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June
WFP says communities on verge of starvation in Madagascar after drought
Written by Nur Yasmin
Communities in Madagascar are on the verge of starvation, with women and children walking for hours to reach food after the worst drought in four decades devastated the south of the island, the World Food Programme said.
Acute malnutrition has almost doubled over the last four months, the WFP said, with more than a quarter of people suffering in one area.
"I met women and children who were holding on for dear life, they'd walked for hours to get to our food distribution points," David Beasley, WFP executive director, said in a statement.
"There have been back-to-back droughts in Madagascar which have pushed communities right to the very edge of starvation. Families are suffering and people are already dying from severe hunger," he added. Beasley blamed climate change for the crisis.
WFP said $78.6 million was needed to fight the crisis.
"Families have been living on raw red cactus fruits, wild leaves and locusts for months now," Beasley said.
Bole, a mother of three from Ambiriky, in southern Madagascar, who also is caring for two orphans after their mother died, told the agency that to survive they relied on cactus leaves for their meals.
"We have nothing left. Their mother is dead and my husband is dead. What do you want me to say? Our life is all about looking for cactus leaves again and again to survive," she said. (Reuters)
June
Russian forces reportedly fire warning shots at British destroyer in Black Sea
Written by Nur Yasmin
A Russian military ship fired warning shots at a British Royal Navy destroyer after it entered Russian waters in the Black Sea, and a Russian jet dropped bombs in its path as a warning, Interfax cited Russia's defence ministry as saying on Wednesday.
The British Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The HMS Defender left Russian waters soon after the incident, having ventured as much as 3 kilometres (2 miles) inside, the Russian ministry said, adding that the confrontation took place near Cape Fiolent, a landmark on the coast of Crimea.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 in a move condemned by the West which still considers it Ukrainian territory.
"The destroyer had been warned that weapons would be used if it trespasses the border of the Russian Federation. It did not react to the warning," it said.
A Russian bomber dropped four high explosive fragmentation bombs as a warning in the British destroyer's path, according to the Russian ministry. (Reuters)
June
China condemns latest U.S. warship transit of Taiwan Strait
Written by Nur Yasmin
China condemned the United States on Wednesday as the region's greatest security "risk creator" after a U.S. warship again sailed through the sensitive waterway that separates Taiwan from China.
The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur conducted a "routine Taiwan Strait transit" on Tuesday in accordance with international law.
"The ship's transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific."
The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command said their forces monitored the vessel throughout its passage and warned it.
"The U.S. side is intentionally playing the same old tricks and creating trouble and disrupting things in the Taiwan Strait," it said.
This "fully shows that the United States is the greatest creator of risks for regional security, and we are resolutely opposed to this".
Taiwan's Defence Ministry said the ship had sailed in a northerly direction through the strait and the "situation was as normal".
The same ship transited the strait a month ago, prompting China to accuse the United States of threatening peace and stability.
The latest mission comes around a week after Taiwan said 28 Chinese air force aircraft, including fighters and nuclear-capable bombers, entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ), the largest reported incursion to date.
That incident followed the Group of Seven leaders issuing a joint statement scolding China for a series of issues and underscoring the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, comments China condemned as "slander".
The U.S. Navy has been conducting such operations in the Taiwan Strait every month or so.
The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with democratic Taiwan but is its most important international backer and a major seller of arms.
Military tension between Taiwan and Beijing have spiked over the past year, with Taipei complaining of China repeatedly sending its air force into Taiwan's air defence zone. (Reuters)
June
Afghan hospital burns after attack; Taliban seize border post in north
Written by Nur YasminSuspected Taliban fighters fired a rocket into a hospital in Afghanistan on Wednesday, sparking a blaze that caused extensive damage and destroyed COVID-19 vaccines though there were no reports of casualties, government officials said.
In northern Afghanistan, the Taliban captured the town of Shir Khan Bandar, a dry port on the border with Tajikistan, sending customs worker and members of the security forces fleeing to safety over the border.
Fighting between government forces and the insurgents has surged in recent weeks, with the militants gaining control of more territory as the last U.S.-led international forces prepare to leave after two decades of fighting.
Taliban spokesmen Zabihullah Mujahid denied responsibility for the attack on the hospital in the eastern province of Kunar, which a provincial health director said resulted in the loss of crucial supplies.
"Different types of vaccine, including doses meant to fight polio and COVID-19 were destroyed in the fire," said Kunar health official Aziz Safai.
Afghanistan has reported 4,366 deaths due to COVID-19 infections and 107,957 cases, as of Wednesday.
Many health officials say the real number of coronavirus infections is likely much higher but many cases are not being detected because of little testing.
The virus has been spreading as insecurity has been growing, especially since May 1 when the United States began the final stages of its troop withdrawal and the Taliban stepped up attacks on government forces.
Tajikistan's border guard service said in a statement late on Tuesday it had allowed 134 Afghan servicemen to retreat into Tajikistan from Shir Khan Bandar, about 50 km (30 miles) from the city of Kunduz.
The Taliban seized ammunition and armoured vehicles in the town after Afghan authorities surrendered it to the advancing insurgents, Afghan officials said.
The loss of the trading town will be a blow to the U.S.-backed government as it struggles to stop Taliban advances in different parts of the country. (Reuters
June
Sydney isolated as COVID-19 clusters build; NZ tightens curbs in capital
Written by Nur Yasmin
Australia's largest city of Sydney re-introduced "soft touch" COVID-19 curbs on Wednesday to contain a widening outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, mandating masks in offices while neighbouring states closed their borders.
New Zealand raised the alert level in its capital of Wellington over exposure concerns after an Australian tourist tested positive for the virus upon returning to Sydney from a weekend visit to the neighbouring nation.
The latest virus cluster in Australia's most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) has swelled to more than 30 in a week, prompting New Zealand to halt quarantine-free travel. read more
On Wednesday, the state tightened curbs for a week on gatherings and movement in Sydney, but stopped short of a full lockdown, as fears grew that the latest cluster of the highly infectious Delta variant could drive a major outbreak.
Travel was limited to essential tasks for residents of seven council areas in Sydney's east and inner west, with home visits limited to five guests and masks mandatory indoors, even in offices and gyms. Some schools moved to online-only teaching.
"We have gone from near and present danger to a very real and present danger, not just in a shopping centre but right across Sydney," the state's health minister, Brad Hazzard, told reporters in Sydney.
The state's first virus cluster in more than a month was linked to a driver who transports overseas airline crew and visited several places, among them a shopping centre in Bondi, thronged by tourists.
Ten new cases were reported by 8 p.m. on Tuesday but 13 further cases have been detected since.
Neighbouring states such as Victoria, the second most populous, and northeastern Queensland shut their borders to travellers from Sydney and surrounding areas, while South Australia closed its border altogether.
Snap lockdowns, tough social distancing rules and swift contact tracing have helped both Australia and New Zealand to limit outbreaks and hold down COVID-19 infections.
Australia has reported just over 30,350 cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began, while New Zealand recorded more than 2,300 infections and 26 deaths.
In New Zealand, Wellington will move to a 'level 2' alert, or one short of a lockdown, until Sunday midnight as a precaution against any potential outbreak.
New Zealand, with a population of 5 million, agreed to quarantine-free travel with Australia this year as both had reined in community spread of the virus.
But fresh outbreak worries have emerged after the positive test for the unidentified male Australian tourist, who visited more than a dozen locations from the national Te Papa museum to pubs, cafes, a bookshop and a hotel during his trip.
"This is not a lockdown," New Zealand's COVID response minister Chris Hipkins told a news conference in Wellington. "These are precautionary measures which will remain in place while we contact trace and test all of those we need to."
The level 2 alert allows offices, schools and businesses to stay open but observe social distancing, one of the conditions on which sport and recreation activities are allowed.
But gatherings of more than 100 for events such as weddings and funerals are barred. (Reuters)
June
Pakistan bomb blast kills four, including child
Written by Nur Yasmin
A bomb attack in a residential area of Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore killed four people on Wednesday, including a child, and wounded 14, police said, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Among those wounded in the powerful blast were some police officers manning a checkpoint next to the house of Hafiz Saeed, the jailed founder of Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
"Apparently what we see is that our law enforcement agencies are the target," provincial police chief Inam Ghani told reporters. "You can see our police officials are also wounded."
Three people were killed, Ghani said. A police spokesman later said a four-year-old child had succumbed to his wounds.
Some of those wounded, including children, were in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said.
A car parked close to a house had exploded, setting ablaze nearby cars and motorcycles, a witness, Fahim Ahmad, told reporters at the scene.
Ghani said police were investigating whether the explosives were detonated remotely or by a suicide bomber. If not for the police checkpoint, the car could have reached Saeed's house, he added.
Lashkar-e-Taiba was blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, some foreigners and Americans among them.
Saeed, who runs Jamat-ud-Dawa, a charity linked to the militant group, was sentenced in November to 10 years in jail after being found guilty on two charges of financing terrorism.
A spokesman for the charity told Reuters Saeed was in prison and so not at his home on Wednesday.
Islamist militant groups have been trying to make a comeback after Pakistani army offensives in their sanctuaries along the Afghan border, but urban areas such as Lahore have largely escaped the violence.
The army has been battling the militants, who want to enforce their own harsh brand of Islamic rule in the Muslim-majority country. (Reuters)
June
Russia says to boost military ties with Myanmar as junta leader visits
Written by Nur Yasmin
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Myanmar's junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing that Moscow is committed to strengthening military ties with it, Russia's RIA news agency reported.
Rights activists have accused Moscow of legitimising the junta, which seized power in a Feb. 1 coup, by continuing bilateral visits and arms deals.
"We are determined to continue our efforts to strengthen bilateral ties based on the mutual understanding, respect and trust that have been established between our countries," RIA quoted Shoigu as saying at a meeting on Tuesday.
Min Aung Hlaing was in the Russian capital to attend a security conference and had earlier met Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia's Security Council. read more
Defence ties between the two countries have grown in recent years with Moscow providing army training and university scholarships to thousands of soldiers, as well as selling arms to a military blacklisted by several Western countries.
Little light was shed on how cooperation between Russia and Myanmar may develop and whether Moscow would be willing to sell more military equipment there.
Since the army seized power and removed Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government, troops have put down pro-democracy demonstrations and strikes and killed or arrested hundreds of protesters.
Addressing a Moscow conference on Wednesday, Min Aung Hlaing repeated that the army took power by force because Suu Kyi's party won the election through fraud - an accusation rejected by the previous election commission and international monitors. read more
With Myanmar being one of the traditional export markets for the Russian weaponry, rising tensions there provide Moscow with a good chance to increase military sales, Alexey Kirichenko, Associate Professor at the Institute of Asian and African Countries at the Moscow State University, said.
"This makes it possible for Russia to conclude lucrative contracts... The situation in the country is very difficult, and the Burmese military needs to build up their military potential," he said.
On Tuesday, Myanmar security forces backed by armoured vehicles clashed with a newly formed guerrilla group in the second biggest city Mandalay, resulting in at least two casualties. read more
Russia said in March it was deeply concerned by the rising number of civilian deaths in Myanmar. President Vladimir Putin does not plan to meet Min Aung Hlaing on his visit to Moscow, Kremlin has said. (Reuters)
June
APEC expedites regulatory convergence on life-saving medical products
Written by Nur Yasmin
APEC member economies, through the APEC Life Science Innovation Forum, concurred on speeding up regulatory alignment for medical products over the course of the subsequent two decades.
The effort to expedite matters was made in a bid to protect the people’s safety and make life-saving medical products available with the endorsement of the Regulatory Harmonization Steering Committee (RHSC) Vision 2030 and Strategic Framework, according to a statement issued by the APEC Life Science Innovation Forum and received here on Wednesday.
Established in 2009, the Regulatory Harmonization Steering Committee is a network of regulatory experts from regulatory agencies, industry players, and academics across the APEC region.
The steering committee identifies their priority work areas in the medical product sectors of pharmaceuticals and medical devices where member economies believe would benefit from regulatory convergence.
"We will work together to accelerate regulatory convergence for medical products in the APEC region, so that we can improve the safety of our people, ensure availability of important medical products, save public resources, attract investment, mitigate corruption, and improve global standing in every APEC economy," Michelle Limoli of the United States’ Food and Drug Administration and the co-chair of the forum’s Regulatory Harmonization Steering Committee (RHSC) stated.
The recently endorsed vision and strategic framework will guide the steering committee over the next decade, including to facilitate cooperation among medical product regulatory authorities, build human capacity in regulatory science among medical product regulatory staff, and promote a coordinated approach to regulatory convergence and reliance among policymakers in the APEC region.
"The endorsement of this document comes at a crucial time as members look to incorporate lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and address a new wave of innovative medical products," Nobumasa Nakashima of the Japan Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, concurrently the co-chair of the steering committee, stated.
The steering committee will also work to innovate and incubate new ideas to accelerate regulatory convergence, building on past successes, such as the APEC Training Centers of Excellence for Regulatory Science.
There are currently 29 of these centers hosted at 20 institutions across nine APEC economies, with the objective of honing skills and capacity for hundreds of regulators on an annual basis. The centers promote dialogue in pursuit of knowledge sharing in science and best practices.
The impacts of these centers and other work done by the steering committee have been measurable. An annual evaluation exercise shows regulatory requirements for the approval of medical products are becoming more aligned among APEC economies over time.
"Regional organizations, such as APEC, play an important role in facilitating discussion, sharing best practices and innovative regulatory approaches to emerging technologies and business models, including in the medical and pharmaceutical sector," according to Rebecca Sta Maria, executive director of the APEC Secretariat.
"In this ever-changing environment, especially with a pandemic and crisis, policymaking has to be well-coordinated, coherent, and complementary. The only way that governments can do this is by allowing different voices in the room, involving different agencies and different parts of societies at the table," she emphasized.
The chair of the APEC Life Science Innovation Forum Michelle McConnell remarked that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to show just how important it is for regulatory authorities and the industry to collaborate to accelerate regulatory convergence.
"A good policy environment helps us to achieve a healthy society that contributes to a healthy economy," McConnel remarked. (Antaranews)
June
Taliban launch major offensives in northern Afghanistan
Written by Nur Yasmin
Taliban insurgents have conducted a wave of offensives in Afghanistan's north in recent days, moving beyond their southern strongholds as international forces withdraw.
The United Nations' envoy for Afghanistan said the Taliban had taken more than 50 of 370 districts and was positioned to take control of provincial capitals.
Fierce fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces has taken place on the outskirts of three provincial capitals in the northern provinces of Faryab, Balkh and Kunduz provinces in recent days, officials said.
Since the United States announced plans in April to withdraw its troops with no conditions by Sept. 11 after nearly 20 years of conflict, violence has escalated throughout the country as the Taliban seeks more territory.
Peace talks in Doha have largely stalled, officials say, though there have been meetings in recent days and the Taliban say they are committed to talks.
The U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons urged the Security Council to do all it could to push the parties back to the negotiating table.
"Increased conflict in Afghanistan means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far," she said.
The latest surge in the north is outside the Taliban's traditional strongholds in southern districts such as Helmand and Kandahar where major fighting had previously taken place.
"The Taliban's strategy is to make inroads and have a strong presence in the northern region of the country that long resisted the insurgent group," said a senior Afghan security official on condition of anonymity.
"They would face less resistance in other parts of the country where they have more influence and presence."
Local officials in Kunduz said the Taliban on Tuesday seized Shir Khan port, a commercial local town situated on the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
Ghulam Rabbani, a provincial council member, said fighting was also ongoing outside Kunduz's provincial capital and people were fleeing the city. The defence ministry said Afghan forces had recaptured key districts from the Taliban in Kunduz and operations were ongoing.
Local officials and Taliban members said the Taliban had reached the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh's capital, on Monday evening before retreating.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group's leadership had asked fighters to return after they reached the entrance of Mazar-i-Sharif as their top leadership did not want to seize provinces until all U.S. forces had left.
The United States began withdrawing troops on May 1 and has handed some bases over to the Afghan government, which has since given up some areas to the Taliban without a fight.
The government admits the Taliban have captured a number of districts and security forces have made "tactical retreats".
The crumbling morale of Afghan forces has raised fears of a Taliban military take over once the withdrawal of foreign forces is complete.
The security official said the government was not abandoning areas to the Taliban, but was retreating from some districts temporarily for tactical reasons as they sought to preserve stretched resources.
"Fighting has fiercely increased in recent weeks and now our main focus is to hold strategic areas and not to further stretch our forces," he said. (Reuters)
June
Kazakhstan detects Delta variant as Central Asia braces for third COVID wave
Written by Nur Yasmin
Kazakhstan warned on Tuesday that the more infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus had reached its capital as other Central Asian countries saw fresh spikes in COVID-19 cases. .
The number of fresh cases in Kazakhstan's capital, Nur-Sultan, jumped 40% last week compared to the previous week, healthcare minister Alexei Tsoi told a government meeting on Tuesday.
Tsoi said tests had shown that the Delta variant of COVID-19, first detected in India, was present in the city and urged provincial governments to prepare for a spike in cases requiring hospitalisation and lung ventilation.
Neighbouring Kyrgyzstan has this month reported daily fresh cases at levels not seen for almost a year, prompting the authorities to recommend that half of all employees in the capital switch to working from home.
Uzbekistan, which also saw daily cases climb this month, said on Tuesday it was closing its border with neighbour Afghanistan due to the deteriorating COVID-19 situation there.
Tajikistan said this week it registered its first COVID-19 cases since January. Blaming the population's "nonchalance", the government said it would strictly enforce social distancing and tighten controls over flight arrivals.
The region, with a total population of 70 million, is particularly vulnerable to a new wave of infections due to its low vaccination rates. Kazakhstan, the wealthiest country in Central Asia, reported on Tuesday it has fully vaccinated about 9% of its population.
Uzbekistan is estimated to have fully vaccinated 3-4% of its population, while in impoverished Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the rate is less than 1%.
A Lancet article cited by nearly all Kyrgyz news websites this month predicts Kyrgyzstan will have one of the world's highest mortality rates - more than 256 per 100,000 - this summer. (Reuters)