AUSTRALIA
Food hoarders shamed
Hoarders, who have stripped shop shelves of everything from flour to disinfectant and brawled over toilet paper, were shamed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison as the nation’s biggest supermarket chain tightened purchase limits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus has fueled panic shopping worldwide by families fearing a months-long lockdown. “It’s been one of the most disappointing things I’ve seen in Australian behavior in response to this crisis,” Morrison said at a news conference yesterday. “It’s un-Australian and it must stop. I can’t be more blunt about it. Stop hoarding.”
VIETNAM
Mosque event sparks case
The government has confirmed an additional case of the coronavirus linked to a mosque event in Malaysia, Acting Minister of Health Vu Duc Dam said yesterday, bringing the nation’s total number of cases to 67. The latest patient, a 36-year-old man identified as “Patient 67,” attended a 16,000-person mosque gathering in Kuala Lumpur and is the second patient in the country linked to the event, the health ministry said in a statement. Patient 67’s home village was placed under lockdown for 28 days from Tuesday night.
INDONESIA
Sanitizer exports banned
The government has banned the export of masks, sanitizers and some medical equipment to shore up domestic supplies amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. Shipments of masks, its raw materials, antiseptics and protective gears such as surgery clothing are banned until June 30, the Ministry of Trade said yesterday, adding that exporters who fail to comply would face a penalty.
INDIA
‘No toilet’ is bad argument
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the navy to treat male and female officers equally, rejecting the government’s argument that women could not be sailors because there were no separate bathrooms on ships as “illusory.” The court also instructed the government to give all female officers permanent contracts with the same benefits as men, including arrears, promotions and pensions. “A 101 excuses are no answer to the constitutional entitlement to dignity, which attaches to every individual irrespective of gender, to fair and equal conditions of work and to a level playing field,” the landmark ruling said.
IRAQ
New rockets hit Baghdad
A pair of rockets late on Tuesday hit a residential district near the capital’s high-security Green Zone, a security source said, in the second such attack of the day. The projectiles hit an apartment building and wounded three people, the source said. Just before dawn on Tuesday, rockets hit a military base at Besmaya, where US-led coalition troops and NATO forces are deployed alongside local troops.
MOROCCO
Field hospitals fight virus
King Mohammed VI on Tuesday ordered the army to use field hospitals to help health services fight the pandemic, the Cabinet said. Donations to a special fund to improve health infrastructure, and offset the pandemic’s social and economic repercussions have exceeded US$1 billion. The government has suspended all international flights, closed mosques, schools, entertainment and sports venues, and non-essential shops as a precautionary measure against the pandemic.
UNITED KINGDOM
Polygraph monitoring urged
Mandatory testing with a polygraph should be introduced to monitor convicted sex offenders undergoing police supervision, university research commissioned by police chiefs said. The study by psychologists at the University of Kent, published yesterday, said that compulsory testing could reduce the risk to the public and target “all categories of risk effectively... Mandatory testing would eliminate refusals to volunteer for initial or subsequent polygraph tests... It is also supported by the public and by offender managers.”
GREECE
Visitors barred from camps
A two-week ban on visitors to refugee camps nationwide has been imposed to ward off COVID-19. “Visits [to camps] by individuals and organizations are suspended for at least 14 days,” the Ministry of Migration Policy said in a statement on Tuesday. “Entry will be allowed only to staff and there will be a compulsory temperature check for new arrivals,” it said. In a statement to mark four years since a deal with the EU on refugees, the Greek Council for Refugees and Oxfam said “suffering has reached unimaginable levels.” “Nothing can justify the indiscriminate detention of people seeking asylum, and Greece should not deny them a safe place during the current health crisis,” they said.
TURKEY
Video talks on migrant crisis
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday discussed the migrant crisis and the situation in Syria’s last rebel enclave of Idlib with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a video conference. The meeting was held via video due to concern about the spread of COVID-19. Macron’s office said there was a convergence of views on the situation in Idlib and the need to step up humanitarian aid to civilians during the conference that lasted about an hour. However, on the migrant issue, and NATO and EU relations, “a number of clarifications have been requested by Europeans from Erdogan in order to achieve clearer and peaceful relations,” the office said.
EUROPEAN UNION
Streaming spikes worldwide
Streaming surged this past weekend, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said California-based Wurl, which delivers video and advertising to connected TVs. The amount of time people spent streaming spiked by more than 20 percent worldwide, including more than 40 percent in Austria and Spain. Researchers are seeing more activity in places like Netflix and Twitch, the online gaming network owned by Amazon.com. “While video streaming is far from the most important thing on the world agenda, it is an industry that indirectly will see a major shift due to the crisis,” Wurl chief executive Sean Doherty said.
MEXICO
Crucifixion moved indoors
A Mexico City borough on Tuesday announced that Latin America’s most famous re-enactment of the crucifixion of Christ would be closed to the public for the first time in 177 years to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The lavish Easter-week Passion of Christ that includes huge processions and a huge cast has been performed in Iztapalapa since 1843, and has drawn about 2 million spectators during the week in the past few years. Iztapalapa borough president Clara Brugada said the Passion of Christ would be held indoors with a smaller cast and the event would be transmitted live.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
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