JOHANNESBURG: South African scientists see no sign that the omicron coronavirus variant is causing more severe illness, they said on Friday, as officials announced plans to roll out vaccine boosters with daily infections approaching an all-time high.
South Africa alerted the world to omicron late last month, prompting alarm that the highly mutated variant could trigger a new surge in global infections.
Hospital data show that COVID-19 admissions are now rising sharply in more than half of the country’s nine provinces, but deaths are not rising as dramatically and indicators such as the median length of hospital stay are reassuring.
Although scientists say more time is needed to arrive at a definitive conclusion, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the signs on severity were positive.
“Preliminary data does suggest that while there is increasing rate of hospitalization ... it looks like it is purely because of the numbers rather than as a result of any severity of the variant itself, this omicron,” he said.
In the past few days, a nationwide outbreak linked to variant has been infecting around 20,000 people a day, with 19,018 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, according to data from the National Institute of Communicable Disease, but only 20 new deaths.
Infections have yet to reach the peak of more than 26,000 daily cases during a third wave fueled by the Delta variant.
South Africa has fully vaccinated about 38 percent of adults, more than in many other African countries but well short of the government’s year-end target. It recently delayed some vaccine deliveries due to oversupply as the pace of inoculations slowed.
Health department deputy director-general Nicholas Crisp said on Friday that boosters of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine would be available to people six months after they had received their second dose, with the first people becoming eligible late this month.
Johnson & Johnson boosters, already available to health workers in a research study, would be rolled out to others soon, he said.
Crisp denied that offering boosters was a means of using up vaccine stock. “We do not need to consume vaccines. They are expensive and we will only use vaccines if there is evidence to do so,” he said.
The World Health Organization recommended this week that boosters should be given to people who are immunocompromised or had received an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine to protect against waning immunity. But it has said previously that administering primary doses should be the priority given that vaccination rates remain worryingly low in many developing countries.
A small study from a South African research institute this week suggested that omicron could partially evade protection from two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, but the company and its partner, BioNTech, say a three-shot course of their vaccine can neutralize omicron in the laboratory.
Glenda Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council, said there were far more unvaccinated people among South Africa’s hospital admissions and the evidence was that the Pfizer vaccine was still offering protection.
“We are seeing that this vaccine is maintaining effectiveness. It may be slightly reduced, but we are seeing effectiveness being maintained for hospital admissions and that is very encouraging,” she said.
South Africa says no signal of increased omicron severity yet
https://arab.news/8f2pk
South Africa says no signal of increased omicron severity yet
- South Africa alerted the world to Omicron late last month, prompting alarm that the highly mutated variant could trigger a new surge in global infections
- Although scientists say more time is needed to arrive at a definitive conclusion, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the signs on severity were positive
EU needs to keep up dialogue with Israel, Dutch foreign minister says on Borrell proposal
- Disagreeing with the EU’s top diplomat who proposed to pause the dialogue with the country
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last week proposed that the bloc suspend its political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations in the war in Gaza, according to four diplomats and a letter seen by Reuters.
Pakistan’s top cleric says use of VPNs is against Islamic laws as the government seeks to ban them
- VPNs are legal in most countries, however they are outlawed or restricted in places where authorities control Internet access
- Million of Pakistanis have been unable to access the X social media platform since February 2023
Raghib Naeemi, the chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology, which advises the government on religious issues, said that Shariah allows the government to prevent actions that lead to the “spread of evil.” He added that any platform used for posting content that is controversial, blasphemous, or against national integrity “should be stopped immediately.”
Million of Pakistanis have been unable to access the X social media platform since February 2023, when the government blocked it ahead of parliamentary elections, except via VPN — a service that hides online activity from anyone else on the Internet
Authorities say they are seeking to ban the use of VPNs to curb militancy. However, critics say the proposed ban is part of curbs on freedom of expression.
VPNs are legal in most countries, however they are outlawed or restricted in places where authorities control Internet access or carry out online surveillance and censorship.
Among users of VPNs in Pakistan are supporters of the country’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who have called for a march on Islamabad on Sunday to pressure the government for his release.
Pakistan often suspends mobile phone service during rallies of Khan’s supporters. But Naeemi’s weekend declaration that the use of VPNs is against Shariah has stunned many.
Naeemi’s edict came after the Ministry of Interior wrote a letter to the Ministry of Information and Technology asking for the VPN ban on the grounds that the service is being used by insurgents to propagate their agenda.
It said that “VPNs are increasingly being exploited by terrorists to facilitate violent activities.” The ministry also wants to deny access to “pornographic” and blasphemous content.
Last week, authorities had also asked the Internet users to register VPNs with Pakistan’s media regulator, a move which will allow increased surveillance on the users of Internet.
Pakistan is currently battling militants who have stepped up attacks in recent months.
On Friday, a separatist Baloch Liberation Army group attacked troops in Kalat, a district in Balochistan province, triggering an intense shootout in which seven soldiers and six insurgents were killed, according to police and the military. The BLA claimed the attack in a statement.
Masked men break into UK’s Windsor Castle estate, The Sun reports
King Charles and his wife Camilla were not in the estate at the time of the incident but Prince William and his family were believed to be at Adelaide Cottage, part of the Windsor Castle estate, the Sun reported.
The men used a stolen truck to break through a security gate at night and then scaled a six-foot fence, the paper said.
Local police said officers were called to a report of a burglary on Crown Estate land in Windsor, west of London, just before midnight on Oct. 13.
“Offenders entered a farm building and made off with a black Isuzu pick-up and a red quad bike. They then made off toward the Old Windsor/Datchet area,” Thames Valley Police told the newspaper. “No arrests have been made at this stage and an investigation is ongoing.”
Windsor Castle previously faced a security scare in 2021 when authorities arrested a man with a crossbow in the grounds of the castle who said he had wanted to kill Queen Elizabeth.
Disgraced Singapore oil tycoon sentenced to nearly 18 years for fraud
- Lim Oon Kuin was convicted in May in a case that dented the city-state’s reputation as a top Asian oil trading hub
- His firm was among Asia’s biggest oil trading companies before its sudden and dramatic collapse in 2020
SINGAPORE: The founder of a failed Singapore oil trading company was sentenced Monday to nearly 18 years in jail for cheating banking giant HSBC out of millions of dollars in one of the country’s most serious cases of fraud.
Lim Oon Kuin, 82, better known as O.K. Lim, was convicted in May in a case that dented the city-state’s reputation as a top Asian oil trading hub.
His firm, Hin Leong Trading, was among Asia’s biggest oil trading companies before its sudden and dramatic collapse in 2020.
Sentencing him to 17 and a half years in jail, State Courts judge Toh Han Li said he agreed with the prosecution that the offenses had the potential to undermine confidence in Singapore’s oil trading industry.
The amount involved “stood at the top-tier of cheating cases” in the city-state, a global financial hub, he said.
The judge shaved off a year due to Lim’s age but did not give any sentencing discount on account of his health, saying the Singapore Prison Service has adequate medical facilities.
Lim, however, remained free on bail after his lawyers said they would file an appeal before the High Court.
State prosecutors had sought a 20-year jail term, saying “this is one of the most serious cases of trade financing fraud that has ever been prosecuted in Singapore.”
The defense had argued for seven years imprisonment, playing down the harm caused by Lim’s offenses and citing his age and poor health.
The businessman faced a total of 130 criminal charges involving hundreds of millions of dollars, but prosecutors tried and convicted him on just three – two of cheating HSBC, and a third of encouraging a Hin Leong executive to forge documents.
Prosecutors said he tricked HSBC into disbursing nearly $112 million by telling the bank that his firm had entered into oil sales contracts with two companies.
The transactions were, in fact, “complete fabrications, concocted on the accused’s directions,” prosecutors said, adding that his actions “tarnished Singapore’s hard-earned reputation as Asia’s leading oil trading hub.”
Lim built Hin Leong from a single delivery truck shortly before Singapore became independent in 1965.
It grew into a major supplier of fuel used by ships, and its rise in some ways mirrored Singapore’s growth from a gritty port to an affluent financial hub.
The firm played a key role in helping the city-state become the world’s top ship refueling port, observers say, and it expanded into ship chartering and management with a subsidiary that has a fleet of more than 150 vessels.
But it came crashing down in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic plunged oil markets into unprecedented turmoil, exposing Hin Leong’s financial troubles, and Lim sought court protection from creditors.
In a bombshell affidavit seen by AFP in 2020, Lim revealed the oil trader had “in truth... not been making profits in the last few years” – despite having officially reported a healthy balance sheet in 2019.
He admitted that the firm he founded after emigrating from China had hidden $800 million in losses over the years, while it also owed almost $4 billion to banks.
Lim took responsibility for ordering the company not to report the losses and confessed it had sold off inventories that were supposed to backstop loans.
Climate talks in Azerbaijan head into their second week, coinciding with G20 in Rio
- Talks in Baku are focused on getting more climate cash for developing countries to transition away from fossil fuels
- Several experts put the sum needed at around $1 trillion
BAKU: United Nations talks on getting money to curb and adapt to climate change resumed Monday with tempered hope that negotiators and ministers can work through disagreements and hammer out a deal after slow progress last week.
That hope comes from the arrival of the climate and environment ministers from around the world this week in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the COP29 talks. They’ll give their teams instructions on ways forward.
“We are in a difficult place,” said Melanie Robinson, economics and finance program director of global climate at the World Resources Institute. “The discussion has not yet moved to the political level — when it does I think ministers will do what they can to make a deal.”
Talks in Baku are focused on getting more climate cash for developing countries to transition away from fossil fuels, adapt to climate change and pay for damages caused by extreme weather. But countries are far apart on how much money that will require. Several experts put the sum needed at around $1 trillion.
“One trillion is going to look like a bargain five, 10 years from now,” said Rachel Cleetus from the Union of Concerned Scientists, citing a multitude of costly recent extreme weather events from flooding in Spain to hurricanes Helene and Milton in the United States. “We’re going to wonder why we didn’t take that and run with it.”
Meanwhile, the world’s biggest decision makers are halfway around the world as another major summit convenes. Brazil is hosting the Group of 20 summit, which runs Nov. 18-19, bringing together many of the world’s largest economies. Climate change — among other major topics like rising global tensions and poverty — will be on the agenda.
Harjeet Singh, global engagement director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said G20 nations “cannot turn their backs on the reality of their historical emissions and the responsibility that comes with it.”
“They must commit to trillions in public finance,” he said.
In a written statement on Friday, United Nations Climate Change’s executive secretary Simon Stiell said “the global climate crisis should be order of business Number One” at the G20 meetings.
Stiell noted that progress on stopping more warming should happen both in and out of climate talks, calling the G20’s role “mission-critical.”
