USA – Are some Covid testing centers defrauding the federal government?

 A month-long investigation by DNT has revealed an apparent fraud in the free Covid testing by temporary centers as well as urgent care providers.

The investigation revealed that patients who provide insurance coverage for their test are more likely to receive result of their Covid test than patients who check the “uninsured” box.

The Biden administration has provided funding to accommodate testing for the uninsured so that ability to pay does not serve as a constrain to testing.

These testing centers consequently provide free testing even to the uninsured although patients who check the “insured” box on the form are required to provide their insurance card before testing can be administered.

In all the DNT correspondent submitted himself to a total of three antigen and three PCR Covid tests in and around Sugarland and Missouri City areas.  For two of the PRC tests and one antigen tests, insurance card was presented and the result came in as promised.

However, of the two antigen and one PCR tests where the uninsured box was checked on the form, only one of them returned result as promised.

Similar stories were also reported to our correspondent from contacts in Kansas City and Atlanta.

While acknowledging the difficulty in ascertaining actual fraud, it is noteworthy that centers who provide free Covid testing receive payments from the federal government for each test evidenced by a complted form by an identifiable patient.

“What else explains why a center would take samples for a test and fail to return the result when the patient’s telephone and email contacts have been provided,” asked a perplexed Rubin Nathan of Kansas City, Missuori.

While this investigation is far from comprehensive, there may be enough in here to warrant a further look to ensure that Covid testing centers are conducting results for tests for which the federal government pays on behalf of the uninsured.

DNT News, Texas

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Mark Hall murder appeal: ‘Unspeakable heartache’ caused to family

 A family have been left with “unspeakable heartache” after a man was murdered in west Belfast last month, police have said while renewing an appeal for information.

Mark Hall died in hospital after two gunmen fired at least seven shots, including some through the living room window of his home in Rodney Drive.

Police said it was was a “callous and targeted attack”.

The shooting happened on 18 December at about 16:30 GMT.

Mr Hall had been in the living room with a number of other family members, who narrowly avoided injury.

His sister was returning from a local shop when she saw the gunmen approaching the house.

IMAGE SOURCE,PACEMAKER

Image caption,

PSNI officers distributed leaflets as part of the appeal on Saturday evening

She tried to intervene before the shots were fired. As the gunmen made off, they fired a shot at her, which “passed through her handbag”.

“This tragic event took place five weeks ago, that’s one week before Christmas,” Det Ch Insp Neil McGuinness said.

“It has left Mark’s partner bereft and his young daughter without a father.

“The whole family are, understandably, struggling to come to terms with the shock and unspeakable heartache.”

‘Should have been a happy Christmas’

Det Ch Insp McGuinness said the “gunmen were absolutely reckless in firing shots into a room with other family members”.

“One life has been taken and, without doubt, others could easily have been lost too,” he added.

“I’m referring to Mark’s sister, to the other family members, and to local people.

“This happened in a busy residential area at a time when people would have been out and about, going about their business, and no doubt getting ready for what should have been a happy Christmas.

“This was a callous and targeted attack, which has left a whole community in shock.”

Det Ch Insp McGuinness said police believe “the two gunmen arrived in the St. James’ area in a silver saloon car which had a taxi sign affixed to its roof”.

“Both gunmen were wearing all dark clothing with coat hoods pulled over their faces,” he said.

“I am appealing to anyone who was in the Rodney Drive area and who witnessed any suspicious activity, or who may have captured dash cam footage, to contact us.”

Anyone with information can contact the police on 101; submit photos, videos or footage using the Major Incident Public Portal; or contact Crimestoppers anonymously.

Earlier this month, a 65-year-old man was arrested in connection with the attack. He was later released on bail pending further enquiries.

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Gun shots at several Burkina Faso barracks but military says no coup in the offing

 The government denies the army seized control of the country after exchanges of gunfire at multiple army barracks.

Burkina Faso’s government says the army has not seized control of the country after exchanges of gunfire took place at multiple army barracks, including two in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Heavy arms fire on Sunday at Sangoule Lamizana camp, which houses the army’s general staff and a prison whose inmates include soldiers involved in a failed 2015 coup attempt, began as early as 5am (05:00 GMT), a Reuters news agency reporter said.

The reporter later saw soldiers firing into the air in the camp. A witness also reported gunfire at a military camp in Kaya, about 100km (62 miles) north of Ouagadougou. Shots were heard at another military camp, Baby Sy, in the south of the capital, and at an airbase near the airport, military sources said.

Burkina Faso’s government confirmed gunfire at some military camps but denied reports on social media that the army had seized power.

Speaking on national television on Sunday, Defence Minister General Bathelemy Simpore denied rumours that President Roch Marc Kabore had been detained, adding the motive behind the gunfire was still unclear.

“The head of state has not been detained; no institution of the country has been threatened,” Simpore said. “For now, we don’t know their motives or what they are demanding. We are trying to get in contact with them,” he said, adding that calm had returned to some of the barracks.

The gunfire came a day after clashes between police and demonstrators during protests against the authorities’ failure to stem violence ravaging the West African country.

It also follows the arrest earlier this month of numerous soldie

Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar, Senegal, said a general leading the mutiny in one barracks presented six demands to the government on Sunday.

“One is hiring more troops to fight on the front lines against groups linked to ISIL [and] al-Qaeda,” he said.

“They also demand better care for the wounded and the families of those who lost their loved ones as well as better wages, training and forming of permanent battalions to deal with threats,” Haque said.

“[The mutineers’ demands] fall short of asking President Kabore to resign, but in their latest statement they say that if their demands are not met, then they will ask for Kabore to step down. They feel that his leadership has not led to a safer Burkina Faso, but a country that has seen an increase in attacks,” Haque added.

rs over a suspected plot to “destabilise institutions” in the country, which has a long history of coups.

He said an uneasy calm punctuated by ongoing gunfire had been reported as of Sunday afternoon but that the internet had been cut across the country.

Alex Vines, director of the Africa programme at Chatham House, told Al Jazeera that a “mutiny that has ingredients of a coup is exactly the way to look at this”.

“We are now talking about a region which is seeing a swing back in favour of coups,” he said, after an attempted coup in Niger and successful coups in Mali and Guinea in recent years.

“We have had five successful or attempted coups [in the region] if you count them all together this decade, so Burkina Faso is fitting into that pattern.”

Mounting attacks

Police fired tear gas to disperse nearly 300 people who had gathered in downtown Ouagadougou on Sunday morning to show their support for the military, a Reuters reporter said.

On Saturday, police had used tear gas to disperse protesters in rallies across the country, arresting dozens. The authorities earlier in the week said they were banning the protests for security reasons.

Security sources reported that two soldiers were killed after their vehicle drove over a crude bomb in the north on Saturday.

In Kaya, residents told the AFP news agency that protesters had stormed the governing party headquarters.

Groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) have plagued the landlocked Sahel nation since 2015, killing hundreds.

Attacks on civilians and soldiers have become increasingly frequent – and are largely concentrated in the country’s north and east.

The violence led by armed groups in recent years has forced approximately 1.5 million people to flee their homes, the national emergency agency says, and many have settled in the region around Kaya.

Al Jazeera’s Haque said the anger towards the president among the sections of the military has reportedly been building for months.

“In November, there was an attack in the north of the country in Inata, where 20 soldiers were killed. There was a national outcry when it turned out that those soldiers had gone two weeks without food rations and had to hunt for food,” he said. “That’s when they were attacked by groups linked to al-Qaeda.”

On November 27, hundreds demonstrated against the failure of President Kabore to quell the violence, sparking clashes with security forces that wounded dozens.

Among the soldiers arrested this month over the plot to “destabilise institutions” was Lieutenant-Colonel Emmanuel Zoungrana, who had been commanding operations against armed groups in the country’s badly hit western region.

Vines said it was significant that while the head of the military has appeared on television, the president has not.

“It is very telling that President Kabore hasn’t been visible at the moment. It’s also very telling that this mutiny seems to have started in a military base where there is also a prison where some of the key military [figures] that were involved in the 2015 coup attempt are incarcerated.”

“This is a real reminder of the fragility of events in Burkina Faso at the moment, and also comes at a time when western support for the region is being reduced.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Young officer slain in Harlem joined to help ‘chaotic city’

 NEW YORK (AP) — The 22-year-old New York City police officer who was shot to death while responding to a call in a Harlem apartment came from an immigrant family and grew up in a community with strained police relations, but joined the force to make a difference in the “chaotic city,” he once wrote.

“I know that something as small as helping a tourist with directions, or helping a couple resolve an issue, will put a smile on someone’s face,” Jason Rivera wrote to his commanding officer in 2020 when he was a probationary police officer.

Rivera and Officer Wilbert Mora were shot Friday night while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son. Mora, 27, suffered a serious head wound, police said.

The medical examiner ruled Rivera’s death a homicide on Saturday after an autopsy found he died from gunshot wounds to the head and torso.

Mora was still “fighting for his life” on Saturday, said Mayor Eric Adams. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, visited Mora and his family in the hospital and gave the wounded officer a blessing, according to a spokesman the archdiocese.

The man police say shot them, Lashawn J. McNeil, 47, also was critically wounded and hospitalized, authorities said. Police declined to comment later Saturday about the conditions of Mora and McNeil.

The shooting is the latest in a string of crimes that have unnerved the nation’s largest city.

In the three weeks since Adams took office, a 19-year-old cashier was shot to death as she worked a late-night shift at a Burger King, a woman was pushed to her death in a subway station, and a baby was critically injured when she was hit by a stray bullet as she sat in a parked car with her mother. With the Harlem shooting Friday night, four police officers had been shot in as many days.

And the city is recovering from its deadliest fire in three decades, a Bronx apartment blaze that killed 17 people.

“It’s hard to believe, but it’s only been three weeks, and it has been nonstop since then,” Adams told residents at a gun violence roundtable Saturday. “But I want you to know in a very clear way that I am more energized. I’m not tired. I’m not stressed out.”

Rivera joined the force in November 2020.

Growing up in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood, he noticed tensions with police, according to a brief essay titled “Why I Became a Police Officer,” a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

“I remember one day when I witnessed my brother being stopped and frisked. I asked myself, why are we being pulled over if we are in a taxi?” he wrote. “My perspective on police and the way they police really bothered me.”

But eventually he noticed the department working to improve relationships, and he wanted to be involved.

“I realized how impactful my role as a police officer would go in this chaotic city,” he wrote.

Anti-domestic violence advocate Stephanie McGraw, who knew Rivera through her work with the precinct, said he was energetic and enthusiastic.

“He was so eager to make a difference in this community,” said McGraw, founder of We All Really Matter.

Mora is similarly devoted to the community, she said.

Police said the gun used in Friday night’s shooting, a .45-caliber Glock with a high-capacity magazine capable of holding up to 40 extra rounds, had been stolen in Baltimore in 2017.

Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul both said federal authorities need to do more to round up stolen guns like the one used in the Harlem shooting. Hochul, at an appearance in Buffalo on Saturday, called it a “scourge of illegal guns on our streets.”

“We’re removing thousands of guns off the street,” Adams told reporters Saturday. “But there’s an endless flow that continues to come through our city borders.”

Adams said a woman who made an emergency call Friday said she was ill and that her son who had come up to take care of her had become “problematic.” Adams said the woman did not specify the problem.

Authorities said three officers went to the apartment after the call came in. The officers spoke with the woman and another son, but there was no mention of a weapon, police said.

After Rivera and Mora walked from the front of the apartment down a narrow hallway to check on McNeil, he swung open a bedroom door and began shooting, police said. Both officers were gunned down before they could pull their weapons and defend themselves, police said.

As McNeil tried to flee, a third officer who had stayed with McNeil’s mother in the front of the apartment shot at McNeil and wounded him in the head and arm, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said.

“This was just not an attack on these brave officers,” Adams said Friday night. “This was an attack on the city of New York.”

Mora has been with the NYPD for four years.

McNeil was on probation for a 2003 drug conviction in New York City. He also had several out-of-state arrests. In 1998, he was arrested in South Carolina on suspicion of unlawfully carrying a pistol, but records show the matter was later dismissed. In 2002, he was arrested in Pennsylvania on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, Essig said.

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Associated Press writers Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Kathleen Foody in Chicago contributed to this report.

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NIght club fire in Cameroon’s capital claims 16 lives

At least 16 people were killed after a fire tore through a nightclub in Cameroon’s capital city Yaoundé early on Sunday morning, according to the country’s government.

Eight other people were seriously wounded in the fire at the Liv Nightclub, according to the government’s statement. During a press conference held at the scene of the fire, the director of the Yaoundé Central Hospital said several people in critical condition were transferred to the hospital.

Policemen stand guard at the entrance of the night-club in the Bastos district of Yaounde, on January 23, 2022.

The Cameroonian Ministry of Communication said the ceiling at the nightclub caught fire from fireworks explosions.

The fire later caused two strong explosions that sparked panic among those in the venue, according to the statement.

President Paul Biya has ordered an in-depth investigation into the incident and sent his condolences to the victims’ families.

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British fans slam Vogue cover featuring nine black models

 The cover of British Vogue’s February issue featuring nine black models has been branded ‘offensive’ on social media as critics claim bad lighting and poor styling hid the women’s features and made their skin blacker to cater to the ‘white gaze’.

It marks the first time Vogue has featured a group of black women this size on the cover, for an issue celebrating the rise of African models, and was photographed by Brazilian photographer Rafael Pavarotti, who has previously shot black models in the same fashion, making their skin look ultra-dark.

Starring models Adut Akech, Amar Akway, Majesty Amare, Akon Changkou, Maty Fall, Janet Jumbo, Abény Nhial, Nyagua Ruea and Anok Yai, the cover was styled by British Vogue’s Editor-In-Chief Edward Enninful OBE.

Mr Enninful was appointed editor of British Vogue in 2017, taking over from Alexandra Shulman, after the publication was criticised for a lack of diversity, and promptly assembled a woke squad of 15 women to bring diversity into editions across Europe.

However, this latest imagery has been met with furious backlash online, with dozens of fans saying the ‘badly lit’ image appeared to darken the models, who have a range of skin tones, to a point where they were unrecognisable and look like ‘mannequins’.

A behind-the-scenes video of the shoot featuring the models having their hair and make-up done shows the diversity of their skin tones, sugesting that it was the ligthing rather than cosmetics that made them look so different.

One critic commented: ‘British Vogue? So…they gathered all of these beautiful women and decided not to use lighting properly? One can’t even identify who is who! And the wigs? Those women have very beautiful fascinating dark skins, so why DARKEN them like that?’

A fellow critic accused the Brazilian photographer of catering for the white gaze by ‘fetishising’ the models and exaggerating the models’ skin tones, saying: ‘You can be unapologetically black without caricature.’

Another critic of the cover commented: ‘Edward Enninful was foul for that Vogue cover. That lighting, wigs, outfits, errything was anti-black.

‘I don’t care, I don’t care. You took the most beautiful women on the planet and made sure we couldn’t see them on an issue about visibility? @BritishVogue, shaking my head.’

A fifth wrote that it was ‘honestly terrible’, while another added: ‘Look I am a fan of British Vogue since Mr Enninful became EIC but I’m honestly not sure why this cover is not well-lit and why the models are made to be mannequinn-esque and we lose their features and beauty.’

One commented: ‘Why are they blending in with the garments? Why not well lit and with colour that compliments their features?’

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However the cover reveal has been met with furious backlash online, with many accusing Vogue of ‘bad lighting’ and ‘darkening the skin’ of the models

‘Everything blends in,’ another wrote, ‘The hair the same colour as the skin. Crazy. I think this is the aesthetic they go for when shooting black skin though.

‘Not the first time I’ve seen this look from them.’

Others commented that they wished the styling had been different on the shoot, with one writing: ‘TBH I personally would have liked to see more colour here with the makeup/wardrobe – we all know melanin pops against brighter hues – and at least one person with their natural hair in this shot.

‘Also the lighting could use some work. But we’ll take this as a start.’

In one shot, the models sit on a green sofa wearing bright colours which pop against the low lighting, while in the cover shot all nine models wear all black outfits.

Explaining the inspiration behind shooting an all black, all African cover, Edward, who was born in Ghana and moved to west London as a child,  said: ‘I saw all these incredible models from across Africa who were just so vivacious and smart.

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