World

Vietnam, once a model for its successful handling of the pandemic, has started asking for public donations to buy vaccines as it struggles to contain a new coronavirus wave.

The Southeast Asian country has vaccinated only about one percent of its population of nearly 100 million, and authorities have become increasingly alarmed by a recent spike in cases.

Since last week, mobile phone users have received up to three text messages urging them to contribute to a Covid-19 vaccine fund, while civil servants have been encouraged to part with a day’s pay. 

Some residents, fearful of the virus’ impact on Vietnam’s economy — one of the few in the world to expand last year — told AFP they support the fundraising drive.

Nguyen Tuan Anh, a civil servant, told AFP he had sent around $50 via bank transfer and SMS payment, as vaccines would mean “Vietnam’s economy will be stable and develop again”.

Vietnam’s industrial northern provinces — home to key factories such as Samsung and Foxconn — have been particularly badly hit by the latest outbreak.

Across the country, tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs, according to state media, with bars and restaurants forced to close in major hubs such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and public gatherings cancelled.

Cases have more than tripled since April to reach almost 9,000. Although the number is low in comparison to most of its Southeast Asian neighbours, Vietnam’s vaccination rate per capita is the lowest in the region, and among the lowest in Asia, according to an AFP tally.

The communist government has said it aims to secure 150 million vaccine doses this year to cover 70 percent of its population — at a cost of $1.1 billion.

But only $630 million has been allocated to vaccine procurement in the budget.

A financial “contribution from the community and society” is needed to make a mass roll-out possible, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh told the nation on Saturday during a live broadcast to launch the campaign.

By Tuesday, more than 231,000 individuals and organisations had donated $181 million to the campaign.

Another $140 million has been promised by businesses, the Ministry of Finance said.

However, the campaign has been shunned by some who are concerned with how the money will be spent.

“I am not sure if the donated money will be used for the sole purpose of buying vaccines to inoculate every citizen…I don’t think I have enough trust to give them my money,” said office worker Pham Mai Chi.

China on Tuesday warned the United States against pursuing a trade deal with Taiwan after Washington said it would start negotiations with the self-ruled island.

Beijing sees democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and rages at any diplomatic attempts to recognise it as an independent nation.

Chinese social media erupted with fury at the weekend over a visit by US senators to Taipei where they announced that Washington would donate 750,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to the island.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken added fuel to the fire on Monday when he told a congressional hearing in Washington that discussions would begin on a trade deal. 

“I know we are engaged in conversations with Taiwan, or soon will be, on some kind of framework agreement,” Blinken said.

On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian urged Washington to “stop any form of official exchanges with Taiwan, handle the Taiwan issue cautiously, and refrain from sending any wrong signals to Taiwan independence forces”.

Taiwan has accused China of hampering its efforts to secure coronavirus vaccines, saying it is part of Beijing’s ongoing campaign to isolate the island.

Although Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 to recognise Beijing as China’s sole official representative, the United States remains Taiwan’s most powerful ally and its top arms supplier.

“We are committed to the proposition that Taiwan must have the means to defend itself, and that is consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act,” Blinken said Monday.

“We’ve continued to provide significant equipment and sales to Taiwan for that purpose. We have real concerns about the increased aggression that the government in Beijing has shown toward Taiwan.”

A subsidiary of Taiwan’s tech giant Foxconn said Tuesday it has temporarily suspended operations after six foreign workers tested positive for Covid-19 in the latest outbreak within the industry. 

Foxsemicon Integrated Technology is the semiconductor arm of the world’s largest contract electronics maker Foxconn that supplies major international brands including Apple. 

The company, which makes semiconductor manufacturing and inspection equipment, said operations in its facilities in northern Miaoli county will be suspended until Wednesday for nearly 430 workers to undergo rapid screening. 

Foxsemicon said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its June output and revenue are expected to drop two to three percent due to the suspension of work. 

It is now the fourth tech company in Miaoli to report infections among employees at a time when Taiwan is battling a sudden surge of the virus.

The island emerged largely unscathed from the pandemic last year with just a few hundred cases and single-digit deaths thanks to one of the world’s best coronavirus responses. 

But infections have jumped to more than 11,000 with 308 deaths after a cluster initially detected among airline pilots spread. 

The government has since raised its pandemic alert level and imposed stricter social distancing rules till June 28.

Three other tech firms, including leading chip testing and packaging company King Yuan Electronics Company (KYEC), have suspended migrant employees from working to contain cluster infections.

So far 210 KYEC employees have tested positive in the first major outbreak in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, which is operating at full capacity to meet a worldwide shortage. 

Local media raised concerns that the suspension could impact the global chip shortage as KYEC’s business is a key final step in the semiconductor supply chain. 

The company supplies some top international tech firms such as Intel, Qualcomm and Nvidia.

Taiwan’s semiconductor factories have been struggling to plug a pandemic-driven shortage of chips that power essential electronic devices.

China has approved the emergency use of a Covid-19 vaccine for those as young as three, the drugmaker confirmed Tuesday, making it the first country to offer jabs to young children.

Since the coronavirus first emerged in central China, Beijing has mostly managed to bring the country’s outbreak under control, and has administered over 777 million vaccine doses after a sluggish start.

A spokesperson for Sinovac told AFP its vaccine had been approved for use on children.

“In recent days, the Sinovac vaccine was approved for emergency use in three- to 17-year-olds,” the spokesperson said.

But he did not confirm when the young children would be able to start receiving the shots, saying the schedule for the rollout will be decided by the National Health Commission “according to China’s current epidemic prevention and control needs and vaccine supply”.

The company has completed early phase trials of the vaccine in children and adolescents, with results to be published shortly in the Lancet scientific journal, the spokesperson added.

State broadcaster CCTV reported over the weekend that an unnamed official in the State Council’s epidemic response task force had said vaccines had been approved for children, and “the safety and effectiveness” had been proven.

A spokesperson for China’s other major vaccine, Sinopharm, said that experts had demonstrated the effectiveness of its vaccine in children, but didn’t confirm whether it had been approved for use.

Chinese officials have said they are aiming to inoculate 70 percent of the population of 1.41 billion by the end of this year. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved both the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines for emergency use in adults aged 18 and older, and both jabs are being administered in several countries around the world. 

While the WHO does not currently recommend vaccinating children against coronavirus, the United States, Britain, Singapore and the European Union have approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those as young as 12.

China reported 33 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, including 19 in southern Guangdong province where authorities have been battling a local outbreak.

Pakistani engineers Tuesday combed the mangled wreckage of two trains that collided in a remote farming region, an accident that killed dozens and highlighted huge safety problems on the nation’s dilapidated rail network.

At least 63 people were killed early Monday when a high-speed passenger train knifed through carriages of another express that had derailed minutes earlier near Daharki in Sindh province.

Army and civil engineers have cleared much of the wreckage of carriages crushed like tin cans in the collision, and welders were finalising repairs to the damaged rails.

A heavy stench of diesel, sweat and blood hung over the scene, with workers saying bodies were still being pulled overnight from mangled carriages. 

“This is the most colossal accident I have seen in about 10 years of service,” railway engineer Jahan Zeb told AFP, his eyes puffy from sleeplessness.

The Millat Express was heading from Karachi to Sargodha when it derailed, its carriages strewn over the tracks as the Sir Syed Express from Rawalpindi arrived minutes later in the opposite direction, smashing into it.

The accident has reignited debate about the parlous state of Pakistan’s public transport system — particularly a rail network that has seen little investment in decades.

It is not known what caused the Millat Express to jump its tracks, but Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid — a former railways minister — described that section of the line as “a shambles”, while current minister Azam Swati called it “really dangerous”.

Usman Abdullah, the deputy provincial commissioner, said that 63 people had died in the accident, issuing two lists that named 51 victims and marked 12 others as unidentified.

They ranged from a months-old infant to a woman who was 81.

Pakistan Railways spokesman Ijaz Shah said the families of those killed would receive compensation of 1.5 million rupees (around $9,600).

– ‘Hell let loose’ – 

Khan Mohammad, station master at nearby Reti junction, said more lives could have been saved if they had had just a few more minutes after the derailment.

“I saw a six or seven-year-old girl trapped underneath the locomotive, her knee stuck in the track,” he said.

“We somehow rescued her, and she was miraculously alive.”

But then the oncoming train hit.

“If there had been a delay of about 10 minutes, this accident could have been averted,” he said.

The crash happened around 3:30 am (2230 GMT) when most of the 1,200 passengers aboard the two trains would have been dozing.

Farmer Ali Nawaz was out watering his crop — normal at this time of year to stop summer evaporation — when he heard screeching sounds and then saw flames.

“We gathered that the train had derailed and frantically started calling up the railways official,” the 47-year-old told AFP.

“While we were trying to call, the other train came up… with a very big blast and flames riding high in the sky.”

“It was like hell let loose on the train,” said Ali Bux, another farmer.

Train accidents are common in Pakistan, where the network has seen decades of decline due to corruption, mismanagement and lack of investment.

The majority of train passengers in Pakistan are working-class people who cannot afford the quicker bus journeys.

More than 300 people were killed and 700 injured in 1990 when an overloaded 16-carriage inter-city train crashed into a stationary freight train near the city of Sukkur in Sindh.

More recently, at least 75 people died when a train caught fire while travelling from Karachi to Rawalpindi in October 2019.

The rest of the transport sector does not fare much better, with two major passenger plane crashes in the past five years and thousands of road accidents.

A herd of wild elephants in southwestern China have been captured on camera taking a breather from a 500-kilometre march of chaos that has caused more than $1 million in damage.

Chinese state television has launched a 24-hour live feed of the herd as the country remains on watch following the 15 elephants’ epic trek through homes, barns and crops in Yunnan province.

Footage from state broadcaster CCTV filmed Monday shows the herd, tired from their adventures, curled up in a forest on the outskirts of the provincial capital Kunming.

At one point in the footage a calf on its back stirs itself, trunk and feet sprawled in the air, before hauling itself onto a sleeping adult and nodding off again.

The adventures of the huge mammals have captivated the nation, with hundreds of millions taking to social media to discuss their journey.

The elephants have been closely monitored by authorities as they lumber through lush countryside. More than 400 people have been mobilised to ensure public safety and dozens of drones are now following their every step.

Convoys of trucks have lined roads in a bid to keep the herd away from densely populated areas, including the more than eight million people who live in nearby Kunming.

The local government has warned villagers not to leave corn or salt out in their yards that might attract the animals. 

It has also evacuated residents in the elephants’ path and distributed more than two tons of feed to the scavenging herd.

Experts are unsure why the group first migrated away from their original habitat, a nature reserve in the province.

A gigantic dinosaur discovered in Australia’s outback has been identified as a new species and recognised as one of the largest to ever roam the Earth, according to palaeontologists.

The Australotitan cooperensis, part of the titanosaur family that lived about 100 million years ago, has finally been named and described 15 years after its bones were first uncovered.

It is estimated to have stood at 5-6.5 metres (16-21 feet) high and measured 25-30 metres (82-98 feet) in length — which would make it Australia’s biggest dinosaur.

“Based on the preserved limb size comparisons, this new titanosaur is estimated to be in the top five largest in the world,” said Robyn Mackenzie, a director of the Eromanga Natural History Museum.

The fossilised bones were found on Mackenzie’s family farm in 2006 about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) west of Brisbane in the Eromanga Basin and nicknamed “Cooper”.

Initially kept secret as scientists painstakingly dug up and studied the bones, the skeleton first went on display to the public in 2007.

Scott Hocknull, a palaeontologist at Queensland Museum, said it had been a “very long and painstaking task” to confirm the Australotitan was a new species.

The research, which relied on 3D scan models of bones to compare the dinosaur with its close relatives, was published in the peer-reviewed PeerJ journal Monday.

Numerous other dinosaur skeletons have been found in the same area, Hocknull said, adding that more work was needed as “discoveries like this are just the tip of the iceberg”.

Thousands of global underworld figures used encrypted phones to coordinate drug deals, arms transfers and gangland hits, unaware law enforcement agencies planted the devices as part of a worldwide sting revealed Tuesday.

Over three years, “Operation Trojan Shield” helped distribute thousands of supposedly secure “hardened encrypted devices” to operatives within the mafia, Asian crime syndicates, drug cartels and outlaw motorcycle gangs as part of an elaborate FBI-led plot, according to Australian police. 

The compromised “AN0M” devices reached suspected criminals in 90 countries, who unwittingly blind copied — or ‘BBCed’– police on around 20 million messages.

The evidence prompted hundreds of arrests and foiled several large-scale drugs shipments, according to officials from several countries and unsealed US court documents.

In Australia alone, more than 200 people have been charged as part of the operation, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Tuesday had “struck a heavy blow against organised crime — not just in this country, but one that will echo around organised crime around the world”.

The operation began when the FBI infiltrated a similar encrypted  system called “Phantom Secure” and dismantled another called “Sky Global.”

“The closure of those two encrypted communication platforms created a significant void in the encrypted communication market,” said New Zealand police. 

To fill the void, “the FBI operated its own encrypted device company, called ‘AN0M’,” the New Zealand police added. 

According to unsealed court documents cited by US media outlet Vice, the FBI worked with insiders to develop and distribute AN0M devices through the Phantom Secure network of existing criminal customers, unloading 50 — mostly to Australia — as a “beta test.”

The devices are said to have had no email, call or GPS services and could only message other AN0M phones.

They could only be bought on the black market — for around $2,000 — and required a code from an existing user to access.

“Criminals needed to know a criminal to get a device,” the Australian Federal Police said in a statement. 

Australian agencies helped get the phones in the hands of underworld “influencers” — including an Australian fugitive drug boss on the run in Turkey — in a bid to gain trust.

“The devices organically circulated and grew in popularity among criminals, who were confident of the legitimacy of the app because high-profile organised crime figures vouched for its integrity,” Australian police said.

Eventually 11,800 devices were distributed across every continent except Antarctica, with most devices being used in Australia, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

The cover appeared to be blown in March 2021 when a blogger detailed AN0M security flaws and claimed it was a scam linked to Australia, the United States and other members of the FiveEyes intelligence sharing network. The post was later deleted. 

– ‘Industrial scale’ –

The Australian Federal Police said that as a result of the operation, a total of 224 people were now facing more than 500 charges in Australia alone, while six underground drug labs were shut down and firearms and Aus$45 million (US$35 million) in cash was seized.

“We allege they are members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, Australian mafia, Asian crime syndicates and serious and organised crime groups,” federal police commissioner Reece Kershaw said.

“We allege they’ve been trafficking illicit drugs into Australia at an industrial scale.”

New Zealand Police said it was the “world’s most sophisticated law enforcement action against organised crime to date”.

Detective superintendent Greg Williams said 35 people had been arrested across the country on 900 “serious drug dealing, money laundering and other conspiracy-type charges” and were due to appear in court Tuesday.

Police in New Zealand seized methamphetamine, firearms, and millions of dollars in cash and assets during the operation.

“Warrants are coming in and we expect a number of other arrests to be undertaken,” Williams told reporters in Auckland.

More arrests were also expected to be announced around the world, Australian police said.

AN0M’s website — which once offered “military grade” encryption services and devices with special features like “light and dark” display themes — was unavailable Tuesday, with a message from authorities that the “domain has been seized.”

Chinese policies aimed specifically at reducing the population of mainly Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang could prevent the birth of around four million babies over the next two decades, new research has found.

Projections show reduced minority birthrates could raise the proportion of Han Chinese — a majority in the rest of China — from the current 8.4 percent to 25 percent in the region.

Beijing has for years sought to tighten its grip on the vast border area historically marked by economic inequality and sporadic outbreaks of unrest.

Millions of Han Chinese relocated to Xinjiang in recent decades to find work in the coal- and gas-rich region in a settlement drive that has caused friction on the ground.

German researcher Adrian Zenz said publicly available papers by Chinese security researchers blamed the density of minority communities as the “underlying reason” for unrest and proposed population control as a risk reduction method.

At the same time, documented official fears about the arid region’s lack of natural resources to support an influx of Han settlers suggest that Chinese authorities see birth suppression as a key tool for manipulating the area’s demographic makeup, Zenz said.

China last week announced a major reform of policy governing the number of children a couple can have, increasing it to three as the country grapples with an ageing population.

But scholars say Beijing does not view all babies as equally desirable in Xinjiang, and is actively pursuing a policy of decreasing the number of children born to ethnic minorities.

Strategies include ramped-up birth control policies in the region — including imprisonment for having too many children and claims of forced sterilisation.

Focusing on four prefectures in southern Xinjiang and using models recommended by multiple Chinese scholars, Zenz calculated Beijing could aim to raise the number of Han in these “traditional Uyghur heartlands” to a quarter of the population.

Zenz said he found “an intent to reduce ethnic minority population growth in order to increase the proportionate Han population in southern Xinjiang”.

Official data shows Xinjiang’s birth rates nearly halved between 2017 and 2019 — the steepest drop of all Chinese regions and the most extreme globally since 1950, according to an analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Zenz calculated the natural ethnic minority population growth in southern Xinjiang would have reached 13.14 million by 2040, but that suppression measures could prevent up to 4.5 million births among Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.

China has faced mounting international criticism over its policies in Xinjiang, where the United States says Beijing is committing genocide.

At least one million people from mostly Muslim minorities have been held in camps in the region, according to rights groups who also accuse authorities of imposing forced labour.

Beijing has hit back at the accusations, touting its counter-terrorism and economic achievements in Xinjiang, applying tit-for-tat sanctions, and supporting lawsuits against its loudest critics, including Zenz.

Pakistani engineers Tuesday combed the mangled wreckage of two trains that collided in a remote farming region, an accident that killed dozens and highlighted huge safety problems on the nation’s dilapidated rail network.

At least 63 people were killed early Monday when a high-speed passenger train knifed through carriages of another express that had derailed minutes earlier near Daharki in Sindh province.

Army and civil engineers have cleared much of the wreckage of carriages crushed like tin cans in the collision, and welders were finalising repairs to the damaged rails.

A heavy stench of diesel, sweat and blood hung over the scene, with workers saying bodies were still being pulled overnight from mangled carriages. 

“This is the most colossal accident I have seen in about 10 years of service,” railway engineer Jahan Zeb told AFP, his eyes puffy from sleeplessness.

The Millat Express was heading from Karachi to Sargodha when it derailed, its carriages strewn over the tracks as the Sir Syed Express from Rawalpindi arrived minutes later in the opposite direction, smashing into it.

The accident has reignited debate about the parlous state of Pakistan’s public transport system — particularly a rail network that has seen little investment in decades.

It is not known what caused the Millat Express to jump its tracks, but Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid — a former railways minister — described that section of the line as “a shambles”, while current minister Azam Swati called it “really dangerous”.

Usman Abdullah, the deputy provincial commissioner, said that 63 people had died in the accident, issuing two lists that named 51 victims and marked 12 others as unidentified.

They ranged from a months-old infant to a woman who was 81.

Khan Mohammad, station master at nearby Reti junction, said more lives could have been saved if they had just a few more minutes after the derailment.

“I saw a six- or seven-year-old girl trapped underneath the locomotive, her knee stuck in the track,” he said.

“We somehow rescued her, and she was miraculously alive.”

But then the oncoming train hit.

“If there had been a delay of about 10 minutes, this accident could have been averted,” he said.

The double accident happened around 3:30 am (2230 GMT) when most of the 1,200 passengers aboard the two trains would have been dozing.