No royal pardon

LONDON: Queen Elizabeth won’t get involved in the Julian Assange case because she “remains non-political at all times” says a letter sent to activist Christopher Lonsdale.

Last month, he wrote a letter in support of Assange, asking the queen to pardon the whistle-blower.

Assange’s supporters have argued that US persecution and the case against him are politically motivated. The founder of WikiLeaks has been

MORE than 300 US citizens, including 14 infected with the coronavirus, were in the US and under quarantine yesterday, after spending two weeks stuck on a cruise ship off Japan that had the largest cluster of coronavirus cases outside China.

The 14 people who tested positive were isolated in containment areas aboard two chartered jets that flew to US military bases, the State Department said. At Joint Base San Antonio in Texas, a ground crew in anti-contamination suits climbed the stairs to the plane, news videos showed. Passengers later descended wearing surgical masks. Hours earlier, a separate chartered jet landed at Travis Air Force Base in California.

The passengers are to remain under quarantine for another 14 days.

The coronavirus outbreak has killed 1 770 people in China and five elsewhere, with Chinese officials reporting another 2 048 cases yesterday, raising the total to 70548.

The cruise ship Diamond Princess with 3 700 passengers held by far the largest cluster of cases outside China, with more than 400 people testing positive. The ship was ordered to stay under quarantine at Yokohama port on February 3, after an 80-year-old Hong jailed in Belmarsh. His incarceration stems from US accusations that he violated the Espionage Act.

The UN says Assange shows symptoms of “prolonged exposure to psychological torture”. | Sputnik

Kong man who was on board from January 20 to 25 developed the virus.

Some relatives of passengers criticised the decision to quarantine people on the ship, given the possibility that the virus would spread. The back-toback quarantines mean the passengers will spend four weeks separated from the rest of the world.

Before the arrival of the sick passengers from the cruise, US officials had reported 15 cases in seven states, most of them travellers who had returned from China, but also three who had been evacuated on other US-chartered planes repatriating Americans. Previously, more than 40 Americans on the Diamond Princess had tested positive, and US health officials said they would remain in Japan for treatment.

The 300 people removed from the ship and about to board the US-bound

Reuters planes were evaluated by US government medical staff, and initially deemed asymptomatic and fit to fly, the State Department said. But after passengers had left the ship and were on their way to the airport, US officials received notice that 14 passengers in the group had tested positive. All tested negative three days earlier.

Meanwhile, doctors in Shanghai are using infusions of blood plasma from people who have recovered from the coronavirus to treat those still battling the infection, reporting some encouraging preliminary results.

Chinese scientists are testing two antiviral drugs and preliminary results are due in weeks, while the head of a Wuhan hospital said plasma infusions from recovered patients had shown some encouraging preliminary results. |