KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian health authorities on Monday said the vaccine developed by Astrazeneca is safe for use, three days after the Southeast Asian nation received its first batch of the shots bought through the COVAX facility.
“I confirm the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca is safe, and it will be administered to those aged 60 years and older,” Health Minister Adham Baba said in a televised news conference.
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Malaysia says Astrazeneca vaccine safe, will be used on elderly
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Malaysia says Astrazeneca vaccine safe, will be used on elderly
- Health Minister Adham Baba said the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca is safe
Hegseth sworn in as US defense secretary
WASHINGTON: Former infantryman and Fox News personality Pete Hegseth was sworn in as US defense secretary Saturday, having narrowly won Senate confirmation despite allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and concerns over inexperience.
Pledging to “restore the warrior ethos” in the Pentagon, Hegseth in brief remarks thanked President Donald Trump for selecting him and Vice President JD Vance for his tie-breaking vote in the Senate that allowed his nomination to pass.
Vance’s vote Friday evening was only the second time in history a vice president had to intervene to save a cabinet nominee and came after three Republicans — including former leader Mitch McConnell — cast ballots against Hegseth.
The razor-edge result underscored concerns about Hegseth, who takes over the Pentagon with war raging in Ukraine, the Middle East volatile despite ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza, and as Trump expands the military’s role in security on the US-Mexico border.
The 44-year-old is a former Army National Guard officer and Bronze Star recipient with previous deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Until recently, he worked as a co-host for Fox News — one of Trump’s favored television channels.
Hegseth has a combative media personality, fierce loyalty and telegenic looks — common hallmarks in Trump’s entourage.
Supporters say Hegseth’s deployments give him the insight to run the Defense Department better than more experienced officials who would normally be considered for the job.
Speaking Saturday after his swearing in, Hegseth said he was thinking of “the guys that I served with on the battlefield, the men and women who I locked shields with and put my life on the line with.”
“We’re going to think about those warriors with every single decision that we make,” he said.
In confirming him, Republicans brushed aside his lack of experience leading an organization anywhere near the size of the Defense Department — the country’s largest employer with some three million personnel.
They also approved Hegseth despite allegations of financial mismanagement at veterans’ nonprofits where he previously worked, reports of excessive drinking, and allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in California.
Trump has stood by him, telling reporters on Friday that he’s “a very, very good man.”
Asked during his confirmation hearing last week about criticism he has faced, Hegseth said there was a “coordinated smear campaign” against him, and that he is “not a perfect person, but redemption is real.”
The thrice-married father of seven has frequently proclaimed his Christian faith, and began his remarks Saturday by saying “All praise and glory to God, his will be done.”
He credited his successful nomination to “Jesus and Jenny” — his wife.
Pledging to “restore the warrior ethos” in the Pentagon, Hegseth in brief remarks thanked President Donald Trump for selecting him and Vice President JD Vance for his tie-breaking vote in the Senate that allowed his nomination to pass.
Vance’s vote Friday evening was only the second time in history a vice president had to intervene to save a cabinet nominee and came after three Republicans — including former leader Mitch McConnell — cast ballots against Hegseth.
The razor-edge result underscored concerns about Hegseth, who takes over the Pentagon with war raging in Ukraine, the Middle East volatile despite ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza, and as Trump expands the military’s role in security on the US-Mexico border.
The 44-year-old is a former Army National Guard officer and Bronze Star recipient with previous deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Until recently, he worked as a co-host for Fox News — one of Trump’s favored television channels.
Hegseth has a combative media personality, fierce loyalty and telegenic looks — common hallmarks in Trump’s entourage.
Supporters say Hegseth’s deployments give him the insight to run the Defense Department better than more experienced officials who would normally be considered for the job.
Speaking Saturday after his swearing in, Hegseth said he was thinking of “the guys that I served with on the battlefield, the men and women who I locked shields with and put my life on the line with.”
“We’re going to think about those warriors with every single decision that we make,” he said.
In confirming him, Republicans brushed aside his lack of experience leading an organization anywhere near the size of the Defense Department — the country’s largest employer with some three million personnel.
They also approved Hegseth despite allegations of financial mismanagement at veterans’ nonprofits where he previously worked, reports of excessive drinking, and allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in California.
Trump has stood by him, telling reporters on Friday that he’s “a very, very good man.”
Asked during his confirmation hearing last week about criticism he has faced, Hegseth said there was a “coordinated smear campaign” against him, and that he is “not a perfect person, but redemption is real.”
The thrice-married father of seven has frequently proclaimed his Christian faith, and began his remarks Saturday by saying “All praise and glory to God, his will be done.”
He credited his successful nomination to “Jesus and Jenny” — his wife.
Rescue teams empty 1,500 tons of oil from Russian tanker
- The mishap resulted in a devastating oil spill that damaged miles (kilometers) of coastline along the Black Sea
- Two Russian ships, the Volgoneft-239 and the Volgoneft-212, were badly damaged in stormy weather in December
MOSCOW: Rescue workers have successfully removed almost 1,500 tons of oil left onboard a tanker that ran aground last year in southern Russia, officials said Saturday.
The mishap resulted in a devastating oil spill that damaged miles (kilometers) of coastline along the Black Sea.
Two Russian ships, the Volgoneft-239 and the Volgoneft-212, were badly damaged in stormy weather in December resulting in thousands of tons of low-grade fuel oil called mazut spilling into the Kerch Strait.
A crew from Russia’s Marine Rescue Service siphoned away the remaining 1,488 tons of oil left in the grounded Volgoneft-239 in a six-day operation, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev said Saturday in a post on the Russian government’s official Telegram channel.
Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov announced that the damaged tanker would be drained earlier this month but workers found it was continuing to leak oil into the water.
The Volgoneft-239 will now be cleaned and prepared for being dismantled, Savelyev said. The fate of the second tanker, the Volgoneft-212, remains undecided after the boat sank beneath the waves.
So far, oil from the spill has washed up along beaches in Russia’s Krasnodar region, as well as in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Crimea and the Berdyansk Spit, some 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the Kerch Strait. President Vladimir Putin earlier in January called the spill “one of the most serious environmental challenges we have faced in recent years.”
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said Saturday that more than 173,000 tons of contaminated sand and soil have so far been collected by the weekslong cleanup effort, with thousands of volunteers joining the operation.
Zelensky expresses hopes US, Europe will be involved in Ukraine peace talks
- Zelensky said Ukraine also needed to be involved in any talks about ending the war
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hopes Europe and the United States will be involved in any talks about ending his country’s war with Russia, he told reporters on Saturday.
At a joint news conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, Zelensky said Ukraine also needed to be involved in any talks about ending the war for such negotiations to have any meaningful impact.
Ukrainian hit on occupied southern village kills 3: Moscow-installed official
- “Ukrainian terrorists shelled Oleshky with cluster munitions and remote mine-clearing systems,” Saldo said
- “At the moment, we know about three killed civilians”
MOSCOW: Russian occupational authorities in southern Ukraine said Saturday that a Ukrainian strike on a Moscow-held village in the Kherson region killed three people.
Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-installed leader of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, accused Kyiv of using cluster munitions in a strike on the village of Oleshky.
Oleshky lies close to the city of Kherson and near the Dnipro river, which forms the frontline in southern Ukraine.
“Ukrainian terrorists shelled Oleshky with cluster munitions and remote mine-clearing systems,” Saldo said in a post on Telegram.
“At the moment, we know about three killed civilians,” he added, saying the victims are being identified.
He called on villagers to stay in their homes or in shelters.
Both sides in the almost three-year war have accused each other of using cluster munitions.
The US has supplied cluster munitions — which rights groups say are particularly deadly and have long-term effects — drawing criticism even from its allies.
Kyiv, meanwhile, said that four people were wounded by Russian attacks in the Kherson region on Saturday.
Seoul court rejects second request to extend Yoon detention
- Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested last week on insurrection charges
- Becomes first sitting South Korean head of state to be detained in a criminal probe
SEOUL: A Seoul court rejected a second request Saturday to extend the detention of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed attempt to declare martial law, putting pressure on prosecutors to quickly indict him.
Yoon was arrested last week on insurrection charges, becoming the first sitting South Korean head of state to be detained in a criminal probe.
His December 3 martial law decree only lasted about six hours before it was voted down by lawmakers, but it still managed to plunge South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.
The Seoul Central District Court on Saturday turned down a request for a detention extension, prosecutors said in a brief statement.
This follows a ruling by the same court a day earlier when a judge stated it was “difficult to find sufficient grounds” to grant an extension.
Prosecutors had planned to keep the disgraced leader in custody until February 6 for questioning before formally indicting him, but that plan will now need to be adjusted.
“With the court’s rejection of the extension, prosecutors must now work quickly to formally indict Yoon to keep him behind bars,” Yoo Jung-hoon, an attorney and political commentator, said.
Yoon has refused to cooperate with the criminal probe, with his legal defense team arguing investigators lack legal authority.
The suspended president is also facing a separate hearing in the Constitutional Court which, if it upholds his impeachment, would officially remove him from office.
An election would then have to be held within 60 days.
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