PHNOM PENH (AP) – A land mine-detecting rat in Cambodia who received a prestigious award for his life-saving duty has died in retirement, the charity for which he had worked has announced.
Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, passed away last weekend, said an announcement on the website of APOPO, a Belgium-headquartered non-profit group. The organisation trains rats and dogs to sniff out land mines and tuberculosis.
“All of us at APOPO are feeling the loss of Magawa and we are grateful for the incredible work he’s done,” the announcement said. Magawa was born in November 2013 in Tanzania, where APOPO maintains its operational headquarters and training and breeding centre. He was sent to Cambodia in 2016.
JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia opened its coronavirus booster campaign to the public yesterday as the country records rising infections driven by the Omicron variant.
The free shots will be given to the elderly and at-risk residents as a priority, but will be available to everyone who received their second dose six months prior, President Joko Widodo said on Tuesday after announcing the decision.
The boosters will be administered as half doses due to supply shortages, said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
BEIJING (CNA) – The Chinese city of Tianjin started a new round of testing of its 14 million residents yesterday to block the Omicron variant, as financial analysts warned of the growing economic costs on China of curbs to extinguish clusters of infections.
China, which has stuck to what is effectively a “zero-COVID” policy, is scrambling to prevent the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday next month and as Beijing prepares to stage the Winter Olympics from February 4.
Bloomberg – Spain is calling for COVID-19 to be treated as an endemic disease, like the flu, becoming the first major European nation to explicitly suggest that people live with it.
The idea has gradually been gaining traction and could prompt a re-evaluation of government strategies on dealing with the virus. British Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi on Sunday told the BBC that the United Kingdom (UK) is “on a path towards transitioning from pandemic to endemic”.
The Omicron variant’s lower hospitalisation and death rates despite record infections prompted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to hold out the prospect of Europe moving beyond pandemic-style restrictions on normal life.
LONDON (AFP) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced damning headlines yesterday as he prepared to answer MPs’ questions over new claims he and his top officials breached COVID restrictions by holding a party.
The embattled leader has been silent since an email was leaked late Monday that appeared to show a senior official inviting more than 100 colleagues to an outdoor event in May 2020 and encouraging them to “bring your own drinks”.
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Two United States (US) police officers who went off to hunt for Pokemon instead of responding to a robbery have been fired.
Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell cruised the streets searching for fantastic creatures in the augmented reality smartphone game, documents show, bagging a relatively rare Snorlax, as well as a difficult-to-trap Togetic – but no criminals.
In-car recording of their conversation revealed that they had heard the call for help at the Los Angeles department store, but decided instead to drive off.
“Officer Mitchell alerted Lozano that Snorlax ‘just popped up’,” legal documents relating to their dismissal show.
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Goldfish may have short memories but, according to an Israeli university study, they might be able to drive.
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found that a goldfish’s innate navigational abilities allowed it to steer a robotic vehicle towards a terrestrial target if given a food reward.
To conduct their unusual experiment, the team placed a fish tank on a set of motorised wheels.
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The top United States (US) negotiator on the crisis between the West and Russia over Moscow’s military build-up on Ukraine’s border briefed NATO allies yesterday, after inconclusive talks with her Kremlin opposite number.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman flew to the alliance’s Brussels headquarters from Geneva, where on Monday she had held a meeting with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
Some European officials have complained that Washington is taking the lead in talks with Moscow.
They fear being excluded from moves to resolve tensions on the Ukraine border and to head off confrontation.
But Sherman insisted that European allies are being kept in the loop, after meeting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and ambassadors from the NATO member states.
“The United States is committed to working in lockstep with our allies and partners to urge de-escalation and respond to the security crisis caused by Russia,” she tweeted.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov attend security talks at the United States Mission in Geneva, Switzerland. PHOTO: AP
With Stoltenberg, Sherman “affirmed a unified NATO approach toward Russia, balancing deterrence and dialogue, and stressed our unwavering support for Ukraine”.
And, in a tweet addressed to Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova, she assured Kiev that the allies “will not make decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine”.
After more than seven hours of negotiations in Geneva on Monday, the Russian and US officials both offered to keep talking, though there was no sign of a breakthrough.
The high-stakes meeting came as fears simmered of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has demanded wide-ranging security concessions from Washington and its NATO allies, which in turn have threatened severe economic sanctions if there is any Russian attack.
SEOUL (CNA) – South Korea’s telecommunications regulator said yesterday that Apple had submitted plans to allow third-party payment systems on its app store, to comply with a law banning major app store operators from forcing software developers to use their payments systems.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) had requested Apple Inc and Alphabet’s Google to submit compliance plans after the bill was passed in August last year.
The law went into effect in September.
Google announced its plans to allow alternative payment systems in South Korea in November to comply with the amended Telecommunication Business Act, dubbed the “anti-Google law”.
“Apple has a great deal of respect for Korea’s laws and a strong history of collaboration with the country’s talented app developers… We look forward to working with the KCC and our developer community on a solution that benefits our Korean users,” Apple said in a statement.
The KCC said Apple plans to allow alternative payment systems for a lower service fee versus the current 30 per cent commissions.
Apple did not provide details, such as a timeline of when the change will take effect or commission fee rates, but it plans to discuss further details with the KCC, the regulator said.
The entrance of the renovated Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. PHOTO: AFP
GENEVA (AFP) – The United Nations (UN) said yesterday it needed USD5 billion in aid for Afghanistan in 2022 to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and offer the ravaged country a future after 40 years of suffering.
In its biggest-ever single-country appeal, the UN said USD4.4 billion was needed within Afghanistan, while a further USD623 million was required to support the millions of Afghans sheltering beyond its borders.
The UN said 22 million people inside Afghanistan and a further 5.7 million displaced Afghans in five neighbouring countries needed vital relief this year.
“A full-blown humanitarian catastrophe looms. My message is urgent: don’t shut the door on the people of Afghanistan,” said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.
“Help us scale up and stave off wide-spread hunger, disease, malnutrition and ultimately death.”
Since the Taleban movement seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August, the country has plunged into financial chaos, with inflation and unemployment surging.
Hundreds of Afghan men gather to apply for humanitarian aid in Qala-e-Naw, Afghanistan. FILE PHOTO: AP
Washington has frozen billions of dollars of the country’s assets, while aid supplies have been heavily disrupted.
Afghanistan also suffered its worst drought in decades in 2021. Without the aid package, “there won’t be a future”, Griffiths told reporters in Geneva. The Taleban authorities said the aid appeal for suffering Afghans was “very needed”.
“But at the same time I would like to say the need is for all this assistance approved in the past to be delivered during this harsh winter,” senior Taleban leader and the group’s designated UN representative Suhail Shahee, told AFP.
He said the inflow of funds would also help in the functioning of the now dilapidated banking system, adding that any cash coming into the country will help rein in the inflation.
“The banks are not working properly so there is also a need to control the inflation and that can be controlled when dollars … hard currency come to Afghanistan,” Shaheen said.
Griffiths said the appeal, if funded, would help aid agencies ramp up the delivery of food and agriculture support, health services, malnutrition treatment, emergency shelters, access to water and sanitation, protection and education.
An estimated 4.7 million people will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022, including 1.1 million children with severe acute malnutrition.
