Sri Lanka’s health authorities have issued new tough guidelines, including banning wedding receptions and gatherings at religious sites, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus as the Island nation continued to record a spike in daily infections.For the fifth on Friday, the daily number of cases reported crossed the 1,000-mark.The country recorded several cases of the UK variant which has a bigger mortality rate, health officials said.“We continue to monitor and place isolations on critical areas,” Army chief Gen Shavendra Silva, the head of Covid prevention, said.He said the government was reluctant to order blanket lockdowns due to possible adverse…
Author: Mike Harrison
At least 10 Democratic senators in the United States have written to President Joe Biden and urged him to support a proposal moved by India and South Africa at the WTO last year, seeking a temporary waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics and related technologies.The senators include progressive leadership in the US Senate led by Bernie Sanders, who is the chairman of the budget committee, and senators Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown, Richard Blumenthal, Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley, Ed Markey, Chris Van Hollen and Raphael Warnock.ALSO READ: President Joe Biden, do…
Thousands of protesters were out early in Myanmar cities on Sunday, marching to oppose military rule more than three months after a coup that brought a halt to democratic reform and economic growth and ushered in turmoil.The protests, which the military has been unable to stop with lethal suppression, were on Sunday coordinated with expatriate communities around the world to mark what organisers called “the global Myanmar spring revolution”.”Shake the world with the voice of Myanmar people’s unity,” organisers said in a statement.There were no immediate reports of violence at the rallies.The protests are only one of the problems the…
Patrons fled a Wisconsin casino after gunshots broke out Saturday evening, with one witness saying at least two people were shot.The attack happened around 7:30 p.m. at the Oneida Casino, operated by the Oneida Nation on the western side of Green Bay. Tribe spokeswoman Bobbi Webster said “individuals” had been shot, but she didn’t have information on how many or their conditions.Attorney General Josh Kaul tweeted shortly before 10 p.m. that the scene “is contained. There is no longer a threat to the community.” He gave no other details and an agency spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a message.Green Bay…
Kabul security was ramped up on Saturday as the city braced for reaction from the insurgent Taliban as US troops still present under President Joe Biden’s orders, beyond the May 1 withdrawal deadline agreed in 2020 with the Trump administration.An increased military presence and security at checkpoints were visible in the Afghan capital, and a security source said the city had been placed on “high alert”. Military patrols and security were being increased in main cities around the country, the source said.Under the Trump administration’s February 2020 deal with the Taliban, foreign forces were to withdraw from the country by…
China has passed a new legislation to strengthen the power of its maritime safety authorities sparking fears that tensions between Beijing and other Asian countries, including Japan, may escalate in the Indo-Pacific region.The latest revision was passed at the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body on Thursday (April 29). It is scheduled to be put into force on September 1, citing Xinhua, the Japan Times reported.The legislation will enable China’s maritime safety agency, which belongs to the transportation ministry, to order foreign vessels to leave what Beijing claims as its territorial waters if it thinks…
Recent comments from US President Joe Biden and members of his administration show he is intent on maintaining a hostile policy toward North Korea that will require a corresponding response from Pyongyang, North Korean officials said on Sunday.The officials’ comments came in a series of statements carried on state news agency KCNA, after the White House on Friday said US officials had completed a months-long review of North Korean policy.In one statement, a Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Washington of insulting the dignity of the country’s supreme leadership by criticizing North Korea’s human rights situation.The human rights criticism is a provocation…
A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts departed the International Space Station late Saturday, aiming for a rare nighttime splashdown to end the company’s second crew flight.It would be the first US splashdown in darkness since Apollo 8′s crew returned from the moon in 1968.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, headed home in the same Dragon capsule that delivered them to the space station last November. The ride back was expected to take just 6 1/2 hours.“Thanks for your hospitality,” Hopkins radioed as the capsule undocked 260 miles (420…
US officials on the ground say the withdrawal is already a work in progress – and May 1 is just a continuation – but Washington has made an issue of the date because it is a deadline agreed with the Taliban in 2020 to complete the pullout. Agencies | , Kabul UPDATED ON MAY 02, 2021 04:39 AM IST Kabul security was ramped up on Saturday as the city braced for reaction from the Taliban with the final phase of ending America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan after 20 years formally began on Saturday: the withdrawal of the last US and…
“This waiver is vital to ensuring sufficient volume of and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics around the world,” they wrote in the joint letter. By Yashwant Raj, Rezaul H Laskar, Washington/new Delhi UPDATED ON MAY 02, 2021 04:38 AM IST At least 108 members of the US Congress wrote to President Joe Biden on Friday urging him to support a proposal, moved by India and South Africa at the WTO last year, seeking a temporary waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics and related technologies.“This waiver is vital to ensuring sufficient…