BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Lebanese lined up in long queues Tuesday to stock up on cooking gas following warnings of imminent shortages, as an economic crisis eats away at supplies of basic imports. Lebanon, grappling with an economic crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the planet’s worse since the mid-19th century, has been hit in recent months by a wave of shortages of basic items from medicine to fuel. Liquefied petroleum gas, […]
Asia
Cambodia dam destroyed livelihoods of tens of thousands: HRW
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AFP) — A massive Chinese-financed dam in Cambodia has “washed away the livelihoods” of tens of thousands of villagers while falling short of promised energy production, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The 400-megawatt Lower Sesan 2 dam in the kingdom’s northeast has sparked controversy since long before its December 2018 launch. Fisheries experts had warned that damming the confluence of the Sesan and Srepok rivers — two major tributaries of the resource-rich […]
Covid stigma keeps Myanmar medical volunteers locked out of home
by Ye Aung THU TAUNGOO, Myanmar (AFP) — Buddhist monk and a budding sailor are among the outcasts squatting in an abandoned building in Myanmar while they help bury coronavirus victims and their worried families tell them to keep away. A surge in infections across the country has been aggravated by a lack of formal medical care, with many hospitals empty of staff joining nationwide strikes against a February military coup. Thar Gyi, one of […]
CIA chief visits Israel amid Iran tensions
JERUSALEM, Undefined (AFP) — US Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns was due in Israel Tuesday for talks on common foe Iran, as rising tensions overshadow talks on restoring a landmark nuclear deal. A spokesman for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett gave no details of the agenda for the CIA chief’s talks in Israel. But the Walla News website said he would discuss Iran’s nuclear programme and its activities in the region with both Bennett and […]
US announces extra $165 million in Yemen aid
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The United States on Monday announced an additional $165 million in humanitarian aid for Yemen, as the war-ravaged country continues to face what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Yemen’s conflict flared in 2014 when Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led intervention to prop up the internationally recognized government the following year. The fighting has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and left […]
Putin orders reinforcements to fight Siberia wildfires
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered officials Tuesday to send in reinforcements to fight forest fires that continue to tear through Siberia. Wildfires have ripped through Siberia’s forests with growing intensity in recent years, which Russian weather officials and environmentalists have linked to climate change and underfunded forestry management services. Putin ordered Russia’s emergencies ministry to “increase the group for extinguishing fires” and “raise the intensity of the work of aviation” in […]
Bangladesh begins Covid-19 vaccinations for Rohingya refugees
KUTUPALONG Bangladesh (AFP) — Bangladesh on Tuesday began vaccinating Rohingya refugees living in congested camps as the impoverished South Asian nation battles a record surge in coronavirus cases, officials said. Health officials say 2,600 Covid-19 cases and 29 deaths have been recorded in the camps housing some 850,000 Rohingya but many experts say this is likely a gross underestimate. The initial inoculation phase will see around 48,000 refugees aged over 55 get Chinese-made Sinopharm shots […]
China virus cases rise as Delta variant challenges Beijing
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s coronavirus cases hit a seven-month high on Tuesday, after a cluster at a test site drove up numbers as the Delta variant challenges Beijing’s grip on the pandemic. State media has described the current outbreak — which has sparked local lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions — as the most severe since the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan. Authorities had brought domestic infections down to virtually zero, […]
Myanmar junta says had ‘nothing to do’ with UN envoy plot
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s junta had “nothing to do” with an alleged plot to attack the country’s ambassador to the UN, who has defied the military and backed the pro-democracy movement, state media said Tuesday. Kyaw Moe Tun made headlines after the army’s February coup, brazenly disregarding its insistence that he no longer represents the country at the New York-based body. Last week United States prosecutors said they had charged two Myanmar citizens over […]
Nepal’s elderly get second Covid-19 vaccine shots after months-long wait
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP ) — Nepal on Monday rolled out second Covid-19 vaccine jabs for nearly 1.4 million elderly people, following a months-long delay after neighbouring India halted exports over a massive surge in infections. People aged over 65 became eligible from March to receive their first AstraZeneca-Oxford shots from India, but were unable to get their second dose after the stock ran out. The vaccination drive was later opened in stages to everyone above […]
Nagasaki marks atomic bomb anniversary with sombre ceremony
by Kyoko HASEGAWA TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Monday commemorated the 76th anniversary of its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with the mayor calling for the global community to build on a new nuclear ban treaty. Nagasaki was flattened in an atomic inferno that killed 74,000 people, three days after the nuclear bomb that hit Hiroshima. The twin attacks rang in the nuclear age and gave Japan the bleak […]
Brunei clamps down after first local virus cases in 15 months
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Brunei imposed strict curbs to halt the spread of Covid-19, after finding its first locally transmitted cases in the country in over a year. Seven community infections were found, the health ministry said Saturday, leading the government to close all places of worship and postpone social events for two weeks. Mass events were also limited to groups of 30 people over this period as school classes were moved online and […]
