wall being built on his property

'To have that wall there is just going to really disturb me'

Graig Graziosi

A supporter of Donald Trump is frustrated that the president’s border wall is going to “ruin his lifestyle.”

Richard Drawe has lived and worked on a farm south of Welasco, Texas for his entire life. Now, he’s worried his tranquil country living will be disrupted by Mr Trump’s border wall. 

“I’m 70 years old and it’s gonna ruin my lifestyle here of living in the country,” he said. “To have that wall there is just going to really disturb me.”

The summit that didn’t end the war

Ukraine and Russia, still frozen

The recent Paris summit revived hopes that conflict would end in the Donbass; despite some de-escalation and gestures, the situation is very far from settled.

by Igor Delanoë

The ‘Normandy format’ summit in Paris in December between France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia was the first in three years, and was meant to end the conflict in Ukraine between government forces and the pro-Russian self-proclaimed republics of the Donbass region. It was the result of a diplomatic initiative last summer by France’s president Emmanuel Macron, and facilitated by the election of Volodymyr Zelensky as Ukraine’s president last April. Zelensky’s victory (with 73% of the vote) over Petro Poroshenko was confirmed by an early parliamentary election in July, when his Servant of the People party won 43% and an absolute majority of seats in the Rada — the first since the introduction of the multi-party system in 1991. This strong mandate was a sign that voters expected great things of Zelensky, including the resolution of the Donbass conflict.

OPINION

Guest commentary: Declaration of moral bankruptcy in Idlib

The USA has largely withdrawn from Syria. Europe never really got involved. The consequences are terrible — for Europe itself, too, writes Rainer Hermann of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

A humanitarian catastrophe is taking place in Idlib, and the world is looking the other way. Photos like those taken towards the end of World War Two ought really to be a wake-up call: long treks of refugees moving northward through snow and frost to the Turkish border, where they hope to be saved. They have very few possessions still with them.

The Syrian regime, supported by Russian planes and pro-Iranian militias, is pursuing a scorched-earth strategy in Idlib. Helicopters drop barrel bombs on hospitals and schools, markets and homes. Large settlements have been depopulated and become ghost towns. The unmistakable message is: There will be no life here in future!

Dozens killed in attacks in central Mali

At least 31 civilians killed in attack on Ogossagou, the village that was targeted in a massacre last year.

At least 40 people, including nine soldiers, have been killed in a spate of attacks in central Mali, authorities said on Friday.

At least 31 civilians were killed in an attack overnight in Ogossagou, the government said, without saying who carried out the violence. Last March, 160 people died in the mostly Fulani village in a massacre blamed on Dogon militiamen.