News in Brief
SAN SALVADOR (AFP) -- Tropical Storm Amanda, the first named storm of the season in the Pacific, killed at least 14 people as it lashed El Salvador and Guatemala on Sunday amid flooding and power outages. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele declared a state of emergency for 15 days to cope with the effects of the storm, which weakened later in the day as it moved into Guatemala. The fatalities were all recorded in El Salvador, interior minister Mario Duran said, warning that the death toll could rise. Amanda knocked down trees, triggered flash floods and landslides, caused power outages, and damaged about 200 homes, the head of the Civil Protection Service William Hernandez said. One person is still missing, senior government official Carolina Recinos added. San Salvador Mayor Ernesto Muyshondt said half of those killed died in the capital. Nearly 90 percent of El Salvador, population 6.6 million, is considered vulnerable to flooding and landslides due to its geography.
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YEREVAN (AFP) -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his family have tested positive for the coronavirus, he said Monday, as the rate of new infections soared in the Caucasus nation. "My coronavirus test was positive yesterday,” Pashinyan said in a self-recorded video message on Facebook, adding that his family were also infected. He said he had no "visible symptoms” of the virus and would be working from home. The prime minister and his wife Anna Hakobyan, who is a journalist, have four children. The ex-Soviet republic of some three million has so far reported 9,492 cases of the coronavirus and 139 deaths. Coronavirus patients have overwhelmed Armenia’s hospitals and last week health officials said that intensive care treatment could be soon restricted to patients with the best chance of survival.
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NEW DELHI (AFP) -- Two Pakistan officials expelled by India over spying allegations returned home Monday, an embassy spokesman said, as the nuclear-armed rivals wrangled over the claims. The Indian government said Sunday that the two had been detained for "indulging in espionage activities”, and given 24 hours to leave the country. The move came amid heightened tensions between the arch-rivals foes over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which was split between them in 1947 when they gained independence from Britain. India media said the two officials -- both working in the embassy visa department -- had been detained Sunday while trying to obtain information on an Indian security establishment. Pakistan summoned India’s charge d’affaires to express its "condemnation” of the expulsion order. The foreign ministry called the allegations "baseless” and said Delhi’s action was a "clear violation” of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.
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SEOUL (AFP) -- North Korea will reopen schools this month after shuttering them over the coronavirus pandemic, reports said Monday. Pyongyang has not confirmed a single infection but has imposed strict rules, including closing its borders and putting thousands of its people into isolation. The new school term -- initially scheduled to start early April -- has been repeatedly postponed, although some universities and high schools were allowed to resume classes in mid-April. "New semesters will begin at elementary, middle and high schools nationwide from early June, and quarantine measures have been put in place for the reopening of nurseries and kindergartens,” Yonhap news agency reported, citing the North’s state radio. "Education authorities have been asked to furnish thermometers and hand sanitizers at every gate of schools and classrooms and offices, while workers at schools and nurseries have been advised to stick to anti-virus principles,” it added.
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JAKARTA (AFP) -- Sword-wielding militants killed an Indonesian policeman and critically injured another on Monday in what authorities described as a terror attack by suspected Daesh-linked extremists. The early morning raid at a police post in South Daha district on Kalimantan -- Indonesia’s portion of Borneo island -- also saw one of the militants shot, authorities said. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, has long struggled with Takfiri militancy and is home to dozens of radical groups that have pledged loyalty to Daesh’s violent ideology. Monday’s violence happened on a public holiday that celebrates the Southeast Asian archipelago’s pluralist democracy, and many past attacks have been against police and other state symbols. In April, a couple with links to Daesg went on trial for a failed assassination attempt on Indonesia’s former chief security minister last year.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will start giving its first drug approved to treat COVID-19 to patients next week, its state financial backer told Reuters, a move it hopes will ease strains on the health system and speed a return to normal economic life. Russian hospitals can begin giving the antiviral drug, which is registered under the name Avifavir, to patients from June 11, the head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund told Reuters in an interview. He said the company behind the drug would manufacture enough to treat around 60,000 people a month. There is currently no vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and human trials of several existing antiviral drugs have yet to show efficacy. A new antiviral drug from Gilead called remdesivir has shown some promise in small efficacy trials against COVID-19 and is being given to patients by some countries under compassionate or emergency use rules.
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YEREVAN (AFP) -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his family have tested positive for the coronavirus, he said Monday, as the rate of new infections soared in the Caucasus nation. "My coronavirus test was positive yesterday,” Pashinyan said in a self-recorded video message on Facebook, adding that his family were also infected. He said he had no "visible symptoms” of the virus and would be working from home. The prime minister and his wife Anna Hakobyan, who is a journalist, have four children. The ex-Soviet republic of some three million has so far reported 9,492 cases of the coronavirus and 139 deaths. Coronavirus patients have overwhelmed Armenia’s hospitals and last week health officials said that intensive care treatment could be soon restricted to patients with the best chance of survival.
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NEW DELHI (AFP) -- Two Pakistan officials expelled by India over spying allegations returned home Monday, an embassy spokesman said, as the nuclear-armed rivals wrangled over the claims. The Indian government said Sunday that the two had been detained for "indulging in espionage activities”, and given 24 hours to leave the country. The move came amid heightened tensions between the arch-rivals foes over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which was split between them in 1947 when they gained independence from Britain. India media said the two officials -- both working in the embassy visa department -- had been detained Sunday while trying to obtain information on an Indian security establishment. Pakistan summoned India’s charge d’affaires to express its "condemnation” of the expulsion order. The foreign ministry called the allegations "baseless” and said Delhi’s action was a "clear violation” of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.
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SEOUL (AFP) -- North Korea will reopen schools this month after shuttering them over the coronavirus pandemic, reports said Monday. Pyongyang has not confirmed a single infection but has imposed strict rules, including closing its borders and putting thousands of its people into isolation. The new school term -- initially scheduled to start early April -- has been repeatedly postponed, although some universities and high schools were allowed to resume classes in mid-April. "New semesters will begin at elementary, middle and high schools nationwide from early June, and quarantine measures have been put in place for the reopening of nurseries and kindergartens,” Yonhap news agency reported, citing the North’s state radio. "Education authorities have been asked to furnish thermometers and hand sanitizers at every gate of schools and classrooms and offices, while workers at schools and nurseries have been advised to stick to anti-virus principles,” it added.
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JAKARTA (AFP) -- Sword-wielding militants killed an Indonesian policeman and critically injured another on Monday in what authorities described as a terror attack by suspected Daesh-linked extremists. The early morning raid at a police post in South Daha district on Kalimantan -- Indonesia’s portion of Borneo island -- also saw one of the militants shot, authorities said. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, has long struggled with Takfiri militancy and is home to dozens of radical groups that have pledged loyalty to Daesh’s violent ideology. Monday’s violence happened on a public holiday that celebrates the Southeast Asian archipelago’s pluralist democracy, and many past attacks have been against police and other state symbols. In April, a couple with links to Daesg went on trial for a failed assassination attempt on Indonesia’s former chief security minister last year.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will start giving its first drug approved to treat COVID-19 to patients next week, its state financial backer told Reuters, a move it hopes will ease strains on the health system and speed a return to normal economic life. Russian hospitals can begin giving the antiviral drug, which is registered under the name Avifavir, to patients from June 11, the head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund told Reuters in an interview. He said the company behind the drug would manufacture enough to treat around 60,000 people a month. There is currently no vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and human trials of several existing antiviral drugs have yet to show efficacy. A new antiviral drug from Gilead called remdesivir has shown some promise in small efficacy trials against COVID-19 and is being given to patients by some countries under compassionate or emergency use rules.