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August
India to start COVID mix-and-match booster vaccines on Friday
Written by Nur Yasmin
India said on Wednesday that Biological E's COVID-19 vaccine Corbevax can be administered as a booster dose in people who have taken the country's other two main shots, Covaxin and AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) Covishield, from Friday.
Corbevax will be available to over 18s as precautionary booster six months after a second dose, the health ministry said in an Aug. 8 letter to state authorities and shared with reporters on Wednesday.
Covishield is produced for the Indian market by the Serum Institute of India under licence from AstraZeneca, while Bharat Biotech makes Covaxin.
India has so far administered more than 2 billion COVID vaccine shots, including 113 million boosters, all of which have so far been of the same vaccine as the recipient's first two doses. The government says about 89% of Indians above the age of 12 have had two doses.
The country of nearly 1.4 billion people has documented more than 44 million coronavirus infections and 526,826 related deaths. The actual numbers are believed to be many times higher. (Reuters)
August
Taiwan rejects China's 'one country, two systems' plan for the island
Written by Nur Yasmin
Taiwan rejects the "one country, two systems" model proposed by Beijing in a white paper published this week, the self-ruled island's foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Only Taiwan's people can decide its future, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou told a news conference in Taipei, the capital.
China was using U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei as an "excuse to create a new normality to intimidate Taiwan's people," Ou added. (Reuters)
August
South Korea, China clash over U.S. missile shield, complicating conciliation
Written by Nur Yasmin
China and South Korea clashed on Thursday over a U.S. missile defence shield, threatening to undermine efforts by the new government in Seoul to overcome longstanding security differences.
The disagreement over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system installed in South Korea emerged after an apparently smooth first visit to China by South Korea's foreign minister this week.
China, contending that the THAAD's powerful radar could peer into its airspace, curbed trade and cultural imports after Seoul announced its deployment in 2016, dealing a major blow to relations.
A senior official in South Korea's presidential office told reporters on Thursday that THAAD is a means of self-defence and can never be subject to negotiations, after China demanded that South Korea not deploy any more batteries and limit the use of existing ones.
President Yoon Suk-yeol, seeing the system as key to countering North Korean missiles, has vowed to abandon the previous government's promises not to increase THAAD deployments, and not to participate in a U.S.-led global missile shield or create a trilateral military alliance involving Japan.
A Wang spokesman said on Wednesday the two had "agreed to take each other's legitimate concerns seriously and continue to prudently handle and properly manage this issue to make sure it does not become a stumbling block to the sound and steady growth of bilateral relations".
The Chinese spokesman told a briefing the THAAD deployment in South Korea "undermines China's strategic security interest".
Park, however, told Wang that Seoul would not abide by the 2017 agreement, called the "Three Nos", as it is not a formal pledge or agreement, South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.
China also insists that South Korea abide by "one restriction" - limiting the use of existing THAAD batteries. South Korea has never acknowledged that element, but on Wednesday, Wang's spokesman emphasised that China attaches importance to the position of "three Nos and one restriction".
Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup said the policy on the THAAD would not change because of China's opposition, and the system's radar could not be used against China.
"The current battery is not structured to play any role in U.S. defences but placed in a location where it can only defend the Korean peninsula," he told reporters.
During Park's visit to the eastern port city of Qingdao, the Chinese Communist Party-owned Global Times praised Yoon for showing "independent diplomacy and rationality toward China" by not meeting face to face with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she visited last week.
But the newspaper warned that the THAAD issue was "a major hidden danger that cannot be avoided in China-South Korea ties". (Reuters)
August
Japan PM Kishida and WHO chief agree on new WHO affiliate in Japan -Kyodo news agency
Written by Nur Yasmin
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed to establish a new Japan-based affiliate of the WHO, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Thursday.
They are hoping to have the new organisation set up in time for the G7 Hiroshima summit scheduled for May 2023, the report added, citing multiple unnamed foreign ministry sources.
The new organisation would aim to achieve universal health coverage, as well as work to strengthen the medical systems of developing countries and create an international framework to help prevent the spread of infections, Kyodo said. (Reuters)
August
Taiwan president: China military threat has not decreased
Written by Nur Yasmin
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Thursday that at present the Chinese military threat has not decreased and while Taiwan will not escalate conflicts or provoke disputes, it will firmly defend its sovereignty and national security. (Reuters)
August
Sri Lanka's ousted president to seek temporary stay in Thailand
Written by Nur Yasmin
Sri Lanka's former president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has left Singapore, the island-state's immigration authority said in a statement on Thursday while a local media outlet reported that he is traveling to Thailand by plane.
The Straits Times reported that Rajapaksa boarded a flight from Singapore to Bangkok on Thursday evening after the country's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said in a statement that he had left Singapore.
Rajapaksa is expected to stay temporarily in Thailand, a second Southeast Asian country since he fled Sri Lanka for Singapore on July 14 and resigned from office shortly afterwards, following unprecedented unrest over his government's handling of the worst economic crisis in seven decades, and days after thousands of protesters stormed the president's official residence and office.
The former military officer, who is the first Sri Lankan head of state to quit mid-term, is expected to travel from Singapore to Thailand's capital of Bangkok on Thursday, two sources said. It was unclear what time he would arrive.
Thai authorities said Rajapaksa had no intention of seeking political asylum and would only stay temporarily.
"This is a humanitarian issue and there is an agreement that it's a temporary stay," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters on Wednesday.
Prayuth also said Rajapaksa could not participate in any political activities while in Thailand.
Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said the current Sri Lankan government supported Rajapaksa's trip to Thailand, adding that the former president's diplomatic passport would allow him to stay for 90 days.
Rajapaksa has made no public appearances or comment since leaving Sri Lanka, and Reuters was not able to immediately contact him.
Sri Lanka's economic crisis is a result of several factors including COVID-19, which battered its tourism-reliant economy and slashed remittances from workers overseas, rising oil prices, populist tax cuts and a seven-month ban on the import of chemical fertilisers last year that devastated agriculture. (Reuters)
August
Sweden agrees to extradite man to Turkey in wake of NATO deal
Written by Nur Yasmin
Sweden's government has decided to extradite a man to Turkey wanted for fraud, it said on Thursday, the first case since Turkey demanded a number of people extradited in return for allowing Stockholm to formally apply for NATO membership.
NATO ally Turkey lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden's bid to join the Western alliance in June after weeks of tense negotiations where Ankara accused the two Nordic countries of harbouring what Turkey says are militants of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
As part of the deal, Turkey submitted a list of people it wanted Sweden to extradite, but has since expressed frustration over the lack of progress.
The man, in his 30s, would be the first known case of an extradition to Turkey since the deal was struck.
"This is a normal routine matter. The person in question is a Turkish citizen and convicted of fraud offences in Turkey in 2013 and 2016," Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson told Reuters in a text message.
"The Supreme Court has examined the issue as usual and concluded that there are no obstacles to extradition," he said.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice declined to say if the man was on the list of people Turkey has demanded to have extradited or to provide further comment on the matter.
Swedish broadcaster SVT, which was first to report on the extradition, said the man was sentenced in Turkey to 14 years in prison on several accounts of bank card fraud.
The man, detained in Sweden since last year, says he has been wrongfully sentenced because he is a convert to Christianity, refused to do military service and has Kurdish roots, SVT said. (Reuters)
August
Armed man demanding frozen deposits takes hostages at Lebanese commercial bank
Written by Nur Yasmin
An armed man demanding deposits frozen by his bank took five branch employees and one customer hostage on Thursday at the Federal Bank of Lebanon, branch manager Hassan Halawi, who is among those being held, told Reuters.
"I'm in my office. He (the hostage taker) gets agitated then calms down then gets agitated again," Halawi said by phone.
The man entered the Federal Bank of Lebanon branch in the Hamra neighbourhood in west Beirut just before noon on Thursday armed with a firearm, the security source told Reuters.
"He demanded access to around $200,000 he had in his bank account. When the employee refused the request, he began screaming that his relatives were in the hospital. Then he pulled out the gun," the source said.
Some bank customers managed to flee before he shut the doors on the rest, said the source.
At least one elderly man was released from the bank because of his age and government negotiators were deployed to begin talks with the hostage taker, the interior ministry said.
Lebanese media station Al-Jadeed said at least two shots had been fired. The Lebanese Red Cross told Reuters that they had deployed an ambulance to the scene.
A Reuters witness could see a bearded man in a black shirt behind the gated entrance to the bank speaking to several men in plainclothes on the outside.
"Let them give me back my money!" he was heard telling them.
A crowd gathered outside the bank, many of them chanting, "Down with the rule of the banks!"
One man in a striped shirt and baseball cap yelled, "We are depositors and we want our money! We are with him, we're even ready to help him!"
Lebanese banks have limited withdrawals of hard currency for most depositors during the country's three-year financial meltdown, which has left more than three-quarters of the population struggling.
Hassan Mughnieh, the head of Lebanon's Depositors Association, told Reuters that he had been in touch with the hostage-taker and had relayed his demands to the bank's leadership and top Lebanese officials.
"He wants to live, he wants to pay his electricity bill, feed his kids and treat his father in the hospital," said Mughnieh, who was standing with the crowd outside the bank.
Since Lebanon's financial crisis took hold in 2019, many commercial banks have frozen clients out of their hard currency through informal capital controls.
They cap monthly cash withdrawals in U.S. dollars and allow other limited amounts to be withdrawn in Lebanese pounds at a rate much lower than the parallel market rate - resulting in a significant cut in the original value of the deposits.
Banks say they make exceptions for humanitarian cases including hospital care but depositors and their representatives have told Reuters that those exemptions are rarely implemented.
"After three years of neglect, if you want people to take their rights into their own hands, you have to bear the consequences of your actions," said Mughnieh. "He will not hand over his weapon until he gets his deposits." (Reuters)
August
First Ukraine grain deal ship docks in Turkey after Lebanese buyer refused delivery
Written by Nur Yasmin
The first grain ship to depart from Ukraine under a U.N.-brokered deal docked in Turkey on Thursday after 11 days at sea, Refinitiv data showed, and the ship's agent in Turkey said it would continue to Egypt after unloading part of its cargo.
The Razoni set sail from Ukraine's Odesa port on Aug. 1 under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey between Russia and Ukraine. Eleven other ships have left since then.
While the Razoni was initially headed to Lebanon's Tripoli, Ukraine's embassy in the country said the buyer had refused delivery due to a five-month delay and the ship was looking for a new customer.
The ship, which had since been at anchor off Turkey's southern coast, entered the port in Mersin Thursday afternoon, Refinitiv ship tracker data showed.
Kadir Soyer, agency director at Mersin-based shipping agent Toros, said the ship would offload 1,500 tonnes of corn in Turkey and later continue to Egypt with the rest of its 26,527-tonne load.
"1,500 tonnes will be offloaded in Mersin and the rest will go to Egypt," he told Reuters via phone.
Toros was only handling the docking and offloading in Turkey and would not be involved in the ship's trip to Egypt, he said. (Reuters)
August
Japan keeps finance minister, foreign minister in new cabinet line-up
Written by Nur Yasmin
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has confirmed the line-up of his new cabinet, with Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki remaining in his post, a government spokesman said on Wednesday.
Chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Yoshimasa Hayashi would also keep his post as foreign minister, while the defence minister post would go to Yasukazu Hamada. (Reuters)