Fidel Castro honored by thousands in Havana; Obama absent as world leaders join in

November 30, 2016

Havana, Nov 30: Cuba's leftist allies and Washington's top diplomat in Havana joined a sprawling throng of Cubans at a rally on Tuesday to commemorate Fidel Castro, the man who built a Communist state on the doorstep of the United States. Castro died on Friday at age 90, a decade after ceding control to his younger brother Raul Castro, 85.

fidel

With Raul Castro at his side, the charismatic Fidel Castro led the bearded rebels who seized power in a 1959 revolution and ruled the island in the face of US opposition that endured until President Barack Obama reversed course in 2014 and set out to restore diplomatic relations.

For many, especially in Latin America and Africa, Castro was a symbol of resistance to imperialism, having ousted a U.S.-backed dictator, and a champion of the poor. Others, including many in the large Cuban exile community in Miami, have condemned him as a tyrant who jailed opponents and ruined the economy through socialism.

Chants of “Viva Fidel!” resounded as tens of thousands massed in Havana's Revolution Square on Tuesday evening to pay homage to Castro. “United, the people will never be defeated!” rang another.

Raul Castro embraced ideological ally, visiting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as the ceremony got underway.

“To weigh the success or failure of Cuba's economic model without factoring in the more than 50-year-long criminal (U.S.) embargo, is pure hypocrisy,” Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said in a tribute to Fidel Castro.

The White House announced on Tuesday Obama would not send a presidential delegation. Instead, the United States will be represented by Jeffrey DeLaurentis, chief diplomat at the U.S. embassy in Havana, and Ben Rhodes, an Obama aide who represented the United States in 18 months of secret talks that led to detente.

That rapprochement is now threatened by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20 and who has spoken of resuming Washington's hard line unless the government makes political changes, the kind of pressure the Castro brothers always fiercely resisted.

DeLaurentis was head of the U.S. interests section in Havana when it was upgraded to an embassy in July 2015 and has been nominated by Obama to be named ambassador. White House spokesman Josh Earnest called Rhodes “the principal interlocutor with the Cuban government from the White House” on normalization.

Many leaders of Latin America's left, including Maduro and Bolivian President Evo Morales, flew in to attend the ceremony in the same space where Castro once delivered rousing, marathon speeches.

African leaders included Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and South African President Jacob Zuma, who paid Castro a tribute of his own. The late Nelson Mandelarepeatedly thanked Castro for his efforts in helping overturn apartheid in South Africa.

Mugabe, 92, himself a former Marxist guerrilla who has led Zimbabwe as prime minister or president since 1980 despite financial and health crises, praised Fidel Castro's government for having trained thousands of Zimbabwean doctors and teachers.

“Fidel was not just your leader. He was our leader and the leader of all revolutionaries. We followed him, listened to him and tried to emulate him,” Mugabe told reporters as he arrived in Havana,

“Farewell, dear brother. Farewell, revolutionary,” he said.

Few leaders from the world's major powers are heading to the Caribbean island, with many sending second-tier officials instead.

China has sent Vice President Li Yuanchao, while Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Cuban embassy in Beijing to pay his condolences, China's foreign ministry said

Russian President Vladimir Putin has skipped the ceremony but described Castro as a “true friend of Russia.” The Kremlin said he held a different view on his legacy to that of Trump, who has called the Cuban leader “a brutal dictator.”

The Cuban government, still essentially dedicated to Fidel Castro's political vision despite some economic reforms under Raul Castro, has declared nine days of mourning. That has included a two-day commemoration in Havana, where tens of thousands of Cubans have waited in long lines to pay their respects in Revolution Square.

Some in tears or wrapped in the Cuban flag, mourners have filed past Castro's favorite portrait of himself, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a rifle. Many state employees and school children came together in groups.

A caravan carrying Castro's ashes will depart Havana on Wednesday en route to the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, his final resting place, in a reversal of the journey he took with the rebel army that overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

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News Network
May 9,2020

Islamabad, May 9: A female doctor posted at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Mother and Child Hospital (MCH), who was tested Covid-19 positive, has exposed Pakistan's mismanagement in handling the patients affected with the deadly virus.

Identified herself as Dr. Sharbat, she made a video of herself locked in an isolated room when the authorities failed to provide any medical assistance to her.

According to Pakistani media, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) and the operating theatre in the Children's Hospital were sealed on Tuesday after 15 people from both facilities were diagnosed with Covid-19.

Dr. Sharbat said that despite having Covid-19 symptoms after her colleague doctor was tested positive, she was forced to perform duty by the hospital authorities.

After she tested positive, Dr. Sharbat has isolated herself in a room and has requested the hospital authorities to provide her a bed in the hospital.

She said, "I am isolated in a small room. There is no toilet and other facilities at this place. I have requested the authorities several times to provide me proper bed because I cannot go home as my son and father is there. I have no other place to go. Its been several hours now and the administration is busy doing meetings. They have no idea about my location. I have called the concerned officials several times and requested for a room in the hospital, but they said that they are looking for it. This is the kind of arrangements we have that a doctor, who was serving the patients, is not able to get proper care".

Dr Sharbat said that she is feeling depressed after seeing the response of authorities tackling with Covid-19 crisis in the country.

She added, "It is unfortunate that the government salutes [health professionals] but is not willing to provide isolation rooms."

Pakistan's position in the global ranking in respect of Covid-19 dropped from 24th to 22nd after the number of positive cases increased to 26,806 (till May 08) with the addition of 1,791 new cases.

However, the National Coordination Committee (NCC), chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, had decided to substantially ease the lockdown from Saturday after detailed deliberations and consultations with the provinces.

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News Network
May 15,2020

May 15: Global tensions simmered over the race for a coronavirus vaccine Thursday, as the United States and China traded jabs, and France slammed pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi for suggesting the US would get any eventual vaccine first.

Scientists are working at breakneck speed to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, which has killed more than 300,000 people worldwide and pummelled economies.

From the US to Europe to Asia, national and local governments are easing lockdown orders to get people back to work -- while fretting over a possible second wave of infections.

Increased freedom of movement means an increased risk of contracting the virus, and so national labs and private firms are labouring to find the right formula for a vaccine.

The European Union's medicines agency offered some hope when it said one could be ready in a year, based on data from clinical trials already underway.

But Marco Cavaleri, the EMA's head of vaccines strategy, acknowledged that timeline was a "best-case scenario," and cautioned that "there may be delays."

The race for a vaccine has exposed a raw nerve in relations between the United States and China, where the virus was first detected late last year in the central city of Wuhan.

Two US agencies warned Wednesday that Chinese hackers were trying to steal COVID-19 vaccine research -- a claim Beijing rejected as "smearing" its reputation.

US President Donald Trump, who has ratcheted up the rhetoric against China, said he doesn't even want to engage with Chinese leader Xi Jinping -- potentially imperilling a trade deal between the world's top two economies.

"I'm very disappointed in China. I will tell you that right now," he said in an interview with Fox Business.

"There are many things we could do. We could do things. We could cut off the whole relationship."

On Capitol Hill, an ousted US health official told Congress that the Trump government had no strategy in place to find and distribute a vaccine to millions of Americans, warning of the "darkest winter" ahead.

"We don't have a single point of leadership right now for this response, and we don't have a master plan," said Rick Bright, who was removed last month as head of the US agency charged with developing a coronavirus vaccine.

The United States has registered nearly 86,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 -- the highest toll of any nation.

World leaders were among 140 signatories to a letter published Thursday saying any vaccine should not be patented and that the science should be shared among nations.

"Governments and international partners must unite around a global guarantee which ensures that, when a safe and effective vaccine is developed, it is produced rapidly at scale and made available for all people, in all countries, free of charge," it said.

But a row erupted in France after drugmaker Sanofi said it would reserve first shipments of any vaccine it discovered to the United States.

The comments prompted a swift rebuke from the French government -- President Emmanuel Macron's office said any vaccine should be treated as "a global public good, which is not submitted to market forces."

Sanofi chief executive Paul Hudson said the US had a risk-sharing model that allowed for manufacturing to start before a vaccine had been finally approved -- while Europe did not.

"The US government has the right to the largest pre-order because it's invested in taking the risk," Hudson told Bloomberg News.

Macron's top officials are scheduled to meet with Sanofi executives about the issue next week.

The search for a vaccine became even more urgent after the World Health Organization said the disease may never go away and the world would have to learn to live with it for good.

"This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away," said Michael Ryan, the UN body's emergencies director.

The prospect of the disease lingering leaves governments facing a delicate balancing act between suppressing the pathogen and getting their economies up and running.

In the US, more grim economic data emerged Thursday, with nearly three million more Americans applying for unemployment benefits.

That takes the overall total to 36.5 million -- more than 10 percent of the US population.

Further signs of the damage to businesses emerged when Lloyd's of London forecast the pandemic will cost the global insurance industry about $203 billion.

European markets closed down, but Wall Street rallied despite the new jobless claims. In a sign of progress, the New York Stock Exchange trading floor was due to reopen on May 26.

The reopening of economies continued in earnest across Europe, where the EU has set out proposals for a phased restart of travel and the eventual lifting of border controls.

"Maybe it's a mistake, but we have no choice. Without tourists, we won't get by!" Enrico Facchetti, a 61-year-old former goldsmith, said of Venice's reopening.

Japan -- the world's third largest economy -- lifted a state of emergency across most of the country except for Tokyo and Osaka.

And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said national parks would partially reopen on June 1.

But in Latin America, the virus continued to surge, with a 60 percent leap in cases in the Chilean capital of Santiago.

Authorities said 2,000 new graves were being dug at the main cemetery.

South Sudan reported its first COVID-19 death on Thursday.

And in Bangladesh, the first case was confirmed in the teeming Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, which are home to nearly one million people.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

New York, Aug 3: The number of coronavirus cases confirmed all over the world has surpassed 18 million, while the global COVID-19 death toll stands at over 687,000 according to data from the Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.

As of 06:00 Moscow time on Monday (03:00 GMT), there are 18,017,556 confirmed coronavirus cases in the world. The global death toll from COVID-19 stands at 687,930. The number of recovered individuals stands at 10,649,108.

The United States remains the country with the largest number of cases (4,665,932) and the highest COVID-19 death toll (154,841), according to the latest data from the Johns Hopkins University.

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