Category: World

Washington: Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study published Monday in the U.S. science journal PNAS.

Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

It possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans,” say the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

From 2011 to 2018, researchers took 30,000 nasal swabs from pigs in slaughterhouses in 10 Chinese provinces and in a veterinary hospital, allowing them to isolate 179 swine flu viruses.

The majority were of a new kind, which has been dominant among pigs since 2016.

The researchers then carried out various experiments including on ferrets, which are widely used in flu studies because they experience similar symptoms to humans, principally fever, coughing and sneezing.

G4 was observed to be highly infectious, replicating in human cells and causing more serious symptoms in ferrets than other viruses.

Tests also showed that any immunity humans gain from exposure to seasonal flu does not provide protection from G4.

According to blood tests, which showed antibodies created by exposure to the virus, 10.4% of swine workers had already been infected.

The tests showed that as many as 4.4% of the general population also appeared to have been exposed.

The virus has therefore already passed from animals to humans but there is no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to human, the scientists’ main worry.

“It is of concern that human infection of G4 virus will further human adaptation and increase the risk of a human pandemic,” the researchers wrote.

The authors called for urgent measures to monitor people working with pigs.

“The work comes as a salutary reminder that we are constantly at risk of new emergence of zoonotic pathogens and that farmed animals, with which humans have greater contact than with wildlife, may act as the source for important pandemic viruses,” said James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University.

A zoonotic infection is caused by a pathogen that has jumped from a non-human animal into a human.

With input VOA

Dubai: The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has announced that the shutdown of the 2G network (GSM) in the United Arab Emirates will take place at the end of 2022, with directing resources allocated to 5G to support new generations of mobile networks. TRA indicated that UAE service providers will provide all means of support to groups that may be affected by the 2G shutdown.

Commenting on this subject, Hamad Obaid Al Mansoori, TRA Director-General, said: “The ICT sector is one of the most developed sectors in recent decades. We have witnessed the level of development in mobile networks where generations have progressed from the first to the fifth generation that many countries in the world have begun to implement on the ground, with the UAE in the forefront, as the first in the Arab region and the fourth in the world in the launch and use of 5G, according to the Global Communication Index. Thus, it is highly important for telecom service providers to stop operating less effective networks to allow the operation and activation of the latest and most effective networks.”

Al Mansoori added: “Mobile technology is one of the main drivers of innovation in the business world, and telecom companies must constantly develop their networks to keep pace with the rapid and continuous developments in the telecom sector. Today, we are on the threshold of a new era characterized by comprehensive digital transformation, Internet of Things and smart city, where a faster, stronger and the more capable network is needed to withstand the communication between vast numbers of devices.”

This decision comes as part of TRA’s continuous efforts in the deployment of 5G in the UAE as the main engine of the digital transformation process, the fourth industrial revolution and artificial intelligence. Moreover, this step reflects the accelerating development of the telecommunications sector, in which mobile networks are constantly evolving and changing. An old technology disappears when a new technology emerges so that telecommunications companies must stop operating the least effective networks to allow the operation and activation of the most effective networks.

The activation of the 2G network (GSM) in the UAE dates back to 1994, and it is still effective to date, despite the succession of network generations up to 5G, which the UAE has been in the lead of its application through a comprehensive strategy and clear roadmap. — WAM, SG

The US killed General Soleimani and others in a January drone attack near Baghdad International Airport.

Iran has issued an arrest warrant and asked Interpol for help in detaining US President Donald Trump and dozens of others it believes carried out the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad.

Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on Monday that Trump, along with more than 30 others Iran accuses of involvement in the January 3 attack that killed General Qassem Soleimani, face “murder and terrorism charges”, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

Alqasimehr did not identify anyone else sought other than Trump, but stressed Iran would continue to pursue his prosecution even after his presidency ends.

Interpol, based in Lyon, France, said in a statement that its constitution forbade it to undertake “any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character”

“Therefore, if or when any such requests were to be sent to the General Secretariat,” it added, “… Interpol would not consider requests of this nature.”

The US’s Iran envoy Brian Hook described the move as a “propaganda stunt”.

“Our assessment is that Interpol does not intervene and issue Red Notices that are based on a political nature,” Hook said at a news conference in Saudi Arabia.

“This is a political nature. This has nothing to do with national security, international peace or promoting stability … It is a propaganda stunt that no-one takes seriously,” he said.

Red notice request

Alqasimehr was also quoted as saying Iran had requested a “red notice” be put out for Trump and the others, the highest-level notice issued by Interpol, requesting that seeks the location and arrest of the individual named.

Under a red notice, local authorities make the arrests on behalf of the country that requested it. The notices cannot force countries to arrest or extradite suspects, but can put government leaders on the spot and limit suspects’ travel.

After receiving a request, Interpol meets by committee and discusses whether or not to share the information with its member states. Interpol has no requirement for making any of the notices public, though some do get published on its website.

The US killed General Soleimani, who oversaw the Revolutionary Guard Corps’s expeditionary Quds Force, and others in the January attack near Baghdad International Airport.

The assassination came after months of incidents raising tensions between the two countries and ultimately saw Iran retaliate with a ballistic missile strike targeting American troops in Iraq.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Three people, including a woman, were allegedly buried in cow dung by some villagers in a bid to ‘cure’ them after lightning struck them in the tribal-dominated Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh, a police official said on Monday.

PTI

Three people, including a woman, were allegedly buried in cow dung by some villagers in a bid to ‘cure’ them after lightning struck them in the tribal-dominated Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh, a police official said on Monday.

They were later shifted to a hospital where two of them were declared brought dead, he said.

The incident took place on Sunday evening when the three were working in paddy fields in Baagbahar village of the district, located around 400 km from the state capital Raipur, Jashpur Sub-Divisional Officer of Police Rajendra Parihar told PTI.

When the rainfall and thunderstorm started, they took shelter under a tree in a field. Suddenly, lightning struck there, causing serious injuries to the three people, he said.

Instead of taking them to hospital, their family members and some villagers buried them from bottom to neck in cow dung as part of a superstitious practice among them.

“The villagers in the area believe cow dung has the power to heal burn injuries,” he said.

Later, when some other villagers intervened, the three victims were shifted to a local hospital where two of them – Sunil Sai (22) and Champa Raut (20) – were declared brought dead, the official said.

The other injured person, aged 23, was undergoing treatment at the hospital, he said.

A case was registered, the official said, adding that compensation will be provided to the kin of the deceased as per the rules.

Every nation has a trove of stories – alluring, magnetic narratives that are retold time and again. In Turkey, over the past decade or so, Ottoman history – the opulence, conquests and power – has been one of the most popular storylines across media, especially on TV.

“The recent interest in Ottoman stories and Ottoman narratives is not something out of air or without context – it has a historical background,” Burak Ozcetin, Associate Professor at Istanbul Bilgi University told The Listening Post’s Meenakshi Ravi. “Turkey is a society in constant change, constant flux. In times of crisis especially, history plays a significant role in creation of identities. The rising interest in the Ottoman past in terms of TV dramas has been a really, really important phenomenon.”

The demand for Ottoman stories on TV has gone far beyond Turkey. With five seasons, more than 400 episodes and hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide, Dirilis: Ertugrul, or Resurrection: Ertugrul, is one of Turkey’s biggest television exports yet, and has helped put Turkey among the top exporters of TV content in the world. Set in the 13th century during the founding of the Ottoman empire, the show has helped launch a wave of nostalgia and fascination for the era that has become known as “Neo-Ottoman Cool”

“‘Neo-Ottoman Cool’ is a term that I and my colleague Marwan Kraidy coined to reflect that new image of Turkey that started perhaps around 15 years ago,” says Omar Al-Ghazzi, Assistant Professor at London School of Economics and co-author of the academic article Neo-Ottoman Cool: Turkish Popular Culture in the Arab Public Sphere. “It demonstrated that shift of perception from Turkey as an enemy to Turkey as a model … Turkish soft power was perhaps at its height with the rise of President Erdogan – this went hand-in-hand with the popularity of Turkish popular culture, particularly Turkish TV series.”

“Dirilis: Ertugrul being popular specifically in the Middle East and the Muslim world is fascinating,” says Senem Cevik, Lecturer in International Studies at UC Irvine. “A show that is produced by a Muslim country, a Muslim regional power is very important, and having those characters in the shows that are powerful, strong, defenders of their nations and their tribes is something I think I would say the Muslim world is looking for.”

For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AK Party, reconnecting with the Ottoman era has been central to their messaging. Erdogan has pushed a notion of continuity from the Ottoman sultans through to himself and TV dramas such as Dirilis: Ertugrul and Payitaht: Abdulhamid – both commissioned by Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT – have aligned nicely with the AK Party’s communications strategy.

“They are, in a way, rewriting the Ottoman history for the current Turkish public. They’re trying to showcase a type of history that is continuous from the Ottoman Empire to the current Turkish republic in a way that it elevates the Ottoman history,” says Ozcetin. “‘Neo-Ottoman Cool’ is directly related with the Turkish Republic’s quest for enlarging its sphere of influence in the region, both politically, economically and culturally.”

Contributors:
Burak Ozcetin – Associate Professor, Istanbul Bilgi University
Senem Cevik – Lecturer in International Studies, UC Irvine
Omar Al-Ghazzi – Assistant Professor, LSE and Co-author, Neo-Ottoman Cool: Turkish Popular Culture in the Arab Public Sphere

Source: Al Jazeera

Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.

“Efforts are being made to remove me from power, but that will not succeed,” Oli claimed, without naming any person or country.

PTI

Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday claimed that efforts are being made to oust him after his government redrew the country’s political map by incorporating three strategically key Indian territories.

“Efforts are being made to remove me from power, but that will not succeed, Oli claimed, without naming any person or country.

He said nobody has openly asked him to quit. But I have smelt undercurrent movements, Oli said while speaking at an event to commemorate the 69th birth anniversary of the popular leader of the Nepal Communist Party late Madan Bhandari at the Prime Minister’s residence.

“There have been various kinds of activities in the embassies and hotels,” he claimed. If you listen to the news media from Delhi, you will get the gesture.

He said some Nepalese leaders were also involved in the game to remove him immediately.

The differences between Prime Minister Oli and his opponents including the ruling party’s executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” have surfaced during the ongoing Standing Committee meeting of the party.

Oli, who faced criticism within his party for skipping the first and the second day of the Standing Committee meetings, attended the third meeting on Saturday, but briefly. He, however, did not speak at the meeting.

“In the past when I signed trade agreements with Beijing, my minority government collapsed. But this time we have a government with a full-fledged majority, so no one can remove me now, Oli said on Sunday.

“I did not commit any mistake by claiming our land, which has been snatched from us for the past 58 years after Nepal enjoyed the rights over these areas for 146 years,” Oli said.

Nepal this month completed the process of redrawing the country’s political map through a Constitutional amendment, incorporating three strategically important Indian areas.

India has termed as “untenable” the “artificial enlargement” of the territorial claims by Nepal after its Parliament unanimously approved the new political map of the country featuring Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas which India maintains belong to it.

The India-Nepal bilateral ties came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.

Nepal reacted sharply to the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through Nepalese territory. India rejected the claim asserting that the road lies completely within its territory.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior leader of the ruling NCP told PTI that Oli’s indication was his opponents within the ruling party, not from outside.

“There has been growing differences within the ruling party and the Prime Minister is being cornered within his own party and his own colleagues are criticising the government’s performance,” he said.

Another NCP leader said that Oli’s absence in the first two days of the meetings showed the growing differences between him and Prachanda.

Prachanda has time and again spoken about the lack of coordination between the government and the party and he was pressing for a one-man one position system to be followed by the NCP.

The World Health Organisation has identified the Covid-19 vaccine candidates developed by Oxford University-AstraZeneca and Moderna Inc as the front-runners

Even though there are more than 13 experimental vaccines in clinical trials among the 140 being developed to combat Covid-19, the World Health Organisation has identified the candidates developed by Oxford University-AstraZeneca and Moderna Inc as the front-runners.

“Certainly in terms of how advanced they are, the stage at which they are, they are I think probably the leading candidate,” Reuters quoted WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan as saying.

A lab technician extracts a portion of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate during testing at the Chula Vaccine Research Center, run by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP)

“We do know that Moderna’s vaccine is also going to go into phase three clinical trials, probably from the middle of July, and so that vaccine candidate is not far behind. AstraZeneca certainly has a more global scope at the moment in terms of where they are doing and planning their vaccine trials,” Swaminathan said.

💉 Oxford University-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine

AstraZeneca, which has already begun phase III human trials of its AZD1222 (formerly known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) vaccine candidate, signed its tenth supply-and-manufacturing deal. Brazil announced on Saturday it had signed a $127 million agreement to start producing locally the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Elcio Franco, Brazil’s No 2 public health official, said in a press conference that the country would initially produce 30 million doses of the vaccine — half by December and half by January of next year, Reuters reported.

The first to get the vaccine, which will be produced by local vaccine maker Fiocruz, will be high-risk groups such as the elderly, people with co-morbidities and health and security professionals.

Earlier this month, the AstraZeneca CEO told a radio station that the vaccine candidate would likely provide protection against Covid-19 for one year.

💉 Moderna coronavirus vaccine status

US firm Moderna Inc, which has already started phase II trials for its vaccine candidate mRNA-1273, has partnered with drugmaker Catalent Inc to produce 100 million doses starting in the third quarter of 2020.

Under the deal, Catalent will also provide packaging and labeling, storage and distribution services to support Moderna’s late-stage clinical trial for the vaccine. Catalent is already in partnership with Johnson and Johnson as well as AstraZeneca.

Recently, Moderna Inc Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel told Bloomberg that efficacy data for its Covid-19 jab could be available by as soon as Thanksgiving (November) if everything goes right. Final-stage trials of the Moderna vaccine is set to begin next month on 30,000 people.

💉 Sanofi-GSK coronavirus vaccine status

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, which has developed a Covid-19 vaccine candidate with GSK, recently said it had accelerated the start of phase 1/2 clinical trials to September from December. In a statement, Sanofi said they have “multiple Covid-19 vaccine candidates” in the works and hope to start a clinical trial with humans in the fourth quarter of this year.

Sanofi also announced it would invest $425 million to expand its vaccine development venture with US start-up Translate Bio.

Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson told journalists earlier this week that his firm’s most promising Covid-19 treatment is “the only vaccine in the race which is offering a proven platform which works at scale”.

Sanofi is using one of GSK’s proprietary adjuvants — a compound that boosts the immune response — with this vaccine. The French firm expects to have 100 million doses of the recombinant vaccine by the end of 2020 and an additional 1 billion doses in 2021.

💉 Thailand coronavirus vaccine status

Thailand, which has seven Covid-19 vaccine studies underway using a variety of methods, has said human trials of one of the candidates could start as early as October.

Kiat Ruxrungtham, head researcher at Chulalongkorn University’s Center of Excellence in Vaccine Research and Development, said blood results after the first injection in monkeys showed all generated antibodies, Bloomberg reported.

The scientist said the majority also developed neutralising antibodies, meaning the virus can be blocked from entering or damaging cells. The Chulalongkorn project employs new mRNA vaccine technology and the team expects final results from the animal-testing stage in the next two weeks.

The next plan is to immediately produce about 10,000 vaccine doses in San Diego and Vancouver and ship them to Thailand for human trials, Kiat told Bloomberg.

With inputs from The Indian Express

AFP

The rate of infections worldwide continues to rise, with one million new cases recorded in just six days.

More than 10 million cases of the new coronavirus have been officially declared around the world, half of them in Europe and the United States, according to an AFP tally on Sunday based on official sources.

At least 10,003,942 infections, including 498,779 deaths, have been registered globally.

Europe remains the hardest hit continent with 2,637,546 cases including 195,975 fatalities, while the United States has 2,510,323 infections including 125,539 deaths.

The rate of infections worldwide continues to rise, with one million new cases recorded in just six days.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases and some do not have the capacity to carry out widescale testing.

The China-Russia-Iran Arms Alliance

China doesn’t want to destroy global institutions so much as remake them in its image. The current fight over the Iran arms embargo at the United Nations shows what a Beijing-dominated world order would look like. It’s something for American allies frustrated with President Trump’s leadership to keep in mind.

This week the U.S. sent the U.N. Security Council a draft resolution to extend indefinitely an arms embargo on Iran. The Security Council has had restrictions on the country since 2007, but the 2015 nuclear deal allows for their gradual removal beginning in October. The embargo’s expiration date—like the accord’s other “sunset” provisions—is one of the fatal flaws of Barack Obama’s deal.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attending a news conference following their meeting in Moscow, Russia, on June 16.PHOTO: XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS

The U.S. wants to continue preventing Tehran from selling, buying or supplying weapons internationally. The embargo also requires countries to inspect cargo at home or at sea if they suspect it contains banned materiel. This isn’t punishment for the sake of punishment: Another problem in the 2015 deal was its failure to fully address Iran’s regional imperialism, which has worsened since the nuclear deal.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged this month that Iran was responsible for missile attacks on Saudi oil sites last year. Iran also funds and supplies proxy forces like Kataib Hezbollah, which has killed Americans in Iraq. The arms embargo isn’t perfect, but removing it would give Iran an even freer hand to destabilize the region by exporting terror in support of its revolutionary ideology.

The U.S. and Europe have clashed over Iran policy, sometimes bitterly, since Mr. Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal two years ago. Yet they’ve recently found common ground around the Iranian threat. France, Germany and the United Kingdom introduced a resolution last week calling out Tehran for not complying with International Atomic Energy Agency inspection requests. They support renewing the arms embargo.

Maintaining the weapons ban shouldn’t be as divisive as the broader deal is. The Obama Administration touted the embargo extension as a victory in its negotiations with Tehran. When Hillary Clinton announced her support for the deal in 2015, she did so with the caveat that it had to be part of a broader strategy to contain Iran’s malign actions abroad. Whatever one’s opinion of the nuclear deal, Iran can’t be contained regionally if it can buy advanced Russian and Chinese weapons.

Yet Russia and China oppose an embargo extension, as they also opposed the IAEA on inspections. The U.S. has threatened to unilaterally “snap back” U.N. sanctions against Iran if Beijing and Moscow don’t support the Trump Administration’s embargo resolution. That would set up another fight when Iran, China and Russia take the side of lawlessness at the highest echelons of a global institution.

The revanchist powers are assisting each other in their expansionist aims while exposing the failure of the U.N. as an enforcer of global norms. As the world anticipates Mr. Trump’s election defeat, look for more of this behavior.

With input from The Wall Street Journal

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Our ally came inside our country and killed someone without informing us, said PM Khan, referring to how U.S. Navy Seals killed the 9/11 mastermind in Abbottabad.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday called slain al-Qaeda chief and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden a “shaheed” (martyr) and said that Islamabad faced “embarrassment” by taking part in America’s war on terror.

Speaking in parliament during the budget session, Mr. Khan said the American forces entered Pakistan and killed bin Laden without informing Islamabad after which everyone started abusing his country.

“I don’t think there’s a country which supported the war on terror and had to face embarrassment for it. Pakistan was also openly blamed for U.S.’ failure in Afghanistan,” Mr. Khan said.

“For Pakistanis across the globe, it was an embarrassing moment when the Americans came and killed Osama bin Laden at Abottabad… martyred him. The whole world started abusing us after that. Our ally came inside our country and killed someone without informing us. And, 70,000 Pakistanis died because of U.S.’ war on terror,” he said.

Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy Seals in Pakistan’s Abbottabad in May, 2011.

Opposition criticises remarks

Mr. Khan’s remarks drew criticism from the Opposition.

“Osama bin Laden was a terrorist and our PM called him a martyr. He was behind massacre of thousands,” said Khawaja Asif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

In his address, the Prime Minister also defended his government’s response to the coronavirus crisis, saying there has been no confusion or contradiction in official policies since the start of the pandemic.

“They say again and again that there was confusion … if there was one country whose government did not have confusion, it was ours,” Mr. Khan was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper.

People give the example of New Zealand when talking about social distancing, he said, adding that “New Zealand has social distancing already” with a low population density.

“I said from day one we had a dual problem; we had to save the people from corona and hunger, and those dying from poverty,” he added, acknowledging that his government had to face “a lot of criticism” at the start and there was pressure to implement a more strict lockdown as was done by India.

Reiterating the “destruction” a sweeping lockdown could cause to a country, Mr. Khan said: “India’s reports are in front of the world.”

The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan crossed 1,92,000-mark, while the death toll reached 3,903 on Thursday.

On Kashmir

Mr. Khan also said that his government has devised a plan to further highlight the Kashmir issue at the world level.

With inputs from The Hindu