COX’S BAZAR: Health workers in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh are struggling with a shortage of medics able to administer antitoxins to patients infected with diphtheria that has killed nearly two dozen people, aid officials said.
Neighboring Myanmar’s military cracked down on Muslim Rohingya from Rakhine state following Rohingya militant attacks on an army base and police posts on Aug. 25. More than 650,000 Rohingya have fled mainly Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh since August, on top of more than 200,000 who fled earlier, according to latest UN data.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the lead agency dealing with an outbreak of the bacterial disease in camps sheltering the Rohingya, has treated around 2,000 patients in the past few weeks and is receiving around 100 new cases daily.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes diphtheria as a widespread, severe infectious disease with epidemic potential and a mortality rate of up to 10 percent. MSF has called diphtheria a disease “long forgotten in most parts of the world thanks to increasing rates of vaccination.”
MSF has managed to provide antitoxins to only around 12 patients daily due to the lack of trained medics, said Crystal van Leeuwen, an MSF emergency medical coordinator now in Cox’s Bazar where the refugee camps are located.
“Once we do have enough people and other organizations start to administer as well, we may get into a situation where we don’t have enough antitoxins anymore,” she told Reuters by phone on Thursday.
“It’s a double-edged sword. We need both the human resources to administer it, and we need more antitoxins at the same time.”
According to a UN report in February, supply of diphtheria antitoxin serum has been limited for many years and the shortage is expected to continue through 2017.
The British government said on Thursday it was sending a team of more than 40 doctors, nurses and firefighters to Cox’s Bazar for six weeks to deal with the diphtheria outbreak following a request by the WHO and Bangladesh government.
The refugees live in densely populated camps and shacks made from bamboo and plastic sheets, with poor access to clean water, sanitation and health services.
Rohingya at risk of deadly diphtheria, face shortage of medics, antitoxins
Rohingya at risk of deadly diphtheria, face shortage of medics, antitoxins
Ukraine’s Zelensky suggests truce until meeting with Putin can be arranged
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday proposed implementing a ceasefire until such time as a meeting can be arranged with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“My proposal, which I believe our partners can support, is that we propose to Russians a ceasefire until the leaders meet,” Zelensky told a briefing in Kyiv.
June 2 peace talks with Russia in Istanbul made little progress toward ending the three-year-old war in Ukraine, apart from an exchange of proposals and a plan for a major swap of prisoners of war, which Zelensky said would take place this weekend.
’Why this hatred’: French town reels over killing of Tunisian man
Tributes poured in from shocked neighbors and friends mourning the murder of Hichem Miraoui, with more than a dozen bouquets placed outside the barbershop where he worked in the quiet town of Puget-sur-Argens.
“I don’t understand why he was killed. Why all this hatred?” said Sylvia Elvasorre, a 65-year-old pensioner who lives next to the hair salon, tears in her eyes.
Marwouen Gharssalli, 43, echoed her disbelief, saying his friend was generous and willing to lend a helping hand.
“He even cut hair for free when people couldn’t pay... he regularly used to cut my son’s hair,” said Gharssalli, a welder in the southern town.
A card signed by fellow shopkeepers said the death of Miraoui — remembered as hard-working and warm — would “leave a void.”
Christophe B., a French national, shot and killed Miraoui, 46, on Saturday evening before injuring another neighbor, a Turkish national. The suspect, born in 1971, was arrested after his partner alerted police.
He posted racist videos on social media both before and after the attack, according to regional prosecutor Pierre Couttenier.
A silent march is planned in Puget-sur-Argens on Sunday to affirm the city’s “absolute rejection of hatred and our commitment to respect, tolerance and fraternity,” said a town hall statement.
The shooting followed the murder of a Malian man in a mosque in April, also in southern France, while the burning of a Qur'an near Lyon at the weekend has further fueled concerns over rising anti-Muslim attacks in the country.
“People are stunned that a racist crime like this could happen. This kind of thing is not part of Puget’s culture,” said Paul Boudoube, the town’s mayor.
Miraoui was in a video call with family planning for the major Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, when he was shot
“He was joking with our sick mother when I heard him grunt and the call ended,” said Hanen Miraoui, the victim’s sister.
According to French daily Le Parisien, the suspect in Miraoui’s murder said he “swore allegiance to the French flag” and called on the French to “shoot” people of foreign origin in one of his videos posted on social media.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the investigation into the case, the first such racist attack linked to the far right to be dealt with as “terrorism” since their office was set up in 2019.
“It means that investigative resources will be devoted to analizing the political motives behind this act and how this person became radicalized,” said the legal head of the anti-discrimination group SOS Racisme, Zelie Heran, who praised the referral.
Following the murder, political and religious leaders have sounded the alarm over growing anti-Muslim acts in France, which increased by 72 percent in the first quarter, with 79 recorded cases, according to interior ministry figures.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is taking an increasingly hard line on immigration issues, has faced accusations of not being firm enough against such crimes and even fueling a racist climate.
But he said on Tuesday that the killing of Miraoui was “clearly a racist crime,” “probably also anti-Muslim” and “perhaps also a terrorist crime.”
Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, called on French President Emmanuel Macron to speak out.
“It is time to hold accountable the promoters of this hatred who, in political and media circles, act with complete impunity and incite extremely serious acts,” said Hafiz.
“Remind people of the reality that we are citizens of this country,” said Hafiz.
France is home to the largest Muslim community in the European Union, as well as the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.
There has also been a rise in reported attacks against members of France’s Jewish community since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 and the Israeli military responded with a devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
France’s Holocaust memorial and three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalized with paint on Saturday.
Barred for Gaza speech, MIT grad becomes symbol of courage for Indian students
- Indian-American 2025 class president calls out MIT for ‘aiding and abetting genocide’
- Her speech and MIT’s reaction gained global attention and media spotlight in India
NEW DELHI: When Megha Vemuri denounced the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for ties to Israel’s military, she was barred from the university’s graduation — an incident that resonated in her ancestral India, where students say she inspires them to stand up for Palestinian liberation.
The Indian-American class president of 2025, Vemuri addressed an MIT commencement ceremony last week.
“Right now, while we prepare to graduate and move forward with our lives, there are no universities left in Gaza. We are watching Israel try to wipe Palestine off the face of the earth. And it is a shame that MIT is a part of it,” she said, wearing a keffiyeh over her gown.
Without naming Vemuri, the MIT said in a statement right after the event that the “graduating senior” would not be permitted at the degree ceremony the next day.
While the speech got her barred from campus, it soon gained global media attention.
In India, Vemuri’s ancestry put her in the media spotlight, at the same time drawing attention to Israel’s ongoing deadly onslaught on Gaza — where, over the past year and a half, tens of thousands of people have been killed, critically wounded, and starved by Israel’s daily attacks and aid blockades.
“A lot more of the Indian media covered it, and people get to know and hear what’s happening … more and more people are realizing that this is not something you can be silent about,” Sreeja Dontireddy, a student at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad, told Arab News.
“I think what Megha Vemuri did was commendable and necessary at the same time … If you are given such a platform … and if you do not speak about Palestine, it would be a grave injustice.”
Vemuri said in a statement to the media that she was not disappointed that she did not get to walk the stage with her classmates.
“For two entire graduation seasons, over two years now, thousands of bright Gazan students should have been able to walk across a stage and receive their diplomas. These students did not get to walk because Israel murdered them, displaced them from their homes, and destroyed their schools,” she said.
“I am, however, disappointed that MIT’s officials massively overstepped their roles to punish me without merit or due process, with no indication of any specific policy broken. These repressive measures are proof that the university is guilty of aiding and abetting genocide … They want to distract from what is happening in Palestine and their role in it.”
For Akriti Chaudhary and Himanshu Thakur, recent history graduates from Delhi University, their MIT peer’s protest was something that inspired them to raise their voices more.
“Being a politically aware person, I feel really, really proud and really happy about people speaking up for the Palestinian cause,” Chaudhary said.
“It was difficult to digest the fact that she was barred from her own graduation ceremony … They want to curb all kinds of protest and all kinds of dissent. But it never works that way. It only inspires people to step in and talk about the situation.”
It also inspires them to call things what they really are, “to speak about (the Israeli) occupation, and to call a spade a spade, to call occupation an occupation,” Thakur added. “We need more such voices to come forward, not only in the US but also in India … We need more Meghas in our campuses.”
The opportunity created by Vemuri’s MIT speech is also one for renewed momentum in activism in India.
Priyambada, a physics student and coordinator of BDS India — a group advancing the global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign in the country — believes their efforts will be strengthened.
“How can you punish someone for speaking against genocide?” she said.
“This is giving strength to students across the world and giving us the opportunity to stand by Megha and Palestinian liberation … All colleges and universities, students from everywhere and people who believe in justice should come forward.”
EU antiques import clampdown could gut trade, warn dealers
- Dealers wishing to import goods such as archaeological treasures will have to provide documentation and proof
- The regulation is a European response to developments spanning terrorism in the Middle East to changing attitudes to cultural appropriation
PARIS: New European rules designed to crack down on the trafficking of stolen antiques and art are causing alarm among gallery owners, with some dealers warning of suffocating red tape that will affect trade.
The sector is bracing for the implementation of Regulation 2019/880 on June 28 which will introduce strict new requirements for imports into the European Union from non-EU countries.
Dealers wishing to import goods such as archaeological treasures will have to provide documentation and proof that they have been exported from their country of origin legally.
Other items including artworks, coins or books that are worth more than 18,000 euros ($20,500) and are more than 200 years old will also be subject to the restrictions.
“We’ll end up buying nothing outside the European Union,” warned Antonia Eberwein, vice president of the National Union of Antiques Dealers (SNA) in France.
She warned that the markets for archaeological items, as well as pre-Columbian, Chinese or Indian art “risk being depleted, without putting an end to illicit trafficking, which by nature is invisible and undeclared.”
Pierre Valentin, an art and heritage specialist at London-based law firm Fieldfisher, believes the aim of the regulation is “laudable” but that implementing it could lead to an “evidential nightmare for collectors.”
In some cases, goods will have left their country of origin centuries ago before changing hands several times among collectors, with today’s owners left needing to prove their property was exported legally.
“We’re being asked to provide things that don’t exist,” said Eberwein, calling the regulation “absurd” and the evidence requirement “a total lack of understanding of the realities” of the market.
The regulation is a European response to developments spanning terrorism in the Middle East to changing attitudes to cultural appropriation.
The links between organized crime, terror groups and trafficking in cultural goods have been repeatedly raised by international police group Interpol and the United Nations.
Al-Qaeda and Daesh group were both found to have looted archaeological sites under their control in Iraq and Syria to help fund their activities.
The EU regulation, which was first proposed in 2017 following years of Daesh attacks in Europe, refers to the pillaging of archaeological sites reaching “an industrial scale.”
The European Commission estimated in 2017 that the illicit trade in cultural goods could be worth up to 6.0 billion euros a year, putting it on a par with drugs, arms or counterfeit goods trafficking.
“Money is the life blood of war for the terrorists who attack our continent or who fight in Iraq and Syria,” then EU economic affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici said at the time.
There is also growing sensitivity in Europe about the continent’s colonial history and its role in looting artistic and cultural property.
Many major European institutions from the British Museum to the Louvre in Paris are analizing their collections and, in a small number of cases, returning items to their countries of origin.
Edouard de Lamaze, president of France’s Council of Auction Houses, which regulates auction houses, said the changes would have some positive effects and “will enhance transparency for buyers and collectors, and strengthen the role of auctioneers.”
But it also risks bringing “a heavy administrative burden and a slowdown in activity.”
Auctioneers “will now have to systematically rely on experts to trace the history of artworks — a task that is difficult, if not impossible,” especially in the case of inherited items with no documentation, he added.
Some countries, such as Mexico, “ban all exports and claim their entire archaeological heritage,” noted Alexandre Giquello, head of France’s Drouot auction group.
He views the regulation “very unfavorably” and warned of “significant economic losses.”
“While the aim is commendable, it could penalize a large part of the market by introducing a very convoluted process that is slow to implement and will drastically increase delays,” he said.
Paris-based gallery owner David Ghezelbash, who specializes in archaeological items from Greece, Egypt and Italy, said he was “not concerned,” however.
He operates outside the EU, including with American museums, and he already regularly commissions independent experts “to trace the history of each work, as far as possible.”
He acknowledged that “a grey area” would be formed for objects without documented provenance, however, especially inherited pieces which risk being discredited.
Indonesia’s health ministry issues warning over COVID-19 surge in Asia
- Indonesia was among hardest-hit in the region during the pandemic
- Local cases have so far remained relatively low amid the latest wave
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s government has urged healthcare facilities to step up COVID-19 surveillance, as a more transmissible omicron subvariant drives a surge in cases across Asia.
Parts of Asia have been reporting a new wave of infections since last month, especially Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
The new spread of the coronavirus that brought the world to a standstill a few years ago has been linked to JN.1, a highly transmissible variant of the omicron strain of COVID-19.
It emerged in late 2023 and spread globally through early 2024, becoming one of the dominant variants in many countries.
Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin met with President Prabowo Subianto on Tuesday to report on the country’s COVID-19 situation.
“Cases are indeed increasing, but the rise is caused by variants that are relatively less deadly,” Sadikin told reporters after the meeting.
His statement comes after Indonesia’s Health Ministry issued a circular last week instructing regional agencies, hospitals, community centers and other medical service facilities across the country to monitor case trends and report unusual conditions.
Health quarantine facilities are also instructed to “step up surveillance on people, transportation and items coming from abroad, especially those from countries that are reporting surges in COVID-19 cases,” the circular stated.
Indonesia has confirmed 72 COVID-19 cases and reported no deaths in 2025, the latest data from the Health Ministry showed. The caseload was at seven from last week alone, with the positive rate declining to 2.05 percent from a peak of 3.62 percent the previous week.
Indonesia was among the hardest-hit countries in Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a cumulative death toll of around 162,000, it has the second-highest number in the region, after 533,000 recorded in India.
