The World Health Organization reports there is no evidence of human-to-human spread of the new coronavirus that has sickened dozens, but says the possibility cannot be ruled out.   
Investigations are continuing, aimed at identifying  the source of the new Coronavirus.  Late last year, China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause.  Many were linked to a fish market in Wuhan, central China’s largest city.  The World Health Organization reports 41 people have been infected with the disease in China, including two deaths.  

Additionally, two infections have been identified in Thailand and one in Japan among people who had traveled to Wuhan.  The spread of the disease outside of China is raising concern among health officials and the general public.  
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that range from the common cold to MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, and SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.  They can be spread from animals to humans, but also from human to human.  
Maria Van Kerkhove, the head of WHO’s Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Unit, notes transmission between humans was limited during previous MERS and SARS outbreaks.  However, she warns disease spread can be amplified, particularly in health care facilities.
“There is also the possibility of super-spreading events.  The global community is very familiar with what happened with SARS in the past and this is something that is on our radar that is possible and what we need to prepare ourselves for,” said Van Kerkhove.
The 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, which originated in China, infected more than 8,000 people globally and killed 774.  Van Kerkhove says it is important to identify the pathogen and find the source of the outbreak, including the animal source.
“We need to better understand the modes of transmission.  I mentioned the zoonotic transmission.  So, how are people getting infected from a potential animal source,” said Van Kerkhove. “And, is there any evidence of human-to-human transmission.  From the information that we have, it is possible that there is limited human-to-human transmission, potentially among families.  But it is very clear right now, that we have no sustained human-to-human transmission.”

A new scientific study in Britain indicates the coronavirus outbreak may be more serious than reported.  The British experts report as many as 1,700 people may have been sickened by the disease, which can range from mild respiratory symptoms to severe disease and death.  
International airports in the United States and a number of countries in Asia, including Hong Kong, Thailand, and Malaysia, have stepped up screening procedures of travelers coming from China.  
The World Health Organization urges countries to be vigilant, but does not advise any travel restrictions.  

…

Russian President Vladimir Putin played it differently this time.
Instead of openly declaring plans to extend his rule like he did in 2011, Putin proposed constitutional amendments to appear to give more power to Russia’s parliament.
Instead of announcing the move as a fait accompli, he said the people should vote and decide.
And then he executed a swift, unexpected reshuffle of Russia’s leadership, putting a low-profile official with no political aims in charge of the government.
Putin announced what many see as a strategy for staying in power well past the end of his term in 2024. And the proposed constitutional reforms that might allow him to remain in charge as prime minister or as head of the State Council didn’t elicit much public outrage.
Neither did the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister, whom Putin quickly replaced with the little-known tax chief, Mikhail Mishustin.
There was a smattering of calls for protest: One opposition supporter urged people to join his one-man picket in front of the Presidential Administration on Saturday, while another called for protesters to turn out against the “constitutional coup” at a Sunday rally in honor of two slain activists.
It was very different from what happened in 2011-2012, when efforts to engineer Putin’s return to the presidency crushed Russian hopes for liberalization and sparked massive protests in Moscow.
In his speech Wednesday, Putin presented his plan to amend the constitution as a way to improve democracy. By suggesting that lawmakers could name prime ministers and Cabinet members, he also curtailed the authority of the president, who currently holds that power.
Putin also said the constitution could specify a greater role for the State Council, an obscure consultative body of regional governors and federal officials, indicating that he might take a leading position there.
He also sought to prioritize the primacy of Russian laws, so that the European Court of Human Rights would no longer have the authority to issue rulings that Moscow opposed.
All this would “strengthen the role of civil society, political parties and regions in making key decisions about the development of our state,” Putin said Thursday in discussing the amendments with lawmakers.
New Prime Minister Mishustin was praised by government officials and commentators as an “effective manager” with expertise in finance who would be able to drive Russia’s stagnating economy out of a slump.
Many Russians might see that as a positive change rather than a sophisticated political plot. According to a survey released Friday by Russia’s state-funded pollster VTsIOM, 45% of the respondents saw the shakeup as Putin’s genuine desire to change the existing power structure.
But opposition leaders like Alexei Navalny said the changes are not the kind that people are looking for. Putin is looking to “remain a lifelong, ultimate leader” and run Russia as “property” divided between himself and his backers, Navalny tweeted.
And the announced changes do nothing to address what Russians really want, said Navalny ally Lyubov Sobol.
“People demand to end corruption, people demand to improve their living conditions. They demand a reform of the health care system, they’re worried about pension reform. All these demands, they are not going anywhere,” Sobol told The Associated Press.
Vladimir Milov, an opposition politician, echoed that sentiment. Russians are willing to put up with worsened living conditions if they see potential for growth in the future — but Putin’s address shows he’s not interested in that, he said.
“This is the main conflict between Putin and society right now,” Milov said. “Society can’t wait for economic growth to start again, and Putin doesn’t care, he’s occupied with other things. At some point, this will backfire.”
Still, the announced constitutional reforms are unlikely to trigger a new wave of protests.
“All recent protests happened when discontent that has been building up for a while spilled out, triggered by something. Amending the constitution is unlikely to be a trigger,” Milov said.
Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the independent Levada polling center, said the government shakeup is so vague it is unlikely to spur public anger.
“What is happening is not clear. Is this about a presidency? About some other governing body? It is unclear what people should express their unhappiness about,” Volkov said. “It is hard to protest against something that’s unclear.”
In addition, Volkov noted, back in 2011-2012 Putin’s approval ratings were much lower — more than half of the country wanted him out. “Right now there is no urge to replace the country’s leader,” he said.
And the question remains whether the opposition will be able to galvanize people to protest. The Kremlin last year turned up the pressure on activists and politicians, sandbagging them with high-figure fines and exhausting them with arrests and trials.
There are several criminal cases open against Sobol and other Navalny allies. Sobol said she owes the government more than $400,000 in fines, and expects more fines to be imposed on opposition figures.
“There is a high probability that political pressure on us will continue this year,” she said.
Still, Sobol vowed the opposition will continue the fight — by protesting, contesting the government’s actions in court and exposing corrupt officials.
On Thursday, Navalny said in a post online that Mishustin’s wife earned some $12 million over the past nine years, according to her tax returns, even though she never owned nor ran a business. He demanded answers from Mishustin, who headed Russia’s tax service until he was named prime minister this week, and alleged there was corruption involved.
Dmitry Gudkov, a former lawmaker turned opposition politician, believes an early parliamentary election is likely, since he says the Kremlin would want the vote to be this year instead of next.
“They’re in a rush and want to (pass the proposed constitutional amendments) with the sitting parliament, which they fully control,” Gudkov. “Clearly that changes our strategy.”

…

U.S. health officials announced Friday that the United States will begin screening airline passengers arriving from central China for signs of a new virus outbreak that has killed two people and sickened dozens of others.
Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the screenings will take place at airports in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and will focus on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the heart of the outbreak.
A CDC spokesman, Scott Pauley, told VOA that only people traveling from Wuhan would be screened at this time.

Chinese health officials say many of those who became sick from the virus worked at or visited a food market in the suburbs of Wuhan. Three cases have been detected outside China — two in Thailand and one in Japan – with health officials saying those patients had visited Wuhan prior to becoming sick.
Health authorities have identified the virus as a new type of coronavirus, part of a large family of viruses that includes the common cold as well as the more serious illness SARS. Scientists say the new virus strain appears most similar to SARS, but say it seems to be weaker than that disease.
Two people in China have died from the mysterious virus and 45 others have been infected in Wuhan and nearly 50 have been infected worldwide. Chinese officials say five people remain in serious condition.
The CDC says upon arrival in the United States, travelers from Wuhan will answer a health questionnaire and have their temperatures taken for signs of illness. Those who are determined to be at risk of the virus will be taken to a nearby hospital and isolated for further assessment.

CDC officials told reporters during a conference call Friday that they expect more cases will be reported outside of China. They said the risk of the virus to the American public is low, but said they want to take proper precautions.
Health officials believe the virus spread in China from animals to humans. It is not clear if the virus is now capable of human-to-human transmission, but CDC officials say there are some indications that people may be able to spread the virus in a limited way. Scientists say that it is also possible that the virus could mutate to become more dangerous.
At least a half-dozen countries in Asia have also started health screenings for incoming airline passengers from central China.
This time of year is one of the busiest travel seasons in China, with people flying both to and from the country to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
Pauley said the CDC anticipates a higher number of Chinese travelers to the United States for the New Year and has factored this into its planning.
China said it has increased disinfection efforts in major transportation hubs to help ensure the virus does not spread. Wuhan is a main hub in China’s railway network.
A State Department spokesman said the United States is closely monitoring the outbreak in China as well as actively working with governments across the region to combat spread of the virus.
The World Health Organization is warning that a wider outbreak of the virus is possible and has given guidance to hospitals worldwide. However, in a statement Thursday, the WHO said that it does not recommend instituting any trade or travel restrictions on China at this time.
The most common symptoms of the newly identified virus are fever, cough and difficulty breathing.
VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.

…

Iranian state media have given a distorted view of Western news coverage of a rare public sermon by Iran’s supreme leader, ignoring how Western outlets highlighted perceived shortcomings in his responses to domestic problems.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led Friday prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012, giving a sermon at the capital’s Grand Mosque. The longtime supreme leader has limited such public sermons to times of national crisis in the past.
In his speech, Khamenei harshly criticized the United States and its European allies Britain, France and Germany. He singled out American leaders as “clowns” for professing to stand with Iran’s people while in practice seeking to “stab” Iranians in the back with a “poisoned dagger.”
Khamenei’s speech came two weeks after the U.S. carried out what it called a self-defensive strike that killed his top general, Qassem Soleimani, at Baghdad airport. In his remarks, Khamenei accused the U.S. of engaging in a “terrorist” act by killing Soleimani, who led Iran’s elite Quds Force and whom the U.S. had designated as the head of a terrorist organization that killed hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq and directed proxy militias to fight U.S. allies in the region.  
The Iranian supreme leader also denounced Britain, France and Germany as U.S. lackeys after they decided this week to trigger a dispute resolution mechanism in their 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, a potential step toward joining the U.S. in re-imposing economic sanctions on Tehran.   
Khamenei expressed sorrow over the Jan. 8 shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane by Iranian forces that mistook it for an enemy threat shortly after it took off from Tehran. Hours earlier, his forces had fired missiles at U.S. troops in Iraq in retaliation for the Soleimani killing and had braced themselves for a U.S. counterattack. No U.S. forces were killed in the Iranian missile strike, however, and Washington did not hit back.  
For three days after the plane crashed, killing all 176 people on board, Iranian officials insisted it was not their fault despite Western media and officials citing intelligence sources as saying Iranian missile fire downed the aircraft. Officials belatedly acknowledged that their denials of responsibility were false on Saturday, angering hundreds of Iranians who joined four days of anti-government protests in Tehran and other cities.  “
The plane crash was a bitter tragedy that burned through our heart,” Khamenei said in his sermon. However, he made no apology for his government’s initial false statements about the crash and criticized those who joined the anti-government protests as unrepresentative of the Iranian people.  
Prominent Western news agencies had extensive coverage of Khamenei’s rare public sermon.   
Iranian state media outlets Fars News Agency  and ISNA published summaries of those Western news reports, highlighting their references to Khamenei’s strong denunciations of the U.S. and European powers. Fars and ISNA also cited the Western news agencies as noting the large size of Khamenei’s audience, with thousands of people cramming into the mosque for the sermon.     
A VOA Persian review of Khamenei sermon articles by the eight Western news agencies cited by Fars and ISNA, though, found that the two Iranian state media outlets ignored several key elements of the Western news coverage.   
In one example, Fars avoided mentioning that a Reuters report said Khamenei stopped short of a direct apology for the plane disaster. “On social media, some Iranians reacted angrily” to the lack of an apology, the report said.  
In another example, ISNA made no mention of the New York Times reporting that Khamenei “offered only scant condolences” to the families who lost victims in the plane crash and dismissed the anti-government protesters as “stooges of the United States.” The New York Times article also noted that Iran “choreographed” the Friday sermon by busing in schoolchildren, civil servants and worshippers from neighboring provinces “to present an image of power and unity.” “
When it comes to reporting an important speech by the supreme leader, it is no surprise to see there has been an  attempt to pick and choose  bits of coverage in international media that are either positive or neutral and leave out the negative bits,” said BBC Monitoring journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, a former Iranian state media employee, in a message to VOA Persian.  
“Reports about the views and speeches of Khamenei are almost always entirely supportive,” Sardarizadeh said. “It would be highly unusual to see state media highlight any criticism of the supreme leader even in normal times, let alone now.  But Khamenei is one of the few individuals about whom all media sources in Iran tend to be highly cautious and selective in their reporting.”
This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. It was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Extremism Watch Desk. 

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An avalanche swept a popular trekking route in Nepal’s mountains, leaving at least four South Koreans and three Nepali guides missing, authorities said Saturday.
Nepal’s Department of Tourism official Meera Acharya said at least one Chinese national injured in the avalanche was rescued by helicopter.
The avalanche hit along the popular Annapurna circuit trekking route, which encircles Mount Annapurna.
Acharya said efforts were being made to rescue the others. So far, rescuers have been able to pluck 30 trekkers who were trapped by the avalanche blocking the trail and flew them to a safe area.
Weather conditions were poor with temperature dropping in the last two days, making the operation more difficult.
The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the avalanche hit at an altitude of 3,230 meters (10,600 feet) before noon Friday. It said five other South Korean members of the same team were safe and taking shelter in a lodge.
The missing trekkers – two women in their 30s and 50s and two men in their 50s – were teachers who were staying in Nepal for volunteer work, the ministry said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
 

…

Russia is rapidly expanding foreign arms deals worldwide, with Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin confirming to the Russian military’s newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda December 20 that Moscow has signed military cooperation pacts with 39 countries in the last five years, many of them in Southeast Asia, including Laos, which has not been buying Russian weapons on this scale for decades.
The expansion is raising eyebrows and comes as relations between Russia and NATO have broken down.
Analysts said old Cold War alliances with countries such as Laos, Moscow’s appetite for barter deals, and the potential for access to railroads under construction that will provide access to seaports and trade routes along the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Thai coasts, appeal to Moscow, and the arms sales are part of a larger effort by Russia to strengthen its links with these countries.
“Moscow’s motives appear to be a combination of commercial and the perhaps disruptive, in the sense that any erosion of U.S. or European defense interests is a de facto win,” Gavin Greenwood, an analyst with A2 Global Risk, a Hong Kong-based security consultancy, told VOA.
He said Russia had accounted for 25% of major arms sales in Southeast Asia since 2000, and according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Moscow sold $6.6 billion in arms to Southeast Asia between 2010 and 2017, as much as the U.S. and China combined.
The institute also says Russia accounted for 60% of arms sales across Asia and Oceania between 2014 and 2018.
However, Russia also needs to offset falling sales to India, and the MiG-29 and Sukhoi-30 fighters purchased by Malaysia in 1995 are nearing the end of their life. Greenwood said any replacement was unlikely to be procured from Russia, as they are also considering deals with U.S. and European suppliers.
Southeast Asia focus
As a result  of declining arms sales to India, Russia is falling further behind the U.S. in global arms sales, analysts say,  but it has remained the dominant player in Southeast Asia, where analysts said  South China Sea disputes, terrorism   and competition among rival states is increasing demand for high-tech weaponry.
Fomin said progress in developing military cooperation with traditional partners China and India had been made alongside fresh efforts with Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.
“Their efforts to sell are obviously increasing and there’s a sense from some quarters that this is a strategic effort by Moscow – while others would say probably not, it’s commercial,” Greenwood said.
Russia remains a primary supplier to Vietnam, accounting for 60% of all military sales to that country – including submarines – and is seeking opportunities in the Philippines while stepping up sales to Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.
Meanwhile, strategically important Laos, which forms a buffer between China and Southeast Asia, has increased its spending, acquiring Russian T-72B tanks, BRDM-2M armored vehicles, YAK 130 fighter jets and helicopters.
In addition,  Russia and Laos last month launched the nine-day Laros 2019 exercise, their first joint military exercise, with more than 500 soldiers taking part alongside the recently acquired tanks, which was seen as part of a greater effort to deepen military ties with Southeast Asia.
Analysts said further joint military exercises with Laos are now in the offing together with more arms and training for Laotian officers in Russian military academies.
The timing could be related to Chinese railway construction, “which will connect southern-southwest China to Thailand,” Greenwood said, which would provide further seaport access.

FILE – People attend a mobile exhibition installed on freight cars of a train and displaying military equipment, vehicles and weapons, in Sevastopol, Crimea.Ukraine sanctions
Increased weapon sales worldwide can be traced to Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine six years ago. Sanctions followed and the ruble collapsed, sparking a three-year financial crisis.
 
Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales said military technology is one of Russia’s much-needed strengths.
“Annexation of the Crimea was accompanied by very punishing sanctions by the United States and Russia went through a phase of trying to recover by developing its domestic market.
“That didn’t work, and they had to do overseas exports and the one thing the Russians have is military technology,” Thayer told VOA, echoing Greenwood.
Meanwhile, the issue for most Southeast Asian countries is that access to high-tech weaponry is limited to the U.S., which ties sales to human rights, and Russia, which offers soft loans, state-backed credits, barter deals, spares and servicing with a no such strings attached.  
Don Greenlees, senior adviser at the Asialink think tank at the University of Melbourne, said U.S. costs and conditions, coupled with sanctions, mean easier options are available in Russia.
“If you want really high-level military technology and you’re a Southeast Asian country you’ve either got to go to Moscow or you’ve got to go Washington. And Washington hasn’t made it terribly easy in recent years for a lot of these countries to obtain the best kit,” he told VOA.
“And it’s also more expensive to buy it from Washington,” Greenlees said. “So Russia, for many of these countries, is the arms supplier of choice.”
The big picture
Thayer said Moscow also must act against any isolation spurred by sanctions and establish itself with Vietnam, with which it has always been a strategic partner, as a natural conduit in developing relations in Southeast Asia, but Laos  “is just one small peg in the larger picture.”
Greenlees said Russia’s regional reemergence was still in its early days but from a big-picture geopolitical point of view, it’s the Sino-Russian alignment that concerns everyone.
So far,  China has not complained about Russia’s push into its traditional sphere of influence.  Moreover, it also could benefit from potential sales to countries alienated by the U.S. linkage of sales to issues like human rights, which analysts said could lead to a stronger alliance between Moscow and Beijing in Southeast Asia.    
“If that leads to a hardening of East-West ‘camps,’ that would be a concern to the region. It could force the issue of ‘taking sides and reduce the opportunities for small to medium sized powers to play the great powers off against each other,” Greenlees said.
 
 

…

A U.S. official says women are the force behind the massive protests in Iran, and that the United States is unaware of whether Iranian Olympic athlete Kimia Alizadeh is seeking asylum in the U.S.
Alizadeh, Iran’s only female Olympic medalist, said earlier this week on social media that she has permanently left Iran because she had had enough of being used by its authorities for political purposes.“
I don’t know if she is seeking asylum so I can’t speak to that,” Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, said Friday when asked by VOA if the  U.S. would welcome Alizadeh if she seeks asylum in the United States. 
“Much of the strength and the energy in the anti-regime protests are being led by Iranian women,” Hook said, adding he believes “many more Iranian women would like to leave the oppression that this regime presents to them.”
Iran was shocked when Alizadeh announced her defection earlier this week.
Iranian politician Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh accused “incompetent officials” of allowing Iran’s “human capital to flee,” according to media reports.
A deputy Iranian sports minister, Mahin Farhadizadeh, reportedly told the news agency ISNA that Alizadeh defected to pursue her education “in physiotherapy,” according to a New York Post report.
Friday, Shohreh Bayat, an Iranian chess referee who is in Russia for the Women’s World Chess Championship, told Reuters she does not want to return home out of fear for her safety. Bayat has been accused of violating her nation’s Islamic dress code while adjudicating a women’s tournament.
Last week, protests erupted across Iran after a period of increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran. The U.S. killed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani on Jan. 2, and Iran responded Jan. 8 by launching an airstrike from Tehran against an Iraqi base that housed U.S. military. Shortly after, a Ukrainian International Airline Boeing 737 taking off from Tehran’s airport crashed, killing all 176 people on board. Three days later, Iran admitted to mistakenly shooting down the airplane, which led to street protests in Tehran and several other Iranian cities.
The 21-year-old Alizadeh, who won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics, did not reveal her whereabouts but in the past has said she wants to settle in the Netherlands.
She said she no longer wanted to “sit at the table of hypocrisy, lies, injustice, and flattery.”
“I am one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran with whom they have been playing for years,” she wrote on social media.
In a tweet, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said “#KimiaAlizadeh, Iran’s only female Olympic medalist, has rejected the regime’s oppression of women. She has defected for a life of security, happiness, and freedom. #Iran will continue to lose more strong women unless it learns to empower and support them.”

#KimiaAlizadeh, Iran’s only female Olympic medalist, has rejected the regime’s oppression of women. She has defected for a life of security, happiness, and freedom. #Iran will continue to lose more strong women unless it learns to empower and support them. https://t.co/NIzdo4PPwI
— Morgan Ortagus (@statedeptspox) January 12, 2020
Western media had credited the taekwondo medalist with “emboldening Iranian girls and women to push the boundaries of personal freedom.”
In December, Alireza Firouzja, Iran’s top-rated chess champion, said he would not play for Iran in an upcoming tournament and is ready to renounce his citizenship because of a ban on competing against Israeli players.
Saeid Mollaei, an Iranian judo world champion, left the country for Germany last fall and sought asylum. Mollaei said he had been pressured to deliberately lose in the semifinals at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo to avoid facing Israelis.

…

The prospects that Iran and the United States will develop a new, more extensive nuclear agreement appear bleak, at least for now, after leaders in Tehran this week defiantly abandoned the 2015 deal, one that President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. Tensions remain high as international sanctions could be added to those already imposed by the U.S.  VOA’s Brian Padden reports on growing concerns that there is no realistic diplomatic strategy at play to peacefully resolve this crisis.

…

U.S. firearms makers will be able within days to export as much as 20% more guns, including assault rifles and ammunition, under rules the Trump administration announced on Friday.
The change, which had been contemplated for more than a decade, will officially move oversight of commercial firearm exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department, where export licenses will be much easier to obtain.

A woman uses a virtual reality based firearms simulator at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting, in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 28, 2019.A draft of the rules was published on Friday, with publication in the Federal Register expected next week, said Clarke Cooper the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs.
“While we are providing industry a some regulatory relief and a cost savings, it does improve enforceability,” Cooper said.
U.S. Representative Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, called the move “bad,” at Tuesday’s Forum on the Arms Trade Annual Conference, in comments that echoed arms control advocates. 
Under the change, Lieu said, more weapons will be sold overseas and “give Congress even less authority as a check and balance on those sales.”
Under the new rule 3D printed guns will still be regulated.
“This control will help ensure that U.S. national security and foreign policy interests are not undermined by foreign persons’ access to firearms production technology,” a version of the rule posted on the Federal Register said.
Reuters first reported on the Trump administration’s interest in the oversight shift in 2017 .
The action is part of a broader Trump administration overhaul of weapons export policy.

When Mount Taal started spewing plumes of ash in the Philippines a few days ago, thousands were ordered to evacuate and the president himself handed over aid money. It did not take Rodrigo Duterte long to get there or see the gravity of the situation. Taal stands next to a growing industrial belt and is just 109 kilometers outside the capital, Manila.

Taal VolcanoQuick responses such as these are seen as signs that officials are trying harder than ever to minimize the impact of more eruptions from the especially active volcano. Their grasp of the danger results from a learning curve that has spanned multiple natural disasters, including other volcanic activity.
“What we’ve seen so far in terms of ash fall and consequent disruptions to tourism and air transport, as well as just sort of damage to agriculture, is relatively minor so far, but I think the potential is there. If there is a major volcanic explosion, that then impacts logistics services because of the manufacturing belt that’s around metro Manila,” said Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer with Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group.

Residents carry their belongings as authorities enforced total evacuation of residents living near the active Taal volcano in Agoncillo town, Batangas province, southern Philippines on Jan. 16, 2020.The volcano, just 311 meters high, is the most active in the Philippines. The cone sits inside a lake in one of the archipelago’s wealthier provinces, one heavily frequented by local tourists and moneyed retirees as well as farmers selling coffee and ornamental plants. A bigger explosion could spark flows of mud, ash and hot debris, the magazine Scientific American said in a report Tuesday.
The government’s Department of Science and Technology warned Thursday that a “hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours to days.”
Philippine officials understand the risk, analysts say. The central government has ordered thousands of people to evacuate since January 12 and Duterte personally handed over $212 million worth of aid, his website says. Catholic Church groups, which form a powerful nongovernmental force in the Philippines, have opened centers for evacuees and offered extra help for 3,000 people who need food or water, the Vatican News website says. 
The Department of Science and Technology publishes daily online updates on Taal’s activity.
Officials understand the urgency more now than before, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in metro Manila. They may have learned from Mount Pinatubo, he said. A 1991 eruption from the mountain just 91 kilometers from Manila killed 847 people and severely damaged infrastructure. It also prompted the withdrawal of U.S. forces from a nearby airbase.
“I think the help that came after evacuating people is a bit more coordinated,” Ravelas said of the past week. “I guess government agencies were there to provide certain things.” 
Companies with factories around Manila have been warned about possible power and water outages if volcanic activity ramps up, Ravelas said.

In this photo provided by the Office of Civil Defense, volcanic ash covers most of the roofs at villages in Batangas province, southern Philippines on Jan. 17, 2020.Over the past decade, manufacturers of goods such as electronics and automotive parts, have set up factories in three provinces near Manila, including Batangas, to draw on the work force’s low wages and English-language skills. The region contributed more then $28 billion to the $313.6 billion national gross domestic product in 2017.
Manufacturers are expected to expand on 148 hectares among the three provinces through 2021, mostly in Batangas, domestic news website Inquirer.net says. Most factories are built “to code” and have backup power systems, de Guzman said.
Roads and other infrastructure have improved to support manufacturing, but companies have little means to “mitigate” any damage there, de Guzman said.  
Although disaster forecasting usually focuses on more likely events such as typhoons and earthquakes, the ash spewed this week is shifting attention to the hazards posed by a volcano so close to Manila, said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman.  
Manila itself is too far to be covered by volcanic flows, but winds from the south could send ash its way. After Taal sent ash as high as 15 kilometers into the air this week, flights in the capital were canceled.
“This is also a wake-up call in the case of the Philippines that given its location we should really be prepared for different types of disasters, particularly volcanic eruptions, and it can happen anywhere — and this time it’s affecting areas that are actually developed,” Atienza said.
Eventually officials may need to “rethink tourism,” she said. 
Before this month, Taal had erupted 33 times since 1572 and most recently in 1977, the Scientific American report says.

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Miss Universe 2019 is using her global platform to strive for gender equality, saying she wants to encourage girls and young women to “tap into their power,” and use their voice. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer has more on South African Zozibini Tunzi’s mission to empower women and girls.

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The United States has long seen North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons as a major national security threat.  But the missiles Pyongyang would use to deliver a nuclear bomb appear to be a different matter. 
A top U.S. general Friday dismissed concerns North Korea’s rapidly developing missile program is capable, for now, of producing anything that could get by U.S. defenses. 
“I have 100% confidence,” General John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an audience in Washington.  “I don’t say 100% confidence often. I have 100% confidence in those capabilities against North Korea.” 
‘Gift’ wasn’t given
U.S. military and intelligence officials have been keeping an especially close eye on Pyongyang since late last year, when leader Kim Jong Un threatened to give Washington a “Christmas gift” it might not like. 
At the time, U.S. officials expected some sort of weapons test or a test of one of the country’s new long-range ballistic missiles. Only no such test ever materialized. And with negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang seemingly stalled, there are growing concerns a peaceful, diplomatic solution may be drifting out of reach. 
Earlier this week, during a news conference at the Pentagon with Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters the next move was “in Kim Jong Un’s hands.” 

FILE – Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono speak during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, Jan. 14, 2020.“We continue to send the message to North Korea that the best path forward is through a diplomatic solution that results in the denuclearization of North Korea,” Esper said. 
“We monitor very closely what’s happening,” Esper added, warning that if necessary, “we remain ready to fight tonight.” 
Speaking alongside Esper, Kono voiced hope that dialogue could prevail. 
“Hopefully, he will make the right decision for his own people,” the Japanese minister said of North Korea’s Kim. 
Nearly 70 tests
Even as Pyongyang engaged in talks with the U.S. last year, it launched 13 missile tests, bring the total of tests under Kin Jong Un to almost 70. 
“They’ve changed the entire structure of the world with the 115th most powerful economy,” Hyten said Friday at the Center for Strategic International Studies.  

FILE – People watch a TV that shows a file picture of a North Korean missile for a news report on North Korea firing short-range ballistic missiles, in Seoul, South Korea, July 31, 2019.“North Korea has been building new missiles, new capabilities, new weapons as fast as anyone on the planet,” he added.  “They learned how to go fast.” 
In contrast to his confidence in defending against North Korean missiles, Hyten warned U.S. systems are not nearly as capable against new and emerging technologies, like hypersonic missiles being developed by Russia and China. 
“It doesn’t matter what the threat is, if you can’t see it, you can’t defend against it,” the former commander of U.S. Strategic Command warned, calling for space-based sensors while acknowledging their likely hefty price tag. 
“I would like to see research and development into low-Earth-orbit as well as medium-Earth-orbit,” he said. “That’s the only way to get a global [missile defense] capability that is affordable.” 

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Six Somali government soldiers and 19 militants were killed when Islamist group al-Shabab attacked two bases before dawn Friday, according to officials and residents.
Local security officials and residents told VOA Somali that the attackers targeted a Somali government military base in Haji Ali village, near the Indian Ocean coastal town of Addale, in Middle Shabelle region.
Somali government forces at the base responded to the attack, sparking a deadly gun battle.
Local sources said five government soldiers were killed, including a military commander. The Somali National Army Headquarters, in a statement, put the death toll at four soldiers, with two others injured.
The statement said 15 al-Shabab militants were killed and 26 were injured.
Al-Shabab said its fighters overran the base and seized weapons and vehicles.
Separately, one government soldier and four militants were killed in another al-Shabab attack Friday in the town of Hosingow, Lower Juba region.
Residents told VOA that the militants briefly entered a Somali military camp near the town. Troops launched a counterattack and retook the base, killing four militants and a soldier, residents say.
U.S. airstrike
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has confirmed killing two al-Shabab militants in an airstrike near the town of Kunyo Barrow in Lower Shabelle region on Thursday. It is the second U.S. airstrike in Somalia in 2020.
Last year, U.S. Africa Command conducted a record 63 strikes in Somalia.
Al-Shabab has conducted several high-profile attacks in recent weeks, including one on a Kenyan military base housing U.S. forces. The militants killed three Americans in the Jan. 5 attack.
 

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At least 700,000 people die every year due to drug-resistant diseases, including 230,000 from multidrug resistant tuberculosis, according to the World Health Organization.  
Last year, a U.N. report predicted growing antimicrobial resistance could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 and trigger a financial crisis.
The WHO said the health threat affects everyone, but those most at risk include people whose immune system is compromised, the elderly, and patients undergoing chemotherapy, surgery and organ transplants.
Fifty antibiotics are in the pipeline, said WHO’s Senior Adviser on Antimicrobial Resistance, Peter Beyer, but the majority only have limited benefits when compared to existing antibiotics.
“We are actually running out of antibiotics that are effective against these resistant bacteria,” he said. “It takes maybe 10 years to develop a new antibiotic, so if you go back to phase one, we know exactly what, at best, what we can get in the next 10 years. And we really see that it is insufficient to counter the current threat.” 
Scientifically, Beyer said, it is very difficult to come up with truly new innovative antibiotics. In addition, there is little financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to develop a new drug because it is risky, it takes a lot of time and money, and the monetary returns are likely to be poor, he said.
Prevention
However, he added, he hopes the industry changes its position and develops new antibiotics because drug companies also need these new medications.
“For example, if they want to sell products for chemotherapy, they really need effective antibiotics because otherwise you cannot do effective chemotherapy, in particular in countries like India or Bangladesh where infection prevention control is not that good,” Beyer said. “So, I do think that the industry, at one point in time, they will turn around. That is our hope. And, we, of course, try to convince governments to invest as well.”  
In the meantime, Beyer said, one of the most cost-effective, life-saving measures is better prevention control in hospitals. Instead of inventing new drugs to treat people who get infected in hospitals, he said, it makes more sense to protect them from getting infected in the first place.  
 

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