JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia needs to urgently increase medical care, testing and vaccinations as the number of new infections in the country has rapidly increased and left it “on the edge of a COVID-19 catastrophe,” the Red Cross said Tuesday. The group said its coronavirus hospital in Bogor, outside of Jakarta, was “overflowing” and emergency tents had been set up to be able to house more patients. It was a similar scene at other hospitals near the capital, including in at the Bekasi city hospital that had 90% of its beds filled. “We are seeing record number of infections, but every statistic is a person who is suffering, grieving or struggling to support the people they love,” Sudirman Said, secretary general of Indonesian Red Cross, said in a statement. “Our medical teams are providing lifesaving care, with hospitals full to the brim and oxygen supplies critically low.” The surge in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, is being blamed in part on the delta variant of the virus, which was first spotted in India and is thought to be more contagious. Indonesia reported more than 20,600 new cases on Monday and more than 400 deaths. Indonesia has seen more than 2.1 million cases since the pandemic began and more than 57,500 deaths, both the most in Southeast Asia.

***
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has been found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before an inquiry probing wide-ranging allegations of corruption during his tenure from 2009 to 2018. Zuma was not in court for the ruling on Tuesday and has been ordered to hand himself over within five days to a police station in his hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg. If Zuma fails to turn himself in within five days South Africa’s minister of police and the police commissioner have been ordered to take him into custody within three days. This is the first time in South Africa’s history that a former president has been sentenced to prison. “Finally, Zuma will find himself where he belongs - behind bars,” said opposition politician Herman Mashaba in reaction to the sentence.

***
GONDAR, Ethiopia June 29 (Reuters) -- Tigrayan forces said they had Ethiopian government troops on the run around the regional capital Mekelle on Tuesday after taking full control of the city in a sharp reversal of eight months of conflict. People in Mekelle, where communications were cut on Monday, said the incoming Tigrayan fighters were greeted with cheers. There were similar scenes on video footage from the northern town of Shire, where residents said government-allied Eritrean forces had pulled out and Tigrayan forces had entered. “We are 100% in control of Mekelle,” Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), told Reuters on Tuesday. There had been some fighting on the outskirts of the city, but that was now finished, he said, adding that he could not confirm the report from Shire.

***
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- The Netherlands’ defense ministry said on Tuesday that Russian fighter jets had harassed a Dutch navy frigate, Evertsen, in the Black Sea earlier this month, carrying out mock attacks and jamming communication systems. The Russian actions took place over the span of five hours on June 24 and “were contrary to the right to free use of the sea”, the ministry said in a statement.

***
LONDON (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday condemned the “despicable” harassment of the government’s top medical adviser, Chris Whitty, after footage emerged on social media of two men grabbing him around the head as he walked down the street. Jeering loudly and grinning at the camera, the men are seen in the film, published on Twitter, manhandling Whitty, 55, who has become one of the nation’s most prominent officials because of his regular appearances at coronavirus pandemic briefings. They hold onto him before he manages to break free, and walk away across the road looking shaken. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the incident was “despicable”. “I condemn the behavior of these thugs,” he said on Twitter. “Our hard-working public servants should not have to face this kind of intimidation on our streets and we will not tolerate it.”

***
MBABANE (Reuters) -- Government forces in the southern African kingdom of eSwatini fired gunshots and tear gas on Tuesday to break up protests calling for reforms to its system of absolute monarchy, witnesses said. A dusk-till-dawn curfew was also imposed. Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku denied media reports that King Mswati III had fled the violence to neighboring South Africa. Anger against Mswati has been building for years. Campaigners say the king has consistently evaded calls for meaningful reforms that would nudge eSwatini, which changed its name from Swaziland in 2018, in the direction of democracy. They also accuse him of using public coffers as a piggy bank, funding a lavish lifestyle off the backs of his 1.5 million subjects, most of them subsistence farmers.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia needs to urgently increase medical care, testing and vaccinations as the number of new infections in the country has rapidly increased and left it “on the edge of a COVID-19 catastrophe,” the Red Cross said Tuesday. The group said its coronavirus hospital in Bogor, outside of Jakarta, was “overflowing” and emergency tents had been set up to be able to house more patients. It was a similar scene at other hospitals near the capital, including in at the Bekasi city hospital that had 90% of its beds filled. “We are seeing record number of infections, but every statistic is a person who is suffering, grieving or struggling to support the people they love,” Sudirman Said, secretary general of Indonesian Red Cross, said in a statement. “Our medical teams are providing lifesaving care, with hospitals full to the brim and oxygen supplies critically low.” The surge in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, is being blamed in part on the delta variant of the virus, which was first spotted in India and is thought to be more contagious. Indonesia reported more than 20,600 new cases on Monday and more than 400 deaths. Indonesia has seen more than 2.1 million cases since the pandemic began and more than 57,500 deaths, both the most in Southeast Asia.

***
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has been found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before an inquiry probing wide-ranging allegations of corruption during his tenure from 2009 to 2018. Zuma was not in court for the ruling on Tuesday and has been ordered to hand himself over within five days to a police station in his hometown of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province or in Johannesburg. If Zuma fails to turn himself in within five days South Africa’s minister of police and the police commissioner have been ordered to take him into custody within three days. This is the first time in South Africa’s history that a former president has been sentenced to prison. “Finally, Zuma will find himself where he belongs - behind bars,” said opposition politician Herman Mashaba in reaction to the sentence.

***
GONDAR, Ethiopia June 29 (Reuters) -- Tigrayan forces said they had Ethiopian government troops on the run around the regional capital Mekelle on Tuesday after taking full control of the city in a sharp reversal of eight months of conflict. People in Mekelle, where communications were cut on Monday, said the incoming Tigrayan fighters were greeted with cheers. There were similar scenes on video footage from the northern town of Shire, where residents said government-allied Eritrean forces had pulled out and Tigrayan forces had entered. “We are 100% in control of Mekelle,” Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), told Reuters on Tuesday. There had been some fighting on the outskirts of the city, but that was now finished, he said, adding that he could not confirm the report from Shire.

***
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- The Netherlands’ defense ministry said on Tuesday that Russian fighter jets had harassed a Dutch navy frigate, Evertsen, in the Black Sea earlier this month, carrying out mock attacks and jamming communication systems. The Russian actions took place over the span of five hours on June 24 and “were contrary to the right to free use of the sea”, the ministry said in a statement.

***
LONDON (Reuters) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday condemned the “despicable” harassment of the government’s top medical adviser, Chris Whitty, after footage emerged on social media of two men grabbing him around the head as he walked down the street. Jeering loudly and grinning at the camera, the men are seen in the film, published on Twitter, manhandling Whitty, 55, who has become one of the nation’s most prominent officials because of his regular appearances at coronavirus pandemic briefings. They hold onto him before he manages to break free, and walk away across the road looking shaken. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the incident was “despicable”. “I condemn the behavior of these thugs,” he said on Twitter. “Our hard-working public servants should not have to face this kind of intimidation on our streets and we will not tolerate it.”

***
MBABANE (Reuters) -- Government forces in the southern African kingdom of eSwatini fired gunshots and tear gas on Tuesday to break up protests calling for reforms to its system of absolute monarchy, witnesses said. A dusk-till-dawn curfew was also imposed. Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku denied media reports that King Mswati III had fled the violence to neighboring South Africa. Anger against Mswati has been building for years. Campaigners say the king has consistently evaded calls for meaningful reforms that would nudge eSwatini, which changed its name from Swaziland in 2018, in the direction of democracy. They also accuse him of using public coffers as a piggy bank, funding a lavish lifestyle off the backs of his 1.5 million subjects, most of them subsistence farmers.