Yangon: New corruption allegations against Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the detained former de-facto leader of Myanmar, were aired on national television on Thursday, as the military seemed to seek to strengthen the case for its February 1 coup against her government.

In the broadcast, U Maung Weik, a business owner, is shown explaining how he handed over envelopes full of cash to Suu Kyi or her associates starting in 2017, reports dpa news agency.

In all, Weik said he had handed over a total of $550,000 during four separate incidents.

A news reader said the businessman has been found guilty of bribery and that the country’s anti-corruption commission is investigating.

After Suu Kyi was dislodged by the February 1 coup, the military has piled on charges against her, from illegally importing walkie-talkies to sowing disorder by inducing others to commit offences against the state to mishandling the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

When queried by DPA, Khin Maung Zaw, a lawyer for Suu Kyi, dismissed the new allegations.

“I am here not to tell this as her lawyer, but as a Myanmar citizen. We all believe her character. You can criticise her in many ways but you can not criticise her such as silly ideas of corruption.

“I always believe her character. No one believes that she is corrupt,” the lawyer told the news agency.

The coup was staged as the military alleged massive voting fraud in the 2020 general elections, which saw Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy win a majority of seats in both houses of parliament.

In response to the coup, Myanmar has witnessed continued protests demanding the release of the former de facto leader and other senior officials of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and also the restoration of the democratically elected government.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group said that at least 38 protesters were killed in Yangon on Sunday, in one the bloodiest days since the coup.

In total, more than 200 protesters have reportedly been killed during the crackdown, according to the AAPP.

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Brussels: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has warned that the European Union (EU) might restrict vaccine exports to countries who have higher inoculation rates, stressing the necessity to ensure reciprocity and proportionality of the vaccine exports.

“We are in the crisis of the century, and I’m not ruling out anything for now, because we have to make sure that Europeans are vaccinated as soon as possible,” she told a press conferenceon Wednesday.

The EU is facing a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, and at present less than a tenth of its population is vaccinated.

Around 41 million doses of vaccines have been exported from EU to 33 countries and regions since February 1, von der Leyen said, while accusing the British multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca of having “underproduced and underdelivered” to the bloc, with the original 180 million doses dwindling down to just 70 million.

The Commission chief has been under pressure over the EU’s handling of the bloc’s vaccination rollout, with Brussels engaging in a row with AstraZeneca over vaccine deliveries.

The dispute escalated with the EU at one point threatening to override the Brexit agreement with the UK over the Irish border, which came after AstraZeneca had said the initial number of doses it could supply to the EU would be lower than first thought.

“If the situation does not change, we will have to reflect on how to make exports to vaccine-producing countries dependent on their level of openness,” said von der Leyen.

Besides, the EU will also reflect on whether exports to countries who have higher vaccination rates are still proportionate, she added.

Furthermore, she warned that the EU is ready to use whatever tool needed to ensure “Europe gets its fair share”.

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Atlanta: Shootings at two massage parlours in Atlanta and one in the suburbs left eight people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, authorities said Tuesday. A 21-year-old man was taken into custody in southwest Georgia hours later after a manhunt.

Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said three people were killed at a spa in northeast Atlanta, while a fourth person was killed at another spa across the street. He said all four victims were female, and It appears that they may be Asian.

Atlanta police officers responding to a call of a robbery in progress at one spa around 5:50 pm (local time) found three women dead from apparent gunshot wounds, police said. While they were at that scene, they learned of a call reporting shots fired at another spa across the street and found a woman who appeared to have been shot dead inside the business.

Earlier, around 5 p.m., five people were shot at Young’s Asian Massage Parlor in Acworth, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Atlanta, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Jay Baker said. Two of the victims were dead and three were transported to a hospital where two of them also died, Baker said.

Authorities were not immediately releasing the gender or race of the victims, Baker said.

A man suspected in the Acworth shooting was captured by surveillance video pulling up to the business around 4:50 p.m. Tuesday, minutes before the shooting, authorities said. Baker said the suspect, Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, was taken into custody in Crisp County, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Atlanta.

Baker said they believe Long is also the suspect in the Atlanta shootings.

With two shootings at massage parlours in Atlanta and the knowledge of the Acworth shooting, Atlanta police said they dispatched officers to check nearby similar businesses and increased patrols in the area.

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Beijing/New Delhi: China has made it mandatory for people coming from India and 19 other nations to get Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines if they want to travel to this country.

“For the purpose of resuming people-to-people exchanges in an orderly manner, starting from 15 March, 2021, the Chinese Embassies and Consulates in India will provide the persons having taken Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine and holding the Certificates of Vaccination,” a notice posted on the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi said.

The announcement makes little difference for thousands of Indian students besides professionals working in China and their family members who are stuck in India awaiting Beijing to permit their return as there are no Chinese vaccines available in India.

The Chinese Embassy notice did not specify how Indians can access the Chinese-made vaccines in India as they are not available in the country.

Over 23,000 Indian students, most of them medical students, besides hundreds of professionals working in China are stuck in India since last year due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

Despite repeated representations from the Indian embassy and appeals by the students, China is yet to respond positively.

State-run Global Times reported that such notices were put up by Chinese embassies in 20 countries.

Asked about the rationale of the regulation to have Chinese vaccines in countries like India where China made vaccines are not available, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here on Tuesday that many countries have floated the idea of linking vaccination status with opening up international travels.

“Our proposal to facilitate the travel of those who have been inoculated with Chinese vaccines is made after thoroughly considering the safety and efficacy of Chinese vaccines,” he said.

“We believe this is a meaningful exploration of facilitating international travel once mass vaccination has been achieved. It is not linked to the recognition of Chinese vaccines,” he said.

When pointed out that would it not be better if China recognised the vaccines endorsed by WHO, which is yet to approve the Chinese vaccines, Zhao said, “China’s proposal is a meaningful step. We are trying to facilitate international travel”.

“This is an arrangement made by the Chinese side unilaterally. It is a different thing from vaccine recognition,” he said.

The WHO has already approved Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. AstraZeneca vaccine is being produced by Serum Institute in Pune in the name of Covishield.

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Sanaa: Yemen’s Houthi militia said they launched a new attack on Tuesday at the King Khalid Airbase in Saudi Arabia’s Khamis Mushait city.

“The attack hit the target accurately,” Xinhua news agency quoted Houthi military spokesman Yehya Sarea as saying in a statement.

However, the Saudi-led coalition forces said earlier on Tuesday that they had intercepted and destroyed an explosive-laden drone fired by the Houthi militia from Yemen towards Kamis Mushait, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported.

The Iran-backed Yemeni Houthi militia has been targeting Saudi cities and oil facilities on a nearly daily basis.

Many of the cross-border drones were intercepted and ballistic missile attacks foiled by the Saudi-led coalition forces.

Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthis seized control of several northern Yemeni provinces and forced the internationally-recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in 2015 to support Hadi’s government.

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New Delhi: After their first historic summit last week, the Indo-Pacific Quad comprising India, the US, Japan and Australia, France is now set to steel the rapidly evolving grouping.

From April 4-7, France will participate in a five-nation naval exercise, called La Perouse, which will include all the four Quad members. These naval manoeuvres will be held in the Bay of Bengal, highly placed sources told India Narrative.

Later in April, India, France and the UAE will hold another naval exercise. During these manoeuvres in the Arabian Sea codenamed ‘Varuna’, France will be fielding Charles de Gaulle, its formidable 42,000 tonne aircraft carrier.

The Hindustan Times is reporting that India’s western fleet with its newly appointed commander Rear Admiral Ajay Kochhar will be conducting advanced exercises with the French carrier task force.

In a clear message to China, France will deliver seven more Rafale fighters next month, completing the first squadron of the French omni-role fighters, with Ambala air base as their peacetime location. The remaining 18 fighters will be deployed at Hashimara in the eastern sector to cover the strategic Siliguri corridor, facing China. French Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian will also be arriving in India in April to deliver a lecture at a think-tank, apart from pursuing a political dialogue with his Indian interlocutors.

Both India and France have converging perception over freedom of navigation in Indo-Pacific, with Paris appointing a special envoy for the region. The next step would be to weave the Indo-French strategic track into the broader Indo-Pacific narrative anchored by Quad.

India is also set to further steel its military clout in the Indo-Pacific region in the near future, following the visit to New Delhi of US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin later this month.

This will be a crucial visit as it is likely to clear the ground for India’s $3 billion purchase of for 39 armed Predator drones.

“These are awesome machines which can deliver high quality images from the Sunda strait in the Indonesian archipelago to the Gulf of Aden. Besides they have enough punch to remotely launch punishing strikes” an official source said.

Technically known as MQ-9B drones, they can fly for about 48 hours and carry a payload of about 1,700 kilograms. Apart from establishing vigil over the waters, these machines can be a handful when deployed in the tough border terrain facing China and Pakistan, allies in a possible two-from war with India.

After the summit, the Quad’s attention is also riveted to the East China Sea, where there has been a sharp escalation of military tensions between China and Japan. Both countries lay claim to Senkaku islands, called Diaoyu isles by China. Control over these islands can influence the movement of rival ships heading towards the Miyako strait, the 250 km-wide passageway between the Miyako and Okinawa islands. This is a major choke-point through which China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy can channel into the West Pacific, dominated by the US Navy.

“China’s real intention is not just to dominate but control the Miyako strait,” says Susumu Takai, special research fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo. He points out that establishing a hold on Senkaku islands would be a step in the direction of dominating Miyako strait.

Tensions between China and Japan are turning white hot after Beijing passed a new law that authorises use of force by its coast guard in contested waters.

On Tuesday, Defence and Foreign Ministers of Japan and the US will meet, where they are expected to reconfirm that the Senkaku islands are subject to the bilateral security treaty, which stipulates defence obligations by the United States.

The four ministers are also expected to discuss the possibility of holding joint drills by Japan’s Self-Defence Forces and the US military, assuming an emergency on and around the islands, Kyodo news agency reported.

“This is a very potent and looming hazard in East China Sea especially because of China’s new Coast Guard Law that may inadvertently result in use of kinetic force by each side in chain reaction, resulting in East China Sea becoming a perpetual flashpoint over Senkaku Islands, much like Taiwan Strait,” a China watcher who did not wish to be named said.

The expert added that it would be “important to see what specific role that the role that the Quad in such an inflammable scenario”, which can be the grouping’s first testing ground.

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Beijing/New Delhi: Taking its war against billionaire Jack Ma’s empire to a new level, the Chinese government has reportedly asked his conglomerate Alibaba to dispose of its media assets.

According to a The Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter, Chinese officials are more “concerned about the technology giant’s sway over public opinion in the country”.

Alibaba expanded its footprint in the media sector by acquiring the South China Morning Post, an English-language newspaper launched 118 years ago in Hong Kong.

The company also has notable media holdings in mainland China, including technology news site 36Kr, state-owned Shanghai Media Group, stakes in the Twitter-like Weibo platform and several popular Chinese digital and print news outlets.

“Alibaba has also set up joint ventures or partnerships with powerful state-run media like Xinhua News Agency and local government-run newspaper groups in Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces,” the report said on Monday.

Angry at Ma’s public criticism of Chinese financial regulators last year, the company scuttled the initial public offering (IPO) of his fintech giant Ant Group.

China’s top market watchdog began investigation into alleged anti-competition practices by the e-commerce giant Alibaba and also laid out “rectification plan” for Ma’s fintech venture.

The agenda was that Ant Group should return to its roots in payments and bring more transparency to transactions.

Ma later disappeared from the public view, triggering speculation of him going “missing”. He was seen only in January when a video of him appeared on Chinese social media.

According to the WSJ report, Chinese regulators are “appalled at how expansive Alibaba’s media interests have become and asked the company to come up with a plan to substantially curtail its media holdings” the people said.

“The government didn’t specify which assets would need to be unloaded”.

Alibaba was yet to react to the report.

Alibaba’s holdings in publicly listed companies had a combined market value of more than $8 billion.

“That includes a roughly $3.5 billion stake in Weibo Corp. and a nearly $2.6 billion stake in Bilibili Inc., a video platform that is popular among younger Chinese people,” the report mentioned.

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London: Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit India at the end of April on his first major international tour following the UK’s exit from the European Union, Downing Street has announced, as Britain seeks to “unlock” the opportunities in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.

The announcement of the visit, which had been postponed from a planned Republic Day tour in January due to the escalating COVID-19 crisis in the UK, comes as Johnson launches the conclusions of the UK government’s Integrated Review of defence, security, development and foreign policy a post-Brexit policy vision that falls within a wider Global Britain agenda.

A central foreign policy shift included in the review is a definitive tilt towards the Indo-Pacific region as the geopolitical centre of the world , which includes the UK applying for partner status of the ASEAN economic union of which India is a sectoral dialogue partner.

This year the Queen Elizabeth Carrier will undertake its first operational deployment to the region alongside NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organisation] allies, the UK is applying for partner status at the Association of South East Asian (ASEAN) nations and at the end of April the Prime Minister will travel to India on his first major international visit following our departure from the European Union (EU), Downing Street said on Monday.

The India visit, which Downing Street said would “unlock the opportunities in the region”, is widely expected to finalise a much-anticipated India-UK Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) as a precursor to a free trade agreement (FTA) in the future.

Lord Tariq Ahmad, the minister for South Asia in the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), is currently in India to add further momentum behind the ETP expected to be signed by Johnson and Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they meet next month.

The Integrated Review, which has been conducted over the last year, is dubbed the most comprehensive articulation of foreign policy and national security approach published by a British government in decades.

The 100-page document sets out a vision for 2030 and how the UK will use its international policy to achieve it.

The foundation of our foreign policy is who we are as a country: our values, our strengths and most importantly our people. So, I am determined to ensure we have a foreign policy that delivers for those people, said Johnson.

Our international ambitions must start at home, and through the Integrated Review we will drive investment back into our communities, ensuring the UK is on the cutting-edge of innovation and creating an entire country that is match-fit for a more competitive world, he said.

The review is designed to address the challenges that come with a more competitive world, where some countries attempt to redefine the international order and in some cases “undermine the open and liberal international system that emerged in the wake of the Cold War”.

It is intended to underline that the UK cannot rely on an “increasingly outdated international system” to protect its interests and promote its values.

Instead, it will establish a new government foreign policy of increased international activism and a UK working with allies to shape a more open international order in which democracies flourish.

As we champion an international order in which democracies flourish we will harness the fundamentals of the British approach to foreign policy and national security: a defence of democracy and human rights; the importance of our relationship with the US; our constant work to keep the people of the UK safe from terrorism and serious organised crime; and our leadership on international development as we continue to be one of the largest aid contributors in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), a government statement said.

It will build on the country’s new sanctions regime, which has already imposed sanctions on over 50 human rights violators including Russia, Myanmar and Zimbabwe and will continue to address human rights abuses like China’s repression of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang.

The new Integrated Review, accompanied by a statement in the House of Commons, is also geared towards tackling issues such as climate change and preserving biodiversity.

Our exit from the EU means we can pursue independent political and economic choices rooted in our interests and those of our allies, Downing Street added.

The government agenda for this post-Brexit plan also includes finalising agreements with countries covering 80 per cent of UK trade by the end of 2022.

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Washington: US President Joe Biden has said that the first virtual summit of the Quad leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, went very well and everyone seemed to like it a great deal.

Known as the “Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, the Quad grouping comprises the US, India, Australia and Japan. The representatives for the four-member nations have met periodically since its establishment in 2007.

Biden on Friday opened the first Quad Leaders’ Summit held virtually and attended by Prime Minister Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

“It (Quad summit) went very well. Everyone seemed to like it a great deal,” Biden told reporters on Sunday in his first reaction on last week’s Quad summit involving leaders from Australia, India and Japan.

In his address to Quad leaders on Friday, Biden had said that it was going to be a vital arena for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. He also described Quad as a new mechanism to enhance cooperation and raise mutual ambition as they address accelerating climate change.

“We know our commitments…Our region is governed by international law, committed to all the universal values and free from coercion but I am optimistic about our prospect, he said, in an apparent reference to China which is flexing its muscles in the region.

“The Quad is going to be a vital arena of cooperation in the Indo Pacific and I look forward to working closely with all of you in the coming years, Biden told Quad leaders.

The four countries plan to establish a series of working groups that will focus on climate change; critical and emerging technologies, including working to set technology standards and norms and jointly developing some of the critical technologies of the future, officials said.

In a joint op-ed in The Washington Post on Saturday, the four leaders asserted that all countries should be able to make their own political choices, free from coercion.

“To strengthen our quest for a region that is open and free, we have agreed to partner to address the challenges presented by new technologies and collaborate to set the norms and standards that govern the innovations of the future, they wrote.

The Quad summit, among other things, finalised a landmark initiative under which huge investments will be made in India to create additional production capacities to roll out a billion coronavirus vaccine doses by 2022 for exports to the Indo-Pacific region, seen as a significant step to counter China’s expanding vaccine diplomacy.

“We will combine our scientific ingenuity, financing, formidable productive capacity and long history of global-health partnership to surge the supply of life-saving vaccines, in close collaboration with multilateral organisations including the WHO and Covax Facility,” they wrote.

Emphasising that the Quad nations’ foundations of democracy and a commitment to engagement unite them, the four leaders concluded saying, “We know we can provide for the safety and prosperity of our people at home by confronting global crises together, with purpose? and resolve.

“We summon from tragedy the strength and resilience to unify and overcome. And we recommit ourselves, once again, to an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, secure and prosperous,” they said.

The evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific region in the wake of China’s increasing military muscle-flexing has become a major talking point among leading global powers. The US has been favouring making Quad a security architecture to check China’s growing assertiveness.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. Beijing has also made substantial progress in militarising its man-made islands in the past few years.

Beijing claims sovereignty over all of the South China Sea. But Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims. In the East China Sea, China has territorial disputes with Japan.

Both maritime areas in the South and East China seas are rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources and are also vital to global trade.

In November 2017, India, Japan, the US and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.

The four leaders are scheduled to meet in person later this year.

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Peshawar: The Hindu community of Pakistan has decided to pardon the accused persons involved in the vandalisation of a temple last December in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak district, the media reported on Sunday.

“The community would provide aid and employ efforts to secure release of the accused from the prison in the light of the recommendations of a jirga,” The Express Tribune quoted Pakistan Hindu Council Chairman Ramesh Kumar as saying at a press conference in Peshawar on Saturday.

On December 30, 2020, an unruly crowd set fire to the Samadhi of Shri Paramhans Ji Maharaj located in Karak district’s Teri area after more than a thousand people led by some local elders of a religious party held a protest and demanded the removal of the temple, originally built before 1920.

In January, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had announced reconstruction of the temple, as well as a crackdown against the attackers.

Last month, the Supreme Court directed the provincial government to start the temple’s immediate rebuilding.

Addressing the presser on Saturday, Kumar said the incident shocked the community across the world and frightened other minorities of the country, as such incidents were almost non-existent in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa until the recent past.

This was the second time that the shrine had been attacked.

It was demolished in 1997 and then rebuilt in 2015 as per the orders of the Supreme Court.

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Washington: The overall number of global Covid-19 cases has topped 119.4 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.64 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Sunday morning, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 119,472,317 and 2,647,235, respectively.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 29,399,317 and 534,275, respectively, according to the CSSE.

Brazil comes in second place in terms of cases at 11,439,558.

The other countries with more than a million confirmed coronavirus cases are India (11,333,728), Russia (4,331,396), the UK (4,267,015), France (4,105,527), Italy (3,201,838), Spain (3,183,704), Turkey (2,866,012), Germany (2,569,864), Colombia (2,299,082), Argentina (2,192,025), Mexico (2,157,771), Poland (1,889,360), Iran (1,739,360), South Africa (1,528,414), Ukraine (1,500,873), Indonesia (1,414,741), Peru (1,402,610), Czech Republic (1,392,108) and the Netherlands (1,166,923), the CSSE figures showed.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of Covid-19 fatalities at 277,102, followed by Mexico (193,851) on the third place and India (158,446) on the fourth.

Meanwhile, the nations with a death toll above 50,000 are the UK (125,701), Italy (101,881), France (90,376), Russia (90,169), Germany (73,369), Spain (72,258), Iran (61,142), Colombia (61,046), Argentina (53,646) and South Africa (51,261).

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Colombo: Sri Lanka on Saturday announced plans to ban the wearing of burqas and said it would close more than 1,000 Islamic schools known as madrassas, citing national security.

Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekara said he signed a paper on Friday seeking the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers to ban burqas outer garments that cover the body and face worn by some Muslim women.

The burqa has a direct impact on national security, Weerasekara told a ceremony at a Buddhist temple on Saturday, without elaborating.

In our early days, we had a lot of Muslim friends, but Muslim women and girls never wore the burqa,” Weerasekara said, according to video footage sent by his ministry.

It is a sign of religious extremism that came about recently. We will definitely ban it.

The wearing of burqas was temporarily banned in 2019 after the Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 260 people.

Two local Muslim groups that had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group have been blamed for the attacks at six locations two Roman Catholic churches, one Protestant church and three top hotels.

Weerasekara also said the government will ban more than 1,000 Madrassas, saying they are not registered with the authorities and do not follow the national education policy.

The decision to ban burqas and madrassas is the latest move affecting the Indian Ocean island nation’s minority Muslims.

Muslims make up about 9 per cent of the 22 million people in Sri Lanka, where Buddhists account for more than 70 per cent of the population. Ethnic minority Tamils, who are mainly Hindus, comprise about 15 per cent of the population.

(AP)

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Taipei: Taiwan’s classic beef noodle soup has taken on a sweet and sour twist.

Hung Ching Lung, a Taipei chef, has created a pineapple beef noodle soup at his eponymous restaurant Chef Hung, in what he says is a modest attempt to support Taiwanese pineapple farmers.

The spiky fruit became a politically charged symbol after China banned the import of Taiwan’s pineapples on March 1, citing pests.

In response, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen kicked off a social media challenge called “Eat Taiwan”s pineapples until you burst,” calling on people to support the island’s farmers.

The campaign has kicked off a pineapple media frenzy, as Taiwanese politicians sought to demonstrate their support for farmers as well as Taiwanese agriculture. Politicians from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition Nationalist Party flocked to farms to post pictures with pineapples.

Taiwanese restauranteurs like Hung rushed to make pineapple-infused dishes. Pineapple shrimp balls, a betel nut pineapple salad and classics like fried rice with pineapple are just some of the dishes being pushed out by restaurants and hotels on the island.

Hung said he and his team spent three days testing out ways to incorporate pineapple into beef noodles. It took about 10 attempts.

“The first time we tested it when we cooked it in the soup, it was very sweet, it was inedible and tasted completely of pineapple,” he said. The successful attempt was based on separating the juice from the fruit during cooking, which removed the sweetness that would otherwise overpower the beef flavour.

China has denied that its move to ban Taiwanese pineapples was politically motivated, with a spokesperson for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office saying that the decision was a “normal biosafety measure, and entirely reasonable and necessary.”

Taiwan”s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the move one that “flies in the face of rules-based, free and fair trade.”
China has most recently leveraged its immense market in a trade war with Australia. It stopped or reduced imports of beef, coal, barley, seafood, sugar and timber from Australia after that country supported calls for a probe into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, which is believed to have begun in China in late 2019.

Despite the hubbub, the pineapple ban may not drastically impact Taiwanese farmers.

A day after the ban was enacted, Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang told local media that the amount purchased by domestic businesses and citizens exceeded the amount that would have been sold to China. The government also promised subsidies worth 1 billion New Taiwan dollars (USD 35 million) to help out farmers.

The government said it has also received orders from Japan, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and Middle Eastern countries.

Annually, Taiwan produces about 420,000 metric tons of pineapples, 90 per cent of which are sold on the island itself, according to the Council of Agriculture. Some 10% of that annual production is sold abroad, and China makes up the vast majority of those purchases.

It is unclear whether the recent surge in domestic orders and orders from foreign countries will make up for China”s ban in the long run.

But in the short term, it has drawn patriotic feelings out of some local residents.

“We are all trying to find a way to help the farmers,” said Alice Tsai, who stopped in Hung”s restaurant on Wednesday to try noodles that she said were surprisingly tasty.

“The other day I went to the supermarket and found that all the pineapples were sold out, and I felt very touched,” she said. “Everyone has this feeling of solidarity.”

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Washington: The Biden administration on Friday said it is willing to reconsider the objections or adverse decisions to foreign workers on visas like H-1B due to the three policy memos by the previous Trump administration which now have been rescinded.

The move is expected to come to the rescue of a large number of Indian IT professionals who were having a tough time during the previous Trump administration due to various policies and memorandums on non-immigrant work visas, in particular H-1B.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Friday announced “it may reopen and/or reconsider adverse decisions” on Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, made based on three rescinded policy memos.

USCIS said it will generally use its discretion to accept a motion to reopen filed more than 30 days after the decision, if filed before the end of the validity period requested on the petition or labour condition application, whichever is earlier, and the decision was based on one or more policies in the three rescinded H-1B memoranda.

On June 17, 2020, USCIS issued Policy Memorandum 602-0114, which officially rescinded two prior policy memoranda. First titled “Determining Employer-Employee Relationship for Adjudication of H-1B Petitions, Including Third-Party Site Placements,” that was issued on January 8, 2010; and second “Contracts and Itineraries Requirements for H-1B Petitions Involving Third-Party Worksites,” issued on February 22, 2018.

On February 3, 2021, USCIS issued Policy Memorandum 602-0142.1, which officially rescinded PM-602-0142, “Rescission of the December 22, 2000 ‘Guidance memo on H1B computer related positions’,” issued on March 31, 2017. Both Policy Memorandum 602-0114 and Policy Memorandum 602-0142.1 state that they apply to “any pending or new [H-1B Petitions], including motions on and appeals of revocations and denials of H-1B classification.”

USCIS said a petitioner may request that it reopen and/or reconsider adverse decisions based on the three rescinded policy memos by properly filing Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion, accompanied by the appropriate fee.

In addition, USCIS has the discretionary authority to accept and consider untimely motions under certain circumstances as explained in the form instructions and permitted by regulation.

“Petitioners who received an adverse decision on an H-1B petition based on the now-rescinded policy memoranda should consider whether there is time remaining in the validity period requested on the previously filed H-1B petition and the relevant labour condition application,” USCIS said.

USCIS will generally process motions based on filing order, and consistent with current policy guidance, the federal agency said.

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New Delhi: Pakistan has once again banned Chinese short-video making app TikTok, this time for allegedly peddling vulgarity and spreading objectionable content on its platform.

The country banned the ByteDance-owned platform in October 2020 for a brief 10-day period for hosting “immoral” and “indecent” videos.

“In respectful compliance to the orders of the Peshawar High Court, PTA has issued directions to the service providers to immediately block access to the TikTok App. During the hearing of a case today, the PHC has ordered for the blocking of App,” the Pakistan telecommunication Authority (PTA) said in a tweet late Thursday.

According to an Al Jazeera report, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan accused TikTok of hosting content “unacceptable for Pakistani society.”

Khan said the platform engaged in “peddling vulgarity” and ordered the ban take effect immediately during a hearing on Thursday.

TikTok said in a statement that it “is built upon the foundation of creative expression, with strong safeguards in place to keep inappropriate content off the platform”.

“In Pakistan, we have grown our local-language moderation team, and have mechanisms to report and remove content in violation of our community guidelines. We look forward to continuing to serve the millions of TikTok users and creators in Pakistan who have found a home for creativity and fun,” the company added.

TikTok, along with several other Chinese apps, is already banned in India over national security concerns.

Last October, the PTA had said that the app failed to block obscene and immoral contents despite being told several times.

The app has been installed over 40 million times in Pakistan.

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Washington: US President Joe Biden has signed the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill into law, after weeks of partisan fighting in the Congress, marking the first legislative victory for Biden since he took office.

The signing on Thursday came one day after the House of Representatives approved the measure in a starkly partisan vote of 220-211. Last week, the evenly split Senate narrowly passed the bill by a vote of 50 to 49, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, a survey recently released by the Pew Research Center showed that there is broad public support for the relief package, with 70 per cent of Americans saying they favour the legislation.

“The US, in the Congress is more polarized than the American people,” Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor at Columbia University and senior United Nations advisor, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

“The American people have actually a broad consensus, let’s get on with our lives. Let’s have the control of the pandemic. Let’s have an increased role of government, but the political divide between the Democrats and Republicans is very strong,” Sachs said.

The measure, the sixth coronavirus-related legislation since the outbreak more than a year ago, includes funding for Covid-19 vaccination and testing, extra unemployment benefits, direct payments to working Americans, support for small businesses, state and local governments, along with schools.

Calling it a historic legislation with overwhelming support from Americans, Biden said at the White House Oval Office that the bill will help rebuild the “backbone of this country”.

The signing of the bill came a few hours after the Labor Department reported initial jobless claims last week decreased by 42,000 to reach 712,000, following an increase in the previous week.

Meanwhile, the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs — state and federal combined — for the week ending February 20 rose by 2 million to 20.1 million, indicating continued disruption to the labor market by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The relief bill includes a $300 weekly federal unemployment benefit through September, instead of $400 in an earlier version approved by the House. It also includes a new round of up to $1,400 of direct payments for Americans.

Despite strong support from Democratic lawmakers, the bill might be a little disappointing to some progressives, who advocated for the federal minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour, a provision that wasn’t included in the final package.

President Biden, as well as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have argued that bold action is needed to support the economic recovery and avoid lasting scars. Some economists, however, have warned that the new relief package might be too big, and could bring risks, such as setting off inflationary pressures, and undermining global financial stability.

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Kolkata: At least seven people have been killed in Myanmar after security forces opened fire on anti-coup protesters in two towns on Thursday.

Signalling it is undeterred by global criticism and an UN call for restraint, the military junta also stepped up the ante by formally levelling allegations of bribery against deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The violence on Thursday came within a day of the United Nations Security Council calling on the military to “exercise utmost restraint” in its response to peaceful demonstrators and rights group Amnesty International accusing the junta of adopting “battlefield tactics” against peaceful demonstrators.

Six people were killed in the central town of Myaing on Thursday when security forces fired on a protest rally.

Rescue workers confirmed at least six protestors had died and 20 others were injured, some seriously.

Doctors in a Myaing hospital said the death toll could rise as at least five of those injured were in serious condition.

A protest leader said that the demonstrations were peaceful and the firing “completely unprovoked”.

One person was killed in the North Dagon district of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, journalists at Mizzima media said.

Mizzima is one of the four Myanmar media outlets whose license has been cancelled by the military and its TV broadcasts stopped.

But Mizzima editor Soe Myint, a folk hero of the 1988-90 student-youth uprising, said, in a statement, that his group will continue to “oppose and expose the illegal military junta”.

Photographs posted on Facebook showed a man lying prone on the street, bleeding from a head wound.

Myanmar slipped into chaos after its military toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1 and huge protests erupted nationwide.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group claims security forces have already killed more than 60 protesters and arrested more than 2,000 others in the ensuing crackdown.

The army has justified the coup on grounds that the November 2020 election, won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, was marred by fraud. But Myanmar’s Election Commission has refuted the charge.

On Thursday, military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, told a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Thursday that Suu Kyi had accepted illegal payments worth $600,000 as well as gold while in the government.

He claimed the information had been verified and many people were being questioned.

He said President Win Myint and several cabinet ministers had also engaged in corruption and that he had pressurised the Election Commission not to act on the military’s reports of electoral fraud.

Zaw Min Tun, however, failed to provide any evidence of the new allegations.

A member of Suu Kyi’s legal team said: “We assume that these will be part of new charges which will be used to extend (Suu Kyi’s) detention”.

Zaw Min Tun also reiterated on Thursday that the military would only be in charge for a certain period before holding an election. “We are on the road to authentic democracy,” he said.

The military government has previously promised a new election within a year, but has not set a date.

Analysts say the apparent climbdown by the junta seemed a response to heavy global criticism, both in and outside the UN.

The 15-member UN Security Council on Wednesday strongly condemned violence by Myanmar security forces against peaceful protesters, including women, youth and children.

“The council calls for the military to exercise utmost restraint and emphasises that it is following the situation closely,” it said in a statement.

Language that would have condemned the February 1 coup and threatened possible further action was removed from the UK-drafted text, due to opposition by China, Russia, India and Vietnam.

These countries want to give possible mediation a chance instead of driving the junta inwards.

The Civil Disobedience Movement, a campaign group, said the latest killings demonstrate the need for a “stronger message” from the international community.

“Right after the UNSC produces a condemnation statement, the terrorist junta again murdered people in broad daylight. What kind of message does it send to UNSC?” the group said in a post on Twitter.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, accused the military of using an arsenal of battlefield weapons in its “killing spree” against protesters.

In its Thursday report, the human rights group said the weapons include light machine guns, sniper rifles and semi-automatic rifles. It added that those involved in the shootings were “unrepentant commanders already implicated in crimes against humanity” elsewhere in the country.

There was no immediate comment from the military.

It has previously said it is acting with the utmost restraint in handling what it describes as demonstrations by “riotous protesters”, whom it accuses of attacking police and harming national security and stability.

Despite the crackdowns, protests were also staged in half a dozen other towns on Thursday, according to Facebook posts.

In Yangon’s central Sanchaung township, people had another sleepless night as security forces raided apartments searching for lost police weapons.

“They used sound bombs on every street,” said one resident. “We are asking friends who are outside of their homes not to come back here tonight because of the situation.”

Overnight, people also defied a curfew to hold several more candlelit vigils in parts of Yangon and also in Myingyan, southwest of the second city of Mandalay.

The US tightened sanctions on Myanmar on Thursday, announcing punishing measures on two adult children of Min Aung Hlaing, the army chief who led the coup.

“The leaders of the coup, and their adult family members, should not be able to continue to derive benefits from the regime as it resorts to violence and tightens its stranglehold on democracy,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

“We will not hesitate to take further action against those who instigate violence and suppress the will of the people.”

In New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he hoped Wednesday’s Security Council statement would push the military to realise it “is absolutely essential” that all prisoners are released and that the results of a November election are respected.

Reports from India’s Mizoram state said few hundreds protestors were trying to flee into India.

Some including policemen who refused to open fire have already fled.

The Chin state administration has asked Mizoram local authorities to hand back the eight policemen who have fled into the northeast Indian state as a “goodwill gesture”.

But human rights campaigners in India have opposed the move because they fear the eight may be executed.

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Washington: The Biden administration is looking at deepening its military and technical cooperation with India by not only providing it with arms and equipment, but also helping New Delhi develop its own defense industrial base, a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers here on Wednesday.

“We are looking to … deepen our military-technical cooperation with India that is based on providing them arms and equipment so we can build interoperable forces and capabilities and work with India developing its own defense industrial base so that India is able to produce equipment to service their needs and to be able to work with us and others around the region,” Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs David Helvey told lawmakers.

India is a real partner, a rising partner of the United States, Helvey said responding to a question from Congressman Doug Lamborn during a Congressional hearing on Indo-Pacific by the House Armed Services Committee. “We have a unique designation with India; it’s called a major defense partner,” he said.

“One of the things that we are prioritising is looking at ways to operationalise this defense partnership with India to be able to look at ways where we can work together in the defense space in pursuit of common interests based on our converging strategic interest,” he said.

“I think we all agree that it needs to be a better partner and a counterweight to China, so what is the Biden administration plan to build a stronger partnership with India both economically and militarily,” Congressman Lamborn asked.

“One of the things we would like to be able to do is built on some of the foundational agreements that we have been able to conclude with India in recent years. Say for example, with information security or logistics arrangements to where we can share more information with India so we can build a common strategic understanding of the types of threats that we face together.

“Look at how we can use our forces and Indian forces in the Indian Ocean region and beyond to be able to work together, whether it’s in maritime domain awareness or maritime security or humanitarian assistance and disaster response,” Helvey said.

Admiral Phil Davidson, Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, responding to the same question said that over the course of his tenure at INDOPACOM there has been some opportunity to cooperate in the maritime and to assist a little bit in information sharing, some cold-weather gear, and things like that with India’s challenges along the line of actual control.

“I think it’s gone a long way to deepening our relationship and really presents a key strategic opportunity I think, for the United States,” he said.

In his prepared testimony, Helvey said that in South Asia, America’s Major Defense Partnership with India continues to deepen as the two nations build interoperability through increasingly complex exercises and growing defense trade, and through expanded information sharing and secure communications to address issues of shared concern.

“With the completion of all foundational agreements, the partnership is now poised to accelerate. We also are pursuing emerging partnerships with Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Maldives to work cooperatively to ensure the region remains free and open,” he said.

(Lalit K Jha/PTI)

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Seoul: A fossil assumed to be a toe bone of a dinosaur dating back to 120 million years has been discovered on a western island, the city government of Ansan said on Wednesday.

The city government of Ansan, southwest of Seoul, said the 4.5-centimetre-long fossil was found by a citizen on Daebu Island last month, Yonhap news agency reported.

It is believed to have belonged to a plant-eating basal ceratopsian dinosaur known as Koreaceratops, which existed on the Korean Peninsula about 120 million years ago during the Albian age.

The phalanx fossil was almost perfectly preserved, officials said.

The city government reported the finding to the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) in the country.

The CHA views the remains as having academic value and plans to send it to the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage for a more detailed study.

In 2000, five dinosaur footprints, likely left about 100 million years ago, were found at a quarry on the island.

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London: Breaking its silence over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Buckingham Palace on Tuesday said it has taken “very seriously” their revelations and those will be addressed by the family privately.

On the couple’s reference to unnamed royals raising concerns over their son Archie’s mixed-race heritage, the palace said the concerning issues of race would be addressed privately as a family matter.

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan, the Buckingham Palace statement read.

“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. Whilst some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members,” the statement noted.

It came a day after the interview was aired in the UK and sent the palace into turmoil, with crisis talks addressing the damaging claims around Meghan’s suicidal thoughts as a newly-married Duchess of Sussex.

Harry and Meghan also revealed some racist undertones within royal ranks as unnamed royals raised concerns over the skin tone of their first-born son, Archie, even as they were told he would not be made a prince and therefore not provided with security.

“I have always had the highest admiration for the Queen and the unifying role that she plays in our country and across the Commonwealth, said Boris Johnson, when asked about the allegations during a Downing Street briefing on Monday evening.

As for all other matters to do with the royal family, I have spent a long time now not commenting on royal family matters and I don’t intend to depart from that today,” he said, refusing to be drawn into the controversy.

Opposition Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said allegations made in the interview should be taken very, very seriously .

“It is really sad to see the family in turmoil like this. The issues that Meghan has raised of racism and mental health are really serious issues, said Starmer.

“It is a reminder that too many people experience racism in 21st-century Britain. We have to take that very, very seriously. Nobody, but nobody, should be prejudiced (against) because of the colour of their skin or because of their mental health issues, he said, when asked about the controversy during a visit to a school in east London.

This is bigger than the royal family. For too many years we have been too dismissive and too willing to put these issues to one side,” he added.

Asked by Oprah Winfrey whether there were concerns among royals that her child would be “too brown” and that would be a problem, Meghan said: “If that is the assumption you are making, that is a pretty safe one.”

Harry and Meghan refused to name individuals behind the alleged racist comments but Winfrey later told CBS, the US network which broadcast the interview, that off camera Harry had stressed that neither his grandmother (Queen) nor grandfather (Prince Philip) was part of that conversation . The allegations have prompted widespread speculation over which royal may have made the comments.

In the two-hour interview shot near Harry and Meghan’s new home in California, Winfrey asked them about their decision to step back as frontline royals and whether they have any regrets about moving away.

While Harry said he felt relieved that he had been able to protect his wife and children, as the couple await the birth of a baby girl in the coming months, Meghan said she regretted that she had trusted the institution of the monarchy when they had assured her that they would protect her from false media attacks.

The 39-year-old former actress’ revelations about her mental health struggles, which involved thoughts about not wanting to be alive anymore , have attracted the maximum reaction on social media and other channels.

“It’s vital that when people reach out for support or share their experiences of ill mental health that they are treated with dignity, respect and empathy,” mental health charity Mind said, in response to attacks on Meghan’s interview.

Prince Harry expressed hurt that none of his relatives spoke out in support of Meghan about the “colonial undertones” of news headlines and articles.

“No one from my family ever said anything over those three years. That hurts,” he said.

Meghan also told Winfrey she felt betrayed by her father Thomas Markle’s conduct in the run up to their wedding in 2018. Thomas told ITV on Tuesday that the interview was the first time he had heard his daughter speak for several years.

“I’m very disappointed about it. I’ve apologised about this thing, what happened, at least 100 times or so,” he said.

Opinion among the general public in the UK following the interview has been mixed. A new YouGov poll, carried out before the show was aired in full on British television, asked people whether they thought the interview was appropriate or inappropriate. Around 47 per cent said it was inappropriate, while 21 per cent said it was appropriate and 31 per cent didn’t know.

(Aditi Khanna/PTI)

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Dhaka: Tasnuva Anan Shishir became Bangladesh’s first transgender news anchor, as she presented the news on a private television channel on the occasion of International Women’s Day on Monday.

Shishir has recently earned her scholarships in two categories to pursue higher studies in the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme at the James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH), from a country’s private university along with Ho Chi Minh Islam, another iconic transgender woman in the country.

VIDEO: Bangladesh's first transgender news presenter breaks down in tears after her word-perfect debut was beamed to the nation and the cameras were off. Tashnuva Anan Shishir, delivered the three-minute news bulletin on Boishakhi TV pic.twitter.com/xUlfg3JWBE

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 9, 2021

Tasnuva said, “It is a great achievement to me as I succeeded in breaking the gender discrimination in the year of the golden jubilee of independence.”

The channel has also appointed another transgender woman in the entertainment department, who had started playing her role in a TV serial named ‘Chapabaz’.

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Kathmandu: A day after Nepal’s Supreme Court invalidated the decision of the 2018 party merger between the Nepal Communist Party-UML and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has fallen apart politically and technically.

The NCP was formed after the merger between UML and Maoist Center.

On Sunday, the Supreme Court affected the split along the CPN-UML and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) and took them to the pre-unification stage which will ultimately make Prime Minister Oli a bit stronger because he was elected to the post from CPN-UML.

But Monday’s party split came a setback to Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda who used to be the Chairman of CPN-Maoist Center.

The court also invalidated the NCP that was registered under Oli and Prachanda in June 2018.

With the Supreme Court’s ruling, top UML leaders who used to side with Prachanda against Oli started returning to the mother party from Monday evening itself.

Former Prime Ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal among other top leaders and parliamentarians started returning to the UML.

As per the constitutional provision, lawmakers cannott change the political party on an individual basis. If they do so, they will lose the parliamentary seats.

“Our heart is big and we have decided to join UML,” Nepal said on Monday evening after bidding adieu to Prachanda.

Prachanda had called a last meeting with Nepal and other leaders to discuss what to do next.

“We have decided to honour the Supreme Court’s decision and are going to return the UML,” Nepal said, adding “but our struggle will continue for democracy and communism”.

After the court’s decision, Nepal’s Elections Commission is going to ask the UML and Maoist to re-register their party, its spokesperson Rajkumar Shrestha said.

Oli after becoming the Prime Minister in 2018 with the support of the Maoist Center, had been sharing very rough ties with Prachanda, Nepal and Khanal.

They were raising voices against Oli’s way of ruling the government and leading the party.

Then those dissatisfied with Oli inside the ruling party that had 64 per cent support, started organising under Prachanda’s leadership but Oli kept on sidelining them.

Prachanda and his faction demanded Oli’s resignation but the latter kept on denying saying that he was mandated to rule the country and party both.

In the midst of division and dispute in the unified communist party, Oli on December 20, 2020, abruptly dissolved the house and declared snap polls.

But on February 24, the Supreme Court overturned his decision.

With the new equation, Prachanda will npw have 53 of the Maoist lawmakers and the Nepal side, along with around 43 lawmakers, would return to the Oli-led UML.

These 43 lawmakers will join the mother party led by Oli.

With the court decision, Dahal’s Maoist Centre is now reduced to the third party in Parliament.

In the 2017 elections, the UML won 121 seats and Nepali Congress, the primary opposition, had 63 seats.

With new political situations emerging, parties are in talks to form a new government by removing Oli but the roadmap is yet to be decided upon.

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United Nations: The latest data published UN Women, an entity of the world body working for the empowerment of women, shows that women’s rights and leadership are under threat, even more due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Current projections show that gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years. This year’s International Women’s Day rings the alarm on rising threats to gender equality and highlights the need to build back better for a more gender-equal future, Xinhua news agency quoted UN Women as saying in a statement on Monday.

“We must remember 2021 as a global inflection point on gender equality, a year when women’s rights and leadership accelerated irreversibly. The Generation Equality Forum will be a catalyst for lasting change.

“A more equal world will be a different world. More inclusive decisions will be made, different voices heard, and different solutions created,” UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was quoted as saying in the statement.

The Generation Equality Forum is a civil society-centred, global gathering for gender equality, convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France.

Kicking-off in Mexico City on March 29-31, and culminating in Paris in June, the forum will secure a set of concrete, ambitious, and transformative commitments to achieve immediate and irreversible progress toward gender equality.

The landmark effort will bring together governments, corporations and change to define and announce ambitious investments and policies.

This International Women’s Day comes at a moment where evidence is growing that the pandemic is having a disproportionate and severe impact on women’s rights, from their role as frontline healthcare workers often without adequate protection, to the loss of jobs as the informal economy shrinks, and the alarming spike in domestic violence and unpaid care burden, according to the UN Women statement.

Major facts are that only three countries globally have 50 per cent or more women in Parliament, and the same amount have no women in Parliament at all; women under 30 years make up less than 1 per cent of parliamentarians globally; and women parliamentarians reported in one survey that they experienced nearly twice as much exposure to torture, ill treatment and acts of violence compared to men.

Research shows that when women are in power, overlooked policy issues, such as ending violence against women, childcare services and healthcare get more attention; there is often less government corruption and political parties are more likely to work together.

For example, in Liberia during her first term as President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf introduced a specialised court to prosecute violence against women; Norway’s former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and current German Chancellor Angela Merkel, both strengthened family leave provisions and increased funding for early childhood education.

The Generation Equality Forum’s Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership has developed plans to achieve gender parity in executive and legislative positions in 50 countries by 2026.

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London: The UK’s Queen Elizabeth II has praised those across the Commonwealth working on the frontlines during the coronavirus pandemic.

She also highlighted the importance of staying in touch with friends and families during the pandemic in her annual Commonwealth Day speech on Sunday.

“Over the coming week, as we celebrate the friendship, spirit of unity and achievements of the Commonwealth, we have an opportunity to reflect on a time like no other.

“Whilst experiences of the last year have been different across the Commonwealth, stirring examples of courage, commitment and selfless dedication to duty have been demonstrated in every Commonwealth nation and territory, notably by those working on the frontline who have been delivering healthcare and other public services in their communities.

“We have also taken encouragement from remarkable advances in developing new vaccines and treatments,” she noted.

The British monarch said the testing times experienced by so many have led to a deeper appreciation of the mutual support and spiritual sustenance “we enjoy by being connected to others”.

“The need to maintain greater physical distance, or to live and work largely in isolation, has, for many people across the Commonwealth, been an unusual experience.

“In our everyday lives, we have had to become more accustomed to connecting and communicating via innovative technology — which has been new to some of us — with conversations and communal gatherings, including Commonwealth meetings, conducted online, enabling people to stay in touch with friends, family, colleagues and counterparts, who they have not been able to meet in person.

“Increasingly, we have found ourselves able to enjoy such communication, as it offers an immediacy that transcends boundaries or division, helping any sense of distance to disappear.”

“We have all continued to appreciate the support, breadth of experiences and knowledge that working together brings, and I hope we shall maintain this renewed sense of closeness and community.

“Looking forward, relationships with others across the Commonwealth will remain important, as we strive to deliver a common future that is sustainable and more secure, so that the nations and neighbourhoods in which we live, wherever they are located, become healthier and happier places for us all,” she concluded in her audio message.

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New York: Meghan Markle told Oprah Winfrey that she was utterly unprepared for the “monster machine” of the British royalty when she married Prince Harry.

Markle said she didn’t “fully understand what the job was” when she, as an “American”, waded into “the firm” – her description for the British royal family.

Within the first 15 minutes of the hotly anticipated interview, Meghan revealed to Oprah that all she wants is to “go back to the basics” and that the reality of royalty wasn’t something she was ever ready for.

Around the 40th minute, Markle told Oprah that the royal family was “concerned” that her child would have “dark skin”.

Markle stopped short of saying who within Buckingham Palace was having these conversations with her or Harry. Disclosing that “would be very damaging to them”, she told Oprah.

“That’s what was really tricky over those past few years, is when the perception and the reality are two very different things,” Meghan said.

“And you’re being judged on the perception, but you’re living the reality of it.”

The interview has been filmed in a backyard garden setting, with Meghan in a flowing black dress with a splash of white near the top right shoulder.

Meghan also said that she never “looked up” her husband online and did not think it was necessary to crawl through research on Harry.

Clips released ahead of the on-air interview showed Meghan tearing into the royal family.

In the two hour interview, Winfrey will also ask sMeghan how she feels about Buckingham Palace “hearing you speak your truth today?”

“I don’t know how they could expect that after all of this time we would still just be silent if there was an active role that the firm is playing in perpetuating falsehoods about us,” Meghan said, in one of the promo clips that are circulating.

“And if that comes with risk of losing things, I mean, there’s been a lot that’s been lost already.”

Speaking about her first meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan told Oprah she practised curtsying minutes before and never expected that she would have to endure this level of formality as a “working royal”.

The two-hour pre-recorded interview began airing on CBS in the US on Sunday at 8 p.m.

It will be broadcast in the UK on Monday night on ITV.

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Washington: The total number of global Covid-19 cases has topped 116.4 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.58 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Sunday morning, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 116,468,157 and 2,586,872, respectively.

The US is the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 28,949,592 and 524,262, respectively, according to the CSSE.

India comes in second place in terms of cases at 11,192,088.

The other countries with more than a million confirmed coronavirus cases are Brazil (10,938,836), Russia (4,263,785), the UK (4,225,906), France (3,942,243), Spain (3,149,012), Italy (3,046,762), Turkey (2,769,230), Germany (2,502,163), Colombia (2,273,245), Argentina (2,146,714), Mexico (2,119,305), Poland (1,781,345), Iran (1,681,682), South Africa (1,520,206), Ukraine (1,442,457), Indonesia (1,373,836), Peru (1,358,294), Czech Republic (1,312,164) and The Netherlands (1,130,694), the CSSE figures showed.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of Covid-19 fatalities at 264,325, followed by Mexico (189,578) on the third place and India (157,656) on the fourth.

Meanwhile, the nations with a death toll above 50,000 are the UK (124,654), Italy (99,578), France (88,597), Russia (87,253), Germany (71,899), Spain (71,138), Iran (60,594), Colombia (60,412), Argentina (52,870) and South Africa (50,647).

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Islamabad: In a shocking incident, a 64-year-old lawmaker of Jamiat-Ulema-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) has married a 14-year-old minor girl, raising serious questions and demands of explanation from the party leadership in the Pakistan parliament.

JUI-F’s Maulana Salahuddin Ayubi, a sitting Member of National Assembly (MNA), had recently married a 14-year-old minor girl from Chitral in the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has demanded the JUI-F leadership to come out with an explanation on the marriage of the lawmaker with a minor girl, terming the reported marriage as “very disturbing news”.

“Very disturbing news of an underage girl’s marriage had been reported in Indian media today. The reported marriage of a JUI-F MNA with a young girl was a violation of the Child Marriage Restraint Act,” he said while speaking in the Parliament session.

“The government isn’t investigating the matter, but the JUI-F leadership should come out and deny the incident before the House, because we and Pakistan’s parliament are being ridiculed over this across the world,” he added.

“Today I raised issue of under age marriage by a JUI MNA, I hope all sane voices in NA will take notice of this absurd act by a member of National Assembly and will join voice to seek explanation,” Chaudhry tweeted.

Chaudhry’s demand of explanation was endorsed by Maleeha Bokhari, Paliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice, who called the marriage an “illegal act and criminal offense by the JUI-F MNA”, who, she said, has violated the Child Marriage Restraint Act by marrying a minor girl.

“There was a deafening silence on the issue from the so called champions of democracy who stand by JUI-F head Fazlur Rehman,” she said.

The incident occurred earlier this month when a local organisation in Chitral filed a request with the police to conduct an inquiry into the reported marriage of the underage girl of Grade 9 with an MNA from the Balochistan province.

As per details of the application, Anjuman Dawat-e-Azeemat had contented that the news of the marriage of the underage girl with the elderly person had gone viral on social media, angering the people at large.

The application requested the police authorities to ascertain if the girl had attained the marriageable age. And if not, then strict action should be taken against the those responsible under the Prevention of Child Marriage Act.

The underage girl is a student of Government Girls High School, Jughoor, which confirmed her date of birth as October 28, 2006, confirming that the child has not attained the age of marriage.

The police authorities in Chitral have stated that a thorough inquiry will be launched into the matter.

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Wellington: A day after three massive temblors jolted New Zealand, an aftershock measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of the North Island on Saturday, according to GeoNet NZ.

This was the largest aftershock following the three consecutive strong quakes on Friday, reports Xinhua news agency.

Thousands of locals reported they felt Saturday’s quake which struck at 1.16 p.m., 140 km east of Te Araroa at a depth of 33 km.

It also sparked a tsunami warning for eastern parts of the North Island which was later lifted.

There have been a number of aftershocks since the Friday morning quakes, with most in the range of 4-5 magnitude.

The strongest one, a 8.1-magnitude earthquake hit near the Kermadec Islands at 8.28 a.m., on Friday, triggering a tsunami warning, with water surges seen in some North Island bays later in the day.

GeoNet predicted after Friday’s quakes and tsunami warnings that it was “very likely” that there could be more earthquakes up to 7.9-magnitude in the coming month, estimating an up to 90 pe rcent chance of the temblors hitting within the next 30 days.

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Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) officials have said that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has caused more “mass trauma” than World War II and warned of its lasting consequences.

“The world has experienced mass trauma because World War Two affected many, many lives,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a virtual press conference here on Friday.

“And now, even with this Covid pandemic, with bigger magnitude, more lives have been affected, almost the whole world is affected.”

The WHO chief added that the pandemic induced mass trauma is “beyond proportion and even bigger than what the world experienced” after the Second World War, reports Xinhua news agency.

“Countries have to see it as such, and prepare for that,” he warned.

Evidence of mass trauma has been presented by other organisations, such as the International Council of Nurses, which warned on January 13 of the effects of the pandemic on nurses’ mental health.

Mass trauma could even affect transmissibility, as it would be “very difficult to sustain behaviors that stop the epidemic” for affected communities, Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said at the same press conference.

“The mental health and psychosocial support to individuals and communities must be central to all recovery plans and must be costed in to those plans,” he said.

According to Maria Van Kerkhove, the Covid-19 technical lead for the WHO, “there needs to be a lot more emphasis by governments, by communities, by families, by individuals to look after our well-being”.

The total number of global Covid-19 cases has topped 116 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.57 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 116,030,165 and 2,578,988, respectively.

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New York: Indian-Americans are taking over the US, President Joe Biden said while congratulating Swati Mohan, the NASA engineer, who guided the Mars rover Perseverance to a soft landing on the Red Planet.

“It’s amazing. Indian of descent Americans are taking over this country. You, my Vice President, my speechwriter Vinay. But I tell you what, thanks. You guys are incredible,” he said during a virtual meeting to congratulate Mohan and others on the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team that landed the Perseverance on Mars.

“One of the reasons why we’re such an incredible country is we’re such a diverse country. We bring the best out of every single solitary culture in the world here in the US of America. And we give people an opportunity,” Biden said of the immigrants.

Mohan, who proudly displays her Indian identity with a bindi on her forehead, said: “Being able to work with this incredibly diverse talented team that has become like a family, spending years creating our own technological marvel has been a privilege.”

The NASA engineer said that she had been inspired as a child to get into space exploration by watching the Star Trek TV series where a “fantastical, really, really close knit team” was working together for sole purpose of exploring space “and understanding new things and seeking new life”.

Biden’s Vice President is Kamala Harris and his director of speech writing is Vinay Reddy, who is one of more than 20 Indian-Americans named to senior positions in his administration.

Two Indian women astronauts have gone to space, Kalpana Chawla, who was killed on her second mission aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger that broke up in 2003, and Sunita Williams, who has been a commander of the International Space Station.

Astronaut Raja Chari belongs to the Artemis team from which the next members of future expeditions will be selected. He is to command the SpaceX Crew-3 mission set for September.

When JPL Director Michael Watkins introduced Mohan, Biden said: “Hey Doc, how are you?”

Mohan said she was well and as she began to thank him for taking the time to speak to them, he cut her off, saying,:”Are you kidding me? What an honour this is, what an incredible honour this is” (for him to speak to her).

After mentioning the achievement of Indian-Americans, he told her: “Did you want to say something? I’ll be quiet.”

Mohan said she hoped that Perseverance would be able to find new life on Mars.

She recalled to him the moments before the Perseverance landed on the Red Planet: Although it was going pretty smooth, the team was “really nervous and, frankly, terrified until we got through those final seven minutes”.

Mohan, who guided the rover safely to a soft landing, said: “To be able to call ‘touchdown’ safely, to see those first images come back from Mars, to see the place where we have never been able to go to on Mars before and go there — reach there for the express purpose of seeking out new life just made it feel like I was living in a dream.”

Biden replied: “I tell you what, you feel like you live in a dream, you’ve created a dream for millions and millions of young kids young Americans.

“You restored a dose of confidence in the American people. They were beginning to wonder if we are still the country we always believed we were. You guys did it. You guys gave a sense of America’s back. It’s astounding what you did. You should not underestimate it.”

Taking a dig at his predecessor Donald Trump, Biden said that he had heard of a head of state who wondered what had happened to the US.

“They used to be so proud to do great things. And here they can’t even deal with a coronavirus.

“It matters because democracies have to demonstrate they can run efficiently.

“We have never ever, ever failed to meet a call. We’ve set our mind to it. And we’ve done it together. And that’s what you all show. So, it goes way beyond the whole notion of what you just recently did,” he added.

Mohan said that there was “the thrill of all the scientific discoveries that are yet to come and what Perseverance can actually find — and hopefully find those signs of past life on Mars”.

Under Mohan’s guidance, Perseverance slowed down from a speed of nearly 20,000 km per hour with retrorockets and a parachute to about 3 kmph to touch down at the Jezero Crater on Mars about 224 million miles away from Earth on February 18.

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