Shoppers crowd at a marketplace in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on May 7. (AP Photo)
DHAKA India s surge in coronavirus cases is having a dangerous effect on neighboring Bangladesh, with health experts warning of imminent vaccine shortages just as the country should be stepping up jabs and as more contagious virus variants are beginning to be detected.
On Saturday, health authorities said that for the first time, a coronavirus variant originally identified in India was found in Bangladesh, without providing further details. For weeks, South African variants have dominated the samples sequenced in Bangladesh. There are concerns that these versions spread more easily and that first-generation vaccines could be less effective against them.
In this image from video broadcast April 18, 2021, over the Myawaddy TV channel, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, chairman of the State Administrative Council, delivers his address to the public during Myanmar New Year. (AP Photo)
Myanmar s military rulers have approved new investment in projects worth nearly $2.8 billion, including a liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant that will cost $2.5 billion, the country s investment body said.
Approvals for 15 projects were given on Friday by the Myanmar Investment Commission, according to a statement on the website of the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration.
The announcement comes with much of Myanmar s economy paralysed by protests and strikes since the army seized power on Feb. 1. International credit rating agency Fitch Solutions has forecast the economy will contract by 20 percent this year.
Kurt Campbell in Washington in 2016 (Yuko Lanham)
WASHINGTON The U.S. policy coordinator for the Indo-Pacific on Tuesday appeared to reject calls for the United States to make a clear statement of its willingness to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, saying there were significant downsides to such an approach.
Kurt Campbell told a discussion hosted by the Financial Times it was appropriate to be concerned about the situation over Taiwan, the self-ruled democratic island that has come under mounting military pressure from China, which considers it a renegade province.
However, Campbell said he believed there was appreciation in both the United States and China that maintenance of some degree of status quo over the island was in the best interests of both countries.
Supporters of Trinamool Congress party chief Mamata Banerjee holding an earlier photograph of her celebrate early lead for the party in the West Bengal state elections in Kolkata, India, Sunday, May 2, 2021. (AP Photo)
NEW DELHI India recorded 368,147 new coronavirus cases on Monday, including 3,417 deaths, as a catastrophic surge ripples through the country.
The latest numbers came after leaders of 13 opposition parties penned a letter to urge the government to launch a free vaccination drive as well as ensure uninterrupted flow of oxygen to all hospitals. Several hospital authorities over the weekend sought court intervention over oxygen supplies in New Delhi, where a lockdown has been extended by a week to contain the wave of infections.