KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has charged Dyson supplier ATA IMS with four violations of labour law on accommodation for workers as it investigates complaints of forced labour, authorities said on Saturday (Dec 11).
The step comes after British home appliance maker Dyson said last month it was severing relations with ATA, and ending its contract within six months, after an independent audit of the company's labour practices and accusations by a whistleblower.
"The complaints were mainly on allegations of appalling working and living conditions and foreign workers being forced to work excessive overtime hours," Malaysia's labour department told Reuters in an email response.
"It is too early to make any conclusion on the allegations."
The department, which inspected the company in February, May and July, added that the four charges were for violations of minimum standards for worker accommodation.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges.
ATA, which makes parts for Dyson vacuum cleaners and air purifiers, has said all overtime was voluntary, and that it paid double for work on Sundays and triple on public holidays.
The company has taken steps to ensure no recurrence, it added, saying it had begun a policy of zero overtime on Sunday that led to the resignations of nearly 300 workers in the first week of December.
Police are also investigating ATA over claims that a former worker was beaten by police after being taken to a police station where he was questioned about sharing information on working conditions with activists.
ATA has dismissed the accusations by the worker, Dhan Kumar Limbu, as unsubstantiated and "unlikely to have taken place".
LONDON: Booster COVID-19 vaccine shots give an estimated 70 per cent to 75 per cent protection against mild disease from the new Omicron variant, the UK Health Security Agency said on Friday, citing initial findings from a real-world study.
The findings are some of the earliest data on the protection against Omicron outside of lab studies, which have shown reduced neutralising activity against Omicron.
The early real-world data suggest that while Omicron could greatly reduce the protection against mild disease from an initial two-dose vaccination course, boosters restored the protection to an extent.
"These early estimates should be treated with caution but they indicate that a few months after the second jab, there is a greater risk of catching the Omicron variant compared to Delta strain," said Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at the UKHSA, adding that protection against severe disease was expected to remain higher.
"The data suggest this risk is significantly reduced following a booster vaccine, so I urge everyone to take up their booster when eligible."
In an analysis of 581 people with confirmed Omicron, two doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines provided much lower levels of protection against symptomatic infection compared to what they provide against Delta.
However, when boosted with a dose of Pfizer vaccine, there was around 70 per cent protection against symptomatic infection for people who initially received AstraZeneca, and around 75 per cent protection for those who received Pfizer.
That compares to estimated protection against infection from Delta following a booster of around 90 per cent.
UKHSA said that, at current trends, Omicron would account for more that 50 per cent of all COVID-19 infections by mid-December, with Britain exceeding one million infections by the end of the month.
PENANGGAL, Indonesia, Dec 10 (Reuters) - In the wake of the deadly Semeru eruption on Indonesia's Java island, the entwined bodies of a mother and daughter encased in molten ash have come to symbolise what many living in the shadow of the volcano feel went wrong.
"There was no warning. If there had been, there wouldn't have been victims, right?" said Minah, of her cousin Rumini, who died clutching her elderly mother as their kitchen roof caved in. Like many Indonesians, they use only one name.
Nestled at the base of volcano, their village of Curah Kobokan was among the worst-hit when Semeru spectacularly erupted on Saturday, ejecting ash clouds and pyroclastic flows that killed at least 45 people and left dozens missing.
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The eruption of Java's tallest mountain has raised questions about the effectiveness of Indonesia's disaster warning system, and the dangers of rebuilding on the volcano's fertile but precarious slopes.
Officials said some messages were sent to local administrators but acknowledged they did not result in an evacuation order, in part because the volcano's activity is hard to predict.
Warnings to evacuate are normally relayed by the national disaster mitigation agency, such as in 2017 when it ordered 100,000 people living near Bali's rumbling Mt Agung to immediately leave the danger zone.
The national disaster mitigation agency did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for a comment.
In Javanese, the village's name Curah Kobokan means "pouring bowl", a reference to the river that snakes by it. Once a source of life, the river would also become the community's downfall.
When Semeru erupted, the river carried thick flows of lava and ash directly into Curah Kobokan, now a field of gray ash piled as high as the powerlines, a few triangular roofs jutting out of the newly formed disaster landscape.
Residents say the air grew blazing hot and pitch black in seconds. People screamed and fled in panic, some taking refuge in a prayer house, others huddled in a concrete drain.
Of eight residents Reuters interviewed, not one said they received warning of an impending eruption.
"If there had been warning, people would have evacuated. Instead in a matter of minutes, lava streamed down and a lot of people died," said 41-year-old Irawati, whose husband was knocked unconscious as they tried to escape.
'NO TIME TO RUN'
An archipelago of 270 million sitting atop the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth. The devastation wreaked by Semeru can be ascribed to a deadly confluence of factors, for which no one wants to take the blame.
The head of Indonesia's geological agency, Eko Budi Lelono, says messages were sent to local officials warning of hot ash clouds. The river near Curah Kobokan, he said, was marked red on the map.
"In the future, we can't blame one another, but we need to synergise more," Eko says.
Dino Adalananto of the East Java disaster mitigation agency says the warnings were passed on to local resilience officers but there were no specific orders to evacuate. The head of Curah Kobokan could not be reached.
Experts say the nature of the eruption, a cave-in of the lava dome possibly triggered by external factors such as heavy rain, was also difficult to catch ahead of time.
"Whatever the actual trigger was, it was the instability of this lava dome at the summit that collapsed and those things are very hard to predict," said Heather Handley, a volcano scientist at Australia's Monash University.
Eruptions triggered by lava dome collapses account for about 6% of all volcanic eruptions, says Handley, with more research needed to understand the characteristics and causes.
Another causal factor for the tragedy is the reality of life on Semeru's slopes, where over the decades communities have become inured to volcanic activity, including the summit letting off steam.
As disaster officials survey the devastation, some 100,000 homes damaged or destroyed, there is growing talk about the danger of living so close to the mountain, with Indonesian President Joko Widodo saying at least 2,000 homes will be moved.
With 142 volcanoes, Indonesia has the largest population globally living in close range to a volcano, including 8.6 million within 10km (6.2 miles).
"What needs to be explained to people is the areas where the lava flows, our recommendation is don't live there anymore," said the geological agency's Eko.
"When they're there, there's no time to run."
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Reporting by Prasto Wardoyo in Penanggal; Kate Lamb in Sydney and Stanley Widianto in Jakarta; Additional reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Kate Lamb; Editing by Karishma Singh
People pass the control tower of Singapore's Changi Airport, Singapore January 18, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Su
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SINGAPORE, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Singapore has detected its first locally transmitted case of the COVID-19 variant Omicron in a member of staff at the city state's airport, authorities said late on Thursday, warning that more Omicron cases are likely to be detected.
The 24-year-old Singaporean woman, who works in a service role in the airport, "may have interacted with transit passengers from Omicron-affected countries," the health ministry said in a statement.
She tested preliminarily positive for Omicron as a part of the routine testing for frontline workers, it said, noting she was fully vaccinated and asymptomatic.
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A second Omicron case reported on Tuesday was a traveller from Germany.
Both of individuals had received vaccine boosters shots, the health ministry said.
The cases are currently pending further genome sequencing to confirm the variant.
Singapore had previously detected three Omicron cases, all found in overseas travellers.
"Given its high transmissibility and spread to many parts of the world, we should expect to find more Omicron cases at our borders and also within our community," the health ministry said.
BEIJING: China warned Western nations on Thursday (Dec 9) they would "pay the price" for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Washington announced its boycott earlier in the week, saying it was prompted by widespread rights abuses by China and what it sees as a "genocide" against the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang.
Australia, Britain and Canada followed suit in a flurry of diplomatic bonhomie on Wednesday.
The boycott stopped short of not sending athletes but nonetheless infuriated Beijing, which hinted at retaliation on Thursday.
"The US, Australia, Britain and Canada's use of the Olympic platform for political manipulation is unpopular and self-isolating, and they will inevitably pay the price for their wrongdoing," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.
Advocacy groups have backed the boycott, with Human Rights Watch's China director Sophie Richardson calling it a "crucial step toward challenging the Chinese government's crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities".
Campaigners say that at least 1 million Uyghurs and other Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in "re-education camps" in Xinjiang, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.
Beijing has defended the camps as vocational training centres aimed at reducing the appeal of Islamic extremism.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said on Wednesday that he was staying politically neutral on the matter, while insisting the important point was "the participation of the athletes in the Olympic Games".
RELATIONS IN FREEFALL
All four of the boycotting Western countries have seen relations with Beijing cool dramatically in recent years.
Britain has also criticised China for its crackdown in Hong Kong.
It angered Beijing last year by blocking Chinese tech giant Huawei's involvement in its 5G broadband roll-out, after Washington raised spying concerns.
Canada's relations with China meanwhile hit a low over the December 2018 arrest in Vancouver on a US warrant of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, and Beijing's detention of two Canadian nationals in response.
All three were released and repatriated in September.
Canberra's ties with Beijing have also been in freefall in recent years, with China introducing a raft of punitive sanctions on Australian goods.
China has been angered at Australia's willingness to legislate against overseas influence operations, its barring of Huawei from 5G contracts, and its call for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Australia's recent move to equip its navy with nuclear-powered submarines under a new defence pact with Britain and the United States - widely seen as an attempt to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific region -- further angered Beijing.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Britain's boycott in parliament on Wednesday but joined the other three nations in saying athletes should still attend.
"I do not think that sporting boycotts are sensible - that remains the policy of the government," he added.
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canadian officials too would skip the Games, saying his government is "extremely concerned by the repeated human rights violations by the Chinese government".
Australia's leader Scott Morrison made a similar announcement earlier in the day.
Other countries are weighing their own moves.
France, which is set to take over the European Council presidency on Jan 1, said on Tuesday it would seek a coordinated EU response to the US decision.
The Kremlin, however, criticised the US move, saying the 2022 games should be "free of politics".
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already accepted an invitation by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to attend.
FRANKFURT (REUTERS) - BioNTech and Pfizer said on Wednesday (Dec 8) that a three-shot course of their Covid-19 vaccine was able to neutralise the new Omicron variant in a laboratory test, and they could deliver an Omicron-based vaccine in March 2022 if needed.
In the first official statement from vaccine manufacturers on the likely efficacy of their shot against Omicron, BioNTech and Pfizer said two vaccine doses resulted in significantly lower neutralising antibodies, but a third dose of their vaccine increased the neutralising antibodies by a factor of 25.
Blood obtained from people that had their third booster shot a month ago neutralised the Omicron variant about as effectively as blood after two doses fought off the original virus first detected in China.
"Ensuring as many people as possible are fully vaccinated with the first two-dose series and a booster remains the best course of action to prevent the spread of Covid-19," Pfizer boss Albert Bourla said in the statement.
The findings are broadly in line with a preliminary study published by researchers at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa on Tuesday, saying that Omicron can partially evade protection from two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, suggesting also that a third shot might help fend off infection.
A lab analysis at the university hospital of Frankfurt in Germany, however, found a reduced antibody response to Omicron even after three shots.
An executive with German drugmaker BioNTech on Wednesday said the interval between the second and third dose of its Covid-19 vaccine can be reduced to at least three months to enable better protection against the Omicron variant in the winter season.
Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin said new data would prompt a discussion about bringing the third shot of its currently available vaccine forward.
“We believe this is the right way to go,” he said. “It is very clear that our vaccine for the Omicron variant should be a three-dose vaccine,” he added during a press call.
Najib to remain free pending appeal to Federal Court
Ex-PM sentenced to 12 years, fined $50 mln last year
SRC case is one of five trials Najib is facing
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 (Reuters) - A Malaysian court on Wednesday upheld former premier Najib Razak's conviction on corruption charges over a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), dealing a blow to his hopes of a political comeback.
Najib was appealing a 12-year prison sentence and $50 million fine imposed by Kuala Lumpur High Court last year for criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering, one of five trials he is facing over corruption allegations.
The 1MDB case, which a U.S. attorney-general described as the worst form of kleptocracy, has cast a shadow over Malaysian politics since questions about the fund first emerged years ago.
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U.S. and Malaysian authorities say $4.5 billion was believed to have been stolen and more than $1 billion made its way into Najib's personal accounts.
Najib has consistently denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty at the trial last year though the court found he had illegally received about $10 million from SRC International, a former unit of now-defunct 1MDB.
Court of Appeal Judge Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, who led a three-member panel on the decision, said they agreed unanimously with the high court on Najib's conviction and sentencing, and dismissed his defence that all his actions regarding SRC were in the national interest.
"There is no national interest here, just a national embarrassment," Abdul Karim said.
The judge also said the evidence showed Najib knew or had reason to believe the funds in his accounts were proceeds of illegal activities and had failed to take steps to determine them as such.
Wearing a black suit, Najib showed no emotion as the judgment was read out and was seen taking notes occasionally during the hearing.
His appeal has been closely watched amid fears that ruling party leaders facing criminal charges could secure leniency after the return of Najib's party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), to power in August.
'I DID NOT KNOW'
Najib has been free on bail pending the appeal, and Abdul Karim agreed to his request to be released on bail again and stayed the sentence.
At a virtual briefing after the verdict, Najib said he was disappointed with the decision and would appeal at the Federal Court, Malaysia's top tribunal.
"I did not know and I did not ask and I did not order anyone to move the 42 million ringgit ($9.95 million) to my account," Najib said.
Prosecutor V. Sithambaram told reporters Najib's appeal process at the top court could take up to nine months.
Najib faces a total of 42 criminal charges and five trials, including the SRC case, but remains influential and has been eyeing a political comeback, telling Reuters in September he has not ruled out seeking re-election to parliament.
He remains a lawmaker despite the conviction but the constitution bars him from contesting elections unless he gets a pardon or a reprieve from the country's monarch.
Adib Zalkapli, director of political risk consultancy BowerGroupAsia, said an acquittal would have given Najib the chance to reclaim the top job.
"But with the court's decision to uphold the guilty verdict, he has to wait a little longer before he could potentially make a credible comeback," he said.
Polls are not due until 2023 but analysts have said they could be called as early as the middle of next year, when a cooperation pact signed between the government and the opposition expires.
Asked if he would contest the next election, Najib told the news conference: "We will cross the bridge when we come to it."
($1 = 4.2200 ringgit)
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Reporting by Rozanna Latiff, Mei Mei Chu and Ebrahim Harris; writing by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Ed Davies, Stephen Coates and Lincoln Feast
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