VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

MySejahtera is Malaysia's COVID-19 contact tracing app. (File photo: Bernama) - 

Malaysia’s COVID-19 mobile application on Sunday (Dec 26) introduced a new feature that enables close contact tracing via Bluetooth.

MySejahtera Trace will provide live information on interactions with other users who also activate the new feature, Health Ministry Khairy Jamaluddin said in a post on Twitter.

“If you are confirmed positive, you can send the interaction data to the Ministry of Health for contact tracking process to be made. All interaction data is anonymised," he added.

Khairy encouraged members of the public to use the new feature when indoor at public places, adding that the checkout feature in MySejahtera is no longer applicable.

"It can now be updated on Huawei. For Google and Apple, still waiting for them to list this new update,” he wrote.

In a separate update, Khairy on Saturday confirmed that Malaysia has reported a total of 62 COVID-19 Omicron cases to date. Of these, 61 were imported infections with the remaining case suspected to be a local transmission. 

Among the 49 most recent Omicron cases detected in Malaysia, 30 had returned from Saudi Arabia after performing Umrah//CNA

Chen Quanguo, party secretary of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, applauds at the opening session of the Nation (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Mar 5, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins) - 

China has replaced Chen Quanguo, who as Communist Party chief in the Xinjiang region oversaw a security crackdown targeting ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims in the name of fighting religious extremism.

Chen, in his post since 2016, will move to another role and Ma Xingrui, governor of the coastal economic powerhouse Guangdong province since 2017, has replaced him, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Saturday (Dec 25). It gave no other details.

United Nations researchers and human rights activists estimate more than one million Muslims have been detained in camps in western China's Xinjiang region. China rejects accusations of abuse, describing the camps as vocational centres designed to combat extremism, and in late 2019 said all people in the camps had "graduated".

Chen, 66, is a member of China's politburo and is widely considered to be the senior official responsible for the security crackdown in Xinjiang. He was sanctioned last year by the United States.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden signed into law a ban on imports from Xinjiang over concerns about forced labour, provoking an angry Chinese condemnation.

Some foreign lawmakers and parliaments, as well as the US secretaries of state in both the Biden and Trump administrations, have labelled the treatment of Uyghurs genocide//CNA

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Dec 15, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Blair Gable) - 

Western countries should have a united front against China to prevent the Asian state from using commercial interests to play them against each other, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an interview aired on Saturday (Dec 25).

Trudeau said China has been "playing" Western countries against one another as they compete for access to economic opportunities in the country.

"We've been competing and China has been, from time to time, very cleverly playing us off each other in an open market, competitive way," he said in an interview with Global television.

"We need to do a better job of working together and standing strong so China can't play the angles and divide us one against the other."

Relations between Canada and China have been chilly since the 2018 detention of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on a US extradition warrant. China detained two Canadians shortly afterwards, denying Ottawa's accusations of hostage diplomacy.

Meng reached a deal with US prosecutors in September, ending the extradition fight, and the two Canadians were released within hours of the agreement.

Even before Meng's arrest, Canada's repeated questioning of China's human rights positions had irked Beijing, and the two countries have failed to come closer.

Earlier this month, Canada said it will join allies in a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in February to send China a message over its human rights record//CNA

FILE PHOTO: People march to the presidential palace, protesting against military rule following last month's coup in Khartoum, Sudan December 19, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo - 

Protesters opposed to military rule on Saturday (Dec 25) reached the vicinity of the presidential palace in the capital of Khartoum for the second time in a week, television images showed, despite heavy tear gas and a communications black out.

A Reuters witness said Sudanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowds on a tenth day of major demonstrations since an Oct 25 coup.

Protests have continued even after Abdallah Hamdok was reinstated as prime minister last month.

A week ago, demonstrators managed to begin a sit-in at the gates of the palace, but on Saturday they were met with rows of security forces.

Internet services were disrupted in the capital, Khartoum, and locals were unable to make or receive domestic calls on Saturday, the witnesses said, while soldiers and Rapid Support Forces blocked roads leading to bridges linking Khartoum with Omdurman, its sister city across the Nile river.

People still managed to post images on social media showing protests taking place in several other cities including Madani and Atbara.

In neighbouring Omdurman, security forces also fired tear gas at protesters around 2km away from a bridge connecting the city to central Khartoum, another Reuters witness said.

The SUNA state news agency reported that the province of Khartoum closed bridges on Friday evening in anticipation of the protests.

"Departing from peacefulness, approaching and infringing on sovereign and strategic sites in central Khartoum is a violation of the laws," SUNA reported, citing a provincial security coordination committee.

"Chaos and abuses will be dealt with," it added.

The demonstrators have demanded that the military has no role in government during a transition to free elections

Protesters in Khartoum chanted: "Close the street! Close the bridge! Burhan will come straight to you," referring to military leader and sovereign council head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

They were also heard cheering when security forces fired tear gas, a Reuters witness said.

A senior official at one internet provider told Reuters the service disruption followed a decision by the National Telecommunication Corporation, which oversees the sector.

UN Special Representative to Sudan Volker Perthes urged Sudanese authorities not to stand in the way of Saturday's planned demonstrations.

"Freedom of expression is a human right. This includes full access to the Internet. According to international conventions, no one should be arrested for intent to protest peacefully," Perthes said.

The military could not immediately be reached for comment.

In Darfur, Governor Minni Minnawi asked citizens to stop looting the offices of UNAMID peacekeepers late on Friday, with sources telling Reuters they heard gunshots in the vicinity on Saturday morning.

Last Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people marched to the presidential palace and the security forces fired volleys of tear gas and stun grenades as they dispersed protesters who had been trying to organise a sit-in.

Forty-eight people have been killed in crackdowns on protests since the coup, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said//CNA