VIETNAM
Schools reopen one year on
More than 17 million students were yesterday due to return to school for the first time in about a year, the Ministry of Health said. The country lifted many of its COVID-19 curbs in October, but almost all students had been confined to taking online classes since early last year. Most schools in the country are due to reopen by the middle of this month, the ministry said in a statement. Separately, the government said that it intends to buy 21.9 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five to 12. Schools in the capital, Hanoi, are to reopen from today, with precautions such as temperature checks and protocols in place in case positive cases are detected, authorities said.
CHINA
‘Millions dead’ if no curbs
Restoring normal population mobility to “zero COVID” regions would cause about 2 million deaths in one year and the key to controlling the virus is developing vaccines that are better at preventing infection, a team of local scientists said in a paper published on Friday in the weekly bulletin of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Even with a global vaccination rate of 95 percent, if population mobility was restored to 2019 levels, the researchers estimated that all “zero COVID” regions would see more than 234 million infections within one year, including 64 million symptomatic cases and 2 million deaths. “The human race should continue to develop vaccines and explore new ways to improve vaccine protection against infection,” the team said.
INDONESIA
Crash kills 13; dozens hurt
At least 13 people were killed and dozens more injured after a tour bus carrying factory workers to a beach holiday crashed on Java, police said. The bus and its 47 passengers were headed from Sukoharjo in Central Java to a family gathering in Yogyakarta Province when the driver lost control going downhill, the police said late on Sunday. “Witnesses we questioned said they saw the driver panicking as he tried to manage the gear stick, so there’s an indication that the brake was not functioning, or faulty,” Bantul District Police Chief Ihsan, who like many residents uses only one name, told reporters.
INDIA
Editor arrested in Kashmir
A prominent journalist has been arrested under terrorism and sedition laws, as a crackdown on the press in Kashmir continues to escalate. Fahad Shah, the founder and editor of the widely read local news Web site The Kashmir Walla, was arrested on Friday evening when he was summoned to a police station in the southern district of Pulwama. Inspector General Vijay Kumar, the police chief of Kashmir, told reporters that Shah, 33, “has been arrested on the basis of one of the three FIRs [first information reports] lodged against him for frequently glorifying terrorism, spreading fake news and instigating people for the past three to four years.”
TUNISIA
Navy rescues 163 migrants
The navy has rescued 163 migrants, including women and children, off the country’s east coast, the Ministry of Defense said on Sunday. “As part of a joint operation with the coast guard, a naval unit rescued 163 illegal migrants on Saturday,” the ministry said. Nine women and 16 children were found aboard the boat 12km off the coast of Sfax, it said. Sfax is a key departure area for migrants seeking to make their way to European shores, usually in Italy.
GREECE
Police seek 10 for stabbing
Thessaloniki police on Sunday said they had issued 10 arrest warrants in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old soccer fan last week and the injuries of his two friends. Six people have already been arrested, police said. A 23-year-old man was yesterday to appear before prosecutors after being arrested last week as a suspect in the attack outside the stadium of top-flight club Aris. “We had said from the first moment that it is a matter of honor for the Greek police, for justice, for the state as a whole, for the investigation into the murder of 19-year-old Alkis Kampanos to reach the end,” Citizen Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos said.
GREECE
Three climbers found dead
Three mountain climbers were on Sunday evening found dead near the popular ski resort of Kalavryta, the fire service said. The three men, aged 40, 49 and 56, had been missing since Saturday, the Athens News Agency said. They had left Kalavryta in the morning to climb the 2,355m Mount Helmos. At least 22 firefighters searched for hours on Sunday. The men’s bodies were found after some of their belongings were spotted in the snow from a helicopter. Authorities are investigating whether they were killed by an avalanche, the news agency said.
COSTA RICA
Ex-president heads to run-off
Former president Jose Maria Figueres on Sunday comfortably led the preliminary vote count in the presidential election, with former finance minister Rodrigo Chaves poised to defy expectations to face him in a second-round run-off on April 3. Figueres was expected to win 27.3 percent of the vote based on returns from nearly three-quarters of polling stations, with Chaves pulling past evangelical Christian Fabricio Alvarado to carve out an advantage in second with 16.6 percent of the tally. To win the first round outright, a candidate had to secure more than 40 percent of votes.
HONDURAS
Castro tests positive
President Xiomara Castro on Sunday said that she was infected with COVID-19, but will continue working remotely. “The result of the PCR [polymerase chain reaction test] yesterday [Saturday] was negative, today’s is positive,” the 62-year-old president, who replaced Juan Orlando Hernandez, wrote on Twitter. “According to the tests it is mild. With the blessing of the Creator of the universe, I continue to follow my Plan of Government to return to democratic and constitutional order,” she added. The president is vaccinated against the virus, said her husband, Manuel Zelaya, a former president who was ousted in 2009. Castro carried out public engagements last week, participating on Tuesday and Thursday in the celebrations for the 275th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin of Suyapa, in the basilica in the east of Tegucigalpa.
ECUADOR
Quito flooding toll raised
The heaviest flooding to hit the country in two decades claimed 28 lives in the capital, Quito, this week and injured 52 people, the city’s mayor said on Sunday. Rain that drenched Quito for 17 hours caused flooding and surges of mud that damaged roads, agricultural areas, clinics, schools, a police station and an electric power substation. “The total number of dead is 28, 52 people were injured, seven of whom were hospitalized,” Quito Mayor Santiago Guarderas told a news conference. Guarderas earlier said that Monday’s downpour brought down 75 liters per square meter following 3.5 liters on Saturday.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
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
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
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