asia
Sinking land forces hundreds to leave Indian temple town
Authorities in an Indian Himalayan town have stopped construction activities and started moving hundreds of people to temporary shelters after a temple collapsed and cracks appeared in over 600 houses because of sinking of land, officials said Saturday.
Residents of Joshimath town in Uttarakhand state say they started noticing cracks in houses, especially after 2021 floods in the region. No injury was reported in the temple collapse late Friday and those living nearby had vacated the area a day earlier.
Himanshu Khurana, a district administrator, said more than 60 families have been moved to government relief camps. The number is likely to go up to 600 families, media reports said.
Television images also showed cracks in roads, hampering the movement of vehicles.
Ranjit Sinha, a top state disaster management official, said the immediate cause of the cracks “seems to be the faulty drainage system, which has resulted in water seepage under the houses that has led to their sinking.”
The government will pay 4,000 rupees ($50) per month for six months to those rendered homeless in Joshimath, a temple town of around 25,000 people that sits at an altitude of 1,890 meters (6,200 feet) and falls on key Hindu pilgrim as well as trekking circuits, Khurana said.
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Tens of thousands of devotees heading for Badrinath and Him Kund Sahib, key Hindu and Sikh pilgrimage sites, pass through Joshimath, 490 kilometers (305 miles) northeast of New Delhi. The huge flow of pilgrims and tourists saw the town expanding exponentially over the years with the massive construction of buildings and roadways, which some experts have linked to land subsidence.
The construction activities that were temporarily halted include the Chardham all-weather road — a flagship federal government enterprise to connect various Hindu pilgrimage sites, a project to set up trolleys pulled by ropes to carry pilgrims and tourists in nearby Auli, and hydropower stations.
The region witnessed a devastating cloudburst — an extreme rainfall in a short time — that resulted in the death of hundreds in 2013 as well as severe flooding in 2021. Experts say fast shrinking glaciers, in part due to climate change, is also another reason the region is hit by repeated disasters.
“Between 2015 and mid-2021, at least 7,750 extreme rainfall and cloudburst instances have been noted in Uttarakhand. Such instances are detrimental to Joshimath as they may increase the number of impacted buildings, eventually exacerbating the vulnerability of the locals,” said Kavita Upadhyay, a water-policy expert who is currently a research associate in the Oslo Metropolitan University’s Riverine Rights project.
Upadhyay, who is from Uttarakhand and lives in the region, said unabated large-scale infrastructure projects as well as uncontrolled tourist inflow have also contributed to land sinking.
“The slopes of Joshimath are formed from landslide debris. This means that there’s a limit to which the town can be burdened by buildings or disturbed by activities such as the construction of big infrastructure projects like dams and roads.”
A study by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority has warned that construction by removing boulders and blasting the hillside would lead to severe environmental damage.
In May last year, Meera Rawat, a resident, was startled while cooking in the kitchen when she heard a gurgling sound of water flowing underneath the floor.
“That day, I realized something bad was going to happen in our town of Joshimath. In September, I saw a small crack in the floor. In December, it widened, and we vacated the house,” Meera said.
Iran executes 2 more men detained amid nationwide protests
Iran said it executed two men Saturday convicted of allegedly killing a paramilitary volunteer during a demonstration, the latest executions aimed at halting the nationwide protests now challenging the country's theocracy.
Iran’s judiciary identified those executed as Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini, making it four men known to have been executed since the demonstrations began in September over the death of Mahsa Amini. All have faced internationally criticized, rapid, closed-door trials.
The judiciary's Mizan news agency said the men had been convicted of killing Ruhollah Ajamian, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's volunteer Basij Force, in the city of Karaj outside of Tehran on Nov. 3. The Basij have deployed in major cities, attacking and detaining protesters, who in many cases have fought back.
Heavily edited footage aired on state television showed Karami speaking before a Revolutionary Court about the attack, which also showed a reenactment of the attack according to prosecutors' claims. Iran's Revolutionary Courts handed down the two other death sentences already carried out.
Read more: Iran executes first known prisoner arrested in protests
The tribunals don’t allow those on trial to pick their own lawyers or even see the evidence against them. Amnesty International has said the trials “bore no resemblance to a meaningful judicial proceeding.”
State TV also aired footage of Karami and Hosseini talking about the attack, though the broadcaster for years has aired what activists describe as coerced confessions.
The men were convicted of the killing, as well as “corruption on Earth,” a Quranic term and charge that has been levied against others in the decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and carries the death penalty.
Activists say at least 16 people have been sentenced to death in closed-door hearings over charges linked to the protests. Death sentences in Iran are typically carried out by hanging.
At least 517 protesters have been killed and over 19,200 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has closely monitored the unrest. Iranian authorities have not provided an official count of those killed or detained.
Read more: Iran execution: Man publicly hanged from crane amid protests
The protests began in mid-September, when 22-year-old Amini died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Women have played a leading role in the protests, with many publicly stripping off the compulsory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab.
The protests mark one of the biggest challenges to Iran's theocracy since the 1979 revolution. Security forces have used live ammunition, bird shot, tear gas and batons to disperse protesters, according to rights groups.
China suspends social media accounts of over 1,000 critics of govt’s Covid-19 policies
China has suspended or closed the social media accounts of more than 1,000 critics of the government’s policies on the COVID-19 outbreak, as the country moves to further open up.
The popular Sina Weibo social media platform said it had addressed 12,854 violations including attacks on experts, scholars and medical workers and issued temporary or permanent bans on 1,120 accounts.
The ruling Communist Party had largely relied on the medical community to justify its harsh lockdowns, quarantine measures and mass testing, almost all of which it abruptly abandoned last month, leading to a surge in new cases that have stretched medical resources to their limits. The party allows no direct criticism and imposes strict limits on free speech.
The company “will continue to increase the investigation and cleanup of all kinds of illegal content, and create a harmonious and friendly community environment for the majority of users," Sina Weibo said in a statement dated Thursday.
Criticism has largely focused on open-ended travel restrictions that saw people confined to their homes for weeks, sometimes without adequate food or medical care. Anger was also vented over the requirement that anyone who potentially tested positive or had been in contact with such a person be confined for observation in a field hospital, where overcrowding, poor food and hygiene were commonly cited.
The social and economic costs eventually prompted rare street protests in Beijing and other cities, possibly influencing the party's decision to swiftly ease the strictest measures.
Read more: China reduces COVID-19 case number reporting as virus surges
China is now facing a surge in cases and hospitalizations in major cities and is bracing for a further spread into less developed areas with the start of the Lunar New Year travel rush, set to get underway in coming days. While international flights are still reduced, authorities say they expect domestic rail and air journeys will double over the same period last year, bringing overall numbers close to those of the 2019 holiday period before the pandemic hit.
The Transportation Ministry on Friday called on travelers to reduce trips and gatherings, particularly if they involve elderly people, pregnant women, small children and those with underlying conditions.
People using public transport are also urged to wear masks and pay special attention to their health and personal hygiene, Vice Minister Xu Chengguang told reporters at a briefing.
Nonetheless, China is forging ahead with a plan to end mandatory quarantines for people arriving from abroad beginning on Sunday.
Beijing also plans to drop a requirement for students at city schools to have a negative COVID-19 test to enter campus when classes resume Feb. 13 after the holiday break. While schools will be allowed to move classes online in the event of new outbreaks, they must return to in-person instruction as soon as possible, the city education bureau said in a statement Friday.
However, the end to mass testing, a lack of basic data such as the number of deaths, infections and severe cases, and the potential emergence of new variants have prompted governments elsewhere to institute virus testing requirements for travelers from China.
The World Health Organization has also expressed concern about the lack of data from China, while the U.S. is requiring a negative test result for travelers from China within 48 hours of departure.
Chinese health authorities publish a daily count of new cases, severe cases and deaths, but those numbers include only officially confirmed cases and use a very narrow definition of COVID-related deaths.
China has said the testing requirements aren’t science-based and has threatened unspecified countermeasures. Its spokespeople have said the situation is under control, and reject accusations of a lack of preparation for reopening.
If a variant emerges in an outbreak, it is found through genetic sequencing of the virus.
Since the pandemic started, China has shared 4,144 sequences with GISAID, a global platform for coronavirus data. That’s only 0.04% of its reported number of cases — a rate more than 100 times less than the United States and nearly four times less than neighboring Mongolia.
Read more: Is China sharing enough COVID-19 information?
Meanwhile, Hong Kong also plans to reopen some of its border crossings with mainland China on Sunday and allow tens of thousands of people to cross every day without being quarantined.
The semi-autonomous southern Chinese city has been hard-hit by the virus and its land and sea border checkpoints with the mainland have been largely closed for almost three years. Despite the risk, the reopening is expected to provide a much-needed boost to Hong Kong’s tourism and retail sectors.
Is China sharing enough COVID-19 information?
As COVID-19 rips through China, other countries and the World Health Organization are calling on its government to share more comprehensive data on the outbreak. Some even say many of the numbers it's reporting are meaningless.
Without basic data like the number of deaths, infections and severe cases, governments elsewhere have instituted virus testing requirements for travelers from China. Beijing has said the measures aren't science-based and threatened countermeasures.
Of greatest concern is whether new variants will emerge from the mass infection unfolding in China and spread to other countries. The delta and omicron variants developed in places that also had large outbreaks, which can be a breeding ground for new variants.
Read More: WHO 'continues to urge' China to share more data amid Covid surge
Here's a look at what's going on with China's COVID-19 data:
WHAT IS CHINA SHARING AND NOT SHARING?
Chinese health authorities publish a daily count of new cases, severe cases and deaths, but those numbers include only officially confirmed cases and use a very narrow definition of COVID-related deaths.
China is most certainly doing their own sampling studies but just not sharing them, said Ray Yip, who founded the U.S. Centers for Disease Control office in China.
The nationwide tally for Thursday was 9,548 new cases and five deaths, but some local governments are releasing much higher estimates just for their jurisdictions. Zhejiang, a province on the east coast, said Tuesday it was seeing about 1 million new cases a day.
If a variant emerges in an outbreak, it's found through genetic sequencing of the virus.
Since the pandemic started, China has shared 4,144 sequences with GISAID, a global platform for coronavirus data. That's only 0.04% of its reported number of cases — a rate more than 100 times less than the United States and nearly four times less than neighboring Mongolia.
Read more: Beijing threatens response to ‘unacceptable’ virus measures
WHAT IS KNOWN AND WHAT CAN BE FIGURED OUT?
So far, no new variants have shown up in the sequences shared by China. The versions fueling infections in China “closely resemble” those that have been seen in other parts of the world since July, GISAID said. Dr. Gagandeep Kang, who studies viruses at the Christian Medical College of Vellore in India, agreed, saying there wasn’t anything particularly worrisome in the data so far.
That hasn't stopped at least 10 countries — including the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, the U.K., France, Spain and Italy — from announcing virus testing requirements for passengers from China. The European Union strongly encouraged all its member states to do so this week.
Health officials have defended the testing as a surveillance measure that helps fill an information gap from China. This means countries can get a read on any changes in the virus through testing, even if they don’t have complete data from China.
“We don’t need China to study that, all we have to do is to test all the people coming out of China,” said Yip, the former public health official.
Canada and Belgium said they will look for viral particles in wastewater on planes arriving from China.
“It is like an early warning system for authorities to anticipate whether there’s a surge of infections coming in,” said Dr. Khoo Yoong Khean, a scientific officer at the Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness in Singapore.
Read More: EU, Beijing heading for collision over China’s COVID crisis
IS CHINA SHARING ENOUGH INFORMATION?
Chinese officials have repeatedly said they are sharing information, pointing to the sequences given to GISAID and meetings with the WHO.
But WHO officials have repeatedly asked for more — not just on genetic sequencing but also on hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern this week about the risk to life in China.
“Data remains essential for WHO to carry out regular, rapid and robust risk assessments of the global situation,” the head of the U.N. health agency said.
The Chinese government often holds information from its own public, particularly anything that reflects negatively on the ruling Communist Party. State media have shied away from the dire reports of a spike in cremations and people racing from hospital to hospital to try to get treatment as the health system reaches capacity. Government officials have accused foreign media of hyping the situation.
Khoo, noting that South Africa’s early warning about omicron led to bans on travelers from the country, said there is a need to foster an environment where countries can share data without fear of repercussions.
Read More: Lack of info on China’s COVID-19 surge stirs global concern
If Indians and Chinese cooperate, the world will benefit: Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama says that if China, a traditionally Buddhist nation, adopted the ancient Indian knowledge embodied in the concepts of “ahimsa” and “karuna”, and if more than 2.5 billion individuals in both nations worked to cultivate inner peace, the entire world would benefit.
India has made significant advancements over the years, particularly in the domains of science and technology, but inner disarmament is just as crucial as exterior disarmament, he observed, according to a PTI report.
In an exclusive essay in Manorama Year Book 2023, the 87-year-old spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism wrote: “In this regard, I genuinely feel that India can play a leading role, thanks to its great tradition of peaceful understanding rooted in the treasures of ‘ahimsa’ and ‘karuna’.”
The Dalai Lama further wrote, “Such wisdom is beyond any one religion and it has the potential to encourage a more integrated and ethically grounded way of being in contemporary society. Therefore, I encourage everyone to try to cultivate ‘karuna’ (compassion) and ‘ahimsa’ (doing no harm).”
He asserted that seeking inner peace is more significant than pursuing worldly advancement and sensual pleasure if individuals are to bring about world peace.
Read more: New Tibetan exile president open to reaching out to China
“Compassion is a marvel of human nature, a precious inner resource and the foundation of both our individual well-being and harmony within society. From the moment we are born, our mother takes care of us. Therefore, from a very young age, we learn that compassion is the root of all happiness,” remarked the 14th Dalai Lama, also known to the Tibetans as Gyalwa Rinpoche.
The Dalai Lama praised Mahatma Gandhi as the embodiment of “ahimsa”, and said he was tremendously moved by the ideal he upheld, which was also upheld by Dr. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.
“In the past, we Tibetans frequently viewed Indians as our gurus and considered ourselves to be their ‘chelas’, or followers.” He also expressed gratitude to India for welcoming Tibetan refugees, giving their children the chance to go to school, and giving monks from Tibet’s great centres of learning the chance to resume their studies. However, over time, in some ways, the roles seem to have been reversed, and now perhaps the “chela” is in a position to return the treasures.
Despite conceptual disagreements, the Dalai Lama stated that as a person, he is dedicated to fostering the oneness of mankind and promoting harmony across the world’s religious traditions.R
Read more: India to offer shelter to Rohingyas in Delhi
Afghan Taliban kill 8 in raids of IS hideouts in Afghanistan
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban killed eight Islamic State militants and arrested nine others in a series of raids targeting key figures in a spate of attacks in Kabul, a senior Taliban government spokesman said Thursday.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban government, said the raids in the capital city and western Nimroz province on Wednesday targeted IS militants who organized recent attacks on Kabul’s Longan Hotel, Pakistan’s embassy and the military airport.
Eight IS fighters, including foreign nationals, were killed and seven others arrested in Kabul, while a separate operation in western Nimroz province resulted in two more IS arrests, Mujahid said.
“These members had a main role in the attack on the Chinese hotel and paved the way for foreign IS members to come to Afghanistan,” Mujahid said in a tweet.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing near a checkpoint at the Afghan capital’s military airport Sunday. IS said that attack was carried out by the same militant who took part in the Longan Hotel assault in mid-December.
The regional affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province and a key rival of the Taliban — has increased its attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021. Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.
Read more: Roadside bomb kills 6 people in north Afghanistan: Taliban
IS published a photo of the attacker, identifying him as Abdul Jabbar, saying he withdrew safely from the attack on the hotel after he ran out of ammunition. It added he detonated his explosives-laden vest targeting the soldiers gathered at the checkpoint.
Mujahid said light weapons, hand grenades, mines, vests and explosives were confiscated by the Taliban’s security forces during the raids on an IS hideout in the Shahdai Salehin neighborhood. Local residents reported sounds of several explosions and an hourslong gun battle.
The Taliban swept across the country in August 2021, seizing power as U.S. and NATO forces were in the last weeks of their final withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
Read more: Taliban: 2 civilians killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan
Beds run out at Beijing hospital as COVID brings more sick
Patients, most of them elderly, are lying on stretchers in hallways and taking oxygen while sitting in wheelchairs as COVID-19 surges in China’s capital Beijing.
The Chuiyangliu hospital in the city’s east was packed with newly arrived patients on Thursday. By midmorning beds had run out, even as ambulances continued to bring those in need.
Hard-pressed nurses and doctors rushed to take information and triage the most urgent cases.
The surge in severely ill people needing hospital care follows China abandonment of its most severe pandemic restrictions last month after nearly three years of lockdowns, travels bans and school closures that weighed heavily on the economy and prompted street protests not seen since the late 1980s.
It also comes as the the European Union on Wednesday “strongly encouraged” its member states to impose pre-departure COVID-19 testing of passengers from China.
Over the past week, EU nations have reacted with a variety of restrictions toward travelers from China, disregarding an earlier commitment to act in unity.
Italy — where the pandemic first exacted a heavy toll in Europe in early 2020 — was the first EU member to require coronavirus tests for airline passengers coming from China, but France and Spain quickly followed with their own measures. That followed the imposition by the U.S. of a requirement that all passengers from China show a negative test result obtained in the previous 48 hours before departure.
China has warned of “countermeasures” if such policies were to be imposed across the bloc.
Still, World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday he was concerned about the lack of outbreak data from the Chinese government.
China has sought to get more of its elderly population vaccinated, but those efforts have been hampered by past scandals involving fake medications and previous warnings about adverse reactions to the vaccines among older people.
China’s domestically developed vaccines are also considered less effective than the mRNA jabs used elsewhere.
Philippines seeks to cleanse police force of drug ties
The Philippines’ interior secretary announced Wednesday he has asked all police generals and full colonels to submit their courtesy resignation to clean the ranks of ties to illegal drugs.
Around 300 officers are covered by the directive, which was recommended by the national police chief, who will also submit his courtesy resignation, Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. said in a news conference.
“It appears that there is a big problem in our police force. It appears there are generals and colonels involved in drugs,” he said. “We need to clean our ranks. We need the trust of the people.”
More than a dozen police officers were arrested or relieved from their posts and put under investigation last year for their involvement or suspected involvement in the drug trade. Abalos cited a recent case of law enforcers selling drugs in their office. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency was also subject to raids, arrests and dismissals in recent months.
Read more: Philippines seizes huge drugs stash, arrests Chinese
Former President Rodrigo Duterte has earned international condemnation for his lethal war on drugs, which — according to police data — left over 6,200 suspects dead. Human rights groups have cited higher death tolls and accused some police officers of fabricating evidence to make it appear that victims violently resisted arrest.
In November, Philippine National Police Chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said he directed law enforcers to minimize killings of people engaged in drug activities.
Abalos said it’s difficult to fight a war against illegal drugs if supposed allies could shoot your back, and the resignations aim to prevent erring officers from covering their tracks or filing trumped-up charges.
A committee will be formed to review the records of police officials to determine if they are involved in the illegal drug trade, he said, adding that those who are not involved have nothing to worry about.
Read more: Floods in Philippines leave 51 dead, over a dozen missing
Japan's PM Kishida vows deeper alliance with US on defense
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday pledged to deepen his country's alliance with the United States under Japan's new defense policy that breaks from its exclusively self-defense-only stance in the face of growing regional tensions.
Kishida, speaking in a news conference after visiting Ise Shrine in central Japan, said he will visit Washington for talks with President Joe Biden to underscore the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance and highlight closer cooperation between the countries under Japan's new security and defense strategies adopted last month.
The U.S. visit is part of Kishida's upcoming trip to most of the Group of Seven countries beginning Monday. Japan will host this year's G-7 summit in Hiroshima. Kishida said his meeting with Biden will be “very important" and "more significant than showing my face as G-7 president.”
“We will show to the rest of the world an even stronger Japan-U.S. alliance, which is a lynchpin of Japanese security and diplomacy,” Kishida said. “We will also show our further cooperation toward achieving a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific.’”
Also Read: New Japanese envoy exchanges views on bilateral interests with foreign secretary
Japan, under the new security and defense plans, is purchasing hundreds of U.S.-developed Tomahawks and other long-range cruise missiles to preempt possible attacks and also building up defenses in southwestern Japan amid growing worries of a Taiwan emergency. Japanese media said the U.S. and Japan are expected to discuss how they would cooperate in the event of a conflict over Taiwan.
Earlier Wednesday, the White House announced that Biden will host Kishida for economic and security consultations on Jan. 13.
Biden and Kishida are expected to discuss North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, amid concerns over the potential for another nuclear test by the reclusive nation, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, stability across the Taiwan Strait, climate change and economic issues, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The two leaders last met in Bali, Indonesia, during November’s Group of 20 summit.
Kishida will also visit France, Italy, Britain and Canada to meet their leaders during his Jan. 9-15 trip, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.
Kishida on Wednesday also vowed to tackle Japan's dire problem of declining births, while pushing his “new capitalism” policy that he said will generate a “virtuous cycle of growth and distribution of wealth” to achieve a steady increase in salaries that have stalled for decades.
The number of babies born in Japan last year is expected to fall to a new record below 800,000 as part of a steady decline that is seen as eroding national strength.
“We cannot wait any longer,” Kishida said. “From an economic perspective, we also need to allay the concerns of those saying they cannot invest in Japan because it's shrinking from declining births.”
Kishida said the government will do more to expand support for childcare and reduce gender gaps in salaries and working environments to lower barriers for women.
Japan is the world’s third-biggest economy but living costs are high and wage increases have been slow. The conservative government has lagged in making society more inclusive for children, women and minorities.
So far, the government’s efforts to encourage people to have more babies has had limited impact despite introducing subsidy payments for pregnancy, childbirth and child care.
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Associated Press White House correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
Pakistan orders malls to close early amid economic crisis
Authorities on Wednesday ordered shopping malls and markets to close by 8:30 p.m. as part of a new energy conservation plan aimed at easing Pakistan's economic crisis, officials said. The move comes amid talks with the International Monetary Fund.
On Tuesday, Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif and Minister for Power Ghultam Dastghir said the government decided to shut establishments early as part of the new energy conservation plan approved by the Cabinet. Authorities also ordered wedding halls and restaurants to shut at 10 p.m.
The government expects these measures to save energy and curtail the costs of imported oil, for which Pakistan spends $3 billion annually. In Pakistan, most of the electricity is generated by using imported oil.
So far, there has been a mixed reaction from representatives of shopping malls, restaurants and shop owners who want the government to reverse the decision.
Many Pakistanis do their shopping and dine at restaurants as late as midnight.
Also Read: Pakistan troops search for attackers after 6 soldiers killed
Business leaders say the new measures will have a negative impact on their establishments, which suffered during the pandemic under government-imposed lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Since 2021, the coronavirus has caused 36,000 deaths out of 1.5 million cases in Pakistan.
Pakistan is currently in talks with the IMF to soften some conditions on its $6 billion bailout, which the government thinks will cause a further increase in inflation.
The fund released the last crucial tranche of $1.1 billion to cash-strapped Pakistan in August. Since then, there has been a stalemate in talks between the two parties.
Pakistan says last summer's devastating floods caused up to $40 billion in damages to the country's economy, making it difficult for the government to comply with some of the IMF's conditions, including increases in the price of gas and electricity and new taxes.