Live Streaming
Program Highlight
Company Profile
International News (6887)
February
China reports no new local COVID-19 infection for first time in nearly two months
Written by Nur Yasmin
Feb. 8 - China reported no new locally transmitted mainland COVID-19 case for the first time in nearly two months, official data showed on Monday, adding to signs that it has managed to stamp out the latest wave of the disease.
The total number of COVID-19 cases rose slightly to 14 on Feb. 7 from 12 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said in a statement, but all were imported infections from overseas. Seven of the cases were in Shanghai, the rest in the southeastern Guangdong province.
This marked the first time China has had zero local infections since Dec. 16, suggesting the aggressive steps taken by authorities managed to stop the disease spreading further from major clusters in Hebei province surrounding Beijing and the northeastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed COVID-19 cases, rose to 16 from 10 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said in a statement.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in mainland China stands at 89,706, while the death toll is unchanged at 4,636. (Reuters)
February
'The wait is over': Bangladesh begins COVID-19 vaccinations
Written by Nur Yasmin
Feb. 8 - Bangladesh launched a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive with the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday, aiming to inoculate 3.5 million people in the first month.
The south Asian country is seeking to inoculate 80% of its population of around 170 million, with each person getting two doses administered four weeks apart.
However the government has nearly halved its target for the first month from 6 million people as only a little over 328,000 people had registered for the vaccine by Saturday.
Bangladesh has received 5 million of the 30 million doses of the COVISHIELD vaccine it has ordered from the Serum Institute of India, which is the world’s biggest vaccine producer and is making the AstraZeneca vaccine. The country has also received 2 million doses of COVISHIELD as a gift from India.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque called COVISHIELD “the best and the safest vaccine”.
“The wait is over. Today is a historic day for us after such a difficult year,” Maleque told Reuters. “I took the vaccine today. I am feeling good. Everyone must take the vaccine,” he said.
He added that 567 coronavirus frontline health workers, who were vaccinated last week before the vaccine programme launch, had not experienced any difficulties or side-effects.
“I appeal to the people not to pay heed to rumours and take the vaccine,” the minister said.
Bangladesh has officially reported 538,062 cases and 8,205 deaths. The daily rate of infections has eased sharply since a peak in July.
Bangladesh will get 68 million doses of vaccine from the GAVI vaccine alliance, the health minister said, referring to a global health partnership set up to increase access to immunisation in poor countries. (Reuters)
February
UK plans to tax firms that profited from COVID-19 pandemic
Written by nuke
People are seen in West London, Britain on Feb 2, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Henry Nicholls)
Britain plans to tax retailers and tech companies whose profits have soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sunday Times reported, citing leaked emails.
The government has summoned companies to discuss how an online sales tax would work, while plans are also being drawn up for a one-off "excessive profits tax".
Finance minister Rishi Sunak is unlikely to announce these taxes at the budget announcement scheduled for Mar 3, which will focus on an extension of the COVID-19 furlough programme and support for businessesSunak faces pressure from some in his Conservative Party to show spending is under control when he presents a new budget, after what is on track to be the heaviest annual borrowing since World War II.
He has promised to put public finances on a sustainable footing once the economy begins to recover. Data last month showed public borrowing since the start of the financial year in April reached a record £271 billion (US$370 billion)//CNA
February
Australian Open ready to launch after pandemic palpitations
Written by nuke
Australian Open ready to launch after pandemic palpitations
After a three-week delay, a massive logistical mission and a handful of health scares, a very different Australian Open gets underway on Monday with pandemic protocols providing a backdrop of caution to the action on court.
Serena Williams begins her latest campaign to win a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title on Day One while Novak Djokovic is also in action, the Serb seeking a record-extending ninth Australian Open crown.
Tennis Australia (TA) have made a Herculean effort to try to stage it safely and spent a fortune on biosecurity measures in a country where community transmission of the novel coronavirus has become rare.
It will be the third Grand Slam of the pandemic, with the U.S. and French Opens passing safely enough.
Yet many in Melbourne regard it a pointless risk to the freedoms they earned after spending nearly four months in a brutal lockdown to crush an outbreak last year.
Warmup tournaments that packed out stadiums across the country a year ago have drawn tiny crowds to Melbourne Park over the past week, even with the game's biggest stars in action.
A smattering of COVID-19 cases among the 1,200 Australian Open players, coaches and other personnel that landed in the country last month did little to build momentum.
News that a worker at one of the tournament's quarantine hotels caught the virus triggered tighter social restrictions in Melbourne last week and saw 160 players isolate until cleared of infection//CNA
February
1 community case among 24 new COVID-19 infections in Singapore
Written by nuke
1 community case among 24 new COVID-19 infections in Singapore - CNA
One community case was among the 24 new COVID-19 infections reported in Singapore as of noon on Sunday (Feb 7), said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its preliminary daily update.
The remaining 23 cases were imported and had been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival.
Details of the new cases will be released on Sunday night, said MOH.
MOH said on Saturday that a resident staying at a migrant worker dormitory has become Singapore’s first likely case of COVID-19 re-infection.
The case is a 28-year-old Bangladeshi work permit holder who stays in a dormitory at 43 Tech Park Crescent.
He was confirmed to have the coronavirus on Apr 12 last year. He tested positive again on Jan 25 this year.
"He was identified from rostered monitoring testing conducted as part of MOH’s surveillance of recovered workers to monitor their postinfection immunity," said the ministry.
As of Sunday, Singapore has reported a total of 59,699 COVID-19 cases, with 29 fatalities//CNA
February
A 6.0-magnitude quake struck the town of Bansalan on Mindanao island at 12.22pm local time on Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: USGS)
A strong earthquake hit the southern Philippines on Sunday (Feb 7), though there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, the US Geological Survey and local officials said.
The 6.0-magnitude quake struck the town of Bansalan on Mindanao island at 12.22pm local time, the USGS said in a bulletin.
The quake was recorded at a depth of 15.6km, it said, slightly shallower than at first reported by the agency.
"It was strong, but things did not topple or fall off," Major Peter Glenn Ipong, the police chief of Bansalan, told AFP by telephone from the epicentre.
Ipong and civil defence officials in the region reported strong shaking but said there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.The USGS in an earlier bulletin put the epicentre two kilometres east of the neighbouring town of Magsaysay before revising the location to Bansalan.
The Philippines is regularly rocked by quakes due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
The region around Bansalan, a town of 60,000 people, was struck by three deadly quakes over a two-week period in October 2019, killing at least 10 people//CNA
February
Blinken presses China on Xinjiang, Hong Kong in call with Beijing's top diplomat
Written by nuke
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, seen introducing President Joe Biden at the State Department on Feb 4, 2021, has offered a tough tone in his first talks with China. (Photo: AFP/SAUL LOEB)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi in a phone call on Friday (Feb 5) the United States will stand up for human rights and democratic values in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, the State Department said.
Blinken also pressed China to condemn the military coup in Myanmar, and he reaffirmed that Washington will work with allies to hold China accountable for efforts to threaten stability of the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait, the department said in a statement.
The relationship between the world's two biggest economies hit its lowest point in decades during the presidency of Donald Trump, and Chinese officials have expressed cautious optimism that it would improve under the administration of Joe Biden.
Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin also said on Friday that "the common interests of the two countries outweighed their differences" and urged the United States to "meet China halfway" to improve relations//CNA
February
Getting more than recommended dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine unlikely to be harmful: MOH
Written by nuke
File photo of a healthcare worker preparing a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Singapore. (File photo: Jeremy Long)
Receiving more than the recommended dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely to be harmful, said Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) on Saturday (Feb 6), citing clinical trial data from the two pharmaceutical companies.
This comes after an employee from the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) was wrongly administered the equivalent of five doses of the vaccine due to a human error.The recommended schedule for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is two doses, 21 days apart.
“Clinical trial data from Pfizer-BioNTech has indicated that receiving more than the recommended dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely to be harmful,” said MOH in response to CNA’s queries.
“The affected staff is well, and did not have any adverse reaction or side effects.”MOH said the incident at SNEC is an isolated one due to a human error by a staff member administering the vaccine, adding that it has not been notified of any similar incidents at other vaccination sites.
The error happened on Jan 14 during a vaccination exercise conducted at SNEC for its staff members.
According to SNEC in an earlier media release, investigations showed that the error resulted from a lapse in communication among the vaccination team at the time.
The error was discovered within minutes of the vaccination when the affected employee was resting in a designated area after the jab. As a precaution, the affected employee was warded at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) for observation as was discharged two days later.In response to CNA's queries, the eye centre said the affected employee remains well and is scheduled for the second dosage of the vaccine, pending the blood serology test results//CNA
February
Pakistan's K2 has been dubbed the "Savage Mountain" for its perilous conditions AFP/AMELIE HERENSTEIN
Three climbers have gone missing attempting to summit the world's second-highest mountain, K2, their expedition manager and the Alpine Club of Pakistan said Saturday (Feb 6).
Climbers John Snorri from Iceland, Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile and Muhammad Ali Sadpara from Pakistan reportedly lost contact with base camp on Friday.
An army helicopter has conducted a search flight for the missing climbers, Sherpa said in a separate statement.
"Unfortunately, they cannot trace anything and the condition up in the mountain and even at the basecamp is getting poor", he said.Karrar Haidri, Secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, also told AFP that the climbers had gone missing on the mountain.
News of the missing men comes a day after a Bulgarian mountaineer was confirmed to have died on K2.
He is the third mountaineer to die on K2's slopes this year, after a Spanish climber fell to his death last month.
Russian-American Alex Goldfarb also died on a nearby mountain during an acclimatising mission in January.
With Pakistan's borders open and few other places to go, this winter an unprecedented four teams totalling around 60 climbers have converged on the mountain, more than all previous expeditions put together.
Unlike Mount Everest, which has been scaled by thousands of climbers young and old, K2 is much less travelled due to its tough conditions//CNA
February
Iran's top diplomat urges Biden to return to nuclear deal
Written by nuke
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attends a news conference following a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (not pictured) in Moscow, Russia, December 30, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
Iran's foreign minister urged Washington to act fast to return to the nuclear accord, pointing out that legislation passed by parliament forces the government to harden its nuclear stance if US sanctions are not eased by Feb 21.
Mohammad Javad Zarif also referred to elections in Iran in June. If a hardline president is elected, this could further jeopardize the deal.
President Joe Biden’s administration is exploring ways to restore the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed with major world powers but that was abandoned in 2018 by former President Donald Trump, who restored sanctions.
Iran retaliated by breaching the terms of the accord in a step-by-step response. Last month, it resumed enriching uranium to 20 per cent at its underground Fordow nuclear plant - a level it achieved before the accord. Biden has said that if Tehran returned to strict compliance with the pact, Washington would follow suit and use that as a springboard to a broader agreement that might restrict Iran's missile development and regional activities.
Tehran has insisted that Washington ease sanctions before it resumes compliance, and ruled out negotiations on wider security issues.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Iran on Friday in a virtual meeting with his British, French and German counterparts as the group weighed how to revive the deal//CNA
