Savage US blizzard leaves 31 dead, causes power outages, travel snarls - The Straits Times

NEW YORK - A relentless winter storm brought Christmas Day danger and misery to millions of Americans Sunday as intense snow and frigid cold gripped parts of the eastern United States, with weather-related deaths rising to at least 31.

“It is (like) going to a warzone, and the vehicles along the sides of the roads are shocking,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a native of Buffalo, where 2.4m snow drifts and power outages have made for life-threatening conditions.

Mrs Hochul told reporters on Sunday evening that residents were still in the throes of a “very dangerous life-threatening situation” and warned anyone in the area to remain indoors.

A crisis situation was unfolding in Buffalo, in western New York, where a blizzard has left the city marooned, with emergency services unable to reach high impact areas.

More than 200,000 people across several eastern states woke up without power on Christmas morning and many more had their holiday travel plans upended, although the five-day-long storm featuring blizzard conditions and ferocious winds showed signs of easing.

The extreme weather sent wind chill temperatures in all 48 contiguous US states below freezing over the weekend, stranded holiday travellers with thousands of flights canceled and trapped residents in ice- and snow-encrusted homes.

At least 31 weather-related deaths have been confirmed across eight states, with some US media reporting as many as 30 storm-linked fatalities in total, including four in Colorado who likely died of exposure and at least 12 in New York state with officials warning the number would likely rise.

While large swathes of the country have begun shovelling out from the massive storm and temperatures in some locations were returning to seasonal normality, Buffalo remained in the grips of “a major disaster”, a senior official said Sunday.

Officials described historically dangerous conditions in the snow-prone Buffalo region, with hours-long whiteouts and bodies discovered in vehicles and under snow banks as emergency workers struggled to search for those in need of rescue.

The city’s international airport remains closed until Tuesday and a driving ban remained in effect for all of Erie County, where the lake-side metropolis is located.

“We now have what’ll be talked about not just today but for generations (as) the blizzard of ‘22,” Mrs Hochul said, adding that the brutality had surpassed the region’s prior landmark snowstorm of 1977 in “intensity, the longevity, the ferocity of the winds”.

Due to frozen electric substations, some residents were not expected to regain power until Tuesday, with one frozen substation reportedly buried under 18 feet of snow, a senior county official said.

Governor Hochul deployed some 200 National Guard members to help with rescues in and around Buffalo.

“It is extreme, it is dangerous and deadly,” she told CNN, noting that even National Guard units were getting trapped and requiring rescue.

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2022-12-25 19:30:08Z
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Zhejiang province in China has 1 million daily COVID-19 cases, expected to double - CNA

"MOST DANGEROUS WEEKS"

"China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic," said a research note from Capital Economics. "The authorities are making almost no efforts now to slow the spread of infections and, with the migration ahead of Lunar New Year getting started, any parts of the country not currently in a major COVID-19 wave will be soon."

The cities of Qingdao and Dongguan have each estimated tens of thousands of daily COVID-19 infections recently, much higher than the national daily toll without asymptomatic cases.

The country's healthcare system has been under enormous strain, with staff being asked to work while sick and even retired medical workers in rural communities being rehired to help grass-root efforts, according to state media.

Bolstering the urgency is the approach of the Lunar New Year in January, when huge numbers of people return home.

Visits to Zhejiang fever clinics hit 408,400 a day - 14 times normal levels - in the past week, a Zhejiang official told a news conference.

Daily requests to the emergency centre in Zhejiang's capital, Hangzhou, have recently more than tripled on average from last year's level, state television reported on Sunday, citing a Hangzhou health official.

The eastern city of Suzhou said late on Saturday its emergency line received a record 7,233 calls on Thursday.

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2022-12-25 09:42:00Z
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China's National Health Commission to stop publishing daily COVID-19 figures - CNA

The United States has also reported COVID-19 cases less frequently, changing from daily to weekly updates, citing needs to reduce the reporting burden on local areas.

"China is entering the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic," said a research note from Capital Economics. "The authorities are making almost no efforts now to slow the spread of infections and, with the migration ahead of Lunar New Year getting started, any parts of the country not currently in a major COVID wave will be soon."

After years of enforcing stern rules, President Xi Jinping’s abandonment of his signature zero-COVID policy now puts a spotlight on the country's exit plan as Hong Kong plans to re-open China’s border.

"YOU DIDN'T COUNT ME"

China's abrupt easing of restrictions, including the dismantling of widespread mass testing, had confused its citizens and stoked frustrations as cases soared while official numbers remained incomplete.

"You didn't count me when I was positive for COVID and you didn't know when I turned negative. The statistics and reality are too far apart," wrote a user of China's Twitter-like platform after the NHC halted its daily case reporting, adding there has been no need to publish them for quite a while.

The cities of Qingdao and Dongguan have each estimated tens of thousands of daily COVID-19 infections recently, much higher than the national daily toll without asymptomatic cases.

Several models and reports in recent days have forecast as many as 2 million COVID-19 deaths as the virus spreads to rural sections of the country, threatening to hit the most vulnerable elderly population and the unvaccinated.

The country's healthcare system has been under enormous strain, with staff being asked to work while sick and even retired medical workers in rural communities being rehired to help grass-root efforts, according to state media.

Bolstering the urgency is the approach of the Lunar New Year in January, when huge numbers of people return home.

Daily requests to the emergency centre in the eastern city of Hangzhou have recently more than tripled on average from last year's level, state television reported on Sunday, citing a Hangzhou health official.

Suzhou, also in the east, said late on Saturday its emergency line received a record 7,233 calls on Thursday.

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2022-12-25 02:31:00Z
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Public voting for ST's Singaporean of the Year award begins, open till Jan 7 - The Straits Times

National table tennis player Feng Tianwei, 36, moved Singaporeans with her performance at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August, pulling through with a win in the women’s singles final.

The win was a big one for her – she overcame an opponent 10 years her junior and the victory came even as she faced health issues. She had had heart palpitations after taking a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in January, and as a result was forced to halt her practice and halve her training load when she resumed training.

READ MORE HERE

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About the award

Over the years, the award has been given to outstanding Singaporeans in various fields.

Last year, it went to Mr Sakthibalan Balathandautham, who donated part of his liver to a one-year-old child after he came across a plea online from a young couple.

In 2020, front-line workers were collectively named Singaporean of the Year, for their hard work in the fight against Covid-19.

The Singaporean of the Year will get a trophy and $20,000, presented by UBS, which has supported the award since its inauguration. Other individuals or groups chosen as finalists by the panel of judges will receive $5,000 each.

The top award recipient will also receive a five-night stay at any of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels’ global properties and a three-night stay at Raffles Hotel Singapore. Other finalists will get a three-night stay at any of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels’ global properties.

Singapore Airlines is sponsoring a pair of business class tickets for the Singaporean of the Year, and a pair of economy class tickets for the other finalists.

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2022-12-24 21:00:00Z
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'The Serpent' serial killer Charles Sobhraj returns to France - CNA

PARIS: Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police believe killed more than 20 western backpackers on the "hippie trail" through Asia in the 1970s and 1980s, returned to France on Saturday (Dec 24) after nearly two decades behind bars in Nepal.

Nepal's Supreme Court ordered the release of Sobhraj, known as the "bikini killer" in Thailand, and "The Serpent" for his evasion of police, on Wednesday citing his advanced age and health.

A French national who was born to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother, Sobhraj, 78, landed at Paris' main international airport shortly after 7am and was escorted off the plane by police for identity checks.

"He is well, he is a free man," Sobhraj's lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre told Reuters. Asked what his next steps would be, she said: "He will file a legal complaint against Nepal because the whole case against him was fabricated."

Sobhraj had been held in a high-security prison in Nepal since 2003, when he was arrested on charges of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975. He was later found guilty of killing Bronzich's Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere, and had served 19 years out of a 20-year sentence.

But he was suspected of more murders, including in Thailand, where police say he killed six women in the 1970s, some of whom turned up dead on a beach near the resort of Pattaya.

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2022-12-24 11:01:55Z
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China's Qingdao city seeing half a million COVID-19 cases a day: Official - CNA

BEIJIING: Half a million people in a single Chinese city are being infected with COVID-19 every day, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgement that the country's wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics.

China this month has rapidly dismantled key pillars of its zero-COVID strategy, doing away with snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and travel curbs in a jarring reversal of its hallmark containment strategy.

Cities across the country have struggled to cope as surging infections have emptied pharmacy shelves, filled hospital wards and appeared to cause backlogs at crematoriums and funeral homes.

But the end of strict testing mandates has made caseloads virtually impossible to track, while authorities have narrowed the medical definition of a COVID-19 death in a move experts have said will suppress the number of fatalities attributable to the virus.

A news outlet operated by the ruling Communist Party in Qingdao on Friday (Dec 23) reported the municipal health chief as saying that the eastern city was seeing "between 490,000 and 530,000" new COVID-19 cases a day.

The coastal city of around 10 million people was "in a period of rapid transmission ahead of an approaching peak", Bo Tao reportedly said, adding that the infection rate would accelerate by another 10 per cent over the weekend.

The report was shared by several other news outlets but appeared to have been edited by Saturday morning to remove the case figures.

China's National Health Commission said on Saturday that 4,103 new domestic infections were recorded nationwide the previous day, with no new deaths.

In Shandong, the province where Qingdao is located, authorities officially logged just 31 new domestic cases.

China's government keeps a tight leash on the country's media, with legions of online censors on hand to scrub out content deemed politically sensitive.

Most government-run publications have downplayed the severity of the country's exit wave, instead depicting the policy reversal as logical and controlled.

But some outlets have hinted at shortages of medicine and hospitals under strain, though estimates of actual case numbers remain rare.

The government of eastern Jiangxi province said in a Friday social media post that 80 per cent of its population - equivalent to around 36 million people - would be infected by March.

More than 18,000 COVID-19 patients had been admitted to major medical institutions in the province in the two weeks up to Thursday, including nearly 500 severe cases but no deaths, the statement said.

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2022-12-24 05:32:00Z
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Attack on Kurds in Paris revives trauma of unresolved murders - CNA

The victims' families have long pointed the finger at Turkey for masterminding the deaths of the three women, who were shot in the head and neck, and at France for failing to investigate properly.

"You aren't protecting us. We're being killed!" a young man shouted at police at the scene on Friday as he wept in the street.

RACIST VIOLENCE?

Despite the suspicions in the community, there appears to be no evidence that Friday's shooting had political motives or was linked to Turkey.

French authorities have been extremely cautious about suggesting a motive, with early suspicions being racism.

The suspected gunman is a 69-year-old French retired train driver with a history of violence against foreigners.

In December last year, he was charged with attacking migrants living in tents in eastern Paris with a sword, injuring at least two of them.

The man "was clearly targeting foreigners", Interior Minister Darmanin told reporters, while adding it was "not certain" that he was aiming to kill "Kurds in particular".

"We don't yet know his exact motives," he said.

KURDISH ACTIVISM

Some demonstrators could be heard chanting slogans on Friday in support of the PKK, a Kurdish organisation designated as terrorist by Ankara, the European Union and others.

The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, initially in support of an independent Kurdish state and latterly for greater Kurdish autonomy within Turkey.

Often described as the world's largest people without a state, the Kurds are a Muslim ethnic group spread across Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

Turkey launches regular military operations against the PKK as well as Kurdish groups it accuses of being allies in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

The Kurdish Democratic Council of France, an umbrella Kurdish group headquartered in the cultural centre targeted on Friday, also pointed the finger at Turkey on Friday.

"For us there is no doubt that it is a terror attack which has occurred just before the 10th anniversary of the triple murders of three Kurdish activists in Paris," senior member Agit Polat told AFP.

The group called for a vigil on Friday evening.

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2022-12-23 21:57:39Z
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