VIETNAM
European arrivals banned
The country is suspending tourist visas for travelers who have been in the UK, Northern Ireland and Schengen countries 14 days prior to their planned arrival starting today at noon because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an announcement on its Web site. The ban also includes those who “come from” these regions, the statement said, without further explanation. The government is also suspending the issuance of visas on arrivals to travelers from all countries. Diplomatic and business travelers are excluded from the travel ban, which would last 30 days, but face health checks and possible quarantines, the statement said. The decision follows the country’s suspension of visa waivers for nine European countries. Vietnam Airlines announced on its Web site that it would not carry passengers on return flights to Vietnam from London, Paris and Frankfurt beginning today.
UNITED KINGDOM
Local elections postponed
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has postponed May’s local and mayoral elections in England for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson’s office said on Friday. On Thursday, the Electoral Commission watchdog said the polls should be put off until the autumn to “mitigate” the effects of the virus. The elections were due to appoint about 120 English local councils, eight directly elected mayors, including in London, and 40 police and crime commissioners in England and Wales. Eleven people have died due to the virus, with 798 cases confirmed nationwide.
INDIA
Second virus death reported
The country on Friday reported its second coronavirus fatality, a 68-year-old woman in New Delhi who died one day after officials in the capital ordered schools, cinemas and theaters closed. The government said that the woman, who had diabetes and hypertension, and her son had tested positive. It said in a statement that the woman’s son had traveled to Switzerland and Italy last month, and went to hospital in New Delhi on Saturday last week with a fever and cough.
GUATEMALA
US, Canada arrivals banned
The country would from tomorrow widen travel restrictions to fight the spread of COVID-19, banning arrivals from the US and Canada, President Alejandro Giammattei said on Friday. “We are therefore announcing that everyone who arrives from Canada and the United States between now and midnight on Monday will be subject to quarantining,” Giammattei said in a televised address. The president said he had also asked the Mexican government to halt deportations of migrants by land to Guatemala. No cruise ships would be allowed to dock, but public events and school classes would go ahead for the time being, he added. Earlier this week, Guatemala banned arrivals from European countries, China, Iran, South Korea and North Korea.
JAMAICA
PM asks Cuba for aid
Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Friday declared the island a disaster area because of the threat of coronavirus infection and said that the country is seeking 100 Cuban nurses to help it to cope. “We are trying as hard as possible to contain the spread of the virus,” Holness said on Twitter, adding that he was imposing travel curbs on people arriving from the UK. Jamaica has reported eight cases of COVID-19 infection.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
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