MUMBAI: India launched a 14-hour long curfew on Sunday to limit the fast-spreading coronavirus epidemic in the country, where 315 people have so far been found to have contracted the disease.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an address to the nation last week urged citizens to stay indoors from 0130 GMT to 1530 GMT — a move that he said would be a crucial test for a country to assess its abilities to fight the pandemic.
“Let us all be a part of this curfew, which will add tremendous strength to the fight against the COVID-19 menace,” Modi tweeted minutes before the curfew commenced. “The steps we take now will help in the times to come,” he said in the tweet.
Health experts said India’s cases have been growing at a rate seen during the early stages of the outbreak in other countries, which subsequently reported exponential increases in infections.
Several Indian states announced measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. Four cities in Modi’s home state of Gujarat have declared a complete shutdown until March 25.
Its neighboring desert state Rajasthan ordered a shutdown until March 31, while eastern and central states suspended inter-state bus operations to prevent an exodus of daily wage earners from urban centers to villages.
State leaders urged citizens not to rush to villages, avoid crowding trains and buses to prevent the virus spread. Tensions have mounted, however, with angry laborers protesting at some bus stations against sudden closures of basic transport services.
Private events, such as weddings, and local elections were canceled. The federal government was accelerating the production of masks and allowed deodorant manufacturers to produce sanitisers.
Modi has requested citizens to stand at balconies and near windows on Sunday evening to clap, ring bells to admire the emergency personnel and sanitation workers who are at the frontline in the fight against coronavirus.
India starts 14-hour curfew to curb coronavirus spread
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India starts 14-hour curfew to curb coronavirus spread
- Several Indian states announced measures to curb the spread of coronavirus
UK police release ex-envoy Peter Mandelson on bail in Epstein case
LONDON: London police released former ambassador Peter Mandelson on bail in the early hours of Tuesday, in a probe into his ties to disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, only days after ex-prince Andrew was arrested.
Mandelson, a pivotal figure in British politics and the UK’s former envoy to Washington, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office around 1700 GMT Monday following allegations arising from the latest set of documents linked to Epstein.
“A 72-year-old man arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office has been released on bail pending further investigation,” the Metropolitan police said in a statement around nine hours after he was taken in to an unnamed London police station.
Images on UK television earlier appeared to show Mandelson, 72, being driven away from his north London home accompanied by a man and a woman, after police raided his properties earlier this month.
The arrest came days after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, King Charles III’s younger brother, was detained on Thursday and released under investigation in a separate misconduct in public office investigation also related to the latest Epstein documents.
Mandelson is being probed over allegations that he sent sensitive documents to the late US sex offender when he was a government minister, including during the 2008 financial crash.
Police have not specified which documents are part of the probe.
The veteran ex-politician was sacked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as envoy to Washington in September when an earlier release of documents linked to Epstein showed the extent of their friendship.
But Mandelson’s appointment has unleashed a political storm with two of Starmer’s top aides resigning over the row.
Starmer apologized to Epstein’s victims for appointing Mandelson, and accused the ex-envoy of lying about the extent of his ties to the financier during the vetting process for his Washington posting.
Pressure rising
Law firm Mishcon de Reya, representing Mandelson, said earlier this month that he “regrets, and will regret until his dying day, that he believed Epstein’s lies about his criminality.”
“Lord Mandelson did not discover the truth about Epstein until after his death in 2019,” said the statement.
“He is profoundly sorry that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved.”
The government is to release tens of thousands of emails, messages and documents on Mandelson’s vetting procedure, which could ramp up the pressure on the prime minister and other senior ministers.
Government minister Darren Jones on Monday said the first set of documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment will be published in early March.
Starmer fought off calls to resign earlier this month after he admitted he knew about Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with Epstein — which seemed to continue after the financier was convicted of child prostitution in 2008.
Mandelson, also a former European Union trade commissioner, stood down from parliament’s unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, earlier this month.
The advisory firm he co-founded, Global Counsel, also approached bankruptcy last week as it stopped trading and appointed administrations in a bid to salvage some assets.
Several major clients, including Barclays, Tesco and English football’s Premier League, have cut ties with the firm in recent weeks, according to press reports.
Officers from the Met’s specialist crime team were deployed earlier this month to search two of his addresses, one in the western English county of Wiltshire and the other in London, according to the police.
