Sabtu, 22 Mei 2021

Ship owner says Suez Canal was at fault over Ever Given grounding: Lawyer - CNA

CAIRO: The owner of a container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March says the canal authority was at fault over its grounding as it disputes the vessel's detention and a compensation claim, a lawyer representing the owner said on Saturday (May 22).

The Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, became jammed across the canal in high winds on March 23, and remained grounded for six days, blocking traffic in both directions and disrupting global trade.

The vessel has since been held in a lake between two stretches of the canal as the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) pursues a US$916.5 million claim against Japanese owner Shoei Kisen.

An appeals chamber at Ismailia Economic Court held hearings on Saturday over the ship's detention, which the SCA is seeking to uphold following an appeal by the owner, as well as the SCA's financial claim.

Lawyers representing Shoei Kisen argued that the SCA had been at fault for allowing the ship to enter the waterway amid bad weather, Ahmed Abu Ali, a member of the legal team, told Reuters, adding that the authority failed to prove any fault by the ship.

Recordings from the ship that were presented to the court showed disagreements between SCA pilots and its control centre over whether it should enter the canal, Abu Ali said.

Lawyers for Shoei Kisen said the ship should have been accompanied by at least two tug boats suitable for the ship's size "but this didn't happen", he added.

The SCA did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but it has publicly denied being at fault.

Lawyers for Shoei Kisen also argued that the Ever Given's detention was legally flawed and that the work to release the ship was not "a salvage (operation) in the proper legal sense", meaning the SCA could not seek compensation for such an operation, Abu Ali said.

"This was one of the duties of the authority according to the traffic contract," he said.

Shoei Kisen is claiming US$100,000 in initial compensation for losses related to its detention, he said.

The court was expected to issue a decision on the case on Sunday, lawyers and witnesses said.

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2021-05-22 19:45:46Z
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Taiwan sees another rise in domestic COVID-19 cases but says trend 'stable' - CNA

TAIPEI: Taiwan reported another rise in domestic COVID-19 cases on Saturday (May 22), but the health minister said the trend remained stable with new infections concentrated in the northern part of the island in and around Taipei.

After months of keeping the pandemic under control, Taiwan is dealing with a surge in domestic infections, and the whole island is under a heightened state of alert with people asked to stay at home and many venues shut.

Health Minister Chen Shih-chung announced 321 new domestic cases, plus 400 infections over the past six days whose positive tests were not included in previous reports due to a delay following a spike in cases.

READ: Taiwan premier says no need to raise COVID-19 alert level for now

Chen said cases spiked on Monday and the trend remained "stable".

"There's no explosion in the pandemic development," he said, adding that cases were concentrated in the few hot spots in the capital and its neighbouring city New Taipei, though cases continue to be reported in other parts of the island.

"I hope everyone stays calm and makes active preparations in the war against the pandemic," Chen said.

He reported two new deaths, bringing the total to 17 since the pandemic began. Taiwan has reported an accumulated 3,862 infections, the majority of which are now domestic cases.

READ: Taiwan tightens restrictions after new domestic COVID-19 cases

People showing no or only light symptoms, which account for many of the new cases, are being told to stay at home or go to dedicated quarantine hotels.

The government is also urging its people not to spread fake news and rumours about the outbreak, saying they should only rely on official reports.

Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen on Saturday accused China of spreading fake news about the COVID-19 situation on the island.

Taiwan, calling this weekend critical to breaking the chain of transmission, has urged people to stay at home. Many appeared to be doing that, with the streets around central Taipei unusually quiet.

The health ministry brought out its social media dog mascot, a Shiba Inu called Zongchai, to suggest songs about being alone people could sing at home to keep themselves entertained, like Taiwanese rocker Wu Bai's hit "Lonely Tree, Lonely Bird".

"At the weekend, don't go out unless absolutely necessary," the ministry said, showing Zongchai wearing glasses in front of a microphone.

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2021-05-22 08:39:43Z
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Jumat, 21 Mei 2021

Biden has 'no illusions' on difficulty of North Korea denuclearisation - CNA

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden acknowledged Friday (May 21) there is no easy path to getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons but reaffirmed his "iron-clad" commitment to the US alliance with South Korea after talks with President Moon Jae-in.

"We're under no illusions how difficult this is - none whatsoever. The past four administrations have not achieved the objective. It's an incredibly difficult objective," Biden told reporters at a press conference with his South Korean counterpart at the White House.

The US leader also announced he had named veteran diplomat Sung Kim, the former US ambassador to Seoul, as his special envoy for North Korea.

Facing a nuclear-armed North Korea and an increasingly assertive China, Biden stressed his faith in traditional US alliances.

Biden called the US-South Korean partnership "the linchpin of peace, security" and promised a "shared approach" to the stand-off with North Korea.

READ: South Korea's Moon vows to work with US to denuclearise Korean peninsula

He said that during their talks at the White House he and Moon discussed "freedom of navigation" for international shipping in the South China Sea, as well as "peace and stability" around Taiwan, which has been subjected to growing Chinese sabre-rattling.

Moon called denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula "the most urgent common task".

US relations with historic allies in Asia and Europe suffered turbulence under Donald Trump, who recast long-standing partners as cutthroat business competitors and freeloaders. Biden has worked quickly to restore the previous balance, with an eye on the challenge from China.

Moon came to Washington as Biden's second foreign guest and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who visited last month, was the first.

"It should send a clear message about the importance of these partnerships and alliances that the first bilateral meetings the president has had ... are with Japan and South Korea," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday.

WAR HERO

Upon his arrival for the talks with Biden, Moon declared that South Korea and the United States share the "same soul," forged in their bloody Cold War-era conflict with North Korea at the start of the 1950s.

Symbolizing the deep, complex history behind those bonds, Moon was invited to witness Biden awarding the Medal of Honor - the highest US military decoration for bravery - to a 94-year-old US veteran of the Korean War.

READ: Biden vows to help 'rebuild' Gaza, insists on two-state solution

Then first lieutenant Ralph Puckett was wounded in 1950 while leading US and Korean soldiers in the desperate defense of a hill against an overwhelming force of Chinese troops - an early episode in Beijing's decisive entry into the war.

The White House said this was the first time any foreign leader had taken part in a Medal of Honor ceremony.

BIDEN-KIM MEETING UNLIKELY

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and her South Korean counterpart held separate talks involving a raft of CEOs with a focus on high-tech manufacturing - battery technology, semi-conductors and 5G wireless.

But the bulk of the Biden-Moon meeting was on China and the North Korean nuclear arsenal.

Reflecting the scale and complexity of both issues, however, it was no surprise that little concrete emerged - in public at least.

The White House says it is abandoning former attempts to reach a so-called "grand bargain" with Pyongyang or simply showing what diplomats termed "strategic patience".

Now the White House is touting "a calibrated practical approach" - diplomatic jargon, it seems, for being realistically low-key, while open-minded.

"We understand where previous efforts in the past had difficulties and we've tried to learn from those," a senior White House official said.

Asked if Biden would consider following up Trump's headline-grabbing but ultimately fruitless summits with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the US president said it would have to be on entirely different terms.

Biden said he "would not meet" unless there was a concrete plan for negotiating on the nuclear arsenal.

And he made a clear criticism of Trump's chummy relationship with Kim, saying he "would not do what had been done in the recent past. I would not give him all he's looking for - international recognition."

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2021-05-21 23:58:49Z
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Expert says Thailand's surge in Covid-19 cases is 'failure of the winner' - The Straits Times

One week before Songkran, Thailand's traditional new year in mid-April, health officials in Bangkok detected the presence of the coronavirus B117 first identified in Britain. This highly contagious variant was found in a cluster of patients who had visited entertainment venues in the capital.

To reduce the risk of it spreading, the government banned the splashing of water - an annual ritual - and cancelled all public events which might cause people to gather.

But, wary of the economic costs of a lockdown before the long holiday, it did not stop people from travelling back to their home provinces for family gatherings.

Provincial governors were left to impose their own health control measures.

The number of Covid-19 cases spiked after Songkran. On Monday (May 17), Thailand logged an all-time high of 9,635 new infections, over 70 per cent of whom were prisoners across the country.

On Tuesday, it reported 35 fatalities - another all-time daily high. The total number of cases hit 119,585 as of Thursday, with 703 deaths.

The "double mutant" B1617 variant of the virus first detected in India was also logged on May 10.

On Friday (May 21), a government spokesman announced that 15 workers had tested positive for the B16172 variant that was first identified in India and is prevalent in Singapore's current outbreak.

Professor Vip Viprakasit from Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital at Mahidol University called the rising infections a "failure of the winner".

Speaking in his personal capacity, he noted that Thailand was hailed for its impressive performance during the first wave of the coronavirus last year.

At the end of November last year, the cumulative number of cases was still around 4,000, with 60 fatalities.

"However we kind of relaxed in terms of self-control, not just in policy but on a country-wide scale," the professor, who volunteers with the government's Covid-19 effort, told The Straits Times. "People became relaxed on personal hygiene measures, like wearing masks, using alcohol, and checking in. They had parties."

Added to these factors was a vaccination roll-out hampered by bureaucratic hurdles, he said.

"And such red tape led to a bottleneck," he said.

As of Wednesday, Thailand had fully vaccinated 819,961 people, less than 2 per cent of its population. Another 1.5 million people had received their first dose. Most are medical or other front-line workers who have received Sinovac, the Chinese vaccine.

Thailand's main vaccination programme will kick off only next month, after locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine doses are ready.

The government was criticised for placing most of its bets on the locally licensed vaccine instead of sourcing vaccines from a range of manufacturers. It also got flak for not joining the international Covax scheme aimed at ensuring equitable distribution of vaccines.

Under growing pressure, especially from the private sector, which wants to speed up the process, the Thai Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on May 13 granted emergency-use authorisation to the Moderna vaccine. This paves the way for private hospitals to provide the shots.

But there seems to be some hesitancy among the population to get inoculated. Beginning this month, anyone aged over 60 or suffering from conditions like cancer or diabetes can register in advance for vaccination.

As of Thursday, only 7.4 million of the 16 million in this priority group had signed up.

Prof Vip says Thailand needs a more sustained campaign to convince people that vaccines are safe.

One group which does not need convincing are the Americans in Thailand. While Thailand has said that foreigners in the country would be entitled to free vaccination, it has not said when this will take place.

On May 6, four American-led organisations, including Democrats Abroad Thailand, sent a letter to United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the US government to vaccinate American citizens in Thailand.

Democrats Abroad Thailand chairman Paul Risley told ST that the costs of travelling back to the US to get vaccinated were prohibitive.

"This is a global pandemic, we can't stop Covid-19 until we can stop it in all countries; the sooner countries vaccinate their populations the better, before new variants emerge that might require new vaccines," he said.

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2021-05-21 21:00:00Z
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China reports 10 new mainland COVID-19 cases, compared to 24 a day earlier - CNA

BEIJING: China reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on May 21, down from 24 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Saturday (May 22).

The National Health Commission said in a statement that nine of the new cases were imported infections. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, dropped to 23 from 25 a day earlier.

Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stand at 90,954, while the death toll is unchanged at 4,636.

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2021-05-22 00:59:58Z
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IMF unveils US$50 billion proposal to end COVID-19 pandemic - CNA

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund on Friday (May 21) unveiled a US$50 billion proposal to end the COVID-19 pandemic by vaccinating at least 40 per cent of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and at least 60 per cent by the first half of 2022.

Doing so, IMF officials say, would inject the equivalent of US$9 trillion into the global economy by 2025 due to a faster resumption of economic activity, with rich countries potentially benefiting the most.

The crisis has killed more than 3.5 million people across the world, and projections point to highly unequal health prospects well into 2022, which poses "severe risks for the world", the IMF said.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told a health summit hosted by the European Commission and Group of 20 major economies that it made sense for rich economies to boost donations to ensure a faster end to the pandemic.

"Advanced economies - asked to contribute most to this effort - would likely see the highest return on public investment in modern history, capturing 40 per cent of the GDP gains and roughly US$1 trillion in additional tax revenues," she said in her prepared remarks.

READ: Australia urges over-50s to get jabbed as COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy grows

READ: Australia seeks domestic capability to produce mRNA vaccines

The proposal, drafted by IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath and staff economist Ruchir Agarwal, builds on efforts already under way by the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, United Nations, World Health Organization and other groups.

Implementing the plan would cost some US$50 billion, with US$35 billion to be paid for by grants from rich countries, private and multilateral donors, and the remaining US$15 billion to be funded by national governments using low- or no-interest financing available from multilateral development banks.

G20 countries had already recognized the need for some US$22 billion in grants to tackle the crisis, leaving some US$13 billion in additional grants needed to reach the US$50 billion, the IMF authors said.

The plan calls for upfront financing, vaccine donations and moves to ensure free cross-border flows of raw materials and finished vaccines, as well as some US$8 billion in investments to diversify and increase vaccine production capacity worldwide.

The IMF projected about 1 billion doses could be donated this year even if countries prioritised their own populations, and 1 billion additional doses should be produced by early 2022 to handle downside risks, such as new variants that require booster shots.

READ: Vaccines effective against COVID-19 variants but overseas travel still not safe: WHO

READ: UK increasingly confident that COVID-19 vaccines work against variant from India

While the vaccine supply was still limited, it called for US$30 billion in spending on widespread testing, sufficient therapeutics and preparations for vaccine deployment, as well as US$2 billion to evaluate and implement dose-stretching strategies.

Without urgent actions, many emerging and developing countries might have to wait until the end of 2022 or later to bring the pandemic under control, they said.

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2021-05-21 13:16:58Z
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Malaysia to impose tighter MCO measures as daily Covid-19 cases remain above 6000 - The Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia on Friday (May 21) announced that it will tighten the enforcement of the ongoing movement curbs, including adding restrictions to parts of the economic and social sectors.

The Prime Minister's Office said in a statement that details on the additional restrictions will be announced by Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Ismail Sabri Yaakob at a news conference on Saturday.

The announcement followed a meeting of the National Security Council, an agency led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, which decides on Covid-19 protocols.

Malaysia logged a record 6,806 daily cases on Thursday and 59 people died on the same day, also a record.

The country on Friday reported 6,493 cases and 50 fatalities.

Malaysia is into its second of a four-week national lockdown called movement control order (MCO). But most factories are allowed to remain open and many office workers can go to work.

Malls have remained open, and while no dine-ins are allowed, takeaway and online delivery are allowed.

There were also targeted lockdowns, called enhanced MCO, for two weeks in several localities in Perak, Kelantan, Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak states, and in areas in Kuala Lumpur federal territory, hit by rising Covid-19 cases.

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2021-05-21 12:45:01Z
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