News in Brief
AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- Two European patients are confirmed to have been re-infected with the coronavirus, raising concerns about people’s immunity to the virus as the world struggles to tame the pandemic.The cases, in Belgium and the Netherlands, follow a report this week by researchers in Hong Kong about a man there who had been re-infected with a different strain of the virus four and a half months after being declared recovered - the first such re-infection to be documented.That has fuelled fears about the effectiveness of potential vaccines against the virus, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, though experts say there would need to be many more cases of re-infection for these to be justified.Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst said the Belgian case was a woman who had contracted COVID-19 for the first time in March and then again in June. Further cases of re-infection were likely to surface, he said.The National Institute for Public Health in the Netherlands said it had also observed a Dutch case of re-infection. Virologist Marion Koopmans was quoted by Dutch broadcaster NOS as saying the patient was an older person with a weakened immune system.
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ANKARA (Reuters) -- Turkey and Greece were set to hold separate naval drills in the same region of the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday, escalating tensions over overlapping resource claims ahead of talks in Athens and Ankara by Germany’s top diplomat.The NATO members have traded rhetorical barbs over offshore hydrocarbon rights, drawing the European Union and nearby countries into the dispute that earlier this month involved a light collision between Turkish and Greek frigates.Germany urged Greece and Turkey to solve their dispute over overlapping resource claims, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, warning of the risk of a military confrontation. "The current situation in the eastern Mediterranean is equivalent to playing with fire,” Heiko Maas said in Athens. "Every little spark can lead to catastrophe.”Greece is ready for a dialogue to help dissolve tensions with Turkey over energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean but the country will also defend its sovereign rights, its foreign minister said on Tuesday.
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FRANKFURT AM MAIN (AFP) -- An Indian national accused of spying on Sikh and Kashmiri communities in Germany for New Delhi’s secret services went on trial in Frankfurt on Tuesday.The suspect, identified as 54-year-old Balvir S., is accused of working for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence agency, from at least January 2015.Prosecutors say he "obtained information about figures in the Sikh opposition scene and the Kashmiri movement and their relatives in Germany, and passed this on to his handlers who were working at the Indian consulate general in Frankfurt”.A total of 10 hearings before the regional superior court are scheduled, with the trial due to conclude on October 29.The same Frankfurt court convicted an Indian couple for spying on the same communities last December. The husband was handed a suspended prison sentence of 18 months for acting as a foreign intelligence agent and his wife fined 180 days’ wages for aiding him.
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SEOUL (AFP) -- South Korea on Tuesday ordered all schools and kindergartens in the greater Seoul region to switch to online classes as authorities battle multiple coronavirus clusters.The country’s "trace, test and treat” approach to curbing the virus has been held up as a global model, but it is now trying to contain several outbreaks, mostly linked to Protestant churches.South Korea reported 280 new infections on Tuesday, taking the country’s total to 17,945.The numbers are low in global terms but represent the South’s 12th consecutive day of triple-digit increases after several weeks with numbers generally in the 30s and 40s.Most of the new cases have been centered in the greater Seoul region, home to half the country’s 52 million people.
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DHAKA (Reuters) -- Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh held a "silent protest” on Tuesday to mark the third anniversary of clashes between Rohingya insurgents and Myanmar security forces that set off a huge movement into Bangladesh of people seeking safety.More than 1 million Rohingya live in the world’s largest refugee settlement in southern Bangladesh, with little prospect of returning to Myanmar, where they are mostly denied citizenship and other rights.The refugees said that because of the novel coronavirus they would not hold a mass gathering to mark what they call "Remembrance Day”. Authorities say 88 cases of the virus have been found in the camps and six people have died.Three years ago, a Myanmar military crackdown 730,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, joining more than 200,000 already there. The United Nations said the crackdown by the Myanmar military was carried out with genocidal intent.
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MAHAD, India (Reuters) -- Rescue workers in western India pulled a toddler alive from the rubble of an apartment building on Tuesday some 20 hours after it collapsed killing at least five people.The emergency services have found 76 people alive, but there are still around 14 unaccounted for following the disaster on Monday evening in Mahad, an industrial town about 165 km (100 miles) south of Mumbai.The rescued four-year-old boy’s cries had been heard beneath the ruins of the five-storey building, which a police officer described as having come down like "a deck of cards”.The cause of the disaster has not been determined, but building collapses are common, especially during the monsoon season rains, as construction is often shoddy, with builders disregarding regulations and using substandard materials.
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ANKARA (Reuters) -- Turkey and Greece were set to hold separate naval drills in the same region of the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday, escalating tensions over overlapping resource claims ahead of talks in Athens and Ankara by Germany’s top diplomat.The NATO members have traded rhetorical barbs over offshore hydrocarbon rights, drawing the European Union and nearby countries into the dispute that earlier this month involved a light collision between Turkish and Greek frigates.Germany urged Greece and Turkey to solve their dispute over overlapping resource claims, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, warning of the risk of a military confrontation. "The current situation in the eastern Mediterranean is equivalent to playing with fire,” Heiko Maas said in Athens. "Every little spark can lead to catastrophe.”Greece is ready for a dialogue to help dissolve tensions with Turkey over energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean but the country will also defend its sovereign rights, its foreign minister said on Tuesday.
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FRANKFURT AM MAIN (AFP) -- An Indian national accused of spying on Sikh and Kashmiri communities in Germany for New Delhi’s secret services went on trial in Frankfurt on Tuesday.The suspect, identified as 54-year-old Balvir S., is accused of working for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence agency, from at least January 2015.Prosecutors say he "obtained information about figures in the Sikh opposition scene and the Kashmiri movement and their relatives in Germany, and passed this on to his handlers who were working at the Indian consulate general in Frankfurt”.A total of 10 hearings before the regional superior court are scheduled, with the trial due to conclude on October 29.The same Frankfurt court convicted an Indian couple for spying on the same communities last December. The husband was handed a suspended prison sentence of 18 months for acting as a foreign intelligence agent and his wife fined 180 days’ wages for aiding him.
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SEOUL (AFP) -- South Korea on Tuesday ordered all schools and kindergartens in the greater Seoul region to switch to online classes as authorities battle multiple coronavirus clusters.The country’s "trace, test and treat” approach to curbing the virus has been held up as a global model, but it is now trying to contain several outbreaks, mostly linked to Protestant churches.South Korea reported 280 new infections on Tuesday, taking the country’s total to 17,945.The numbers are low in global terms but represent the South’s 12th consecutive day of triple-digit increases after several weeks with numbers generally in the 30s and 40s.Most of the new cases have been centered in the greater Seoul region, home to half the country’s 52 million people.
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DHAKA (Reuters) -- Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh held a "silent protest” on Tuesday to mark the third anniversary of clashes between Rohingya insurgents and Myanmar security forces that set off a huge movement into Bangladesh of people seeking safety.More than 1 million Rohingya live in the world’s largest refugee settlement in southern Bangladesh, with little prospect of returning to Myanmar, where they are mostly denied citizenship and other rights.The refugees said that because of the novel coronavirus they would not hold a mass gathering to mark what they call "Remembrance Day”. Authorities say 88 cases of the virus have been found in the camps and six people have died.Three years ago, a Myanmar military crackdown 730,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, joining more than 200,000 already there. The United Nations said the crackdown by the Myanmar military was carried out with genocidal intent.
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MAHAD, India (Reuters) -- Rescue workers in western India pulled a toddler alive from the rubble of an apartment building on Tuesday some 20 hours after it collapsed killing at least five people.The emergency services have found 76 people alive, but there are still around 14 unaccounted for following the disaster on Monday evening in Mahad, an industrial town about 165 km (100 miles) south of Mumbai.The rescued four-year-old boy’s cries had been heard beneath the ruins of the five-storey building, which a police officer described as having come down like "a deck of cards”.The cause of the disaster has not been determined, but building collapses are common, especially during the monsoon season rains, as construction is often shoddy, with builders disregarding regulations and using substandard materials.