What you need to know about the COVID-19 pandemic right now

Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

Asian countries scramble for vaccine supplies

Several Asian countries scrambled to find alternative sources for COVID-19 inoculations on Tuesday after export restrictions by manufacturer India left a World Health Organization-backed global vaccine-sharing programme short of supplies.

South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines are among countries to be hit by shipment delays to vaccines they have been promised under the COVAX program, which was created mainly to ensure supplies for poorer countries.

India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, put a temporary hold on exports of AstraZeneca's vaccine being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, as officials focus on meeting rising domestic demand.

UK wants to vaccinate all adults before sharing shots

Britain will focus on vaccinating the whole of its adult population before it can provide any surplus shots to other countries such as Ireland, British business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said on Tuesday.

More than 30 million Britons have received their first shots in the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe, with the aim of offering shots to all adults by the end of July.

However, Britain has found itself involved in a public spat with the European Union, where the vaccination program has been much slower, over the supply of doses.

Pfizer, Moderna vaccines highly effective after first dose

COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer with BioNTech and by Moderna reduced risk of infection by 80% two weeks or more after the first of two shots, according to data from a real-world U.S. study released on Monday.

The risk of infection fell 90% by two weeks after the second shot, the study of nearly 4,000 U.S. healthcare personnel and first responders found.

The results validate earlier studies that had indicated the vaccines begin to work soon after a first dose, and confirm that they also prevent asymptomatic infections.

Queensland warns of more cases

Australia's Queensland state warned on Tuesday that more cases of COVID-19 were expected to emerge as authorities scrambled to contain an outbreak linked to the virulent UK variant, throwing Easter travel plans into disarray.

Officials reported eight new locally acquired cases on Tuesday, taking the total in the latest outbreak to 15 so far. All of the cases were linked to two distinct virus clusters, one related to a doctor and the second to a nurse.

Brisbane, the state capital, has been placed under a three-day lockdown until Thursday, requiring more than 2 million city residents to stay home except for essential work, healthcare, grocery shopping or exercise.

Vietnam sentences flight attendant for spreading virus

A court in Vietnam handed a two-year suspended jail term to a Vietnam Airlines flight attendant on Tuesday after finding him guilty of breaking quarantine rules and spreading the virus to others, police said.

Duong Tan Hau, 29, was convicted of "spreading dangerous infectious diseases" at the one-day trial at the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam has been praised for its efforts to contain the virus through mass testing and tracing and strict centralized quarantining. It has recorded fewer than 2,600 COVID-19 infections and only 35 deaths due to the disease.

-reuters-

Biden to unveil $2 trillion 'once-in-a-century' infrastructure plan

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden will on Wednesday propose a $2 trillion infrastructure plan aimed at modernizing the United States' crumbling transport network, creating millions of jobs and enabling the country to "out-compete" China.

The first phase of Biden's "Build Back Better" program, which he will unveil in a speech in Pittsburgh, will detail massive investment spread over eight years.

It plans to inject $620 billion into transport, including upgrading 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) of roads and highways, repairing thousands of bridges and doubling federal funding for public transit.

The president, whom Donald Trump tried to caricature as "Sleepy Joe" and a man without strong ideas or motivation, intends to make the bold infrastructure plan one of his flagship policies.

"He views his role as laying out... a broad vision, a bold vision for how we can invest in America, American workers, our communities," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The investment would be partly paid for by raising corporate tax from 21 percent to 28 percent.

"The President is proposing to fundamentally reform the corporate tax code so that it incentivizes job creation and investment... and ensures that large corporations are paying their fair share," a senior administration official said ahead of the speech.

The new legislative offensive comes soon after Congress passed a nearly $2 trillion Covid-19 economic stimulus plan.

And Biden's speech is set to open a bitter battle in Congress, where the Democrats hold only a narrow majority and will face strong opposition from the Republicans.

The coming months will test the negotiating skills of the Democratic president, a veteran of Washington politics and deal-making, to the limit, and the chances of his infrastructure plan passing into law remain uncertain.

URGENCY OF THE MOMENT

"It's an important initiative to start the process with the president being very clear that he's got a plan, and that he's open to hearing what others think," the administration official said.

"But what he is uncompromising about is the urgency of the moment and the need to really deliver for the American people and make good on building back better in this moment."

The plan also vows to "spark the electric vehicle revolution" by building a network of 500,000 EV chargers, replacing 50,000 diesel transit vehicles and electrifying 20 percent of the famous yellow school buses.

And it aims to make infrastructure more resilient to climate change.

With much of the country's creaking infrastructure dating back to the 1950s, the dream of new roads, bridges, railways and airports is shared by many Americans.

But building a political consensus to transform Biden's plan into reality is no easy task.

Both his predecessors Barack Obama and Trump had great ambitions and made heady promises over infrastructure investment, but struggled to make any progress.

The issue keeps coming back to the same question: how to pay for it?

Biden's new transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, who ran against him in the Democratic primaries, will be on the front lines of the battle, trying to ensure that this time, the stars are all aligned.

"I think that there's a tremendous opportunity now to have bipartisan support for a big, bold vision on infrastructure," the youthful politician said.

"Americans don't need a lot of selling to know that we've got to do big things when it comes to our infrastructure."

Agence France-Presse

Spotify delves into live audio with purchase of Clubhouse rival

NEW YORK - Spotify announced Tuesday it had acquired "live audio" specialist Betty Labs to serve as a development vehicle in the booming sector.

Following in the footsteps of podcasts, "live audio" -- which offers broadcasts, talks and conversations between internet users -- has taken off in recent years, driven by the app Clubhouse.

Launched in 2018, Betty Labs specializes in the niche, and in October 2018 launched the app Locker Room, which hosts live audio exchanges about sports.

Spotify said Tuesday it will develop Locker Room into a platform open to "a wider range of creators and fans," according to a statement.

Among Betty Labs' initial investors is GV, the private equity arm of Google parent company Alphabet.

In late February, Spotify confirmed its ambitions to expand into non-musical audio.

The group has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build an integrated podcast offering an advertising interface and exclusive content.

Several US media outlets have reported that Facebook is working on an offering similar to Clubhouse. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban is also working on his own version, called Fireside.

The Discord platform -- which launched in 2015 -- is currently valued at about $7 billion.

Agence France-Presse

PayPal allows US shoppers to make cryptocurrency purchases

SAN FRANCISCO - PayPal on Tuesday began allowing people in the United States to use cryptocurrency to make purchases from millions of merchants that use the financial platform for online transactions.

The payments giant had already let users buy, sell or store digital money, but the new Checkout with Crypto feature provides an option to use it for purchases.

"As the use of digital payments and digital currencies accelerates, the introduction of Checkout with Crypto continues our focus on driving mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies," PayPal chief executive Dan Schulman said in a blog post.

"Enabling cryptocurrencies to make purchases at businesses around the world is the next chapter in driving the ubiquity and mass acceptance of digital currencies."

Merchants get paid in standard money, with PayPal converting cryptocurrency to US dollars to settle transactions at the time of sale, according to the Silicon Valley-based company.

Tesla last week began officially accepting bitcoin as currency to purchase electric autos, according to a tweet by chief executive Elon Musk.

"You can now buy a Tesla with bitcoin," Musk said on Twitter, implementing a plan announced in February to accept the cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

Agence France-Presse

Snap lockdown ordered in Australia's Brisbane after virus outbreak

BRISBANE, Australia - More than two million people in Brisbane were ordered into a three-day lockdown Monday after a cluster of coronavirus cases was detected in Australia's third-biggest city.

It is the second snap lockdown of Brisbane and the city's surrounds this year, coming after seven people tested positive for Covid-19 -- the first significant community outbreak in Australia in weeks.

"This is the UK strain. It is highly infectious. We need to do this now to avoid a longer lockdown," Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

"We've seen what's happened in other countries. I don't want to see that happen to Queensland, I don't want to see that happen to Australia."

Schools, restaurants and bars will close from 5:00pm Monday but people will still be allowed to leave home for essential work, to buy food, exercise and for medical care.

Wearing masks in public is also becoming mandatory across Queensland, after one infectious person travelled to the regional town of Gladstone.

The number of international flight arrivals will be halved, to ease pressure on hospitals also dealing with a surge in Covid-19 cases from neighboring Papua New Guinea.

Australia has been relatively successful in curbing the spread of Covid-19, with just over 29,000 cases and 909 deaths during the pandemic to date.

However the country's vaccine rollout has been sluggish, with just over 500,000 shots administered so far in a country of 25 million.

Palaszczuk said lockdowns would "be part of the Australian way of life until everyone is vaccinated".

Before the announcement, Brisbane was among several Australian cities enjoying relaxed restrictions with residents able to freely attend events including concerts and sporting matches.

Agence France-Presse

UAE, China launch project to produce Sinopharm vaccine

DUBAI - The United Arab Emirates and China on Sunday announced a venture to produce the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine in the Gulf nation, state media reported.

The UAE's Group 42 and China's CNBG "have launched a joint project... to initiate the first Covid-19 vaccine production line in the UAE", said official Emirati news agency Wam.

It did not specify when commercial production will begin. 

The UAE's foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, said the project adds "value to the international efforts being made in the face of the Covid-19 crisis, which has been taking a toll on everyday lives across the world."

The UAE, made up of seven emirates including the capital Abu Dhabi and freewheeling Dubai, began mass inoculations in December after approving vaccines made by Chinese firm Sinopharm and US drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. 

Since then, the UAE -- which has a population of nearly 10 million people -- has also approved Astrazeneca, with one of the best vaccination rates per capita in the world, second to Israel.

The UAE has so far recorded more than 388,000 cases and 1,481 deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic began.

Two vaccines have undergone third-phase trials in the UAE: Sinopharm and Russia's Sputnik-V, named after the Soviet-era satellite.

Agence France-Presse

Golf: Horschel outlasts Scheffler to win WGC Match Play title

WASHINGTON -- Billy Horschel defeated fellow American Scottie Scheffler 2&1 on Sunday to win the WGC Match Play Championship and capture his sixth career US PGA title.

Horschel, the 2014 Tour Championship and FedEx Cup playoff winner, chipped in from 43 feet to win the par-4 fifth hole and level the final, won the seventh and ninth with pars and halved the final eight holes at Austin (Texas) Country Club for the victory.

"There's so much emotion, so many turns of tides," said Horschel, who ousted Frenchman Victor Perez 3&2 in a morning semi-final.

"I didn't play really good. It was a tough day. I had two opponents that didn't make any putts and I did and that was the difference today."

Horschel's first PGA triumph since taking the 2018 pairs event in New Orleans with countryman Scott Piercy came after seven matches over five days and an intense back-nine battle without a stumble by the winner.

"It's huge," Horschel said. "I know I've won on tour and I feel like I should have won more. I should have at least contended more in some of these WGC events and majors."

Local hero Scheffler, seeking his first US PGA title in his WGC Match Play debut, would have been the event's youngest ever champion at 24.

He watched the tournament while playing at the nearby University of Texas and lives only a 15-minute drive from the course and was cheered by a limited crowd allowed to attend due to Covid-19 restrictions.

"I'm proud of the way I fought all week," Scheffler said. "My game was trending in the right direction pretty much the entire time. This afternoon was really the first time I didn't feel like I played my best.

"I grinded it out. I fought really hard and I just wasn't able to make the putts. I just couldn't get really get anything going. Did what I could with what I had. It just wasn't enough."

Scheffler, the 30th seed, edged US 52nd seed Matt Kuchar, the 2013 winner and 2019 runner-up, 1 up in the semis.

Scheffler never trailed in beating English Ryder Cup star Ian Poulter and Spanish third seed Jon Rahm in Saturday knockout matches.

After rolling in a 34-foot birdie putt to win the par-5 second hole with an eagle, Scheffler saw Horschel swipe momentum with the dramatic chip-in then lost holes with bogeys.

"That's crazy my only birdie of the day was that chip in," Horschel said. "I hit a lot of good putts early on I thought I made that just missed.

"From there, it was just holding on to the reins and hopefully I didn't get bucked off."

Both players had bogeys at the par-5 12th after Scheffler found water and Horschel a greenside bunker.

Scheffler missed a birdie putt from just inside five feet to halve the par-4 14th and stay 2-down.

Horschel kept his margin by blasting out of a bunker within inches of the cup to halve the par-5 16th.

At the par-3 17th, Scheffler needed to sink a birdie putt from just inside 11 feet to win the hole and extend the match, but he missed to end the match, having never managed a birdie against Horschel.

- Kuchar finishes third -

Kuchar beat Perez 2&1 in the third-place match, denying the Frenchman special temporary US PGA membership.

Perez, ranked 33rd, is the world's top-rated player who is not a US PGA Tour member.

"It was anti-climatic," Kuchar said. "But once you get going, the juices get going and you don't want to lose. It was a good battle with Victor, but it's a tough match to be a part of."

Kuchar won the first hole with a bogey but Perez equalized with a 20-foot birdie putt at the par-4 second. Kuchar won the eighth with a par and then birdied three in a row to win the par-4 10th, par-3 11th and par-5 12th and seize command.

Perez sank a birdie putt from just inside five feet to win the par-4 13th and an eight-foot birdie putt at the par-4 14th to pull within 2-down.

After pars to halve 15 and 16, Perez needed a 20-foot birdie putt at the par-3 17th to extend the match but rolled it just left of the cup.

The 28-year-old Frenchman moved to Scotland to be with his dentist girlfriend and has embraced Scottish golf culture living near St. Andrews.

Agence France-Presse

Football: Kerr double keeps Chelsea two points clear of Man City

Chelsea striker Sam Kerr struck twice in a 2-0 home win over Aston Villa on Sunday to restore a two-point lead at the top of the Women's Super League, with Fran Kirby setting up both goals.

Kerr put the hosts in front after 24 minutes, outmuscling Asmita Ale to get a glancing header on Kirby's pinpoint cross, and the Australian sealed the three points with her second in the 57th minute, again assisted by England midfielder Kirby.

Chelsea regained first place after Manchester City briefly went top following their 1-0 victory over Reading on Saturday thanks to an 87th-minute winner from Chloe Kelly.

Earlier on Saturday, Lauren James and Christen Press helped Manchester United beat bottom side West Ham United 2-0 in the first WSL game to be played at Old Trafford, while Arsenal thumped Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 away in the north London derby.

Bristol City's recent good form continued on Sunday as they drew 1-1 with visiting Birmingham City to stay ahead of West Ham and Villa at the foot of the table, while Hayley Raso netted a hat-trick in Everton's 5-0 demolition of Brighton & Hove Albion.

With four games left Chelsea lead the table on 47 points ahead of Manchester City with 45 and nine in front of Manchester United. Arsenal are fourth on 35 points with a game in hand.

(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Ken Ferris)

-reuters-

At least 9 wounded as suspected suicide bomber targets Indonesian church

JAKARTA  - A suspected suicide bomber blew themselves up outside a Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Sunday, wounding nine people on the first day of the Easter Holy Week, police and a witness said.

The congregation had been inside the church on the island of Sulawesi at the time of the explosion and the lone attacker was the only fatality, police said.

Father Wilhemus Tulak, a priest at the church, told Indonesian media that the suspected bomber tried to enter the church grounds on a motorbike, but had been stopped by a security guard.

Security camera footage showed a blast that blew flame, smoke and debris into the middle of the road.

Police did not say who might be responsible for the apparent attack and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Police blamed the Islamic State-inspired Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) group for suicide attacks in 2018 on churches and a police post in the city of Surabaya that killed over 30 people.

Boy Rafli Amar, the head of the country's National Counterterrorism Agency, described Sunday's attack as an act of terrorism.

Makassar Mayor Danny Pomanto said the blast could have caused far more casualties if it had taken place at the church's main gate instead of a side entrance.

Makassar, Sulawesi's biggest city, reflects the religious makeup of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country with a substantial Christian minority and followers of other religions.

"Whatever the motive is, this act isn't justified by any religion because it harms not just one person but others, too," Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Indonesia's religious affairs minister, said in a statement.

Gomar Gultom, head of the Indonesian Council of Churches, described the attack as a "cruel incident" as Christians were celebrating Palm Sunday, and urged people to remain calm and trust the authorities.

Indonesia's deadliest Islamist militant attack took place on the tourist island of Bali in 2002, when bombers killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

In subsequent years, security forces in Indonesia scored some major successes in tackling militancy, but more recently there has been a resurgence of militant violence. 

Agence France-Presse

MMA: Francis Ngannou beats Stipe Miocic to win heavyweight title

This time around, Francis Ngannou didn't let his big opportunity slip by.

The Las Vegas resident by way of Cameroon got the job done in his second attempt at wresting the UFC heavyweight title from Stipe Miocic (20-4) on Saturday night. 

Ngannou (16-3) used big left hands to set up the finish as he knocked out the two-time champion at the 52-second mark of the second round to claim the title in the main event of UFC 260 in Vegas.

Miocic had outwrestled Ngannou in their first fight at UFC 220. But Ngannou was patient from the start Saturday, using much-improved defense to avoid the takedown, and landing often enough to make Miocic second-guess himself.

In the second round, Ngannou went in for the kill, landing left hands over and over until the always tough Miocic finally dropped. A series of hammerfists on the ground finally brought things to an end.

Ngannou credited the lessons learned in his first fight with Miocic, which Miocic won via a one-sided unanimous decision, for helping him learn where he needed to improve.

"I have a great outcome from that fight," Ngannou said. "It was a great benefit from that fight and I believe that that benefit pushed me, rose me higher than this."

Ngannou followed his loss to Miocic by losing a decision to Derrick Lewis. Then he won four straight fights via knockout, with the longest lasting just 1:11, to earn his title rematch.

The evening's co-feature bout was a breakthrough performance for Brazilian native Vicente Luque (20-7-1). The exciting welterweight slugger used heavy hands to batter former UFC champion Tyron Woodley (19-7-1) of Ferguson, Mo., then used a D'Arce choke to earn the submission victory at the 3:56 mark of the opening round.

Luque has won nine of his past 10 fights, while Woodley has lost four in a row.

-reuters-

Brazil reports 3,650 dead from COVID-19 in one day

Brazil set a new daily COVID-19 death toll record of 3,650 on Saturday, the health ministry said, as the pandemic spins out of control in Latin America's largest economy.

Since February, Brazil has seen record after record in fatalities and new cases of infection as the country second hardest hit anywhere in the world, after the United States, with more than 307,000 dead from the pandemic.

It broke through the threshold of 3,000 fatalities in one day on Tuesday.

The average daily toll over the past week is 2,400 -- more than triple what it was in early January.

The toll has risen steadily due to factors including people's abandoning social distancing norms and a new virus variant that emerged here and is believed to be more contagious than the original strain.

Another big problem is that the country's vaccination drive is moving slowly. So far only 5.9 percent of the population of 212 million has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine.

President Jair Bolsonaro announced this week he was launching a crisis committee to deal with the pandemic, a change of course amid mounting pressure over a situation he has repeatedly minimized.

The announcements appeared to do little to tame criticism of Bolsonaro, who has flouted expert advice on lockdowns and face masks, pushed a drug regimen that scientists say does not work, and spoken out against vaccines.

Agence France-Presse

Pandemic fuels travel boom -- in virtual reality

Jem Jenkins Jones was stuck at home in Wales for much of the past year amid pandemic lockdowns but managed to fulfill a promise to her 10-year-old daughter to see the northern lights from Iceland and South Africa's game reserves -- in virtual reality.

"She was amazed," she said, calling the VR travel experiences "a lifesaver for us."

Strict lockdowns and travel limitations during the pandemic have sparked fresh interest in immersive virtual travel experiences, which have become more accessible and affordable with new apps and VR hardware.

Even those confined to their homes can take a virtual jaunt to Machu Picchu, the rainforests of Borneo or a road trip across the United States in a convertible.

Data on VR travel usage is limited but developers have seen surging interest since the pandemic hit.

"It has been skyrocketing," said Cezara Windrem, creator of the Alcove VR platform at AARP Innovation Labs. "We're getting more adoption every month."

Alcove enables users to visit exotic locales such as Australia's coral reef or the island of Malta, while adding a "shared" experience which enables people to interact and even "lead" a family member without the technical skills to navigate in a VR headset.

"We’ve heard from a lot of people who discovered Alcove and decided buy a headset for their elderly family members," Windrem said. 

This allows for shared travel even during a lockdown and other kinds of experiences such as "playing chess with someone on the other side of the planet."

- Travel substitute, complement -

With the tourism industry largely obliterated by the coronavirus outbreak, virtual reality has emerged as both a substitute for real-world travel and a complement to help people plan their next trip.

App developers have created a range of travel experiences: touring the pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the savannahs of Kenya or the Antarctic from a kayak. These come from commercial operators or organizations such as National Geographic or World Wildlife Fund.

Users can opt for hardware from Facebook's Oculus, Sony's PlayStation or the inexpensive Google Cardboard, among others. Some gear costs as little as $300 and many apps are free.

"I have traveled every week since the pandemic, from the comfort of my home," said Rafael Cortes, a San Antonio computer professional who uses Alcove and YouTube VR.

"I've been to London, the glass bridge in China, Angel Falls in Venezuela, the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, a helicopter tour of New York."

Amy Erdt lives in Portland, Oregon, but with VR, "I like to walk around my sister’s town in Wallingford, England, occasionally because I can’t be there."

Erdt, who administers a Facebook group of VR users, said there are "some great travel experiences" in virtual reality, which can be remarkably realistic.

"I once sat at VR poker table at 1 am with a guy in Australia who was eating KFC (chicken), she said. "I could hear his KFC crunch. It was a trip."

- Gaming and beyond -

Virtual reality's most popular applications are in gaming and fantasy worlds, but travel is seen as a new growth vector.

"During the pandemic when everyone is socially isolated it may seem strange to isolate yourself further to transport yourself somewhere else but it does allow us to experience things we can’t experience today," said Avi Greengart, analyst with the consultancy Techsponential.

Greengart said VR travel has some advantages but can't be compared with the real thing.

"With VR travel you're not getting the food unique to the area, you're missing a lot of the sensory experiences and serendipitous meetings with locals," he said.

On the other hand, "you can browse a museum and have it all to yourself," which may be impossible in the physical world.

A report by research firm GlobalData shows that virtual and augmented reality had already been gaining momentum from travel operators and tourism boards before the pandemic to enable people to get a taste of a destination before going there.

GlobalData analyst Ralph Hollister said the pandemic may be giving the sector a lift that will endure even after the pandemic.

"Spending considerably more time indoors with an abundance of spare time, combined with an urge to travel, has meant that aspiring travelers have been turning to VR to fill a void that travel restrictions have left," Hollister said.

Hollister said he sees VR becoming an important part of the process of travelers viewing and selecting a travel destination.

"The widespread adoption of VR for this kind of purpose could be the next step for this technology and help it permanently move away from its ‘gimmick’ label,” he said.

Agence France-Presse

 

Mexico passes 200,000 COVID deaths

MEXICO CITY - Mexico on Thursday became the world's third country to surpass 200,000 coronavirus deaths, as fears grew of another wave of infections after Easter.

The nation's COVID-19 fatality toll now stands at 200,211, the health ministry said in its daily update.

The bleak milestone comes despite a decline in new cases and deaths in recent weeks, following a surge in January that pushed many hospitals to the breaking point.

The country's coronavirus czar, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, has warned of the risk of a new wave of infections as millions of Mexicans prepare for the Easter holidays around the start of April.

That prospect also worries epidemiologist Alejandro Macias, although he thinks that it is possible that Mexico has now gained some degree of immunity.

"The world is in a third wave. Perhaps few countries had it as intensely as Mexico in the second, so the virus would have fewer people to infect," he told AFP.

Mexico's death toll is far worse than the government's "catastrophic" scenario of 60,000 deaths.

"I imagined it was going to be worse than they were assuming," said Macias, who led the country's fight against the swine flu pandemic in 2009.

"But it was much more lethal," he said.

Excess mortality data suggests the real COVID-19 death toll is much higher than the official figure, due to limited testing.

 'PART OF THE STATISTICS'

It was on March 18, 2020 that a man named Carlos Hernandez became Mexico's first known COVID-19 victim, at a time when doctors were facing an adversary they knew little about.

When Hernandez complained of joint pain, his wife Adriana Meneses assumed it was because they had spent hours on their feet during a heavy metal concert.

A private doctor diagnosed him with pneumonia, but the symptoms worsened.

"We never thought what happened would happen," said Hernandez's sister Ana, who begged him not to agree to be intubated in a public hospital.

Three days later, due to what the family calls "negligence" and a lack of medical supplies, the news came that they had feared the most.

Hernandez, who suffered from diabetes and was overweight, died a week before his 42nd birthday.

His doctor told the family that it was a new virus and they did not know how to treat it.

"We were harassed by the neighbors and on social networks. They threatened to burn down our house," said his widow. "Today, unfortunately, we are part of the statistics."

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has himself recovered from the virus, was accused of being slow to impose a lockdown and has worn a mask only on rare occasions.

The left-wing populist, who continues to enjoy high public approval ratings, points out that the Mexican government was 1 of the first in Latin America to start vaccinations, on Dec. 24.

But Mexico desperately needs more vaccines.

So far roughly 6.1 million doses have been applied in the country of 126 million people.

"For there to be a true mass vaccination, we need to have 10 million vaccinations a month," Macias said.

Agence France-Presse

US university to pay over $1 billion in gynecologist sex abuse settlement

LOS ANGELES - University of Southern California reached a $842.4 million settlement approved a Los Angeles court, lawyer Gloria Allred said in a statement, on top of $215 million agreed to in a 2018 federal class action case.

According to Allred, it is the "largest sexual abuse settlement against a university in US history."

George Tyndall has been accused of abuse by hundreds of female patients during medical examinations over the course of his 30-year career, in a major scandal that has engulfed the university.

Accusations against Tyndall, ranging from inappropriate touching to rape, date as far back as 1990. The youngest alleged victim was aged 17.

The doctor, now 74, has been accused of taking photos of patients' genitals, groping their breasts and making lewd remarks about their physiques, as well as racist and homophobic comments.

He allegedly targeted minority students -- including many from the university's large Asian student population.

Hundreds of former patients sued the university for failing to adequately respond to the allegations against Tyndall, claiming that the institution was aware of the doctor's actions but continued to allow him access to students.

Tyndall was not investigated by USC officials until 2016, and was allowed to retire under an amicable agreement with the university, the financial details of which have not been disclosed. 

USC reached an "agreement in principle" to pay $215 million in a federal class action case in 2018, but 702 more plaintiffs opted out of that settlement and sued in state court.

"The sheer size of this settlement is testimony to the enormous harm that the depraved action of George Tyndall caused our clients," said law firm Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, which represents 234 of the plaintiffs, in a statement. 

"It also speaks to the culpability of USC in employing Tyndall for 30 years and ignoring volumes of complaints and evidence of his misdeeds."

There was no immediate response from USC.

The university's president resigned in 2018 amid pressure from two hundred professors to step down over the scandal.

Los Angeles police opened their own investigation, and in 2019 the doctor was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual penetration and sexual battery by fraud against 16 young women.

He is awaiting trial and could face a sentence of up to 53 years in prison if convicted, the district attorney's office said. 

Tyndall has denied any wrongdoing, and said in a 2019 statement that he "remains adamant" he will be "totally exonerated."

Agence France-Presse

New York Times digital 'NFT' article sells for $563,000

NEW YORK, United States - A New York Times columnist on Thursday sold one of his articles in digital form for $563,000, the latest example of the craze surrounding "non fungible tokens," which collectors are snapping up.

Keven Roose's article entitled "Buy This Column on the Blockchain" was itself aimed at trying to test the market as to what sort of items would sell in the form of an "NFT."

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital object, such as a drawing, piece of music, photo, or video, with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology.

This authentication by a network of computers is considered inviolable. 

The virtual object, which is actually a computer file, can be exchanged or sold with its certificate.

NFTs have become popular in the past 6 months, as wealthy collectors turn to the digital market during the pandemic.

On Monday, the first message ever posted on Twitter sold for $2.9 million when its sender, Twitter co-founder and chief Jack Dorsey, accepted the winning bid at auction.

Earlier this month, a digital collage by American artist Beeple sold for $69.3 million at Christie's, setting a new record for an NFT.

"Why can't a journalist join the NFT party, too?" asked Roose in his column.

At the end of the 24-hour auction, a collector calling himself Farzin won the article with 350 Ethereum, a major cryptocurrency, worth $563,000. 

"Fully just staring at my monitor laughing uncontrollably," Roose, a tech columnist, wrote on Twitter after the sale.

Roose had indicated that the proceeds, after the 15 percent fee deducted by the Foundation platform on which the auction was organized, would go to charities supported by The New York Times. 

Agence France-Presse

Nike, Adidas join brands feeling Chinese social media heat over Xinjiang

BEIJING - Nike and Adidas came under attack on Chinese social media on Thursday over past comments the fashion brands have made about labor conditions in Xinjiang, part of a diplomatic row between China and the West.

The sportswear companies were the latest caught up in a backlash prompted by a Chinese government call to stop foreign brands from tainting China's name as internet users found statements they had made in the past on Xinjiang.

Chinese state media had singled out H&M on Wednesday over a statement reported last year where the Swedish fashion retailer said it was deeply concerned by reports of accusations of forced labour in Xinjiang, and that it did not source products from the Chinese region.

Both Nike and Adidas, which have been growing rapidly in China, have said previously that they do not source products or yarn from the Xinjiang region. Adidas declined to comment on Thursday and Nike did not respond to requests for further comment.

Earlier this week, China denied allegations of human rights abuses by its officials in the western region of Xinjiang, home to Muslim Uighurs, after the European Union, United States, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on the officials.

Beijing hit back with retaliatory sanctions on European lawmakers, scholars and institutions.

Some internet users said they would stop buying Nike and will support local brands such as Li Ning and Anta, while others told Adidas to leave China.

The dispute creates a dilemma for Western companies who must balance the desire to expand their business in China against the views of consumers in their home markets.

"Brands must not rescind on their human rights responsibilities in the face of this pressure," said Chloe Cranston of Anti-Slavery International, a member of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uighur Region.

BOYCOTT CALLS

Shares of Anta Sports Products Ltd and Li Ning Co surged, while shares in Adidas, Inditex and H&M fell on Thursday.

State tabloid Global Times said Spain's Inditex, owner of Zara, had "quietly removed" a statement on Xinjiang from its English and Spanish-language websites.

An Inditex webpage stating that the company was highly concerned about reports alleging social and labour malpractice in various supply chains among ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang was live on March 24, a Google cache showed, but now appears to be unavailable.

Inditex did not respond to a request for comment. Inditex has previously said it does not have any commercial relations in Xinjiang.

Chinese internet users also targeted the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a group that promotes sustainable cotton production which said in October it was suspending its approval of cotton sourced from Xinjiang, citing human rights concerns.

BCI members include Nike, Adidas, H&M and Japan's Fast Retailing. The Better Cotton Initiative website also stopped working on Thursday. The organization did not respond to a request for comment.

"If you boycott Xinjiang cotton, we'll boycott you. Either Adidas quits BCI, or get out of China," one internet user wrote.

H&M said on Wednesday it respected Chinese consumers and that it was committed to long-term investment and development in China.

But by Thursday morning, H&M did not exist on some Chinese store locator maps. Searches for H&M stores on Baidu Maps yielded no results. The retailer's official store on Alibaba's Tmall, an e-commerce platform, was inaccessible.

At a daily media briefing at China's foreign ministry, spokeswoman Hua Chunying, when asked about H&M, held up a photograph of Black Americans picking cotton.

"This was in the US when Black slaves were forced to pick cotton in the fields," she said.

Hua then held up a second photograph of cotton fields in Xinjiang.

"More than 40 percent of the cotton in Xinjiang is harvested by machinery, so the alleged forced labour is non-existent."

-reuters-

New York City deploying Asian undercover force to combat hate crimes

NEW YORK - New York City plans to deploy an all-Asian undercover police team and expand community outreach in more than 200 languages to combat a rise in hate crimes against Asians, authorities said on Thursday.

"If you are going to commit a hate crime in New York City, we will find you," New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in unveiling the two-pronged plan to fight bias crimes.

"We are not going to tolerate anyone being targeted because of the color of their skin, the religion they worship, their sexual preference or anything else," Shea said.

Just days after a spate of assaults on Asian-Americans in New York City last weekend, Shea said he was ramping up the NYPD's undercover force with plain-clothed officers, all of them of Asian descent. Starting this weekend, they will patrol subways, grocery stores and other locations to stem anti-Asian incidents that total 26 so far this year, including 12 assaults, police said.

"The next person you target through speech or menacing activity may be a plain-clothed New York police officer - so think twice," Shea said.

The 26 incidents so far have resulted in seven arrests, police said. Those incidents included 12 assaults so far this year, three of them last weekend, police said. By comparison, at this time last year, there were no assaults reported against Asian-Americans, police said.

Because hate crimes too often go unreported, now anyone dialing 911 can utter a single English word for their native language - such as Mandarin - and police operators will help access translators who speak more than 200 languages, police said.

Advocates tied the surge in hate crimes to blame that has been placed on the Asian-American Pacific Islander community for the coronavirus spread. The community reported a spike in violence since March 2020, when then-President Donald Trump started repeatedly referring to COVID-19 as the "China virus" and "kung flu," which some said inflamed anti-Asian sentiment.

Hate crimes against Asian Americans rose by 149% in 2020 in 16 major cities compared with 2019, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Violent incidents included people being slashed with a box cutter, lit on fire and verbal harassment, according to testimony at a US congressional hearing on anti-Asian violence convened this month.

The most deadly incident was this month's shooting spree at three Atlanta area spas that left eight people dead, six of them Asian women. A 21-year-old white man has been charged with multiple counts of murder, and police investigating motives have not ruled out the possibility that the attacks were provoked, at least in part, by anti-immigrant or anti-Asian sentiments.

-reuters-

Bill Gates says world should be back to normal by end-2022 due to vaccines: Polish media

WARSAW - The world should be back to normal by the end of 2022 thanks to COVID-19 vaccines, Bill Gates said in an interview for Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and television broadcaster TVN24.

"This is an incredible tragedy," the Microsoft co-founder said on the pandemic, adding that the only good news was the access to vaccines.

"By the end of 2022 we should be basically completely back to normal," Gates said.

Gates, a billionaire who stepped down as chairman of Microsoft Corp in 2014, has through his philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed at least $1.75 billion to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. That includes support for some makers of vaccines, diagnostics and potential treatments.

The COVAX facility, backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), aims to secure 2 billion vaccine doses for lower income countries by the end of 2021. 

-reuters-

Google agrees to pay Italian publishers for news

MILAN, Italy - Google announced on Wednesday it has signed licensing deals with numerous Italian media publishers to pay for news content, in the US tech giant's latest move to tamp down media anger over lost advertising revenue.

It follows an agreement struck with some French publishers earlier in the year over "neighboring rights", which were introduced by an EU directive two years ago and call for payment for showing snippets of news content as part of internet searches.

Wednesday's deal will give the Italian publishers access to the Google News Showcase program, which sees it pay outlets for a selection of enriched content.

"Signed on an individual basis, these agreements represent an important step in Google's relationship with Italian publishers by remunerating the publishers," Google said in a statement.

Google News Showcase will be available in Italy in the coming months, it added.

Fabio Vaccarono, CEO of Google Italy, said "these agreements represent an important step forward and confirm Google's commitment to Italian publishers".

Among the publishers who signed deals were the RCS MediaGroup, Il Sole 24 Ore, Monrif, Citynews, Caltagirone Editore, Il Fatto Quotidiano, Libero, Il Foglio, Il Giornale and Il Tempo.

The head of Il Sole 24 Ore, Giuseppe Cerbone, said "remuneration for news, including the rights related to the distribution of digital content, is a front on which our publishing group is engaged on the front line".

Urbano Cairo, CEO of the RCS MediaGroup, said "we are pleased to have signed this agreement, which governs the issue of related rights and acknowledges the importance of quality news and the prestige of our titles," which include the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Neighboring France was the first EU country to enact the "neighboring rights" law, but Google initially refused to comply. However after turbulent negotiations, the search giant sealed a deal with certain French publishers in January.

News outlets struggling with dwindling print subscriptions have long seethed at Google's failure to give them a cut of the millions it makes from ads displayed alongside news search results.

Australia has aggressively pushed to force digital companies to pay for news content, and last month Google struck a deal to make "significant payments" to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. 

Agence France-Presse

For 1st time, Brazil records over 3,000 COVID deaths in one day

BRASILIA - Brazil's daily Covid-19 death toll soared past 3,000 for the first time Tuesday as the hard-hit country struggled to contain a surge of cases that has pushed many hospitals to breaking point.

The health ministry registered a record 3,251 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing Brazil's overall death toll to nearly 299,000 -- second only to the United States.

Supplies of medical oxygen for Covid-19 patients have fallen to "worrying" levels in six of Brazil's 27 states, officials said Tuesday amid a deadly explosion of cases.

The prosecutor general's office said the health ministry had warned about oxygen levels in the six states during a crisis response meeting with suppliers.

One of Brazil's main oxygen suppliers, the company White Martins, said it was racing to keep up with an "exponential increase" in demand of up to 300 percent in some regions, prosecutors said in a statement.

The situation has raised fears of a repeat of horrific scenes in the northern city of Manaus in January, when oxygen shortages left dozens of Covid-19 patients to suffocate to death when hospitals ran out.

Other states are now showing warning signs.

Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous state and industrial hub, said Monday it would set up an emergency oxygen plant within 10 days with brewing company Ambev to supply overstretched hospitals.

The state, population 46 million, has been hit hard by the new wave of Covid-19.

Globo TV reported last week that at least 135 people had died in Sao Paulo waiting in line for intensive care beds with confirmed or suspected cases of the virus.

In Brasilia, more than 400 people are currently waiting in line for ICU beds. Videos circulating online show bodies piled in hospital corridors awaiting transfer to the capital's overflowing morgues.

The six states whose oxygen supplies are the most critical are Acre and Rondonia in the northwest, Mato Grosso in the center-west, Amapa in the north, and Ceara and Rio Grande do Norte in the northeast, prosecutors said.

Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has defied expert advice on containing the virus, is facing mounting pressure to revamp his response to the crisis.

Brazil's average daily Covid-19 death toll has more than tripled since the start of the year, to 2,306, currently the highest worldwide.

Experts say the surge is being fueled by a local variant of the virus that is suspected to be more contagious.

Agence France-Presse

Football: Ronaldo unaffected by Juventus setbacks, says Portugal coach

Criticism of Cristiano Ronaldo's performances for Juventus has had no impact on the forward's morale and he is ready to give 100% for Portugal in their World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan later on Wednesday, head coach Fernando Santos said.

Ronaldo came under fire after Juventus were knocked out in the Champions League last 16 earlier this month by 10-man Porto, who progressed on away goals.

Porto's decisive goal came from a free kick that went through the Portugal striker's legs as he turned in the defensive wall, with the front page of the Corriere dello Sport saying: "Betrayed by Ronaldo".

"When Cristiano is with the national team, he always comes with the same vision, the same passion, the same will, the same joy," Santos said.

"He always gives 100% when he comes to the national team.

"I don't think he has any problem in terms of mentality at the moment."

Ronaldo has been linked with a return to Real Madrid, who he left to join Juve in 2018, by some Spanish media outlets and Santos said he would be happy to talk to him about his future.

"I give advice to Cristiano personally. I was his head coach when he was 18, and we have a close relationship," Santos said.

"We talk a lot, but these are private conversations between friends. We don't really have a coach-player relationship, but it is different when he is in the national team. If he asks me for any advice, I will let him know what I think." (Reporting by Arvind Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford )

-reuters-

Robinhood, at the heart of retail trading frenzy, files for own IPO

Robinhood Markets Inc, the online brokerage at the center of the historic retail trading frenzy that gripped Wall Street this year, has confidentially submitted plans to regulators for a US initial public offering, the company disclosed on Tuesday.

The move to push ahead with a stock market flotation comes in the middle of a historic boom in US capital markets, fueled largely by dealmaking through so-called special purpose acquisition companies.

Companies have raised well over $100 billion through initial public offerings (IPOs) in the first three months of the year and are poised to overtake 2020's record haul of $167 billion, data from Refinitiv and Dealogic showed. The amount raised includes blank-check IPOs.

Reuters reported in December that Robinhood had picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc to lead preparations for a stock market flotation.

The company is yet to determine the number of shares to be offered and the price range, it said in a blog post.

Robinhood had considered going public through a direct listing in the weeks leading up to the filing, people familiar with the matter said.

In a direct listing, a company does not sell any shares in advance of its market debut, as is the case with IPOs.

Menlo Park, California-based Robinhood was founded in 2013 by Stanford University roommates Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt. The company's platform allows users to make unlimited commission-free trades in stocks, exchange-traded funds, options and cryptocurrencies.

The platform's easy-to-use interface has made it a go-to for young investors trading from home during coronavirus-induced restrictions and its popularity soared during the retail trading frenzy.

The company, however, faced criticism after it was forced to curb trading in certain stocks during the social-media fueled trading frenzy due to a 10-fold rise in deposit requirements at its clearinghouse.

It was forced to raise a whopping $3.4 billion in emergency funds after its finances were strained due to the massive jump in retail trading.

The funding rounds were led by Ribbit Capital and included existing investors ICONIQ, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. The latest financing valued Robinhood at around $30 billion, according to people familiar with matter.

Robinhood is currently being probed by US regulators over its temporary trading curbs on the so-called "meme stocks". The company has set aside $26.6 million for a potential settlement around trading outages in March 2020, as well as its options trading policies. 

-reuters-

Intel to spend $20 billion on US chip plants as CEO challenges Asia dominance

Intel Corp will greatly expand its advanced chip manufacturing capacity as the new chief executive announced plans to spend as much as $20 billion to build two factories in Arizona and open its factories to outside customers.

The move by CEO Pat Gelsinger on Tuesday aims to restore Intel's reputation after manufacturing stumbles sent shares plunging last year. The strategy will directly challenge the two other companies in the world that can make the most advanced chips, Taiwan's Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) and Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

And it will aim to tilt a technological balance of power back to the United States and Europe as government leaders on both continents have become concerned about the risks of a concentration of chipmaking in Taiwan given tensions with China.

Intel shares rose 7.5 percent after the company disclosed its new strategy and full-year financial guidance for 2021. Some investors such as Third Point LLC had previously urged Intel to consider spinning off its costly chip manufacturing operations.

Intel said it expects $72 billion in revenue and adjusted earnings per share of $4.55, compared with analyst estimates of $72.9 billion and $4.77 per share, according to Refinitiv data. The company said it expects to spend $19 billion to $20 billion on capital expenditures.

Gelsinger said that 2021 forecast "reflects the industry-wide shortage" of some components such as substrates.

Intel is one of the few remaining semiconductor companies that both designs and manufactures its own chips. Rival chip designers such as Qualcomm Inc and Apple Inc rely on contract manufacturers.

In an interview with Reuters, Gelsinger said Intel has "fully resolved" its problems with its most recent manufacturing technology and is "all systems go" on chips for 2023. It now plans a massive manufacturing expansion.

That will include spending $20 billion on two new factories at an existing campus in Chandler, Arizona, that will create 3,000 permanent jobs. Intel will then work on future sites in the United States and in Europe, Gelsinger said.

Intel will use those factories to make its own chips but also open them to outside customers in what is called a "foundry" business model in the chip industry. Gelsinger said the new factories will focus on cutting-edge computing chip manufacturing, rather than the older or specialty technologies that some manufacturers such as GlobalFoundries specialize in.

"We are absolutely committed to leading process technology capabilities at scale for the industry, and for our customers," Gelsinger said, adding that Intel has lined up customers for the new factories but could not disclose their names.

He did say on a webcast Tuesday that Amazon.com Inc , Cisco Systems Inc, Qualcomm Inc and Microsoft Corp support its efforts to offer chip manufacturing services. On a conference call, Gelsinger said that Intel "will pursue customers like Apple."

The move is a direct challenge to TSMC and Samsung. The two have come to dominate semiconductor manufacturing business, moving its center of gravity from the United States, where much of the technology was once invented, to Asia, where more than two-thirds of advanced chips are now manufactured.

"Intel’s investment will help to preserve US technology innovation and leadership, strengthen US economic and national security, and protect and grow thousands of high-tech, high-wage American jobs," US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.

Gelsinger said Intel will aim to change the global chip manufacturing balance by embracing the foundry business where it historically has been a minor player. Intel will offer chip customers the ability to license out its own technological crown jewels - known as x86 computing cores - as well as offer to build chips based on technology from Arm Ltd and RISC-V technology from startup SiFive.

"We will be picking our next sites within the next year for US and Europe," he said.

The American sites could benefit from a $30 billion subsidy package that lawmakers hope to bring to the floor of the U.S. Senate next month. The bill remains largely unwritten, and Gelsinger said on a conference call that Intel's plan "does not depend on a penny of government support. It is the right strategy for us going forward."

Intel also announced plans for new research collaboration with IBM focused on computing chip and packaging technology.

But even as Intel jumps into competition with TSMC and Samsung, it also plans to become a larger customer of theirs by turning to them to make subcomponents of its chips called "tiles" to make some chips more cost-effectively.

"I'll pick the best process technologies wherever they exist," Gelsinger said. "I leverage internal and external supply chains. I'll have the best cost structure. That combination of supply, products and costs, we think is a killer combination."

Intel has given few details of exactly how it will use outside factories, but analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy said he expects Intel to use them as "gap fillers for some of the highest performance" chip parts until Intel can regain a manufacturing lead over its rivals.

-reuters-

Brazil's Sao Paulo reports record 1,021 COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours

SAO PAULO - The Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, the country's most populous, registered 1,021 deaths from COVID-19 on Monday, a new daily record, state authorities said on Tuesday.

Sao Paulo's death toll is a worrisome sign that Brazil's total death toll for the day, which will only be released on Tuesday night, could also be a new record.

In Sao Paulo, the previous highest number of daily deaths was 679 last Tuesday.

The spike in the COVID-19 death toll in Sao Paulo comes as Brazil has become the latest epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with overwhelmed hospitals and a shortage of oxygen and drugs in many cities.

Brazil, with a population of 211 million, has recorded roughly 12 million cases of COVID-19 and 295,425 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

-reuters-

Suspect in custody after 10 killed in mass shooting at Colorado grocery store

BOULDER, Colorado - A suspect was in custody on Tuesday a day after 10 people, including a policeman, were killed in a hail of gunfire inside a Colorado grocery store, marking America's second mass shooting in a week and adding to the state's history of deadly massacres.

Authorities have not yet identified the man seen bloodied and limping as he was led away from the scene in handcuffs on Monday. A news briefing was scheduled for late on Tuesday morning.

The shooting at a King Soopers outlet in Boulder, about 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Denver, drew hundreds of responding officers and sent shoppers and employees fleeing for cover.

The first officer on the scene, 51-year-old Eric Talley, was among those killed, a tearful Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said at a Monday news conference. An 11-year veteran of the force, Talley was the father of seven children and had recently been looking for a less dangerous job, according to a statement released by his father.

Authorities gave few details and offered no possible motive for the bloodshed, which came six days after a gunman went on a killing spree in the Atlanta area, fatally shooting eight people at three day spas before he was arrested.

Witnesses in Colorado described a chaotic and frightening scene inside the store.

Ryan Borowski, 37, went in looking for something to satisfy a sugar craving. He had picked out a 12-pack of soda and a bag of chips when he heard shots ring out, sending him scurrying for the store's back exit.

"It was pretty terrifying," he said. "Fastest fire drill I've ever been in."

Sarah Moonshadow, 42, was at the checkout line with her adult son, Nicholas, when the gunfire began.

"And I said, 'Nicholas, get down.' And Nicholas ducked. And we just started listening and there, just repetitive shots ... and I just said, 'Nicholas, run,'" she said.

Moonshadow said she tried to attend to a victim she saw lying on the pavement outside the store, but her son pulled her away, telling her, 'We have to go.'" She broke down in sobs recounting their ordeal, adding, "I couldn't help anybody."

Police said the accused gunman was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries but did not explain how he was hurt. There was no word on when he might face an initial court appearance.

Video footage broadcast by television stations showed a shirtless, bearded man in boxer shorts being led away from the store limping and in handcuffs before he was placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance. One of his legs appeared covered in blood.

The killings added to a long line of mass shootings in Colorado that include some of the most shocking episodes of gun violence in modern US history.

In 2012, a young man dressed in tactical gear burst into a movie theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora during a midnight screening and sprayed the audience with gunfire, killing 12 and wounding 70. In 1999, a pair of students went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado, murdering 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives.

In Washington, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, wrote on Twitter that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, said the violence again underscored the need for stricter gun laws, which have stalled in Congress amid Republican opposition.

Video captured by an onlooker on Monday, apparently while the shooting was still in progress, was posted to social media and aired on TV stations. The footage shows two bodies lying in the grocery store parking lot, before the person with the camera walks inside and films a third body, as three shots are heard in the background.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 7, which represents 32 employees at the King Soopers outlet, credited some of the grocery workers with helping customers escape through a rear exit.

It also thanked customers and emergency responders who "acted swiftly to prevent even greater loss of life."

The shooting occurred about 2 miles (3 km) from the flagship campus of the University of Colorado, in the Table Mesa area of the city that is home to a residential neighborhood and the hilltop laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

-reuters-

NBA: Hornets knock off Spurs to end 3-game skid

Gordon Hayward scored 27 points and Terry Rozier added 24, 17 of those in the second half, as the visiting Charlotte Hornets held on for a 100-97 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Monday.

The Hornets led by 10 points at the half and by five heading into the fourth. San Antonio rallied to tie the game on DeMar DeRozan's three-point play with 1:45 left, but Rozier answered with a 3-pointer that put the Hornets back on top with 1:26 to play.

The Spurs' Derrick White canned two free throws with 22.4 seconds remaining. Rozier then made two free throws with 18.4 seconds left and the lead was back to three.

DeRozan's dunk with 9.2 seconds remaining cut the Charlotte lead to one point again, but Hayward promptly hit two free throws to force San Antonio into a last-second 3-point attempt, which

Patty Mills missed with 6.7 seconds left.

Malik Monk and Bismack Biyombo added 11 points each for the Hornets, who ended a three-game losing streak, and P.J. Washington finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds.

DeRozan ended up with 28 points for San Antonio. White scored 21, and Mills and Rudy Gay hit for 10 apiece. Jakob Poeltl paced the Spurs with 11 rebounds.

The Hornets led for all but the opening minutes of the game and rolled to a 31-21 lead at the end of the first period. San Antonio cut that advantage to one point with 8:33 left in the second period, but Charlotte responded and led 55-45 at halftime.

Hayward led the Hornets with 13 points in the half, while Washington added 10 points and seven rebounds. White and DeRozan had eight points apiece to lead San Antonio at the break.

Monday's contest was the first of a season-long nine-game homestand over the next two weeks for the Spurs.

-reuters-