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Thirteen children among 54 killed in twin Pakistan bombing.

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At least 54 people, including 13 children, were killed in two separate transport tragedies in western Pakistan on Sunday.

Forty-one are so far confirmed dead after their bus crashed into a ravine in southwestern Balochistan province, while at least 10 students died in the boating accident in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said.

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As many as three are still missing in the waters, with a rescue operation underway.

At the remote site of the bus crash, north of the city of Bela in the Lasbela district, senior administration official Hamza Anjum said “the dead bodies … are beyond recognition.”

Anjum said 40 corpses were retrieved from the wreck alongside three injured, one of whom died shortly after. The remaining two survivors were in “serious” condition.

The charred brown husk of the vehicle chassis smoked on a dry riverbed under the bridge on Sunday, according to a video released by the provincial government.

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A team of men used heavy machinery to move the twisted metal aside and pull out the burnt remains, which were then shrouded in white cloth.

Head of the local rescue service Asghar Ramazan told AFP the bus had been loaded with containers of oil.

“When the bus fell down, it immediately caught fire,” he said. The oil “caused the fire to flare up so much that it was difficult to control,” he added.

The bus was reportedly carrying a total of 48 passengers when it hit a pillar on the bridge and careened off course earlier on Sunday.

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It had been traveling overnight between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and the southern port city of Karachi.

“It is feared that the driver may have fallen asleep,” Anjum said, also mentioning the possibility he had been speeding during the long-distance trip.

“We will investigate the causes of the accident,” he said, adding that DNA tests would be needed to determine the identity of the remains, which had been “badly mutilated”.

‘Rescue underway’
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, local police official Mir Rauf told AFP all of the drowned so far recovered from the boating accident on Tanda Dam lake were aged between 7 and 14.

A total of 17 were rescued alive from the reservoir by Sunday afternoon.

“Everything was normal until suddenly the boat overturned,” said 11-year-old survivor Muhammad Mustafa from his hospital bed in the nearby city of Kohat.

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“I got stuck under the boat,” he told AFP. “My shawl and sweater weighed me down, so I took them off.”

“The water was extremely cold and my body went numb. I thought I was going to pass out when a man on an inflatable tube saved me.”

One of the rescued was a teacher, who remained unconscious as the rescue operation continued for up to three pupils still missing.

The class of madrassa students “went out for a picnic and boating” at the scenic location, district police chief Abdul Rauf told AFP.

“According to the information so far, the boat was in a dilapidated condition and it was overloaded too,” he said.

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Ramshackle highways, lax safety measures and reckless driving contribute to Pakistan’s dire road safety record.

Passenger buses are frequently crammed to capacity and seatbelts are not commonly worn, meaning high death tolls from single-vehicle accidents are common.

In November, 20 people, including 11 children, were killed when a minibus crashed into a deep and water-logged ditch in southern Pakistan.

According to World Health Organization estimates, more than 27,000 people were killed on Pakistan’s roads in 2018.

Mass drownings are also common in Pakistan when aged and overloaded vessels lose their stability and pitch passengers into the water.

In July last year, at least 18 women drowned after an overloaded boat carrying about 100 members of the same family capsized during a marriage procession between two villages

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asia, Pakistan Bombing

At least 34 killed, 150 injured in Pakistan suicide bombing.

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At least 34 people were killed while 150 others were injured in a suicide bomb attack on a mosque in northwestern Pakistan’s Peshawar on Monday.

The bombing drew nationwide condemnation from opposition political parties and government officials. Ghulam Ali, the provincial governor in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Peshawar is the capital, said there were fears the death toll could rise even further.

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Most of the casualties were policemen and police officers – the targeted mosque is located within a sprawling compound, which also serves as the city’s police headquarters. Police said between 300 to 350 worshipers were inside the mosque when the bomber detonated his explosives.

Sarbakaf Mohmand, a commander for the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter. The main spokesman for the organization was not immediately available for comment.

The police compound is located in a high-security zone in Peshawar, along with several government buildings, and it was unclear how the bomber managed to penetrate so deep inside the zone unnoticed.

The impact of the explosion collapsed the roof of the mosque, which caved in and injured many, according to Zafar Khan, a local police officer.

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Siddique Khan, a police official, said the death toll rose to 34, and the dead included Noor-ul-Amin, the prayer leader. Meanwhile, officials said at least 150 were wounded.

A survivor, 38-year-old police officer Meena Gul, said he was inside the mosque when the bomb went off. He said he doesn’t know how he survived unhurt. He could hear cries and screams after the bomb exploded, Gul said.

Rescuers scrambled trying to remove mounds of debris from the mosque grounds and get to worshippers still trapped under the rubble, police said. At a nearby hospital, many of the wounded were listed in critical condition as the casualty toll rose.

‘Stern action’
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a statement condemned the bombing and ordered authorities to ensure the best possible medical treatment for the victims. He also vowed “stern action” against those who were behind the attack.

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Former Prime Minister Imran Khan also condemned the bombing, calling it a “terrorist suicide attack” in a Twitter posting. “My prayers & condolences go to victims’ families,” said the ex-premier. “It is imperative we improve our intelligence gathering & properly equip our police forces to combat the growing threat of terrorism.”

Peshawar has been the scene of frequent militant attacks. The Pakistani Taliban, are known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP and are a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

The TTP has waged an insurgency in Pakistan over the past 15 years, fighting for the implementation of their distorted version of Islamic laws in the country, the release of their members who are in government custody and a reduction of the Pakistani military presence in the country’s former tribal regions.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks since November when the Pakistani Taliban ended their cease-fire with government forces.

The truce ended as Pakistan was still contending with last summer’s unprecedented flooding that killed 1,739 people, destroyed more than 2 million homes, and at one point submerged as much as one-third of the country. The flood damages totaled to more than $30 billion and authorities are now, months later, still struggling to arrange tents, shelter and food for the survivors.

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Cash-strapped Pakistan is currently also facing one of the worst economic crises and is seeking a crucial installment of $1.1 billion from the International Monetary Fund – part of its $6 billion bailout package – to avoid default. Talks with the IMF on reviving the bailout have stalled in the past months.

Sharif’s government came to power last April after Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament. Khan has since campaigned for early elections, claiming his ouster was illegal and part of a plot backed by the United States. Washington and Sharif have dismissed Khan’s claims.

Türkiye condemns attack
Türkiye, in the meanwhile, condemned the heinous act of terrorism “in the strongest possible terms.”

We are “deeply saddened by the loss of lives and injuries as a result of Monday’s terrorist act targeting a mosque in northwestern Peshawar city,” the Foreign Ministry said Monday in a statement.

Wishing God’s mercy on those who lost their lives in the attack, the ministry extended “condolences to the friendly and brotherly Pakistan Government and its people and a speedy recovery to the injured,” the ministry added

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Cold snap grips Afghanistan, death toll rises to 166.

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A wave of bitterly cold weather is sweeping through Afghanistan, which has caused the deaths of at least 166 people, an official said Saturday, as extreme conditions heaped misery on the poverty-stricken nation.

Afghanistan has been frozen by temperatures as low as minus 33 degrees Celsius (minus 27 degrees Fahrenheit) since Jan. 10, combined with widespread snowfall, icy gales and regular electricity outages.

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Aid agencies had warned before the cold snap that more than half of Afghanistan’s 38 million people were facing hunger, while nearly four million children were suffering from malnutrition.

The disaster management ministry said on Saturday the death toll had risen by 88 over the past week and now stood at 166, based on data from 24 of the nation’s 34 provinces.

The deaths were caused by floods, fires and leaks from gas heaters that Afghan families use to heat their homes, ministry official Abdul Rahman Zahid said in a video statement.

Some 100 homes were destroyed or damaged and nearly 80,000 livestock, a vital commodity for Afghanistan’s poor, also died in the cold.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) said this week 17 people had died in a single village in northeastern Badakhshan province due to an outbreak of “acute respiratory infection.”

“Harsh weather prevents help from reaching the area,” the WHO said.

Afghanistan is enduring its second winter since United States-backed forces withdrew and the Taliban surged back into Kabul to reclaim government.

Foreign aid has declined dramatically since then and key central bank assets were seized by the United States, compounding a humanitarian crisis considered one of the world’s worst.

The Taliban government banned Afghan women from working with humanitarian groups last month, leading many to suspend operations.

Women NGO workers in the health sector were then granted an exemption and some organisations restarted their programs.

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Taliban bans women from taking university entry exams in Afghanistan.

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The Taliban announced a ban on female students from taking university entrance exams in Afghanistan for the 2023 school year, according to the letter sent to private universities and higher education institutions on Saturday.

The note comes despite weeks of condemnation and lobbying by the international community for a reversal of measures restricting women’s freedoms, including two back-to-back visits this month by several senior U.N. officials. It also bodes ill for hopes that the Taliban could take steps to reverse their edicts anytime soon.

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The Taliban barred women from private and public universities last month. The higher education minister in the Taliban-run government, Nida Mohammed Nadim, has maintained that the ban is necessary to prevent the mixing of genders in universities — and because he believes some subjects being taught violate Islamic principles.

Work was underway to fix these issues, and universities would reopen for women once they were resolved, he had said in a T.V. interview.

The Taliban have made similar promises about girls’ middle and high school access, saying classes would resume for them once “technical issues” around uniforms and transport were sorted out. But girls remain shut out of classrooms beyond sixth grade.

Higher Education Ministry spokesperson Ziaullah Hashmi said Saturday that a letter reminding private universities not to allow women to take entrance exams was sent out. He gave no further details.

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A copy of the letter, shared with The Associated Press (A.P.), warned that women could not take the “entry test for bachelor, master and doctorate levels” and that if any university disobeys the edict, “legal action will be taken against the violator.”

The letter was signed by Mohammad Salim Afghan, the government official overseeing student affairs at private universities.

Entrance exams start on Sunday in some provinces, while elsewhere in Afghanistan, they begin on Feb. 27. Universities across Afghanistan follow a different term timetable due to seasonal differences.

Mohammed Karim Nasari, the spokesperson for the private universities union, said last month that dozens of private universities risk closure because of the ban.

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Afghanistan has 140 private universities across 24 provinces, with around 200,000 students. Out of those, some 60,000 to 70,000 are women. The universities employ about 25,000 people.

Earlier this week, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and leaders of two major international aid organizations visited Afghanistan, following last week’s visit by a delegation led by the U.N.’s highest-ranking woman, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. The visits had the same aim — to try and reverse the Taliban’s crackdown on women and girls, including their ban on Afghan women working for national and global humanitarian organizations

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Women Who Lived As Sex Slaves To An Indian Goddess.

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Dedicated to an Indian goddess as a child, Huvakka Bhimappa’s years of sexual servitude began when her uncle took her virginity, raping her in exchange for a saree and some jewellery.

Bhimappa was not yet 10 years old when she became a “devadasi” — girls coerced by their parents into an elaborate wedding ritual with a Hindu deity, many of whom are then forced into illegal prostitution.

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Devadasis are expected to live a life of religious devotion, forbidden from marrying other mortals, and forced at puberty to sacrifice their virginity to an older man, in return for money or gifts.

“In my case, it was my mother’s brother,” Bhimappa, now in her late 40s, told AFP.


What followed was years of sexual slavery, earning money for her family through encounters with other men in the name of serving the goddess.

Bhimappa eventually escaped her servitude but with no education, she earns around a dollar a day toiling in fields.

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Her time as a devotee to the Hindu goddess Yellamma has also rendered her an outcast in the eyes of her community.

She had loved a man once, but it would have been unthinkable for her to ask him to marry.


“If I was not a devadasi, I would have had a family and children and some money. I would have lived well,” she said.

Devadasis have been an integral part of southern Indian culture for centuries and once enjoyed a respectable place in society.

Many were highly educated, trained in classical dance and music, lived comfortable lives and chose their own sexual partners.

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“This notion of more or less religiously sanctioned sexual slavery was not part of the original system of patronage,” historian Gayathri Iyer told AFP.


Iyer said that in the 19th century, during the British colonial era, the divine pact between devadasi and goddess evolved into an institution of sexual exploitation.

It now serves as a means for poverty-stricken families from the bottom of India’s rigid caste hierarchy to relieve themselves of responsibility for their daughters.

The practice was outlawed in Bhimappa’s home state of Karnataka back in 1982, and India’s top court has described the devotion of young girls to temples as an “evil”.

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Campaigners, however, say that young girls are still secretly inducted into devadasi orders.

Four decades after the state ban, there are still more than 70,000 devadasis in Karnataka, India’s human rights commission wrote last year.

‘I was alone’
Girls are commonly seen as burdensome and costly in India due to the tradition of wedding dowries.

By forcing daughters to become devadasis, poorer families gain a source of income and avoid the costs of marrying them off.

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Many households around the small southern town of Saundatti — home to a revered Yellamma temple — believe that having a family member in the order can lift their fortunes or cure the illness of a loved one.

It was at this temple that Sitavva D. Jodatti was enjoined to marry the goddess when she was eight years old.

Her sisters had all married other men, and her parents decided to dedicate her to Yellamma in order to provide for them.

“When other people get married, there is a bride and a groom. When I realised I was alone, I started crying,” Jodatti, 49, told AFP.

Her father eventually fell ill, and she was pulled out of school to engage in sex work and help pay for his treatment.

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“By the age of 17, I had two kids,” she said.

Rekha Bhandari, a fellow former devadasi, said they had been subjected to a practice of “blind tradition” that had ruined their lives.

She was forced into the order after the death of her mother and was 13 when a 30-year-old man took her virginity. She fell pregnant soon after.

“A normal delivery was difficult. The doctor yelled at my family, saying that I was too young to give birth,” the 45-year-old told AFP.

“I had no understanding.”

‘Many women have died’
Years of unsafe sex exposed many devadasis to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

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“I know of women who are infected and now it has passed on to their children,” an activist who works with devadasis, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

“They hide it and live with it in secrecy. Many women have died.”

Parents are occasionally prosecuted for allowing their daughters to be inducted as devadasis, and women who leave the order are given meagre government pensions of 1,500 rupees ($18) per month.

Nitesh Patil, a civil servant who administers Saundatti, told AFP that there had been no “recent instances” of women being dedicated to temples.

India’s rights commission last year ordered Karnataka and several other Indian states to outline what they were doing to prevent the practice, after a media investigation found that devadasi inductions were still widespread.

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The stigma around their pasts means women who leave their devadasi order often endure lives as outcasts or objects of ridicule, and few ever marry.

Many find themselves destitute or struggling to survive on poorly paid manual labour and farming work.

Jodatti now heads a civil society group which helped extricate the women AFP spoke to from their lives of servitude and provides support to former devadasis.

She said many of her contemporaries had several years ago become engrossed by the #MeToo movement and the personal revelations of celebrity women around the world that revealed them as survivors of sexual abuse.

“We watch the news and sometimes when we see famous people… we understand their situation is much like ours. They have suffered the same. But they continue to live freely,” she said.

“We have gone through the same experience, but we don’t get the respect they get.

“Devadasi women are still looked down upon.”

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China’s Population Shrinks For First Time In More Than 60 Years.

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China’s population shrank last year for the first time in more than six decades, official data showed Tuesday, as the birth rate slows in the face of mounting financial pressures and shifting social attitudes.

The world’s most populous country is facing a looming demographic crisis as its workforce ages, which analysts warn could stymie economic growth and pile pressure on strained public coffers.

Analysts point to the soaring cost of living — as well as a growing number of women in the workforce and seeking higher education — as reasons behind the slowdown.

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“Who dares to have kids?” a Shanghai resident in his thirties said Tuesday.

“The unemployment rate is so high, Covid destroyed everything, there’s nothing we can do. Next year we’ll have declining growth again.”

The mainland Chinese population stood at around 1,411,750,000 at the end of 2022, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported, a decrease of 850,000 from the end of the previous year.

The number of births was 9.56 million, the NBS said, while the number of deaths stood at 10.41 million.

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The last time China’s population declined was in the early 1960s, when the country was battling the worst famine in its modern history, a result of the disastrous Mao Zedong agricultural policy known as the Great Leap Forward.

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China ended its strict one-child policy — imposed in the 1980s owing to fears of overpopulation — in 2016 and began allowing couples to have three children in 2021.

But that has failed to reverse the demographic decline for a country that has long relied on its vast workforce as a driver of economic growth.

“The population will likely trend down from here in coming years,” Zhiwei Zhang of Pinpoint Asset Management said.

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“China cannot rely on the demographic dividend as a structural driver for economic growth,” he added.

“Economic growth will have to depend more on productivity growth, which is driven by government policies.”

‘A lot of pressure’
The one-child policy meant Chinese people got used to smaller families, Xiujian Peng, a researcher at Australia’s University of Victoria, told AFP.

And for those who were only children as a result of the policy, “there’s a lot of pressure when it comes to taking care of your parents and improving your quality of life in the future”, a young woman in Beijing told AFP.

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For those who do have children, balancing work and child-rearing can be an impossible task.

“For many women, having a child means that they have to give up on a lot of things they wanted to do,” Nancy, a 32-year-old e-commerce worker, explained.

News of the population decline quickly trended on China’s heavily censored internet.

“Without children, the state and the nation have no future,” one comment on the Twitter-like Weibo service read.

“Having children is also a social responsibility,” another comment from a well-known “patriotic” influencer read.

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But others again pointed to the difficulties of raising children in modern China.

“I love my mother, I will not be a mother,” said one.

“No one reflects on why we do not want to have (children) and do not want to get married,” another said.

‘Policy package needed’
Independent demographer He Yafu also pointed to “the decline in the number of women of childbearing age, which fell by five million per year between 2016 and 2021” — a consequence of the ageing of the population — as a reason for the low birth rate.

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Many local authorities have already launched measures to encourage couples to have children.

The southern megacity of Shenzhen, for example, now offers birth bonuses of up to 10,000 yuan (around $1,500) and pays allowances until the child is three years old.

But analysts argue much more needs to be done.

“A comprehensive policy package that covers childbirth, parenting, and education is needed to reduce the cost of child-raising,” researcher Peng told AFP.

“Women’s job insecurity after giving birth should be addressed particularly.”

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The Chinese population could decline each year by 1.1 percent on average, according to a study by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences that was updated last year and shared with AFP.

China could have only 587 million inhabitants in 2100, less than half of today, according to the most pessimistic projections of that team of demographers.

And India is set to dethrone China this year as the most populous country in the world, according to the United Nations.

“A declining and ageing population will be a real concern for China,” Peng said.

“It will have a profound impact on China’s economy from the present through to 2100.”

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South Korea seeks manslaughter charges over deadly Halloween crush.

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South Korean police are seeking criminal charges, including involuntary manslaughter and negligence, against 23 officials, about half of them law enforcement officers, for a lack of safety measures they said were responsible for a crowd surge that killed nearly 160 people.

Despite anticipating a weekend crowd of more than 100,000, Seoul police had assigned 137 officers to the capital’s nightlife district Itaewon on the day of the crush. Those officers were focused on monitoring narcotics use and violent crimes, which experts say left few resources for pedestrian safety.

Son Je-han, who headed the National Police Agency’s special investigation into the incident, said Friday his team will now send the case to prosecutors. Those recommended for indictment include Park Hee-young, the mayor of Seoul’s Yongsan district, and the district’s former police chief Lee Im-jae – two of the six who have been arrested.

Lee has also been accused of falsifying a police report to disguise his late arrival to the scene. Two other police officials have been arrested over suspicions they attempted to destroy computer files and other potential evidence tied to the accident.

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The results of the 74-day police investigation announced by Son mostly confirmed what was already clear – that police and public officials in Yongsan failed to employ meaningful crowd control measures for the expected numbers of Halloween revelers and essentially ignored pedestrian calls placed to police hotlines that warned of a swelling crowd hours before the surge turned deadly on Oct. 28.

Officials also botched their response once people began getting toppled over and crushed in a narrow alley clogged with partygoers near Hamilton Hotel around 10 p.m., failing to establish effective control of the scene and allow rescue workers to reach the injured in time, Son said.

“(Their) inaccurate judgment of the situation, the slow distribution of information about the situation, poor cooperation between related institutions and delays in rescue operations were among the overlapping failures that caused the high number of casualties,” Son said at a news conference in Seoul.

‘Manmade disaster’
Son said his team questioned nearly 540 people and collected 14,000 pieces of evidence from central and municipal government offices and transportation authorities. He said police investigators studied more than 180 video files recorded on security cameras or taken by journalists and pedestrians and jointly inspected the scene with forensic experts to analyze the density of the crowd.

Police said the crowd packing the corridor-like alley between the hotel and a dense row of storefronts grew into an unstoppable wave around 9 p.m., with people being unable to dictate their movement once they got swept in. At around 10:15 p.m., people began falling and toppling on one another like dominos, leading to the tragedy that resulted in 158 deaths and 196 injuries.

Analysis of security camera footage and simulations by the National Forensic Service indicate the crowd density at the alley was around eight people per square meter (yard) at around 10:15 p.m. The density grew to eight to nine people occupying the same unit of space as of 10:20 p.m. and around nine to 11 people as of 10:25 p.m., police said.

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Paramedics struggled to reach the scene because the area was so densely packed. Those who arrived were so overwhelmed by the large number of people lying motionless on the ground that they asked pedestrians to help them perform CPR. Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation or brain damage, police said.

It’s unclear whether the results of the police investigation would be enough to calm the public’s anger and demands for government accountability as the country continues to cope with its worst disaster in nearly a decade.

Opposition lawmakers and some relatives of the victims have demanded investigations into more high-profile figures, such as Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min and National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun, who have faced calls to resign.

However, Son said the special investigation team will close its probes on the Interior and Safety Ministry, the National Police Agency, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, saying it was difficult to establish their direct responsibility.

Some experts have called the crush in Itaewon a “manmade disaster” that could have been prevented with fairly simple steps, such as employing more police and public workers to monitor bottleneck points, enforcing one-way walk lanes and blocking narrow pathways or temporarily closing Itaewon’s subway station to prevent large numbers of people moving in the same direction.

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China vows ‘final victory’ over COVID-19 despite global alarm.

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The Chinese state media rallied citizens on Wednesday for a “final victory” over the coronavirus as global health officials tried to determine the facts of China’s raging COVID-19 outbreak and how to prevent a further spread.

China’s axing of its stringent virus curbs last month has unleashed COVID on a 1.4 billion population that has little natural immunity having been shielded from the virus since it emerged in the central city of Wuhan three years ago.

Many funeral homes and hospitals say they are overwhelmed, and international health experts predict at least 1 million deaths in China this year, but China has reported five or fewer deaths a day since the policy U-turn.

“That is totally ridiculous,” a 66-year-old Beijing resident who only gave his last name Zhang said of the official death toll.

“Four of my close relatives died. That’s only from one family. I hope the government will be honest with the people and the rest of the world about what’s really happened here.”

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China has rejected foreign skepticism of its statistics as politically motivated attempts to smear its achievements in fighting the virus.

“China and the Chinese people will surely win the final victory against the epidemic,” the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, said in an editorial, rebutting criticism of China’s three years of isolation, lockdowns and testing that triggered historic protests late last year.

Having lifted the restrictions, Beijing is hitting back against some countries demanding that visitors from China show predeparture COVID-19 tests, saying the rules were unreasonable and lacked a scientific basis.

Japan became the latest country to require a preboarding negative test, joining the United States, Australia and others. European Union health officials were due to meet Wednesday to discuss a coordinated response to China travel.

Willie Walsh, head of the world’s biggest airline association IATA, also criticized what he described as knee-jerk” measures that he said had proven to be ineffective in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

China, which has been largely shut off from the world since the pandemic began, will stop requiring inbound travelers to quarantine from Jan. 8. But it will still demand that arriving passengers get tested before they begin their journeys.

Data Doubts
World Health Organization officials met Chinese scientists Tuesday amid concern over the accuracy of China’s data on the spread and evolution of its outbreak.

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The U.N. agency had invited the scientists to present detailed data on viral sequencing, hospitalizations, deaths and vaccinations.

The WHO would release information about the talks later, probably at a Wednesday briefing, its spokesperson said.

Last month, Reuters reported that the WHO had not received data from China on new COVID hospitalizations since Beijing’s policy shift, prompting some health experts to question whether it might be concealing the extent of its outbreak.

China reported five new COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the official death toll to 5,258, very low by global standards.

British-based health data firm Airfinity has said about 9,000 people in China are probably dying each day from COVID.

There were chaotic scenes at Shanghai’s Zhongshan hospital where patients, many of them elderly, jostled for space on Tuesday in packed halls between makeshift beds where people used oxygen ventilators and got intravenous drips.

A Reuters witness counted seven hearses in the parking lot of Shanghai’s Tongji hospital Wednesday. Workers were seen carrying at least 18 yellow bags used to move bodies.

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Booking Boom
With COVID disruptions slowing China’s $17 trillion economy to its lowest growth in nearly half a century, investors are now hoping for policy stimulus.

China’s yuan hovered at a four-month high against the dollar on Wednesday, after its finance minister pledged to step up fiscal expansion. The central bank has also flagged more policy support.

UBS analysts expect the “big bang” approach to reopening to cause a “deeper but shorter setback” to the economy, but also predicted that activity would recover from February.

Despite the new restrictions in some countries, interest in traveling abroad is reviving, Chinese media reported.

International flight bookings have risen 145% year-on-year in recent days, state-run China Daily reported, citing data from travel platform Trip.com.

Before the pandemic, global spending by Chinese tourists exceeded $250 billion a year but the number of flights to and from China is still a fraction of pre-COVID levels.

Thailand expects at least five million Chinese arrivals this year. More than 11 million Chinese visited Thailand in 2019, nearly a third of its total visitors.

But there are already signs that an increase in travel from China could pose problems abroad.

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South Korea, which began testing travelers from China on Monday, said more than a fifth of the test results were positive.

Authorities there were searching for one Chinese national who tested positive but went missing while awaiting quarantine.

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South Korea threatens to scrap buffer zone pact after drone incursion

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South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday he would consider suspending a 2018 agreement that created maritime buffer zones with the North should Pyongyang “violate” Seoul’s territory again.

The deal, struck during a period of high-profile diplomacy at a summit in Pyongyang, aimed to reduce military tensions along the heavily fortified border.

At the time, the two sides agreed to “cease various military exercises aimed at each other along the military demarcation line,” but Pyongyang began repeatedly violating the deal last year.

North Korea fired artillery shots into the agreement’s designated maritime buffer zones multiple times in 2022, and last week sent five drones across the border into South Korean airspace.

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The violations have prompted growing calls from ruling-party parliamentarians for the hawkish Yoon administration to scrap the four-year-old deal, inked under then-president Moon Jae-in.

On Wednesday, Yoon instructed his security aides “to consider suspending the military agreement if the North carries out another provocation violating our territory,” spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye told reporters.

Yoon also called for “a large-scale production of small-size drones that are hard to be detected by the end of the year” and the creation of a multi-purpose drone unit for an “overwhelming counteroffensive capability”.

The North Korean drone incursion, the first such incident in five years, prompted an apology from Seoul’s defense minister after the military failed to shoot down any of the unmanned aircraft despite scrambling jets for a five-hour operation.

Scrapping the 2018 deal would “increase the chance of heightened military tensions and an actual clash in border areas”, Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification told AFP.

Despite Pyongyang violating the deal, the agreement still helped with “preventing a major military clash,” he said.

“It will be a much different story if Yoon puts an official, political end to the agreement.”

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Junta’s show of force, mass pardons mark Myanmar Independence Day.

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Myanmar’s military junta announced an amnesty for 7,000 prisoners to mark Independence Day on Wednesday following a show of force in the capital.

The decision comes just days after the government increased democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi’s jail term to 33 years.

Swaths of the Southeast Asian country have been engulfed by fighting between junta troops and anti-coup rebels since the military seized power almost two years ago.

The junta, which recently wrapped up a series of closed-court trials of Suu Kyi, is preparing for fresh elections later this year that the United States has said would be a “sham.”

Tanks, missile launchers and armored cars rolled through the dawn air to a parade ground in the capital Naypyidaw, AFP correspondents said, kicking off a military display marking 75 years since Myanmar gained independence from Britain.

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Civil servants and high school students followed the troops, accompanied by a military band as 750 “peace” doves were released to mark the occasion, according to state media.

Later in the day, the junta announced it would free 7,012 prisoners to mark the anniversary, though it did not specify whether the amnesty would include those jailed as part of a crackdown on dissent.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun did not respond to an AFP request for comment on whether Suu Kyi would be moved from her prison to house arrest as part of the amnesty.

In a speech to assembled troops, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing accused unidentified countries of “intervening in Myanmar’s internal affairs” since the February 2021 coup.

The military was meeting with political parties for discussions on “the proportional representation electoral system,” he said, without giving further details.

Analysts say the junta may scrap the first-past-the-post system that saw Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy win sweeping majorities in 2020 and 2015.

Muted celebrations
Myanmar declared independence from British colonial rule on Jan. 4, 1948, after a long fight championed by General Aung San, ousted civilian leader Suu Kyi’s father.

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The junta has handed out hundreds of awards and medals to its supporters in the run-up to the event, including to a firebrand monk known for his role in stirring up religious hatred in Myanmar.

Wirathu – dubbed “The Buddhist bin Laden” by Time Magazine in 2013 following deadly communal riots – was awarded the title of “Thiri Pyanchi” on Tuesday, for “outstanding work for the good of the Union of Myanmar.”

Independence Day is normally marked with festive street games, marches and gatherings in public parks and spaces.

But celebrations of public holidays have been largely muted since the putsch as people stay home in protest against the junta.

AFP correspondents said there was an increased security presence in the commercial hub Yangon, which has been hit by a string of bomb attacks in recent months.

The US embassy warned of “potential increases in attacks, targeted shootings, or explosions” Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, marked the day by sending “sincere greetings,” adding that he anticipated the “further development” of relations, according to state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar.

Russia is a major ally and arms supplier of the isolated junta, which has said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago was “justified.”

Myanmar’s military has made unsubstantiated allegations of massive voter fraud during elections in November 2020, which were won resoundingly by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, as a reason for its coup.

International observers said at the time the polls were largely free and fair.

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EU, America condemns sentencing of ousted Myanmar leader, Aung San Suu Kyi

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The United States and the European Union condemned Myanmar’s junta for handing a 33-year prison sentence to ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“The Burma military regime’s final sentencing of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi is an affront to justice and the rule of law,” a State Department spokesperson said, using Myanmar’s former name and the veteran leader’s title before she was ousted in February 2021.

The EU also condemned the jailing of Suu Kyi after “purely politically motivated” trials by the ruling junta.

“These trials were carried forward with no respect for due legal procedure or necessary judicial guarantees and are a clear attempt to exclude democratically elected leaders from political life,” an EU spokesperson said. He also slammed the sentencing of ex-president Win Myint, Suu Kyi’s co-accused, to a total of 12 years in prison.

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Death Toll From Cambodia Casino Fire Reaches 25 As Rescuers Scour Site.

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Rescuers scoured the charred ruins of a Cambodian hotel and casino complex Friday as the death toll from a fire that forced people to jump from windows rose to 25.

Hundreds of people are believed to have been inside the Grand Diamond City venue, located in the town of Poipet within sight of the Thai border, when the blaze broke out late Wednesday night. (Watch Video Here)

“The death toll now is around 25,” said Sek Sokhom, director of the information department for the province of Banteay Meanchey, adding that some of the bodies recovered were found in stairways.

Grieving families told AFP they were struggling to comprehend the scale of the incident, with one mother saying she was unable to eat because she was so “overwhelmed” by the loss of her 23-year-old son.

Photos and video from the scene showed people huddling on windowsills to escape the flames, with one rescuer telling AFP he saw people desperately jumping from the roof as the blaze inched closer. (Watch Video Here)

A Cambodian police officer told AFP they believed “there are many more bodies still trapped inside” as rescuers began entering the gutted complex.

Hundreds of Cambodian soldiers and police officers, along with volunteers from Thailand, are taking part in the search.

Smoke was still occasionally rising from the complex on Friday as rescuers prepared to enter the buildings at around 7 am, with fire trucks on standby at the scene. (Watch Video Here)

Jakkapong Ruengdech, a team leader with Thai rescue group the Poh Teck Tung Foundation, told AFP they needed to establish if there was still intense smoke or fire inside.

Another rescuer from the group, who asked not to be named, described the building as “unstable” and said the search would have to proceed with caution.

Many of the injured have been taken to Thailand for treatment, with local officials on the Thai side saying more than 50 had been (Watch Video Here) hospitalised, with 13 in critical condition.

‘Overwhelmed’
As the death toll rose, grieving families struggled to comprehend their loss — such as Keerati Keawwat, whose 23-year-old son was in the building.

“He got stuck inside and could not get out,” the 55-year-old told AFP from a makeshift information centre.

“I can’t eat, and only slept for one hour,” she said. “I’m too overwhelmed.” (Watch Video Here)

‘ Neung’, a 42-year-old casino worker who gave only his nickname, said he was sleeping in the complex and managed to make it out — but his father was not so lucky.

He said his dad, who was gambling in the casino Wednesday night, managed to help two women reach safety.

“But in helping them, he used a lot of energy and was choked by the smoke,” he said, describing how his dad was then trapped in a room with others but was able to call until roughly 3 am. (Watch Video Here)

“I then lost connection with my dad, and lost hope,” he said.

“Now, I only want to have his body.”

The complex is one of many in Poipet, a border town popular with Thais who face strict restrictions on gambling within their country.

Thailand’s foreign ministry said it was working closely with Cambodian authorities to find and identify Thais involved in the incident and was sending “additional equipment, consular officers and a police attache” to Poipet. (Watch Video Here)

While gambling by Cambodians is also illegal under the country’s laws, numerous casino-filled hotspots have flourished along the borders with Thailand and Vietnam.

‘A tragedy’
A Grand Diamond City worker, who asked not to be named as it might affect her job, told AFP she was working on the third floor of the 17-floor hotel wing when the blaze broke out.

“At first, it was not a huge fire,” she said. But she and a co-worker were soon forced to flee outside when the flames began rampaging towards them.

“It got huge rapidly,” she said, still in a state of shock over the death and destruction. (Watch Video Here)

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday expressed condolences to the families of the victims, calling it a “tragedy” and promising that fire engines would be placed near all tall buildings.

There is as yet no indication what caused the blaze, the latest in a series of fires that have struck popular entertainment establishments in the region where concerns have long been raised over lax safety standards. (Watch Video Here)

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16 killed, fifty injured in massive fire at Cambodia hotel casino

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At least 16 people were killed, 50 others were injured while more remain missing after a massive fire ripped through a hotel-casino in Cambodia on Thursday.

The fire lasted more than 12 hours, as neighboring Thailand sent firetrucks to help fight the blaze in a bustling border town. (Watch Video Here)

Videos posted on social media showed people falling from a roof after they were trapped by the fire at the Grand Diamond City casino and hotel in the border town of Poipet. Many of those inside, both customers and staff, were from neighboring Thailand.

In a video posted by Cambodia’s firefighting agency, onlookers could be heard shouting pleas to rescue people trapped on the roof of the hotel complex, which is more than a dozen stories tall at its highest point. The video showed at least one man falling as the flames reached the roof.

“Oh, please help rescue them. Pump water … pump water,” shouted the onlookers. (Watch Video Here)

The Department of Fire Prevention, Extinguishing and Rescue posted that calls for help were heard from the 13th, 14th and 15th floors at 4 a.m. local time and hands were seen waving from windows as well as a mobile phone’s flashlight signaling from inside the complex.

“The fire was massive, and was inside the casino, so it was difficult for our water cannons to reach it,” observed a firefighter on the video posted online by the fire department. He said that was the reason the fire continued burning for such a long time. (Watch Video Here)

The blaze, which started around midnight Wednesday, was finally put out at 2 p.m. Thursday, said Sek Sokhom, head of Banteay Meanchey’s information department. He said a local Buddhist temple was being prepared to receive the dead.

The province’s deputy governor, Ngor Meng Chroun, told Cambodia’s Bayon Radio the death toll had reached 16, with about 50 other people injured. The number of deaths appeared likely to rise, as more bodies of those trapped inside were discovered and critically hurt people succumbed to their injuries. (Watch Video Here)

Banteay Meanchey police chief Sithi Loh said 360 emergency personnel and 11 firetrucks had been sent to the scene of the fire, whose cause was not yet known. The casino employed about 400 workers.

“Right now, we are trying to bring the dead bodies from the building down. I don’t think there will be any survivors because of very thick smoke. Even we all (the rescue staff) have to wear proper gear when we go inside the building, otherwise, we cannot breathe at all,” said Montri Khaosa-ard, a staff member of Thailand Ruamkatanyu Foundation, a social welfare organization that sends volunteers to the sites of emergencies. (Watch Video Here)

Thai and Cambodia rescue teams worked side-by-side in Thursday’s search of the badly burned premises.

Thailand’s public television network, Thai PBS, reported that 50 Thais, both staff and customers, had been trapped inside the casino complex. It reported that Cambodian authorities requested help to deal with the fire from Thailand, which sent five firetrucks and 10 rescue vans.

Poipet in western Cambodia is opposite the city of Aranyaprathet in more affluent Thailand, and there is busy cross-border (Watch Video Here) trade and tourism.

Thai PBS cited reports that Aranyaprathet Hospital’s emergency ward was full and other victims had to be sent to other hospitals.

Casinos are illegal in Thailand, but neighboring countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos host the lucrative industry.

Cambodia has an especially active casino industry because the Southeast Asian country is also a popular tourist destination with convenient international connections. (Watch Video Here)

The Grand Diamond City casino is just a few meters (yards) from the border checkpoint with Thailand and popular with customers who make the four-hour drive from the Thai capital, Bangkok.

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Eighteen children dead after consuming Indian-made meds in Uzbekistan.

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At least 18 children died after consuming pediatric syrup manufactured by Indian pharmaceutical company Marion Biotech Pvt Ltd, Uzbekistan’s health ministry said.

The ministry said 18 out of 21 children who took the Doc-1 Max syrup while suffering from an acute respiratory disease died after consuming it. It is marketed on the company’s website as a treatment for cold and flu symptoms. (Watch Video Here)

A batch of the syrup contained ethylene glycol, which the ministry said was a toxic substance. The syrup was imported into Uzbekistan by Quramax Medical LLC, the ministry said in its statement released on Tuesday.

It also said the syrup was given to children at home without a doctor’s prescription, either by their parents or on the advice of pharmacists, with doses that exceeded the standard dose for children.

It was not immediately clear whether all or any of the children had consumed the suspect batch or had consumed more than the standard dose, or both. (Watch Video Here)

Marion Biotech, Quramax Medical and India’s health ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking comment. An Indian government source said the health ministry was looking into the matter.

India had on Tuesday launched an inspection of some drug factories across the country to ensure high quality standards.

The Uzbek incident follows a similar one in Gambia, where the deaths of at least 70 children were blamed on cough and cold syrups made by New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Both India’s government and the company have denied the medicines were at fault. (Watch Video Here)

India is known as the “pharmacy of the world” and its pharmaceuticals exports have more than doubled over the past decade to $24.5 billion in the past fiscal year.

The Uzbek health ministry said it had dismissed seven employees for negligence for not analyzing the deaths in a timely manner and not taking the necessary measures. It said it had taken disciplinary measures against some “specialists”, without specifying what (Watch Video Here) role the specialists had.

It is also withdrawing the Doc-1 Max tablets and syrups from all pharmacies.

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Death Toll From Philippine Floods, Landslides Climbs To 33.

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One person died and three others were missing in the southern Philippines after being hit by a landslide, police said Thursday, taking the nationwide death toll from recent rains to at least 33.

Authorities were still searching for more than two dozen other people missing after heavy downpours over the Christmas weekend caused flooding and landslides across central and southern regions. (Watch Video Here)

The latest death happened Wednesday in Mati City in the province of Davao Oriental on Mindanao island when a landslide buried four people as they fished, police said.

READ ALSO: Benjamin Netanyahu Back With Extreme-Right Government

The body of a 62-year-old man was recovered and the search for his companions was still under way, Mati City police chief Ernesto Gregore told AFP.

“There was a heavy downpour in the mountains. They were fishing in a river when the landslide occurred,” Gregore said. (Watch Video Here)

The weather turned bad over the weekend as the disaster-prone nation of 110 million people prepared for a long Christmas holiday.

Hundreds of houses have since been destroyed and more than 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) of crops wiped out by rains that have forced tens of thousands of people into evacuation centres, the national disaster agency said.

Most fatalities have been in the province of Misamis Occidental, also on Mindanao, where 15 people died from drowning or rain-induced landslides. (Watch Video Here)

The Philippines is ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change, and scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer.

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Ten Killed, 30 Injured In Huge Hotel-Casino Fire On Cambodian Border.

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As many as 10 people have died in a fire at a Cambodian hotel-casino on the border of Thailand, with photos showing groups desperately huddled on ledges as fierce flames surround them.

The blaze at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino in Poipet broke out late Wednesday night at around 11:30 pm local (1630 GMT), Cambodian police said. (Watch Video Here)

A provisional police report seen by AFP said “about 10 people died and 30 people injured”, adding that around 400 individuals were believed to be working at the venue.

Images obtained by AFP showed the building consumed by flames, with firefighters struggling to contain the intense blaze and rescuers attempting to pluck people from a burning ledge.

In one clip, an unidentified man is seen sitting on a window ledge as smoke billows from the window behind him. In another, a group of people huddles on a ledge as (Watch Video Here) flames near them.

Local media reported that foreign nationals were inside the casino at the time of the fire.

A Thai foreign ministry source said they were coordinating closely with local authorities, with the injured transferred to hospitals in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province.

“The authorities have been trying to control the fire including by sending in firetrucks from the Thai side,” they said. (Watch Video Here)

A volunteer with Thai rescue group the Ruamkatanyu Foundation said the blaze started on the first floor but spread quickly along the carpets, leaping up through the multi-storey building.

Hotel-casino hotspots
Cambodia is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries and its citizens are officially barred from playing in the casinos.

There are numerous hotel-casinos clustered along the Thai-Cambodian border, with Poipet a popular holiday destination for visitors from Thailand, where most forms of gambling are illegal. (Watch Video Here)

The blaze follows two other fatal incidents in entertainment venues in neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam in 2022.

In August, a fire broke out at a Thai nightclub killing 26 people and injuring scores more.

And in September, a blaze broke out in southern Vietnam, killing 32 people in a karaoke bar.

Concerns have long been raised over the region’s lax attitude to health and safety regulations, particularly in its countless bars, nightclubs and entertainment venues. (Watch Video Here)

A massive inferno erupted at a New Year’s Eve party at Bangkok’s swanky Santika club in 2009, killing 67 people and injuring more than 200.

The owner of Santika was jailed for three years over the blaze, which began when fireworks were set off as a rock band played on stage. (Watch Video Here)

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China Approves First Foreign Video Games Since Crackdown

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Chinese regulators approved 44 new foreign video game titles Wednesday, the first to be allowed to hit the market since an industry crackdown to rein in minors’ gaming habits swept the sector last year.

Beijing moved against the country’s vibrant gaming sector last August as part of a sprawling crackdown on big tech companies, including a cap on the amount of time children could spend playing games. (Watch Video Here)

Officials also froze approvals of new titles for nine months until April, but a growing number of domestic titles have been approved since then.

China’s gaming regulator, the National Press and Publication Administration, on Wednesday said it had approved 44 new imported games in December including Nintendo’s Pokemon Unite.

It separately approved 84 new domestic titles. The body normally approves foreign titles in batches a few times per year. The last foreign game approvals to be handed out (Watch Video Here) were in June 2021.

Earlier this month, China granted homegrown tech giant Tencent its first video game licence in 18 months, ending a dry spell that had threatened its position as the world’s top game maker.

China’s video game market shrank more than 19 percent year-on-year in November, according to a Wednesday report by Chinese gaming consultancy Gamma Data.

The approval signals a relaxing of China’s strict attitude towards tech companies, although games are still censored for (Watch Video Here) politically incorrect themes.

During the crackdown, hundreds of game makers pledged to scrub “politically harmful” content from their products and enforce curbs on underage players to comply with government demands.

Restrictions announced last year but still in effect allow players under the age of 18 to play for up to three hours a week. (Watch Video Here)

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Pakistan Court Frees Rapist After Deal To Marry Victim.

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A Pakistan court freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders in the northwest of the country, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The decision has outraged rights activists, who say it legitimises sexual violence against women in a country where a majority of rape goes unreported. (Watch Video Here)

Dawlat Khan, 25, was sentenced in May to life imprisonment by a lower court in Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for raping a deaf woman.

He was released from prison on Monday after the Peshawar High Court accepted an out-of-court settlement agreed by the rape survivor’s family.

“The rapist and the victim are from the same extended family,” Amjad Ali, Khan’s lawyer, told AFP.

“Both families have patched up after an agreement was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council),” he added. (Watch Video Here)

Khan was arrested after his unmarried victim delivered a baby earlier this year, and a paternity test proved he was the child’s biological father.

Rape is notoriously difficult to prosecute in Pakistan, where women are often treated as second-class citizens.

According to the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell — a group providing legal assistance to vulnerable women — the conviction rate is lower than three percent of cases that go to trial. (Watch Video Here)

Few cases are reported because of the associated social stigma, while lapses during investigations, shoddy prosecutorial practices, and out-of-court settlements also contribute towards abysmal conviction rates.

“This is effectively the court’s approval of rape and facilitation of rapists and rape mentality,” Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, a lawyer and human rights activist, said of the Peshawar court decision.

“It is against the basic principles of justice and the law of the land which does not recognise such an arrangement,” she told AFP. (Watch Video Here)

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was “appalled” by the ruling.

“Rape is a non-compoundable offence that cannot be resolved through a feeble ‘compromise’ marriage,” the group tweeted.

In rural Pakistan, village councils known as jirgas or panchayats are formed of local elders who bypass the justice system, although their decisions have no legal value. (Watch Video Here)

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Japan To Require COVID Test On Arrival For China Travellers.

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Japan will require Covid-19 tests on arrival for travellers from mainland China from Friday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, after Beijing announced it will end inbound quarantine requirements.

Tokyo has eased its restrictions on tourists in recent months and the move means travellers from China will be the only visitors required to take Covid-19 tests on arrival, other than those who are displaying symptoms. (Watch Video Here)

Kishida said on Tuesday the decision was taken because “there is information that infection is spreading rapidly” in China.

“It is difficult to ascertain the precise situation due to major discrepancies between central and local authorities and between the government and private sector,” he told reporters.

“This is causing growing concern in Japan.”

The move comes after Beijing announced that inbound travellers will no longer be required to quarantine on arrival from January 8 after three years of strict (Watch Video Here) pandemic control.

China abruptly lifted many of its harsh Covid restrictions after nationwide protests and is seeing an unprecedented surge in infections.

Travellers from mainland China, or who have been there within seven days, will be required to test on arrival in Japan from Friday, Kishida said. (Watch Video Here)

Those who test positive will be quarantined for seven days at designated facilities.

Tokyo will also cap flights coming from mainland China, Kishida said.

Japan only fully reopened to tourists in October after two-and-a-half years of Covid restrictions that kept out almost all foreign travellers. (Watch Video Here)

In November, 934,500 people visited Japan from overseas, around 40 percent of the figures in the same month in pre-pandemic 2019.

In 2019, travellers from mainland China made up 30 percent of inbound tourists visiting Japan. (Watch Video Here)

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COVID-19: China to end quarantine on arrival despite cases hike.

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China said Monday it would scrap mandatory quarantine on arrival, further unwinding years of strict virus controls as the country battles a surge in cases.

Having mostly cut itself off from the rest of the world during the pandemic, China is now experiencing an unprecedented surge in infections after abruptly lifting restrictions that torpedoed the economy and sparked nationwide protests. (Watch Video Here)

And in a sudden end to nearly three years of strict border controls, Beijing said late Monday it would scrap mandatory quarantines for overseas travellers.

Since March 2020, all passengers arriving in China have had to undergo mandatory centralised quarantine. This decreased from three weeks to one week this summer, and to five days last month.

But under new rules that will take effect January 8, when Covid-19 will be downgraded to a Class B infectious disease from Class A, they will no longer need to. (Watch Video Here)

“According to the national health quarantine law, infectious disease quarantine measures will no longer be taken against inbound travellers and goods,” the National Health Commission (NHC) said.

The move is likely to be greeted with joy from Chinese citizens and diaspora unable to return and see relatives for much of the pandemic.

But it comes as China faces a wave of cases that studies have estimated could kill around one million people over the next few months. (Watch Video Here)

Many are now grappling with shortages of medicine, while emergency medical facilities are strained by an influx of undervaccinated elderly patients.

“At present, Covid-19 prevention and control in China are facing a new situation and new tasks,” President Xi Jinping said in a directive Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

“We should launch the patriotic health campaign in a more targeted way… fortify a community line of defence for epidemic prevention and control, and effectively protect people’s lives, safety and health,” he said. (Watch Video Here)

– ‘Impossible’ to track –
Hospitals and crematoriums across the country have been overflowing with Covid patients and victims, while the NHC on Sunday announced it would stop publishing daily nationwide infection and death statistics.

That decision followed concerns that the country’s wave of infections is not being accurately reflected in official statistics.

Beijing has admitted the scale of the outbreak has become “impossible” to track following the end of mandatory mass testing. (Watch Video Here)

And last week, the government narrowed the criteria by which Covid-19 fatalities were counted — a move experts said would suppress the number of deaths attributable to the virus.

The winter surge comes ahead of two major public holidays next month, in which millions of people are expected to travel to their hometowns to reunite with relatives.

Authorities are expecting the virus to hit under-resourced rural areas hard, and on Monday called for the guaranteed supply of drugs and medical treatment during New Year’s Day and late January’s week-long Lunar New Year holiday. (Watch Video Here)

In recent days, health officials in the wealthy coastal province Zhejiang estimated that one million residents were being infected per day.

The coastal city of Qingdao also predicted roughly 500,000 new daily infections and the southern manufacturing city of Dongguan eyed up to 300,000.

Unofficial surveys and modelling based on search engine terms suggest that the wave may have already peaked in some major cities like Beijing and Chongqing. (Watch Video Here)

A poll of over 150,000 residents of the southwestern province of Sichuan organised by disease control officials showed that 63 percent had tested positive for Covid, and estimated that infections peaked Friday.

Only six Covid deaths have been officially reported since Beijing unwound most of its restrictions earlier this month.

But crematorium workers interviewed by AFP have reported an unusually high influx of bodies, while hospitals have said they are tallying multiple fatalities per day, as emergency wards fill up. (Watch Video Here)

The main funeral service centre in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou postponed all ceremonies until January 10 to focus on cremations due to the “large workload”, according to a notice published online Sunday.

China’s censors and mouthpieces have been working overtime to spin the decision to scrap strict travel curbs, quarantines and snap lockdowns as a victory, even as cases soar. (Watch Video Here)

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Taiwan says China deployed 71 warplanes in weekend war drills.

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China deployed 71 warplanes in weekend military exercises around Taiwan, Taipei’s defence ministry said Monday, including dozens of fighter jets in one of its biggest daily incursions to date. (Watch Video Here)

The People’s Liberation Army said it had conducted a “strike drill” on Sunday in response to unspecified “provocations” and “collusion” between the United States and the self-ruled island.

Data from Taiwan’s defence ministry showed those drills were one of the largest since they started releasing daily tallies. (Watch Video Here)

In a post on Twitter, Taiwan said 60 fighter jets took part in the drills, including six SU-30 warplanes, some of China’s most advanced.

Moreover, 47 of the sorties crossed into the island’s air defence zone, the third highest daily incursion on record, according to AFP’s database.

Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which claims the self-ruled democratic island as part of its territory, to be taken one day. (Watch Video Here)

Beijing has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan under President Xi Jinping as relations have deteriorated.

China did not specify the number of aircraft mobilised for Sunday’s exercises, nor the exact location of these manoeuvres.

Taiwan’s daily tally showed most of the incursions crossed the “median line” which runs down the Taiwan Strait that separates the two sides. (Watch Video Here)

A smaller number were in Taiwan’s southwestern air defence identification zone (ADIZ).

Many nations maintain air defence identification zones, including the United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan and China.

They are not the same as a country’s airspace. (Watch Video Here)

Instead, they encompass a much wider area, in which any foreign aircraft is expected to announce itself to local aviation authorities.

Taiwan’s ADIZ is much larger than its airspace. It overlaps with part of China’s ADIZ and even includes some of the mainland. (Watch Video Here)

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Japan heavy snowfall leaves seventeen dead.

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Heavy snowfall across large parts of Japan has killed 17 people over the last 10 days, with thousands of homes suffering power outages, Japanese officials said Monday.

Much of the country’s west coast as well as the northern region of Hokkaido have seen persistent heavy snow in recent days. (Watch Video Here)

Some areas have seen almost a metre of snowfall in 24 hours, including the town of Oguni in northeastern Yamagata region, local media said.

Japan’s weather agency has warned residents in the affected regions (Watch Video Here) to avoid travel where possible, after cars got stuck on roads in heavy snow.

READ ALSO: 51 Poisoned By Ammonia After Train Derails In Serbia

Government officials said Monday that 17 people have been killed and dozens more injured in the snow since December 17. (Watch Video Here)

National broadcaster NHK reported the dead included a man who fell from a roof while clearing snow and a woman found dead of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in a car.

In Hokkaido, tens of thousands of homes have lost electricity in recent days as the snow brought down power lines, though most connections have now been restored.

The heavy snowfall is expected to ease from Monday. (Watch Video Here)

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COVID Patients Fill Hospital Wards In China’s Major Cities.

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Elderly patients lined the wards of hospitals in major cities in China Thursday as the country battled a wave of Covid cases.

The virus is surging across China in an outbreak authorities say is impossible to track after the end of mandatory mass testing.

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Attached to a breathing tube under a pile of blankets, an old man racked with Covid-19 lay groaning on a stretcher in the emergency department of a hospital in central China.

READ ALSO: Ukraine’s Zelensky Gives Historic Address To US Congress

A paramedic at Chongqing Medical University First Affiliated Hospital, who confirmed the old man was a Covid patient, said he had picked up more than 10 people a day, 80 to 90 percent of whom were infected with coronavirus.

“Most of them are elderly people,” he said.

“A lot of hospital staff are positive as well, but we have no choice but to carry on working.”

The old man waited half an hour to be treated, while in a nearby room AFP saw six other people in sick beds surrounded by harried doctors and relatives.

They, too, were mostly elderly and, when asked if they were all Covid patients, a doctor said: “Basically.”

Five were strapped to respirators and had obvious breathing difficulties.

Millions of elderly people across China are still not fully vaccinated, raising concerns that the virus may kill the most vulnerable citizens in huge numbers.

Under new government guidelines, however, many of those deaths would not be blamed on Covid.

In Shanghai, the corridors of an emergency department were lined with stretchers filled with elderly people hooked up to oxygen tanks.

An AFP reporter counted at least 15 such patients spilling out from the wards into the hallway, some with suitcases next to their trolleys.

Swaddled in colourful duvets, they wheezed weakly through their masks as medical workers attended to them. Many appeared mostly unresponsive.

Staff and visitors did not respond to questions from AFP.

– ‘Constantly busy’ –
At a large crematorium on the rural outskirts of Chongqing, a long line of cars waited for parking spaces inside the compound on Thursday afternoon.

Dozens of bereaved relatives milled around in groups, some carrying wooden urns, as funeral gongs sounded and mourners burned incense.

One middle-aged man carrying an urn told AFP an elderly relative died after testing positive for the virus.

“It’s been constantly busy lately,” said one crematorium driver as he sat smoking in his car.

“We work more than 10 hours a day with few breaks.”

Another staffer wearing an overcoat and face shield agreed.

“It’s not possible to put bodies in cold storage, they must be cremated on the same day,” he said.

Around 20 hearses lined the road to another crematorium in the city’s south on Thursday evening.

Inside was a large car park, where bodies on stretchers were being unloaded onto a small raised platform before being transferred to the upper levels.

AFP saw about 40 bodies loaded onto the platform in two hours.

Next to the raised platform were two rooms of cold storage freezers. In one, AFP saw two covered bodies on stretchers and another partially uncovered body on the floor.

Police and security guards patrolled the premises.

– ‘He died too quickly’ –
A steady stream of cars carrying mourners arrived at a separate building where families were holding wakes.

Some relatives watched through glass as their loved ones were cremated in adjacent rooms.

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A woman in her 20s told AFP she suspected her father had died of the virus, though he had not been tested.

“He died too quickly, while on the way to hospital,” she sobbed. “He had lung issues to begin with… He was only 69.”

Another mourner said their relative had died of pneumonia, though they were not certain it was caused by Covid.

“He wasn’t feeling well so we took him to the clinic the day before yesterday — the hospital wouldn’t take him in,” he said.

One woman said her elderly relative, who was suffering from cold symptoms, had tested negative but died after they could not get an ambulance in time.

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On the top floor, near the furnaces, the air was thick with a musky, sweet-smelling smoke.

AFP

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UN Security Council adopts resolution against Myanmar junta.

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The UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution calling on Myanmar’s military junta to free ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all other arbitrarily detained prisoners.

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Twelve members of the U.N. Security Council voted in favor of the resolution demanding an immediate end to violence in Myanmar, while China, Russia and India abstained. The 15-member council has long been divided over the Myanmar crisis due to China and Russia’s stance.

On Feb. 1, 2021, Suu Kyi’s government was deposed in a military coup after her National League for Democracy party’s victory in national elections the previous November.

The coup was met with widespread civic unrest as people denounced her removal and the introduction of military rule. The junta detained Suu Kyi and other officials and repressed protests violently, with the UN warning that the country had descended into civil war.

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U.S. envoy to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said this resolution only represents a step toward ending the bloodshed, adding that ”much more must be done.”

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China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said there is no quick fix to the issue

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South Korea, US consider live-fire drills amid threats from North.

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Amid a growing military threat from the North, South Korea and the United States are considering staging their first large-scale joint live-fire drills in six years in 2023, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.

The drills have been floated as South Korea and the United States discuss preparations for the 70th anniversary of their alliance next year, ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-gyu said.

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“Marking that occasion, we are exploring various ways to showcase our military’s presence and the alliance’s overwhelming deterrence capabilities against North Korea,” Jeon told a regular briefing.

“A combined joint live-fire demonstration can be one of the options.”

The demonstration would be another joint display of force to be resumed following a years-long hiatus under new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who pledged to bolster military capabilities and readiness to deter North Korea’s weapons development.

On Tuesday, the United States flew its F-22 Raptor stealth fighters for joint drills with South Korea for the first time since 2018, hours after North Korea criticized both countries and vowed more missile tests.

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In September, the allies staged their first exercises with a U.S. aircraft carrier since 2018.

Such exercises were halted under Yoon’s predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who had prioritized engagement with the North, which denounced them as a rehearsal for invasion.

North Korea has tested an unprecedented number of missiles this year, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) designed to strike the U.S. mainland.

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It has also completed preparations for what would be its first nuclear test since 2017, Seoul and Washington officials said.

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