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Vanuatu has recorded its first official case of Covid-19. The Director of Public Health, Dr Len Tarivonda, said the infected man had flown to Vanuatu from the United States, via Sydney and Auckland. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Hilaire Bule The man, who was asymptomatic, was confirmed with the coronavirus on Tuesday during routine fifth day testing. He had arrived in Vanuatu on 4 November but the Ministry of Health said because he had been identified as travelling from a high-risk location he was seated separately during flights and physical distancing was carried out at all times. Prime Minister Bob Loughman officially announced the confirmed case in a press conference during which he sought to reassure the public of their safety. "I want to assure all citizens and the public that the situation is under control and the government through the [Covid-19] taskforce is prepared and ready to address this case. "I also want to remind the public that they must co-operate with all front-line government agencies as the work to carry out their duties." Loughman said the infected person was transferred to the isolation facility at the Vila Central Hospital. He said contact tracing was underway and all close contacts of the individual would also be put into quarantine. The prime minister said at this stage there was no need for a lockdown but people are advised to be extra vigilant in following good hygiene practices and to practice social distancing. "The government through the Covid-19 taskforce will continue to give the public up to date information on the Covid-19 situation and this case in particular," he said. Loughman said authorities would advise if any further measures needed to be taken in the coming days. The Leader of Opposition Ralph Regenvanu took to social media to say the case "is manageable" since there was only one victim and they weren't in the general population.

The port at Pago Pago, American Samoa Photo: RNZ/Fili Sagapolutele A ship anchored off American Samoa with three Covid-positive crew members on board will remain there for at least seven days. The container ship, the Fesko Askold, has 17 crew on board. It arrived in Pago Pago on Sunday afternoon and sailed out of the main harbour at nine yesterday morning. It remains about eight kilometres from shore. American Samoa's COVID-19 task force chairman Iulogologo Joseph Pereira said this would allow local authorities to complete their assessment of the situation and come up with a plan to offload and pick up containers. He said steps had been taken to decontaminate the dock in case of any contamination while the vessel was dockside. Pago Pago port was scheduled to reopen this morning after a 24 hour shutdown. Iulogologo Joseph Pereira said while two separate tests had been conducted, affirming the positive results for the three crew members, a third battery of tests was being done by the more sensitive and sophisticated ABI7500 Testing Machine at LBJ Medical Center. The government was not aware of protocols being adopted by the vessel's captain to contain further spread of the virus to other crew members, he said. Samoan workers in isolation Frontline officials in Samoa who serviced the Fesco Askold while it was at Apia's Matautu port are now in isolation. Before American Samoa's capital Pago Pago, the Cyprus-flagged vessel had sailed from Tahiti to Samoa where it docked for less than 24 hours. Fesco Askold Photo: Etienne Verberckmoes According to Samoa's Health Department, strict health controls were followed and no one from the vessel came ashore. The department said that Samoa remained covid-19 free. However as a precautionary measure, frontline officials who serviced the vessel have been placed in a controlled isolation. They will be tested over the next five days. After it docked in Pago Pago, the US coastguard ordered the ship back out to sea.

Hundreds of Russian peacekeeping troops have been deployed to the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, following a deal to end conflict in the region. Azerbaijani people visit Alley of Martyrs, a cemetery and memorial dedicated to those killed by Soviet troops during the 1990 Black January, as they gather to celebrate the deal reached to halt fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region on November 10, 2020. Photo: Resul Rehimov / Anadolu Agency / AFP Heavy fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces had been ongoing for weeks, until both sides agreed to a Russian-brokered peace deal yesterday. The enclave is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani but has been run by ethnic Armenians since 1994. The peace deal sparked jubilant scenes in Azerbaijan and fury in Armenia. Under its terms, Azerbaijan will hold on to several areas that it has taken during the conflict. Armenia also agreed to withdraw from several other adjacent areas over the next few weeks. The BBC's Orla Guerin in Baku says that, overall, the deal should be read as a victory for Azerbaijan and a defeat for Armenia. Protesters in Armenia have damaged official buildings and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. What else has been agreed? The peace deal, which was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's prime minister, took effect on Tuesday from 01:00 local time (21:00 GMT Monday). Russian President Vladimir Putin makes a statement on the agreement to end fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region on November 10, 2020. Photo: Alexey Nikolsky / Sputnik / AFP During a televised online address, Putin said that Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to patrol the front line. Ten aircraft carrying the first wave of troops took off from an airbase in Ulyanovsk early on Tuesday. At least 2000 Russian soldiers will eventually be active in the region and they will guard the "Lachin corridor" which links the Karabakh capital, Stepanakert, to Armenia. Ninety armoured personnel carriers will also deploy as part of the renewable five-year mission. Putin said the agreement would include an exchange of war prisoners, with "all economical and transport contacts to be unblocked." Moscow is in a military alliance with Armenia and has an army base there, but it also has close ties with Azerbaijan and it has been selling weapons to both countries. Turkey, which has openly backed Azerbaijan, will also take part in the peacekeeping process, according to Azerbaijan's president who joined Putin during the address. However, the exact role Turkey will play is unclear. How did the deal come about? Although both sides took steps to reduce tensions last year, fighting erupted at the end of September and several attempts to end the conflict failed. Demonstrators storm into Armenia's Parliament building in Yerevan, in against the end of war in Nagorno-Karabakh on 10 November 2020. Photo: Karen Avetisyan / Sputnik / AFP Over the weekend, Azerbaijan said it had taken control of the key town of Shusha, known as Shushi in Armenian. The town is strategically important because it could serve as a well-positioned staging post for an attack on Nagorno-Karabakh's main city of Stepanakert, military analysts say. While Armenia denied the town had been lost, on Tuesday Nagorno-Karabakh's ethnic Armenian leader Arayik Harutyunyan said his forces had little choice but to sign a peace deal given the situation on the ground. Battles were already taking place on the outskirts of Stepanakert and if the conflict had continued the whole of Karabakh would have been lost, he said on Facebook. "We would have far more losses," he said. Meanwhile Pashinyan, Armenia's prime minister, said signing the deal was "incredibly painful both for me and for our people". He added: "The decision was made based on a deep analysis of the combat situation and in conjunction with the best experts." Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Photo: AFP Azerbaijan's President Aliyev, meanwhile, said the agreement was of "historic importance," and amounted to a "capitulation" by Armenia. Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu hailed it as a "sacred success". But France's Emmanuel Macron expressed hope that the deal would "preserve Armenia's interests" and called on Turkey to "end its provocations" over the conflict. France is home to a large Armenian community and Macron said the country "stands by Armenia at this difficult time". How deadly was the conflict? It is unclear exactly how many have died during the flare-up in fighting. Both sides deny targeting civilians but accuse the other of doing so. Nagorno-Karabakh's authorities say nearly 1200 of its defence forces have died in the fighting, and civilians have also been killed or injured. Azerbaijan has not released its military casualty figures but has said more than 80 civilians were killed in the fighting - including 21 in a missile strike on the town of Barda last month. Russia's Vladimir Putin said last month that almost 5000 people had been killed in the fighting. -BBC

A Vatican report has found that two recent popes and Church officials ignored allegations about a US cardinal later found guilty of sex abuse. Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington DC. Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images / AFP Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington DC, was expelled from the priesthood after the Vatican concluded its investigation last year. It has now issued a report into how he was able to rise through the ranks, despite allegations going back decades. It argues that credible evidence only surfaced in 2017. The current Pope, Francis, then ordered the investigation and last year McCarrick, now 90, was found to have sexually abused a teenage boy in the 1970s. His abuses may have taken place too long ago for criminal charges to be filed because of the US statute of limitations. What did the report find? The 450-page report includes testimonies and dozens of letters and transcripts from Vatican and US Church archives. McCarrick served as archbishop of Washington DC from 2001 to 2006. The report finds that the late Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005, was told of his abuses but chose to believe American bishops who instead concealed the information and McCarrick himself, who denied it all. It also finds that Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013, probably rejected the idea of an investigation because there were "no credible allegations of child abuse". The report acknowledges that, in hindsight, the Vatican's investigations into the allegations against McCarrick were of a "limited nature". In July 2018, McCarrick became the first person to resign as a cardinal since 1927. Pope Francis suspended him from all priestly duties the following February. Pope Francis reaches out to hug Cardinal Theodore McCarrick at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on 23 September, 2015 in Washington, DC. Photo: Jonathan Newton / Pool / AFP He is among hundreds of members of the clergy accused of sexually abusing children over several decades. "We publish the report with sorrow for the wounds that these events have caused to the victims, their families, the Church in the United States and the universal Church," said the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. What are the allegations against McCarrick? He is alleged to have assaulted a teenager in the early 1970s, while working as a priest in New York. The claims were made public by the current Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Cardinal Dolan said an independent forensic agency had investigated the allegations. A 2018 review board, including legal experts, psychologists, parents and a priest, then found the allegations "credible and substantiated". At the time, McCarrick said he had "no recollection of this reported abuse" and believed in his innocence. Several men have since accused him of sexual misconduct at a beach house in New Jersey, where he allegedly took them while they studied for the priesthood as adult seminarians. One man said he was assaulted while still a minor. It also emerged that financial settlements were reached in at least two cases of alleged sexual misconduct involving McCarrick. They involved "allegations of sexual misconduct with adults decades ago" while he was working as a bishop in New Jersey, bishops in the state told US media. Last month two Catholic priests went on trial in the Vatican, marking the first time the city state has prosecuted a case of alleged sex abuse. While scores of priests have faced abuse charges around the world, the Vatican has never held a trial condemning allegations of sexual abuse within its own walls. Pope Francis called for "decisive action" when he was elected in 2013, but critics say he has not done enough to hold to account bishops who allegedly covered up sexual abuse. In August 2018, he wrote to all Roman Catholics condemning clerical sex abuse and demanded an end to cover-ups. -BBC

President Donald Trump will push ahead on Tuesday with longshot legal challenges to his election loss, as Republican lawmakers and state officials defended his right to do so. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump was "100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities". Photo: AFP/ Getty Images Pennsylvania Republican state lawmakers called for an audit of results in the state that on Saturday enabled Democrat Joe Biden to secure the more than 270 votes in the Electoral College he needed to win the presidency. Biden also leads Trump in the popular vote by more than 4.6 million votes, according to the latest count of ballots. Trump has made baseless claims that fraud was marring the results. The count has been delayed by a surge in mail-in ballots prompted by voters' desire to avoid infection from the coronavirus pandemic. Judges have tossed out lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia, and experts say Trump's legal efforts have little chance of changing the election result. The leading Republican in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, on Monday carefully backed Trump, saying that he was "100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities," without citing any evidence. McConnell's comments represent the thinking of most Senate Republicans for now, said a senior Senate Republican aide. "The position is tenable until it isn't and might last for a week or two before it becomes untenable," the aide said. US president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris Photo: 2020 Getty Images The dispute has slowed Biden's preparations for governing. A Trump appointee who heads the office charged with recognizing election results has yet to do so, preventing the Biden transition team from moving into federal government office space or accessing funds to hire staff. The General Services Administrator Emily Murphy, appointed by Trump in 2017, has yet to determine that "a winner is clear," a spokeswoman said. Biden's team is considering legal action. Barr vote investigation memo prompts resignation US Attorney General William Barr on Monday told federal prosecutors to "pursue substantial allegations" of irregularities of voting and the counting of ballots. He also told them that "fanciful or far-fetched claims" should not be a basis for investigation. His letter did not indicate the Justice Department had uncovered voting irregularities affecting the outcome of the election. Richard Pilger, who for years has served as director of the Election Crimes Branch in the Justice Department, said in an internal email he was resigning from his post after he read "the new policy and its ramifications". The previous Justice Department policy, designed to avoid interjecting the federal government into election campaigns, had discouraged overt investigations "until the election in question has been concluded, its results certified, and all recounts and election contests concluded." Attorney General William Barr Photo: AFP Biden's campaign said Barr was fueling Trump's far-fetched allegations of fraud. "Those are the very kind of claims that the president and his lawyers are making unsuccessfully every day, as their lawsuits are laughed out of one court after another," said Bob Bauer, a senior adviser to Biden. A bipartisan group of six former US Justice Department officials blasted Barr's move. "The voters decide the winner in an election, not the President, and not the Attorney General," wrote the group, which includes Don Ayer, a deputy attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush. "We have seen absolutely no evidence of anything that should get in the way of certification of the results, which is something the states handle, not the federal government." Republicans remain loyal Although a few Republicans have urged Trump to concede, the president still had the support of prominent party leaders who had yet to congratulate Biden. Trump's campaign has filed a lawsuit to block Pennsylvania officials from certifying Biden's victory in the battleground state, where the Democrat's lead grew to more than 45,000 votes, or nearly 0.7 percentage points, with 98% of ballots counted on Tuesday morning. It alleged the state's mail-in voting system violated the US Constitution by creating "an illegal two-tiered voting system" where voting in person was subject to more oversight than voting by mail. "The Trump campaign's latest filing is another attempt to throw out legal votes," Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said on Twitter. Pennsylvania state Representative Dawn Keefer led a group of Republican state lawmakers on Tuesday in calling for a bipartisan investigation with subpoena powers to see if the "election was conducted fairly and lawfully." Asked about any evidence of fraud, Keefer told reporters, "We've just gotten a lot of allegations," adding that "they're too in the weeds" for her to know more without investigating. Biden will give a speech on Tuesday defending the Affordable Care Act, the landmark healthcare law popularly known as Obamacare, as the US Supreme Court heard arguments on a lawsuit backed by the Trump administration to invalidate it. - Reuters

Donald Trump's former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says the US President does not like losing, and is unlikely to concede defeat to Joe Biden. Mulvaney told Checkpoint Trump was also unlikely to attend Biden's inauguration. [embedded content] The sitting president has been tweeting up a storm, abruptly terminating his Secretary of Defence, claiming Wisconsin and Georgia are looking good for him, and repeating baseless claims of fraud in the Pennsylvania count. Mulvaney is now the US special envoy to Northern Ireland. Previously he was the acting White House chief of staff for Trump. He told Checkpoint Trump's political future would be enmeshed with his business future. "Many of us expect the president to go into the television business, to start, for lack of a better word what we're calling 'Trump TV' to compete with say Fox News. "The president figured out a long time ago that there's five or six networks, lying over half of our nation that are sort of centre-left, and one network vying over everybody from the centre to the right. So I think he's going to do that. "I don't know if that takes him out of consideration for 2024, I don't think it does. I think in fact he might use that as a way to stay relevant through to 2024 and run again. "The president doesn't like losing, he will not like having this ... hypothetical loss on his resume, and certainly it's very difficult to make the case that you are a great president if you are a one-term president, so I think that the interest he would have in running in 2024, might be fairly significant. "Don't dismiss the fact he would be roughly the same age in four years as Joe Biden is now, so it's certainly not out of the question." Mulvaney told Checkpoint he thinks Trump is capable of running for the US presidency again. "I think he's going to try and figure out where he has more influence and more effect, more power. Is that controlling of a media network, a media empire perhaps four years from now? Or is it going back to run for president a second time? "Keeping in mind that a win in 2024 would in theory erase a great deal of damage done to that resume, if you were to lose this year. So the president doesn't like losing. He really, really doesn't like losing and I think he likes losing less than he likes making money." Mulvaney has played golf with Trump many times, but said it was very rare to see the outgoing president lose on the course. "I never beat him, which is interesting to me, and everybody always asks me if I let him beat me. And I was quick to point out that Donald Trump doesn't hire people that let other people beat them at anything. Photo: AFP / Getty Images "He doesn't take it very well. I've only seen him get beaten a couple of times, granted these are matches with touring pros. We played, I think, Louis Oosthuizen one time and Louis shot 62. It's not possible for the president to beat him at that level, but he still didn't like it very much. "He is a very, very competitive person. And I think that's going to drive whatever he does next. "I made a putt one day to tie him when I was, I think, at the Office of Management and Budget - I was the director at the time. The President and I got to know each other through golf, I was in the cabinet when I was running the budget office - the president found out I was a single digit handicap, as he is, so I would play with him from time to time. "I remember one day, I made about a 15-footer at the last hole to tie. And I don't think he talked to me for about two days after that. "The US has a saying – 'show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser'. We don't count as well to losing in this country and I'm certain that Donald Trump is the top of the list of people who don't. "I was playing with him one time at Bedminster - I'm about an eight handicap and he's about a five… I had him even, and I walked up behind him, I slapped him on the back, said 'all right old man I got you today. Today's the day I got you, I'm going to beat you today'. "He goes, 'you don't have a chance'. And he finished birdie, par, birdie at the Bedminster Club. "This is the same club that will host the PGA Championship in 2022, I think. It is a real golf course. "And I tell people when you hit it right down the centre, 250 yards as he does every single time when he's playing well, you hit it a 15 feet and make the putt, there's not a lot of opportunity to cheat." Mulvaney said it would now be a tight circle around Trump, as final votes were being counted and the leadership transition looms. "This is not just the ordinary circle, the ordinary circle would include folks like formerly me in the Chief of Staff role, currently Mark Meadows, but I really think that given the intensity of the situation, the gravity of the situation, you've seen that circle sort of tighten down. Photo: AFP "Now it's going to be a very small universe of people - Jared Kushner his son in law, Ivanka his grown daughter, his two sons Don Jr and Eric, his wife Melania, and then a very small group of people who have sort of advised him and been close to him over the course of the 30 years. "These would be business people from New York City - Carl Icahn comes to mind for example." Mulvaney said he had seen Trump a few times on the campaign. "I try not to call him too much, simply because Mark Meadows is a good friend of mine and I don't think it's institutionally wise for me to sort of continue to keep that constant contact with the president, because it people might perceive it as coming at the cost of Mark Meadows. "Mark and I are good friends, I talk to Mark more than I talked to the President." Trump would probably not specifically concede to Biden, Mulvaney said. "I can see him giving a speech that says: 'It looks like I lost, I still think I won. I'm going to go quietly and gracefully.' "But to have the words come out of his mouth - 'I concede this race to Joe Biden,' ... I'd be surprised to see that. "Concessions don't mean anything really in our system, other than the appearances of things. They have absolutely zero legal implications. Even if ... Joe Biden were to concede tonight it would not mean anything, he would still be where he is at the polls and the counting." Mulvaney said he was not concerned about any widespread firings in the West Wing over the coming weeks. "The president and Esper didn't get along for the last several months - completely within the president's jurisdiction and power to make a replacement. "I'm not too concerned there that these late changes have any real impact on our ability say to defend ourselves, but there may be a couple of other folks to leave." When asked what it is like to be fired by Trump, Mulvaney said he did not know. "I got the job that I wanted to begin. The president offered me the position of chief of staff when I went into his office to ask to serve as the special envoy to Northern Ireland. "He said: 'No, six months - come and fix the place here, we'll make you a chief of staff. After that you can do Northern Ireland.' Photo: AFP "So I got the job I wanted. I got to help pick my replacement and my good friend Mark Meadows took that job. "And I also got lifetime golf privileges at Trump properties around the world, so not a bad deal. "The answer is I don't know what it's like to be fired by Donald Trump, but if that's getting fired, it's not a bad experience at all." Mulvaney told Checkpoint he would not be surprised if Trump did not attend Biden's inauguration. "That's just not his nature. I think if anything, he might give a speech that says: 'This is it, everybody says I lost. I still think I won, but I get it, I'll leave, I'm going to wish Biden good luck, but don't count me out in four years.'"

Peru's Congress has ousted President Martin Vizcarra in an impeachment vote over corruption allegations, prompting immediate tensions in the Andean nation. Martin Vizcarra has rejected the corruption allegations. Photo: AFP Vizcarra said he would accept the Congress vote and would not take any legal action to counter it. "Today I am leaving the presidential palace. Today I am going home," Vizcarra said during a speech late on Monday local time, surrounded by his Cabinet in the courtyard of the presidential residence in downtown Lima. Head of Congress Manuel Merino, an agronomist and businessman from the minority Popular Action, is expected to assume the presidency on Tuesday and will remain in office until the end of July 2021, when Vizcarra's term was due to expire. Merino called for calm after the vote and assured Peruvians that the 11 April presidential election would go on as planned. "It is already called for," he said about the election in an interview with the local station America Television. In the second effort by lawmakers to remove the centrist Vizcarra in a matter of months, the opposition-dominated Congress put forward 105 votes to oust him over accusations that as a governor he accepted bribes from companies that won public works contracts. The 105 votes far exceeded the 87-vote threshold out of 130 needed to remove him from office. There were 19 votes against his ouster and four abstentions. Vizcarra has rejected the corruption allegations as "baseless" and "false." He warned of "unpredictable consequences" on Monday if lawmakers impeached him ahead of the 11 April election, in which he is not eligible to run. Vizcarra's removal from office plunges the world's second-largest copper producer into political turmoil as it looks to recover from an economic recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Dozens of people gathered at Plaza San Martin in downtown Lima in support of Vizcarra after the news of his ouster as police officers kept a close eye on the crowd. Video circulated on social media showing Congressman Ricardo Burga, who voted in favour of the impeachment motion, being punched in the face by a bystander as he spoke to television reporters. Vizcarra, 57, lacked a party in the fragmented Congress, and had a tense relationship with lawmakers, with whom he frequently locked horns over his anti-graft agenda. He dissolved Congress last year after a long-running standoff, a move that prompted criticism by right-wing lawmakers. Vizcarra survived a first ouster attempt in September in a separate impeachment trial over alleged links to a case of irregular government contracts with a little-known singer. Only 32 in the chamber voted in favour of his ouster in that vote. In November, however, lawmakers voted to move forward with a new impeachment trial over accusations that Vizcarra accepted bribes from companies that won public works contracts when he was the governor of the southern region of Moquegua. Vizcarra's removal could usher in a period of political tensions in the months leading up to elections as Peru is already strained by economic instability and the impact of the pandemic, analysts said. "Political turmoil related to the latest impeachment process and corruption allegations add to deep distrust of the political class ahead of upcoming elections," international firm Eurasia said in a report earlier on Monday. 'Coup in disguise' Vizcarra's government clashed with Merino in recent months over accusations that he tried to invoke the military in his request for Vizcarra's removal. Merino denied any wrongdoing. Analysts said Merino could push some populist measures in the months leading up to Peru's elections. "Would probably maintain the existing economic policy framework but advance some populist measures as he tries to win public support," Eurasia said. Lawmakers sympathetic to Vizcarra rejected his ouster and warned that the decision would heighten instability in the Andean country. "This is a coup in disguise. We need calm, but also a lot of citizen surveillance," George Forsyth, a mayor and one of the early front-runners for the 2021 election, said on Twitter. Francisco Sagastegui, a lawmaker with the centrist Partido Morado, called the vote an "incorrect decision". "We think this is ... a decision that adds much more uncertainty, creates problems, and will severely affect our citizens," Sagastegui said. - Reuters