Voting in 2 states amid virus scare PERSECUTION: PUTIN ALLY TO SUE U.S. FOR $50BN

A narrow victory for Biden, who is up against Bernie in polls

Miami, March 17: Polls opened in two of the three US states — Florida, Illinois and Arizona — holding Democratic primaries Tuesday in the face of a rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic that has cast a pall over the presidential nomination race between Joe Biden and Sanders.

A fourth primary state, Ohio, postponed its elections until June on orders of Republican Governor Mike DeWine despite a judge’s ruling to the contrary, keeping voters at home amid the escalating public health emergency.

At a time when the government of President Donald Trump is urging people to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people, election authorities braced for disruptions in the process.

In Florida, the largest and most populous state voting on Tuesday, some two million people had already voted early or by mail, and turnout was expected to be extraordinarily low.

Adding to the obstacles, state authorities had to move dozens of precincts from senior centers to protect against the virus.

In Illinois, Chicago election commissioners were scrambling to find election judges after about 850 informed the county clerk’s office they wouldn’t show up, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Arizona polls opened a few hours after those in

Florida and Illinois.

Democrats are in the midst of choosing a nominee who will challenge the Republican incumbent in November's election, but doubts and concerns have undercut the process.

Despite DeWine’s move to shutter polling stations in Ohio, he appeared to be a lone official voice calling for delay, and failed to win support from Trump, who said it was “up to the states” to make the call.

Ultimately, the president said, “I think postponing is unnecessary.”But the vote could be undermined in part by a potential scare factor for the elderly, who are at highest risk of contracting COVID-19.

Officials in Florida, with the most delegates in play Tuesday, said the state is pulling out all the stops to keep the process safe.

In Arizona, Governor Doug Ducey said state and Democratic Party officials agreed that the primary should go on.

“We have no guarantee that there will be a time in the future when it will be safer than tomorrow,” Ducey said Monday.

“Democracy must go on.” Biden, 77, tops polling by significant margins in Arizona, Illinois and especially Florida, where the former vice president could strike a hammer blow against his rival by building an insurmountable lead in the delegate count. — AFP

Moscow, March 17: An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who says he was “wrongfully persecuted” by the US, which claimed he meddled in 2016 elections, vowed Tuesday to sue Washington for $50 billion in damages.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the rich Russian businessman dubbed “Putin’s chef,” made the announcement after the US Justice Department on Monday abruptly dropped charges against his company Concord.

Prosecutors had accused Concord of being behind a campaign to help Donald Trump win the presidency. This development meant that allegations like “Prigozhin meddled in a US presidential election” or “Russia meddled in a US presidential election” were “lies and fiction”, the secretive businessman said.

Concord was preparing a lawsuit for “wrongful persecution,” Prigozhin said in a statement, adding he would seek $50 billion in damages.

The US authorities had dropped the case because they were scared of bad “publicity and a fair trial,” he added.

The US Justice Department announced late on Monday it was withdrawing the eightcount indictment of Concord Management and Consulting, just weeks before the trial was due to begin. — AFP