Run on pot keeping Dutch shops open
To control the coronavirus outbreak, Netherlands on Sunday ordered virtually all restaurants and bars to shut their doors until April 6, effective less than one hour later. Included in the ban were the famed "coffee shops," which sell more pot than pots of joe.
Within minutes of the announcement, lines stretched around the block at shops across the Netherlands as customers sought to stock up on enough marijuana to get them through weeks of quarantine.
Almost as soon as the lines popped up, illegal dealers hit the streets. While marijuana is tolerated in the Netherlands, it's never been fully legalized, and selling it outside of official channels is a crime.
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But, after an emergency meeting Monday evening, under pressure from mayors concerned about a potential upsurge in street crime as the business shifted underground, the government said pot stores could reopen for carryout, as long as customers maintained a sufficient distance from one another.
Philippines pauses fight with guerrillas
MANILA, Philippines -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared a unilateral cease-fire with communist guerrillas on Wednesday to focus on fighting the coronavirus outbreak that prompted him to place the northern third of the country under quarantine.
Duterte ordered the military and police to stop offensives against New People's Army guerrillas during the cease-fire, which is to start today and end April 15.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano ordered the national police to shift to a defensive posture. He urged the Marxist guerrillas to respond with their own cease-fire.
"We call on them to be a part of the solution in fighting our common enemy, the coronavirus," Ano said in a statement.
"Through this cease-fire, the Philippine government aspires that the swift provision of public health assistance goes unimpeded with the movement of health workers and medical supplies to communities," spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
Duterte opened peace talks with the rebels when he took office in mid-2016. But the negotiations, brokered by the Netherlands, eventually bogged down with each side accusing the other of continuing to carry out attacks.
The insurgency has raged for more than half a century, making it one of Asia's longest-running rebellions.
Pakistani raid kills soldiers, militants
PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout Wednesday in a former Taliban stronghold bordering Afghanistan, triggering a shootout that killed four soldiers and seven militants, the military said.
In a statement, the military said a member of the raiding team, which was acting on intelligence it received, was also wounded in the exchange of fire near the town of Dattakhel in the district of North Waziristan. Security forces later seized a cache of weapons and guns, it said.
The military provided no further details but police and intelligence officials said the suspects belonged to a Pakistani militant group and were planning to carry out attacks.
Also targeted were al-Qaida members and those sheltering them.
Residents say a large number of civilians also were killed in those military operations.
Mexico defies pressure to shut airports
Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ruled out closing airports and other tough measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, saying he's trying to prevent a complete shutdown of the economy that would hurt the poor.
In sharp contrast with the policies implemented by most of its neighbors, Mexico for the moment won't bow to pressure to shut its airports, restaurants and curtail social life because it needs to defend economic activity, Lopez Obrador said Wednesday.
There are "pressures of all types. Close the airport, shut down everything, paralyze the economy. No," the president said at his daily news conference in Mexico City.
Mexico faces the perfect storm of a possible recession in the U.S., its biggest trading partner, drastically lower revenue from its oil producer Pemex from the rout in crude prices, and a slump in tourism as travelers stay home because of the virus.
The economy is likely to contract by 4% this year, the most since 2009, as the pandemic hits demand for the country's products, Credit Suisse Group AG said in a report on Tuesday.
Lopez Obrador said he expects the global economy to stabilize thanks to the "direct, deep" intervention of the U.S. government. "They will do anything to stabilize, so that helps every country in the world."
A Section on 03/19/2020