MALAYSIA
More infectious strain found
A mutation of SARS-CoV-2, called D614G, that is 10 times more infectious has been found in at least three of the 45 cases in a cluster that started from a restaurant owner returning from India and breaching his 14-day home quarantine. The man has since been sentenced to five months in prison and fined. The strain was also found in another cluster involving people returning from the Philippines. The strain could mean that existing studies on vaccines might be incomplete or ineffective against the mutation, Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said. “People need to be wary and take greater precautions because this strain has now been found in Malaysia,” he said on Facebook on Sunday.
GUATEMALA
Militants attack 40 families
An armed group attacked a community of Maya Q’eqchi in the town of Cubilguitz on Sunday, burning down their houses, the government said. Police received calls warning of the attack and sent agents to the site, where they found 40 families had been attacked, a spokesman said, adding that the local district attorney’s office is investigating. “Violence is not acceptable between brothers. We are concerned about the events in the community of Cubulwitz, Coban, Alta Verapaz, and we have coordinated with various institutions to guarantee the safety and lives of the residents,” President Alejandro Giammattei said in a tweet.
GERMANY
Police action investigated
Duisburg police are investigating an incident on Saturday evening where officers in Duesseldorf pinned a young man to the ground, one holding his arms behind him and the other holding his head with his knee, authorities said yesterday. A video of the incident has gone viral. Officers had been called to a restaurant on reports that about 10 people were rioting. The youth who was pinned was apparently not involved in the fracas, but “disrupted police measures” when they arrived on the scene, then assaulted officers when they were trying to identify him, police said. The investigation is being conducted by police in Duisburg “for reasons of neutrality,” police said.
UNITED STATES
Funds raised for slain boy
More than US$700,000 have been raised for the funeral service expenses of slain five-year-old Cannon Hinnant in North Carolina, whose death has captured national attention. The donations poured into a GoFundMe page organized by Gwen Hinnant, who identified herself as the boy’s grandmother. The funeral service was held on Thursday, days after the boy was fatally shot in his family’s driveway as he rode his bike, allegedly by a 25-year-old neighbor, Darius Nathaniel Sessoms, who has been charged with first-
degree murder.
NEW ZEALAND
Lego piece out of nose
A missing Lego piece has dropped out of a child’s nose two years after he pushed it up. Seven-year-old Sameer Anwar of Dunedin inserted a Lego piece up his nose in 2018. His parents took him to a doctor, who was unable to find it. Over the weekend, a plate of pink cupcakes prompted the boy to lean down and take a great big sniff of them. His nose immediately began to hurt. His mother helped him blow his nose, but instead of cake crumbs, out dropped a tiny piece of black Lego, covered in fungus. “We never expected such thing,” Anwar’s father said. “The Lego piece looks a bit gross, but that’s how it is. Unbelievable.”
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
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