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.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS