Roche urged to share info with Dutch corona test labs: FTM

DutchNews, March 26, 2020

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche is unable to meet demand for coronavirus testing kits but is unwilling to share key information with labs to help them carry out mass testing, Dutch investigative website FollowThe Money said on Thursday. 

Most Dutch testing labs work with Roche equipment and depend on the Swiss firm for supplies. And due to special deals known as a ‘vendor lock-in’ they are not able to turn to alternative sources to stock up on essential items, FTM says. 

The Volkskrant reported earlier that most Dutch labs use Roche testing equipment and that the shortage of lysis buffer – a liquid used to break open cells – is one reason why the Netherlands is not carrying out mass testing. 

According to broadcaster NOS, Roche has 80% of the Dutch market. 

Commitment 

Roche told DutchNews.nl is a statement that it is committed to delivering as many tests as possible to areas where they can be most effective. However, to safeguard supply, the company said it strongly advised focusing testing on patients with symptoms, not with broad testing. 

‘Today, media in the Netherlands reported that Roche Netherlands is not providing enough test material to laboratories and asked Roche to publish the recipe for one reagent, called lysis buffer solution. We clearly state that this story is wrong,’ Roche said. 

‘There is no patent protection on lysis buffer itself. Roche will not guarantee safety and reliability of the quality and test results if the reagents required for the test are manufactured outside our own production network as well as those qualified production sites we are already working with. Safety and reliability of our components have been approved by regulatory authorities.’ 

Talks 

Meanwhile, health minister Hugo de Jonge has told parliament he is in talks with Roche about the recipe for making the liquid so that Dutch pharmacies can make it themselves and expand testing in the Netherlands. 

‘Talks are underway. We are doing all we can to get the formula,’ he said. 

The government has appointed Feike Sijbesma, the former chief executive of DSM, as its corona test expert. Sijbesma will focus on assessing and the availability of tests on the market and those being developed.

China to expel US journalists as media freedom row grows

Yahoo – AFP, Laurent Thomet, with Shaun Tandon in Washington, March 18, 2020

Wall Street Journal reporters Josh Chin (right) and Philip Wen were expelled after an
op-ed headline in the newspaper that China deemed racist (AFP Photo/GREG BAKER)

Beijing (AFP) - China on Wednesday announced it would expel American journalists from three major US newspapers in one of the communist government's biggest crackdowns on the foreign press, escalating a bitter row over media freedoms.

The move against The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal came as the superpowers also feuded over the coronavirus pandemic, with US President Donald Trump provocatively branding it the "Chinese virus".

Beijing said the expulsions were in retaliation to Washington's decision to cut the number of Chinese nationals allowed to work for its state-run media on American soil.

"They are legitimate and justified self-defense in every sense," the foreign ministry said of the expulsions.

It said the journalists at the three newspapers must hand back their credentials within 10 days, and highlighted they would also not be able to work in the semi-autonomous cities of Hong Kong and Macau.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) said the move means at least 13 American journalists currently working in the country would be expelled.

Beijing also ordered the papers, as well as Voice of America and Time magazine, to declare in writing their staff, finances, operations and real estate in China -- rules similar to those recently imposed on Chinese state media by Washington.

The foreign ministry said these were "entirely necessary and reciprocal" moves that China was "compelled to take in response to the unreasonable oppression the Chinese media organizations experience in the US".

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijing was wrong to equate state-run 

Chinese media with independent US outlets (AFP Photo/NICHOLAS KAMM)

The row was ignited last month after China expelled three other Wall Street Journal reporters -- two Americans and one Australian -- over what it deemed a racist headline in the newspaper.

The headline, "China is the Real Sick Man of Asia", was on an opinion piece that the three journalists were not involved in writing.

Those were the first outright expulsions by China of a foreign journalist since 1998, according to the FCCC.

The row escalated as the US reclassified Chinese state-run media operating in the United States as foreign missions.

On Wednesday, the FCCC said it "deplores" the measure and warned: "There are no winners in the use of journalists as diplomatic pawns by the world's two pre-eminent economic powers."

US asks China to reconsider

Following the latest expulsions, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China was wrong to equate its state-run media, which answer to Beijing, and independent US news outlets that can freely report and ask critical questions.

"I regret China's decision today to further foreclose the world's ability to conduct the free press operations that, frankly, would be really good for the Chinese people in these incredibly challenging global times, where more information, more transparency are what will save lives," Pompeo told reporters.

US President Donald Trump speaks during a daily press briefing on the

coronavirus pandemic (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, called China's move a "grave mistake" and voiced hope that Washington and Beijing would quickly resolve the dispute to let journalists keep working.

The executive editor of The Washington Post, Marty Baron, said the move was "particularly regrettable because it comes in the midst of an unprecedented global crisis".

Matt Murray, editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, called it an "unprecedented" attack on press freedom.

Rights groups also slammed the move, with PEN America saying it was "stunningly misguided and a grave risk to public safety."

Human Rights Watch expressed alarm that the ban on the expelled US journalists extended to working in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where the mini-constitution enshrines free speech.

The move is "further encroaching upon Hong Kong's limited freedom under the 'one country, two systems' arrangement", HRW said.

The coronavirus has already divided the US and China, with Trump and Pompeo repeatedly speaking of the "Chinese virus" or "Wuhan virus" -- a reference to the city where cases were first detected.

Beijing has condemned the use of those terms, saying it is "a kind of stigmatisation".

But Trump has defended his terminology, telling reporters: "It did come from China, so I think it's very accurate."

Spanish king distances himself from scandal-hit father

Yahoo – AFP, March 15, 2020

Juan Carlos handed over power to his son, Felipe in 2014 (AFP Photo/Juanjo Martín)

Madrid (AFP) - King Felipe VI of Spain moved Sunday to distance himself from his scandal-hit father, stripping him of his palace allowance and renouncing what he was due to inherit from him.

A statement from the palace announced that he had stripped the former king Juan Carlos, of his allowance and was himself renouncing what he was due to inherit from him.

The announcement came after media reports that Juan Carlos had received 100 million dollars (90 million euros) from Saudi Arabia via an offshore account -- and that King Felipe himself was also a beneficiary.

The money was lodged in a Swiss bank account in the name of a Panamanian foundation.

In the palace statement, the reigning king said that in April he had made it clear to a notary that he would accept no money from the foundation in question.

He also that he had absolutely no knowledge of having been named as a beneficiary to another foundation, which according to press reports paid millions of euros towards his father's flights in private jets.

On Tuesday, the Spanish parliament decided against launching an investigation into suspected money laundering by the former king Juan Carlos.

Reported Saudi payments to ex-king

Spain's hard-left Podemos party had called for it after reports earlier this month that in 2008 Juan Carlos received $100 million from Saudi king Abdallah via the Swiss account of an entity listed in Panama.

The Swiss daily Tribune de Geneve added that in 2012, $65 million of that sum was given by the king to his former mistress, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.

Then a report in Britain's Daily Telegraph said that 52-year-old King Felipe was also a beneficiary of the fund, which it said had been set up when Juan Carlos was still on the throne.

Juan Carlos, now 82, came to the throne after the death of the military dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 and is widely respected for having favoured a transition to democracy.

But he lost his immunity from prosecution after handing power to his son, Felipe, in June 2014 following a 39-year reign.

He resigned from public life last year after a series of scandals about his private life.

In 2012, he outraged Spaniards by going elephant hunting in Botswana at the height of the country's recession.

Spanish reports say Juan Carlos has until now received an annual allowance from the state of more than 194,000 euros.

Theory that Coronavirus Escaped from a Lab Lacks Evidence

The pathogen appears to have come from wild animals, virologists say, and there are no signs of genetic manipulation in the SARS-CoV-2 genome.

The Scientist, Emily Makowski, Mar 5, 2020

Since the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic, theories have circulated about the origin of the novel coronavirus causing the disease, SARS-CoV-2. One prominent rumor is that it first escaped from a lab in Wuhan studying bat coronaviruses and then spread to the public. This theory has also evolved into claims that the virus was genetically engineered to be a bioweapon. But scientists say that while there’s not enough information to pinpoint where the virus came from, there is no evidence that it was created in a lab.

The lab-escape theory had been circulating on social media and various blogs for weeks, but gained considerable visibility in a New York Post article in late February. In it, Steven Mosher, a social scientist and the president of the Population Research Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, summarizes why he believes SARS-CoV-2 may have been accidentally spread by China’s National Biosafety Laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers have studied bat coronaviruses.

In the article, Mosher describes several lines of reasoning, namely, that the lab is less than 10 miles away from the seafood market where a cluster of COVID-19 cases was first discovered, and that after the 2003 SARS outbreak, the SARS-CoV virus escaped from virology labs multiple times in China. He also describes how Chinese virologist and bioweapons expert Major General Chen Wei went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology with military scientists in January to study thenew virus, which Mosher sees as a form of damage control.

“The circumstantial evidence surrounding it is pretty compelling. . . . The idea that the epicenter of this epidemic would be just a few miles from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, which is where we know that dangerous pathogens are being kept and looked at as potential bioweapons, I think the odds against that are just astronomical,” Mosher tells The Scientist.

Dimitrios Paraskevis, an epidemiologist at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, tells The Scientist that while it’s not possible to rule out the idea of lab escape, he believes that it is unlikely. “Any person who works in a lab must follow very strict safety regulations. It sounds to me very extraordinary that something happened and nobody took care about such an accident,” he says. The World Health Organization updated SARS surveillance guidelines in 2004 after the lab-based outbreaks, urging labs to follow proper biosafety procedures, and China replaced the director of its Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

One problem leading to a lot of apprehension and speculation about the new coronavirus is that scientists “don’t know what the actual source of the virus was,” Anthony Fehr, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Kansas, tells The Scientist. Additionally, researchers don’t know if SARS-CoV-2 immediately started to spread in humans after a single transmission from an animal, or if it took multiple zoonotic events between an infected animal population and humans.

Despite the question mark around the exact source of the disease, it does appear to have originally come from wildlife, according to a team of international public health scientists who wrote a statement published in The Lancet. An analysis of SARS-CoV-2 by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology suggests that the virus’s genome is 96 percent similar to a coronavirus found in bats.

Mosher agrees that animals were the likely origin. “That doesn’t mean [the virus] wasn’t collected, brought to the lab, and was being tested on in various ways, and escaped from the lab,” he says. Mosher also does not claim that China genetically engineered the virus. “I’m not saying this has been genetically engineered to be a bioweapon that’s escaped from the lab. . . . I’m just saying that [China is] collecting dangerous pathogens, [and] they have a history of letting them escape from the lab,” he says.

Transmission from an animal, with no lab experiment or genetic manipulation involved, fits best with what scientists know about how other coronaviruses have made the jump to humans. In the past, these viruses have spread through wild bats that infect another type of animal—an intermediate host—that then spreads it to humans. SARS-CoV, for example, was transmitted from bats to civets to humans, while camels were an intermediate host in MERS, according to Quanta. The civet version of SARS-CoV was 99.8 percent similar to the one found in humans—much more closely related than the bat and human varieties of SARS-CoV-2—so researchers believe the new coronavirus also infected another type of animal on its way from bats to humans. But they have not found a candidate so far, according to Nature.

This ability to move in between different animal hosts is a characteristic feature of coronaviruses, according to Paul McCray, a pulmonologist at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine whose lab studies coronaviruses. “It’s exactly what we’ve learned in studies of SARS in 2002 and 2003, and MERS in 2012. . . . So the concept that this is happening again should come as no surprise,” he says. “For people that work with these viruses, this is completely unsurprising. We don’t need to come up with farfetched theories when the genome sequences and the characteristics of these viruses support what we’re seeing.”

No signs of engineering in SARS-CoV-2 genome

In addition to the claim that a naturally evolved virus escaped from a lab by mistake, some conspiracy theories have posited that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered. In fact, researchers throughout the world, including in the US and China, have conducted research involving the creation of experimentally engineered hybrid coronaviruses. But there is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered, says Paraskevis, whose genomic analysis of the new virus was reported as a preprint in January.

RNA viruses, which include coronaviruses, “accumulate mutations at a rate one million times faster than human DNA [does]. . . . It gives them the ability to survive against an immune response,” Paraskevis says. While the new coronavirus does have some genetic differences to other known viruses due to mutations, “there’s no evidence that this is the result of a human experiment,” he says, adding that if the virus were engineered, scientists would expect to see additional genetic material in its genome. For example, an early bioRxiv preprint on SARS-CoV-2 found HIV-like genetic sequences, but online commenters pointed out that “the findings were at most a coincidence” and that research has since been retracted, reports STAT.

As there are still many unknowns about SARS-CoV-2, researchers worldwide are trying to uncover as much as they can about the virus. Chinese researchers “released the genomic sequence incredibly rapidly online. . . . They were very public in sharing the most important first piece of information” about it, McCray tells The Scientist. “The fact that scientists all over the world had access to that genomic sequence” made a lot of early research possible, he says.

Emily Makowski is a freelance writer based in Boston. Find her on Twitter @EmilyRMakowski.

"China is seeking to deflect criticism for its role in starting a global pandemic and not telling the world" by spreading "dangerous and ridiculous" conspiracy theories, a US State Department official said https://t.co/wBxj3p3Sjl pic.twitter.com/myx3OcoixS

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 13, 2020

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Tasked with reassuring US, Trump fumbles and fumes

Yahoo – AFP, Sebastian Smith, March 12, 2020

US President Donald Trump addresses Americans from the Oval Office about the
widening novel coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis (AFP Photo/Doug Mills)

Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump had one job to do in a primetime address on coronavirus: reassure an anxious nation, a panicking stock market and divided world. Instead, he left many confused and more scared.

Oval Office addresses are an American tradition in times of crisis -- a set piece event reminding the country that the president, heading the world's most powerful office, is there to guide.

Yet Trump's short speech late Wednesday featured a tired-sounding president responding to the global coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic fallout with a mix of bluster, blaming and a jaw-dropping error.

Part of the address sounded like one of Trump's nationalist campaign rallies -- raucous events that the COVID-19 pandemic, incidentally, may now end.

"The virus will not have a chance against us," Trump claimed, echoing his stump speech lines about "killing terrorists" and forcing the world to "respect us again."

And when the president rolled out his plans for stopping coronavirus, he instead caused consternation.

Announcing the drastic measure of halting all travel from Europe, where the virus is running rampant, Trump added that the ban would include "the tremendous amount of trade and cargo."

And "various other things."

If Americans watching television might have been confused, investors were in shock.

The White House quickly issued a clarification that no, trade was not being halted between the European Union and the United States. But the damage was done.

The first sign that things were going wrong was when Wall Street stock futures nosedived the minute the cameras switched off

Less than 12 hours later, on Thursday morning, trading had to be stopped when the Dow Jones plummeted seven percent, mirroring 10 percent falls in European markets.

Confusion, questions

Many had been expecting or hoping for a promise of American leadership around the world and a detailed plan for mitigating the growing economic pain back home.

Trump did announce efforts to boost small business loans and give tax relief, but Congress is squabbling over the details and Trump has so far refused to talk to the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives.

And when it came to the US role in the world during this truly global phenomenon, Trump again reverted to campaign rally mode.

He labelled it a "foreign" virus, noted how it had begun in China, and blamed Europe for not halting the spread.

"As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe," he said.

The travel ban fits neatly with Trump's campaign platform.

He has built his presidency on pushing a wall for the Mexican border, tariffs to secure better US trade deals and overall promoting the concept of "America first" -- at all costs.

Ian Bremmer, president of the New York-based Eurasia Group political consultancy, contrasted the US policy with China's response of airlifting massive medical aid to coronavirus-stricken Italy.

"America First is a dangerously short-sighted response to a global crisis," he tweeted.

Also, what Trump did not explain in his speech was that only European countries in the EU Schengen visa-free area are on the list. He said it wouldn't include Britain, but this also means that 22 other non-Schengen countries are exempted.

Questions were immediately raised over how this would prevent spreading of a visa already present in the United States.

And why would travelers from Britain, for example, be any less likely to be infected?

There are 459 confirmed coronavirus cases in Britain, including Nadine Dorries, the British government's own health minister in charge of patient safety.

As Politico noted drily, there was another "convenient side effect" to Trump's partial travel ban.

"They exempt nations where three Trump-owned golf resorts are located."

Hollywood rapist Harvey Weinstein jailed for 23 years

Yahoo – AFP, Thomas URBAIN, March 11, 2020

Harvey Weinstein was brought from the notorious Rikers Island jail into the
Manhattan criminal court in a wheelchair (AFP Photo/Johannes EISELE)

New York (AFP) - Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault Wednesday, capping a sensational downfall for the once-powerful producer in a landmark case for the #MeToo movement.

Weinstein, who turns 68 next week, faces spending the rest of his life behind bars after New York Justice James Burke rebuffed his pleas for the minimum five-year sentence.

The judge, issuing a heavy term close to the maximum 29 years allowed, was unmoved by a rambling statement Weinstein made to the court in which he failed to express any remorse for his actions or apologize to victims.

"I'm totally confused," Weinstein said, before blaming the #MeToo global reckoning against men abusing positions of power for his predicament.

"I was the first example and now there are of thousands of men being accused. I'm worried about this country," he added.

The sentencing completed a dramatic fall from grace for the titan-turned-pariah, who lost much of his $150 million fortune fighting allegations that surfaced in October 2017.

Nearly 90 women, including Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek, have come forward alleging 40 years of vile predatory behavior by the Oscar-winning producer of "Shakespeare in Love" and numerous other critical and box office hits.

Mimi Haleyi walks into the courtroom for sentencing of movie mogul Harvey 

Weinstein on March 11, 2020 in New York City (AFP Photo/Roy Rochlin)

The Silence Breakers -- a group of 24 Weinstein accusers that includes Ashley Judd, Rosanna Arquette and Rose McGowan -- said Weinstein's legacy would always be his rape conviction.

"He is going to jail -- but no amount of jail time will repair the lives he ruined, the careers he destroyed, or the damage he has caused," they said in a statement.

Weinstein was taken away from the Manhattan criminal court in a wheelchair as the six accusers who testified at his trial, including actress Annabella Sciorra of "The Sopranos," hugged in the front row.

Members of the public clapped as the accusers and prosecutors walked out of the courtroom.

'No longer hiding'

Weinstein was found guilty of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree on February 24. His lawyers have appealed.

Seven men and five women convicted him of raping ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and of forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006.

Mann, 34, and Haleyi, 42, delivered powerful victim impact statements Wednesday.

Haleyi said being attacked by Weinstein had "diminished my confidence and faith in people."

Former Actress Jessica Mann (R) delivered a powerful impact statement at 

Weinstein's sentencing (AFP Photo/Johannes EISELE)

Mann said his conviction had given her the strength to rebuild her life.

"My monsters are no longer hiding in my closet," she told the court.

The producer -- famous for his hard-nosed approach to work and Oscars campaigns -- was cleared of the most serious charges of predatory sexual assault, as well as rape in the first degree.

But prosecutors called on Burke to issue a lengthy jail term, saying Weinstein engaged in a "lifetime of abuse" and had shown "a total lack of remorse" for his actions.

In a pre-sentencing letter, the prosecution asked the judge to consider 36 other sexual abuse and harassment allegations against Weinstein dating back to the 1970s that were not part of the trial.

"He held all cards and played them at his will," lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said in court.

Weinstein's team suggested Burke should take into account the achievements of a man whose films received more than 300 Oscar nominations and 81 statuettes.

"His life story, his accomplishments, and struggles are simply remarkable and should not be disregarded in total because of the jury's verdict," the lawyers wrote in a pre-sentencing memo.

Attorney Gloria Allred speaks outside the courthouse following the sentencing 

of Harvey Weinstein at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York. Weinstein was 

sentenced to 23 years in prison two weeks after he was convicted of rape 

and sexual assault. (AFP Photo/Bryan R. Smith)

Weinstein also pleaded with Burke that he may never see his five children again, the youngest two of whom are under ten years old.

Weinstein's counsel regularly clashed with Burke during the trial, even claiming at one point that he was biased against their client.

'On notice'

Afterwards, lead attorney Donna Rotunno suggested the intense media coverage of the trial had meant the judge "probably felt a type of pressure" to send a message

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr thanked the court for putting "sexual predators on notice" and praised his accusers "indescribable courage" throughout the case.

"Their words took down a predator and put him behind bars, and gave hope to survivors of sexual violence all across the world," he said in a statement.

Outside court, celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents Sciorra and Haleyi, gleefully held up a sign that read "20 + 3 years," the sentences Weinstein received for each count.

Tarale Wulff, who testified that Weinstein raped her when she was a cocktail waitress, expressed joy that the sentence was more than she expected.

"For the first time I can say I feel a sense of happiness," Wulff told reporters.

Weinstein is expected to be incarcerated outside New York City. He will likely later be taken to Los Angeles where he faces other sex crimes charges.

Prince Andrew shuts door on cooperation in Epstein case

Yahoo – AFP, March 10, 2020

Despite publicly offering his assistance, Britain's Prince Andrew (pictured January 2020)
has repeatedly failed to cooperate with the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, a New York
prosecutor said (AFP Photo/Lindsey Parnaby)

New York (AFP) - Britain's Prince Andrew has "completely shut the door" on cooperating with the FBI in its investigation into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a US prosecutor said Monday.

Despite publicly offering his assistance, "Prince Andrew has now completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation," said New York attorney Geoffrey Berman, who had already accused the prince in late January of failing to cooperate.

Berman added that his office, which is known for having some of the most aggressive investigators in the US federal judiciary system, "is considering its options" on how to proceed, without offering further details.

Queen Elizabeth II's second son stepped back from frontline royal duties after he faced outrage over an interview with the BBC late last year in which he defended his friendship with Epstein.

Andrew, 59, also denied having sexual relations with Virginia Giuffre, who alleges she was trafficked to have sex with friends of Epstein when she was 17.

Epstein, 66, killed himself in a New York jail in August while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

He was a multi-millionaire hedge fund manager who befriended countless celebrities over the years, including US President Donald Trump.

Epstein was charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and another of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.

He denied the charges but was facing up to 45 years in jail if found guilty.

Saudi Arabia in royal purge over 'coup plot'

Yahoo – AFP, Anuj Chopra, March 7, 2020

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (R), Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (C)
and deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, pictured in late 2016 (AFP
Photo/BANDAR AL-JALOUD)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi authorities have detained three princes including King Salman's brother and nephew for allegedly plotting a coup, three sources told AFP Saturday, signalling the de facto ruler's tightening grip on power.

The detentions, which cast aside the last vestiges of potential opposition to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, come at a sensitive time as the petro-state grapples with plunging oil prices and limits access to Islam's holiest sites over fears of the new coronavirus.

Royal guards detained Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, a brother of King Salman, and the monarch's nephew Prince Mohammed bin Nayef on Friday after they were accused of plotting a palace coup aimed at unseating the crown prince -- heir to the Saudi throne -- an Arab official and a Western official told AFP.

Prince Nayef's younger brother, Prince Nawaf bin Nayef, was also detained, they added.

A number of military and interior ministry officials accused of supporting the coup plot had also been rounded up, the Western official said, citing Saudi government sources.

"With this purge, no rivals remain to stop the crown prince's succession to the throne," he said.

The detentions raised speculation about the health of the 84-year-old king and whether the crown prince's succession to the Arab world's most powerful throne was imminent.

But another source close to the Saudi leadership told AFP the "king is healthy and fine" and the detentions were meant to enforce "discipline" within the royal family.

The crown prince is "in control" and the purge was carried out "after an accumulation of negative behaviour by the two princes", this source added without elaborating.

The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report the detentions, said Prince Ahmed and Prince Nayef -- once potential contenders for the throne -- could face lifetime imprisonment or execution.

It was unclear where they were being held.

The detentions mark the latest crackdown by Prince Mohammed, the king's son who has consolidated his grip on power with the imprisonment of prominent clerics and activists as well as princes and businessmen.

Already viewed as the defacto ruler controlling all the major levers of government, from defence to the economy, the prince is widely seen to be stamping out traces of internal dissent before a formal transfer of power from his father King Salman.

Prince Mohammed has faced a torrent of international condemnation over the murder of critic Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in October 2018.

"Prince Mohammed is emboldened -- he has already ousted any threats to his rise and jailed or murdered critics of his regime without any repercussion," said Becca Wasser, a policy analyst at the US-based RAND Corporation.

"This is a further step to shore up his power and a message to anyone -- including royals -- not to cross him."

'Disgruntled princes'

The detentions come as Saudi Arabia grapples with a coronavirus-led slump in oil prices just as the kingdom was seeking to raise funds to finance Prince Mohammed's ambitious Vision 2030 reform programme.

The kingdom has suspended the "umrah" year-round pilgrimage over fears of the disease spreading to Mecca and Medina, raising uncertainty over the upcoming hajj. The pilgrimages are a key source of revenue.

"The arrest of several senior disgruntled princes... reflects a growing discontent with the 'Son King' over his despicable hegemony and erratic social, economic, foreign and religious policies," said Madawi al-Rasheed, a London-based Saudi academic.

Prince Mohammed had edged out Prince Nayef, the former crown prince and interior minister, in 2017 to become heir to the throne.

At the time, Saudi television channels showed Prince Mohammed kissing the hand of the older prince and kneeling before him in a show of reverence.

Western media reports later said that Prince Nayef had been placed under house arrest, a claim denied by Saudi authorities.

Prince Ahmed, said to be in his 70s, was reportedly keeping a low profile after he returned to the kingdom from his base in London.

Just before his return in October 2018, the prince had courted controversy over remarks he made to protesters in London chanting against Saudi royals over the kingdom's military involvement in the ongoing conflict in Yemen.

"What does the family have to do with it? Certain individuals are responsible... the king and the crown prince," he said, according to an online video of the incident.

The comment was seen by many as rare criticism of the kingdom's leaders, but Prince Ahmed had dismissed that interpretation as "inaccurate".

Saudi Arabia released images of King Salman carrying out his royal duties on Sunday, after a stunning purge of at least three princes including his brother and nephew for allegedly plotting a coup. https://t.co/kqi3opHHAD

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 8, 2020

Dubai ruler ordered abduction of daughters: UK judge

Yahoo – AFP, Phil HAZLEWOOD, March 5, 2020

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, 70, applied to the UK's highest court to
block the publication of two judgments in the case against his wife (AFP Photo/
KARIM SAHIB)

London (AFP) - Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum ordered the abduction of two of his daughters and subjected his former wife to a "campaign of fear and intimidation", forcing her to flee to London with their two children, according to a British court ruling made public on Thursday.

Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, 45, fled the United Arab Emirates last April having become "terrified" of her husband, who is also the vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

Soon afterwards, the 70-year-old sheikh applied for their two children -- a son aged eight and a 12-year-old daughter -- to be returned to the Gulf kingdom.

But Princess Haya, a half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah II, applied for the children to be made wards of court and filed a non-molestation order for herself.

She asked during a London hearing for a judge to make findings of fact about the kidnapping and forced detention of two of the sheikh's adult daughters from a previous marriage.

She also alleged she had faced a "campaign of fear and intimidation" since she left last year.

Seized and detained

Sheikh Mohammed, who owns the Godolphin horse racing stable, tried to prevent two of the court rulings being made public.

But the Supreme Court rejected his application on Thursday morning, allowing them to be published.

Judge Andrew McFarlane, who heads the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales, found Sheikh Mohammed "ordered and orchestrated" the abduction of Sheikha Shamsa from the UK city of Cambridge when she was 19 in August 2000.

She was forcibly returned to Dubai and "has been deprived of her liberty for much, if not all, of the past two decades", he said.

He also found Shamsa's sister, Latifa, 35, was seized and returned to Dubai twice, in 2002 and again in 2018.

She was held "on the instructions of her father" for more than three years after the first attempted escape. Her second made global headlines in March 2018.

Claims by a friend of Latifa who helped her escape that Indian special forces boarded a boat off the Indian coast on March 4, 2018 before she was returned to Dubai were also found to be proven.

"She was pleading for the soldiers to kill her rather than face the prospect of going back to her family in Dubai," McFarlane said.

"Drawing these matters together I conclude, on the balance of probability, that Latifa's account of her motives for wishing to leave Dubai represents the truth.

"She was plainly desperate to extricate herself from her family and prepared to undertake a dangerous mission in order to do so."

Secret divorce

Lawyer Charles Geekie, representing Princess Haya, said at a hearing last November that his client had been left anonymous notes threatening the lives of her son and daughter.

She also told the court of "deliberate threats" and even of a helicopter landing outside her house when the pilot told her he had come to take a passenger to a desert prison.

The court was also told the sheikh divorced Princess Haya without her knowledge on February 7, 2019 -- the 20th anniversary of the death of her father king Hussein of Jordan.

Judge McFarlane said it was "clear the date will have been chosen... to maximise insult and upset to her".

He agreed with Geekie that events since 2000 showed "a number of common themes, at the core of which is the use of the state and its apparatus to threaten, intimidate, mistreat and oppress with a total disregard for the rule of law".

"I also accept Mr Geekie's submission that these findings, taken together, demonstrate a consistent course of conduct over two decades where, if he deems it necessary to do so, the father will use the very substantial powers at his disposal to achieve his particular aims."

- One-sided -

In a statement after the publication of the rulings, Sheikh Mohammed strongly denied the claims and said the case involved "highly personal and private matters relating to our children".

He said he appealed to the Supreme Court "to protect the best interests and welfare of the children".

"The outcome does not protect my children from media attention in the way that other children in family proceedings in the UK are protected," he said, calling the process one-sided.

"As a head of government, I was not able to participate in the court's fact-finding process."

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Princess Haya, who is battling her husband, Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, in a UK court, is the third princess who has sought to escape the Gulf emirate in recent years https://t.co/u2kIiH02Kc pic.twitter.com/Pbf5LGygPD

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 31, 2019