Malaysia’s government urged people yesterday to protect themselves from dengue fever after infections and deaths caused by the mosquito-borne disease doubled in the first weeks of this year.
Eight people died of dengue through Saturday, twice the number of fatalities in the same period last year, the Malaysian Health Ministry said in a statement.
Dengue fever sickened 3,211 people in Malaysia between Jan. 4 and Saturday, up from 1,514 cases in the same period last year, the ministry said.
Authorities attributed the increase to a persistent rainy season and unsanitary conditions around homes that enable mosquitoes to thrive in stagnant water.
More than half the cases occurred in Malaysia’s largest city, Kuala Lumpur, and its neighboring state of Selangor.
“People are aware [of the threat] but they are not taking action,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements. “Maybe they don’t take it seriously if their family isn’t affected.”
FLOWER POTS
The ministry said it has launched a massive publicity campaign advising people to rid their homes and surroundings of flower pots, cans and other trash in which stagnant water can collect and allow mosquitoes to breed.
The dengue virus causes severe joint pain, high fever, nausea and a rash.
In the worst cases it can lead to internal bleeding, liver enlargement, circulatory shutdown and sometimes death. There is no known cure or vaccine.
DEFIANCE
A Catholic newspaper in Malaysia has defied a ban on using the word “Allah” as a translation for “God,” in a row with the government that has threatened to close the weekly publication.
The editor of the Herald newspaper, Father Lawrence Andrew, said this week’s edition used the banned word and that he intended to continue doing so until the courts rule on the issue next month.
“We find this restriction on the use of ‘Allah’ unacceptable when we have been using it as a translation for ‘God’ for centuries in Malaysia,” he said.
Authorities have said the word should only be used by Muslims.
The government last month ordered a ban on the Herald’s Malay edition until the court makes its final decision.
But after the newspaper warned it would take legal action to overturn the ban, the home ministry backed down and said it could continue publishing as long as it did not use the disputed translation.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion