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Washington may sanction those involved in the arrest of more than 50 people in Hong Kong and will send the US ambassador to the United Nations to visit Taiwan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says, drawing anger and the threat of retaliation from Beijing. Mike Pompeo says China's latest arrests of Hong Kong people are an outrage. (file pic) Photo: AFP / Mandel Ngan Pompeo said he was also "appalled" by the arrest of an American citizen in Wednesday's crackdown and added: "The United States will not tolerate the arbitrary detention or harassment of US citizens." Hong Kong police arrested 53 democracy activists in dawn raids in the biggest crackdown since China imposed a security law last year that opponents say is aimed at quashing dissent in the former British colony. Among those detained was American lawyer John Clancey, who was allowed to leave a police station along with some others on Thursday. Pompeo called the arrests an "outrage and a reminder of the Chinese Communist Party's contempt for its own people and the rule of law". "The United States will consider sanctions and other restrictions on any and all individuals and entities involved in executing this assault on the Hong Kong people," Pompeo said. He said it would also "explore restrictions against the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in the United States, and take additional immediate actions against officials who have undermined Hong Kong's democratic processes". Pompeo also announced that Kelly Craft, Washington's UN ambassador, would visit Chinese-claimed and democratically run Taiwan, a highly symbolic trip as the island is not a UN member due to the objections of Beijing, which views Taiwan as a wayward province. "Taiwan shows what a free China could achieve," he said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Pompeo's comments represented a serious interference in the country's internal affairs, which China strongly condemned. "China will take all necessary steps to resolutely safeguard its sovereignty and security interests," Hua told reporters. "The United States must pay a heavy price for its mistakes." In a later statement, China's mission to the United Nations called on Washington "to stop its crazy provocation" and warned that "whoever plays with fire will burn himself". Taiwan welcomed Craft's visit, which will be the first of a sitting US ambassador at the UN to the island, saying it demonstrated strong US support for Taiwan's international participation. Day of turmoil Pompeo's statement came after a day of turmoil in Washington that saw supporters of President Donald Trump storm Congress in a bid to overturn his November election defeat. Lawmakers called the action an embarrassment to US democracy that would play into the hands of rivals, and deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, a leading figure in the development of Trump's China policy, was among a list of officials who quit in protest. "I think they're high-fiving in Beijing," Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a China hawk, told Tucker Carlson on the Fox News channel. "It kind of bolsters their claim that we're falling apart and they're the country of the future." Marco Rubio on US chaos: "I think they're high-fiving in Beijing." Photo: AFP On Wednesday, China's Washington embassy issued an advisory warning Chinese citizens to strengthen safety precautions in light of the "large-scale demonstration" in the US capital and a curfew announced by the local government. Trump has pursued hardline policies towards China on issues ranging from trade to espionage and the coronavirus. Relations plummeted to their worst level in decades when he ramped up rhetoric in his unsuccessful re-election campaign. His administration has already imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for crushing Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and other alleged rights abuses. After a series of actions against Chinese firms, US officials were expected to discuss a proposed expansion of an executive order banning investment in companies with alleged ties to China's military at a Thursday afternoon meeting, two people familiar with the matter said. - Reuters

Toxic air in India and other South Asian countries could be causing large numbers of miscarriages and stillbirths, scientists say. Children walk along Rajpath near India Gate under heavy smog conditions in New Delhi last November. Photo: AFP A study in The Lancet medical journal estimated nearly 350,000 pregnancy losses a year in South Asia were linked to high pollution levels, accounting for 7 percent of annual pregnancy loss in the region between 2000 and 2016. South Asia has the highest rate of pregnancy loss globally and some of the worst air pollution in the world. "Our findings ... [provide] further justification for urgent action to tackle dangerous levels of pollution," lead author Tao Xue of Peking University said in a statement. The study follows a Lancet report last month which linked India's bad air quality to 1.67 million deaths or 18 percent of all its deaths in 2019, up from 1.24 million deaths in 2017. The analysis found pollution led to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory infections, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, neonatal disorders and cataracts. In the latest study, the Chinese research team looked at data for 34,197 mothers in South Asia, who had experienced at least one miscarriage or stillbirth and one or more live births. More than three-quarters of the women were from India with the rest split between Pakistan and Bangladesh. The scientists estimated the mothers' exposure during pregnancy to concentrations of PM2.5 - tiny particles found in dust, soot and smoke that can lodge in the lungs and enter the bloodstream. They calculated that 7.1 percent of annual pregnancy losses were attributable to pollution above India's air quality standard of 40 microgrammes per cubic metre. Motorists drive along a road under heavy smog conditions, in New Delhi on 3 November, 2019. Photo: Sajjad Hussain / AFP Co-author Tianjia Guan of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences said pregnancy loss had mental, physical and economic impacts on women and that reducing miscarriages and stillbirths may lead to knock-on improvements in gender equality. India's cities top global pollution lists with New Delhi, the world's most polluted capital. Factors contributing to the country's filthy air include industry, vehicle exhaust fumes, coal-fired power plants, building site dust and the burning of crop residue. - Reuters/ Thomson Reuters Foundation

The chief of the US Capitol Police will resign, according to media reports, a day after the federal force charged with protecting Congress was unable to keep supporters of Republican President Donald Trump from storming the building. A Capitol Police officer stands with members of the National Guard behind a crowd control fence surrounding Capitol Hill a day after a pro-Trump mob broke into the US Capitol. Photo: AFP House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi had called on Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund to step down after officers in the 2000-member force fell back as crowds advanced on Wednesday. That enabled Trump supporters angry about his election defeat to invade the halls of Congress to disrupt certification of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Other officers fought to keep lawmakers and staff safe. The Capitol Police did not immediately respond to inquiries about the reports of Sund's resignation. CNN reported on Thursday that a Capitol Police officer had died following the riot, the fifth person to die in the incident. Washington's federal prosecutor said he would charge any Capitol Police officers found to be complicit in allowing protesters into the building, and lawmakers vowed to open an investigation into the department. "Many of our Capitol Police just acted so bravely and with such concern for the staff, the members, for the Capitol ... and they deserve our gratitude. But there was a failure at the top of the Capitol Police," said Pelosi, a Democrat, in calling for Sund's resignation. She said that Paul Irving, the House sergeant at arms, would resign. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said he would fire Michael Stenger, the Senate sergeant at arms, as soon as runoff elections in Georgia for two seats are certified and Democrats control the Senate. Trump supporters ransacked legislators' offices, stole computers and documents, and left threatening messages as they roamed the building for hours in a rampage that left four people dead: one shot by police and three who died of medical emergencies. The crowd racing through the building - with Trump flags and his signature red hats - stood in sharp contrast to the response to anti-racism protests this summer. At that time, the White House was surrounded by multiple blocks of buffer, and law enforcement officers used tear gas, projectiles and at one point the downward blast of a helicopter rotor to push back protesters. A pro-Trump mob confronts US Capitol police outside the Senate chamber of the Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 in Washington DC. Photo: Getty Images via AFP In comparison, the streets around the Capitol were open on Wednesday morning, and scatterings of Capitol Police stood at low metal barriers resembling bicycle racks. District of Columbia Councilman Charles Allen, who represents the area around Capitol Hill, called that contrast particularly jarring. "They were overrun and, in many cases, appear to have completely opened the gates, snapped selfies," Allen said. "By the time they called DC Metropolitan Police Department, it was too late." A House Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the investigation would focus on what intelligence was available in the run-up to the riot, how decisions were made and why the perimeter of the Capitol was not more secure. The aide said some protesters were found carrying zip ties. Those heavy-duty plastic ties are often used to handcuff people, and could indicate an intent to kidnap members of Congress. "Taxpayers deserve to know why ... it took only an hour for a handful of ragamuffin protesters to enter the building and pose a threat to the continuity of democracy," Senator Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the Senate subcommittee overseeing the Capitol Police, told reporters. 'Why are they not coming?' Pelosi joined dozens of House members in the safe room where they sheltered after protesters battered the doors of their chamber on Wednesday, and told them she had received a steady stream of calls asking why reinforcements had not been dispatched more quickly. "Why are they not coming now? Almost a constant flow of calls," Pelosi said. "That is something to review." Pelosi and other lawmakers also praised the Capitol Police for protecting their staff and journalists. Many officers were injured. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell called the breach a "shocking failure." Capitol Police did not respond to inquiries about why they had not cordoned off the area or brought in more support officers ahead of the protests, which Trump himself urged to be "wild." The acting US attorney for Washington, Michael Sherwin, told a news briefing that any Capitol Police officer found complicit in the breach of the building would be charged. Sherwin declined to answer a question about why Capitol Police did not detain people as soon as they attempted to get into the building. "That's a concern and that's made our job difficult," he said. The FBI sought the public's help in identifying the rioters. Some of the 68 people arrested after Wednesday's incidents were due in court on Thursday. On Thursday, crews installed 2m fencing around the Capitol. Police said they had been instructed not to talk to reporters. Prior to reports of his resignation, Sund in a statement said the officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, who was among a group of Trump supporters trying to force their way into the House chamber, was on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated. Sund said his officers "responded valiantly" when demonstrators attacked them with "metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants and took up other weapons." They also faced two pipe bombs. A senior administration official said the Capitol Police had rejected Defense Department offers of additional training from before Wednesday. "There was concern about having too much of a militarized presence, but this was about training and how to set up the perimeters and a layered defense, and they turned that down too," said the official, who requested anonymity. - Reuters

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, a radical Muslim cleric and alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings, has been freed. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir leaves prison for treatment at a hospital in Jakarta in March 2018. Photo: AFP His family picked him up from a jail on the outskirts of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, at dawn today, a spokesperson told BBC Indonesia. The 82-year-old was formerly the commander of Jemaah Islamiah, an al-Qaeda-inspired group that was blamed for the attack that killed 202 people. He has been released after his sentence was cut short. People from 21 nations, including New Zealand, died in the blasts on 12 October 2002 in the popular holiday island of Bali. The two bombs ripped through Paddy's Irish Bar and the nearby Sari Club in the Kuta tourist district. The aftermath of the bombings in 2002. Photo: AFP It was Indonesia's worst terrorist attack. The decision to release Ba'asyir has drawn mixed reactions in Indonesia as well as Australia, where most of the victims were from. The attacks left 209 others injured and remain the single largest loss of Australian life from an act of terror. After being in and out of jail for a range of different terrorism offences, Bashir was given a 15-year jail sentence in 2011 for supporting militant training camps in Indonesia's Aceh province. But after a number of reductions on that term, he is now ready to walk free. Ahead of his expected release Garil Arnandha, whose father was among the victims of the Bali bombings, told the BBC: "I don't agree with Abu Bakar Ba'asyir being released because in my opinion he is still very dangerous and has the potential to revive terrorism in Indonesia." Endang, his mother, had a different view. "As a bomb victim I have forgiven him," she said. "He has served time in jail for his crimes and I really hope he will return to the right path. I am worried but I am trying to have positive thinking because the trauma of losing my husband in the bombing has been horrific." Previous release plan dropped Indonesian President Joko Widodo was set to release Bashir ahead of Indonesia's 2019 presidential election, in what was seen by analysts as an attempt to appeal to ultraconservative elements. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at the time he had "deep reservations" about Bashir's release and had contacted the Indonesian government. "Australia's position on this matter has not changed; we've always expressed the deepest of reservations," he said. The announcement was met with backlash within Indonesia too and Bashir was not released. Federal Government cabinet minister Angus Taylor said Australia had spoken to Indonesian authorities about Bashir's release this week. "This is distressing for many of those families that have been affected by those tragic events some years ago," he said on Tuesday. "We have expressed our concern about the situation and will continue to, but I do feel for those families because it does bring back those extraordinary events that we all remember so well and the tragedy that unfolded." -BBC / ABC

By Steve Gorman The storming of the halls of Congress by President Donald Trump's supporters marks the latest episode of violence to darken the US Capitol in a history dating back to a British arson attack in Washington during the War of 1812. Rioters breeched security and entered the Capitol as Congress debated the a 2020 presidential election Electoral Vote Certification. Photo: AFP or licensors With four lives lost on the Capitol grounds - one woman shot by police and three fatalities attributed by authorities to medical emergencies - Wednesday's turmoil may rank as the deadliest incident of violence to unfold in and around the citadel of American democracy in 200 years. The storming of the halls of Congress by a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters marks the latest episode of violence to darken the U.S. Capitol in a history dating back to a British arson attack in Washington during the War of 1812. With four lives lost on the Capitol grounds - one woman shot by police and three fatalities attributed by authorities to medical emergencies - Wednesday's turmoil appeared to rank as the deadliest incident of violence to unfold in and around the citadel of American democracy in 200 years. But this week's upheaval also stood out in one other notable respect, its White House origins, said David Meyer, a sociology professor at the University of California, Irvine. "The Capitol is a magnet for protest, and sometimes it's violent," Meyer, author of The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America, told Reuters. "What's really unusual this time is a president of the United States explicitly encouraging people to take up violent means against his political opponents." The following chronology recounts some of the most notable acts of violence to flare at the Capitol - shootings, bombings, a knife attack, a beating by cane and even an assassination attempt. 1814 - Invading British forces torched the original Capitol building while it was still under construction, setting bonfires of furniture in the House of Representatives and the original Supreme Court chamber. 1835 - In the first known attempt on a US president's life, a disgruntled house painter tried to shoot Andrew Jackson as he emerged from a funeral in the House chamber. The assailant's two flintlock derringers both misfired, and an enraged Jackson clubbed the would-be assassin with his walking stick before the man was subdued. The suspect was found not guilty by reason of insanity and confined to a mental institution. 1856 - An abolitionist senator, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, was savagely beaten with a cane by his South Carolina colleague, Preston Brooks, on the Senate floor after delivering a speech criticizing slavery. 1915 - A former Harvard University German language professor used a timing device to detonate three sticks of dynamite in an empty Senate reception room during a holiday recess. The professor, angry that American financiers were aiding the British against Germany during World War One, then fled to New York, where he shot and slightly injured banker J.P. Morgan. He was subsequently captured and later took his own life in jail. 1954 - A group of four armed Puerto Rican nationalists indiscriminately opened fire on the House floor from the visitors' gallery and unfurled a Puerto Rican flag. Five members of Congress were wounded. The four assailants - three men and a woman - were apprehended and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, which President Jimmy Carter commuted in 1979. 1971 - A bomb planted by the radical antiwar group Weather Underground to protest the US-backed invasion of Laos was detonated in a restroom on the Senate side of the Capitol, causing extensive damage but no casualties. 1983 - A bomb concealed under a bench outside the Senate chamber exploded, blowing the hinges off the door to the office of then-Senate Democratic leader Robert Byrd and damaging a portrait of renowned lawyer-statesman Daniel Webster. No one was hurt. A militant leftist group said it carried out the bombing in retaliation for US military involvement in Lebanon and Grenada. 1998 - An armed man stormed through a US Capitol security checkpoint and opened fire, fatally wounding two police officers, and made his way to the Republican Whip's office of Representative Tom DeLay. A tourist also was injured. The two slain officers became the first private citizens to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. 2001 - United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers stormed the cockpit to overpower suicide hijackers, whose likely intended target was later determined by investigators to have been the US Capitol. 2013 - A woman who tried to drive through a White House security checkpoint was chased by authorities to the Capitol, where she was shot dead. Her baby daughter was found unharmed in the vehicle. 2021 - Hundreds of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and occupied the building for hours, forcing an evacuation of lawmakers and interrupting their certification of the November presidential election. One woman in the mob was shot to death by police in a corridor of the building. Three other people died of medical emergencies on the Capitol grounds during the tumult. - Reuters

Queensland will enforce a three-day lockdown in Brisbane from tonight, after a quarantine hotel worker tested positive for the more contagious variant of Covid-19 that has emerged in Britain. Brisbane's more than 2 million residents can go outside only for grocery shopping, work, exercise or medical treatment. (file pic) Photo: AFP "We know that the level of infection is very high in this particular variant. We have to act differently to what we had before. Any delay could see significant, if not catastrophic results," state Health Minister Yvette D'Ath told reporters. The decision to temporarily shut down Australia's third-largest city came hours before a special national Cabinet meeting to consider a proposal from the country's expert medical panel to further tighten rules for international travellers. Brisbane's more than 2 million residents must wear masks and can go outside only for one of four essential reasons - grocery shopping, work, exercise or medical treatment. "If we do not do this now, it could end up being a 30-day lockdown," state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said. Australia is on course to begin administering the first Covid-19 vaccines in February as it tries to contain the spread of infections in its largest cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Queensland state reported no new local cases today, but the UK variant case has sparked fears of a wider outbreak. Victoria, the country's second-most populous state, reported no cases for the second straight day. Australia has reported a total of just over 28,500 Covid-19 cases and 909 deaths since the pandemic began, with border closures and speedy tracking systems helping keep numbers relatively low. New vaccine deal Meanwhile, Australia has signed an advanced agreement to purchase 51 million doses of Novavax Inc's experimental Covid-19 vaccine, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing yesterday. Australia will have the option to purchase up to an additional 10 million doses, with the initial doses expected to be delivered by mid-2021, the company said. Australia expects to start getting deliveries of the Novavax vaccine by the middle of the year. (file pic) Photo: AFP Novavax started a large late-stage study of the vaccine in the United States in December after delaying it twice due to issues in scaling up the manufacturing process. The company lags behind other drugmakers in the global race for a Covid-19 vaccine, with shots from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca authorised in some countries. Novavax in November signed an agreement in principle with the Australian government for a supply of 40 million doses of the vaccine and the latest deal replaces the earlier agreement. - Reuters

The woman shot dead by police during the siege of the US Capitol in Washington was identified by police as Ashli Babbitt, a US Air Force veteran whose social media activity indicates she embraced far-fetched right-wing conspiracy theories. Melody Black, from Minnesota, visits a memorial set up near the US Capitol for Ashli Babbitt who was fatally shot in the building after a pro-Trump mob broke in. Photo: 2021 Getty Images Babbitt, 35, was an ardent supporter of US President Donald Trump, and her posts on Twitter endorsed Trump's false assertions that he was defeated because Democrats elaborately rigged the 3 November election. The Twitter account @Ashli_Babbitt, which includes photographs of her, shared many posts in recent weeks flagging her excitement over attending the Trump rally in Washington on 6 January. The day before, she wrote: "Nothing will stop us ... they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours ... dark to light!" Babbitt lashed out at government-enforced Covid-19 restrictions on her Twitter page. At the pool cleaning service that public records indicate she ran with her husband in Spring Valley, California, a sign was pasted to the door on Thursday, reading: 'MASK FREE AUTONOMOUS ZONE BETTER KNOWN AS AMERICA ... tyranny, lawlessness, disrespect and hate for your fellow man will not be tolerated.' There was also a picture of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, with a slash through it. Ashli Babbitt had travelled to Washington with friends to join yesterday's rally, her husband, Aaron, told Fox 5 News in San Diego. He said he sent her a text message checking her status about 30 minutes before the shooting but never heard back. At the rally near the White House, Trump gave an incendiary speech filled with falsehoods for more than an hour that ended with exhortations to his supporters to march on the Capitol. Shortly after, some of them began smashing their way in while Congress met to confirm President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Donald Trump addresses supporters shortly before many stormed the Capitol building in Washington. Photo: AFP Videos show flag-draped woman being shot Videos of the shooting recorded by people at the scene show a woman draped in a Trump flag clambering up a doorway with smashed glass windows in a chaotic confrontation between the Trump-supporting intruders and police in an ornate hallway in the Capitol. A Capitol police officer on the other side of the doorway then fires his handgun, and the woman - whose appearance matches that of Babbitt's photos - falls backwards onto the ground, bleeding profusely and visibly in shock. People around her scream and try to tend to her injuries. The US Capitol police confirmed in a statement today that a woman identified as Ashli Babbitt had been shot by an officer as protesters were forcing their way into the House Chamber. They said she later died of her injuries in a hospital. From left: Gary Phaneuf, Tony Naples and Melody Black share a moment together as they visit a memorial setup near the US Capitol building for Ashli Babbitt. Photo: 2021 Getty Images 'Voicing her opinion and killed for it' - husband Three other people - two men and a woman - who were on the Capitol grounds died as a result of unspecified "medical emergencies", Washington's Metropolitan Police Department said. "She loved her country and she was doing what she thought was right to support her country, joining up with like-minded people that also love their president and their country," her husband told Fox 5 News. "She was voicing her opinion and she got killed for it." Babbitt served in the US Air Force as a senior airman while on active duty from 2004 to 2008, the Air Force said in a statement. She also served in the Air Force Reserve between 2008 and 2010, and in the Air National Guard from 2010 until 2016, the statement said. She served in the military with her ex-husband, Timothy McEntee, and did at least one tour in Iraq, Sean McEntee, her former brother-in-law said in a telephone interview, adding he felt "shock and sadness" at the news of her death. Babbitt posted a picture of herself on Twitter at a Trump boat rally in September, smiling with another person, both of them wearing tops bearing the slogans and imagery of QAnon, a sprawling cult-like conspiracy theory that has been embraced by some Trump supporters. Read more: QAnon adherents believe claims by one or more unidentified people posting on internet messageboards under the name 'Q' who say that Trump is secretly fighting a cabal of child-sex predators that includes powerful US elites. She also took to Twitter to express enthusiasm for guns and the US-Mexico border wall that Trump vowed to build, saying in a video posted in 2018 that she was concerned migrants were bringing drugs over the border "in droves". Robin Babbitt, who identified herself as Ashli Babbitt's mother-in-law on Twitter today, wrote: "Can't stop crying. ... She was such a wonderful kind person, and a serious military woman. Strong, Smart, Kind." The officer who killed Babbitt, whose identity has not been released, is on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, the Capitol police said in a statement. - Reuters

President-elect Joe Biden says that President Donald Trump fomented the violence at the US Capitol in Washington yesterday, calling it one of the darkest days in the history of the country and an assault on democracy. Joe Biden speaking in Wilmington, Delaware: "Don't dare call them protesters." Photo: 2021 Getty Images Biden, speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, where he was introducing nominees for his Justice Department, called the Trump supporters who forced their way into the Capitol building "domestic terrorists". "Don't dare call them protesters. They were a riotous mob, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists. It's that basic," Biden said. The chaos in the US Capitol when a pro-Trump mob stormed the building that houses the Senate and House of Representatives unfolded after Trump spent weeks whipping up his supporters with false claims that the 3 November election was stolen from him. At a rally in front of the White House yesterday Trump called on supporters to march to the building. "He unleashed an all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy from the outset, and yesterday was but the culmination of that unrelenting attack," Biden said of Republican Trump. President Donald Trump addresses thousands of supporters just before many stormed Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo: 2021 Getty Images He said it was "totally unacceptable" that police had shown more leniency toward the mob than police around the country had toward lawful anti-racism protesters last year. "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matters protesters, they wouldn't have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that's true. And that is unacceptable," Biden said. Read more: He added that officials in his Justice Department would have loyalty to the law, not the president. The House and Senate were scheduled to certify the results of the Electoral College, over the objections of some Republican lawmakers, when the Capitol was forced into lockdown by crowds swarming into the building. Congress reconvened hours later and confirmed Biden's presidential election victory. He will be sworn into office on 20 January. - Reuters

The upmarket iconic Sinalei Reef Resort and Spa in Samoa has announced it is closing down. Manager Sose Annandale told the Samoa Observer she is heartbroken but determined to stay optimistic about the 24 year-old resort's future. "It's heart-breaking really, especially when you see the number of livelihoods impacted." Sinalei Reef Resort's new lagoon pavilion. Photo: Dominic Godfrey / RNZ Pacific "We are down to the last 16 of the 106 staff we had," she said. The Sinalei is one resort that has tried to stay open since the pandemic-emergency border closures. Neighbours Coconuts Beach Resort closed doors and stood staff down as soon as borders closed. "We probably should have closed our doors sooner than this, to be honest, but we were hanging on in hope we could just make it another month, and another month," said Annandale. Despite their best efforts, the team could not shave the prices low enough to attract the numbers needed to keep the doors open and offer the quality people expected of the resort. Meanwhile, selling up has become a real option for the visitor industry operations around Samoa. "It would be really sad if at the end of the day many of us local operators fall, and we will all be eventually bought out by people from outside," said Annandale. The 2009 tsunami destroyed much of the resort and claimed the life of the owner's wife.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on European countries to do more to curb a new variant of coronavirus that was first detected in the UK. A rise in Covid-19 infections is putting pressure on hospitals across Europe during winter. Photo: 123RF WHO Europe director Hans Kluge said tougher measures were needed to "flatten the steep vertical line" of rising cases in some countries. He said 22 European countries now have cases of the variant, calling this "an alarming situation". First detected in November, the variant has driven a spike in cases in the UK. Its spread has concerned many European countries that have already imposed full national lockdowns to tackle a marked rise in infections during winter. Health experts say the variant is considerably more transmissible than previous strains but not necessarily any more dangerous for those infected. They have also played down the possibility that vaccines will not be as effective against the variant. However, Kluge said the "increased transmissibility and similar disease severity" of the variant does "raise alarm". "It is our assessment that this variant of concern may, over time, replace other circulating lineages - as seen in the United Kingdom, and increasingly in Denmark," Kluge said on Thursday. "Without increased control to slow its spread, there will be an increased impact on already stressed and pressurised health facilities." The appearance of the variant in south-east England triggered travel restrictions with dozens of countries in December. Some of those restrictions have been lifted, including those imposed by France, which has been closely tracking cases of the variant in the country. On Thursday Health Minister Olivier Veran said 19 cases of the UK variant had been identified in France, including two particularly worrying clusters in the greater Paris region and Brittany. Other countries outside Europe, including Japan, Canada and Australia, have also reported cases of the variant. What's the coronavirus situation in Europe? The WHO says more than 230 million people in the Europe are living in countries under full national lockdown, with more expected to announce further restrictions soon. As of Wednesday, almost half of all European countries had recorded 150 new cases per 100 000 people over a seven-day period, according to the WHO. A quarter of all EU member states, the WHO says, "are seeing very high incidence and strained health systems". The highest number of infections been recorded in Russia (3.2m), the UK (2.8m), France (2.7m) and Italy (2.2m), a tally by Johns Hopkins University says. The highest number of deaths have been recorded in the UK (78,000), Italy (77,000), France (66,000) and Russia (59,000), the tally shows. However last month Russia's deputy prime minister said more than 80 percent of excess deaths last year were linked to Covid-19, meaning its death toll was about 186,000, three times higher than previously reported. France lifted its national lockdown in December, but the government said the infection rate had not fallen sufficiently for a further easing. On Thursday Prime Minister Jean Castex said restaurants, cinemas and museums would remain closed throughout January to slow the spread of the coronavirus. A nationwide nightly curfew was being extended until at least 20 January, Castex said. In Spain, government figures showed the total number of coronavirus infections surged past two million on Thursday. The health ministry announced another 42,360 new cases over the past 48 hours. Elsewhere, Germany has extended its nationwide lockdown until the end of January. Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that hospitals across the country were already overwhelmed, particularly intensive care units. In Italy, restrictions imposed over the Christmas break were extended until 15 January, while in Greece the government introduced a strict lockdown from 3 January to 11 January. Meanwhile, vaccines against Covid-19 are being rolled out across Europe, but at a pace that has been criticised as too slow in some countries. - BBC