VUNG TAU, Vietnam: Vietnam will lift the lockdown in its largest city on Friday, ending nearly three months of restrictions on movement to curb a coronavirus surge.
People in Ho Chi Minh City, a metropolis of 10 million, will be able to leave their homes, restaurants can serve take-away meals and other essential businesses can open, the city said on its website Thursday.
A social distancing order, however, will still be enforced. Schools are closed, public transport remains suspended, travel in and out of the city will be controlled and public gatherings of more than 10 people outside is banned.
People who wish to attend social activities will have to show proof of vaccination to be admitted to establishments, authorities said.
Ho Chi Minh City along with 18 southern provinces went into lockdown in mid-July when cases started to surge.
In the past three months, the delta variant of the virus has infected 770,000 people and killed over 19,000, according to the health ministry. Most of Vietnam’s COVID-19 deaths occurred in this wave, with Ho Chi Minh City accounting for the majority of them.
Other southern cities have also eased lockdown restrictions, gradually resuming activities as infections decline.
In the past week, Vietnam’s average new cases dropped by a third compared to earlier in the month when 14,000 were being recorded daily, the health ministry said.
In Vung Tau city, 70 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh city, barricades set up on the streets to control traffic during the lockdown were taken down as local residents cheered.
“We will have to celebrate this day, that the city is removing the barricades so we can go out again and get back to our normal lives,” local resident Pham Van Thanh said as he helped officers remove a barricade on his street.
Vietnam is speeding up vaccinations in order to reopen the country, with priority for big cities and vulnerable locations such as industrial zones.
Ho Chi Minh City’s health authority last week approved shortening the interval between two shots of AstraZeneca to six weeks, against the recommended eight to 12 weeks by the manufacturers, in order to fully vaccinate people quickly.
The health ministry says 98.5 percent of the city’s adults have been inoculated and 48 percent of them have received both shots.
However, Vietnam’s overall vaccination rate remain low with only 9.3 percent of its 98 million people fully vaccinated. The authority said short supply is the reason for the delay of virus inoculation.
Vietnam to end coronavirus lockdown in largest city after 3 months
https://arab.news/jaa5g
Vietnam to end coronavirus lockdown in largest city after 3 months
- People in Ho Chi Minh City, a metropolis of 10 million, will be able to leave their homes
- In the past week, Vietnam’s average new cases dropped by a third compared to earlier in the month
Pakistan outlaws disinformation with 3-year jail term
- The law was rushed through the National Assembly with little warning last week
ISLAMBAD: Pakistan criminalized online disinformation on Tuesday, passing legislation that enshrines punishments of up to three years in prison, a decision journalists say is designed to crack down on dissent.
“I have heard more ‘yes’ than ‘no’, so the bill is approved,” Syedaal Khan, deputy chair of Pakistan’s Senate, said amid protest from the opposition and journalists, who walked out of the gallery.
The law targets anyone who “intentionally disseminates” information online that they have “reason to believe to be false or fake and likely to cause or create a sense of fear, panic or disorder or unrest.”
The law was rushed through the National Assembly with little warning last week before being presented to the Senate on Tuesday, and will now pass to the president to be rubber stamped.
Five devotees killed in platform collapse at India religious gathering
- The platform is erected every year during the festival to mark the salvation of the Jain deity Adinatha, NDTV news network reported
- Incident happened in Baghpat district where hundreds of Jains had gathered at a temple to make offerings of confectionery
LUCKNOW, India: At least five devotees died and 40 others were injured Tuesday after a wooden platform collapsed during a religious gathering in northern India, an official said.
The incident happened in Baghpat district, north of the capital New Delhi, where hundreds of devotees from the Jain faith had gathered at a temple to make offerings of confectionery.
“A wooden structure collapsed resulting in the death of five people,” district magistrate Asmita Lal told AFP.
“Forty others were injured, out of which 20 have been sent home after first aid,” she added.
The platform is erected every year during the festival to mark the salvation of the Jain deity Adinatha, NDTV news network reported.
“The priests went to offer laddoos (sweets) and the platform collapsed, along with hundreds of devotees on it,” Rakesh Jain, one of the devotees, told the broadcaster.
Deadly accidents are common at places of worship in India during major religious festivals due to poor crowd management and safety lapses.
Last year, 121 people were killed in Uttar Pradesh state during a stampede at the end of a religious sermon.
Another 112 people died in 2016 after a huge explosion caused by a banned fireworks display marking the Hindu new year at a temple in southern Kerala state.
Tuesday’s accident comes as millions of devotees participate in the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival of prayer and ritual bathing being held at the nearby city of Prayagraj.
Jainism is an ancient Indian religion — followed by less than one percent of India’s 1.25 billion people — that preaches non-violence, strict vegetarianism and love for all creatures great and small.
Philippines to train with US Typhon missile system next month
- The US military deployed the Typhon missile system in the northern Philippines last year as part of an annual joint exercise
- Last month, the Philippine Army said it was planning to acquire the Typhon system as part of a push to secure its maritime interests
MANILA: A Philippine platoon will be trained on using a US mid-range missile system next month, ahead of joint drills, Manila’s military said Tuesday, in a move that will likely further fuel tensions with China.
The US military deployed the Typhon missile system in the northern Philippines last year as part of an annual joint exercise, but it was not removed after the war games ended.
The system’s presence on Philippine soil has angered Beijing, whose forces have engaged in several confrontations with Philippine vessels in recent months over disputed reefs and waters in the South China Sea.
Last month, the Philippine Army said it was planning to acquire the Typhon system as part of a push to secure its maritime interests, sparking warnings from China of a regional “arms race.”
A new platoon from the Philippines’ Army Artillery Regiment will receive “orientation and familiarization” training on the system, starting in the second or third week of February, army spokesman Col. Louie Dema-ala said in a press conference.
The week-long training will involve troops from the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force of the US Army Pacific, Dema-ala added.
“This is a continuation of what we’ve learned in the first (training) iteration. New units will be involved in the training and a continuation of the previous platoon that was trained last year,” Dema-ala said.
“As long as MRC (mid-range missile capability) is here, we maximize its utilization to train our personnel in new technology,” he added.
Dema-ala said the training is in preparation for this year’s Salaknib, an annual joint exercise between the Philippines and US armies.
The training location cannot be disclosed, he told reporters, noting that there will be no firing of the Typhon system.
Philippine military spokeswoman Col. Francel Padilla said moving the launcher from its initial location to a different part of the country is a test “to see how these logistical trains can be transported to certain locations, to certain salient points.”
Philippine military officials have said the Typhon system would be able to protect vessels up to 370 kilometers (200 nautical miles) off the coast, the limit of its maritime entitlement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Last week, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning renewed calls for the Philippines to “stop going further down the wrong path.”
“Let me stress again that by bringing this strategic offensive weapon into this part of the world, the Philippines is essentially creating tensions and antagonism in the region and inciting geopolitical confrontation and an arms race,” she said.
Indian interior minister vows to expel unlawful Bangladeshi migrants
- India shares porous border stretching thousands of kilometers with Muslim-majority Bangladesh
- Illegal migration from its eastern neighbor has been a hot-button political issue for India for decades
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s closest political ally has pledged to rid the capital of “illegal’ immigrants if his party wins looming elections, in a forceful appeal to his party’s Hindu constituency.
Interior minister Amit Shah said every unlawful migrant from neighboring Bangladesh would be expelled from New Delhi “within two years” if his party succeeded in next month’s provincial polls.
“The current state government is giving space to illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas,” Shah told an audience of several thousand at Sunday’s rally.
“Change the government and we will rid Delhi of all illegals.”
India shares a porous border stretching thousands of kilometers with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, and illegal migration from its eastern neighbor has been a hot-button political issue for decades.
There are no reliable estimates of the number of Bangladeshis living illegally in Delhi, a city to which millions have flocked in search of employment from elsewhere in India over recent decades.
Critics of Modi and Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accuse the party of using the issue as a dog whistle against Muslims to galvanize its Hindu-nationalist support base during elections.
Delhi, a sprawling megacity home to more than 30 million people, has been governed for most of the past decade by charismatic chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Kejriwal rode to power as an anti-corruption crusader a decade ago and his profile has bestowed upon him the mantle of one of the chief rivals to Modi and Shah’s party.
His popularity has been burnished by extensive water and electricity subsidies for the capital’s millions of poorer residents.
But he spent several months behind bars last year on accusations his party took kickbacks in exchange for liquor licenses, along with several fellow party leaders.
Kejriwal denies wrongdoing and characterised the charges as a political witch-hunt by Modi’s government, and despite resigning as chief minister last year vowed to return to the office if his party won re-election.
The BJP has led a spirited campaign in its efforts to dislodge Kejriwal’s party ahead of the February 5 vote.
Modi is expected to make a pilgrimage to the ongoing Kumbh Mela, the biggest festival on the Hindu calendar, to bathe in the sacred Ganges river on the day of the Delhi assembly vote.
Results of the election will be published on February 8.
Trains canceled across Bangladesh as rail union goes on strike
- Railway staff go on strike for higher pensions and other benefits
- State-run railway system carries some 65 million passengers per year
DHAKA: Trains were canceled across Bangladesh on Tuesday as railway staff went on strike for higher pensions and other benefits, affecting tens of thousands of passengers and freight transport.
Saidur Rahman, acting president of the Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Workers Union, said the strike was called after a meeting with the interim government headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus failed to reach a deal late Monday.
Rahman said the strike would continue indefinitely if the government does not accept their demands.
The state-run railway system carries some 65 million passengers per year in the densely populated nation of 170 million people. It employs about 25,000 people and operates a network of over 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles).
The main Kamlapur Railway Station in the capital, Dhaka, was mobbed by hundreds of disappointed passengers who were not aware of the strike. Many waited for hours before going home.
As the country’s railway adviser visited, passengers shouted complaints.
Shahadat Hossain, a station manager in Dhaka, said at least 10 trains were scheduled to leave the station on Tuesday morning. Authorities arranged buses as an alternative.
Mohammed Nadim was stranded at the Kamlapur Railway Station as he traveled hundreds of kilometers overnight to reach Dhaka for his vacation to the southern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar.
“I came here in at 5:30 a.m. from outside Dhaka. But after one hour or so, I came to know that my train will not run. Now I have been stranded here for hours without any hope. The station officials told me my ticket money will be reimbursed, but I don’t know when,” he told The Associated Press at the scene.
He refused to travel to his destination by a bus as arranged by the authorities as an alternative.
“It’s too far. I have come here to travel by train. I don’t want to travel this far by an air-conditioned bus even. Now they are offering me this bus that has no air-condition,” he said.
Dhaka-based Jamuna TV station reported that railway workers protested in Chattogram, the country’s second largest city. The southeastern city has the country’s largest seaport, and the massive garment industry relies on trains to bring goods to it for export. The industry earns about $38 billion a year from exports, mainly to the United States and the European Union.
In the northwestern region of Rajshahi, angry passengers smashed furniture of a station and attacked a staff, according to Jamuna TV.
The Yunus-led interim government has been running the country since August, when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India amid a student-led uprising and ended her 15-year rule. The interim administration is struggling to restore order amid reports by the global lending agencies such as the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank of slower economic growth.
