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News ID: 83835
Publish Date : 13 October 2020 - 22:13

News in Brief

BEIJING (AFP) -- China rushed to test an entire city of nine million people within days on Tuesday after a minor coronavirus outbreak, underlining the country’s capacities at a time when European countries in particular are struggling to contain surging new infections. The virus is still spreading rapidly worldwide, with over one million deaths and 37 million infections, and many nations that suppressed their first outbreaks are now battling with a second wave. In the absence of a vaccine, governments are wary of allowing the virus to spread unchecked, with China -- where Covid-19 first emerged late last year -- launching a drive to test all residents of Qingdao city after a handful of cases were detected on Sunday. More than four million samples had been collected as of Tuesday afternoon, Qingdao authorities said, adding that 1.9 million results had been obtained. Except for confirmed infections announced earlier, no new cases had been found. Chinese officials intend to test the entire city -- around 9.4 million people -- by Thursday.
 
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KANO, Nigeria (AFP) -- Fighters from the Boko Haram takfiri group killed 14 farmers in restive northeast Nigeria, members of a government-backed militia said Tuesday. The sources told AFP that insurgents on Monday seized 15 farmers working on their irrigation fields in Ngwom village, 14 kilometers (nine miles) north of the region’s main city Maiduguri, and cut their throats. "They slaughtered the farmers, killing 14 while one survived with a deep slash. They left him for dead,” Babakura Kilo, a leader of the anti-jihadist group, said. The insurgents captured the farmers as they tended to their crops during the early afternoon, giving them no room to escape, said another member Ibrahim Liman who gave the same death toll. The survivor was taken to a hospital in a "life-threatening condition,” Liman said. Boko Haram and rival takfiri group ISWAP) have increasingly targeted loggers, herders and fishermen in their violent campaign, accusing them of spying and passing information to the military and the local militia fighting them. At least 36,000 people have been killed in the takfiri conflict which displaced around two million from their homes since 2009. The violence spread into neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the militants.

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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -- At least 12 people were killed in the Metakal zone of Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region, regional government spokesman Melese Beyene told Reuters on Tuesday. The killings, which happened on Monday night, followed two attacks in the same zone last month when 45 people lost their lives, and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government is faced with rising insecurity in many parts of the country. The killings started as revenge following the assassination of the brother of a local official, the spokesman said. Victims included women and children as young as six months, and many were slaughtered in their homes, according to a senior member of new political party the National Movement of Amhara (NAMA) and a local survivor who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions. "I saw a six-month-old girl who had been slaughtered at home and her little body thrown in a field,” the survivor told Reuters by phone. "I participated in the funeral of 13 people who were killed.” Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen called on people in the Metakal zone to get armed to defend themselves and told the state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation that the security situation in the region was "heartbreaking”.
 
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MOSCOW (AFP) -- Four militants allegedly plotting attacks were killed Tuesday in an operation in the Russian region of Chechnya, its strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov announced, while two members of the security forces were also killed. "Four participants in illegal armed groups were destroyed. They were planning a number of terrorist attacks” and had stocks of weapons, communications equipment and ammunition, Kadyrov said on his Telegram messenger channel. Russia’s National Guard took part in the security operation and said two of its officers died and one was wounded and in hospital. Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee published a photo of men in camouflage and bullet-proof vests outside a house, saying that "bandits” had refused to surrender and opened fire with machine guns from inside. Kadyrov claimed the would-be attackers came from abroad, saying Chechnya had "long ago” dealt with home-grown extremists.

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LONDON (AFP) -- The British government faced renewed pressure on Tuesday after indications it had ignored scientific advice three weeks ago for tougher restrictions to cut rising coronavirus infections. The main opposition Labour party said the government’s failure to act was alarming and raised questions about the credibility of its latest plan to curb the virus’ spread. England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty said he was "not confident” the latest measures announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson could reverse the upward trend. Johnson had earlier unveiled a three-tiered system categorising areas of England by rates of infection, to try to simplify a complex web of local restrictions. The northwest city of Liverpool -- the only place put into the highest category -- will see a ban on household mixing and pubs closures from Wednesday for at least four weeks.