China state media plays down severity of COVID wave before WHO meeting

China state media plays down severity of COVID wave before WHO meeting
A man wearing a face mask tends to his elderly relative rest along a corridor of the emergency ward to receive intravenous drip at a hospital in Beijing, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. As the virus continues to rip through China, global organizations and governments have called on the country start sharing data while others have criticized its current numbers as meaningless. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
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Updated 03 January 2023
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China state media plays down severity of COVID wave before WHO meeting

China state media plays down severity of COVID wave before WHO meeting
  • State media says severe illness from COVID is rare
  • Chinese scientists expected to brief WHO

BEIJING/SHANGHAI: State media in China played down on Tuesday the severity of its surge of COVID-19 infections ahead of an expected briefing later in the day by its scientists to the World Health Organization, which is hoping for detailed data on the evolution of the virus.
China’s abrupt U-turn on COVID controls on Dec. 7, as well as the accuracy of its case and mortality data, have come under increasing scrutiny at home and abroad and prompted some countries to impose travel curbs.
The policy shift followed protests over the “zero COVID” approach championed by Xi Jinping, marking the strongest show of public defiance in his decade-old presidency and coinciding with the slowest growth in China in nearly half a century.
As the virus spreads unchecked, funeral parlours report a spike in demand for their services and international health experts predict at least one million deaths in the world’s most populous country this year.
China reported three new COVID deaths for Monday, taking its official death toll since the pandemic began to 5,253.
On Tuesday, the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, cited Chinese experts as saying the illness caused by the virus was relatively mild for most people.
“Severe and critical illnesses account for 3 percent to 4 percent of infected patients currently admitted to designated hospitals in Beijing,” Tong Zhaohui, vice president of the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, told the newspaper.
Kang Yan, head of West China Tianfu Hospital of Sichuan University, said that in the past three weeks, a total of 46 patients had been admitted to intensive care units, or about 1 percent of symptomatic infections.
The emergencies area at the Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai was packed with patients on Tuesday, most of them elderly, a Reuters witness said. Some were in beds in the corridor, covered with blankets and receiving IV treatment, while dozens were queuing around them, waiting to be seen by a doctor. It was unclear how many were there with COVID.
’CONNECT WITH THE WORLD’
The World Health Organization has urged Chinese health officials to regularly share specific and real-time information on the COVID situation.
The WHO has invited Chinese scientists to present detailed data on viral sequencing at a Tuesday meeting of a technical advisory group. It has also asked China to share data on hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations.
“Scientists around the world believe it to be most useful that all countries engage in testing and sequencing for variants, and to transparently and immediately share their data globally,” said Alexandra Martiniuk, an epidemiologist at the University of Sydney.
“In this respect the WHO meeting on Jan. 3 could be significant.”
The United States, France, and others will require COVID tests on travelers from China, while Belgium said it would test wastewater from planes for new COVID variants.
European Union health officials will meet on Wednesday on a coordinated response.
China has rejected criticism of its COVID data and said any new mutations may be more infectious but less harmful.
“According to the political logic of some people in Europe and the United States, whether China opens or does not open is equally the wrong thing to do,” state broadcaster CCTV commented.
A 25-year-old Shanghai resident, who only gave her last name Ruan, said she was in favor of China sharing its COVID data and working with the world to fight the disease.
“You always have to connect with the world. It’s better to study it together and prepare for the future,” Ruan said.
’DANGEROUS WEEKS’
As Chinese workers and shoppers fall ill, concerns mount about near-term growth prospects in the world’s second-largest economy, causing volatility in global financial markets.
Data on Tuesday showed China’s factory activity shrank at a sharper pace in December.
December shipments from Foxconn’s Zhengzhou iPhone plant, disrupted by worker departures and unrest amid a COVID outbreak, were 90 percent of the firm’s initial plans.
A “bushfire” of infections in China in coming months is likely to hurt its economy this year and drag global growth lower, said the head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva.
“China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic,” warned Capital Economics analysts.
Mobility data suggested that economic activity was depressed nationwide and would likely remain so until infections subside, they added.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the domestic tourism market saw 52.71 million trips during the New Year holiday, only 43 percent of the 2019 level, before the pandemic.
Revenue generated was more than 26.52 billion yuan ($3.84 billion), up 4 percent year-on-year but only about 35 percent of 2019 revenue, the ministry said.
Expectations are higher for China’s biggest holiday, the Lunar New Year, later this month, when some experts predict infections will have peaked in many places.
Some hotels in the tourist resort of Sanya are fully booked for the period, media reported.


Hundreds remember Tanzanian student killed in Israel-Hamas conflict

Hundreds remember Tanzanian student killed in Israel-Hamas conflict
Updated 28 November 2023
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Hundreds remember Tanzanian student killed in Israel-Hamas conflict

Hundreds remember Tanzanian student killed in Israel-Hamas conflict
  • Clemence Felix Mtenga, 22, was reported missing after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel on October 7
  • Family members — wearing black shirts bearing Mtenga’s picture — broke down as they filed past the closed coffin

DAR ES SALAAM: Hundreds of Tanzanians bid a tearful farewell on Tuesday to a young agriculture student who was killed in the Hamas-Israel conflict several thousand kilometers away.
Clemence Felix Mtenga, 22, was reported missing after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel on October 7, killing a reported 1,200 people and taking scores more hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Family members — wearing black shirts bearing Mtenga’s picture — broke down as they filed past the closed coffin at a ceremony in his home village of Kirwa in the Mount Kilimanjaro region.
Mtenga and another Tanzanian student, Joshua Mollel, 21, went to Israel in September for an agricultural internship program but both went missing after the October 7 attack.
Tanzania’s foreign ministry confirmed his death in a statement last week, without elaborating on how he was killed, and said Mollel was still missing.
Friends who studied with Mtenga before he moved to Israel described him as being “lovely and friendly.”
“It was sad and difficult to accept news of his death because we used to communicate with him almost every evening,” said Anthony Kanyanza.
“He was a leader of one of the class groups and we all enjoyed his company.”
A member of the local choir, Mtenga had been due to graduate from his university in Tanzania last week.
“Clemence died innocent. Let’s keep Israel and Palestine in our prayers every day to end this kind of innocent deaths,” said priest Alfred Minja who led the burial service attended by government officials.
The head of Israel’s international development agency Eynat Shlein had said on X, formerly Twitter, that Mtenga “was murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct 7.”
The two students were among about 260 Tanzanian youths who went to Israel for an internship in modern farming under a partnership program between the two countries.
Many of the places worst affected by the Hamas attacks were Israeli agricultural communes lining the region bordering the Gaza Strip.
Mtenga’s sister Christina Mtenga told AFP by phone that they had paid their “final respects.”


Authorities face calls to declare a hate crime in Vermont shooting of 3 men of Palestinian descent

Authorities face calls to declare a hate crime in Vermont shooting of 3 men of Palestinian descent
Updated 28 November 2023
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Authorities face calls to declare a hate crime in Vermont shooting of 3 men of Palestinian descent

Authorities face calls to declare a hate crime in Vermont shooting of 3 men of Palestinian descent
  • Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested and held without bail on three counts of attempted murder
  • The US Department of Justice, along with Vermont authorities, are still investigating whether Saturday’s gunfire on a Burlington street was a hate crime

BURLINGTON, USA: Vigils for three college students of Palestinian descent who were shot in Vermont over the weekend prompted calls for authorities to recognize the violence as a hate crime, and for unity among the Jewish and Arab communities.
Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested and held without bail on three counts of attempted murder. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf on Monday.
The US Department of Justice, along with Vermont authorities, are still investigating whether Saturday’s gunfire on a Burlington street was a hate crime amid an increase in threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities across the US since the Israel-Hamas war began, Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “There is understandable fear in communities across the country,” he said.
One vigil was held Monday night at Brown University in Rhode Island, where one of the victims, Hisham Awartani, is a student. Participants shouted at school president Christina Paxson as she addressed the crowd, demanding that Brown divest from investments that support Israel, according to media reports.
Robert Leikend, New England regional director for the American Jewish Committee, called for unity and finding common ground between the Jewish and Arab communities, saying in a statement Monday night that “hate should not beget more hate.”
He said a vigil after Eaton’s arrest “featured anti-Israel and antisemitic statements from some participants.” He didn’t name the location.
“The anger is understandable. The finger-pointing is not,” he said.
The vigil at Brown was closed to media. NBC News reported that Awartani said in a statement read by a professor that as much as he appreciates the love and support of the community, “I am but one casualty in a much wider conflict.”
The statement read, “Had I been shot in the West Bank, where I grew up, the medical services which saved my life here would have likely been withheld by the Israeli army. The soldier who would have shot me would go home and never be convicted.”
Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, all age 20, were spending their Thanksgiving break in Burlington, and were out for a walk while visiting one of the victims’ relatives when they were confronted by a white man with a handgun, police said. The victims were speaking in a mix of English and Arabic and two of them were also wearing the black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves when they were shot, Police Chief Jon Murad said.
Abdalhamid told police he ran away, jumped a fence, and hid behind a house. He eventually knocked on another door, begging the woman who answered to call 911. At that point, he sat down, felt pain, and saw blood, according to an affidavit.
Two of the students were struck in their torsos, while one was hit in the lower body, Murad said. All three were being treated at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and one faces a long recovery because of a spinal injury, a family member said.
One of the students has been released from the hospital, according to media reports.
“I’ve been with them almost constantly since Saturday evening. I’ve been listening to them talk to one another and try to process the events, and I’m blown away by their resilience, by their good humor in the face of these difficult times,” said Rich Price, Awartani’s uncle.
The three have been friends since first grade at Ramallah Friends School, a private school in the West Bank, and all are “remarkable, distinguished students,” said Rania Ma’ayeh, head of the school.
Awartani is studying mathematics and archaeology at Brown; Abdalhamid is a pre-med student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania; and Ali Ahmad is studying mathematics and IT at Trinity College in Connecticut, Ma’ayeh said. Awartani and Abdalhamid are US citizens while Ali Ahmad is studying on a student visa, Ma’ayeh said.
Abdalhamid’s uncle Radi Tamimi, said at a news conference Monday his nephew grew up in the West Bank and “we always thought that that could be more of a risk in terms of his safety and sending him here would be a right decision.
“We feel somehow betrayed in that decision here and we’re just trying to come to terms with everything,” he said.
Eaton moved to Burlington over the summer from Syracuse, New York, and legally purchased the gun used in the shooting, Murad told reporters. According to a police affidavit, federal agents found the gun in Eaton’s apartment on Sunday. Eaton came to the door holding his hands, palms up, and told the officers he’d been waiting for them.
Eaton’s mother, Mary Reed, told the Daily Beast that Eaton, who had held various jobs as a farmer, ski instructor and researcher, had struggled with mental health issues, including depression. But she said he was in “such a good mood” when she saw him on Thanksgiving.
Syracuse police said Eaton’s name appeared in 37 police reports from 2007 until 2021, but never as a suspect. The cases ranged from domestic violence to larceny, and Eaton was listed as either a complainant or victim in 21 reports, according to Lt. Matthew Malinowski, the department’s public information officer.
Sarah George, state’s attorney, said that law enforcement officials do not yet have evidence to support a hate crime charge, which under Vermont law must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. But, she said, “I do want to be clear that there is no question that this was a hateful act.”
Demonstrations have been widespread and tensions in the US have escalated as the death toll rises in the Israel-Hamas war. A fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was set to continue for two more days past Monday as 11 more hostages were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza under what was originally a four-day truce deal.


Ukraine says wife of spymaster Budanov was poisoned

Ukraine says wife of spymaster Budanov was poisoned
Updated 28 November 2023
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Ukraine says wife of spymaster Budanov was poisoned

Ukraine says wife of spymaster Budanov was poisoned
  • “Yes, I can confirm the information, unfortunately, it is true,” GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov told Reuters
  • The 37-year-old has himself been the target of several attempts on his life, including a botched car bombing

KYIV: The wife of Ukraine’s military spy chief has been poisoned with heavy metals and is undergoing treatment in a hospital, a spokesperson for the agency said on Tuesday.
Marianna Budanova is the wife of Kyrylo Budanov, who heads Ukrainian military intelligence agency GUR, which has been prominently involved in clandestine operations against Russian forces since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“Yes, I can confirm the information, unfortunately, it is true,” GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov told Reuters, without clarifying when the poisoning took place.
The BBC’s Ukrainian service cited Yusov as saying that several GUR officials had also experienced milder symptoms of poisoning.
Budanov’s public profile has risen in Ukraine and the West, where he is portrayed as a behind-the-scenes mastermind of operations to strike back at Russia. In Russian media he is a hate figure.
The 37-year-old has himself been the target of several attempts on his life, including a botched car bombing.
If confirmed as deliberate, the purported poisoning of his wife would represent the most serious targeting of a high-profile Ukrainian leadership figure’s family member during the 21-month-long war.
The poisoning was first reported by Ukrainian media outlets.
One publication, Babel, cited an unidentified source who said Budanova had been in hospital, and was finishing a course of treatment for the effects of the poisoning.
Another outlet, Ukrainska Pravda, cited an unidentified source who said the poison was likely administered through food.
Moscow has previously blamed Ukrainian secret services for the murders of a pro-war Russian blogger and a pro-war journalist on Russian soil. Ukraine denies involvement in those deaths.
Separately, Russian media has reported that a court in Moscow had arrested Budanov in absentia in April on terrorism charges.


Ukraine says Russian shells hit private homes, four killed

Ukraine says Russian shells hit private homes, four killed
Updated 28 November 2023
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Ukraine says Russian shells hit private homes, four killed

Ukraine says Russian shells hit private homes, four killed
  • “A 63-year-old man was killed. Two women, aged 65 and 63, were injured,” Dnipropetrovsk region governor Serhiy Lysak said

KYIV: Russian shells struck a residential building and private houses on Tuesday, killing four and injuring at least five people, local Ukrainian officials said.
A five-story building was hit in the morning in the southern town of Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region governor Serhiy Lysak said.
“A 63-year-old man was killed. Two women, aged 65 and 63, were injured. There may be people under the rubble,” he said on Telegram messenger.
In a separate attack in the afternoon, Russian shelling destroyed at least five private houses in a northern settlement just on the border with Russia, Sumy regional prosecutors reported.
Two bodies have been recovered from the rubble, and a 7-year-old girl died in hospital after a car she was in came under fire, the prosecutors said on Telegram. Three people have been injured.
Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians although many have been killed in its frequent air strikes.


Sri Lanka eyes Saudi investment to modernize tourism sector

Sri Lanka eyes Saudi investment to modernize tourism sector
Updated 28 November 2023
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Sri Lanka eyes Saudi investment to modernize tourism sector

Sri Lanka eyes Saudi investment to modernize tourism sector
  • Tourism is a key industry for Sri Lanka, accounting for 12 percent of GDP in 2019
  • Officials also discussed possibility of Saudia Airlines launching direct flight to Colombo

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is looking for Saudi investment to modernize its tourism and other sectors, top officials in Colombo have said following an official visit of Saudi Economy and Planning Minister Faisal Al-Ibrahim. 

Al-Ibrahim was in the Sri Lankan capital on Monday, where he met President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Ali Sabry to discuss ways to strengthen economic ties. 

“President Ranil Wickremesinghe … further highlighted that the tourism and agriculture sectors were areas open to greater investment, as the country is committed to modernizing these domains,” the presidential secretariat said in a statement. 

Tourism and agriculture are key industries for Sri Lanka, accounting for about 12 percent and 7 percent of its 2019 GDP respectively. The country has been working to revive its crisis-hit economy following a severe financial crisis that drove the country to bankruptcy last year. 

Al-Ibrahim said that he was honored to meet Wickremesinghe. 

“We discussed both countries’ ambitions and transformation journeys as well as strengthening our bilateral economic ties and trade and investment growth opportunities,” Al-Ibrahim wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. 

During Al-Ibrahim’s meeting with Sabry, the two officials discussed Saudi investment, as well as manpower and tourism cooperation, the foreign minister said.  

“We also discussed (ways) to improve the tourism traffic between the two countries and further strengthen people-to-people contact. We also discussed the possibility of Saudia Airlines commencing direct flights to Colombo,” Sabry told Arab News. 

“We decided to explore possibilities of Saudi investment in Sri Lanka and opportunities for the Sri Lankans for further skilled employment opportunities in Saudi Arabia in its planned construction boom,” he said, alluding to the Kingdom’s various megaprojects under Vision 2030.  

“All in all, we had a very productive discussion and agreed to have a clear plan to continue our cooperation.” 

Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka have expanded ties in the past year. They agreed to broaden their political consultation following their first joint committee meeting in May and earlier this year launched a new employment scheme aimed at boosting Colombo’s manpower exports to the Kingdom.