NEW DELHI (AP) – Millions of workers began a nationwide two-day strike across India on Monday to express their anger at the government’s economic policies and press their demands for improved rights for industrial workers, employees and farmers. More details in Tuesday’s Borneo Bulletin
The Ministry of Health (MoH) does not have a specific target for the vaccination of children in the five to 11 age group as it will be done voluntarily. This was said by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar during the special press conference on Monday. More details in Tuesday’s Borneo Bulletin
Face-to-face learning at public, private and international schools will resume next week, said Minister of Education Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Hamzah bin Haji Sulaiman at a press conference yesterday. More details in Tuesday’s Borneo Bulletin
His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam arrived in Dubai on Monday to attend the World Government Summit 2022. His Majesty was invited by President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Ruler of Abu Dhabi His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan to attend the summit on Tuesday at the Dubai Exhibition Centre. Accompanying His Majesty was His Royal Highness Prince
‘Abdul Mateen. More details in Tuesday’s Borneo Bulletin
LOS ANGELES (THE WASHINGTON POST/AP) – The Academy Awards briefly came to a stunning halt on Sunday night when Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, causing Will Smith to come to the stage and hit him in the face.
The moment was not planned, said a person close to the Oscars production.
“Jada, I love you: ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it,” Rock said while presenting the award for best documentary, an apparent reference to Pinkett Smith’s bald head. (Pinkett Smith spoke out about her alopecia diagnosis several years ago.)
The camera cut to the star couple, as Smith appeared to laugh. Pinkett Smith rolled her eyes and did not look pleased.
Rock then held up his arms in a “who, me?” gesture as some of the audience appeared to groan. “That was a nice one,” Rock laughed, and then looked like he was ready to continue. All of a sudden, the tone changed very abruptly as Smith jumped out of his seat and made his way to the stage.
“Uh oh!” Rock said jovially. He started laughing as Smith kept walking. Then Smith slapped him in the face.
The audience was still cracking up, perhaps thinking this was all a bit – and then abruptly stopped. ABC cut the sound on the broadcast, so there was about 15 seconds of silence. However, a clip from Australian TV making the rounds on Twitter showed the dialogue between the two actors.
Smith later won best actor honors for his portrayal of tennis dad Richard Williams in “King Richard” and apologised afterward to many people — including tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, Richard Williams’ daughters — but did not mention Rock in his apology.
More details on Tuesday’s Borneo Bulletin
Rokiah Mahmud & Adib Noor
Travellers planning to enter Brunei Darussalam from April 1 will be exempted from providing a negative RT-PCR test and undergoing mandatory self-isolation, provided they have proof of recovery from COVID-19 in the past 90 days.
This was said by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar during the daily press conference yesterday, adding that among the valid documents is a recovery certificate showing they have been infected and recovered from the virus in the past three months.
“The only requirement is to undergo an antigen rapid test (ART) screening on arrival in the Sultanate, which costs BND20 per person,” said the minister.
Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham also said there are currently nine patients in Category 4 and another one in Category 5, taking up 3.8 per cent of the treatment capacity at the National Isolation Centre (NIC).
Meanwhile, 792 new cases were reported yesterday, bringing the tally to 131,403 since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the figure, 695 derived from ART results uploaded to the BruHealth app, while 97 were from 2,670 RT-PCR tests performed in the past 24 hours.
The minister also shared that 1,560 cases recovered yesterday, bringing the total recoveries to 124,465.
In addition, he said, the bed occupancy rate at isolation centres nationwide is 3.1 per cent, with 122 out of 6,736 active cases receiving treatment at isolation centres and hospitals.
The remaining positive cases are undergoing home isolation.
As of March 26, 60.8 per cent of the population had received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham added.
Enforcement personnel also detected four violations during the movement restriction order from midnight to 4am yesterday. Mas Ridzuan bin Pungut and Pawez Ahamad were found breaching the stay-at-home directive and mask mandate in Brunei-Muara District.
James Kon
A tree fell on Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Bridge blocking the road leading to Kota Batu last Friday.
Firefighters from Bangar Fire Station, led by ABKS 629 Haji Md Yusra bin Haji Md Yussof, were immediately dispatched to clear the debris from a rubber tree measuring 25 metres tall and 20 centimetres in diameter.
Acting Station Commander of Bangar Fire Station ASFR Jamaluddin bin Ahmad oversaw the operation, along with Bangar Police Station personnel.
In light of the incident, the Fire and Rescue Department (FRD) advised the public against planting trees too close to their residences and exercise caution when driving in heavily wooded areas in turbulent weather conditions.
The Employees Trust Fund (TAP) announced the closure of TAP payment, registration and withdrawal counters at all branches on March 31 due to the closing of accounts for financial year 2021-2022.
Operating hours for general enquiries and e-Amanah pitstop will be 8am to noon and 1.30pm to 3.30pm for TAP headquarters and Belait branch; and 8am to 11.30am and 1.30pm to 3.30pm for Tutong and Temburong branches.
TAP online service, e-Amanah, e-Info Kiosk and TAP Call Centre will operate as usual. For Housing Fund Scheme (STP) members, contribution payment for March can be made via online banking by March 31.
All TAP counters will resume normal operation on April 2 (if Ramadhan falls on Sunday) or April 4 (if Ramadhan falls on Saturday). For enquiries, contact TAP Call Centre at 2382929 during office hours or via e-mail at ask@tap.com.bn.
BEIJING (CNA) – China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, better known as Sinopec, is planning its highest capital investment in history for 2022 after recording its best profit in a decade, echoing Beijing’s call for energy companies to raise production.
Sinopec expects to spend CNY198 billion (USD31.10 billion) in 2022, up 18 per cent from a year ago, beating the previous record of CNY181.7 billion set in 2013, according to a company statement filed to the Shanghai Stocks Exchange yesterday.
It plans to invest CNY81.5 billion in upstream exploitation, especially the crude oil bases in Shunbei and Tahe fields, and natural gas fields in Sichuan province and the Inner Mongolia region.
“Looking ahead in 2022, the market demand for refined oil will continued to recover, and demand for natural gas and petrochemical products will keep growing,” Sinopec said in the statement.
It also warned of potential impacts of geopolitical challenges and volatile oil prices on the investment and operation at overseas businesses. But the firm did not name any specific project.
Media reported that Sinopec Group suspended talks for a major petrochemical investment and a gas marketing venture in Russia, heeding a government call for caution as sanctions mount over the invasion of Ukraine.
Brent oil prices have gained 52 per cent so far this year and hit as high as USD139 a barrel in early March, stoked by fears of supply disruption in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sinopec recorded its biggest profit in a decade in 2021 on the back of recovering energy demand and oil price increases in the post-COVID era, with net earnings reaching CNY71.21 billion yuan.
It plans to produce 281.2 million barrels of crude oil and 12,567 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2022, up from its output of 279.76 million barrels and 1,199 billion cubic feet
in 2021.
Beijing seeks to ensure energy safety in the country amid intensifying geopolitical risks. It wants to keep annual crude oil output at 200 million tonnes and crank up natural gas production to more than 230 billion cubic metres (bcm) by 2025 from 205 bcm in 2021.
Crude throughput and production of refined oil products at Sinopec are expected to stay around the same level in 2022 from a year ago, at 258 million tonnes and 147 million tonnes, respectively.
But demand for gasoline and diesel are dented in China as more than 2,000 of daily COVID cases have triggered local authorities to impose stringent travel restrictions while manufacturers suspended operations amid supply chain clogs.
BEIJING (AFP) – The second black box has been recovered from last week’s deadly China Eastern plane crash, state media reported yesterday, and could help solve the mystery of the jet’s breakneck descent.
The Boeing 737-800 was flying between the cities of Kunming and Guangzhou last Monday when it nosedived into a mountainside, disintegrating on impact and killing all 132 people on board.
The cause of the disaster, China’s deadliest plane crash in more than 30 years, is not
yet known.
“The second black box from China Eastern flight MU5735 was recovered on March 27,” Xinhua news agency reported.
Public broadcaster CCTV broadcast images of rescuers recovering an orange-coloured cylinder covered in soil, which was discovered 1.5 metres deep at the roots of a tree.
The plane was equipped with two flight recorders: a cockpit voice recorder and one in the rear passenger cabin tracking flight data.
The former was found on Wednesday and sent to Beijing for analysis. The second black box contains data such as speed, altitude and heading.
Hundreds of people, including firefighters, doctors and investigators – some dressed in full body protective suits – remained at the scene of the tragedy yesterday recovering human remains and the wreckage of the plane.
Earthmovers assisted in the operation on the mountainside, which is covered in dense vegetation.
Early recovery efforts were hampered by heavy rain, forcing a temporary pause due to what state media called the “the small risk of landslides” in the large pit that was bored out by the impact of the aircraft. The Boeing 737-800 plane went down near Wuzhou in southern China last Monday afternoon after losing contact with air traffic control.
Tracking website FlightRadar24 showed the jet sharply dropped from an altitude of 29,100 to 7,850 feet in a minute.
After a brief upswing, it dropped again to 3,225 feet, the tracker said. There is no data for the flight after 2.22pm.
The captain had more than 6,700 hours of flight experience and the first co-pilot had more than 31,000 hours of flight time, officials said.
The Chinese Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) on Saturday evening said that all of the people on board the aircraft had died.
