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White House senior adviser Stephen Miller has announced he has tested positive for Covid-19, the latest case of coronavirus reported among Donald Trump's inner circle since the Republican president announced he had the virus last week. Dan Scavino, left, social media director, Hope Hicks, White House adviser and Stephen Miller, senior adviser, walk to Marine One to join Donald Trump on a trip to Ohio last month. Both Hicks and Miller have been diagnosed with Covid-19. Photo: AFP Miller's wife, Katie Miller, who is a spokeswoman for Vice President Mike Pence, tested positive for the virus in May. "Over the last five days I have been working remotely and self-isolating, testing negative every day through yesterday," Miller said in a statement. "Today, I tested positive for Covid-19 and am in quarantine." A day after the US president returned from the military hospital in Maryland where he had been treated for the disease, at least two other cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in his immediate circle. A military attache, Jayna McCarron, tested positive, as did a valet, an active-duty member of the military who travelled with Trump last week, Bloomberg first reported. Meanwhile, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has declared it safe for Pence to take part in tomorrow's vice presidential debate because he was not a close contact of anyone infected with Covid-19, including Trump. Pence is scheduled to debate his Democratic rival, Senator Kamala Harris in Utah. A plexiglass barrier will separate the pair during the debate. However, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he and Trump should not have their scheduled debate on 15 October if Trump still has the coronavirus infection at that time. Trump has already indicated he is keen to go ahead with the second debate. Much stronger interest in vice presidential match-up The vice presidential debate has taken on an outsized and perhaps unprecedented significance, with questions about Trump's health now looming over the US election less than a month away. The pressure on Pence, who often toils in Trump's deep shadow, is great. Trump trails Biden by 10 percentage points nationally, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, with voters faulting what they viewed as the president's carelessness about the dangers of the new coronavirus. Mike Pence and Kamala Harris Photo: AFP Pence needs to show the public he is ready to step in as president if the situation requires, while also defending the Trump administration's handling of a seven-month-old health crisis that has killed more than 210,000 Americans. For her part, Harris, who has largely stayed out of the spotlight in recent weeks as Biden ramped up campaign travel, must demonstrate to voters that she, too, could assume the presidency if needed at some point in the 77-year-old Biden's tenure should they win on 3 November. Traditionally, the vice presidential debate is considered an afterthought to the three presidential debates, watched by fewer voters and viewed as almost irrelevant in terms of shifting public opinion. "This debate is different," said Christopher Devine, an expert on the vice presidency at the University of Dayton. "Some people may be worrying about Mike Pence and how he may perform if called upon. And there are questions about Joe Biden's ability to stay healthy." Democrats criticise Trump as defence chiefs isolate The US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff have almost entirely gone into self-quarantine after the Coast Guard's No 2 tested positive for the novel coronavirus following top-level meetings at the Pentagon last week, officials said. US defence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the military's top brass - with the exception of the Coast Guard vice commandant, Admiral Charles Ray - had all tested negative so far and were still carrying out their duties. But the disclosure risks adding to a growing sense of uncertainty about operations at the highest levels of the US government after Trump himself was infected, along with senior White House staff and other Republican leaders. The White House said the rise in cases among officials in Washington has not disrupted the government. Representative Adam Smith, chairman of the Democratic-led House Armed Services Committee, issued a terse statement taking aim at Trump and warning "our adversaries are always looking for any weakness to exploit". "While our military can still operate while leadership is quarantined, the national security implications of the President's recklessness cannot be overstated," Smith said. All potential close contacts from Ray's meetings at the Pentagon were tested yesterday and none of them exhibited symptoms, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement. - Reuters

Eddie Van Halen, considered one of rock music's greatest guitar players and a founding member of the hugely successful rock band named after him and his drummer brother, died of cancer on Tuesday, his son said on Twitter. He was 65. Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen performs onstage during the 2015 Billboard Music Awards. Photo: AFP "I can't believe I'm having to write this but my father, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen, has lost his long and arduous battle with cancer this morning," Wolfgang Van Halen, a bass player who played with his father in the band, said in the tweet. "He was the best father I could ever ask for," Wolfgang Van Halen said on Twitter. "Every moment I've shared with him on and off stage was a gift." pic.twitter.com/kQqDV7pulR — Wolf Van Halen (@WolfVanHalen) October 6, 2020 Eddie and his brother Alex founded Van Halen in the early 1970s in Los Angeles and the hard rock band became a staple of the famed Sunset Strip before releasing their eponymous debut album in 1978. The album shot to number 19 on the Billboard charts, becoming one of the most successful debuts of the decade. My heart is broken. Eddie was not only a Guitar God, but a genuinely beautiful soul. Rest in peace, Eddie! ...Eddie Van Halen Dead at 65 from Cancer https://t.co/gITtcndQVv — Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) October 6, 2020 - Reuters

Facebook and Twitter took action on posts from US President Donald Trump for violating their rules against coronavirus misinformation by suggesting that Covid-19 was just like the flu. Covid-positive Donald Trump removes his mask after returning to the White House from hospital. Photo: AFP Facebook took the post down but not before it was shared about 26,000 times, data showed. "We remove incorrect information about the severity of Covid-19," a company spokesman told Reuters. The world's largest social media company, which exempts politicians from its third-party fact-checking programme, has rarely taken action against posts from the president. Twitter disabled retweets on a similar tweet from Trump yesterday and added a warning label that said it broke its rules on "spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to Covid-19" but that it might be in the public interest for it to remain accessible. During the 2019-2020 influenza season, the flu was associated with 22,000 deaths in the United States, according to US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Since the first case of coronavirus was recorded in the United States at the beginning of this year, more than 210,000 people in the country have died, the world's highest death toll. On Monday, Trump told Americans "to get out there" and not fear Covid-19 as he returned to the White House after a three-night stay in the hospital where he was treated for a coronavirus infection. Twitter, which has been using labels to flag tweets with misinformation - including from the president - told Reuters it is currently trying to respond more quickly and more overtly. Facebook removed a Trump post for coronavirus misinformation for the first time in August. The post included a video in which the president falsely claimed that children were "almost immune" to Covid-19. Wall Street falls after hopes of stimulus package fade US stocks fell sharply and were down more than 1 percent in late afternoon trading after Trump said he was calling off negotiations with Democratic lawmakers on coronavirus relief legislation until after the election. Nancy Pelosi Photo: AFP or licensors Stocks, which had been moderately higher, reversed course after the comments on Twitter from Trump. Hopes for further fiscal stimulus had been helping to support the market. "Investors are certainly focused on any type of stimulus that they can get. The (Federal Reserve) is pretty much saying we're done, there's not much more to do, the financial markets are functioning, it's now up to you lawmakers to do the next step," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management in Chicago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 309.6 points, or 1.1 percent, to 27,839.04, the S&P 500 lost 37.53 points, or 1.10 percent, to 3,371.1 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 139.42 points, or 1.23 percent, to 11,193.06. Comments from officials that a stimulus deal was still possible had lifted the three main stock indexes yesterday, helping them recoup losses from last week that were sparked by news that Trump had contracted Covid-19. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump's decision to walk away from talks on the stimulus bill shows he is unwilling to crush the virus, as cases continue to rise across much of the country. "Today, once again, President Trump showed his true colours: putting himself first at the expense of the country, with the full complicity of the GOP Members of Congress," Pelosi said in a statement. "Walking away from coronavirus talks demonstrates that President Trump is unwilling to crush the virus, as is required by the Heroes Act." Biden warns there 'is a lot ot be concerned about' Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has criticised Trump for downplaying the severity of coronavirus, saying there is "a lot to be concerned about". He said the president should be communicating the "right lesson" on masks and social distancing. It came after Trump told Americans not to fear Covid-19. He has returned to the White House to continue his treatment for coronavirus after a three-night hospital stay. The president, who is still contagious, removed his mask on the balcony of the White House while posing for pictures. While he is no longer in hospital, his doctor has said he "may not entirely be out of the woods yet". Speaking at an NBC television town hall event in Miami, Florida, on Monday night, Biden said he was "glad" that the president seemed to be recovering well. Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden at the forum in Miami. Photo: AFP But, he said, "I would hope that the president, having gone through what he went through... would communicate the right lesson to the American people. Masks matter." "The only thing I heard was one of the tweets saying that, you know, don't be so concerned about all this, essentially. "There's a lot to be concerned about. Two hundred and ten thousand people have died," he added. The US has recorded more coronavirus cases and deaths than any other country in the world. Former First Lady Michelle Obama also criticised the president's response to the virus in a video released yesterday in which she urged people to vote for Biden "like your lives depend on it". "Seven months later, he [Trump] still doesn't have a plan for this virus. Seven months later, he still won't wear a mask consistently and encourage others to do the same - even when those simple actions could save countless lives. Instead, he continues to gaslight the American people by acting like this pandemic is not a real threat," she said. Trump's diagnosis has upended his campaign for a second term in office, less than a month before the 3 November presidential election. Two more cases in White House Another two White House staffers have tested positive for Covid-19 a day after the US president returned to the White House after being hospitalised with the highly contagious disease. One of Trump's valets, an active member of the US military who travelled with the president last week and a military aide to the president have both reportedly caught the virus. The White House says it will take more precautions to protect staff around Trump. Meanwhile, the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff have gone into self-quarantine after the Coast Guard's No 2 tested positive for the novel coronavirus following a top-level meeting at the Pentagon last week, US officials said. Mark Milley Photo: AFP US defence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the military's top brass - with the exception of the Coast Guard vice commandant, Admiral Charles Ray - had all tested negative so far and were still carrying out their duties. But the disclosure risks adding to a sense of uncertainty about operations at the highest levels of the US government after Trump himself contracted the illness, along with senior White House staff and other Republican leaders. In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said that all potential close contacts from Ray's meetings at the Pentagon were tested yesterday and that none of them exhibited symptoms. Ray attended meetings late last week with the US military's top brass, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Mark Milley, Trump's top military advisor. US officials told Reuters that Milley was self-isolating, as was the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and military leaders from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. - Reuters / BBC

The French government plans to introduce jail terms and fines for doctors who provide controversial so-called "virginity certificates" for traditional religious marriages. Muslim women can face rejection by their families and local community, and some have even been killed, for having had sex before marriage. Photo: AFP It is part of draft legislation aimed at reinforcing French secular values and combating what President Emmanuel Macron calls "Islamist separatism". But the French abortion advice group ANCIC says stopping "virginity tests" requires broader educational work. The UN says such tests must be stopped. The French Interior Ministry says the bill - not yet fully debated by French politicians - proposes a year in jail and a fine of €15,000 ($NZ26,000) for any medical professional who issues a "virginity certificate". According to France 3 TV news, about 30 percent of French doctors say they have been asked for such certificates and most of them refuse. The World Health Organisation says the practice of inspecting the hymen visually or with fingers cannot prove whether a woman or girl has had vaginal intercourse or not. It also violates her human rights, the WHO says. How widespread is the practice? Gynaecologist Dr Ghada Hatem told France Inter news that "in France this doesn't affect thousands of women - I am asked by about three women maximum [for certificates] each year". Often it is girls from the Maghreb - Muslim-majority north-west Africa - who ask for them, she said. She told France 3 TV that she provided such certificates for women and girls who feared physical violence from relatives or family dishonour. "If they say 'my brother will beat me up, my dad will strangle me, my in-laws will ruin my family's reputation' I have no reason to disbelieve them." "Virginity tests" have been documented in many countries by the UN, Human Rights Watch and other organisations. They are done not only on religious grounds, but sometimes in rape investigations or in recruitment to security forces. Last year BBC Arabic reported that such tests were most common in North Africa and the Middle East, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and South Africa. A UN statement in October 2018 urged governments to ban such tests, but also called for awareness campaigns to educate communities and "challenge myths related to virginity and harmful gender norms that place emphasis on control of women's and girls' sexuality and bodies". Marlène Schiappa, French Minister Delegate in charge of Citizenship, said the bill - to be presented to parliament in December - should also include punishment for those who demand "virginity tests", such as parents or fiancés. There are calls for community education programmes to "challenge myths around virginity". Photo: AFP Muslim women can face rejection by their families and local community, and some have even been killed, for having had sex before marriage. Emmanuel Macron Photo: AP Photo / Michel Euler Many other traditional faith groups also require women and girls to be "pure" before marriage. In a speech on Friday President Macron spoke out against radicalisation in some French Muslim communities, saying a minority of France's estimated six million Muslims were in danger of forming a "counter-society". Schiappa said the new law ought also to ban "certificates of convenience unrelated to a person's health", such as "a so-called certified chlorine allergy, generally used to keep girls away from sports activities and the swimming pool". ANCIC, a French association providing advice on contraception and abortion, said it supported the government's stand against "virginity tests", but warned that in some cases women were in real danger and "a ban would simply deny the existence of such community practices, without making them disappear". "We think this question must be tackled quite differently, so that women and men free themselves and reject the weight of these traditions," ANCIC said. "There needs to be educational provision, to inform, discuss, prevent and give support." Tackling polygamy Under existing French law, foreigners can be refused an extension of their residency permits if they are in polygamous marriages, but Schiappa said the new law would also go further, enabling polygamists to be expelled from France. Current protections against forced marriage would also be tightened, she said. The bill would enable a third party to alert a civil servant if there were suspicions that a marriage was going ahead without both partners' consent. The civil servant would then interview each partner and, if a forced marriage was still suspected, the matter could be passed on to prosecutors. - BBC

Australia pledged billions in tax cuts and measures to boost jobs to help pull the economy out of its historic Covid-19 slump in a budget that tips the country into its deepest deficit on record. People wait in a queue to receive benefit payouts, including unemployment support, at a Centerlink payment centre in Sydney in March. Photo: AFP Prime Minister Scott Morrison's conservative government has unleashed $A300 billion in emergency stimulus to prop up growth this year, having seen the coronavirus derail a previous promise to return the budget to surplus. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday announced $17.8 billion in personal tax cuts and $5.2 billion in new programmes to boost employment in a recovery plan aimed at creating one million new jobs over the next four years. The measures are forecast to push the budget deficit out to a record $213.7 billion, or 11 percent of gross domestic product, for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2021. "There is no economic recovery without a jobs recovery," Frydenberg said in prepared remarks to parliament. "There is no budget recovery without a jobs recovery." Jobs push The government said it will spend A$4 billion over the next year to pay businesses that hire those under the age of 35 as it targets youth unemployment. Under new programme, the JobMaker hiring credit, businesses will get $200 a week for each new employee aged between 16 and 29. For new eligible employees aged 30 to 35, they will get $100 a week. The federal government says it expects about 450,000 jobs will be supported under the scheme. Businesses and employees will need to meet further eligibility requirements to take part. The budget also brings forward previously legislated tax cuts for middle-income earners and extends tax breaks for individuals offered in last year's budget for low- and middle-income earners. Some of these cuts will be retrospectively backdated to 1 July 2020. The government's highly expansionary budget comes shortly after the central bank's policy decision on Tuesday, at which it kept interest rates at a record low and flagged reducing high unemployment rate as a national priority. The Reserve Bank of Australia has slashed interest rates this year to 0.25 percent and pumped billions into the bond market to keep credit flowing to the economy. The fiscal and monetary support this year has helped restore consumption and business confidence and bring the unemployment rate down to 6.8 percent. Frydenberg has pledged to pare the heavy fiscal support once the unemployment rate falls "comfortably below 6 percent". Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, left, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison (file photo). Photo: AFP Australia delayed the release of this year's federal budget, which usually takes place in May, as the coronavirus upended most of the economic assumptions underlying its projections. While most of the measures announced on Tuesday were not new, the government affirmed its strategic priorities that include boosting domestic energy production and manufacturing and infrastructure investment. Frydenberg said the plans would "ensure Australian manufacturing plays an even greater role in our economic recovery". Gross debt projected to rise above $A1 trillion Australia's unemployment rate hit a 22-year high of 7.5 percent in July as businesses and borders closed due to strict lockdown measures to deal with the coronavirus. While the number of deaths and infections in Australia from Covid-19 has been low compared with many other countries, the hit to GDP has been severe. Underlying the budget forecasts was an assumption that a vaccine would be developed in 2021. Australia's $A2 trillion economy shrank 7 percent in the three months ended June, the most since records began in 1959. In its new projections, the government expects unemployment to rise to 7.25 percent by the end of the current fiscal year and then fall to 6 percent by June 2023. Australia's GDP is expected to shrink 1.5 percent for the current fiscal year before returning to growth of 4.75 percent in the next. S&P Global Ratings said Australia remained only one of 11 countries with the highest credit rating of AAA, albeit with a negative outlook, and said fiscal recovery would take years. Gross debt is projected to surpass $A1 trillion in 2021/22, from $A684 billion in 2019/20, and then rise to around $A1.14 trillion by 2023/24. - Reuters / ABC

During his hospital stay, US President Donald Trump has received experimental treatment not yet available to others infected with Covid-19 and a cocktail of drugs that doctors believe may never have been used in combination before. Photo: AFP The 74-year-old has been undergoing an intravenous course of the antiviral drug Remdesivir, as well as steroids usually given in severe cases and an as-yet unapproved antibody therapy. The arsenal of treatments has raised questions about how ill the president is and whether he should be leaving hospital given the potentially serious side effects of the drugs. [embedded content] Emergency physician Dr Megan Ranney works at Rhode Island Hospital and is an associate professor at Brown University. She said Trump returning to the White House does not mean he is out of the woods. "Any physician who has treated patients with Covid-19 knows that the worst of the illness rears its head, somewhere between five and 10 days after diagnosis. "That's when that cascade of immunological measures kind of releases itself and creates trouble breathing, creates strokes, creates heart damage, and that is what we're all worried about with the president. "He certainly went through some tough days early on, but we fear that the worst is yet to come. "The president certainly has access to a different level of care than any other person in the United States. I find it completely believable, that they can provide excellent almost hospital-level care at the White House. "So it may be safe for him to be out of the hospital and back at the White House with the condition that it's absolutely essential for him to continue to maintain isolation so that he does not infect others. "And that's the thing that worries me the most about his leaving the hospital. We've already seen him taking off his mask. He potentially puts others at risk by leaving at this point," she told Checkpoint. "I would never discharge an average person home on day four of Remdesivir, first of all you have to finish those IV medications. Second, you need to be closely monitored for potential side effects. And third, if he was sick enough to get admitted to the hospital, if his oxygen levels were low, presumably he was having trouble breathing, even if he didn't feel short of breath, he deserves additional monitoring to make sure that he's truly getting better and not getting worse. "They may be able to provide some of that at the White House, but only if they can keep him on isolation, keep them safe from others, and for the average person that simply would not be an option. "The president has received three medications that together, to my knowledge, have never been given to anyone else in the world. They've been given individually but never as a combination. "So his treatment can't even begin to compare to what's available to others. Of course there are also so many problems with our American healthcare system that make his course, really, incomparable to that of the patients that I treat in my emergency department. "Most of my patients still face difficulties getting tests, they would have trouble getting access to an oxygen monitor, a home pulse oximeter to track their course if they went home. Many of my patients have trouble paying for their medications, much less getting access to experimental drugs that aren't normally available outside of a clinical trial. "So there are a lot of things about his care that are really only available to the president of our country. And part of what makes me nervous when he says Covid-19 is no big deal - he's gotten really special treatment, hopefully it will make him better, but what he has experienced is not what the average patient with Covid-19 experiences. "We know in medicine that there's something that we call VIP syndrome, where patients who are perceived as special or powerful receive extra treatment above and beyond what we would normally offer based off of the state of the evidence. "I worry that he could be receiving that. That he's getting medications that may not be indicated, or getting extra medications that have not yet been proven. And those can have side effects. So yes, he could be serving as a guinea pig. But I hope that they'll help him because goodness knows we need a, for better or for worse, he is our president, and we need him to be okay. "I can say that some of the medications that he's getting, particularly dexamethasone, are known to have side effects such as mania, delusions, psychosis, euphoria. "He tweeted today that he feels like he's 20 years younger. I can't help but think that that's the dexamethasone talking, certainly not the Covid-19 which we know causes long-term effects. "I'm not in a position to judge whether he's capable of running our country. But I do have concerns about what he said in some of his tweets today." Ranney said she has a lot of concerns about Trump's message to not let Covid-19 "dominate" people's lives. "I and many, many others have spent the last eight months trying to communicate to Americans, both the risk of Covid-19 and the steps that they can take to prevent transmission to themselves, to their family to the larger community. "I worry that that tweet is going to undo everything. Or, much of what we have fought for, for the past eight months, and put many more Americans at risk of illness and death. "We've already had more than 209,000 Americans die. Despite representing only 4 percent of the world's population we have more than 22 percent of the deaths. "I compare our country to yours and the difference is that we have failed to put in place a robust public health strategy, part of that is because Americans continue to disagree about the importance of Covid-19 and about the importance of those public health measures, and that tweet just does an enormous disservice to our country." Ranney told Checkpoint the critical days in Trump's progression with the virus will be between Thursday and Monday. "We're going to be watching for those signs of that inflammatory cascade that can cause so many of the most feared negative effects of Covid-19. "The data shows very clearly that for patients who are sick enough to be hospitalised with Covid-19, as many as 75 percent of them experience long-term effects from Covid-19 - problems with lung function, neurological problems, problems with long-term fatigue. "Moreover, we know, as a physician, even taking Covid-19 out of it, any patient who's experienced a serious or potentially life-threatening illness should conserve their strength, should rest, get plenty of sleep, eat well, not strain themselves in order to heal more quickly. "Going right back on the campaign trail strikes me as, not just potentially harmful to him, but also, again harmful to the larger community. "My first and biggest advice would be to wear a mask, always. My second would be to follow those isolation procedures until he's at least 10 days after his diagnosis, so that he avoids infecting not just his colleagues and friends, but also the staffers at the White House who have potentially put their lives on the line for him. "And then the third piece of advice would be to take it easy. Vice President Biden has done a wonderful job of virtual campaigning and virtual rallies. "I understand that we're in the midst of a campaign. But President Trump can find ways to do that without putting his own health and strength at risk."

Covid-19 particles can linger in the air for hours, the leading US health authority has warned, acknowledging calls from scientists to update guidelines. Photo: 123rf US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warning comes weeks after the agency published - and then took down - a similar warning, sparking debate over how the virus spreads. In the latest update, the CDC said there was evidence that people with Covid-19 possibly infected others who were more than 6 feet away, within enclosed spaces with poor ventilation. Under such circumstances, CDC said scientists believe the amount of infectious smaller droplet and particles, or aerosols, produced by the people with Covid-19 become concentrated enough to spread the virus. If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP - don't show up at a medical centre The CDC has long warned of transmission through small droplets that shoot through the air and generally fall to the ground, which resulted in the six-feet social distancing rule. Aerosol droplets are much smaller still, and can remain suspended in the air, like smoke. While the authority stresses close-contact transmission is more common than through the air, a group of US scientists warned in an unrelated open letter, published in the medical journal Science on Monday, that aerosols lingering in the air could be a major source of Covid-19 transmission. "The reality is airborne transmission is the main way that transmission happens at close range with prolonged contact," the researchers said in a press call. Viruses in aerosols can remain in the air for seconds to hours, travel more than two metres and accumulate in poorly ventilated indoor air, leading to superspreading events, the researchers said. Since individuals with Covid-19 release thousands of virus-laden aerosols and far fewer droplets while breathing and talking, the scientists said the focus must be on protecting against airborne transmission. They also said that public health officials should clearly differentiate between droplets ejected by coughing or sneezing and aerosols that can carry the virus to greater distances Public health officials must highlight the importance of moving activities outdoors and improving indoor air, along with wearing mask and social distancing, the letter said. Read more about the Covid-19 coronavirus: -Reuters

Three scientists who discovered the Hepatitis C virus have won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice together with Briton Michael Houghton won the Nobel Medicine Prize on October 5, 2020 for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus. Photo: AFP PHOTO / THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY / JOHN ABBOTT / CHIACHI CHANG / NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH / UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA / RICHARD SIEMENS The winners are British scientist Michael Houghton and US researchers Harvey Alter and Charles Rice. The Nobel Prize committee said their discoveries ultimately "saved millions of lives". The virus is a common cause of liver cancer and a major reason why people need a liver transplant. In the 1960s, there was huge concern that people receiving donated blood were getting chronic hepatitis (liver inflammation) from an unknown, mysterious disease. The Nobel Prize committee said a blood transfusion at the time was like "Russian roulette". Highly sensitive blood tests mean such cases have now been eliminated in many parts of the world, and effective anti-viral drugs have also been developed. "For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating Hepatitis C virus from the world," the prize committee said. However, there are 70 million people currently living with the virus, which still kills around 400,000 a year. The mystery killer The viruses Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B had been discovered by the mid-1960s. Prof Harvey Alter, while studying transfusion patients at the US National Institutes of Health in 1972, showed there was another, mystery, infection at work. Patients were still getting sick after receiving donated blood. He showed that giving blood from infected patients to chimpanzees led to them developing the disease. The mysterious illness became known as "non-A, non-B" hepatitis and the hunt was on. Prof Michael Houghton, while at the pharmaceutical firm Chiron, managed to isolate the genetic sequence of the virus in 1989. This showed it was a type of flavivirus and it was named Hepatitis C. And Prof Charles Rice, while at Washington University in St Louis, applied the finishing touches in 1997. He injected a genetically engineered Hepatitis C virus into the liver of chimpanzees and showed this could lead to hepatitis. Prof Houghton, now at the University of Alberta in Canada, told the BBC: "We had limited tools available to us then, so it was rather like searching for a needle in a haystack. "The amount of virus present in the liver and the blood was very low, and the sensitivity of our techniques was not high enough, so we were sailing very close to the wind all the time. "We tried a lot of methods, probably 30 or 40 different methodological approaches over seven years, and eventually one worked." Commenting on the announcement, Dr Claire Bayntun, a clinical consultant in global public health and vice-president of Royal Society of Medicine, said the discovery was an "extraordinary achievement". She said: "[In] unlocking the door to the development of effective treatment and screening of blood transfusions, and protecting populations in many regions of the world, millions of lives have been saved." - BBC

The global chemical weapons watchdog, which has been asked by Germany to test samples of what Berlin says was a banned nerve agent used to poison a Russian opposition figure, said on Monday its experts would be prepared to assist Russia in the case. Photo: AFP The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it had received a request from Moscow on 1 October for help in the case of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and was seeking clarification on what type of assistance Russia wanted. Navalny fell ill on a flight in Siberia on 20 August and was flown to Germany for treatment. German doctors say blood tests show he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. The OPCW has collected its own samples to test at Germany's request. Russia has said it has seen no evidence Navalny was poisoned, and denies any role in any attack. The OPCW said in a statement on Monday its "Technical Secretariat is ready to provide the requested expertise and that a team of experts could be deployed on short notice." The Navalny case is expected to be discussed on the sidelines of a conference of member states at the OPCW starting on Tuesday. Russia has in the past threatened to quit the agency, which was established to enforce the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Moscow has accused it of pro-Western bias over its work in Syria, where Russia provides military backing to the government of President Bashar al-Assad. - Reuters

Protesters in Kyrgyzstan calling for the country's parliamentary election to be annulled have broken into parliament in the capital, Bishkek. People protest against the results of a parliamentary vote in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Photo: AFP Footage showed people in the office of President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, and throwing paper from windows. Parts of the building appeared to be on fire. The break-in follows a day of clashes with police, who initially dispersed crowds with water cannon and tear gas. The clashes come amid allegations of vote-rigging in last Sunday's election. Following the vote, only four parties out of 16 passed the 7 percent threshold for entry into parliament, three of which have close ties to President Jeenbekov. On Monday, police used stun grenades to disperse thousands of protesters in Ala-Too square, before following them into nearby streets. But demonstrators later flooded back into the central square, before storming the parliament building, known as the White House. Video footage shared on social media showed opposition protesters gaining access to the complex, some by climbing fences and others by pushing open the main gates. Later, smoke could be seen billowing out of the building. Demonstrators said they would remain in Ala-Too square until they could meet with political leaders. About 120 people have reportedly been injured, half of whom were law enforcement. Several people are in serious condition, but there have been no deaths, the health ministry said in a statement. Protesters also released Kyrgyzstan's former President Almazbek Atambayev, who was being held in a remand centre at the State National Security Service awaiting a trial for corruption offences, the local AKIpress news agency reported. People protest against the results of a parliamentary vote in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Photo: AFP Groups close to the president have been accused of vote-buying and voter intimidation - claims international monitors say are "credible" and a cause for "serious concern". On Monday, 12 opposition parties jointly declared that they would not recognise the results of the vote. Later, President Jeenbekov's office said that he would on Tuesday meet leaders from all 16 parties that competed in the election, in a bid to defuse tensions. Opposition candidates also called on the Central Electoral Commission to cancel the results of the election. One candidate, Ryskeldi Mombekov, told a crowd of more than 5000 protesters on Monday: "The president promised to oversee honest elections. He didn't keep his word." Mombekov's party, Ata Meken, had been confident of entering parliament, but in the end it was one of the eight parties that missed the threshold. Ata Meken leader Janar Akaev suffered a leg injury in the protests on Monday. Protesters were also calling on President Jeenbekov to resign. Thomas Boserup, head of the election observation mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said in a briefing that although the vote had been "generally well organised", allegations of vote buying were a "serious concern". The two leading parties, which got a quarter of the vote each, were Birimdik and Mekenim Kyrgyzstan. President Jeenbekov's younger brother, Asylbek Jeenbekov, is a member of Birimdik. Mekenim Kyrgyzstan, meanwhile, is seen as being closely connected to the powerful Matraimov family. The family's figurehead, Rayimbek Matraimov, was the target of anti-corruption protests last year and is believed to have helped finance Jeenbekov's successful presidential campaign in 2017. Late on Monday, Birimdik announced that it would be open to a re-run of Sunday's election, and called on other parties that had crossed the 7 percent threshold to do the same. - BBC