Winter Olympics: Russian media say teen figure-skating star tested positive for banned drug - The Straits Times

BEIJING (REUTERS) - Russian media on Wednesday (Feb 9) reported that 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva had tested positive for a banned drug, after the ceremony to present her and her teammates with their Olympic gold medals was postponed for unexplained legal reasons.

Newspapers RBC and Kommersant named the drug as Trimetazidine, which is typically used to treat chest pain, or angina.

The news broke late at night in Beijing, where Valieva was part of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) ensemble that won the figure skating team event on Monday ahead of the United States and Japan.

Reuters attempted to reach the ROC chef de mission for comment but he did not answer his phone. The ROC earlier declined to comment on reports that Valieva had returned a positive test.

The teenager delivered one of the highlights of the Beijing Games so far when she landed the first quadruple jumps by a woman in Olympic competition. She was one of four ROC skaters who did not appear at their practice sessions on Wednesday.

Figure skating is a prestigious sport in Russia, which has an outstanding record at Olympic and world championships.

Any move to penalise Valieva or strip the team of their medals would likely cause a national outcry.

Prominent journalist Vasily Konov, deputy general producer at Russian sports channel Match-TV, said without citing sources that the sample in question had been taken two months ago.

"The drug trimetazidine does not help an athlete in any way. At all. It was found in one single sample in December. A minuscule amount. Nothing in her samples before or since," he wrote on social media.

"There is no doping in the conventional sense. No! This cardiac drug has no impact on... performance. Now leave Kamila in peace."

Former Russian pairs skater Tatiana Volosozhar, who won two gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, showed solidarity with Valieva on social media, calling for the use of the Russian hashtag #Iwillneverbelieve to send the teenager support.

Her post was "liked" on Instagram by Valieva herself.

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2022-02-09 19:27:42Z
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China tech worker's death reignites industry overtime debate - CNA

The hashtag "Bilibili worker suddenly died after working overtime during Lunar New Year" went viral on the Twitter-like Weibo platform on Monday when a workplace blogger reported the man's death, citing anonymous colleagues claiming that he was forced to work overtime.

The same day, a Weibo user claiming to be the man's sister wrote a long post thanking the blogger and alleging that Bilibili tried to suppress news of his death internally.

"Is it that hard to give a sincere apology? Does my brother's 20something-year-old life not count?" she wrote, in a post that gained more than 870,000 likes.

Some Weibo users claiming to be Bilibili employees accused the firm of forcing content moderators to work 12-hour shifts without breaks during the Spring Festival holiday.

The firm said that the employee died of a brain haemorrhage last Friday evening, having sought medical treatment after he did not show up to work that afternoon.

However, Bilibili denied overtime allegations, saying that the employee "was assigned to work eight hours per day with two days off after five days of work, as part of the Spring Festival shift rota".

Several Chinese tech firms have pledged to cut working hours after complaints and activism among employees, including a crowd-sourced spreadsheet of different firms' working hours compiled last year which mysteriously got deleted.

Since last year, Beijing authorities have pushed to improve labour conditions for gig economy workers serving giant tech platforms, as part of a regulatory crackdown on the industry.

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2022-02-09 12:02:08Z
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Singapore researchers to launch new 'sustainable' microsatellite to explore space - CNA

REDUCED DRAG

In addition, NTU will develop a "predictive aerodynamic model" to optimise the satellite design for reduced drag.

Researchers will evaluate different materials that can protect against atomic oxygen corrosion, and measure the plasma concentration, velocity and temperature in the ionosphere to enhance the understanding of spacecraft charging. 

"Spacecraft charging is a phenomenon where a negative charge starts to build on a satellite's surface due to hot electrons found in space, which can cause damage to electronic systems onboard the satellites," explained the organisations.

The new microsatellite is also designed to be sustainable. At the end of its operational life, its engine can be turned off and the satellite will "de-orbit" and descend to Earth within a few days.

It will eventually burn up in the atmosphere during re-entry, leaving no debris in space. 

This "passive clean-up" will help to minimise the risk of collisions in future for other VLEO spacecraft, as compared to operating at Low Earth Orbits where it is "increasingly getting overcrowded", added the news release.

Professor Lam Khin Yong, senior vice president of research at NTU, said the new microsatellite will be another milestone for Singapore and the university.

"Satellite technologies are always multidisciplinary and complex, requiring the best minds in various fields, from power systems engineering to aerodynamics and software design, to work together as a team to develop new solutions that do not exist today," he said.

Dr David Tan, executive director of the Office for Space Technology and Industry, said: "The establishment of a new consortium to develop solutions that will enable satellites to operate at very low earth orbit is testament to the diverse capabilities of Singapore’s industry and academia in developing disruptive technologies for space."

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2022-02-09 06:00:00Z
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Malaysia economy likely returned to growth in Q4, Omicron a threat: Poll - CNA

BENGALURU: Malaysia's economy likely bounced back to growth in the final quarter of 2021, propelled by strong exports and private investments, but the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant poses a threat to the outlook, a Reuters poll found.

Growth in Southeast Asia's third-largest economy rebounded last quarter to 3.3 per cent year-on-year after shrinking 4.5 per cent in the July to September period, according to the median forecast of 20 economists polled from Feb 3 to Feb 8.

Forecasts for the change in gross domestic product (GDP), due to be released on Friday (Feb 11), ranged from 1.5 per cent to 6.3 per cent, highlighting uncertainty over the pandemic's impact on output and activity.

"Q4 2021's economic recovery reflected relaxation of virus containment measures as Malaysia made further progress towards economic normalization," noted Chua Han Teng, an economist at DBS Group Research.

"Looser virus curbs not only benefited private consumption and services activity, but also aided manufacturing activity and exports, which played catch-up in fulfilling order backlogs caused by the lockdowns in Q3 2021."

Malaysia's exports and industrial production rose strongly in December from a year earlier, suggesting a sharp recovery in economic activity.

The economy benefited from higher commodity prices and robust demand for semiconductors amid a global shortage of chips, which power everything from cars to remote work equipment.

However, a significant economic slowdown in China, Malaysia's largest trading partner, posed a major challenge to the resource-rich country.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) at its Jan 20 meeting warned that risks to the outlook were tilted to the downside.

A Reuters poll on the longer-term outlook for Malaysia taken in mid-January was relatively upbeat, predicting 4.3 per cent growth this quarter - with a 0.7 per cent to 6.6 per cent forecast range - and 5.8 per cent overall expansion in 2022.

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2022-02-09 00:08:00Z
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More athletes emerge from isolation but Games hopes crushed for some - CNA

BEIJING: Dozens of athletes who tested positive for COVID-19 in China before and during the Beijing Winter Olympics and were isolated, have now come out of quarantine ready to compete, organisers said on Tuesday (Feb 8).

For many others though, the dream of Olympic glory has ended prematurely, or still hangs in the balance, following their positive PCR tests in Beijing.

Since Jan 23, about 159 team athletes and staff have tested positive either at the airport in Beijing or in the "closed loop", which restricts movements for all Games participants and keeps them away from the local population.

So far 50 athletes, including three-time Olympic medallist American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, have been discharged from their isolation quarters and allowed to resume normal training as well as compete in their events if they have not missed them.

For 32 other athletes, such as three-time gold medallist Nordic combined skier Eric Frenzel of Germany and Finland's ice hockey player Marko Anttila, the agony of isolation continues, with the Games that started on Friday ending on Feb 20.

They all remain shielded from the rest of their teams in special locations.

These isolation quarters have triggered the fury of athletes and team officials alike, demanding organisers immediately improve conditions, including better food, Internet, training equipment and more space.

Others such as Polish speed skater Natalia Maliszewska, 26, had to endure a back-and-forth between isolation facilities and the Olympic village due to negative tests being followed by positive ones, a process that left her fearful and in constant tears.

"I understand the frustration and disappointment. It is not a good place to be but we are trying to improve that," Brian McCloskey, chair of the Beijing 2022 medical expert panel, said.

"I cannot make the pandemic go away. The pandemic is real and the risk is real," he said.

McCloskey said testing negative and positive intermittently could be either down to an old infection still shedding or a new one. Athletes who tested positive could not be introduced into the Games' loop and risk a spread of the virus.

He rejected claims that testing was based on political or cultural criteria that could give the home nation an advantage. That concern had been voiced by some officials and athletes prior to the Games.

"They (tests) are based on science and they have been for many months before the Games started," he said. "We have been looking at evidence (regarding COVID-19) as it emerged and we have been playing that into the protocols here."

"People can continue to test positive intermittently."

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2022-02-08 06:18:00Z
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After two years of closed borders, Australia welcomes the world back - Reuters

SYDNEY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Australia said on Monday it will reopen its borders to vaccinated travellers this month, ending two years of misery for the tourism sector, reviving migration and injecting billions of dollars into the world No. 13 economy.

The move effectively calls time on the last main component of Australia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which it has attributed to relatively low death and infection rates. The other core strategy, stop-start lockdowns, was shelved for good in December.

The country had taken steps in recent months to relax border controls, like allowing in skilled migrants and quarantine-free travel arrangements - "travel bubbles" - with select countries like New Zealand.

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But the reopening, which takes effect on Feb. 21, represents the first time since March 2020 that people can travel to Australia from anywhere in the world as long as they are vaccinated.

"If you're double-vaccinated, we look forward to welcoming you back to Australia," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a media briefing in Canberra.

The tourism industry, which has relied on the domestic market that has itself been heavily impacted by movement restrictions, welcomed the decision which comes three months before Morrison is due to face an election.

"Over the two years since the borders have been closed the industry has been on its knees," said Australian Tourism Export Council Managing Director Peter Shelley by phone.

"Now we can turn our collective efforts towards rebuilding an industry that is in disrepair," he added.

Tourism and Transport Forum CEO Margy Osmond said the industry was "thrilled" by the reopening, but would need coordination to ensure Australia was competitive as a destination.

A Singapore Airlines plane arriving from Singapore lands at the international terminal at Sydney Airport, as countries react to the new coronavirus Omicron variant amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Sydney, Australia, November 30, 2021. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

"It's not as simple as just turning on the tap and we see numbers of international tourists back where they were pre-COVID," she told reporters.

International and domestic tourism losses since the start of the pandemic totalled A$101.7 billion ($72 billion), according to government body Tourism Research Australia. International travel spending in Australia plunged from A$44.6 billion in the 2018-19 financial year to A$1.3 billion in 2020-21, TRA said.

Shares of tourism-related stocks soared as investors cheered the prospect of a return to profit growth. Shares of the country's main airline Qantas Airways Ltd (QAN.AX) jumped 5% while shares of travel agent Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (FLT.AX) surged 8%.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement the company was looking at flight schedules to determine ways to restart flights from more international locations soon.

As elsewhere in the world, Australian COVID cases have soared in recent weeks due to the Omicron variant which medical experts say may be more transmissable but less virulent than previous strains.

But with more than nine in 10 Australians aged over 16 fully vaccinated, new cases and hospitalisations appear to have slowed, the authorities say.

The country reported just over 23,000 new infections on Monday, its lowest for 2022 and far from a peak of 150,000 around a month ago.

Morrison meanwhile said the government would send up to 1,700 Australian Defence Force personnel to fill staffing shortages in the aged care sector, following complaints of understaffing and fatigue due to increased pressures brought by the pandemic.

Around 2.4 million cases have been recorded in Australia since the first Omicron case was detected in Australia in November. Until then, Australia had counted only around 200,000 cases. Total deaths stand at 4,248 since the pandemic began.

($1 = 1.4106 Australian dollars)

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Reporting by Renju Jose and Jamie Freed; Writing by Byron Kaye; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Stephen Coates and Michael Perry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2022-02-07 11:20:00Z
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'Ice Prince' Yuzuru Hanyu tops Winter Games panda mascot in popularity - CNA

BEIJING: He's the only one who can top Beijing's Winter Olympics mascot "Bing Dwen Dwen" in a popularity match.

Japan's star figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, still hidden from public view but finally confirmed to be in Beijing, has become the top trend on China's social media site Weibo, outdoing the country's most-sought-after mascot in its native land.

After keeping fans and journalists on tenterhooks for days, the Japanese Olympic Committee said the twice Olympic champion arrived in Beijing on Sunday (Feb 6), though he would not be appearing in front of media.

His arrival set off news flashes, while the Olympics' official Twitter feed also gave him the VIP treatment with the headline: "Touchdown: Hanyu Yuzuru has arrived in Beijing for the Olympic Winter Games."

On Weibo, the phrase "The time for Hanyu to compete is set" was number one by Sunday evening, with fawning fans pouring out their admiration for the "Ice Prince".

"I will trust him unconditionally, I will cheer for him unconditionally," wrote a user nicknamed "fanyuemoxiang".

"No matter what the result, nothing will change you as a great athlete in my heart. All the best to Hanyu at the Beijing Olympics. I started to learn about figure skating because of you," said "Lunongqiuzhong".

Still, Bing Dwen Dwen was no slouch, winning the second and fourth top spots on the platform, against its more slender opponent's number one and five. Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech about winter sports ranked third.

"I work part-time at a supermarket. Cannot believe that even the aunties are talking about Bing Dwen Dwen and Hanyu!" said "Chenhongxin in 778 class" on Weibo.

Fans of the droopy-eyed bear have been queuing for hours to get a hold of Bing Dwen Dwen merchandise, forcing authorities to announce on Sunday morning that China would boost supply.

Hanyu has made it his mission to become the first skater to land the quadruple Axel - regarded as the most difficult of the six figure-skating jumps - and include that in his Beijing programme in his quest for a third consecutive gold.

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2022-02-06 11:33:00Z
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