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Minggu, 05 September 2021

The Big Read: As border curbs ease, a desperate but cautious tourism industry sees bumpy road to recovery - CNA

The “start-stop” nature of the travel bubble plan with Hong Kong serves as a cautionary tale for Mr Ang, who felt that he should not dive into ramping up operations even with the launch of the travel lanes with Germany and Brunei.

“On one hand, we want to work on (the vaccinated travel lanes). On the other hand, there is concern if this thing doesn't work out as intended,” he said.

Developments around the globe are also not helping, as attempts by other countries to revive travel have not produced the desired results.

Tour operators pointed out that some countries, such as China, have not opened up quarantine-free travel for visitors from Singapore, even though travellers from there can come in here without serving quarantine.

Thailand’s resort island of Phuket is trying to boost its tourism scene by waiving quarantine for vaccinated travellers, but Mr Khoo said Singaporeans are still not willing to travel there as airfares are now higher.

In July, New Zealand suspended its air travel bubble scheme with Australia amid rising coronavirus cases.

And although Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had earlier announced that vaccinated travellers from low-risk countries would be allowed quarantine-free entry into New Zealand from early next year, the country is now battling a surge of Delta variant cases which has sent it into another lockdown.

Dr Kevin Cheong, executive director of Sentosa 4D AdventureLand, said the road to recovery will be very bumpy.

“It will be open, close, open, close. Tighten again. This is the part where many of the businesses are thinking: ‘If I were to scale up at a time you tighten, we have a problem,’” he said.

Other local tour operators noted that German tourists typically do not come to Singapore for a holiday. It is more a short stopover for them before they head off to other destinations in the region, such as Phuket or Indonesia’s Bali.

Mr Stanley Foo, owner of Oriental Travel and Tours, said that requiring these travellers to undergo four PCR tests, with three of them upon arriving in Singapore, is too onerous a requirement.

“The total cost is about S$800. So how many Germans would be willing to pay S$800 extra and have their noses poked four times?”

“It doesn’t make much of a difference for the tourism industry ... (but) I’m happy that it’s a positive step forward,” said Mr Foo.

Nevertheless, Mr Robin Loh, the founder of Let’s Go Tour Singapore, noted that while there will be more travellers coming in, it will still be a small fraction of what Singapore saw before the pandemic.

“Maybe a couple of hundred tourists coming in a day. What is that divided by all the tourism products? Virtually nothing, you won’t feel a thing,” he said.

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2021-09-05 22:10:48Z
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Afghan opposition leader Massoud says he is ready for talks with Taliban - CNA

The leader of the Afghan opposition group resisting Taliban forces in the Panjshir valley north of Kabul said on Sunday (Sep 5) he welcomed proposals from religious scholars for a negotiated settlement to end the fighting.

Ahmad Massoud, head of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), made the announcement on the group's Facebook page. Earlier, Taliban forces said they had fought their way into the provincial capital of Panjshir after securing the surrounding districts.

The Islamist Taliban took control of the rest of Afghanistan three weeks ago, taking power in Kabul on Aug. 15 after the Western-backed government collapsed and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

"The NRF in principle agree to solve the current problems and put an immediate end to the fighting and continue negotiations," Massoud said in the Facebook post.

"To reach a lasting peace, the NRF is ready to stop fighting on condition that Taliban also stop their attacks and military movements on Panjshir and Andarab," he said, referring to a district in the neighbouring province of Baghlan.

A large gathering of all sides with the Ulema council of religious scholars could then be held, he said.

Earlier, Afghan media outlets reported that religious scholars had called on the Taliban to accept a negotiated settlement to end the fighting in Panjshir.

There was no immediate response from the Taliban.

On Sunday, the NRFA also confirmed that its main spokesman, Fahim Dashti, had been killed during the day. Dashti had survived the suicide attack that killed Massoud's father, Ahmad Shah Massoud, on Sep 9, 2001, just days before the Sep 11 attacks on the United States.

He had been one of the main sources of updates from the area as the Taliban pressed in on opposition forces, issuing a defiant series of statements on Twitter, vowing that resistance would continue.

Massoud, who leads a force made up of remnants of regular Afghan army and special forces units as well as local militia fighters, called for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban before the fighting broke out around a week ago.

Several attempts at talks were held but eventually broke down, with each side blaming the other for their failure.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said earlier on Sunday that their forces had made it into the provincial capital, Bazarak, and had captured large quantities of weapons and ammunition.

RUGGED VALLEY

Panjshir, a rugged mountain valley still littered with the wreckage of Soviet tanks destroyed during the long war in the 1980s to oust the Soviet presence, has proved very difficult to overcome in the past.

Under Ahmad Shah Massoud, the region long resisted control by both the invading Soviet army and by the Taliban government that previously ruled from 1996 to 2001.

But that effort was helped by supply routes leading north to the border, which were closed off by the Taliban's sweeping victory last month.

The Panjshir fighting has been the most prominent example of resistance to the Taliban. But small individual protests for women's rights or in defence of the green, red and black flag of Afghanistan have also been held in different cities.

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2021-09-05 20:28:00Z
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Taliban order university women in Afghanistan to wear face-covering niqab - The Straits Times

KABUL (AFP) - Women attending private Afghan universities must wear an abaya robe and niqab covering most of the face, the Taliban have ordered, and classes must be segregated by sex - or at least divided by a curtain.

In a lengthy document issued by the Taliban's education authority, they also ordered that female students be taught only by other women, but if that was not possible, then "old men" of good character could fill in.

The decree applies to private colleges and universities, which have mushroomed since the Taliban's first rule ended in 2001.

During that period, girls and women were mostly excluded from education because of rules regarding same-sex classrooms and the insistence that they be accompanied by a male relative whenever they leave the house.

There was no order for women to wear the all-enveloping burqa in the new regulations issued late on Saturday (Sept 4), but the niqab effectively covers most of the face anyway, leaving just the eyes exposed.

In recent years burqas and niqabs have largely vanished from the streets of Kabul, but are seen more frequently in smaller cities and towns.

The decree comes as private universities prepare to open on Monday.

"Universities are required to recruit female teachers for female students based on their facilities," the decree said, adding that men and women should use separate entrances and exits.

If it is not possible to hire women teachers, then colleges "should try to hire old men teachers who have a good record of behaviour".

While women now have to study separately, they must also end their lesson five minutes earlier than men to stop them from mingling outside.

They must then stay in waiting rooms until their male counterparts have left the building, according to the decree issued by the Taliban higher education ministry.

"Practically, it is a difficult plan - we don't have enough female instructors or classes to segregate the girls," said a university professor, who asked not to be named.

"But the fact that they are allowing girls to go to schools and universities is a big positive step," he told AFP.

Afghanistan's new rulers have pledged to be more accommodating than during their first stint in power, which also came after years of conflict - first the Soviet invasion of 1979, and then a bloody civil war.

They have promised a more "inclusive" government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup - though women are unlikely to be included at the top levels.

Over the past 20 years, since the Taliban were last in power, university admission rates have risen dramatically, particularly among women.

Before the Taliban returned in a lightning military campaign, entering the capital Kabul last month, women studied alongside men and attended seminars with male professors.

But a spate of deadly attacks on education centres in recent years sparked panic.

The Taliban denied being behind the attacks, some of which were claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State group.

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2021-09-05 13:28:41Z
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Singapore tightens swab test requirements for travellers in update to border measures - TODAYonline

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2021-09-05 12:50:22Z
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S'pore updates Covid-19 border measures, stricter pre-departure testing for countries including Australia, NZ - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - From Thursday (Sept 9), all travellers into Singapore from Category II, III and IV countries will need to produce a negative pre-departure Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction test result taken within 48 hours before leaving for Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a statement on Sunday.

Previously, the requirement had been for the test to be taken within 72 hours before travel, and applied to those coming from Category III and IV countries.

The new requirement takes effect at 11.59pm on Thursday, along with other changes to border measures for travellers from a number of countries and regions.

Singapore's differentiated border measures for different countries were introduced on Aug 19.

According to MOH, Category I comprises places with the lowest risk of Covid-19 transmission, Category II countries are those with similar Covid-19 risk profiles to Singapore, Category III are deemed to be at higher risk of Covid-19 infections, and Category IV are the remaining places with the highest risk of Covid-19 infection.

MOH has placed several countries in new categories.

South Korea, previously in Category III, has been added to Category II. Other countries in Category II include Australia, New Zealand and Germany.

From Thursday, travellers from South Korea will need to take a pre-departure test, be tested on arrival, serve a seven-day stay home notice (SHN) at their place of residence and do a Covid-19 PCR test at the end of their SHN.

Croatia, Egypt, Finland, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Sweden, previously in Category IV, are now in Category III.

Travellers from Category III countries who are fully vaccinated may apply to opt out of serving their 14-day SHN at dedicated facilities, and do so at their place of residence instead, as long as they were in their countries for 21 days prior to their travel to Singapore, and isolating alone or with members from the same household.

Travellers who are unvaccinated or do not fulfil any of the above conditions will have to isolate in dedicated SHN facilities.

"As the global situation evolves, we will continue to adjust our border measures in tandem with our roadmap to becoming a Covid resilient nation," said an MOH spokesman.

Members of the public can go to the SafeTravel website to keep up with the latest changes in border measures.

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2021-09-05 12:18:43Z
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Tightened COVID-19 pre-departure test requirements for more countries, regions including Australia - CNA

SINGAPORE: Tightened COVID-19 pre-departure test requirements will apply to more travellers entering or transiting through Singapore from 11.59pm on Thursday (Sep 9).

This includes Singapore citizens and permanent residents, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press release on Sunday.

All inbound travellers from Category II, III and IV countries or regions will need to produce a negative pre-departure COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result taken within 48 hours before departure to Singapore.

MOH said these travellers will still be subjected to an on-arrival PCR test, corresponding stay-home notice and testing regime as well as another test at the end of their stay-home notice period.

Category I: Hong Kong, Macao, Mainland China and Taiwan

Category II: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea

Category III: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Switzerland

Category IV: All other countries and regions

Previously, travellers from Category III and IV countries or regions were required to produce a negative PCR test result taken within 72 hours before departure to Singapore.

This was to reduce the risk of COVID-19 importation, said MOH.

ADJUSTED BORDER MEASURES

MOH also said that it has reviewed the COVID-19 situation in the Republic of Korea and will adjust Singapore’s border measures accordingly.

From 11.59pm on Sep 9, travellers entering or transiting through Singapore with travel history to the Republic of Korea within the last 21 days will be required to present a valid negative COVID-19 PCR test result taken within 48 hours before departure to Singapore.

The travellers entering Singapore will also be subjected to an on-arrival COVID-19 PCR test, a 7-day stay-home notice at their place of residence, and another PCR test before the end of their stay-home notice period.

Following a review of the “evolving COVID-19 situation” in these areas, MOH said it has also adjusted Singapore’s border measures for Croatia, Egypt, Finland, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Sweden.

Fully vaccinated travellers from these countries may apply to opt out of dedicated stay-home notice facilities and serve their 14-day stay-home notice at a suitable accommodation of their choice from 11.59pm on Sep 9.

Applications will be considered if the vaccinated traveller has remained in those countries for the last consecutive 21 days prior to arriving in Singapore.

The travellers must also be occupying their respective places of residence or other suitable accommodation alone, or only with household members who are also vaccinated individuals with the same travel history and duration of stay-home notice.

Unvaccinated travellers will be required to undergo a 14-day stay-home notice at dedicated stay-home notice facilities.

“As the global situation evolves, we will continue to adjust our border measures in tandem with our roadmap to becoming a COVID resilient nation,” said MOH.

Any changes to border measures will be updated on the SafeTravel website.

MOH advised travellers to visit the website to check the latest border measures for the associated country or region before entering Singapore, and to be prepared to be subjected to the prevailing border measures upon entry.

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2021-09-05 12:03:00Z
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France's biggest trial to open over November 2015 attacks - CNA

Another focus of the trial will be on how the squad of killers managed to come undetected into France, allegedly using the flow of migrants from Islamic State-controlled regions of Syria as cover.

Fourteen of the accused - who face a range of charges from providing logistical support, to planning and weapons offences - are expected to be present in court.

Six more suspects are being tried in absentia. Five of them are presumed dead, mainly in air strikes in Syria, including French jihadist brothers Fabien and Jean-Michel Clain.

The alleged coordinator, Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed by French police northeast of Paris five days after the attacks.

CROSSED FROM SYRIA

The horror was unleashed late on the night of Friday November 13 when jihadists set off suicide belts outside the Stade de France stadium where President Hollande was in the crowd watching France play Germany at football.

A single person was killed there, 63-year-old Portuguese driver Manuel Colaco Dias.

A group of Islamist gunmen, including Abdeslam's brother Brahim, then indiscriminately opened fire from a car on half a dozen restaurants in the trendy 10th and 11th districts of the capital which were packed with people winding down on the balmy autumn evening.

The massacre culminated at the Bataclan music venue where Californian group Eagles of Death Metal were performing to a packed house.

Three jihadists stormed in as the band was playing the number Kiss the Devil. A total of 90 people lost their lives there.

Hollande, facing another terror crisis just 10 months after gunmen attacked the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, ordered borders closed and declared a state of emergency, a first since the Algerian War more than half a century earlier.

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2021-09-05 05:59:11Z
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