FIJI
First virus death reported
The government yesterday announced its first COVID-19 death, but health officials assured people in the Pacific island nation that it was not the precursor to a major outbreak. Minister for Health and Medical Services Ifereimi Waqainabete said the victim was a 66-year-old man who tested positive after returning from India, where he had undergone surgery for a long-standing heart condition. “Sadly, despite the best efforts of our healthcare professionals, this gentleman passed away yesterday in the isolation ward at Lautoka hospital due to complications from COVID-19,” Waqainabete told reporters. He said the man was one of nine active cases who had been held in quarantine since they were repatriated from India on July 1. Before then, Fiji had enjoyed a spell of four weeks virus-free, after the 18 cases it had previously recorded all recovered.
PUERTO RICO
Hurricane on path to US
New Hurricane Isaias early yesterday kept on a path expected to take it to the US east coast by the weekend as it approached the Bahamas, parts of which are still recovering from the devastation of last year’s Hurricane Dorian. Isaias had maximum sustained winds of 130kph early yesterday and was centered about 70km southeast of Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas, the US National Hurricane Center said. On Thursday, while still a tropical storm, Isaias knocked out power, toppled trees and caused widespread flooding and small landslides in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where at least 35 people were rescued from floodwaters and one person remained missing. Hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico were left without power and water.
NEW ZEALAND
Military misled public: report
The military misled government ministers and the public for years over civilian casualties in an operation in Afghanistan in 2010, investigators concluded in a report released yesterday. Operation Burnham, carried out by New Zealand troops and allied forces in Afghanistan’s Tirgiran Valley on Aug. 21-22, 2010, resulted in civilian casualties, according to the book Hit & Run by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson. The New Zealand Defence Force said for years reports of civilian casualties were baseless, but yesterday Defence Force Chief Air Marshal Kevin Short said there had been “organizational and administrative failings.” The investigators said in the report it was likely a girl died as a result of the operation. At least seven men were killed, three of whom were identified as insurgents, and there was evidence linking two others to the insurgent group, the report said. The enquiry was unable to determine whether the two other people killed were insurgents or civilians. At least six civilians were wounded.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The