Barbara Birungi Mutabazi has a vision: Train Ugandan women to code and do other technology work.”The beauty of this is that even if there are not enough jobs in Uganda, if you have the right skills, you can work for any organization around the world,” said Mutabazi, who runs Women in Technology, a skills-training organization in Uganda.Mutabazi recently attended the African Diaspora Investment Symposium to find investors and possible employers for the young women she trains. The event brought together entrepreneurs, investors and businesses to talk about the future of Africa business.”The African Diaspora Network is trying to bring Africans and friends of Africa together to collaborate, create and to imagine possibilities for the continent,” said Almaz Negash, the founder and executive director of the African Diaspora Network and the event’s organizer.One theme of the symposium was money — how to tap into the African diaspora to fund small, medium and large companies on the continent.’Scaling’ remittancesRemittances — money sent by people living in the U.S. to family in Africa — has long been a key way to support people. More than $40 billion in remittances goes to sub-Sahara Africa, mostly to Nigeria, Negash said. This is a powerful source of support for families, but some speakers wondered if there are other ways to help spur growth.”How do we scale remittances so that it can also be invested in other people than our family,” Negash said. “Supporting startups.”Another area of support could be to create a fund to help African entrepreneurs and businesses protect their intellectual property, said Joseph Mucheru, Google’s first sub-Sahara Africa lead and now a minister in the Kenyan government.An IP fundAfrican leaders need to find ways to attract investors and businesses “to invest and come in and work with our startups, protect our startups, ensure that the intellectual property that they build can be retained in the continent,” he said. For the roughly 50 African entrepreneurs attending the event, this was an opportunity to pitch their businesses. The kinds of businesses varied widely.Aboubacar Komara, an architect from Guinea, is working on a housing startup.
“We’re implicating people in the process of actually building their homes. You know, we want to change the concept of what is architecture, because architecture has a lot to do with your identity,” he said.
Neile Nkholise is the chief executive of 3DIMO, a sports technology company in South Africa. Sensors are sewn into sports garments, which send data that indicates whether an athlete is at risk of an injury. At the moment, she is focused on football, rugby and basketball.She is raising her seed round of investment but is also looking for investors who can be partners, “people who unlock access to networks” and expertise “that enable us to scale much faster,” she said.For many of the attendees, the event was a welcomed chance to talk about Africa successes. Thelma Ekiyor runs a Nigeria-based business accelerator and an investment fund for women-run businesses.There is no doubt there are problems in Africa, she said, but “for the diaspora, the lens through which you look at these problems must be different. For the diaspora, these problems are opportunities. For the diaspora, they are entry points.”Women in ‘the box’ of micro-lendingShe said one of the challenges has been that the structure of financing women entrepreneurs in Africa and other developing regions has been “micro.””Most of the funds available to women are micro-lending, as if women don’t know what to do with big money,” she told the attendees. “And so the first thing that I knew we had to do was change that and ensure that how we finance women was aspirational. We would start them at them micro-level and support them to grow.”The power of the symposium doesn’t stop after everyone goes home, said Negash of the African Diaspora Network.Over the coming months, connections made may turn into something else — a new business, a customer or partnership — all with a focus on the African continent.
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Month: January 2020
John Altobelli’s team knew there was only one way to honor its late coach — by playing on his favorite day.Altobelli’s Orange Coast College baseball team opened its season as scheduled on Tuesday against Chula Vista Southwestern. The game occurred two days after Altobelli, his wife and their 13-year-old daughter were killed in the helicopter crash that also took the life of Kobe Bryant and five others.“They didn’t so much ask me. They told me,” athletic director Jason Kehler said about the team’s decision to play.The game at Wendell Pickens Field was a celebration of Altobelli’s life and the 27 years he devoted to his program. More than 2,000 people were on hand on a sunny day at a field that seats 500. Fans were lined up and down the first- and third-base lines.Altobelli’s son J.J., a scout with the Boston Red Sox, and his 16-year old daughter Lexi watched from an area reserved for family along the first-base line near the Pirates dugout.After the game — which Southwestern was leading 7-6 when it was called due to darkness in the ninth inning — the team lined up to hug J.J. and Lexi.“I went down and hugged Lexi probably every single inning because she needs it,” interim manager Nate Johnson said. “I told the team they need us.”Altobelli, his wife, Keri, and their daughter Alyssa were among the eight passengers killed along with the pilot Sunday morning when the helicopter chartered by Bryant plowed into a cloud-covered hillside in Calabasas.The Altobellis, Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, who was also killed in the crash, were on their way to a youth basketball tournament in which Alyssa and Gianna were to play.There was a banner with Altobelli’s uniform number, 14, on the left-field fence as well as flowers and cards honoring the family on a wall behind home plate. Many fans were wearing No. 14 T-shirts that read “Forever A Pirate.”“This is a fraction of the impact that John had. Today speaks to that,” Kehler said. “We couldn’t ask for more than this. We want to make sure that John and his family get the recognition they deserve. He deserves to have his story be told.”Kehler, Johnson and Altobelli’s brother Tony spoke during a pregame ceremony. Johnson paused a couple times as he reflected on his former boss and his family.“They made everyone feel like an Altobelli or a Pirate. That’s why so many people are wearing 14 today,” Johnson said. “I know if (Keri) were here she would be judging me on everything I’d be doing. (Keri) really ran this team.””If you heard Alyssa laugh she would make you laugh. She lit up any room she went into. John loved his family and was so proud of his team. We’re going to do our best to honor him in everything we do moving forward.”Johnson said Alyssa’s goal was to attend Oregon, because her favorite basketball player was Sabrina Ionescu. J.J. attended Oregon after playing for his father at Orange Coast.Tony Altobelli — who is also Orange Coast College’s sports information director — said his younger brother’s death was emotional for everyone, including umpires.“It was touching. The only thing that could come to my mind is could you imagine my brother making an umpire cry? I know he would have loved it,” Altobelli said.Despite dealing with his own grief, Altobelli announced the game and carried on his usual duties.“In days like this I wasn’t John’s brother, I was the SID at Orange Coast College doing something for my brother. That was the only way I could get through today,” he said.John Altobelli, 56, won more than 700 games at Orange Coast. The American Baseball Coaches Association named him its coach of the year last year after he guided the Pirates to their fourth state title.He also managed the Brewster Whitecaps for three seasons in the Cape Cod Summer League. Among the players he coached there were New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge and New York Mets infielder Jeff McNeil.McNeil told ESPN that Altobelli took a chance on him and credits him with being drafted.Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole, who lives in Newport Beach, attended the game and watched from the Orange Coast dugout for an inning.Johnson said his team was trying too hard early. The Pirates committed three errors the first five innings and fell behind 7-1 in the sixth. They scored four times in the sixth and added a run in the seventh.“It was a good day. It stinks that we didn’t finish it,” Johnson said. “It still doesn’t feel real to me. When I was making in-game decisions, I kept a seat open. You’re making decisions that the man who mentored you made the last seven seasons.“Today, this team ran themselves. I put the guys out there that I thought Alto would want to see and I felt like were playing with emotion for him.”
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In a 2017 episode of the TV show “The Good Wife,” a doctor in Chicago is seen advising a dental surgery in Syria, over Skype. Such remote operations, part of an emerging sector known as telemedicine, is not only the stuff of televised fiction, but a real technology that is attracting increasing attention from business and government. That includes Singapore, which has introduced telemedicine legislation in a nation whose medical research and development already has impacts across borders.Telemedicine lawSingapore will regulate telemedicine businesses as part of its upcoming Healthcare Services Act 2020.These services already “have become increasingly popular and are poised to become a key feature of Singapore’s health care system,” said Marian Ho, a senior partner in the corporate division of Dentons Rodyk Singapore, a law firm.Regulate medical services not premisesShe said in a legal briefing that what makes the new law significant is that Singapore will focus on the types of medical services provided, rather than on the premises where they’re provided. For instance, if a patient only needs to refill his painkiller prescription, it is less important that he is on the premises of a hospital, and more important that he is receiving consultation services from a doctor, even if it is over Skype.Citizens of Singapore are readySingaporeans have already started using smartphone apps for simple check-ins with their doctors, using text messages and video calls. The apps range from Doctor Anywhere to MaNaDr. However the new law will be the overarching framework that the island nation uses to regulate this business, including to authorize the Ministry of Health to issue licenses for new services.As businesses develop new ways to provide health services over the internet, the impacts are likely to spread beyond Singapore. The rich micro-state is already a world leader in biomedical science, manufacturing four out of the world’s top 10 drugs, for instance, according to a 2019 report from consulting firm TMF Group and Singapore’s Economic Development Board, a government board.RisksHowever the new technology also comes with risks, such as a doctor’s accuracy rate over a video call versus in person, whether personal data will be protected as it is handed over to apps, and insurance and liability questions in case of malpractice.“My understanding is that out of 10 startups, maybe one survives,” gastroenterologist Desmond Wai told Singapore’s Business Times. “When the rest close down, who will be keeping the patient records?”Large part of the Singapore economyThe Healthcare Services Act, approved by parliament this month, will regulate one of Singapore’s biggest sectors. National manufacturing decreased overall from December to January, yet biomedical production increased 10.3% annualized, including a 20% increase in medical technology production, according to research from Singapore’s OCBC Bank.That makes medtech a significant part of the Southeast Asian economy, one that will see even more telemedicine in the future.“Singapore’s strong digital capabilities and vibrant research ecosystem aided by close collaboration between the public, private and academic sectors make it the region’s leading center for biomedical sciences,” the TMF-EDB report said. “Over 30 of the world’s major biomedical science and pharmaceutical companies have established their regional clinical trial centers in Singapore.”
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The United Nations has been hacked.An internal confidential document from the United Nations, leaked to The New Humanitarian and seen by The Associated Press, says that dozens of servers were “compromised” at offices in Geneva and Vienna.Those include the U.N. human rights office, which has often been a lightning rod of criticism from autocratic governments for its calling-out of rights abuses.One U.N. official told the AP that the hack, which was first detected over the summer, appeared “sophisticated” and that the extent of the damage remains unclear, especially in terms of personal, secret or compromising information that may have been stolen. The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity to speak freely about the episode, said systems have since been reinforced.The level of sophistication was so high that it was possible a state-backed actor might have been behind it, the official said.There were conflicting accounts about the significance of the incursion.“We were hacked,” U.N. human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville. “We face daily attempts to get into our computer systems. This time, they managed, but it did not get very far. Nothing confidential was compromised.”The breach, at least at the human rights office, appears to have been limited to the so-called active directory – including a staff list and details like e-mail addresses – but not access to passwords. No domain administration’s account was compromised, officials said.The United Nations headquarters in New York as well as the U.N.’s sprawling Palais des Nations compound in Geneva, its European headquarters, did not immediately respond to questions from the AP about the incident.Sensitive information at the human rights office about possible war criminals in the Syrian conflict and perpetrators of Myanmar’s crackdown against Rohingya Muslims were not compromised, because it is held in extremely secure conditions, the official said.The internal document from the U.N. Office of Information and Technology said 42 servers were “compromised” and another 25 were deemed “suspicious,” nearly all at the sprawling United Nations offices in Geneva and Vienna. Three of the “compromised” servers belonged to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is located across town from the main U.N. office in Geneva, and two were used by the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe.Technicians at the United Nations office in Geneva, the world body’s European hub, on at least two occasions worked through weekends in recent months to isolate the local U.N. data center from the Internet, re-write passwords and ensure the systems were clean.The hack comes amid rising concerns about computer or mobile phone vulnerabilities, both for large organizations like governments and the U.N. as well as for individuals and businesses.Last week, U.N. human rights experts asked the U.S. government to investigate a suspected Saudi hack that may have siphoned data from the personal smartphone of Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post, in 2018. On Tuesday, the New York Times’s bureau chief in Beirut, Ben Hubbard, said technology researchers suspected an attempted intrusion into his phone around the same time.The United Nations, and its human rights office, is particularly sensitive, and could be a tempting target. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, and her predecessors have called out, denounced and criticized alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and less severe rights violations and abuses in places as diverse as Syria and Saudi Arabia.Dozens of independent human rights experts who work with the U.N. human rights office have greater leeway – and fewer political and financial ties to the governments that fund the United Nations and make up its membership – to denounce alleged rights abuses.Jake Williams, CEO of data firm Rendition Infosec and former U.S. government hacker, said of the U.N. report: “The intrusion definitely looks like espionage.”He noted that accounts from three different domains were compromised. “This, coupled with the relatively small number of infected machines, is highly suggestive of espionage,” he said after viewing the report.“The attackers have a goal in mind and are deploying malware to machines that they believe serve some purpose for them,” he added.The U.N. document highlights a vulnerability in the software program Microsoft Sharepoint, which could have been used for the hack.Matt Suiche, a French entrepreneur based in Dubai who founded cybersecurity firm Comae Technologies, said that based on the report from September: “It is impossible to know if it was a targeted attack or just some random internet scan for vulnerable SharePoints.”But the U.N. official, speaking to The Associated Press on Tuesday, said that since then, the intrusion appeared sophisticated.“It’s as if someone were walking in the sand, and swept up their tracks with a broom afterward,” the official said. “There’s not even a trace of a clean-up.”
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A plane evacuating more than 200 Americans from a Chinese city at the center of a virus outbreak continued Wednesday on to southern California after everyone aboard passed a health screening test in Anchorage, where the aircraft had stopped to refuel.All 201 passengers had already been through two screenings in China and were screened twice more in Anchorage by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One passenger received medical attention for a minor injury that happened before boarding the airplane in China, according to a news release from Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services.A nearly empty lobby at the North Terminal of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, is shown, Jan. 28, 2020.The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, where the latest coronavirus outbreak started, and other U.S. citizens. The plane landed Tuesday night in Anchorage. The Americans will undergo additional health screenings in California and will be temporarily housed there for a period of time as they finish the repatriation process, the statement said.
“For many of us directly involved, this has been a moving and uplifting experience,” said Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink. “The whole plane erupted in cheers when the crew said, `Welcome home to the United States.'”
“This is the best possible outcome,” added DHSS Commissioner Adam Crum. “We wish these passengers the best of luck as they complete their journeys home and I am deeply grateful to everyone who came together to assist us in helping with this repatriation effort.”The plane is now scheduled to land at March Air Reserve Base in California’s Riverside County, instead of the original plan to go to Ontario International Airport in neighboring San Bernardino County.
Curt Hagman, an Ontario airport commissioner, said the Centers for Disease Control announced the diversion.
“We were prepared but the State Department decided to switch the flight” to the airbase, Hagman said.
Officials at the Ontario airport 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles had been readying facilities to receive and screen the repatriates and temporarily house them for up to two weeks — if the CDC determined that is necessary, said David Wert, spokesman for the county of San Bernardino.
Ontario International Airport was designated about a decade ago by the U.S. government to receive repatriated Americans in case of an emergency overseas, but it would have been the first time the facility was used for the purpose, Wert said.People wait as medical staff (back) wear protective clothing to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the city, at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan, Jan. 24, 2020.Wuhan is the epicenter of a new virus that has sickened thousands and killed more than 100 people. China has cut off access to Wuhan and 16 other cities in Hubei province to prevent people from leaving and spreading the virus further. In addition to the United States, countries including Japan and South Korea have also planned evacuations. Symptoms of the virus include fever, cough, and in more severe cases shortness of breath or pneumonia.
The Americans aboard the white cargo plane with red and gold stripes left Wuhan before dawn Wednesday, China time. They arrived in Anchorage at the mostly desolate North Terminal just after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, local time. The jetway was extended from the end of the terminal, but it also had no windows. Passengers were not visible. Media were held in a concourse between the airport’s two terminals, about 100 yards (91.4 meters) from the plane. Airport workers were buzzing around the plane after it landed.
The passengers were isolated in the airport’s international terminal, which lies mostly dormant in the winter months. The terminal is not connected to the larger and heavily used domestic flights terminal, and each has separate ventilation systems, said Jim Szczesniak, manager of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
“In the wintertime, we have the ability and the luxury of not having any passenger traffic over there, so it’s a perfect area for us to handle this kind of flight,” he said.
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African nations are preparing for what experts believe is the inevitable emergence of cases of coronavirus on the continent. With growing economic ties and increased travel between the African continent and China, health professionals say they must be ready to treat and isolate cases.On Tuesday, Ethiopia announced it had quarantined three Ethiopian students and one Chinese student returning from a university in Wuhan, China. The students were stopped during a screening at the airport when it was discovered they had symptoms including sore throat and a cough.Dr. Munir Kassa, chief of staff for Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, said the country has been determined to stay ahead of the outbreak. Since the beginning of January, the Ethiopian government has communicated with the World Health Organization and the Chinese government for status updates. “We had several meetings and there is also an emergency center [that] has been activated. And so active surveillance and vigilance. So we have been doing active surveillance of the case for this potential threat,” he told VOA’s Horn of Africa service.Checking temperaturesAt Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia has been using thermal scanners to take temperatures of airline passengers arriving from the affected Chinese region, quarantining anyone sick and taking the addresses of healthy people for follow-up visits. The country has set up quarantine centers and formed a high-level task force that reports to the prime minister.Kassa said they have screened 22,000 passengers and have sent samples from potential coronavirus cases for testing in South Africa.“So currently in our country, we don’t have anyone who has contracted this novel coronavirus and those who are suspected are under quarantine. So people can go about their daily business,” Kassa said. There is no reason to “be afraid currently.” But, he added, “because this is a global issue, particularly in China, and because we have frequent flights, people should take cautions.”Other African countries including Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda have begun screening passengers arriving from Wuhan.Passengers arriving on a China Southern Airlines flight from Changsha in China are screened for the new type of coronavirus, upon their arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta international airport in Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 29, 2020.In Zimbabwe, WHO representative Dr. Alex Gasasira, said the organization has not yet declared the virus to be a “public health emergency of international concern” but is advising countries on how to screen, treat, quarantine and follow-up on suspected cases. He said even countries that do not have high volumes of travelers from China are still at risk.“As long as the country receives travelers, there’s always a risk,” Gasasira said. “Because some of the people from the affected areas may travel while demonstrating symptoms. Some travel before they have any symptoms, but develop symptoms after arriving in the country.”Gasasira said there have been no reported cases of the virus in Zimbabwe, but health officials have recorded information on people who have traveled to the affected region and are following upon them. “The health authorities know where these travelers are going and checking them on a daily basis to ensure that they don’t report symptoms and then give them the right information, if they develop symptoms, what to do,” he told VOA’s Zimbabwe service in a phone interview.Students study in ChinaAfrican travelers to China, particularly students have also been affected by the outbreak. An estimated 61,000 African students are studying in China and many now face canceled classes and a limited ability to move freely.A Mozambican engineering student in Beijing told VOA’s Portuguese Service that it is becoming hard to get food and that many African students are considering returning home. “We are afraid. We are afraid to go outside. We are afraid to be with other people,” said Francisco Sithoi Jr, a 22-year-old civil engineering student at Beijing University of Technology. “We are afraid even to go to the bathroom because, here in my school, we have a public bathroom. And we know that coronavirus, you can get it even from touching something that someone who has it has touched. So we are afraid almost of everything.”A Rwandan student studying in China told VOA’s Central Africa service that classes have been canceled until at least Feb. 13, students have been instructed to stay inside their buildings and were told to buy groceries that could last for at least three weeks.Another student from Cabo Verde studying in Wuhan said fear is growing, but people are trying to remain calm and focus on safety. “I’ve been trying my best to keep myself safe from what has happened,” Wagner Perei, a computer science master’s student, told VOA’s Portuguese service. “I’ve been trying to stay indoors most of the time and they’re just praying that everything’s going to be over soon.”This story originated in VOA’s Africa Division with reporting contributions from the Horn of Africa Amharic service’s Eden Geremew, Portuguese service’s Amancio Vilanculos and Alvaro Andrade, Zimbabwe service’s Gibbs Dube and Central Africa service’s Etienne Karekezi.
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Ricky Martin’s wide smile began to fade as the Puerto Rican superstar talked about his next album.It’s influenced by the U.S. territory’s political turmoil as people struggle to recover from Hurricane Maria and a recent 6.4 magnitude earthquake that killed one person and destroyed hundreds of homes amid a 13-year recession.“I’m going to use my music to carry the message of all those who aren’t being heard,” he told The Associated Press on Monday while preparing for a concert on his native island.The 48-year-old father of four children joined in the big demonstrations last year that led Ricardo Rossello to resign as the island’s governor, and although he hasn’t been at the most recent protests against current Gov. Wanda Vazquez, he has gone on social media urging her to step down.Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin, who will perform in concert Feb. 7 at the Puerto Rico Coliseum Jose Miguel Agrelot, poses for a portrait in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jan. 27, 2020.“It would be an act of justice for our island,” he said in a video Thursday. “There are no immediate legal mechanisms for you and your entire team to leave and pay for all our suffering. But I have good news. The elections come in November and I am certain, certain, that the people will rise up more than ever.”Protests change albumMartin’s upcoming album is not the one he originally envisioned. He said he was going through a very romantic period in his life when he began recording, but all that changed when the 2019 protests in Puerto Rico erupted. The demonstrations were fed by anger over corruption and over the way the government responded to Hurricane Maria, the September 2017 storm that wreaked havoc on the island, killing an estimated 2,975 people in its aftermath.Martin participated in the demonstrations alongside other artists and found a new idea for the album.“When I returned to the studio, everything that I had done musically expired because I had poetic material in my head to share with the world after what happened in the streets of Puerto Rico,” he said.Martin said the album will be titled “Movimiento” and will contain 12 songs.“In all of them, I will in some way express everything that I experienced,” he said, alluding to the demonstrations. “All of the stories I heard from people who simply were not being heard.”One of the album’s songs is the newly released single “Tiburones,” which means sharks in Spanish. The video was shot in Puerto Rico and shows a woman face to face with police in riot gear. Around her neck is a green kerchief that Martin said was the actress’ idea to wear and one he fully supports since it symbolizes the fight for a woman’s right to have an abortion.“What I’ve always wanted is a woman to have the right to do whatever she wants with her body,” he said. “I’m always going to defend that.”Singer criticizedSome have criticized Martin’s involvement in the 2019 protests and his recent comments regarding the current government’s response to the earthquake and strong aftershocks, accusing him of being an opportunist and of riling people up only to leave the island afterward. Others have posted online messages asking that he stay out of the island’s affairs.Martin remains unfazed.“I shouldn’t be interested in Puerto Rico because I don’t live in Puerto Rico?” he asked. “To the contrary. I believe that not being on the island has made me appreciate my culture more, appreciate my people more, my language, my music, where I come from.”
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An airplane that a federal official said was evacuating as many as 240 Americans from a Chinese city at the center of a virus outbreak has landed in the U.S.The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, where the latest coronavirus outbreak started, and other U.S. citizens. The plane made a refueling stop in Alaska before flying on to Southern California, the U.S. Embassy in China has said.The white cargo plane with red and gold stripes and no passenger windows arrived at the mostly desolate North Terminal just after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, local time.The jetway was extended from the end of the terminal, but it also had no windows. Passengers were not visible.Media were held in a concourse between the airport’s two terminals, about 100 yards (91.4 meters) from the plane. Airport workers buzzed around the plane after it landed.Alaska health officials said a news conference would be held later.New California destinationTuesday night, it was announced that the plane would land at March Air Reserve Base in California’s Riverside County instead of at Ontario International Airport in neighboring San Bernardino County.Curt Hagman, an Ontario airport commissioner, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the diversion.“We were prepared but the State Department decided to switch the flight” to the airbase, Hagman said.Wuhan is the epicenter of a new virus that has sickened thousands and killed more than 100, and the official said Tuesday that the plane left the city before dawn Wednesday, China time. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.In Anchorage, Alaska, passengers were set to go through customs and CDC screening.“Then they will put them back on the plane and then send them on to their final destination,” said Jim Szczesniak, manager of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. He didn’t know how long it would take beyond “hours.”A nearly empty lobby at the North Terminal of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, Jan. 28, 2020.Isolated in terminalThe passengers are being isolated in the airport’s international terminal, which lies mostly dormant in the winter months.Szczesniak stressed that the terminal is not connected to the larger and heavily used domestic flights terminal, and each has separate ventilation systems.The lobby in the international terminal was nearly empty Tuesday afternoon, and an airport employee was seen jogging through the facility that has closed counters for companies like Korean Air, China Airlines and Asiana Airlines. There are two businesses operating at either end of the ticket counters, a 4×4 rental agency and a satellite office of the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles.Because the terminal is only active in the summer, it allows the airport to practice situations such as this one.“In the winter time, we have the ability and the luxury of not having any passenger traffic over there, so it’s a perfect area for us to handle this kind of flight,” Szczesniak said.Officials at the Ontario airport 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles had been readying facilities to receive and screen the repatriates and temporarily house them for up to two weeks, if the CDC determined that is necessary, said David Wert, spokesman for the county of San Bernardino.Ontario International Airport was designated about a decade ago by the U.S. government to receive repatriated Americans in case of an emergency overseas but it would have been the first time the facility was used for the purpose, Wert said.China has cut off access to Wuhan and 16 other cities in Hubei province to prevent people from leaving and spreading the virus further. In addition to the United States, countries including Japan and South Korea have also planned evacuations.
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The coronavirus that started in Wuhan, China, last month has spread to more than 18 countries, as governments work to stop it. China has a mixed record on transparency during public crises, but President Xi Jinping, in a meeting with the director of WHO, said his country is ready to work with the organization and international community. This as Washington calls on Beijing to allow more public health experts into China to help halt the spread of the virus. More from VOA’s Mariama Diallo.
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Legendary British broadcaster and entertainer Nicholas Parsons, best remembered as host of the BBC radio game show “Just a Minute,” has died after a brief illness at 96.Parsons introduced the show in 1967 and hosted nearly 1,000 episodes before retiring this past September.The game requires celebrity panelists to talk about a given subject nonstop for 60 seconds without repeating themselves. The show has been broadcast globally on the BBC World Service, attracting millions of fans worldwide.Parsons was known for his arbitrary judgments and penalties, frustrating the players but amusing the audience.Parsons also hosted television game shows, and was the comedic partner to comedian Benny Hill.
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The World Health Organization warns the evacuation of nationals from China to their home countries carries the risk of spreading the deadly coronavirus. The WHO reports 4,428 cases of the disease in China, including 106 deaths. Another 45 cases are confirmed in 13 countries. WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is wrapping up several days of talks with China’s President Xi Jinping and other high-level officials in Beijing. They have been discussing measures to protect the health of Chinese citizens and foreigners during the coronavirus outbreak.WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier says officials also have considered possible alternatives to the evacuation of foreigners from China to ensure no infections are imported back to their home countries. He calls that a real possibility as the incubation period of the coronavirus is between one and 14 days. That means people can transmit the virus during that period.”There are possibilities that also asymptomatic people, people showing no symptoms at all, could be infectious, are definitely interesting and concerning and have to be closer looked at,” he said. “That is all I can say so far… It is one of the big unknowns about this virus, which has to be solved.” Lindmeier tells VOA that the WHO does not yet have a position on the pros and cons of quarantining nationals upon their return. He says the WHO is waiting for clarification on the dangers of transmitting the disease during the incubation period before issuing advice.”Closely monitoring or even isolating people who are coming back might be a measure yet if we see symptoms,” he said. “Monitoring, closely monitoring or, as some countries refer to isolating them even for a certain amount of time is a measure possible. It could help the scenario… prevent the further spread of the virus.” The good news says Lindmeier is that there has not been any major spread of the infection outside of China. The WHO’s latest risk assessment of the coronavirus rates the regional and global risk level as high, and that of China as very high. While the virus is not rapidly spreading outside of China, the WHO urges countries to remain vigilant and be prepared.
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Britain will allow China’s Huawei Technologies Co. to help build the country’s next-generation cellular network, dealing a blow to a U.S. campaign to launch a worldwide boycott of the telecom equipment giant.The British government said Tuesday it would permit Huawei to build less critical parts of the country’s new high-speed 5G wireless network.The U.S. has campaigned against Huawei for more than a year, noting concerns about national security and the Chinese firm’s relations with the country’s Communist Party. On Tuesday, the White House said U.S. President Donald Trump discussed “critical regional and bilateral issues, including telecommunications security,” during a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.”The United States is disappointed by the U.K.’s decision,” said a senior Trump administration official Tuesday. “There is no safe option for untrusted vendors to control any part of a 5G network.”The U.S. official said the U.S. is willing to work with Britain to exclude “untrusted vendor components from 5G networks.”Mobile network phone masts are visible in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London, Jan. 28, 2020. The Chinese tech firm Huawei will be given the opportunity to build non-core elements of Britain’s 5G network, the government announced.Without mentioning any companies, Britain said it would exclude “high-risk” companies from providing “core” components of the new network. It also said it would permit high-risk suppliers to supply up to 35-percent of the new network’s less risky parts of its infrastructure.Britain’s announcement comes a day before U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to meet in London with Johnson. The announcement puts Johnson in an awkward position, as he needs the Trump administration to quickly reach a trade agreement after Brexit.The 5G rollout is particularly critical for Britain, as it leaves the European Union with hopes of positioning its economy as a beneficiary of technological innovation. U.S. officials have also voiced frustration with decisions by some European nations to grant Huawei some access in the rollout of their 5G network.Under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, the U.S. defense secretary should brief Congressional defense committees by March 15 on the implementation of plans for fifth-generation information and communications technologies, including steps to work with U.S. allies and partners to protect critical networks and supply chains.VOA’s Steve Herman contributed to this report.
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An artist known for work depicting his native Bolivia has died after being struck by a car in northern Virginia.
Alfredo Da Silva died Sunday. He was 84. Alexandria Police say he died at the scene after he was struck by a car Sunday morning. Police said Tuesday that the crash remains under investigation. The car’s driver remained at the scene and was interviewed by police.
Da Silva lived in Alexandria but was born in Potosi, Bolivia, and studied art in Buenos Aires.
Pablo Zuniga, director of the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, said Da Silva was in the vanguard of a generation of modern artists from Latin America who rose to prominence in the `50s and ’60s.
“He was a major player at a time Latin American art was being developed,” he said.
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Her name was Gianna Maria Onore Bryant. The world, now and forever, knows her as Gigi. Her dad, Kobe Bryant, called her Mambacita. He was Mamba, of course, and she was going to be basketball’s female version of him. She was going to play at Connecticut and head to the WNBA. That was the plan.
Over the years, the world watched her grow from a baby in her father’s arms, to a small child trying to hold his Finals MVP trophy, to his companion at WNBA, college and NBA games around the country, listening to her father break down play and watching every detail on the court, just as he always did.
“Gigi was really turning into a special player,” said Russ Davis, the women’s basketball coach at Vanguard University in Southern California and someone who became close with Bryant in recent years. “It’s hard to predict her future, but with the way she was improving and the way she understood the game, she was going to have a bright one.”
Gigi was 13. She was one of the nine people, her father also among them, on the helicopter that crashed Sunday morning into a hillside in Calabasas, California, as the group made its way to a basketball tournament where she was supposed to be playing. The helicopter burst into flames. All nine, including two of her teammates, died, officials said.
Kobe and Vanessa Bryant had four daughters. Gigi was the baller of the group. She was going to carry on the Bryant name in basketball. Few things in life made Bryant happier than that realization.
“I try to watch as much film as I can,” Gigi said in an interview with Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS in 2019, when she and her dad attended the Las Vegas Aces’ WNBA opener. “More information, more inspiration.”
She was even sounding like her dad.
The film study was working. So, too, was the five- or six- or seven-times-a-week workouts that Bryant would host for Gigi and her teammates on the team he coached. They ran the triangle offense; the one Bryant had so much success with during his career. Grown men, professionals, the best players in the world, struggled with the triangle. Bryant had preteen girls figuring it out.
”He never yelled or anything,'”Davis said. “They just listened to him.”Can you teach me the game?’ I said, `Sure.’ We started working a little bit and the next thing you know it became a true passion of hers. So, it’s wonderful.”
Earlier this month, Bryant posted a short video clip of Gigi in a game. The sequence: dribble-drive, pass to the corner, post up, wait for the ball to come back, catch, footwork, shoot the fadeaway.
Her father's unstoppable fadeaway. She scored. Of course. “Gigi getting better every day,” her dad wrote.
Bryant and Gigi went to a UConn home game against Houston last March. Bryant wore a UConn shirt, just like Gigi was, and told SNY television during an in-game interview that he was thrilled that one of his daughters wanted to follow in his sneakers and take up the family basketball business.
“It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool,” Bryant said. “She started out playing soccer, which I love. But she came to me about a year and a half ago and said,
Many of Gigi’s favorite players had UConn ties, like Katie Lou Samuelson, she had played for Davis, which led to the initial connection between him and Bryant , and Gabby Williams.
“From what I saw,” Williams said Monday, “she was going to be heaps better than me.’”
Williams was floored when Gigi told her she was her favorite player. She would FaceTime with the Bryants before games, gave Gigi her Chicago Sky uniforms, even practiced with Gigi and her teammates and was blown away by how hard she had to play against them.
“She had the right mentality, so confident, relentless, so mean and aggressive,” Williams said. “And then (she would) walk off the court with the biggest, sweetest smile on her face. But my favorite part about her was just seeing how much she loved the game and loved to learn.”
“It’s intimidating to have to follow in those footsteps,” Williams added, “but she really embraced it.”
The UConn allegiance made all the sense in the world. Bryant played in Los Angeles, but he was a Philadelphia guy. So is UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who was heartbroken by the news of the crash Sunday. UConn has been the gold standard in the women’s college game for a generation, driven by excellence. Bryant identified with that quality.
UConn was aware of Gigi’s affinity for the Huskies and paid a fitting tribute. Before its game with the U.S. women’s national team Monday night, UConn draped a No. 2 jersey with a bouquet of flowers across it on the team’s bench. Gigi wore No. 2 for her dad’s team.
Jewell Loyd of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm knew plenty about Gigi. Loyd sponsors an AAU team in Seattle. They played against Bryant’s team, and over the years Loyd and Bryant forged an extremely special, extremely close bond. They looked at one another as family.
Her description of Gigi? “Awesome,” Loyd said.
“When I went to work out with Kobe, most kids her age would be on the tablet,” Loyd said. “She stayed still and watched the entire time. Didn’t say anything. She was studying the game of basketball. If that didn’t say Kobe, I don’t know what does.”
Even NBA players were impressed. Atlanta’s Trae Young couldn’t believe it when Bryant told him that Gigi was a huge fan of his and was trying to emulate parts of his game. So Young paid tribute Sunday by opening a Hawks game in a No. 8 jersey, before switching back to his customary No. 11.
Afterward, Young recalled some of his final conversation with Bryant.
“He said how proud he was of me and how he wants me to continue to be a role model for kids growing up, for Gigi,” Young said.
There were similarities in how father and daughter looked the dark, piercing eyes, especially, but Loyd also saw similarities in the way father and daughter played the game. Both, she said, were methodical. Both were willing to outwork their opponents. Gigi knew who her father was and knew that meant a lot of eyeballs would be on her, that comparisons between her and her dad on the court were going to be inevitable.
Gigi didn’t care, either. She wanted to be like Dad.
“That’s his legacy,” Loyd said. That’s now Gigi’s legacy as well.
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Fans call it The House that Kobe Built, and since Kobe Bryant’s shocking death in a helicopter crash mourners by the thousands have gathered outside the glistening steel-and-glass edifice where the Los Angeles Lakers legend made so much basketball history.The arrivals at downtown Staples Center began soon after word spread that Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were among nine people killed in Sunday’s crash. They continued unabated Monday as people took off from school or work to pay respects to a man with whom many felt a kinship.“The memories that he gave us as a family were great memories,” said Lawrence Perez or North Hollywood, who arrived with his wife, Maureen, and 15-year-old daughter, Desiree. “We could have been at home, but we wanted to be with other people who are kind of going through the same thing.”The Lakers had a game scheduled Tuesday night against the LA Clippers at Staples Center but the NBA postponed it “out of respect” for the Lakers. The next Lakers home game is Friday night against Portland.The Staples Center, home to the Lakers and Clippers, opened for the 1999-2000 season, just as a 21-year-old Bryant was blossoming. That season the team would win the first of five championships over the next 10 years.Although the mood there Monday was often somber as people hugged and wiped away tears, many couldn’t help but grin at times as they recalled joyful moments Bryant brought to their lives.“The greatest moment was when I got his autograph his rookie year,” Perez said, recalling how he told the teenage Bryant he was destined for greatness. Bryant smiled, shook his hand and said he hoped he’d just break into the team’s starting lineup sometime soon.Perez had planned to bring that ball to Bryant’s Hall of Fame induction, expected later this year, and ask him to sign it again.“But that’s not going to happen now,” he said softly as his wife hugged him and said, “He cried when he heard the news.”As people arrived at the arena they were greeted by a gigantic display of flowers, balloons, votive candles (some with Bryant’s photo on them), hats, jerseys, statuettes of angels and photos and paintings of Bryant and his daughter circling the entire area. Some showed father and daughter with angel’s wings. Others contained personal messages written in English, Spanish and Chinese, showing the international impact Bryant’s career had.“I left my shoe for him,” said Louie Guerrero of Los Angeles, who arrived at the memorial pushing a stroller with his 2-year-old daughter, Lexie, decked out in her own little Lakers uniform. He spontaneously decided to add one of his official Lakers basketball shoes to the memorial after scribbling on it, “We Love You, Kobe.”NBA’s Kobe Bryant Scores 60 Points in Farewell Game
Kobe Bryant played the final game of his legendary 20-year career with the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday night. The 37-year-old Bryant scored a season-high 60 points to rally the Lakers from a 15-point deficit to a 101-96 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz at Staples Center in front of thousands of fans -- including Oscar-winning actor Jack Nicholson -- who paid thousands of dollars a ticket for a chance to witness Bryant's last game wearing the Lakers's purple-and…
He walked away with only a sock on his left foot.Nearby, Michelle Rodriguez of Los Angeles wiped away a tear as she gazed at photos of Bryant with his daughter and his teammates. The 30-year-old emergency room nurse had arrived with her 12-year-old bulldog, Canelle, after working an overnight shift. Both were wearing Lakers jerseys.“I think everyone could say we loved the team as a whole, but it was different when you saw Kobe play,” she said.“And he was such an awesome man outside of basketball too,” she added. “All the work he did in the community, he’s a hero to this city.”
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At least five people in Australia have tested positive for the coronavirus. The latest is a young Chinese student diagnosed in Sydney. Australia is increasing its border and biosecurity measures. Medical authorities are warning it is likely there will be more confirmed cases in Australia of the potentially deadly coronavirus. School children in New South Wales state have been told to stay away from class for two weeks if they have been in contact with a confirmed case of the disease. Symptoms of the virus include fever, difficulty breathing and coughing.Children, wearing face masks, wait for their mother after arriving in Sydney, Jan. 23, 2020, from a flight from Wuhan, China.The coronavirus causes severe respiratory infection and there is no cure or vaccine. Most of the deaths have been of those with pre-existing respiratory problems, or the elderly.Doctors in Australia are being urged to wear protective face masks when seeing patients who potentially carry the coronavirus. It is thought to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province.Australia’s chief health officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, says, “We are starting to look at people who have come from parts of China other than Hubei as potentially at risk, although our focus still remains on that Hubei province of China, which is the epicenter and which is the only place where human to human transmission has been identified,” said Professor Brendan Murphy, Australia’s chief health officer.FILE – Tourists take photographs with their mobile phones in front of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, in Sydney, Australia, Oct. 13, 2018.Australia is also bracing for a slump in visitors from China, its biggest international tourist market, because of restrictions put in place to try to stop the spread of the disease. The Australian government does not know how many of its citizens are caught in the vast quarantine lock-down area imposed by authorities in China. Reports have suggested that 100 Australians, including children, could be unable to leave.Coronavirus cases have also been confirmed in several countries including Germany, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Canada.
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Thailand has announced the 10th case of the coronavirus as government authorities say the outbreak is still under control. Meanwhile, Asian airlines such as Chinese Eastern Airline are still taking passengers home to China’s epicenter in Wuhan, despite a ban on outgoing flights from the epicenter. Steve Sandford speaks to Asian tourism workers and government officials about the evolving crisis in southern Thailand in the midst of celebrations of the Chinese New Year.
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The United States, Japan and other countries are sending planes to evacuate their citizens out of the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak that has now killed 106 people.Japan is sending a chartered jet to Wuhan Tuesday to evacuate about 200 of the 650 Japanese nationals in the city. The United States is preparing to fly staff from its consulate in Wuhan, along with some American citizens, sometime this week. France and other nations have also announced plans to evacuate their citizens out of Wuhan. Chinese health authorities announced an additional 25 deaths on Tuesday, including the first fatality reported in the capital city of Beijing. The total number of confirmed cases in China now stands at well over 4,500. Authorities have imposed a virtual quarantine on Wuhan, banning people from traveling in and out of the city, while several other cities in Hubei province are facing heavy restrictions on movement. Authorities in Wuhan are racing to complete two new field hospitals to treat the growing number of patients. Cases have also been reported in Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Nepal, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. The World Health Organization says most of those are people who had a travel history in Wuhan, with several others having contact with someone who traveled there.There have been no reported deaths linked to the virus outside of China.Students line up to sanitize their hands to avoid the contact of coronavirus before their morning class at a hight school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020.U.S. President Donald Trump has offered China any help needed to combat the deadly coronavirus. In a Monday tweet, Trump said, “We are in very close communication with China concerning the virus,” adding, “We have offered China and President Xi (Jinping) any help that is necessary. Our experts are extraordinary!”Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the city of Wuhan on Monday to meet with health officials and examine the response to the outbreak. The head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, arrived Monday in Beijing, where he is expected to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the outbreak. The agency said there is still a chance to get ahead of the virus if there is strong cooperation.Separately, in an effort to stop the virus from spreading, Mongolia closed its vast border with China, while Hong Kong and Malaysia announced they would ban entry to visitors from Wuhan.Global stock markets plunged Monday as investors feared the economic impact from the coronavirus.The virus hit China just as it was beginning celebrations to mark the Lunar New Year, resulting in the canceling or the scaling back of festivities for tens of millions of Chinese.Chinese officials took an extra step Sunday to extend the Lunar New Year holiday three extra days to cut down on group gatherings.Chinese Premier Li Keqiang wearing a mask talks with staff members as he visits the construction site where the new hospital is being built to treat patients of a new coronavirus, on the outskirts of Wuhan, China, January 27, 2020.The head of the respiratory disease office at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nancy Messonnier, said Sunday there were five confirmed cases in the United States, and that all five people had direct contact with others in Wuhan.The patients are isolated in hospitals as doctors and health officials try to learn more about the virus. The CDC says it is investigating about 100 suspected cases in 26 states.Chinese National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said Sunday little is known about the virus. But doctors do know it has an incubation period that can range from one to 14 days. Ma said the virus is infectious during the incubation period, when no signs or symptoms of the disease are present.President Xi Jinping said China is facing a “grave situation” and experts and other resources would be concentrated at specific hospitals to treat severe cases.The virus is believed to have emerged late last year at a Wuhan seafood market illegally selling wildlife. Chinese authorities have imposed a temporary ban on the selling of wildlife.Tourist destinations are closed and school closings have been extended in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. Public transportation has been severely restricted. Many businesses have closed or asked employees to work from home.The WHO recommends several steps to help protect people against acute respiratory infections. They include avoiding close contact with those already infected, frequent hand-washing and avoiding unprotected contact with farm animals and wild animals.
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The pilot of the helicopter that crashed and killed basketball superstar Kobe Bryant apparently climbed to avoid a cloud layer just before slamming into a hillside, federal investigators say.Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday the copter was about 700 meters off the ground before it plunged more than 300 meters into the hills north of Los Angeles.Air traffic say the pilot’s message that he had to climb to avoid the clouds was the last thing they heard from the copter.Homendy says the debris field is “extensive.””A piece of the tail is down the hill, the fuselage is on the other side of that hill and the main rotor is about 91 meters beyond that,” she said, adding that everything is looked at during the investigation — the pilot, the aircraft, and the environment.Federal rules do not require helicopters to carry black boxes.People gather at a memorial for Kobe Bryant near Staples Center Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, in Los Angeles.Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were among nine killed in Sunday’s crash that stunned the sports world and left fans and his fellow athletes speechless.The pilot also died along with Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli. The helicopter was heading to a youth basketball tournament in which Gianna Bryant was scheduled to play.Kobe Bryant was 41 years-old and will be remembered as one of the greatest professional basketball players ever to step onto the court. He played 20 years in the NBA, nearly all of it with the Los Angeles Lakers — wining five NBA championships and the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 2008. He is the fourth all-time leading scorer. LeBron James passed him for number three on the list just one day before the crash.Some of Bryant’s accomplishments include becoming the NBA’s youngest all-star in 1998, when he was only 19 years old; an 81-point game in 2006 – the second-highest of all time; and Olympic Gold medals in 2008 and 2012.
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When it comes to prostate cancer, African American men have similar survival rates to white counterparts if they have equal access to health care, a new study suggests.Earlier research has found African Americans are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as whites, and the reasons may include diagnosis when the disease is more advanced as well as differences in medical care.But the new study, which followed more than 60,000 men with prostate cancer getting care from the U.S. Veterans Administration Health System, found African American men did not have more advanced disease at diagnosis and did not die earlier than white men, researchers reported in Cancer.”Throughout the U.S. population, African Americans usually have worse outcomes with prostate cancer,” said the study’s senior author Dr. Brent Rose of the University of California, San Diego. “The hypothesis has been that the disease is just biologically more aggressive in African American men.””Our study suggests that is not a foregone conclusion,” Rose said. “There’s something about the way the VA medical system reduces disparities seen in normal health care that suggests that equal outcomes could be created with smart policy decisions.”That doesn’t mean there are no biological differences between blacks and whites when it comes to prostate cancer, Rose said. “African Americans are more likely to get prostate cancer than whites: one in eight versus one in twelve. And they tend to get it three to four years younger for reasons we have no idea about.”Nevertheless, Rose said, when African Americans get good access to care and prompt treatment, disparities in survival disappear.Details of studyTo determine whether access to health care might play a role in the disparity in survival between blacks and whites, Rose and his team analyzed information on more than 20 million veterans who receive care through the San Diego VA’s health care system.They focused on 60,035 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2000 and 2015, 30.3% of whom were African American and 69.7% were non-Hispanic white. Half of the men were followed for nearly six years, and some were followed for as long as 10 years.Overall, there were 3,067 deaths from prostate cancer in the group, 848 among African American men and 2,219 in non-Hispanic white men.Contrary to the situation in the general population, African American men in the VA were not diagnosed with later-stage cancer than their white counterparts, although they did get diagnosed at a younger average age: 63 versus 66 years old.The rate of prostate cancer death over a 10-year span among black men was slightly lower than the rate among whites: 4.4% versus 5.1%.Issue of diagnosisThe new results are very good news, said Dr. Ashutosh Tewari, chairman of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. “When you find the cancer at the same stage, you can have the same survival outcome,” Tewari said. “This is important news.”Nevertheless, it doesn’t solve the problem in the general population, Tewari said. “Many more African Americans are still dying from prostate cancer,” he said.Researchers need to find a way to diagnose prostate cancer earlier in African American men in the general population, Tewari said.
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Harvey Weinstein “got offended” when his repeated advances were rebuffed, Mimi Haleyi testified Monday when she took the witness stand as one of the key accusers whose allegations of sexual assault led to charges and the trial of the former movie mogul.
Former production assistant Mimi Haleyi testified that before the alleged assault, Weinstein showed up at her apartment and begged her to join him on a trip to Paris for a fashion show. She said he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“At one point, because I just didn’t know how to shut it down so to speak. …So I said, You know you have a terrible reputation with women, I've heard,' " Haleyi said.What have you heard?”’
The then-revered Hollywood honcho "got offended,'' she said. "He stepped back and said,
Asked by prosecutor Meghan Hast if she had any romantic or sexual interest in Weinstein, Haleyi firmly answered: “Not at all, no.”
Weinstein, 67, is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on Haleyi in his New York City apartment in 2006 and raping another woman, an aspiring actress, in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013. He insists any sexual encounters were consensual.
The 42-year-old Haleyi, whose legal name is Miriam Haley, is the first of the two women whose accusations are at the heart of the charges against Weinstein to take the stand at the closely watched #MeToo-era trial, which is in its fourth day of testimony.
Last week, “Sopranos’”actress Annabella Sciorra testified that Weinstein overpowered and raped her after barging into her apartment in the mid-1990s. While outside the statute of limitations for criminal charges, Sciorra’s allegations could be a factor as prosecutors look to prove Weinstein has engaged in a pattern of predatory behavior.
Haleyi went public with her allegations at an October 2017 news conference, appearing in front of cameras alongside lawyer Gloria Allred, who also represents Sciorra and other Weinstein accusers.
Haleyi, born in England and raised in Sweden, said she met Weinstein while in her 20s at the 2004 London premiere of the Leonardo DiCaprio film “The Aviator.” They crossed paths again at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and, when she expressed interest in working on one of his productions; he invited her to his hotel room and asked for a massage. She declined, saying she was “extremely humiliated.”
“I felt stupid because I was so excited to go see him and he treated me that way,” she testified.
More meetings followed, and Weinstein secured Haleyi a job helping on the set of “Project Runway,” the reality competition show he produced. Later, she said, he invited her to attend a fashion show in Paris, but she declined by bringing up his sketchy reputation.
The alleged assault occurred at Weinstein’s Soho apartment after he sent a car to pick Haleyi up for what she thought was a friendly meeting about her career, she said at the 2017 news conference.
Instead, she said, Weinstein pushed her onto a bed and forced his mouth onto her genitals. She said she tried to get him to stop, even telling him she was menstruating, but he wouldn’t relent.” I was mortified. I was in disbelief and disgusted,” she said.
In opening statements, Hast said there was a subsequent hotel room encounter that Haleyi didn’t reveal in 2017. Hast said that though Haleyi didn’t want to have intercourse with Weinstein, she kept still and “let him degrade her.”
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault, unless they agree to be named as Haleyi and Sciorra have.
In testifying, Haleyi will have to deal with a defense team that said it plans to confront Weinstein’s accusers with their own words, messages they exchanged with Weinstein well after the alleged assaults. Weinstein’s lawyers argue the positive-sounding emails and texts call into question the accusers’ accounts.
The jury of seven men and five women also heard testimony from Dr. Barbara Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist who said that most sex assault victims continue to have contact with their attackers, often under threat of retaliation if the victims tell anyone what happened.
Some of Haleyi’s messages were made public last year when Weinstein’s lawyers sought to get his case dismissed. One sent to Weinstein’s phone in 2007 reads: “Hi! Just wondering if u have any news on whether Harvey will have time to see me before he leaves? X Miriam.”
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For a city already familiar with losing a basketball hero, Kobe Bryant’s death made a particularly strong impact in the Italian town of Rieti.Nicknamed “the center of Italy” for its geographic location amid the Appenine Mountains, Rieti was the first stop on Bryant’s seven-year childhood tour of the country.It’s where Joe Bryant, Kobe’s father, made his Italian basketball debut in 1984 when Kobe was 6.”He was just a little kid,” Giuseppe Cattani, the president of the Rieti team and a former teammate of the older Bryant, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.”He had a unique vivaciousness. He followed his father around and would go out onto the court to shoot around at halftime and after his games,” Cattani added.”There were other kids, too, but you could already tell that he was going to be a great player.”As Joe Bryant jumped around from team to team in Italy – he also played in Reggio Calabria, Pistoia and Reggio Emilia – Kobe picked up the local language and spoke fluent Italian into adulthood.But the Bryants might not have ever made it to Italy if not for Willie Sojourner, another American player who spent six successful seasons with Rieti beginning in 1976.”Joe took over the legacy that was begun by Willie Sojourner, who really helped establish the team,” Cattani said of Sojourner, who had been Julius Erving’s teammate and good friend with the New York Nets – and came up with Erving’s nickname, “Dr. J.””Willie Sojourner was Rieti’s basketball godfather. Nobody wanted to mess with “Zio Willie” (Uncle Willie), as we called him,” Cattani said. “Back then when Americans came to play in Italy they were really viewed as legends. They taught us how basketball was played on the other side of the ocean. All the kids back then, like me – I was on the youth team – would look up to these players in awe.”Sojourner returned to Rieti in 2005 to coach the club’s youth team but then died in a car accident a month later on a rainy night by crashing into a tree on a twisty road. He was 57.Kobe Bryant, an 18-time NBA All-Star who won five championships and became one of the greatest basketball players of his generation during a 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, died Sunday with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, California. He was 41.”It’s tragic when you lose these champions,” Cattani said. “It felt like we lost a family member last night. The entire city.”Tragedy, unfortunately, is common in the Rieti region, which is still recovering from the 2016 earthquake that destroyed nearby Amatrice.Rieti was once home to a prestigious international athletics meeting, where Asafa Powell set a world record in the 100 meters in 2007. But since the quake and all of the region’s resources poured into the recovery, the meet has not been held.The headlines of the local newspapers in Rieti on Monday read: “The city is in mourning. Kobe Bryant, who grew up in Rieti, is dead.””It’s like we’ve lost our superhero,” Cattani said. “He was an icon to us, like Spider-Man or Superman. One of these superheroes who can’t die. On the basketball court, they’re immortal.”The Italian basketball federation said Monday it has ordered a minute’s silence to be observed for all games “in every category for the entire week.””It’s a small but heartfelt and deserved gesture to honor the life and memory of Kobe Bryant, an absolute champion who always had Italy in his heart,” the federation said. “Kobe was and will always be linked to our country.”IOC President Thomas Bach called Bryant “an outstanding and true Olympic champion” for helping the United States win two Olympic golds, adding that he also helped Los Angeles land the 2028 Games.In Italy, Cattani recalled Joe Bryant’s exploits.”There were several games when Joe scored more than 60 points. He was the type of player that coaches today wouldn’t like,” Cattani said. “He didn’t play according to any specific tactics – just like his son. If he wanted to, he would play virtually by himself.”The lessons that Kobe learned in Italy, though, made him a more complete player than his father.”Kobe always said that he learned the fundamentals and tactics in Italy,” Cattani said. “Whereas in the U.S. maybe you learn more about dribbling through your legs and behind your back and those other spectacular moves, we focus more on the fundamentals and tactics – sometimes excessively.”At its next home game on Feb. 5, Rieti is planning a tribute to Kobe and will symbolically retire his jersey. The ceremony will take place in the PalaSojourner, the team’s arena that was named after Sojourner a month after his funeral was held there with Dr. J among those in attendance.A grieving Joe Bryant will be among those invited to attend this time.
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Countries around the world are planning to evacuate diplomatic staff and private citizens from Chinese areas hit by the new coronavirus, which is spreading quickly.Wuhan, a city of 11 million people in the Chinese province of Hubei, is the epicentre of the outbreak. Wuhan is in virtual lockdown and much of Hubei, home to nearly 60 million people, is
under some kind of travel curb.
Following are some countries’ evacuation plans, and how they are planning to manage the health risk from those who are returning.
* France expects to repatriate up to a few hundred of its 800 citizens living in the Wuhan area. Evacuees will have to spend 14 days in quarantine to avoid spreading the virus in France.
* Japan is expected to arrange charter flights as early as Tuesday for any of its citizens who wish to return from Wuhan, two sources familiar with the matter said. Foreign Minister
Toshimitsu Motegi said about 430 Japanese nationals have been confirmed to be in Hubei province.
* Spain’s government is working with China and the European Union to repatriate Spanish nationals from the Wuhan area, Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said.
* The U.S. State Department said it will evacuate personnel from its Wuhan consulate to the United States and will offer a limited number of seats to private U.S. citizens on a flight.
Some private citizens will be able to board the “single flight” leaving Wuhan on Jan. 28 bound for San Francisco, it said.
* Britain is talking to international partners to find solutions to help British and other foreign nationals leave Wuhan, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
* Russia has been in talks with China about evacuating its nationals from Wuhan and Hubei province, Russia’s Embassy in China said.
* The Dutch government is assessing ways to evacuate 20 Dutch citizens from Wuhan, press agency ANP reported.
* Authorities in Myanmar said they had cancelled a planned evacuation of 60 students from Mandalay who were studying in Wuhan. Kyaw Yin Myint, a spokesman for the Mandalay municipal government, told Reuters that a “final decision” had been made to send them back after 14 days, once the virus’ incubation period had passed.
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Countries with citizens in the central Chinese city that’s the epicenter of a viral outbreak are planning evacuations as the number of illnesses grow and China takes drastic measures to try to stop the spread of the virus.A look at steps being taken:
— CHINA: The government cut transportation links to and from the city of Wuhan on Jan. 22 and has since expanded those controls to several nearby cities. Anyone traveling from Wuhan is required to register and quarantine themselves for 14 days — the virus’ maximum incubation period. Hong Kong barred entry to travelers from Hubei province and told Hong Kong residents returning from the area to quarantine themselves at home.FILE – Pedestrians wear protective masks in Tokyo, Jan. 16, 2020.— JAPAN: Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said 560 Japanese citizens are confirmed in Hubei and chartered evacuation flights are being prepared to leave “as soon as possible.”
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing said the initial evacuation is limited to those in Wuhan. Evacuees are expected to include employees of Honda Motor Co., Tokyo Electron, Aeon Co. and other Japanese companies operating in Wuhan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his Cabinet will designate the new coronavirus as an infectious disease subject to forced hospitalization and isolation. Such preventative measures appear to be preparation for the evacuation.
— UNITED STATES: The U.S. Consulate in Wuhan plans a charter flight Tuesday to evacuate its personnel and some other Americans. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said the limited capacity on the flight to San Francisco meant priority will be given to to individuals at greater risk from coronavirus.”
— FRANCE: Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said French citizens who want to leave Wuhan will be taken on a direct flight to France in the middle of the week, and then held in quarantine for 14 days. French automaker PSA, which produces Peugeot and Citroen cars, said it was evacuating its expatriate employees and their families from Wuhan and quarantining them in another city. It didn’t elaborate.
— SRI LANKA: The embassy in Beijing has applied for a Sri Lankan Airlines plan to be allowed to land at the Wuhan airport to airlift home 32 Sri Lankan students and their family members. The Foreign Ministry also said it was working to bring back all other Sri Lankan students throughout China. About 860 Sri Lankan students are in China.
— AUSTRALIA: Foreign Minister Marise Payne said her government is “exploring all opportunities” to help with evacuation of a number of Australians reportedly in Wuhan. She didn’t elaborate. Australia doesn’t have a consular presence in Wuhan.
— GERMANY: Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that his country is considering evacuating its citizens from Wuhan, with a government crisis response committee meeting soon with medical experts to evaluate the situation. He said the number of German citizens in Wuhan is in the double digits. The Foreign Ministry currently advises Germans to refrain from or postpone “non-essential travel” to China.
— THAILAND: Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said his country’s Defense Ministry was ready to evacuate its citizens from affected areas in China, but hadn’t yet received permission from the Chinese government. The Thai Foreign Ministry, which is handling the issue, announced that there are 64 Thais in Wuhan, and 18 others elsewhere in Hubei province.
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