St David: Ten things about the Patron Saint of Wales

The patron saint of Wales was a teetotal vegetarian who was born in a storm

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Rejected by Jamaica, Caymans over virus fears, cruise ship docks in Mexico

A cruise ship turned away from Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after a crew member tested positive for flu has docked in Mexico and passengers will be allowed to disembark as long as "health standards" are met, the country's president said Thursday. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters that the Meraviglia, which has been anchored off Cozumel island in the Caribbean since Wednesday, "is being allowed to dock" and those aboard may be allowed off. The operator, MSC Cruises, lashed out at authorities for refusing to allow it to dock at its previous destinations for "acting out of fears" over the new coronavirus.

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Trump moves to calm virus fears after first death on US soil

US President Donald Trump moved to quell fears about the novel coronavirus after the first death on US soil was confirmed Saturday. The US fatality occurred in Washington State's King county, which includes Seattle, a city of more than 700,000 people, said health officials. The victim was not immediately identified, but Trump told reporters that the victim was a woman in her late 50s.

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Eight fighters with Lebanon's Hezbollah killed in Syria

Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group lost at least eight fighters in northwest Syria in skirmishes with insurgents and airstrikes by Turkey's air force, an opposition war monitor and the militant group said Saturday. The casualties followed the death of at least 33 Turkish soldiers earlier this week. The deaths marked the highest for the group in Syria in years as Hezbollah has pulled out many of its fighters from the neighboring country.

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Northern rail: Government takes over after chaos

The government takes over services from Sunday which were previously operated by Arriva Rail North.

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Coronavirus: Italian economy takes a body blow

Could Italy's health crisis be the factor that tips the country into another recession?

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Biden projected as winner in South Carolina, halting momentum of front-runner Sanders

Joe Biden was projected to win South Carolina's Democratic primary on Saturday, reviving his faltering White House campaign and halting the surge of national front-runner Bernie Sanders, who appeared headed to a distant second-place finish.

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Biden projected to win South Carolina Democratic presidential primary

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is projected to win the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary on Saturday and is expected to defeat rival Bernie Sanders decisively for his first victory of the 2020 election campaign, according an analysis of exit polls by Edison Research.

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Washington state man becomes first U.S. coronavirus fatality

A Washington state man in his 50s with underlying health issues became the United States' first fatality from the coronavirus, officials said on Saturday, as the Trump administration stepped up efforts to combat the spread of the global outbreak.

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Weinstein stir crazy at New York hospital days after sex crimes conviction, spokesman says

Harvey Weinstein is sitting under guard in a cinderblock room at a New York City hospital days after his conviction for sexual assault and rape, and at times "can go stir crazy just staring at the emptiness," according to a spokesman.

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Clyburn's endorsement of Biden 'a factor' for a majority of South Carolina voters: poll

Voters in South Carolina's Democratic primary on Saturday appeared to be more moderate than those who took part in earlier presidential nominating contests, and a majority said a senior black congressman's endorsement of Joe Biden influenced their vote, according to exit polling by Edison Research.

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Bloomberg in South Carolina: Not on the ballot and not liked - poll

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was not on the ballot in Saturday's Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina, but he was still on voters' minds - and not in a good way.

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South Carolina primary: Joe Biden projected to win

It comes as a major boost to the former vice-president's flagging presidential campaign.

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Berlin International Film Festival: Iranian film about executions wins top prize

Director Mohammad Rasoulof is banned from leaving Iran and filmed There Is No Evil in secret.

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Afghan conflict: What will Taliban do after signing US deal?

A sense of cautious optimism is rising, but Afghanistan's political future is yet to be decided.

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Greece pushes back migrants after Turkish border 'onslaught'

Greek police fired teargas to push back hundreds of stone-throwing migrants trying to cross the border from Turkey on Saturday, as a crisis over Syria shifted onto the European Union's doorstep. Greece, which has tense relations with Turkey, accused Ankara of sending the migrants to the border post in an organized "onslaught" and said it would keep them out. Turkey said on Thursday it would stop keeping hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers in its territory after an air strike on Idlib in neighboring Syria killed 33 Turkish soldiers.

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U.S.-Taliban sign landmark agreement in bid to end America's longest war

The U.S. has agreed to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan within 14 months and pull out of five bases in 135 days.

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Ex-Phoenix area sheriff declares victory despite court loss

Former Phoenix-area Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost a bid to erase his criminal conviction for disobeying a 2011 court order, but claimed victory Thursday after an appeal's court said the verdict no longer has any legal consequence because of President Donald Trump's pardon. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals explained Arpaio was pardoned before he could be sentenced and that the final judgment in the case ended up dismissing the contempt charge. “They can’t use that conviction against me in a court of law,” Arpaio said.

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Most Coronavirus Cases Are Mild. That's Good and Bad News.

HONG KONG -- As a dangerous new coronavirus has ravaged China and spread throughout the rest of the world, the outbreak's toll has sown fear and anxiety. Nearly 3,000 deaths. More than 82,000 cases. Six continents infected.But government officials and medical experts, in their warnings about the epidemic, have also sounded a note of reassurance: Although the virus can be deadly, the vast majority of those infected so far have only mild symptoms and make full recoveries.It is an important factor to understand, medical experts said, both to avoid an unnecessary global panic and to get a clear picture of the likelihood of transmission."Many people are now panicking, and some actually are exaggerating the risks," said Dr. Jin Dongyan, a virology expert at the University of Hong Kong. "For governments, for public health professionals -- they also have to deal with these, because these will also be harmful."Much about the virus remains unknown, and the danger could intensify as it travels through the rest of the world. But based on existing information, here's what experts said about the severity of the virus.More than 80% of cases are mild, one large study in China found.Of the 44,672 coronavirus cases that were confirmed in China by Feb. 11, more than 36,000 -- or 81% -- were mild, according to a study published recently by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.Cases were considered mild if they did not involve pneumonia, defined as infection of the lungs, or involved only mild pneumonia, the authors wrote in the study, which is among the largest to date of the new coronavirus.There were two other categories of cases, severe and critical. Severe cases featured shortness of breath, low blood oxygen saturation or other lung problems. Critical cases featured respiratory failure, septic shock or multiple organ dysfunction.Just under 14% of patients were severe and just under 5% critical.The overall fatality rate in China was 2.3%. But that number was inflated by the much higher fatality rate in Hubei province of 2.9%, compared with a rate of just 0.4% in the rest of the country. The seasonal flu, by comparison, has a mortality rate of about 0.1%.The true fatality rate could be even lower, given that many mild or asymptomatic cases may not have been reported to authorities.A mild case may look like the common cold.Mild cases are inherently difficult for scientists to describe because those with limited symptoms may not seek medical care. Scientists have also said that people can be infected but not show any symptoms at all.For many with mild infections, the coronavirus could be virtually indistinguishable from the common cold or seasonal flu, said Jin of the University of Hong Kong."Some of these patients, they just go unrecognized," he said. "It could be just as small as a sore throat. Then one day, two days, it's gone."Even among patients who do go see a doctor, "it could still be very mild, just like a flu," he added.As the Chinese Center for Disease Control's study showed, some mild cases may involve pneumonia. They may also include mild fatigue and low fever, according to a treatment plan released by the central Chinese government.A small study of 99 confirmed coronavirus patients in Wuhan, China, published in the medical journal The Lancet found that most of the patients had fever or cough when they were admitted to the hospital, and some had shortness of breath or muscle ache. The study did not distinguish between mild, severe and critical cases.Most people with mild infections recover.There is no doubt that the virus can be dangerous, especially for critical cases. Of those patients, 49% died, according the study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control.But critical cases made up just a tiny fraction of the total caseload in the study.By Thursday, of the 78,487 confirmed cases in China, 32,495, or 41%, had been discharged from the hospital, according to China's National Health Commission. About 8,300 of the remaining patients were in serious condition. More than 2,700 people have died in China.Many of the deaths have occurred in Hubei province, where the outbreak began and where the demand for care has overwhelmed medical staff. The high mortality rate there could have dangerous implications for developing countries. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, has warned repeatedly of the toll the virus could exact in places with weak health systems.But for mild cases, the virus is likely "self-limiting," Jin said, meaning that symptoms will go away on their own, as with the flu and common cold.But the plethora of mild cases can make containment more difficult.The number of mild cases, though, creates its own complications for curbing the virus's spread.Those with mild or no symptoms may not know they have contracted the virus or may pass it off as a seasonal cold. They may then continue in their daily lives -- traveling, kissing, coming into close contact with others -- and spread the virus without anyone knowing."In this manner, a virus that poses a low health threat on the individual level can pose a high risk on the population level, with the potential to cause disruptions of global public health systems and economic losses," a group of five scientists wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine last week.There are, broadly speaking, two possible outcomes of the current outbreak, Jin said. The new virus could, like SARS, another well-known coronavirus, become less and less transmissible as it spreads around the world, eventually dying out.Alternatively, the new coronavirus could become well established in humans, becoming a kind of recurring seasonal nuisance like the flu, Jin said. In that situation, people would learn to live with it and sometimes would contract illnesses from it, but the virus would most likely also lose some of its dangerousness as time went on. Experts could also develop a vaccine, Jin added.Even mild cases could provide immunity from future infection.Several medical experts have said that those who have been infected with the coronavirus will not become infected again, as their bodies will produce antibodies that provide immunity."As long as the virus doesn't evolve, there is no chance of being infected again," Dr. Lu Hongzhou, a public health professor in Shanghai, said Tuesday in an interview with Beijing News.And that immunity should extend even to those who had mild or even asymptomatic infections. "Anyone recovered from the infection should have useful antibodies," Jin said.The body's natural immune response is the reason Chinese authorities have asked recovered patients to donate blood plasma, in the hopes that their antibodies could be used to treat sick patients. The government has also prescribed antiviral drugs and traditional Chinese medicine as treatment methods.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

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An electrician, Navy veteran, and father of two small children are among the Molson Coors shooting victims

Poilice have identified the six people killed Wednesday at the Molson Coors beverage company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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After chemical attack and kidnapping, migrant mom tries again to enter U.S.

“They’re putting us at risk,” the asylum-seeker said. “After all we’ve been through.”

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What Does Israel Have To Fear From Syria's Tunnels?

Is Syria taking a cue from Hezbollah?

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Joe Biden to win South Carolina vote - US media

It comes as a major boost to the former vice-president's flagging presidential campaign.

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I've taken 6 flights in a month throughout Asia as the coronavirus spreads — here's how the outbreak forced me to change how I travel

In the last four weeks, I've taken six fights throughout Asia – half domestic, half international. Here is what I have learned.

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Panel seeks censure, coaching for foul-mouthed Kansas judge

A foul-mouthed Kansas judge who cursed at courthouse employees so often that a trial clerk kept a “swear journal” documenting his outbursts should be publicly censured and receive professional coaching, but not kicked off the bench, a disciplinary panel recommended Friday. The Kansas Commission on Judicial Conduct unanimously concluded that Montgomery County Judge F. William Cullins violated central judicial canons of independence, integrity and impartiality. Its recommendations will be sent to the Kansas Supreme Court, which will ultimately decide his fate.

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Pence Says He’s in Charge of U.S. Virus Response, Not HHS’s Azar

(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Mike Pence said he is now leading the government’s coronavirus task force instead of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.“I’m leading the task force,” Pence said Thursday at a meeting on the virus at HHS headquarters. “We’ll continue to rely on the secretary’s role as chairman of the task force and the leader of Health and Human Services.”President Donald Trump initially appointed Azar to lead the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, but on Wednesday, he named Pence to the role at a news conference. The Washington Post reported that Azar was blindsided by the decision, though Azar said he had been consulted and told lawmakers he thought Pence’s appointment was “genius.”“The president has every confidence in the secretary, as I do,” Pence said in response to a reporter’s question about who is in charge. “The President wanted to make it clear to the American people that we’re going to bring a whole-of-government approach to this.”Financial markets were not reassured. The S&P 500 fell 4.4% on Thursday, the biggest plunge since 2011, turning lower after California Governor Gavin Newsom said the state is monitoring about 8,400 people for signs of the disease after they traveled to Asia.Pence added another layer to the government’s management of the virus response on Thursday by appointing the State Department’s top AIDS official, Deborah Birx, to temporarily join his team.Former Obama OfficialBirx is a career government official who was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2014 as the U.S. global AIDS coordinator responsible for overseeing humanitarian aid programs combating the epidemic. She also served as head of the global HIV/AIDS division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was a top research official at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.Trump announced Wednesday during a news conference that Pence would take over the administration’s response to the coronavirus, which has now spread to more than 80,000 people worldwide and sparked a major sell-off on Wall Street.Pence and Azar announced earlier Thursday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams and Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, would join the administration’s coronavirus task force.Pence said in a speech to conservative activists at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Maryland that it’s not a time for partisanship.“We’re ready,” he said. “We’re ready for anything.”The president sought to calm U.S. fears by appearing Wednesday with public health officials at a news conference, where he said the risk to Americans remains low. But health officials said there are likely to be more cases in the U.S., and Trump acknowledged that the outbreak could become “substantially worse.”“But nothing’s inevitable,” he said.Market TumbleDuring the news conference, he took jabs at Democrats who had criticized his request for $2.5 billion to fight the virus as insufficient. He said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “is trying to create a panic and there’s no reason to panic because we have done so good, these professionals behind me, and over here, and over there, and back here, and in some conference rooms.”Global stocks tumbled to four-month lows on Thursday, government debt yields sunk and crude oil extended declines as anxiety over the spread of the coronavirus surged.Pence’s selection of Birx comes at a time when Trump has focused on rooting out political appointees from government whom he considers disloyal in the aftermath of his impeachment acquittal. Trump allies outside the administration have called for a purge of so-called “deep state” career national security officials.Investors anxious about the spread of the coronavirus from its origins in China have sought assurances that the Trump administration is prepared to confront a potential public health crisis. Trump, who in the past has called for budget cuts at the CDC and other health agencies, said Wednesday he would bring in officials from within the government to help with the virus response.(Updates with market plunge in fifth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net;Ryan Beene in Washington at rbeene@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin BlumFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Patient who wasn't immediately tested could be first coronavirus case without clear source

The patient did not fit CDC criteria for COVID-19, so a test was not immediately administered.

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Kremlin plays down hammer attack on exiled Chechen critic in Poland

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Buffalo diocese files for bankruptcy protection over hundreds of child sex abuse claims

The bulk of liabilities are judgments that the diocese expects to pay in child sexual abuse claims against its priests, nuns, brothers and deacons.

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Idaho targets transgender people, birth certificate changes

Idaho lawmakers moved forward Thursday with legislation banning transgender people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates despite a federal court ruling declaring such a ban unconstitutional. Ohio and Tennessee are the only other states in the country where transgender people cannot change their birth certificates, according to a law firm that has challenged the practice in court. In Idaho, this is another effort by the conservative state to target the population as Republicans in the House a day earlier advanced legislation to keep transgender women from competition.

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Trump 'could suck coronavirus out of 60,000 people' and he'd still be criticized – Huckabee

* Top Republican on Fox News defends Trump and Mike Pence * Vice-president leading coronavirus containment effort in US * Whistleblower: US coronavirus staff were untrained and unprotectedDonald Trump could “personally suck” the coronavirus “out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean”, a top Republican has claimed.Former Republican Arkansas governor and ex-presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made the outlandish statement on Twitter on Thursday night and on Fox News’ Fox & Friends show on Friday morning.> Mike Huckabee says Trump "could personally sick the virus out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean." pic.twitter.com/X7xbC5ebDz> > — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 28, 2020According to the World Health Organization (WHO) more than 82,000 cases of the coronavirus have in fact been confirmed worldwide, with about 2,800 deaths. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 60 confirmed cases in the US.In the US, Huckabee’s widely ridiculed comment followed the publication of a column for Fox News in which he took aim at criticism of Trump’s choice of Vice-President Mike Pence to lead US containment efforts.Critics have said Pence’s religious faith, plus the decisions he took as governor of Indiana on scientific and public health matters, make him a poor choice to lead efforts undermined by budget cuts and poor organization.Huckabee said Pence was “a proven leader who knows how to get people with different perspectives working together effectively” on public health matters including the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) outbreak of 2014.“Instead of calling for bipartisan cooperation in this life-or-death effort,” he wrote, “liberals reacted with collective outrage, even going so far as to ridicule the vice-president’s Christian faith as a way of suggesting that he’s not qualified for the role.“Numerous media outlets have also published and broadcast one-sided reports trashing Pence’s handling of an HIV outbreak as governor of Indiana, but such criticisms are both inaccurate and irrelevant.”The outbreak in question happened in 2015. Pence declared a public health emergency but many said faith-driven cuts to sexual health programs made the situation worse.Huckabee, the father of the former Trump press secretary Sarah Sanders, is not the first rightwing commentator to claim Democrats and the media are using concerns over the coronavirus outbreak to attack and undermine the president.Earlier this week, the conservative shock jock and presidential medal of freedom honoree Rush Limbaugh claimed “the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump” and said “the coronavirus is the common cold”.Some experts have criticised media coverage of the outbreak as inaccurate and potentially alarmist.According to the Guardian’s guide to the coronavirus, sufferers report “coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use … Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.”The outbreak began in China. The WHO has not yet declared it a pandemic but international markets, trade, travel and sporting events have been severely affected. In the US on Friday the Dow Jones Index plunged again, at the end of the markets’ worst week since the financial crisis of 2008.In Geneva, a WHO spokesman said: “The outbreak is getting bigger. The scenario of the coronavirus reaching multiple countries, if not all countries around the world, is something we have been looking at and warning against since quite a while.”

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Exclusive: U.S. postpones summit with ASEAN leaders amid coronavirus fears - sources

The United States has decided to postpone a meeting with leaders of Southeast Asian countries it had planned to host on March 14 due to worries about the coronavirus outbreak, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said on Friday.

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U.S. to push production of protective gear for coronavirus; new case confirmed in California

The United States will invoke a federal defense law to boost production of masks, gloves, gowns and other items to protect against the new coronavirus, the Trump administration said, as a new case was confirmed in California on Friday.

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Honeywell sees surge in demand for face masks in North America, China

Industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc said on Friday it was seeing a surge in demand for its protective face masks in North America, Europe, India and China, following the coronavirus outbreak.

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