Live Streaming
Program Highlight
Company Profile
International News (6868)
March
Papua New Guinea faces coronavirus crisis as infections rise
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 15 - The Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is facing a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections around the capital Port Moresby, which neighbouring Australia and aid groups fear could overwhelm the country’s small and overstretched health system.
The Pacific Friends of Global Health warned if health services are overwhelmed by COVID-19 the treatment of malaria, HIV and tuberculosis would also collapse.
Half the COVID-19 tests from PNG processed by Australia have been positive, prompting calls for faster vaccine delivery.
“Out of the 500 tests that our health authorities have done for PNG, 250 have come back positive,” Australia’s Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters on Monday.
PNG’s Western Province lies within a few kilometres of Australia’s northern border, and Queensland laboratories are assisting to investigate the worsening outbreak.
Palaszczuk said Papua New Guinea was “on the doorstep” and she held real concern about the rising infection rate there.
Ninety-seven new cases were recorded on Sunday, bringing the total to 2,269 and 26 deaths, PNG Prime Minister James Marape said on Monday. Almost a quarter of those cases were recorded in the past week, a WHO tally shows. COVID infections have been recorded in 19 provinces
The latest outbreak is centred on the National Capital District in Port Moresby, where more than 1,000 cases have been recorded, and comes after the nation mourned the death of its first prime minister, Sir Michael Somare.
“We were already at this absolute crisis point for the country,” Brendan Crabb, chairman of the Pacific Friends of Global Health, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“Added to that is the Grand Chief Michael Somare’s commemorations over the past week, which if ever there was a super-spreading event in the middle of an already big epidemic, clearly that’s it.”
Somare will be buried on Tuesday. Marape told reporters an isolation strategy would be announced on Wednesday.
The national and supreme courts shut on Monday for two weeks after four court staff including two judges tested positive, the court registrar said in a website statement.
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is not planned to be rolled out until late April, through the COVAX initiative which has allocated one million doses to the Pacific.
“We need Papua New Guinea’s 5,000 or so health care workers vaccinated in the next week or two,” said Crabb.
Australia has pledged to spend $407 million for regional vaccine access covering nine Pacific Island countries. (Reuters)
March
Afghan peace talks should rotate among countries, envoy says amid stall
Written by Nur YasminMar. 15 - Afghan peace talks, now stalled in Qatar, should be rotated to other venues, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates said, indicating the Qatari hosts have not pushed hard enough for the Taliban to reduce violence.
Talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have been held in Qatar since last year, after the United States agreed to withdraw its troops. But violence has increased and the government accuses the militants of failing to meet obligations to reduce attacks.
Ambassador Javid Ahmad told Reuters peace talks should not be held in one fixed location, but rotate among venues in Europe, Asia, the Middle East or Afghanistan itself.
The Taliban, which opened an office in Qatar in 2013, were too “comfortable” there, he said. “We want the Taliban to get out of their comfort zone.”
“The Qataris could have used its role as a host to play a more active and decisive role in pushing the Taliban to reduce violence or declare a ceasefire,” Ahmad said.
“They have not properly used their leverage, as a host to the Taliban ..., to push the group’s leaders to declare a ceasefire or to visibly reduce violence.”
Qatar’s state communications office did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Qatar foreign ministry special envoy Mutlaq al-Qahtani told Reuters last month the Gulf state wanted to see a reduction in violence that could lead to continued peace and security.
Russia will hold a conference on Afghanistan this week, while Turkey hosts talks next month as the United States seeks to shake-up the process, proposing an interim administration.
Ahmad said Afghanistan’s “participatory government” had “the capacity to absorb the Taliban and ex-combatants” but added that the only way to achieve a transition of power was through elections.
The Taliban have said they are committed to the peace negotiations.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration signed a troop withdrawal deal with the Taliban in February 2020 under which all international forces were expected to leave the country by May 1.
However, violence has risen and NATO officials say some conditions of the deal, including the Taliban cutting ties with international militant groups, have not been met, which the Taliban disputes. (Reuters)
March
South Korean province orders COVID testing for foreigners, sparking complaints of xenophobia
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 15 - South Korea’s most populous province has ordered all of its foreign workers to be tested for COVID-19 by March 22, sparking complaints of long lines and logistical problems, as well as of implicit xenophobia in government messaging.
Last week, Gyeonggi province issued a sweeping administrative order mandating all international workers be tested after at least 275 foreigners tested positive, many in outbreaks at manufacturing plants.
The province says the order covers roughly 85,000 registered foreigners as well as an unknown number of potential undocumented workers, while those who don’t comply could face fines of up to 3 million won ($2,640).
Social media lit up with complaints from foreign residents: poor communication by the government, hours-long waits at testing centres where it was difficult to maintain distancing, and other challenges.
At one centre in the city of Ansan on Monday, hundreds of people were lined up in a queue that stretched for around 100 metres.
“I agree that everyone should get tested for COVID, but it is so exhausting to wait for hours,” Jin Dianshun, a 65-year-old restaurant worker from China who said she had been standing in line for four hours, after already having stood in line for hours on Saturday before being turned away.
“I am sure Koreans would have protested if this was done the same way for them.”
One health worker at the site, who asked not to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media, said the temporary centre usually handled about 100 people per day, but surged to an average of 1,400 people after the order.
“The problem is that already by 7 a.m. there can be more than 2,000 people waiting in line,” the worker said.
As of Sunday, 120,310 foreigners had been tested, with 120 testing positive, a provincial official told Reuters.
Derval Mambou, a car parts maker from Cameroon, said he welcomed the testing regime.
“They want people living here in Korea to be safe from the coronavirus, even foreigners,” he said as he stood in line.
Some people took the order itself as an invasion of human rights, however.
“I’ve lived in Korea for years, pay a mortgage, run a business, have a family, pay tax,” John, a graphic designer from the United Kingdom who owns his own business and has lived in South Korea for 10 years, told Reuters by online messenger, asking to be identified only by his first name. “Yet they are treating us like we are the problem because of coronavirus. Feels xenophobic and racist.”
Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Director Jeong Eun-kyeong said on Monday that the rate of infections among foreign workers was a high-risk situation.
“We don’t think this is to discriminate or stigmatise foreign workers, and it shouldn’t be accepted that way,” she said.
Jeong said the KDCA would work with local governments to improve testing capabilities to resolve the long waits.
One American university professor who has worked in South Korea for 15 years said it made no sense to test people like her - who have been teaching online for almost a year and rarely go out - rather than fixing the workplace safety at factories that had outbreaks.
“There is no reasoning behind forcing foreign workers to take this test,” she said in an email.
In Ansan, some locals denied that there was any racial animosity, but admitted they were reassured by the campaign.
“Since there are a lot of foreigners here, every time a foreigner comes in, it would worry me,” said Hwang Mi-sun, a clothes shop owner. “Now that they are filtering out everyone, it gives me a sense of assurance.” (Reuters)
March
Ireland latest country to suspend AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 15 - Ireland became the latest country to stop using AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, temporarily suspending the shot “out of an abundance of caution” after reports from Norway of serious blood clotting in some recipients there.
Three health workers in Norway who had recently received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were being treated in hospital for bleeding, blood clots and a low count of blood platelets, its health authorities said on Saturday.
Ireland’s National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommended the temporary deferral pending the receipt of more information from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the coming days.
AstraZeneca on Sunday said it had conducted a review covering more than 17 million people vaccinated in the European Union and the UK which had shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland have suspended the use of the vaccine over clotting issues, while Thailand became the first country outside of Europe to do so on Friday, delaying its AstraZeneca rollout over the safety concerns in Europe.
Italy’s northern region of Piedmont on Sunday said it would stop using a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after a teacher died following his vaccination on Saturday. Austria also stopped using a particular batch last week.
The EMA said on Friday that there is no indication that the events were caused by the vaccination, a view that was echoed by the World Health Organisation.
‘WE MAY BE OVERREACTING’
Irish authorities received some reports of clotting similar to those seen in Europe last week but nothing as serious as the cases in Norway, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn said.
Glynn said the fact that the Norwegian cases related to a cluster of four unusual clotting events involving the brain in 30 to 40 year-olds raised the higher level of concern.
He said that one of the reasons Ireland acted now was that it was due to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to people of a similar age with serious underlying conditions next week.
“It may be nothing, we may be overreacting and I sincerely hope that in a week’s time that we will have been accused of being overly-cautious,” Glynn told national broadcaster RTE.
“Hopefully we will have data to reassure us in a few short days and we will be back up and running with this.”
AstraZeneca vaccinations make up 20% of the 590,000 shots administered among Ireland’s 4.9 million population, mainly to healthcare workers after its use was not initially recommended for those over 70 and the company supplied far fewer vaccines to the EU than agreed.
There have been 4,534 COVID-19-related deaths in Ireland. The number of cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days fell to 151 from a high of over 1,500 in January, although officials are concerned over a slight rise in new cases in recent days.
Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill also raised concerns over the suspension of AstraZeneca elsewhere. In response to Ireland’s decision, the UK’s medicine regulator said that while it was closely reviewing the reports, the available evidence does not suggest the vaccine is the cause of the clots.
Like the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland is much further ahead in its programme and has inoculated more than 40% of the adult population, relying heavily on AstraZeneca’s vaccine. (Reuters)
March
Mar. 15 - Three days of voting begins in the Netherlands on Monday in a parliamentary election seen as a referendum on the Dutch government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte, one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders, is widely expected to gain enough support to secure a fourth term.
Four polls released this week showed Rutte’s conservative VVD taking 21-26% of the vote, compared with 11-16% for its closest rival, Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam Freedom Party, which leads the parliamentary opposition.
With a ban on public gatherings, the election campaign focused on a series of televised debates in which Rutte maintained his image as a steady hand during a time of crisis.
But coronavirus infections in the Netherlands are rising at the fastest pace in months, and the National Institute for Health (RIVM) has advised against any swift easing out of lockdown, saying that hospitals could still be overwhelmed in a third wave of the pandemic driven by more contagious variants.
On Sunday, police broke up thousands of demonstrators gathered in The Hague to protest against the lockdown and curfew, the imposition of which prompted several days of riots in January.
Roughly 13 million voters are eligible to pick from dozens of parties contesting spots in the 150-seat parliament. Voting booths open at 0630 GMT and the first exit poll is expected when they close at 2000 GMT on Wednesday.
Major parties including Labour, the Green-Left, the pro-education Democrats-66 are vying with the centre-right Christian Democrats for third place. Two or three of these will likely join a new VVD-led coalition.
With a ban on gatherings of more than two people, restaurants and bars shut and the first night-time curfew since World War Two, voting has been spread over three days to help ensure social distancing at polling stations.
An exception on the 9 p.m. curfew will be made for people out casting their ballots.
Rutte, 54, has been Dutch prime minister since 2010.
Although the Netherlands slipped up in its response to COVID-19, being last in the E.U. to start vaccinating and flip-flopping over face masks, hospitals never ran out of beds through two COVID-19 infection peaks. (Reuters)
March
Protests erupt in Jordan after COVID-19 hospital deaths scandal
Written by Nur Yasmin
Mar. 15 - Protests erupted across many of Jordan’s cities and provincial towns against the government’s coronavirus restrictions, a day after oxygen ran out at a state hospital leading to the deaths of at least six COVID-19 patients, witnesses said on Sunday.
Hundreds of people spilled into the streets in defiance of a night curfew in the northern city of Irbid and several other provincial cities including a neighbourhood in the capital and the city of Salt. Protesters also gathered further south in Karak city and the port city of Aqaba.
“Down with the government. We don’t fear coronavirus,” hundreds of youths chanted in Irbid where outrage at the hospital scandal combined with anger over tighter restrictions that include extending a night curfew to stem a major surge of infections driven by a more contagious variant of the virus.
Jordan’s economy has been particularly hard hit by the shutdowns aimed at containing the virus with unemployment surging to a record 24 % and poverty deepening. It witnessed its worst contraction in decades last year.
Demonstrators who blamed the government for worsening economic conditions also called for an end to draconian emergency laws enacted at the start of the pandemic last year used to limit civil and political rights.
Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh fired the health minister and said he bore full responsibility for the initial deaths of six coronavirus patients that exposed gross negligence in the state health system when medical staff failed to act after oxygen ran out for two hours.
King Abdullah visited the hospital in Salt, a city west of the Jordanian capital of Amman, in a move officials said was intended to defuse tensions. Anger with the authorities over worsening living standards, corruption has in the past triggered civil unrest in Jordan.
The authorities detained the hospital head and their aides Saturday evening with officials saying another three deaths could be linked to the rupture in oxygen supplies.
“I am here because of the catastrophe. We want to put on trial those responsible for this and then bring down the government,” said Ahmad Hiyari, a demonstrator near Salt hospital among hundreds of angry residents. (Reuters)
March
Pentagon chief sees Asia ties as deterrent against China
Written by nuke
Pentagon chief sees Asia ties as deterrent against China
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday (Mar 13) he was traveling to Asia to boost military cooperation with American allies and foster "credible deterrence" against China.
Austin kicked off via Hawaii, seat of the American military command for the Indo-Pacific region, his first foreign visits as Pentagon chief.
"It's also about enhancing capabilities," he added, recalling that while the United States was focused on the anti-jihadist struggle in the Middle East, China was modernising its army at high speed.
"That competitive edge that we've had has eroded," he said. "We still maintain that edge. We are going to increase that edge going forward.""Our goal is to make sure that we have the capabilities and the operational plans ... to be able to offer a credible deterrence to China or anybody else who would want to take on the US," he added.
Lloyd will be joined in Tokyo and Seoul by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"One of the things that the secretary of state and I want to do is begin to strengthen those alliances," he said. "This will be more about listening and learning, getting their point of view."
This tour in Asia of the heads of diplomacy and defense of the United States follows an unprecedented summit of the "Quad", an informal alliance born in the 2000s to counterbalance a rising China.
The Alaska talks will be the first between the powers since Yang met Blinken's hawkish predecessor Mike Pompeo in June in Hawaii - a setting similarly far from the high-stakes glare of national capitals.
The Biden administration has generally backed the tougher approach to China initiated by former president Donald Trump, but has also insisted that it can be more effective by shoring up alliances and seeking narrow ways to cooperate on priorities such as climate change//CNA
March
British Airways calls for vaccinated people to travel without restrictions
Written by nuke
British Airways calls for vaccinated people to travel without restrictions
British Airways' new boss said vaccinated people should be allowed to travel without restriction and non-vaccinated people with a negative COVID-19 test, as he set out his ideas for a travel restart a month before the UK government finalises its plans.
Holidays will not be allowed until May 17 at the earliest, the government has said, but before that, on Apr 12, Britain will announce how and when non-essential travel into and out of the country can resume.
"I think people who've been vaccinated should be able to travel without restriction. Those who have not been vaccinated should be able to travel with a negative test result," he said.
Doyle said the roll-out of vaccines made him optimistic BA would be back flying this summer, but added the recovery depends on what is said on Apr 12.
He wants the government to give its backing to health apps that can be used to verify a person's negative COVID-19 test results and vaccination status.
Apps will be key to facilitating travel at scale, the industry has said. Airline staff checking paperwork takes 20 minutes per passenger and is not practical if large numbers of passengers return.
Britain has rapidly rolled out vaccinations and 44 per cent of the adult population, mostly people over 60, have now had their first shot.
The government has said any return to travel must be fair and not unduly disadvantage those who have not been vaccinated.
Doyle expects Britain to bring in a tiered framework with destinations put into categories depending on risk, and that will determine BA's summer schedule.
Budget rival Ryanair, Europe's biggest airline, has said it hopes to fly up to 70 per cent of 2019 passenger numbers this summer.
BA has struck a deal with a testing kit provider giving its passengers £33 (US$46) tests to take abroad.
Travel commentators expect most European airlines to focus on short-haul leisure routes this summer, and Doyle noted France, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Spain had all sounded positive about welcoming British holiday-makers.
But he said BA was also looking further afield.
"We're already looking at new destinations over the summer that we haven't flown to before, and that could be across both long haul and short haul," Doyle said//CNA
March
Netanyahu eyes COVID-19 vaccine victory as Israel heads for fourth vote
Written by nuke
Netanyahu eyes COVID-19 vaccine victory as Israel heads for fourth vote - AFP
Israel this month will hold its fourth election in under two years, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hoping goodwill from a world-beating COVID-19 vaccination campaign can finally secure him an elusive majority government.
When Israelis last went to the polls a year ago, they delivered a result that had become familiar: Neither the right-wing Netanyahu nor his centrist challenger Benny Gantz had enough support to form the necessary 61-seat parliamentary majority.
Just weeks after the last election, Israel entered the first of three coronavirus lockdowns.
In May, Netanyahu and Gantz formed a unity government, declaring that the unprecedented health and economic threats from the pandemic required political stability.
Their coalition, which had been set to last three years, collapsed in December when Netanyahu's refusal to approve a 2021 Budget forced new elections, to be held Mar 23.
Netanyahu, Gantz, other political leaders and voters have all expressed frustration with the seemingly endless cycle of campaigns that have mired the Jewish state in grinding political gridlock.
But Netanyahu, a wily political veteran with a long record of out-manoeuvring his rivals, is hoping he can sneak over the line this time thanks to the inoculation drive.
The 71-year-old, Israel's longest serving prime minister, has also clinched historic normalisation deals with four Arab states.
But despite Netanyahu's apparent successes, polls point to another indecisive result, with the leader lacking a clear path to form a government.
Israel secured a large vaccine stock from Pfizer because its highly digitised medical system enabled it to offer the company fast, precious data on the product's impact, in what medical experts have called the largest-ever human clinical trial//CNA
March
Singapore may reopen borders by year-end, says PM Lee
Written by nuke
Singapore may reopen borders by year-end, says PM Lee - CNA
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a TV interview he hoped Singapore would start reopening its borders by the end of the year as more countries ramp up vaccination drives against COVID-19 infections.
Singapore has largely banned leisure travel, but has put in place some business and official travel programmes. It is also discussing the mutual recognition of vaccine certificates with other nations.
As of Mar 8, the country has administered just over 611,000 doses of vaccines among a population of 5.7 million – a much slower pace compared to larger nations. But it has said it plans to vaccinate everyone by year-end.
Mr Lee said few local cases meant the country could take the time to persuade its population to take the vaccine. Some are hesitant due to the low risk of infection and concern about possible side effects from rapidly developed vaccines.Singapore has also received China's Sinovac Biotech vaccine ahead of approval. The Prime Minister said Singapore was evaluating the vaccine and will use it if it passes safety and effectiveness standards.
"If (the Sinovac vaccine) passes muster in terms of safety and effectiveness, we will use it. We will use vaccines from any source," he said.
"Vaccines do not carry a nationality. Is it good or is it no good? Does it work? If it does, then we will use it."
Singapore's economy recorded its worst recession in 2020 due to the pandemic, after being bruised the previous year by trade tensions between the United States and China//CNA