Fake flyers telling diners to avoid Asian-American restaurants because of the coronavirus are among a spate of recent racist incidents linked to the outbreak, say California authorities. Coronavirus fears have spread even though the US has seen just 15 cases, over half in California. This week in Los Angeles bullies accused an Asian-American student of having the virus and badly beat him. The coronavirus has now reached 24 countries outside China.

Anxiety and misinformation related to the virus have fuelled anti-Asian prejudice, Los Angeles authorities said at a press conference. “Many may be quick to assume that just because someone is Asian or from China that somehow they are more likely to be carriers of the virus,” said Robin Toma, executive director of the LA County Human Relations Commission.(BBC)…[+]

US President Donald Trump has tweeted he has “the legal right” to intervene in criminal cases after his attorney general complained White House tweets were making his job “impossible”. In his post, Mr Trump also denied he had ever meddled in any cases. America’s top law officer William Barr on Thursday asked Mr Trump to stop his tweets, saying he would not be bullied. Mr Barr spoke out after Mr Trump renewed his attack on the criminal trial of his ex-adviser, Roger Stone. Prosecutors had recommended Stone serve a stiff sentence, but Mr Trump tweeted that was unfair. On Friday morning, Mr Trump ignored the attorney general’s plea to stop tweeting.

It is legally ambiguous whether the US president has the authority to order the attorney general to open or shut a case. The Department of Justice has been meant to operate without political interference since the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. Mr Trump has previously called for investigations into perceived enemies, such as former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. On Friday, Mr McCabe’s lawyers announced the justice department had closed its criminal inquiry into whether their client had lied to investigators about leaks to the media.

The New York Times meanwhile reported Mr Barr had appointed outside prosecutors to review the case against another Trump ally, Michael Flynn. Flynn, who was Mr Trump’s first national security adviser, previously pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in a federal inquiry, but later withdrew co-operation and is in the midst of trying to recant his plea.(BBC)…[+]

The Culpeper County 2A Facebook group had five rules. Rule one was “Get Busy – Follow the Action Plan and take the necessary steps to protect our rights. Sharing memes isn’t enough. We need coordinated action.”

Rule two was “Do Not Give Up – We’re in the fight of our lives. Act accordingly. Never surrender.” At some point in late January the rules changed, and rule two became “No racism”. But the basic purpose remained: Culpeper County 2A (the 2A stands for Second Amendment) was founded with the aim of resisting gun control bills working their way through the Virginia state legislature.

Similar groups are springing up across the state. Dozens of towns and counties are passing resolutions declaring themselves “second amendment sanctuaries” – a term borrowed from the “sanctuary cities” immigration movement of several years ago. The resolutions vary from county to county, but they broadly declare support for the second amendment and label the proposed state gun control laws as invalid. Democrats won control of the Virginia House and Senate in November for the first time in 24 years, and they immediately proposed a raft of gun control measures from universal background checks to restrictions on high capacity magazines. The bills came as no surprise – the Democrats had campaigned heavily on gun control, backed by funding from activist groups which comprehensively outspent the National Rifle Association in its home state.(BBC)…[+]

Anyone who’s travelled on London Underground’s network will know them – the little black mice that scurry along the platforms and under the rails. Sam Rowley was so fascinated by these subterranean rodents, he spent a week down the tube trying to picture them. And one night, he captured an image of two of them literally battling over a morsel of food dropped by a passenger. That persistence to get the snap has won Sam the Wildlife Photographer of the Year LUMIX People’s Choice award. Fans of the annual, internationally famous WPY competition were asked to rank some of the images that didn’t quite win its top prizes last October, but were nonetheless fabulous shots.(BBC)…[+]

A 52-year-old man has been charged with the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Londonderry. He is also charged with possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and professing to be a member of a proscribed organisation.

Ms McKee, who was 29, was observing rioting in Derry’s Creggan estate when she was shot on 18 April 2019. The 52-year-old, from Derry, is due to appear at Londonderry Magistrates’ Court on Thursday. Det Supt Jason Murphy said a number of individuals were involved with the gunman on the night Ms McKee was killed. “And while today is significant for the investigation the quest for the evidence to bring the gunman to justice remains active and ongoing,” he added.

Ms McKee was a writer and campaigner from Belfast who had only recently moved to Derry when she was killed.

She was standing near a police 4×4 vehicle on the night of 18 April 2019 when a masked gunman fired towards officers and onlookers. Regarded by many as a rising star in Northern Ireland media circles, she had written for many publications, including Buzzfeed, Private Eye, the Atlantic and Mosaic Science.(bbc)…[+]

The UN human rights office has issued a long-awaited report on companies linked to Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The report names 112 business entities the office says it has reasonable grounds to conclude have been involved in activities related to settlements. They include Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Motorola Solutions. The Palestinians said the report was a “victory for international law”, but Israel called it “shameful”.

About 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. The settlements are widely considered illegal under international law, though Israel has always disputed this. The Palestinians have long called for the removal of the settlements, arguing that their presence on land they claim for a future independent Palestinian state makes it almost impossible to make such a state a reality.(bbc)…[+]

A piano virtuoso is mourning the loss of her “best friend” after movers dropped her grand piano. Canadian Angela Hewitt is acclaimed as one of the world’s leading classical pianists. All of her European recordings since 2003 were performed on her Fazioli F278 concert grand piano, which was the only one in the world to have four pedals.

She says two weeks ago movers came into her recording studio to tell her they had “dropped” it. The piano was kept at her home in Italy, and pianopricepoint.com estimates it is worth over $200,000 (£155,000). Her use of the piano is noted on the Fazioli website.(BBC)…[+]

Mexicans are expressing their outrage over the brutal murder of a young woman stabbed to death by her partner.

Ingrid Escamilla, 25, was killed by the man she lived with, who also mutilated and skinned parts of her body in an attempt to dispose of the evidence. Femicides, gender-based killings of women, have been on the rise in Mexico with more than 700 cases currently being investigated. Activists say the number of women killed for their gender is much higher. According to official figures, 3,142 women were killed in Mexico in the first 10 months of 2019. Of those, 726 cases are being treated as femicides, a number women’s rights activists argue is too low.(BBC)…[+]

Mounting protests over a Canadian natural gas pipeline have led to dozens of arrests, buildings occupied and more than 150 train cancellations. The Coastal GasLink pipeline project would make it easier to export natural gas in British Columbia. But its route cuts through indigenous Canadian land. Several indigenous camps have been set up to block access to construction sites, sparking solidarity protests that have swept across the country.

Coastal GasLink says it has reached deals with 20 elected indigenous councils along the route to move ahead with construction, including Wet’suwet’en band councils, coming to agreements on training, employment, and community investment. Former Wet’suwet’en elected Chief Ray Morris of the Nee Tahi Buhn band told the Canadian Press last January that his elected council signed the agreement to get funds for things like education and elder care.

“We’re no different than any other human, we have the same needs as you do,” he said. (BBBut Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs oppose it and say they, not the community’s elected officials, hold authority over traditional lands, warning the project will cause pollution and endanger wildlife.(BBC)…[+]

Since the announcement of the outbreak of 2019 n-CoV in China, PAHO has worked very closely with the Ministry of Health in providing technical support for the preparedness and response for managing such an event in Suriname. Support has been provided with guidance documents to strengthen surveillance for respiratory illnesses, revision of Standard Operating procedures and enhancing infection prevention and control in hospitals.

During the period 4 – 6 of February 2020, the PAHO Suriname Office received a mission from the PAHO Health Emergency Team in the Regional Office in Washington, DC. The team provided the Central Laboratory of the BOG with reagents for molecular testing (PCR) for the 2019-nCoV that included primers, probes, and positive controls and facilitated the training of laboratory technologists in conducting the screening and confirmatory tests for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. With this provision of reagents and training, as of February 5, 2019, in the context of the Emergency Response to the 2019-nCoV in the Region of the Americas,  Suriname became the first CARICOM country and the third in the Region of the Americas with the capacity for molecular diagnosis of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.

In preparing to respond to events with potential public health impact, Suriname’s Ministry of Health public health officers and surveillance staff from Nickerie and Paramaribo sentinel hospitals for severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) surveillance, were also trained in outbreak response to and investigation of respiratory events, including the 2019-nCoV, also conducted by the PAHO PHE mission team. This will further improve their ability to rapidly identify, investigate, and respond to outbreaks of respiratory infections

In addition, as part of respiratory virus virologic surveillance, the BOG Central Laboratory, based on the strong laboratory response capacity including its high performance of annual 100% score in the WHO External Quality Assessment Program (EQAP) for influenza molecular diagnostics has been assessed with the WHO official tools to advance the process of  the National Influenza Center (NIC)  to become an officially recognized laboratory within the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.

Suriname’s rapid response plan was also reviewed, in a continued effort to improve the ability to rapidly and effectively respond to disease outbreaks. Although no case of 2019-nCov has been confirmed in Suriname to date, these activities supported by PAHO have contributed significantly to the Ministry of Health’s preparedness activities for this Public Health Emergency of International Concern…[+]