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Senin, 12 April 2021

Malaysia extends COVID-19 movement control orders - CNA

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced on Monday (Apr 12) that movement control orders (MCOs) would be extended across the country, Bernama reported.

The states of Johor, Kelantan, Penang and Selangor as well as Kuala Lumpur will remain under the conditional movement control order (CMCO) from Apr 15 to 28, while Sarawak will continue to be placed under the CMCO from Apr 13 to 26.

The states of Kedah (except in Kuala Muda), Melaka, Negeri Sembilan (except in Seremban), Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Sabah and Terengganu as well as Labuan and Putrajaya, meanwhile, will see the recovery movement control order (RMCO) extended from Apr 15 to 28.

Ismail Sabri also said that the government had placed Kampung Meruntum, Sabah, under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) from Apr 13 to 26 following a rise in COVID-19 cases in the locality.

READ: Malaysia to give Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine to people aged 60 and above

READ: Malaysia deliberating over use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after EU findings

“COMPLY WITH THE SOP”

On the COVID-19 situation in the country, Ismail Sabri said that data from the Ministry of Health (MOH) showed that Malaysia could potentially face a fourth wave of the pandemic, judging by the fact that the daily infectivity rate on Sunday rose to over 1.0.

As such, he urged the public to comply with standard operating procedures, especially since Ramadan bazaars and Tarawih prayers will be allowed during the fasting month.

"The rate of COVID-19 infectivity according to yesterday’s daily (cases) nationwide rose to 1.06," he said.

"We must all comply with the SOP, more so since there are a lot of activities during the Ramadan month, such as the Ramadan bazaars, breaking of fast and Tarawih prayers."

Ismail Sabri said that state governments could tighten the standard operating procedures set by the federal government if necessary to help them control their local COVID-19 outbreaks.

“(When) the National Security Council (MKN) sets the SOPs, it should be followed by every state, but we are also of the view that the state governments can use their own discretion based on cases that occur in their respective states,” he said.

“I have discussed it with the Ministry of Health that the state governments can impose stricter regulations if necessary.

“What is not allowed is to relax the SOPs set by the federal government.”

Yesterday, the Kelantan government announced the cancellation of Ramadan and Aidilfitri bazaars statewide, even though the federal government had earlier approved the opening of such bazaars this year.

READ: Muslims navigate restrictions in the second Ramadan amid COVID-19 pandemic

RAMADAN BUFFETS ALLOWED

With Ramadan beginning on Tuesday, Ismail Sabri announced that the government will allow all restaurants, stalls, eateries, hotel coffee houses, fast-food shops and food delivery services in states under the CMCO and RMCO to operate until 6am during the fasting month.

He said this was to enable those fasting, especially those who are single, to purchase food for their pre-dawn meals.

However, he said that eateries in shopping complexes or supermarkets would be subject to the operating hours of the said premises.

He added that hotels, restaurants and eateries would be allowed to hold buffets for the breaking of fast, with strict compliance to the standard operating procedures. Food handlers will be required to serve food to customers at buffets, for example, while tables must be set 2m apart.

“For the breaking of fast in offices and halls, areas under CMCO must ensure the event occupies only 50 per cent of venue’s capacity while 100 per cent capacity is allowed for RMCO areas, but in accordance with the stipulated SOP,” he said.

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2021-04-12 13:52:30Z
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Iran blames Israel for sabotage at Natanz nuclear site - CNA

DUBAI: Iran on Monday (Apr 12) blamed Israel for a sabotage attack on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged the centrifuges it uses to enrich uranium there, warning that it would take revenge for the assault.

The comments by Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh represent the first official accusation levelled against Israel for the incident on Sunday that cut power across the facility.

Israel has not directly claimed responsibility for the attack. However, suspicion fell immediately on it as Israeli media widely reported that a devastating cyberattack orchestrated by Israel caused the blackout.

If Israel was responsible, it would further heighten tensions between the two nations, already engaged in a shadow conflict across the wider Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met Sunday with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, has vowed to do everything in his power to stop the nuclear deal.

Details remained scarce about what happened early Sunday at the facility. The event was initially described as a blackout caused by the electrical grid feeding its above-ground workshops and underground enrichment halls.

“The answer for Natanz is to take revenge against Israel,” Khatibzadeh said. “Israel will receive its answer through its own path.” He did not elaborate.

Khatibzadeh acknowledged that IR-1 centrifuges, the first-generation workhorse of Iran’s uranium enrichment, had been damaged in the attack, but did not elaborate. State television has yet to show images from the facility.

A former chief of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said the attack had also set off a fire at the site and called for improvements in security at Natanz. In a tweet, General Mohsen Rezaei said that a second fire at Natanz in a year signalled “the seriousness of the infiltration phenomenon”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif separately warned Natanz would be reconstructed with more advanced machines, something that could imperil ongoing talks in Vienna with world powers about saving Tehran’s tattered atomic accord.

“The Zionists wanted to take revenge against the Iranian people for their success on the path of lifting sanctions,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted Zairf as saying. “But we do not allow (it) and we will take revenge for this action against the Zionists.”

READ: Iran atomic agency says Natanz nuclear facility hit by act of 'terrorism'

READ: Pentagon chief declares 'ironclad' US commitment to Israel

The IAEA, the United Nations body that monitors Tehran’s atomic program, earlier said it was aware of media reports about the incident at Natanz and had spoken with Iranian officials about it. The agency did not elaborate.

Natanz has been targeted by sabotage in the past. The Stuxnet computer virus, discovered in 2010 and widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation, once disrupted and destroyed Iranian centrifuges at Natanz during an earlier period of Western fears about Tehran’s program.

In July, Natanz suffered a mysterious explosion at its advanced centrifuge assembly plant that authorities later described as sabotage. Iran now is rebuilding that facility deep inside a nearby mountain. Iran also blamed Israel for the November killing of a scientist who began the country’s military nuclear program decades earlier.

Multiple Israeli media outlets reported Sunday that an Israeli cyberattack caused the blackout in Natanz. Public broadcaster Kan said the Mossad was behind the attack. Channel 12 TV cited “experts” as estimating the attack shut down entire sections of the facility.

While the reports offered no sourcing for their information, Israeli media maintains a close relationship with the country’s military and intelligence agencies.

“It’s hard for me to believe it’s a coincidence,” Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies, said of the blackout. “If it’s not a coincidence, and that’s a big if, someone is trying to send a message that ‘we can limit Iran’s advance and we have red lines’.”

It also sends a message that Iran’s most sensitive nuclear site is penetrable, he added.

Netanyahu late Sunday toasted his security chiefs, with the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, at his side on the eve of his country’s Independence Day.

“It is very difficult to explain what we have accomplished,” Netanyahu said of Israel’s history, saying the country had been transformed from a position of weakness into a “world power”.

Israel typically does not discuss operations carried out by its Mossad intelligence agency or specialised military units. In recent weeks, Netanyahu repeatedly has described Iran as the major threat to his country as he struggles to hold onto power after multiple elections and while facing corruption charges.

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2021-04-12 08:27:47Z
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China calls for halt to mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations amid inoculation push - The Straits Times

BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) - China has urged local authorities to halt compulsory coronavirus vaccinations as the central government tries to balance the urgency of its inoculation efforts and possible backlash from a hesitant population.

"Some areas are making the vaccination rather simplified, and even mandatory for everyone. This approach must be corrected," a spokesperson for the National Health Commission said at a Sunday (April 11) briefing.

The directive appears to be aimed at curbing the heavy-handed tactics of some local authorities to ramp up vaccinations after the government set a target of vaccinating 40 per cent of the population, or some 560 million people, by the end of June.

In one example, Wanning, a city in the southern province of Hainan, warned residents could be blacklisted from receiving government benefits or using public transport if they failed to get vaccinated.

China will adhere to the guideline that people get vaccinated voluntarily, according to Mr Wu Liangyou, a senior official at the National Health Commission.

While China has mostly quashed the coronavirus, it is facing hurdles in its vaccination drive as people don't see the same urgent need to get inoculated as those in countries still battling Covid-19.

In order to catch up with western rivals like the US, China has been calling on the tens of millions of people who work at state-owned enterprises, and the roughly 90 million Communist Party members, to act as role models in the push.

The country has administered 164.5 million doses so far, while the US has delivered 187 million, according to Bloomberg's Vaccine Tracker.

The vaccine rollout is facing other challenges, including a supply shortage as the acceleration pushes the limits of domestic vaccine makers.

Uncertainty is also growing over whether the lower protection rate conferred by Chinese shots, compared to mRNA ones by Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc, will hurt the country's race towards herd immunity.

Minggu, 11 April 2021

'The right path': Chile defends Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine use amid fresh efficacy questions - CNA

SANTIAGO: Chilean authorities on Sunday (Apr 11) backed the country's widespread use of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Chinese firm Sinovac after China's top disease official appeared to make conflicting statements about its efficacy.

Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a conference in the Chinese city of Chengdu on Saturday that the country was considering mixing COVID-19 vaccines since currently available vaccines "don't have very high rates of protection".

He later said in an interview with state media that his comments were "completely misunderstood".

Available data shows Chinese vaccines lag behind others including Pfizer and Moderna in terms of efficacy, but require less stringent temperature controls during storage.

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac was found to be just over 50 per cent effective in reducing infection in Brazilian clinical trials. A real-world study of vaccination and contagion data by the University of Chile suggested last week the vaccine was 54 per cent effective in reducing infection.

Chile paid US$3.5 million to host a clinical trial of the vaccine and has also ordered 60 million doses to be administered to its 18 million-strong population over three years.

The country has largely relied on the Sinovac vaccine, along with smaller numbers of Pfizer's equivalent drug, to roll out one of the world's fastest vaccination campaigns, so far inoculating 4.6 million people with two doses and 7.2 million with one.

Chile also signed deals for the supply of vaccines from western drugmakers Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca but these are yet to materialise because of supply bottlenecks.

On Sunday, Chilean science minister Andres Couve said it was important to focus on the data and the vaccine's effectiveness in reducing illness that required medical treatment or being hospitalised or dying, which it achieved in the Brazilian study in 83.7 per cent and 100 per cent of cases respectively.

He said Chile's health ministry will shortly publish a real world study on the effectiveness of both vaccines rolled out in its population and appealed to Chileans to continue to participate in the vaccination programme.

Heriberto Garcia, director of Chile's Public Health Institute which greenlighted CoronaVac's emergency roll-out, said people should not pay attention to headlines.

"The University of Chile study and the study the health ministry will release say the same thing: the number of people who fall ill and are hospitalised has decreased," he told local newspaper La Tercera. "We are going down the right path."

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2021-04-11 22:30:00Z
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Blinken warns of China's 'increasingly aggressive actions' against Taiwan - CNA

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday (Apr 11) the United States is concerned about China's aggressive actions against Taiwan and warned it would be a "serious mistake" for anyone to try to change the status quo in the Western Pacific by force.

"What we've seen, and what is of real concern to us, is increasingly aggressive actions by the government in Beijing directed at Taiwan, raising tensions in the Straits," Blinken said in an interview with NBC's Meet the Press.

Beijing on Thursday blamed the United States for tensions after a US warship sailed close to Taiwan.

The United States has a longstanding commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to ensure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself and to sustain peace and security in the Western Pacific, Blinken said.

READ: China protests transit of US destroyer through Taiwan Strait

Asked if the United States would respond militarily to a Chinese action in Taiwan, Blinken declined to comment on a hypothetical.

"All I can tell you is we have a serious commitment to Taiwan being able to defend itself. We have a serious commitment to peace and security in the Western Pacific.

"We stand behind those commitments. And in that context, it would be a serious mistake for anyone to try to change that status quo by force."

Taiwan has complained over the last few months of repeated missions by China's air force near the island, which China claims as its own.

The White House on Friday said it was keeping a close watch on increased Chinese military activities in the Taiwan Strait, and called Beijing's actions potentially destabilising.

READ - Commentary: Taiwan is becoming the biggest test in US-China relations

Also on Friday, the US State Department issued new guidelines that will enable US officials to meet more freely with officials from Taiwan, a move that deepens relations with Taipei amid stepped-up Chinese military activity around the island.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the new guidelines had followed a congressionally mandated review and would "provide clarity throughout the Executive Branch on effective implementation of our 'one China' policy" - a reference to the longstanding US policy under which Washington officially recognises Beijing rather than Taipei.

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2021-04-11 14:16:13Z
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China, Russia undermine international Myanmar response, EU's top diplomat says - CNA

BRUSSELS: The European Union's top diplomat said on Sunday (Apr 11) that Russia and China were hampering a united international response to Myanmar's military coup and that the EU could offer more economic incentives if democracy returns to the country.

"It comes as no surprise that Russia and China are blocking the attempts of the UN Security Council, for example to impose an arms embargo," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a blog post.

"Geopolitical competition in Myanmar will make it very difficult to find common ground," said Borrell, who speaks on behalf of the 27 EU member states. "But we have a duty to try."

Security forces have killed more than 700 unarmed protesters, including 46 children, since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a Feb 1 coup, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.

That includes 82 people killed in the town of Bago, near Yangon, on Friday, which the AAPP called a "killing field".

"The world watches in horror, as the army uses violence against its own people," he said.

READ: Myanmar's post-coup civilian death toll climbs past 700

READ: Myanmar youth fight Internet outages with underground newsletter

China and Russia both have ties to Myanmar's armed forces, as the largest and second-largest suppliers of weapons to the country, respectively.

The United Nations Security Council last week called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and others detained by the military, but stopped short of condemning the coup.

The EU is preparing fresh sanctions on individuals, as well as companies owned by the Myanmar military. The bloc in March agreed on a first set of sanctions on 11 individuals linked to the coup, including the commander-in-chief of the military.

While EU economic leverage in the country is relatively small, Borrell said the EU could offer to increase its economic ties with Myanmar if democracy is restored. That could include more trade and investments in sustainable development, he said.

EU foreign direct investment in Myanmar totalled US$700 million in 2019, compared with US$19 billion from China.

The military says it staged the coup because an election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party last November was rigged. The election commission has dismissed the assertion.

Protest groups in Myanmar are calling for the boycott of the Thingyan water festival this week, one of the most important celebrations of the year, because of the killings.

"(With) Thingyan approaching, we mourn the senseless loss of life in Bago & around the country where regime forces have reportedly used weapons of war against civilians," the United States Embassy in Yangon said on Twitter.

"The regime has the ability to resolve the crisis & needs to start by ending violence & attacks."

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2021-04-11 12:00:00Z
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Myanmar's post-coup civilian death toll climbs past 700 - CNA

YANGON: A security guard was wounded in a bomb blast outside a military-owned bank in Myanmar's second-biggest city on Sunday (Apr 11) morning, as the civilian death toll from the junta's brutal crackdown on dissent topped more than 700 at the weekend.

The country has been in turmoil since the military removed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb 1.

Myawaddy Bank's biggest branch in Mandalay was targeted on Sunday morning and a security guard was injured in the explosion, according to local media.

There was a heavy security presence in the area following the blast.

The bank is one of scores of military-controlled businesses that have faced boycott pressure since the coup, with many customers demanding to withdraw their savings.

There has been heavy bloodshed in recent days.

READ: Myanmar security forces with rifle grenades kill more than 80 protesters: Monitoring group

Protesters march against the military coup in Launglone township in Myanmar's Dawei district. (Photo: AFP/Handout)

On Saturday, a local monitoring group said security forces gunned down and killed 82 anti-coup protesters the previous day in the city of Bago, 65km northeast of Yangon.

AFP-verified footage shot early Friday showed protesters hiding behind sandbag barricades wielding homemade rifles, as explosions were heard in the background.

The United Nations office in Myanmar tweeted late Saturday that it was following the bloodshed in Bago, where it said medical treatment had been denied to the injured.

Overall the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has verified 701 civilian deaths since the putsch.

The junta has a far lower number: 248, according to a spokesman Friday.

Despite the bloodshed, protesters continued to rally in parts of the country.

READ: Rights group condemns Myanmar death sentences

Despite the dangers, protesters hit the streets again on Sunday in several cities around Myanmar — Protesters are see in Myanmar. (Photo: AFP/Handout)

University students and their professors marched through the streets of Mandalay and the city of Meiktila on Sunday morning, according to local media.

Some carried stems of Eugenia flowers - a symbol of victory.

In Yangon, protesters carried a banner that read: "We will get victory, we will win."

Protesters there, as well as in the city of Monywa, took to writing political messages on leaves including "we must win" and calling for UN intervention to prevent further bloodshed.

Across the country people have been urged to participate in a torchlight protest in their neighbourhoods after sunset on Sunday night.

DEATH PENALTY RETURNS

Unrest also erupted Saturday in the northwestern town of Tamu, near the Indian border, where protesters fought back when soldiers tried to tear down makeshift barricades erected to block security forces.

Two civilians were killed when soldiers started randomly shooting, said a local, with protesters retaliating by throwing a bomb that exploded and overturned a military truck, killing more than a dozen soldiers.

"Some are in hiding - we are worried that our people will be hurt as a reprisal," the resident told AFP.

The mounting bloodshed has also angered some of Myanmar's 20 or so armed ethnic groups, who control swathes of territory mostly in border regions.

READ: Myanmar youth fight Internet outages with underground newsletter

Myanmar's security forces have arrested more than 1,500 people — Myanmar's security forces have more than 600 people as protesters refuse to submit to military rule. (Photo: AFP)

There were clashes Saturday in northern Shan state, as the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic rebel group, mounted a pre-dawn attack on a police station, said the TNLA's Brigadier General Tar Bhone Kyaw, who declined to give details.

Local media reported more than a dozen police officers were killed, while the TNLA said the military retaliated with air strikes on its troops, killing at least one rebel soldier.

State-run television reported in the evening that "terrorist armed groups" attacked the police station with heavy weaponry and set it on fire.

Meanwhile, state media reported Friday that 19 people had been sentenced to death for robbery and murder by a military court, with 17 of them tried in absentia.

They were arrested in Yangon's North Okkalapa township - one of six areas in the commercial hub currently under martial law, meaning anybody arrested there is tried by a military tribunal.

Myanmar has long had the death penalty, but has not carried out an execution in more than 30 years, said Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division for Human Rights Watch.

"It indicates the military are prepared to go back to a time when Myanmar was executing people," he said.

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2021-04-11 07:08:22Z
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Senin, 12 April 2021

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