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International News (6891)

25
March

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Jakarta. AstraZeneca said on Thursday its COVID-19 vaccine was 76% effective at preventing symptomatic illness, citing a new analysis of up-to-date results for its major U.S. trial.

U.S. health officials earlier in the week publicly rebuked the drugmaker for using “outdated information” when calculating that the vaccine was 79% effective.

That marked a new setback for the vaccine that was once hailed as a milestone in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, but has been dogged by questions over its effectiveness and possible side-effects.

AstraZeneca reiterated on Thursday that the shot, developed with Oxford University, was 100% effective against severe or critical forms of the disease.

 

It also said the vaccine showed 86% efficacy in adults 65 years and older.

The latest trial data, which has yet to be reviewed by independent researchers or regulators, was based on 190 infections and 32,449 participants in the United States, Chile and Peru. The earlier interim data was based on 141 infections through Feb. 17.

The updated 76% efficacy rate compares with rates of about 95% for vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

 

The AstraZeneca vaccine is, however, seen as crucial in tackling the spread of COVID-19 across the globe, not just due to limited vaccine supply but also because it is easier and cheaper to transport than rival shots. It has been granted conditional marketing or emergency use authorization in more than 70 countries.

The shot has faced questions since late last year when the drugmaker and Oxford University published data from an earlier trial with two different efficacy readings as a result of a dosing error.

Then this month, more than a dozen countries temporarily suspended giving out the vaccine after reports linked it to a rare blood clotting disorder in a very small number of people.

The European Union’s drug regulator said last week the vaccine was clearly safe, but Europeans remain sceptical about its safety. (Reuters)

25
March

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Jakarta. North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the sea near Japan on Thursday, Japan’s prime minister said, fuelling tensions ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and ramping up pressure on the new Biden administration in Washington.

North Korea’s ballistic missiles are banned under United Nations Security Council Resolutions, and if the launch is confirmed it would represent a new challenge to President Joe Biden’s efforts to engage with Pyongyang, which have so far been rebuffed.

The Japanese government said the missiles flew about 450 km (280 miles) and landed outside the Japanese exclusive economic zone.

“The first launch in just less than a year represents a threat to peace and stability in Japan and the region and violates U.N. resolutions,” Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in comments aired by public broadcaster NHK.

Japan is due to host its delayed and pandemic-affected Olympic Games in less than four months.

Suga said he would ensure a safe and secure Olympics and “thoroughly discuss” North Korea issues including the launches with Biden during his visit to Washington next month.

 

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier reported at least two “unidentified projectiles” were fired into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan from North Korea’s South Hamgyong Province on the east coast.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies were analysing the data of the launch for additional information, the JCS said in a statement.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House will convene an emergency meeting of the national security council to discuss the launches.

U.S. officials confirmed North Korea carried out a new projectile launch, without offering details on the number or kind of projectile detected.

Japan’s coast guard warned ships against coming close to any fallen objects and asked them to provide information to the coast guard.

 

 

‘STEP UP’

Over the weekend North Korea fired two short-range cruise missiles, U.S. and South Korean officials said, but Biden played down the those tests as “business as usual” and officials in Washington said they were still open to dialogue with Pyongyang.

Even short-range ballistic missile tests would be a “step up” from the weekend test, and allow North Korea to improve its technology, send a proportionate response to U.S.-South Korea military drills, and signal to the United States that it is improving its arsenal, said Vipin Narang, a nuclear affairs expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.

The test launches should not torpedo diplomatic efforts, but they are a reminder of the cost of the failure to secure a deal with Pyongyang, he said.

“Every day that passes without a deal that tries to reduce the risks posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile arsenal is a day that it gets bigger and badder,” Narang said.

 

Biden’s diplomatic overtures to North Korea have gone unanswered, and Pyongyang said it would not engage until Washington dropped hostile policies, including carrying out military drills with South Korea.

The U.S. administration’s North Korea policy review is in its “final stages” and would host the national security advisers of allies Japan and South Korea next week to discuss that, senior U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear and missile programs throughout 2020 in violation of U.N. sanctions dating back to 2006, helping fund them with about $300 million stolen through cyber hacks, according to independent U.N. sanctions monitors.

North Korea has not tested a nuclear weapon or its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) since 2017.

In early 2018 North Korea announced a moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and ICBMs, though it says it no longer feels bound by that.

It has tested a number of new short-range missiles that can threaten South Korea and the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there, most recently in March 2020. (Reuters)

24
March

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Jakarta. The European Union shouldn’t be the “useful idiot” of the COVID-19 pandemic by exporting vaccines while other countries keep supplies for themselves, a French official said on Wednesday, backing plans for tougher rules on vaccine exports.

“Europe shouldn’t be a sort of useful idiot in the battle against the virus,” the French presidential adviser told reporters ahead of a virtual EU summit on Thursday.

 

The European Commission will extend EU powers to potentially block COVID-19 vaccine exports to Britain and other areas with much higher vaccination rates, and to cover instances of companies backloading contracted supplies, EU officials have said.

The regulation is aimed at making vaccine trade reciprocal and proportional so that other vaccine-making countries sell to Europe and the EU does not export much more than it imports, one EU official said.

 

France will support this updated EU system, the French official said. “We have exported a lot (of vaccines), we’ve played by the rules. The same can’t be said about some of our partners,” he said.

The EU had no interest in entering some sort of “blame game” with Britain on vaccine exports, the official said, adding EU politicians had nothing to gain from the row in the eyes of their own public opinion.

“As far as we’re concerned, we have no willingness, no interest in fuelling permanent controversy with Britain.” (Reuters)

24
March

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Jakarta. India has detected a “double mutant variant” of the novel coronavirus in 206 samples in the worst-hit western state of Maharashtra, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

The new variant was also detected in nine samples in the capital New Delhi, the director of the National Centre for Disease Control, Sujeet Kumar Singh, told a news conference. (Reuters)

24
March

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Jakarta. China’s embassy in the Philippines has blamed “some external countries” for stoking tensions in the region, in remarks aimed at Japan after its ambassador stressed the need for peace and stability and in the South China Sea.

China was criticised by the Philippines and the United States this week after Manila said there were about 220 vessels likely manned by Chinese maritime militia anchored in disputed waters.

“Within our region tensions are rising because some external countries are bent on playing fusty geopolitical games,” the Chinese embassy said on Twitter.

“It is a pity that some Asian country, which has disputes in the East China Sea and is driven by the selfish aim to check China’s revitalisation, willingly stoops as a strategic vassal of the U.S.,” it said.

The comment was a direct response to a Twitter remark by Japan’s ambassador to the Philippines Koshikawa Kazuhiko, who on Tuesday said his country “opposes any action that heightens tensions” in the South China Sea, and supports international efforts to keep the waters peaceful and open.

China’s extensive territorial claims in the East and South China Seas have become a priority issue in an increasingly testy Sino-U.S. relationship and are a security concern for Japan.

The Philippines complained to China at the weekend about what it called the “swarming and threatening presence” of Chinese vessels at the Whitsun Reef.

China’s mission in the Philippines said those were fishing vessels sheltering from rough seas. It also criticised the United States for “fanning flames and provoking confrontation in the region”.

Philippine military chief Cirilito Sobejana on Wednesday said he had instructed the navy to deploy more boats “to increase our visibility and ensure the security and safety of our fishermen.”

Sobejana said China’s defence attache had met Philippine military representatives on Wednesday after being asked to explain the maritime militia, but he had yet to briefed on the meeting. (Reuters)

24
March

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Jakarta. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan received a letter of goodwill from his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Tuesday, a Pakistani senior Cabinet minister said, as relations thaw between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars and have shared a fractious relationship since the two gained independence in 1947, and in 2019 tensions rose dramatically as they sent combat planes into each other’s territory.

Asad Umar, a senior Pakistani minister, in a post on Twitter welcomed Modi’s letter, calling it a “message of goodwill”. He added that Khan had already expressed a desire for a peaceful South Asia.

The message from Modi arrived on Pakistan’s Republic Day, March 23, and follows a series of moves and statements signalling rapprochement. The two sides are holding talks on water sharing, with Pakistani officials in Delhi.

 

Last week, the chief of Pakistan’s influential army called on the two sides to bury the past.

Last month, the militaries of both countries released a rare joint statement announcing a ceasefire along a disputed border in Kashmir, having exchanged fire hundreds of times in recent months.

Neither country’s foreign office immediately responded to requests for comment on the letter.

 

Indian publication Times of India reported Modi’s letter citing the Press Trust of India news agency.

Quoting from the letter, Pakistani newspaper Dawn said Modi had written that, “India desires cordial relations with the people of Pakistan” and “for this, an environment of trust, devoid of terror and hostility, is imperative.”

Reuters was unable to independently verify the contents of the letter. (Reuters)

24
March

Jakarta. North Korea fired two short-range missiles over the weekend, said two U.S. officials on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence.

The launches, which were first reported by the Washington Post, came after North Korea declined to engage with repeated behind-the-scenes U.S. diplomatic overtures by President Joe Biden’s administration.

The Pentagon declined comment. (Reuters)

23
March

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Jakarta. Vietnam has approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use against COVID-19, its health ministry said, the second coronavirus shot to be approved in the Southeast Asian country after the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“The approval of Sputnik V vaccine was based on data about its safety, quality and efficiency,” the health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday on its website.

The ministry did not say when it expected doses of the vaccine to arrive.

 

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which promotes the vaccine, said in a statement on the Sputnik V website that it had now been approved for use in 56 countries with a combined population of over 1.5 billion people.

“Its approval in Vietnam, one of the most populated countries in Southeast Asia, will provide for protecting the people and getting closer to lifting the restrictions imposed because of coronavirus,” RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said.

Vietnam, with a population of 98 million, has been relying on the AstraZeneca vaccine so far and since launching vaccinations on March 8 more than 36,000 people have been inoculated.

 

The country is also in talks to buy vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson and is aiming to put its first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine in use in 2022.

The government has previously said it would acquire 150 million vaccine doses in total, both through direct purchases from producers and the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme.

The Southeast Asian country has been praised for its record in containing the virus through mass testing and tracing and strict quarantining, only recording 2,575 infections and 35 deaths. (Reuters)

23
March

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Jakarta. Malaysia’s exports of palm-based biodiesel are likely to fall this year to their lowest since 2017 due to European Union restrictions and the coronavirus pandemic, the Malaysian Biodiesel Association (MBA) said on Tuesday.

Exports from Malaysia are estimated to fall to 350,000 tonnes from 378,582 tonnes in 2020, MBA president U.R. Unnithan said at the Virtual Palm and Lauric Oils Price Outlook Conference.

The European Union accounts for nearly 80% of Malaysia and Indonesia’s exports of palm methyl ester (PME), the bio component of biodiesel that comes from palm oil.

Exports, however, have slowed since the bloc in 2019 moved to cap the use of palm oil for transport fuel at 2019 levels due to deforestation concerns, with an aim to phase out its use by 2030.

“(Malaysia’s) biodiesel exports are unlikely to best the performance seen in 2019 due to the EU Delegated RED II Act,” Unnithan told the conference.

 

MBA estimates the EU’s total consumption of palm biofuel in 2019 was 6.2 million tonnes. It said that actual exports this year will start at much lower levels because EU member states pushing for a no palm-biofuel agenda can set a lower limit.

Some member states will also phase out palm biodiesel before the 2030 deadline, Unnithan said.

Exports this year will be the lowest in four years due to the impact of the EU rule, a rising crude palm oil-gas oil spread and reduced usage of vehicles due to coronavirus containment measures, he added.

A recent rally in palm oil prices amid lower crude prices pushed the edible oil to trade $455 above gas oil on Tuesday, making it a less attractive option for biodiesel feedstock.

 

Crude prices have declined on concerns that new pandemic curbs and slow vaccine rollouts in Europe will hold back a recovery in fuel demand, which collapsed last year as a result of global lockdowns to curb COVID-19 outbreak. [O/R]

Malaysia’s benchmark crude palm oil prices are trading at an average of 3,638 ringgit ($883.01) per tonne so far this year, up 34% from an average price of 2,700 ringgit throughout 2020. (Reuters)

23
March

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Jakarta. U.N. human rights boss Michelle Bachelet was given a mandate on Tuesday to collect and preserve information and evidence of war crimes committed during Sri Lanka’s long civil war that ended in 2009.

The Human Rights Council adopted a resolution, brought by Britain on behalf of a core group of countries, strengthening her office’s capacity to investigate with a view to future prosecutions. The vote was 22 countries in favour, with 11 against, including China and Pakistan, and 14 abstentions including India. (Reuters)