1UA TV

A court in Belgium has convicted an Iranian diplomat for plotting a thwarted bomb attack against an Iranian opposition group in France in 2018. The court on Thursday sentenced Assadollah Assadi to 20 years in prison. Belgian prosecutors said the Vienna-based Assadi and others planned to bomb a rally of the Paris-based National Council Resistance of Iran. The court sentenced three other people Thursday to prison terms of 15 to 18 years. Assadi, who was arrested during a trip to Germany, refused to testify at his trial last year, claiming he had diplomatic immunity. The trial was the first time a European Union country adjudicated a terrorism case involving an Iranian official since Iran’s 1979 revolution. 
…

Testing began in Britain on Thursday to determine if different COVID-19 vaccines can be used together in a two-shot regimen.Researchers are aiming to inoculate more than 800 volunteers with one shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, followed either four or 12 weeks later with a booster shot of the vaccine developed jointly by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, or vice versa.The vaccines were developed with different technology — the Pfizer vaccine through messenger RNA (mRNA), while the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is adenovirus viral vector, or common cold virus.Health officials say if two vaccines developed with different technology are able to be used interchangeably, it could allow greater flexibility in immunization campaigns around the world.In a related development, The Guardian newspaper says an analysis of Israel’s mass vaccination program has found that a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides 90% protection against the novel coronavirus by 21 days. Researchers at Britain’s University of East Anglia contradict an earlier study from Israel that suggested one dose may not give adequate protection.Meanwhile, Oxford University says its COVID-19 vaccine is 76% effective at preventing infection for three months after a single dose. The findings were part of the same study released Wednesday that found the vaccine cut transmission of the virus by two-thirds.The study has not been peer-reviewed, but Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC the findings are “good news.””It does show the world that the Oxford jab works, it works well,” Hancock said.The vaccine has come under criticism from other nations in Europe in recent days with officials expressing concerns about the lack of data regarding its effectiveness in older people.Preparations for the Australian Open, the first major tennis tournament of 2021, have been thrown into disarray after a worker at a quarantine hotel in Melbourne tested positive for COVID-19. The positive case prompted tournament organizers and local health authorities to order more than 500 players and support staff to isolate in their rooms until they are tested, and several warm-up tournaments that were scheduled for Thursday were canceled.The tournament was already off to a rough start after more than 70 players were placed in a strict 14-day lockdown after at least six people who arrived in Melbourne last month tested positive for COVID-19. The cases were linked to three of 17 charter flights that arrived in the southern city carrying more than 1,000 players and their entourages, plus tournament officials and media.The new COVID-19 case in Melbourne is the first confirmed infection in Victoria state in 28 days. City officials have reimposed an order for masks in indoor public places, as well as limits on the number of people who can gather indoors.Victoria state Premier David Andrews said in spite of the new positive case, the Grand Slam tournament will still begin next Monday as scheduled, but added there were “no guarantees.”
…

At an appeals hearing Tuesday, Russian prosecutors accused journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva of being a “mouthpiece of the West” as the court upheld her conviction of “justifying terrorism.” The hearing came amid a wider backdrop of Moscow taking legal action against her employer, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. A Russian court last month fined the independent U.S.-funded news network for not complying with its foreign agents law. Russia’s use of legal action against RFE/RL is an attempt to cut off access to independent media, media and regional analysts say. Moscow has been “building a web of laws and restrictions non-stop against RFE,” said Thomas Kent in an interview with VOA’s Russian service. Kent was president of the network from 2016 to 2018. The fines against RFE/RL are a sign that Russia is implementing those laws, Gulnoza Said, from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told VOA. FILE – The headquarters of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is seen with the United States, RFE/RL and the Czech Republic flags in the foreground, in Prague, Jan. 15, 2010.The network was fined 1.1 million rubles ($14,400 USD) last month for not complying with Russia’s newly revised foreign agents law. The fines were directed at the general director along with RFE services, including Radio Liberty and the Russian-language TV network Current Time that the produces with VOA. Current Time is a 24/7 television and digital network for Russian speakers, led by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in cooperation with Voice of America. Under amendments to the law last year, outlets receiving international funding must label their content as produced by “foreign agents.” RFE/RL is an independent grantee of the U.S. Agency For Global Media, which also oversees VOA. Both receive funding from Congress but are editorially independent. Russia’s decision to add further provisions to its law was criticized by international rights groups including Amnesty International, who in a FILE – Russian journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva, charged with publicly justifying terrorism, arrives for a court hearing in Pskov, Russia, July 6, 2020.In Prokopyeva’s case, the appeals hearing reflected a wider trend of Russian authorities using legal action against independent voices, media analysts said. The journalist was convicted last year of “justifying terrorism” — a charge upheld by the military appeals court Tuesday. The accusations stem from comments Prokopyeva made in an interview about a suicide bombing. When the lower court convicted Prokopyeva, it fined the journalist and confiscated her equipment. At the time, RFE/RL’s acting president, Daisy Sindelar, condemned the lower court’s decision, saying, “The portrayal of her words as ‘justifying terrorism’ is a deliberate and politically motivated distortion aimed at silencing her critical voices.” Said told VOA the appeal verdict was disappointing. CPJ awarded Prokopyeva last year with its International Press Freedom Award. “It’s so emblematic of how Russian authorities treat journalists, not just those who work for outlets like RFE/RL that are funded from abroad, but any journalists, including those working for local media who dare to criticize the authorities, or even say something that’s not in line with the Kremlin narrative,” Said told VOA. Russian authorities see Western reporting as an attempt to interfere in Russian affairs and don’t like its positions on human rights and press freedom, Said added. “Some of them probably very sincerely believe that the West has an agenda of destroying (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s regime by having RFE/RL report on various issues, including corruption,” she said. Kent shared a similar view, saying attempts to obstruct reporting “comes down to the government feeling that it has the right to decide what information Russian people receive and that the Russian people are not competent to figure out themselves.” VOA’s Misha Gutkin contributed to this report.
 
…

The Czech Republic health ministry reported Wednesday the nation passed one million confirmed COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. The agency also reported that the day-to-day increase in new infections reached 9,057 since Tuesday, which puts the nation over the one-million mark for confirmed cases since the first three cases were detected March 1, 2020. The current figures show the nation has the third-highest rate of infection in Europe, with more than 981 cases per 100,000 people, trailing only Portugal and Spain. The Czech Republic death rate is also among the highest in Europe, at nearly 205 per 100,000 people. The ministry reports the country of 10.7 million has registered 16,683 deaths. Although daily increases dropped after they reached a record high of almost 18,000 in early January, they have stagnated in recent days at still dangerously high levels despite a strict lockdown. Currently, 93,043 people are ill with COVID-19 in the Czech Republic. Of them, 5,811 are hospitalized while 1,002 are in intensive care.  
 
…

Russian human rights monitors say authorities have arrested at least 1,400 protesters in Moscow after a court sentenced opposition politician Alexey Navalny to serve out the remaining time of a three-and-a-half year suspended sentence in a prison colony. The decision Tuesday came just weeks after Navalny returned to Russia following a poisoning attack that nearly took his life. For VOA from Moscow, Charles Maynes reports. 
Camera: Ricardo Marquina Montanana 
 
…

When it comes to the Black Sea, international attention has been focused for weeks on the opulent $1.37 billion mansion jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny says is owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Tagged “Putin’s Palace” by the Russian leader’s foes, the 1,800-square-meter mansion is located on the Black Sea’s northeastern shore near the Soviet-era resort town of Gelendzhik, once an outpost for 19th-century slave trading between the Caucasus and the Ottoman Empire. It is also a good spot to observe Black Sea naval maneuvers, of which in the past few days there have been plenty.  The U.S. Navy, along with NATO partners, has dramatically increased a maritime presence in the Black Sea, part of a strategy to emphasize that Russian militarization of the waters between Europe and Asia since the 2014 annexation of Crimea will not go unchallenged. FILE – U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Black Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 28, 2021.Last week, the USS Porter, a guided missile destroyer, entered the waters to join the USS Donald Cook and a refueling ship, the USNS Laramie, in the largest deployment of the U.S. Navy in the Black Sea since 2017.  The three ships are patrolling alongside other NATO and Ukrainian warships and taking part in naval exercises that were postponed last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.A NATO spokesman said the Western alliance was boosting its Black Sea presence “in response to Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its ongoing military buildup.”  In the five years since Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula, Russia has turned the Black Sea region into a “military fortress,” say Western officials and independent military analysts, boosting military personnel on the ground and developing air, naval and coastal defense systems. “The ongoing and accelerated militarization of the Crimean Peninsula and its surrounding waters has in fact created a new security reality in the Black Sea and the wider Mediterranean region,” Ukrainian envoy Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk told a January 14 meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.  FILE – The Russian Navy’s frigate Admiral Makarov sets sail in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Mediterranean Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey, Feb. 28, 2020.Russia has responded to the Western exercises, dispatching a Bastion missile defense system to Crimea and deploying the Admiral Makarov frigate, which has already tried to disrupt NATO training maneuvers by locking onto air targets and jamming electronic communications, according to Western officials.  On Sunday, a Russian warplane aggressively buzzed the USS Donald Cook, according to U.S. military officials. The Russian Sukhoi Su-24 jet got as close as 91 meters off the ship’s port beam, according to Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a spokesman for the U.S. 6th Fleet. Ahead of the U.S. naval deployment, President Joe Biden warned Moscow that he would “act firmly” against Russian aggression in the region. The Black Sea region “matters to the West and to the Kremlin,” said FILE – Russian armored personnel carriers submerge from amphibious assault ships during the Navy Day parade in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea, July 26, 2020.Russian naval forces have also been accused of seeking to close the neighboring Sea of Azov to Ukrainian cargo vessels, disrupting unimpeded access and breaching a 2003 maritime treaty between Moscow and Kyiv. In November 2018, Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels in the strait, holding their 24 seafarers until a controversial swap eight months later that saw Kyiv hand over five riot police officers accused of killing protesters during the 2014 Maidan uprising. The annexation of Crimea means Russia now shares direct maritime borders not only with NATO member Turkey but also with Bulgaria and Romania, two other alliance members.Speaking at Britain’s Chatham House in 2019, Col. Vadym Skibitskyi, deputy director of Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, said all Black Sea countries should be worried about Russia’s military buildup.  He noted that before the 2014 annexation, Russia had 22 combat aircraft in the region but now has 122, and has boosted its submarine tally from two to seven and warships from 22 to a planned 45 next year. His biggest fear, he said, was of “a maritime blockade of Ukraine.” 
 
…

Captain Tom Moore, a 100-year-old British Second World War veteran who raised millions of dollars for health workers and offered hope to Britons and others around the world during the pandemic, died Tuesday days after contracting the coronavirus. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell
…

Mexico’s regulatory agency approved emergency use of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, shortly after Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell announced Tuesday the country’s plan to combat the novel coronavirus would involve use of the vaccine. The Associated Press reports Mexico is launching its vaccination program as its capital, Mexico City, is struggling to accommodate a growing number of coronavirus patients and provide adequate oxygen to hospitals.  Meantime, Lopez-Gattel said the first batches of the 7.4 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine will arrive this month through April.    The Sputnik V vaccine’s credibility was elevated Tuesday after late-stage clinical trial results published in The Lancet international medical journal revealed it was 91.6% effective in preventing people from developing COVID-19.    Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has spoken to Russian President  Vladimir Putin about purchasing 24 million doses of the vaccine.  Argentina joins Mexico in ramping up its efforts to secure an ample supply of the Sputnik V vaccine.     Lopez Gatell said on Monday Mexico would receive between 1.6 million to 2.75 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX global vaccine sharing program this month.  Mexico has one of the highest coronavirus tallies in Latin America with about 159,100 confirmed  deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University COVID Resource Center.  
…

A coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University cut transmission of the virus by two-thirds, according to a study released by the university Wednesday.
 
The study has not been peer-reviewed, but Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC the findings are “good news.”
 
“It does show the world that the Oxford jab works, it works well,” Hancock said.
 
The vaccine has come under criticism from other nations in Europe in recent days with officials expressing concerns about the lack of data regarding its effectiveness in older people.
 
France’s top health advisory body recommended the vaccine only be used in those under the age of 65.
 
In Belgium, the government said it would only give the vaccine to those under the age of 55.
 
“We don’t have enough info to be sure to say that it is good for the elderly,” Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said.
 
Oxford’s vaccine trial chief Andrew Pollard told the BBC on Wednesday that despite the lack of data about its exact effectiveness, the vaccine provides good immune responses in older people.
 
“We have good immune responses in older adults very similar to younger adults, the protection that we do see is in exactly the same direction, and of a similar magnitude,” Pollard said.
 New Zealand
In New Zealand, regulators on Wednesday gave approval for the provisional use of a vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech.  The first vaccinations are expected to begin by the end of the first quarter of 2021, with a priority on border workers in the country that has strict quarantine measures in place for those arriving from abroad.
 
Wednesday also brought the start of a vaccination campaign in Pakistan, which is using a vaccine from China’s Sinopharm.
 Asia
Like many countries, the first people to get the vaccine are frontline health workers.  Pakistan’s minister for planning and development said at a ceremony in Islamabad that the workers are the “real heroes” as they put their own health at risk to help those infected with COVID-19.
 
Pakistan has received 500,000 doses of the vaccine, and it plans to vaccinate 70% of its high-risk population by the end of the year.
 
In South Korea, officials are limiting travel and gatherings during next week’s Lunar New Year holidays and urging people to stay home to combat a rise in coronavirus cases.
 
Health officials also said Wednesday they have detected the first local transmissions of virus variants first identified in Britain and South Africa.
…

The United States on Tuesday condemned a Russian court’s decision to sentence the Kremlin’s most outspoken critic, Alexei Navalny, to 3.5 years in prison. State Department officials says the U.S. is reviewing what actions it will take in the matter. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has more.
…

COVID-19 testing tents are popping up in the French capital as extensions of local pharmacies that allow people to walk in and get a free COVID screening. More with VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo.  
…

Britain launched an emergency program of door-to-door testing in several areas Tuesday following the discovery of hundreds of cases of the coronavirus variant, first identified in South Africa, which scientists say could be more resistant to vaccines.  Mobile testing units were deployed to several regions, including parts of central and suburban London, while firefighter units and volunteers helped to deliver home testing kits and administer door-to-door testing. Local authorities aimed to conduct 80,000 coronavirus tests. By Tuesday morning, 105 cases of the mutation first seen in South Africa were identified in eight districts across Britain. Eleven of those cases did not have any direct link to international travel, suggesting the variant is being transmitted within the community. Volunteers hand out the COVID-19 home test kit to a resident, in Goldsworth and St. Johns, amid the outbreak of coronavirus disease in Woking, Britain, Feb. 2, 2021.Meanwhile, health authorities announced they are also investigating separate cases of the virus with what they described as worrying new genetic changes. The variants, identified in the cities of Bristol and Liverpool, have the same mutation as the South African variant, called E484K. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged people living in the affected areas to adhere to lockdown rules and stay home. “Our mission must be to stop its spread altogether and break those chains of transmission. … It is imperative that people must stay at home and only leave home where it is absolutely essential,” Hancock told members of parliament Tuesday. People queue at a testing center amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in Southport, Britain, Feb. 2, 2021.Britain is still battling a separate coronavirus mutation, first identified in Kent in southern England in September, which has contributed to a deadly second wave of the pandemic. An estimated 107,000 people have died in Britain within 28 days of testing positive for the virus since the pandemic began. Scientists say the variants appear to be more transmissible. Early indications from trials suggest they may also be more resistant to vaccines. “There has been a couple of observations, one from Novavax and one from Johnson & Johnson, which suggest that their vaccine trials were less successful in South Africa than they were in the United Kingdom and the United States,” Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at Britain’s University of Reading, told VOA. “(The mutation) renders antibodies less able to bind to the spike protein of the virus and stop the spike protein acting as a key to gain entrance to our cells.” That could affect people’s immunity to the coronavirus, both for individuals who have had the infection and those who have been vaccinated.  An advertisement board is seen, amid the outbreak of coronavirus disease in Woking, Britain, Feb. 2, 2021.”Even if we roll out a vaccine across the population, getting complete 100 percent coverage will be nigh on impossible,” Clarke said. “And the virus will be put under a selective pressure to accommodate and to favor mutations like this, which render it less susceptible to vaccines, or the actions of vaccines.” Britain also announced Tuesday it had given a first vaccine dose to more than 10 million people, by far the highest in Europe. It is not yet clear, however, if the vaccines are as effective against the new variants and may need to be modified. Health Secretary Hancock said such work was under way. “We’re working with pharmaceutical companies and with the scientists to understand both whether such modifications are needed, where they are needed and how they can be brought to use on the front line as quickly as safely possible.”  Scientists say the emergence of new variants around the world underlines the urgent need to roll out global vaccination programs and suppress transmission, as even fully vaccinated populations could be at risk as the virus continues to mutate. 
 
…

Northern Ireland temporarily suspended some inspections at two ports late Monday after threats of violence and increased tensions have been reported in the area. Graffiti was discovered in Belfast describing port staff as “targets.” Staff have also reported suspicious behavior such as people writing down license plate numbers. Police say they are increasing patrols near ports of entry. A police vehicle patrols after threats were made to port workers implementing post-Brexit trade checks in Northern Ireland, at the Port of Larne in County Antrim, Feb. 2, 2021.A spokesman for the European Commission announced Tuesday they had withdrawn European Union staff from the Northern Ireland ports as a safety precaution and condemned the violence. Many pro-British unionists fiercely oppose the new trade barriers introduced between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain as part of the Northern Ireland protocol, a stand-alone deal for the region after Britain left the EU. The protocol was designed to maintain the principles of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland’s open border with Ireland by keeping the region in the British customs territory but also aligned with the EU’s single market for goods. The British-run region remains deeply divided along sectarian lines, even after the 1998 peace deal, with Catholic nationalists aspiring to unification with Ireland and Protestant unionists wanting to remain part of Britain. 
 
…