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February
Feb. 2 - At least three people were killed and seven wounded in a series of explosions in Afghanistan on Tuesday, after Western countries called on the Taliban to end a wave of violence that the group denies responsibility for.
With Washington and NATO reviewing plans to withdraw their forces from the country by May, one blast in Kabul hit an SUV and killed two people, including Mohammad Atif, the head of non-governmental charity Jamiat-i-Islah, police in the capital said.
Two other explosions in the city, which caused injuries, targeted, respectively, a jeep of the counter-narcotics force and a civilian vehicle.
All three blasts were caused by small magnetic devices known as sticky bombs, police said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters the Kabul explosions “had nothing to do with us.”
In the eastern city of Jalalabad, one soldier was killed and two injured in an explosion targeting their vehicle, Attaullah Khogyani, Nangarhar provincial governor spokesman, told Reuters. Another explosion in central Parwan province targeted a senior security official.
The European Union, NATO, and a number of Western embassies said on Sunday that the Taliban bore responsibility for “the majority of this targeted violence.”
The group’s attacks “undermine state institutions and contribute to an insecure environment in which terrorist and criminal groups are able to freely operate,” they added in a statement.
Talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have stalled, and President Joe Biden is reviewing an agreement to withdraw U.S. forces by May.
On Sunday Reuters reported about 10,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan plan to stay beyond May, with exact plans to be decided this month.
“If U.S. or NATO troops remain in Afghanistan after 14 months, that means continuation of occupation in Afghanistan,” Suhail Shaheen a Taliban negotiating team member said in Tehran on Monday.
“In such a case we will have no choice to continue our jihad and struggle.” (Reuters)
At least three people were killed and seven wounded in a series of explosions in Afghanistan on Tuesday, after Western countries called on the Taliban to end a wave of violence that the group denies responsibility for.
With Washington and NATO reviewing plans to withdraw their forces from the country by May, one blast in Kabul hit an SUV and killed two people, including Mohammad Atif, the head of non-governmental charity Jamiat-i-Islah, police in the capital said.
Two other explosions in the city, which caused injuries, targeted, respectively, a jeep of the counter-narcotics force and a civilian vehicle.
All three blasts were caused by small magnetic devices known as sticky bombs, police said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters the Kabul explosions “had nothing to do with us.”
In the eastern city of Jalalabad, one soldier was killed and two injured in an explosion targeting their vehicle, Attaullah Khogyani, Nangarhar provincial governor spokesman, told Reuters. Another explosion in central Parwan province targeted a senior security official.
The European Union, NATO, and a number of Western embassies said on Sunday that the Taliban bore responsibility for “the majority of this targeted violence.”
The group’s attacks “undermine state institutions and contribute to an insecure environment in which terrorist and criminal groups are able to freely operate,” they added in a statement.
Talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have stalled, and President Joe Biden is reviewing an agreement to withdraw U.S. forces by May.
On Sunday Reuters reported about 10,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan plan to stay beyond May, with exact plans to be decided this month.
“If U.S. or NATO troops remain in Afghanistan after 14 months, that means continuation of occupation in Afghanistan,” Suhail Shaheen a Taliban negotiating team member said in Tehran on Monday.
“In such a case we will have no choice to continue our jihad and struggle.”
February
Feb. 2 -
Japan is set to extend a state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions for another month on Tuesday, seeking to keep the upper hand over a COVID-19 outbreak even as daily case numbers begin to edge down.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to formally announce the extension to March 7 later in the day following a recommendation from an expert coronavirus response panel.
“The number of new coronavirus cases is falling, but caution is still needed,” Katsunobu Kato, chief cabinet secretary, told reporters before the panel met. Kato added that hospitals remained full and the death rate had not fallen.
Japan has reported a total of just under 392,000 COVID-19 cases, including just over 5,800 deaths. Tokyo reported 556 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.
Suga and his government remain determined to host the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, currently scheduled for July-August, despite the resurgence of the virus in Japan.
The government last month imposed a one-month state of emergency for 11 areas, including Tokyo and neighbouring prefectures as well as the western city of Osaka, to combat the country’s third and most lethal coronavirus wave.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who also oversees coronavirus policies, said Tochigi prefecture, north of the capital, was excluded from the extension.
However, official measures to control the coronavirus have been hamstrung by a lack of legal weight, including any penalties, meaning the government can only request people follow directives.
That may change later this week with the passage of a revision to the coronavirus special measures law that will allow authorities to levy fines on people who break the law. The revision passed the lower house on Monday and is expected to be approved by the upper house on Wednesday.
Under the current state of emergency, scheduled to end on Sunday, restaurants and bars are requested to trade for shorter hours and people encouraged to stay home as much as possible. The Nikkei daily newspaper reported that gyms, cinemas and karaoke establishments could be added if new daily infections in Tokyo rise above 1,000 for several consecutive days.
With Japan behind other nations rolling out vaccination programmes, the government has pledged to start inoculating medical workers at the end of February. NHK reported on Tuesday that approval for the Pfizer vaccine could come as early as Feb. 12.
Support for Suga’s government has been battered by disapproval of his handling of the pandemic, a situation not helped when several ruling coalition lawmakers admitted to flouting rules by visiting hostess clubs and bars late at night. One resigned his seat on Monday and three others left Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). (Reuters)
February
Feb. 2 - The Central Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) saved three orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) found abandoned in the locals' rubber plantation area and at a village of Kotawaringin Timur District on January 31, 2021.
Two of them were a mother-infant pair, while the other one was a male adult, aged 25, the agency's Sampit post chief, Muriansyah, stated here, Tuesday.
The 20-year-old female adult and her 10-month-old baby were found hunting for food in the plantation area, located on Sampit's Sudirman Road KM 11, while the 25-year-old male adult was found abandoned in Lampuyang Village, Teluk Sampit Sub-district, he remarked.
These tree-living mammals were rescued by BKSDA's workers in collaboration with those from the Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), Muriansyah revealed.
BKSDA's team had monitored the whereabouts of the 26-kg mother and her three-kg infant in the rubber plantation area for a week to follow up on the information by locals on the pair before rescuing them.
"The mother-infant pair was rescued from inside a rubber plantation. They reportedly damaged and ate bark of the rubber trees after uneasily looking for food in their habitat," he remarked.
In the meantime, the 25-year-old male orangutan, found ailing from wounds on his head, was saved from a paddy field of Lampuyang Village, he remarked, adding that a person, with a sharp weapon, might have assaulted it.
The wounded orangutan had received medical care. The three orangutans were taken to Pangkalan Bun to be kept under observation before releasing them into their habitat.
"We thank the residents of Sudirman Road KM 11 and those from Lampuyang Village for their sound cooperation with the Central Kalimantan Resources Conservation Agency in this rescue mission," he stated.
ANTARA noted that Indonesia's Environment and Forestry Ministry had been working with its partners in Central Kalimantan Province to rescue and release orangutans into their habitat.
In April 2020, for instance, the Central Kalimantan-based BKSDA and its partners released three orangutans into their natural habitat in the Tanjung Puting National Park in the districts of Kotawaringin Barat and Seruyan.
The released orangutans were named after Cantik, Rimut, and Natalia.
Before being released, they were quarantined and rehabilitated to restore their physical and psychological wellbeing at the Orangutan Care Center Quarantine (OCCQ) after they got embroiled in human-wildlife conflicts. (Antaranews)
February
Feb. 2 - Indonesia has received another 10 million doses of semi-finished coronavirus vaccine and one million overfill doses of the coronavirus vaccine from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd., Secretary General of the Health Ministry Oscar Primadi stated.
The fourth batch of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten Province, on Tuesday morning.
"(The first batch of) the vaccine arrived (in Indonesia) in December (2020). Today, we (received) another 10 million doses of the semi-finished vaccine and one million overfill (doses) of the vaccine from Sinovac," Primadi stated while delivering a press statement virtually from the airport.
The health ministry’s secretary general noted that the arrival of the fourth batch of COVID-19 vaccine reflected the state’s presence to ensure public health.
Up until now, the ministry has received 28 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine and vaccine candidate, he stated.
"The availability of safe vaccine in accordance with the government’s scheme is the result of sound coordination," he remarked.
Primadi noted that an estimated 500 thousand out of the targeted 1.5 million healthcare workers had received COVID-19 vaccine shots as of early this month.
In addition to Sinovac, the government had sought out other sources of the vaccine.
"Indonesia has signed a commitment to supply 50 million doses of the vaccine from the US company Novavax that used the sub-recombinant protein platform and 50 million doses from British company AstraZeneca that used the viral factor platform," Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi noted at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport recently.
AstraZeneca's vaccine has received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Product Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Indonesia has ordered the COVID-19 vaccine from various sources: 125 million doses from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd; 100 million doses of US-Canada's Novavax; 100 million doses from British AstraZeneca; 100 million doses from Germany-US' Pfizer; and 16-100 million doses of free vaccine from Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) as part of a multilateral cooperation. (Antaranews)