Japan confirmed its first domestic infection of swine flu yesterday after a male high school student who has never been abroad tested positive for the virus.
“Today, the first patient infected with the new-type influenza in the country was confirmed,” Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told a news conference.
Two of the student’s schoolmates had also tested positive for swine flu in an initial genetic examination, which was being followed up by further tests, government officials said.
“The [three] people have no record of traveling abroad,” Masuzoe said, adding that the students had been isolated and were being treated in a hospital in the western city of Kobe.
Authorities in Kobe decided to temporarily close at least 75 schools and kindergartens and cancel festivals and other public events in some districts of the city, where fear of an outbreak was growing rapidly.
Saturday’s confirmed case is the first infection known to have taken place within the country.
Earlier this month, Japan confirmed its first A (H1N1) cases — a school teacher and three students who arrived at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport from North America and were quarantined.
Meanwhile, Malaysia confirmed its second case of swine flu yesterday — a female student who was on the same flight as a 21-year-old man whom authorities a day earlier announced had tested positive.
“Malaysia has a second case of the A (H1N1) influenza, which was confirmed by the Institute of Medical Research this morning,” the health ministry’s deputy director general Ramlee Rahmat said.
India confirmed its first case of the H1N1 flu in the southern city of Hyderabad yesterday.
“He is an Indian. He was identified at the screening at the airport and was quarantined, and his samples were drawn and they have tested positive,” said Vineet Choudhary, joint secretary of the health ministry.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
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MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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