UNITED STATES
New virus test unveiled
Abbott Laboratories on Friday unveiled a portable device that can tell if someone has COVID-19 in as little as five minutes. The Food and Drug Administration has given it emergency authorization to begin making the test available to healthcare providers as early as next week, the company said. The device, which is the size of a small toaster and uses molecular technology, also shows negative results within 13 minutes, it said. “The COVID-19 pandemic will be fought on multiple fronts, and a portable molecular test that offers results in minutes adds to the broad range of diagnostic solutions needed to combat this virus,” Abbott president and chief operating officer Robert Ford said.
UNITED STATES
Subway driver killed in fire
A New York City subway driver was killed and several other people were injured early on Friday in a fire on a train that is being investigated as a crime, officials said. Fires were reported at three other stations nearby at the same time, police said. “We are investigating it as a criminal matter,” New York Police Department Deputy Chief Brian McGee said, adding that no arrests have been made. The fire killed the motorman who was helping passengers to safety, officials said, and came the day after two of his fellow New York City Transit employees fell victim to COVID-19.
UNITED STATES
Tom Hanks returns to LA
Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, on Friday returned to Los Angeles after spending more than two weeks in quarantine in Australia after testing positive for COVID-19. The actor and Wilson were photographed smiling while driving a vehicle in the city. Celebrity Web site TMZ said the photographs were taken shortly after the pair landed at a small Los Angeles area airport. The New York Post’s Page Six column said that Hanks was seen touching the tarmac and dancing after getting off a private jet.
UNITED STATES
Missing girl found with dog
Searchers on Friday found a four-year-old girl who had been missing for two days in a wooded area in east Alabama. The girl was in good condition with a dog at her side when rescuers approached, authorities said. They said the child had disappeared from her babysitter’s sight on Wednesday afternoon while they were walking in a backyard with a hound dog. A member of the search team that found the girl told media outlet WRBL-TV that they were searching the woods when they heard a dog bark, and then the girl “popped her head up” and they saw her bright red hair. He said the girl drank some Gatorade offered to her and was talking “like it was no big deal” what she had been through.
LATVIA
Locals aid stranded circus
A traveling Czech circus stuck abroad under a coronavirus lockdown has been overwhelmed by the generosity of strangers helping to feed its troupe of animals after canceled shows left it penniless. The family-run Circus Alex has been unable to perform or return home since borders were closed this month. Its desperate owners were forced to turn to social media to ask for help to feed their horses, goats, a llama and themselves. “We have been overwhelmed by the support of strangers,” circus owner Anna Polachova told reporters, adding that the circus has received “more food for ourselves and our animals than we can eat.”
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
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