Asia
Why some Indians die younger than others
A new-born Indian can expect to live for 69 years, just three years short of the world average.
But disparities in life expectancy - the average number of years that a person can expect to live - among India's social groups have lingered and widened, according to two new studies.
People belonging to the country's most marginalised social groups - adivasis or indigenous people, Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) and Muslims - are more likely to die at younger ages than higher-caste Hindus, according to one paper by Sangita Vyas, Payal Hathi and Aashish Gupta.
They examined official health survey data of more than 20 million people from nine Indian states accounting for about half of India's 1.4 billion population, reports BBC.
The researchers found that the expected life spans of adivasis and Dalits were four and three years shorter respectively than higher-caste Hindus. Muslims were expected to live a year less than higher-caste Hindus.
Let's now break this down further by gender.
This is how many years India's disadvantaged women are expected to live: 62.8 for adivasis, 63.3 for Dalits and 65.7 for Muslims. An average higher-caste Hindu woman is expected to live for 66.5 years.
Read: Shanghai quarantine: 24-hour lights, no hot showers
Here's the average lifespan of disadvantaged men: 60 years for adivasis, 61.3 for Dalits, and 63.8 for Muslims. An average higher-caste Hindu man is expected to live for 64.9 years.
Such enduring gaps were comparable in terms of years to the gaps in life expectancies between black and white Americans in the US, researchers say. Since life expectancy in India is less than four-fifths the level in the US, the outcomes in India are more substantial in percentage terms.
To be sure, buoyed by advances in medicine, hygiene and public health, India has made massive gains in life expectancy: half a century ago, the average Indian would beat the odds by surviving into his or her 50s. Now they're expected to live almost 20 years longer.
The bad news is that although life expectancy for all social groups has increased, disparities have not reduced, according to a related study by Aashish Gupta and Nikkil Sudharsanan.
In some cases, absolute disparities have increased: the life expectancy gap between Dalit men and upper-caste Hindu men, for example, had actually increased between the late 1990s and mid-2010s. And although Muslims had a modest life expectancy disadvantage compared to high castes in 1997-2000, this gap has grown substantially over the past 20 years.
Iran says interactions with Israel can't ensure Arab states' security
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri on Sunday criticized some Arab states for normalizing ties with Israel, saying interactions with Israel can not ensure these countries' security.
History has proven that aggression and occupation will never lead to order, stability and calm, Bagheri told a meeting with Iranian army commanders, according to the foreign ministry's website.
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Because of its occupying and aggressive nature, Israel has caused insecurity and tensions, he noted.
The interactions between some regional governments and Israel are "similar to taking refuge in a wolf's lair to protect oneself from the blissful spring rain," Bagheri said.
Also Read: As Ukraine war rages, diplomats near Iran nuclear agreement
Shanghai quarantine: 24-hour lights, no hot showers
Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition center. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower.
Beibei and her husband were ordered into the massive National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai last Tuesday after spending 10 days isolated at home following a positive test. Their 2-year-old daughter, who was negative, went to her grandfather, while her nanny also went into quarantine.
Residents show “no obvious symptoms,” Beibei, who asked to be identified only by her given name, told The Associated Press in an interview by video phone.
Also read: COVID outbreak 'extremely grim' as Shanghai extends lockdown
“There are people coughing,” she said. “But I have no idea if they have laryngitis or omicron.”
The convention center, with 50,000 beds, is one of more than 100 quarantine facilities set up in China's most populous city for those such as Beibei who test positive but have few or no symptoms. It's part of official efforts to contain China’s biggest coronavirus outbreak since the 2-year-old pandemic began. But it's also testing patience of people increasingly fed up with China's harsh “zero-COVID” policy that aims to isolate every case.
“At the beginning people were frightened and panicked,” Beibei said. “But with the publication of daily figures, people have started to accept that this particular virus is not that horrible.”
Beibei was told she was due to be released Monday after two negative tests while at the convention center.
Most of Shanghai shut down starting March 28 and its 25 million people were ordered to stay home. That led to complaints about food shortages and soaring economic losses.
Anyone who tests positive but shows few or no symptoms is required to spend one week in a quarantine facility. Beibei said she had a stuffy nose and briefly lost part of her senses of taste and smell, but those symptoms passed in a few days.
On Sunday, China reported 26,155 new cases, all but 3,529 of which had no symptoms. Shanghai accounted for 95% of the total, or 24,820, including 3,238 with no symptoms.
The city has reported more than 300,000 cases since late March. Shanghai began easing restrictions last week, though a health official warned the city didn’t have its outbreak under control.
At the convention center, residents are checked twice a day for fever and told to record health information on mobile phones, according to Beibei. Most people pass the time by reading, square dancing, taking online classes or watching videos on mobile phones.
Also read: COVID-19 cases rise in Shanghai with millions under lockdown
The 420,000-square-meter (4.6 million-square-foot) exhibition center is best known as the site of the world’s biggest auto show. Other quarantine sites include temporary prefabricated buildings.
Residents of other facilities have complained about leaky roofs, inadequate food supplies and delays in treatment for medical problems.
“We haven’t found a place with a hot shower,” Beibei said. “Lights are on all night, and it’s hard to fall asleep.”
A video obtained by AP showed wet beds and floors due a leaky roof in a different facility in a prefabricated building.
“Bathrooms are not very clean,” Beibei said. “So many people use them, and volunteers or cleaners can’t keep up.”
Pakistan warns neighbor Afghanistan not to shelter militants
Pakistan fired off a sharp warning Sunday to Afghanistan’s hard-line religious rulers to stop sheltering homegrown Pakistani Taliban militants who have staged increasingly deadly attacks against the country’s military.
The warning followed Afghan reports that Pakistani aircraft late Friday carried out bombing raids in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost and Kunar provinces, killing civilians.
Pakistan has so far refused to comment on the Afghan allegations, instead accusing the Afghan Taliban of doing nothing to stop attacks against Pakistan by militants in Afghanistan.
“Terrorists are using Afghan soil with impunity to carry out activities inside Pakistan,” said the Foreign Ministry statement that was unusually harsh in its language.
Pakistan was often accused of harboring Afghanistan’s Taliban fighters before they swept to power last August as America ended its 20-year war. Since their takeover, Islamabad has led the way in pressing the world to engage with the religiously driven Afghan government.
It’s not clear, however, whether Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will be as supportive of the Afghan Taliban as was his predecessor Imran Khan, a cricket star turned conservative Islamist leader, who was ousted last weekend in a politically tumultuous no-confidence vote.
On Saturday the Taliban Foreign Ministry called in Pakistan’s ambassador to complain of civilians killed in the bombing raids it said happened late Friday, killing refugees in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar and Khost provinces.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned Pakistan “not to test the patience of Afghans on such issues and not repeat the same mistake again otherwise it will have bad consequences.” He did not elaborate on the consequences or the numbers of people killed.
Afghanistan’s largest news channel, TOLO News, showed images of children’s bodies it said were killed in the airstrike. The same channel showed protests by hundreds of residents of eastern Khost province condemning Pakistan and shouting anti-Pakistan slogans.
Pakistan has not confirmed any attack on Afghanistan and Sunday’s statement slams the Taliban rulers for doing too little to stop Pakistani Taliban militants using its territory to attack Pakistan.
“In the last few days, incidents along Pak - Afghan Border have significantly increased, wherein, Pakistani security forces are being targeted from across the border,” said the Pakistani statement. Last week, seven Pakistani military personnel were killed in an ambush near the border later claimed by Pakistani Taliban known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.
Militant attacks in Pakistan have been accelerating since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan. The attacks have been claimed either by the Pakistani Taliban or by an Islamic State group affiliate, also headquartered in Afghanistan, but against whom the Taliban have been fighting.
By late March this year, Pakistan had seen 52 attacks by militants, compared to 35 in the same period last year, according to Amir Rana, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, an independent think tank that monitors militant activity in Pakistan. The attacks have also gotten deadlier. So far this year in Pakistan, 155 people have been killed in such attacks, compared to 68 last year.
The border between the two countries, known as the Durrand Line, runs the length of the 2,670 kilometer (1,660-mile) dividing line. The Durrand line runs through the region’s ethnic Pashtun population, often dividing tribes and families between the two countries. Established by the British in the 19th century, successive Afghan rulers have refused to recognize it as the official border, laying claim instead to Pakistani territory known as Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Province where ethnic Pashtuns dominate.
Since taking power, Afghanistan’s Taliban have clashed on several occasions with Pakistan over a border fence Islamabad is building .
14 arrested after communal violence in Indian capital
Police in India’s capital have arrested 14 people after communal violence broke out during a Hindu religious procession, leaving several injured, local media reported Sunday.
The suspects were arrested on charges of rioting and criminal conspiracy, among others, following the incident on Saturday night, said senior police officer Usha Rangnani, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
At least nine people, including eight police officers, were injured and were being treated in hospitals, Rangnani said.
Authorities say Hindu and Muslim groups in Jahangirpuri, a neighborhood in northwest New Delhi, threw stones at each other during a religious procession celebrating the birth of the Hindu god Hanuman on Saturday night. Police were investigating the incident and it remains unclear what sparked the violence.
It was the worst violence in New Delhi since 2020, when 53 people died in a large-scale communal unrest amid tensions over a controversial citizenship law that excluded Muslims.
Delhi’s police commissioner tweeted late Saturday night that the situation in the neighborhood was under control after additional forces were deployed.
The capital’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, appealed for peace in the city and condemned the incident.
In videos posted on social media, streets in Jahangirpuri are seen littered with broken glass and stones while photos show heavily damaged vehicles. The unrest came after similar reports of communal violence and hate speech in a handful of other Indian states over the past week.
On April 10, a number of people were injured after anti-Muslim songs were blared through speakers during a procession to mark the birth of the Hindu god Ram in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, local media reported. A day later in the western state of Gujarat, one person died and many others were injured in violence following the festival, prompting curfews and a ban on gatherings in some parts of the state.
The string of recent religious attacks has sparked outrage and sharp criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Communal violence in India is not new, with periodic clashes breaking out ever since the British partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, but observers say that religious polarization has risen under Modi, further deepening fault lines against minorities and heightening tensions.
On Saturday, leaders from 13 opposition parties wrote a statement urging Modi to condemn the wave of religious attacks and expressing concern over the “recent outburst of communal violence witnessed across several states.”
“We are extremely anguished at the manner in which issues related to food, dress, faith, festivals and language are being deliberately used by sections of the ruling establishment to polarize our society,” the leaders wrote.
North Korea tests new weapon bolstering nuclear capability
North Korea has test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon designed to boost its nuclear fighting capability, state media reported Sunday, a day before its chief rivals the United States and South Korea begin annual drills that the North views as an invasion rehearsal.
The 13th weapons test this year came amid concerns that North Korea may soon conduct an even larger provocation. That may include a nuclear test in an effort to expand the country’s arsenal and increase pressure on Washington and Seoul while denuclearization talks remain stalled.
The official Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un observed what it called the weapon’s successful launch. It released a photo showing a beaming Kim clapping his hands with military officers.
Also read: N. Korea's Kim vows to develop more powerful means of attack
KCNA said the weapon tested has “great significance in drastically improving the firepower of the front-line long-range artillery units, enhancing the efficiency in the operation of (North Korea’s) tactical nukes and diversification of their firepower missions.”
KCNA didn’t elaborate, but its use of the words “tactical nukes” suggested the weapon is likely capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could hit strategic targets in South Korea, including U.S. military installations. The KCNA dispatch didn’t say when and where the launch occurred.
“North Korea is trying to deploy not only long-range nuclear missiles aimed at American cities but also tactical nuclear weapons to threaten Seoul and U.S. bases in Asia,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“Pyongyang’s purposes likely exceed deterrence and regime survival. Like Russia employs the fear it could use tactical nukes, North Korea may want such weapons for political coercion, battlefield escalation and limiting the willingness of other countries to intervene in a conflict,” he said.
Some observers said the weapon showed in North Korean photos suggested it might be a smaller, lighter version of its nuclear-capable KN-23 missile that has a highly maneuverable flight aimed at defeating missile defense systems. Others said it could be a new missile that combines the technical characteristics of the KN-23 and another short-range ballistic missile called the KN-24.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it had detected two launches from the North’s eastern coastal town of Hamhung early Saturday evening.
It said the missiles flew about 110 kilometers (68 miles) at an altitude of 25 kilometers (16 miles) and a maximum speed of Mach 4. South Korea’s presidential office said officials have met twice this weekend to discuss the North Korean military activities.
South Korea’s military said later Sunday that its nine-day springtime drills with the United States will start on Monday. It said the allies decided to hold computer-simulated command post exercises that don’t involve field training after reviewing factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and the allies’ combined defense readiness.
The exercises could further intensify animosities on the Korean Peninsula because North Korea has previously responded with its own weapons tests and fiery rhetoric.
North Korea has started this year with a slew of weapons tests, including its first flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. homeland since 2017. South Korea recently said it has detected signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear testing ground it partially dismantled weeks before it entered now-dormant nuclear talks with the United States in 2018.
A possible nuclear test by North Korea would involve a tactical nuclear warhead, said analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. He predicted that North Korea would push to mount a tactical nuclear warhead on the weapon tested this weekend and deploy such nuclear missiles near the border with South Korea.
“North Korea has a domestic imperative to make and perfect weapons ordered by Kim Jong Un last year regardless of what the U.S. does or doesn’t do. The test also tells his people that their country is strong despite their apparent economic difficulties,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at Washington’s Center for a New American Security. “One reason for the political timing could be to protest anticipated U.S.-South Korea military drills.”
On Friday, Kim attended a massive civilian parade in Pyongyang that marked the milestone 110th birthday of his state-founding grandfather, Kim Il Sung. It appeared the country passed its most important national holiday without a highly anticipated military parade to showcase its new weapons systems.
Also read:North Korea fires ballistic missile in extension of testing
Kim may still hold a military parade on the April 25 founding anniversary of North Korea’s army. But if that anniversary goes without a military parade again, some experts say that might mean Kim doesn’t have new powerful missiles to display and that his next provocative step will likely be a nuclear test.
Chinese astronauts land after 6 months on space station
Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday after six months aboard their country's newest orbital station in the longest crewed mission to date for China's ambitious space program.
The Shenzhou 13 space capsule landed in the Gobi desert in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, shown live on state TV.
During the mission, astronaut Wang Yaping carried out the first spacewalk by a Chinese woman. Wang and crewmates Zhai Zhigang and Ye Guangfu beamed back physics lessons for high school students.
China launched its first astronaut into space in 2003 and landed robot rovers on the moon in 2013 and on Mars last year. Officials have discussed a possible crewed mission to the moon.
On Saturday, state TV showed images from inside the capsule as it traveled at 200 meters per second over Africa before entering the atmosphere.
The trio were the second crew aboard Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace. Its core module, Tianhe, was launched in April 2021. Plans call for completing construction this year by adding two more modules.
Authorities have yet to announce a date for launching the next Tiangong crew.
China is excluded from the International Space Station due to U.S. unease that its space program is run by the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army.
China was the third nation to launch an astronaut into space on its own after the former Soviet Union and the United States.
READ: Four station astronauts catch ride with SpaceX back home
Tiangong is China’s third space station following predecessors launched in 2011 and 2016.
The government announced in 2020 that China's first reusable spacecraft had landed following a test flight but no photos or details of the vehicle have been released.
On Tuesday, President Xi Jinping visited the launch site in Wenchang on the southern island of Hainan from which the Tianhe module was fired into orbit.
“Persist in pursuing the frontiers of world aerospace development and the major strategic needs of national aerospace,” Xi told staff at the site, all of them in military uniform.
Philippine storm death toll rises to 167, 110 missing
The death toll from the landslides and flooding spawned by tropical storm Megi has risen to 167, with 110 still missing, the government said on Saturday.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that 164 died in the central Philippines and three in the southern Philippines. The agency, which culls reports from the provinces affected by disasters, added that there are 110 more missing in the central Philippines.
Megi dumped rains in the central and southern Philippine regions before and after it hit land on April 10, inundating many areas and setting off landslides in several villages in Baybay City and Abuyog town in Leyte province.
On Friday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visited the devastated province and handed relief goods to the survivors. He conducted an aerial inspection of the villages buried by mudslides.
The central Philippines is in the typhoon alley and usually the gateway of typhoons to the country. Landslides and flash floods are common across the Philippines during the rainy season, especially when typhoons hit.
READ: Severe storms pummel South after 7 hurt in Arkansas tornado
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, mainly due to its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire and Pacific typhoon belt. On average, this archipelagic country experiences 20 typhoons every year, some of which are intense and destructive. Megi is the first storm to batter the Southeast Asian country this year.
Vietnam starts issuing vaccine passports
The Vietnamese health ministry Friday started issuing vaccine passports.
Vietnam's vaccine passport follows the standards of the World Health Organisation and the European Union, which are followed by 62 countries.
Read: Anti-virus shutdowns in China spread as infections rise
The passport will be available on PC Covid-19 or Digital Health apps. If people do not have the apps, they can get their passports by accessing the health ministry's portal and filling in the necessary information. They will then receive the passports by email.
The passport template was revealed by the health ministry in December last year, which has 11 fields of information such as name, date of birth, nationality, targeted disease, doses of vaccines received, date of vaccination, lot number of the vaccine batch, type of vaccine, vaccine product received, the vaccine manufacturer, and a code for the certification.
The name and date of birth will be integrated with other personal identification documents (passports or citizen identification cards).
Read: 30,000 Ukrainians returning home every day: UN
The information is encoded into a QR code, which will expire after 12 months. Following their expiry, people will be notified, and a new QR code will be created instead, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
So far, Vietnam has reached mutual recognition of vaccine passports with 19 countries, namely Japan, the US, the UK, Australia, India, Belarus, Cambodia, the Philippines, Palestine, the Maldives, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Turkey, Singapore, Saint Lucia, South Korea, Iran and Malaysia.
Anti-virus shutdowns in China spread as infections rise
Anti-virus controls that have shut down some of China’s biggest cities and fueled public irritation are spreading as infections rise, hurting a weak economy and prompting warnings of possible global shockwaves.
Shanghai is easing rules that confined most of its 25 million people to their homes after complaints they had trouble getting food. But most of its businesses still are closed. Access to Guangzhou, an industrial center of 19 million people near Hong Kong, was suspended this week. Other cities are cutting off access or closing factories and schools.
Also read: COVID outbreak 'extremely grim' as Shanghai extends lockdown
Spring planting by Chinese farmers who feed 1.4 billion people might be disrupted, Nomura economists warned Thursday. That could boost demand for imported wheat and other food, pushing up already high global prices.
The closures are an embarrassment to the ruling Communist Party and a setback for official efforts to shore up slumping growth in the world’s second-largest economy. They come during a sensitive year when President Xi Jinping is expected to try to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as leader.
Beijing has promised to reduce the human and economic cost of its “zero-COVID” strategy, but Xi on Wednesday ruled out joining the United States and other governments that are dropping restrictions and trying to live with the virus.
“Prevention and control work cannot be relaxed,” Xi said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. “Persistence is victory.”
The risk that China might tumble into recession is increasing, Ting Lu, Jing Wang and Harrison Zhang of Nomura warned in a report.
“The logistics crunch is worsening,” they said. “The markets should also be concerned about the delayed spring planting of grain in China.”
The government reported 29,411 new cases Thursday, all but 3,020 with no symptoms. Shanghai accounted for 95% of that total, or 27,719 cases. All but 2,573 had no symptoms.
A health official warned Wednesday that Shanghai didn’t have the virus under control despite its easing restrictions.
Some 6.6 million people were allowed to leave their homes in areas that had no new cases for at least a week. But at least 15 million others still are barred from going outdoors.
Most people have obeyed despite grumbling about shortages of food, medicine and access to elderly relatives who need help. But videos on the popular Sina Weibo social media service show some trading punches with police.
Grape Chen, a data analyst in Shanghai, said she was panicking about getting medicines for her father, who is recovering from a stroke. She called police after getting no response from an official hotline but was told quarantine rules bar officers from helping.
“We are willing to cooperate with the country,” Chen said. “But we also hope that our lives can be respected.”
The city government of Suzhou, a center for smartphone manufacturing and other high-tech industry west of Shanghai, told its 18 million people to stay home when possible.
Taiyuan, a blue-collar city of 4 million in central China, suspended inter-city bus service, according to the official China News Service. Ningde in the southeast barred residents from leaving.
A restaurant cook in Taiyuan said his family has been confined to their apartment compound since April 3 after cases were found in neighboring compounds.
“Our lives will be seriously affected if the restrictions last long,” said the cook, who would give only his surname, Chen.
“My wife and I are earning nothing,” Chen said. “We have three children to support.”
All but 13 of China’s 100 biggest cities by economic output are under some form of restrictions, according to Gavekal Dragonomics, a research firm.
“The intensity is increasing,” Gavekal said in a report this week.
The volume of cargo handled by the Shanghai port, the world’s busiest, has fallen 40%, according to an estimate by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. Automakers have suspended production due to disruption in deliveries of supplies.
Restrictions on areas that produce the world’s smartphones, consumer electronics and other goods are prompting forecasters to cut expectations for this year’s economic growth to as low as 5%, down sharply from last year’s 8.1% expansion.
The ruling party’s target is 5.5%. Growth slid to 4% over a year earlier in the final quarter of 2021 after tighter official controls on debt triggered a collapse in home sales and construction, industries that support millions of jobs.
Even before the latest shutdowns, the ruling party was promising tax refunds and other help for entrepreneurs who generate wealth and jobs.
Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader and top economic official, called this week for “quicker rollout” of aid for businesses that face a “key juncture for survival,” China News Service reported.
Also read: COVID-19 cases rise in Shanghai with millions under lockdown
Under a strategy dubbed “dynamic clearing,” authorities are trying to use more targeted measures to isolate neighborhoods instead of whole cities with populations bigger than some countries. But some local leaders are imposing more sweeping controls.
Shanghai leaders were criticized for trying to minimize economic damage by ordering testing but no shutdown once cases were found last month. A citywide shutdown was ordered with only a few hours’ warning after case numbers soared.
That was in contrast to Shenzhen, a tech and finance center of 17.5 million people near Hong Kong that closed the city March 13 after an outbreak and ordered mass testing. It reopened a week later and business returned to normal.
Guangzhou has imitated Shenzhen. Most access to the city of 19 million was suspended Monday and mass testing ordered after 27 infections were found.
Li Guanyu, a 31-year-old woman in Guangzhou, said residents can leave her apartment compound only once every other day to buy food but stores are well-stocked.
“This happened a bit suddenly,” said Li. “Maybe the Shanghai situation is so bad that Guangzhou started mass testing and lockdowns as soon as cases were discovered.”