asia
Afghan forces shell border town, killing 6: Pakistani army
Deadly shelling from Afghan forces killed 6 people in a border town on Sunday, Pakistan's military said, as relations continue to sour between the neighboring countries.
The violence hitting Chaman in southwestern Pakistan follows a series of deadly incidents and attacks that have skyrocketed tensions with Afghanistan's Taliban rulers. Chaman is the main border crossing for trade between the countries.
Read more: Taliban official: 27 people lashed in public in Afghanistan
The Pakistani army's media wing said the fire wounded 17 people and blamed the casualties on the “unprovoked and indiscriminate fire” of heavy weapons by Afghan forces on civilians.
In Afghanistan, a spokesman for Kandahar’s governor, Ataullah Zaid, appeared to link the clashes between Pakistani and Taliban forces with the construction of new checkpoints on the Afghan side of the border. He said one Taliban fighter was killed and 10 were wounded. Three civilians were also injured, he added.
Pakistan's army said troops responded to Afghan fire, but its media wing didn't give further details. It said Pakistan has approached authorities in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to highlight the severity of the border incident.
A doctor with a government-run hospital in Chaman, Akhtar Mohammad, told The Associated Press that live rounds injured 27 people who were brought into hospital for treatment. Of these, six died and seven were in a critical condition.
Read more: Roadside bomb kills 6 people in north Afghanistan: Taliban
A resident on Pakistan's side of the border, Wali Mohammad took his wounded cousin to the hospital in Chaman. He said there were a number of explosions followed by rapid gunfire.
“We were in the street like any other day off when suddenly a big explosion was heard and debris hit many people, including one of my cousins,” said Mohammad.
A deadly shooting in November shuttered the border at Chaman for eight days, causing heavy commercial losses and leaving thousands of people stranded on both sides.
Later in the month, Pakistan's embassy in Kabul came under gunfire. Pakistani officials called the incident an attack on its envoy there and blamed Taliban officials for the security breach. Islamabad also has said Afghanistan's rulers are sheltering militants who carry out deadly attacks on its soil.
China struggles with COVID infections after controls ease
A rash of COVID-19 cases in schools and businesses were reported by social media users Friday in areas across China after the ruling Communist Party loosened anti-virus rules as it tries to reverse a deepening economic slump.
Official data showed a fall in new cases, but those no longer cover big parts of the population after the government on Wednesday ended mandatory testing for many people. That was part of dramatic changes aimed at gradually emerging from “zero-COVID” restrictions that have confined millions of people to their homes and sparked protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to resign.
Social media users in Beijing and other cities said coworkers or classmates were ill and some businesses closed due to lack of staff. It wasn’t clear from those accounts, many of which couldn’t be independently confirmed, how far above the official figure the total case numbers might be.
“I’m really speechless. Half of the company’s people are out sick, but they still won’t let us all stay home,” said a post signed Tunnel Mouth on the popular Sina Weibo platform. The user gave no name and didn’t respond to questions sent through the account, which said the user was in Beijing.
The reports echo the experience of the United States, Europe and other economies that have struggled with outbreaks while trying to restore business activity. But they are a jarring change for China, where “zero COVID,” which aims to isolate every case, disrupted daily life and depressed economic activity but kept infection rates low.
Xi’s government began to loosen controls Nov. 11 after promising to reduce their cost and disruption. Imports tumbled 10.9% from a year ago in November in a sign of weak demand. Auto sales fell 26.5% in October.
“Relaxing Covid controls will lead to greater outbreaks,” said Neil Thomas and Laura Gloudeman of Eurasia Group in a report, “but Beijing is unlikely to return to the extended blanket lockdowns that crashed the economy earlier this year.”
Read: China eases controls, gives no sign when ‘zero COVID’ ends
The changes suggest the ruling party is easing off its goal of preventing virus transmission, the basis of “zero COVID,” but officials say that strategy still is in effect.
Restrictions probably must stay in place at least through mid-2023, public health experts and economists say. They say millions of elderly people need to be vaccinated, which will take months, and hospitals strengthened to cope with a surge in cases. Officials announced a vaccination campaign last week.
On Friday, the government reported 16,797 new cases, including 13,160 without symptoms. That was down about one-fifth from the previous day and less than half of last week’s daily peak above 40,000.
More changes announced Wednesday allow people with mild COVID-19 cases to isolate at home instead of going to a quarantine center that some complained were crowded and unsanitary. That addressed a major irritant for the public.
A requirement for subway riders, supermarket shoppers and others to show negative virus tests also was dropped, though they still are needed for schools and hospitals.
A post signed Where Dreams Begin Under Starlight by a user in Dazhou, a southwestern city in Sichuan province, said all but five students in a public school class of 46 were infected.
“It’s really amazing that the school insists students go to school,” the user wrote. The user didn’t respond to a question sent through the account.
The requirement for hundreds of millions of people to be tested as often as once a day in some areas over the past two years helped the government spot infections with no symptoms. Ending that approach reduces the cost of monitoring employees and customers at offices, shops and other businesses. But it increases the risk they might spread the virus.
This week’s changes follow protests that erupted Nov. 25 in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities against the human cost of “zero COVID.”
It isn’t clear whether any of the changes were a response to protests, which died out following a security crackdown.
The ruling party’s Politburo on Wednesday declared stabilizing weak economic growth its priority, though leaders have said local officials still are expected to protect the public.
“The re-pivot to growth and the exit from zero-Covid are clear from the top level,” said Larry Hu and Yuxiao Zhang of Macquarie Group, an Australian bank, in a report. However, they warned, “uncertainties remain high,” including “how disruptive the exit of zero-Covid could be.”
Party leaders stopped talking about the official 5.5% annual growth target after the economy shrank by 2.6% from the previous quarter in the three months ending in June. That was after Shanghai and other industrial centers shut down for up to two months to fight outbreaks.
Private sector economists have cut forecasts of annual growth to as low as below 3%, which would be less than half of last year’s 8.1% and among the weakest in decades.
Social media posts suggested some cities might have outbreaks that weren’t reflected in official figures.
Read: China reports 2 new COVID deaths as some restrictions eased
Posts dated Thursday by 18 people who said they were in Baoding, a city of 11 million southwest of Beijing, reported they tested positive using home kits or had fevers, sore throats and headaches. Meanwhile, the Baoding city government reported no new cases since Tuesday.
Drugstores were mobbed by customers who bought medications to treat sore throats and headaches after rules were dropped that required pharmacists to report those purchases, prompting fears a customer might be forced into a quarantine center.
Also Friday, the market regulator announced prices of some medicines including Lianhua Qingwen, a traditional flu treatment, rose as much as 500% over the past month. It said sellers might be punished for price-gouging.
Lines formed outside hospitals, though it wasn’t clear how many people wanted treatment for COVID-19 symptoms.
People waited four to five hours to get into the fever clinic of Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing, according to a woman who answered the phone there and would give only her surname, Sun. She said no virus test was required but patients had to show a smartphone “health code” app that tracks their vaccine status and whether they have been to areas deemed at high risk of infection.
Hong Kong, which enforces its own anti-virus strategy, has faced a similar rise in cases as the southern Chinese city tries to revive its struggling economy by loosening controls on travel and the opening hours of restaurants and pubs.
Hong Kong reported 75,000 new cases over the past week, up about 25% from the previous week. But those don’t include an unknown number of people who stay at home with COVID-19 symptoms and never report to the government.
Taliban official: 27 people lashed in public in Afghanistan
Twenty-seven people were lashed in public on Thursday in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan as punishment for alleged adultery, theft, drug offenses and other crimes, according to a court official.
Afghanistan’s new authorities have implemented hard-line policies since they took over the country in August 2021 that have underlined their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia.
The country’s Supreme Court issued the final rulings after appeals. In a statement, the court said the lashings took place in the northern province of Parwan, with 18 men and nine women punished in all.
Abdul Rahim Rashid, an official with the court, said the men and women were each lashed between 25 to 39 times. An unspecified number of those punished also received two-year prison terms in Charakar, the provincial capital, he added.
The lashings were carried out before a “public gathering of locals and officials,” Rashid added.
Read: Rights group: Taliban unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras
Provincial officials and local residents attended the public punishments, during which officials spoke about the importance of Sharia law, added the court statement.
Thursday’s lashings come a day after the Taliban authorities executed an Afghan convicted of killing another man, the first public execution since the former insurgents returned to power last year.
The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the victim’s father, took place in western Farah province before hundreds of spectators and many top Taliban officials, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, the top government spokesman. Some officials came from the capital Kabul.
The execution was met with international criticism. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “the death penalty cannot be reconciled with full respect for the right to life,” spokeswoman Stephanie Tremblay said.
In comments late Wednesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. condemned the public execution. Price said the Taliban’s future relationship with Washington depended “largely on their actions when it comes to human rights.”
No foreign state has officially recognized the Taliban government that took over as U.S. and NATO troops withdrew last year. The Taliban formerly ruled Afghanistan before the U.S. invasion of 2001.
On Thursday, spokesman Mujahid rejected international criticisms of the Taliban government.
“Unfortunately, a number of countries and institutions still do not have a proper knowledge and understanding of Afghanistan,” he said.
Read: Now silent under Taliban, a Kabul cinema awaits its fate
Mujahid pointed out that capital punishment was practiced in many other countries including the United States.
A separate court statement said that earlier this week, three men convicted of theft were lashed in public in the eastern province of Paktika.
During the previous Taliban rule of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the group carried out public executions, floggings and stonings.
After they overran Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban initially promised to allow for women’s and minority rights. Instead, they have restricted rights and freedoms, including imposing a ban on girl’s education beyond the sixth grade.
The former insurgents have struggled in their transition from warfare to governing amid an economic downturn and the international community’s withdrawal of aid.
Sri Lanka's Parliamant approves budget amid economic crisis
Sri Lanka's Parliament approved a budget Thursday that includes reforms aimed at improving the country's finances as it attempts to recover from its worst economic crisis.
The 5.82 trillion rupee ($15 billion) budget includes a 43 billion rupee ($117 million) relief package for those affected by the crisis.
The budget provides for a restructuring of state-owned enterprises, reduced subsidies for electricity, and tax increases to boost state revenue based on proposals by the International Monetary Fund under a preliminary $2.9 billion bailout plan.
Read more: Bangladesh Bank asks banks to stop ACU transactions with Sri Lanka
Unsustainable government debt, a severe balance of payments crisis and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a shortage of essentials such as fuel, medicine and food, and soaring prices have caused severe hardships for most Sri Lankans. Many have lost their jobs because businesses have become unsustainable.
The government announced in April that it was suspending repayment of nearly $7 billion in foreign debt due this year. It has since entered a preliminary agreement with the IMF, which has agreed to provide $2.9 billion over four years depending on the willingness of Sri Lanka's creditors to restructure their loans.
Sri Lanka's total foreign debt exceeds $51 billion, of which $28 billion has to be repaid by 2027.
The economic meltdown triggered a political crisis in which thousands of protesters stormed the official residence of the president in July, forcing then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and later resign.
Read more: IMF agrees to provide crisis-hit Sri Lanka $2.9 billion
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who succeeded Rajapaksa, has somewhat reduced the shortages of fuel and cooking gas, but power outages continue, along with shortages of imported medicines.
Bombing at Indonesian police station kills officer, hurts 7
A man blew himself up Wednesday at a police station on Indonesia’s main island of Java, killing an officer and wounding seven people, officials said, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of suicide attacks blamed on Muslim militants.
The attacker entered the Astana Anyar police station with a motorcycle and detonated explosives as police were lining up for a morning assembly, said Bandung city Police Chief Aswin Sipayung.
An officer died, six were wounded and were rushed to a hospital together with a civilian who was also hurt in the attack, said West Java Police spokesperson Ibrahim Tompo.
Read: 2 dead as bomber hits Pakistan police protecting polio teams
A video that circulated on social media showed body parts near the damaged lobby of the police station. Television reports showed white smoke billowing from the building and people running in panic following a loud bang.
Police were investigating if the attacker, who was not identified, had links to radical groups.
West Java Police Chief Suntana said the man brought two bombs but one apparently failed to explode and was defused.
Suntana, who goes by a single name, said that police found a paper taped to the perpetrator’s motorbike with the words, “Criminal code is the law of infidels, let’s fight the satanic law enforcers.”
Indonesia’s Parliament on Tuesday passed a new criminal code that bans sex outside of marriage and insulting the president and state institutions.
The current penal code is a Dutch colonial legacy. A revised code was poised for passage in 2019, but President Widodo urged lawmakers to delay a vote amid mounting public criticism that led to nationwide protests as opponents said it contained articles that discriminated against minorities and that the legislative process lacked transparency.
Read: Indonesian football match stampede: Death toll climbs to 174
Indonesia has battled militants since bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Attacks aimed at foreigners have largely been replaced in recent years with smaller, less deadly strikes targeting the government, police and anti-terrorism forces and people who militants consider infidels.
A similar attack occurred in 2019, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a busy police station in Medan, Indonesia’s third-largest city, wounding at least six people.
In May 2018, two families carried out a series of suicide bombings on churches in the city of Surabaya, killing a dozen people including two young girls whose parents had involved them in one of the attacks. Police said the father was the leader of a local affiliate of Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Anshorut Daulah.
Last year, two attackers believed to be members of a militant network that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group blew themselves up outside a packed Roman Catholic cathedral during a Palm Sunday Mass on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing the two attackers and wounding at least 20 people.
Indonesia’s Parliament votes to ban sex outside of marriage
Indonesia’s Parliament unanimously voted on Tuesday to ban sex outside of marriage and insulting the president and state institutions.
Once in force, the bans will affect foreign visitors as well as citizens. They’re part of an overhaul of the country’s criminal code that has been in the works for years. The new code also expands an existing blasphemy law and keeps a five-year prison term for deviations from the central tenets of Indonesia’s six recognized religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. The code still needs approval from the president, and the government says it will not be fully implemented for several years.
The amended code says sex outside marriage is punishable by a year in jail and cohabitation by six months, but adultery charges must be based on police reports lodged by a spouse, parents or children.
Citizens could also face a 10-year prison term for associating with organizations that follow Marxist-Leninist ideology and a four-year sentence for spreading communism.
Rights groups criticized some of the revisions as overly broad or vague and warned that adding them to the code could penalize normal activities and threaten freedom of expression and privacy rights.
However, some advocates hailed the passage as a victory for the country’s LGBTQ community. After fierce deliberation, lawmakers eventually agreed to remove an article proposed by Islamic groups that would have made gay sex illegal.
The revised code also preserves the death penalty, despite calls from the National Commission on Human Rights and other groups to abolish capital punishment. But the new code adds a 10-year probationary period to the death penalty. If the convict behaves well during this period, their sentence will be reduced to life imprisonment or 20 years’ imprisonment.
The code maintains a previous ban on abortion, but updates it to add exceptions already provided in a 2004 Medical Practice Law, for women with life-threatening medical conditions and for rape, provided that the fetus is less than 12 weeks old.
Under Indonesian regulations, legislation passed by Parliament becomes law after being signed by the president. But even without the president’s signature, it automatically takes effect after 30 days unless the president issues a regulation to cancel it.
Read more: Indonesia approves legislation criminalizing sex outside marriage for citizens and foreigners
President Joko Widodo is widely expected to sign the revised code in light of its extended approval process in Parliament. But the law is likely to gradually take effect over a period of up to three years, according to Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights Edward Hiariej.
“A lot of implementing regulations must be worked out, so it’s impossible in one year,” he said.
The code restores a ban on insulting a sitting president or vice president, state institutions and the national ideology. Insults to a sitting president must be reported by the president and can lead to up to three years in jail.
Hiariej said the government provided “the strictest possible explanation that distinguishes between insults and criticism.”
The current penal code is a legacy of Dutch colonial administration. Updates have languished for decades while legislators in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation debated how to adapt the code to its traditional cultures and norms. Indonesia proclaimed independence on Aug. 17, 1945.
A previous revised code was poised for passage in 2019, but President Widodo urged lawmakers to delay a vote amid mounting public criticism that led to nationwide protests in which tens of thousands of people participated. Opponents said it contained articles that discriminated against minorities and that the legislative process lacked transparency. Widodo instructed Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly to obtain input from various groups as lawmakers debated the articles.
A parliamentary taskforce finalized the bill in November and lawmakers unanimously approved it on Tuesday, in what Laoly praised as a “historic step.”
“It turns out that it is not easy for us to break away from the colonial living legacy, even though this nation no longer wants to use colonial products,” Laoly said in a news conference.
“Finalizing this process demonstrates that even 76 years after the Dutch Criminal Code was adopted as the Indonesian Criminal Code, it is never too late to produce laws on our own,” Laoly said. “The Criminal Code is a reflection of the civilization of a nation.”
Read more: Keen to strengthen relations with Bangladesh: Indonesian Ambassador
Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that laws penalizing criticism of public leaders are contrary to international law, and the fact that some forms of expression are considered insulting is not sufficient to justify restrictions or penalties.
“The danger of oppressive laws is not that they’ll be broadly applied, it’s that they provide avenue for selective enforcement,” said Andreas Harsono, a senior Indonesia researcher at the group.
Many hotels, including in tourism areas such as Bali and metropolitan Jakarta, will risk losing visitors, he added.
“These laws let police extort bribes, let officials jail political foes, for instance, with the blasphemy law,” Harsono said.
Gujarat will tolerate inflation but not ‘Bangladeshis, Rohingyas’ living next door, actor Paresh Rawal says
Renowned Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal has said that the people of Gujarat will bear inflation but not "Bangladeshis and Rohingyas" living next door, and his stereotyping “cooking fish” remark has also infuriated Bengalis in India.
The actor made the remarks while campaigning for BJP in Gujarat a week ago, reports NDTV.
On Monday, Paresh Rawal was called for questioning by the Kolkata Police over his comments on Bengalis after former Member of Parliament and CPI(M) leader Md Salim filed a complaint against him.
Read more: Indian beauty pageant celebrates transgender life
Md Salim wanted Paresh Rawal to be charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including for promoting enmity, intentional insult, public mischief etc.
"Gas cylinders are expensive, but their price will come down. People will get employment too. But what will happen if Rohingya migrants and Bangladeshis start living around you, like in Delhi? What will you do with gas cylinders? Cook fish for the Bengalis?" — Paresh Rawal was quoted as saying last week in Valsad.
Read more: Protesting ‘Hindi imposition’, South Indian man burns himself to death
Paresh Rawal's statements sparked outrage in West Bengal, with the ruling Trinamool Congress strongly condemning him.
The veteran actor’s efforts to explain his comments with an apology later fueled the controversy more as he claimed he meant “illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas” when he used the word “Bengalis”.
Indonesia approves legislation criminalizing sex outside marriage for citizens and foreigners
Indonesia’s Parliament passed a long-awaited and controversial revision of its penal code Tuesday that criminalizes extramarital sex for citizens and visiting foreigners alike.
After ratification, the new criminal code must be signed by the president, according to Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights Edward Hiariej. The criminal code will not apply immediately.
He said the new law “has a lot of implementing regulations that must be worked out, so it’s impossible in one year,” but takes a maximum of three years to transition from the old code to the new one.
Read more: Indonesia's Mt. Semeru eruption buries homes, damages bridge
A copy of the amended criminal code obtained by The Associated Press includes several revised articles that make sex outside marriage punishable by a year in jail and cohabitation by six months, but adultery charges must be based on police reports lodged by their spouse, parents or children.
It also says the promotion of contraception and religious blasphemy are illegal, and it restores a ban on insulting a sitting president and vice president, state institutions and national ideology. Insults to a sitting president must be reported by the president and can lead to up to three years in jail.
Hiariej said the government provided “the strictest possible explanation that distinguishes between insults and criticism.”
The code maintains that abortion is a crime, but it adds exceptions for women with life-threatening medical conditions and for rape, provided that the fetus is less than 12 weeks old, in line with what is already regulated in the 2004 Medical Practice Law.
Rights groups criticized some of the revisions as overly broad or vague and warned that rushing them into the new criminal code could penalize normal activities and threaten freedom of expression and privacy rights.
However, some advocates hailed it as a victory for the country’s LGBTQ minority. Lawmakers during a fierce deliberation session eventually agreed to repeal an article proposed by Islamic groups that would have made gay sex illegal.
The code would also preserve the death penalty within the criminal justice system despite calls from the National Commission on Human Rights and other groups to abolish capital punishment, as dozens of other countries have done.
The penal code had languished for decades while legislators in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation struggled with how to adapt its native culture and norms to the criminal code, a lasting legacy of the Dutch colonial administration.
Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation and third largest democracy, proclaimed independence Aug. 17, 1945.
Read more: Strong quake shakes main Indonesia island; no tsunami alert
A previous bill was poised for passage in 2019, but President Joko Widodo urged lawmakers to delay a vote on the bill amid mounting public criticism that led to a nationwide protests when tens of thousands of people took to the streets. Opponents had said it lacked transparency in the law-making process and contained articles that discriminate against minorities. Widodo had instructed Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly to get input from various communities while lawmakers discussed the articles.
A parliamentary taskforce finalized the bill in November and lawmakers unanimously approved it Tuesday in what Laoly praised as a “historic step.”
“It turns out that it is not easy for us to break away from colonial living legacy, even though this nation no longer wants to use colonial products,” Laoly said in a news conference.
“Finalizing this process demonstrates that even 76 years after the Dutch Criminal Code was adopted as the Indonesian Criminal Code, it is never too late to produce laws on our own,” Laoly said. “The Criminal Code is a reflection of the civilization of a nation.”
Under the new code, the death penalty will be imposed alternatively with a probationary period. This means a judge cannot immediately impose a death sentence. If within a period of 10 years the convict behaves well, then the death penalty is changed to life imprisonment or 20 years’ imprisonment.
The code also expands the existing Blasphemy Law and maintains a five-year prison term for deviations from the central tenets of Indonesia’s six recognized religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Citizens could face a 10-year sentence under the bill for associating with organizations that follow Marxist-Leninist ideology and a four-year sentence for spreading communism.
Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that laws penalizing criticism of public leaders are contrary to international law, and the fact that some forms of expression are considered insulting is not sufficient to justify restrictions or penalties.
“The danger of oppressive laws is not that they’ll be broadly applied, it’s that they provide avenue for selective enforcement,” said Andreas Harsono, a senior Indonesia researcher at the group.
Many hotels, including in tourism areas like Bali and metropolitan Jakarta, will risk to lose their visitors, he added.
“These laws let police extort bribes, let officials jail political foes, for instance, with the blasphemy law,” Harsono said.
China eases controls, gives no sign when ‘zero COVID’ ends
China is easing some of the world’s most stringent anti-virus controls and authorities say new variants are weaker. But they have yet to say when they might end a “zero-COVID” strategy that confines millions of people to their homes and set off protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to resign.
On Monday, commuters in Beijing and at least 16 other cities were allowed to board buses and subways without a virus test in the previous 48 hours for the first time in months. Industrial centers including Guangzhou near Hong Kong have reopened markets and businesses and lifted most curbs on movement while keeping restrictions on neighborhoods with infections.
The government announced plans last week to vaccinate millions of people in their 70s and 80s, a condition for ending “zero-COVID” restrictions that keep most visitors out of China and have disrupted manufacturing and global trade.
That spurred hopes for a quick end to “zero COVID.” But health experts and economists warn it will be mid-2023 and possibly 2024 before vaccination rates are high enough and hospitals are prepared to handle a possible rash of infections.
“China is not ready for a fast reopening yet,” Morgan Stanley economists said in a report Monday. “We expect lingering containment measures. … Restrictions could still tighten dynamically in lower-tier cities should hospitalizations surge.”
The changes follow protests demanding an end to “zero COVID” but are in line with Communist Party promises earlier to reduce disruption by easing quarantine and other restrictions. The changes have been highly publicized in a possible effort to mollify public anger, but there is no indication whether any might have been made in response to protests in Shanghai and other cities.
China is the only major country still trying to stamp out transmission while the United States and others relax restrictions and try to live with the virus that has killed at least 6.6 million people and infected almost 650 million.
The protests began Nov. 25 after at least 10 people died in a fire in an apartment building in Urumqi in the northwest. Authorities denied suggestions firefighters or victims were blocked by locked doors or other anti-virus controls. But the disaster became a focus for public frustration.
Read: China reports 2 new COVID deaths as some restrictions eased
Ahead of the protests, the Communist Party promised to make “zero COVID” less costly and disruptive but said it was sticking to the overall containment strategy.
The party earlier announced updates to the strategy to make it more focused. Authorities began suspending access to buildings or neighborhoods with an infection instead of whole cities. But a spike in cases starting in October prompted areas across China to close schools and confine families to cramped apartments for weeks at a time.
Authorities say they are “further optimizing” controls and warn the country needs to stay alert.
China faces “new situations and tasks” due to the “weakening of the pathogenicity” of the latest omicron variant, a deputy premier in charge of the anti-virus campaign, Sun Chunlan, said last week. She said China has “effective diagnosis and treatment” and has vaccinated more than 90% of its people.
The ruling party is trying to balance “epidemic prevention, economic stability and security for development,” Sun said Wednesday in a conference with health officials, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Despite the changes, Beijing and other cities are telling some residents to stay home or enforcing other restrictions on neighborhoods with infections.
Travelers at the Chinese capital’s train stations and three airports are required to show a negative virus test within the previous 48 hours. Elsewhere, Guangzhou and other cities said areas deemed at high-risk for infection still face additional curbs.
A negative virus test within the past 72 hours still is required to enter public buildings in vast metropolis of Chongqing in the southwest, a hotspot in the latest infection spike. Dining in restaurants in some parts of Beijing still is prohibited.
A newspaper reported last week that some Beijing residents who have mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 cases would be allowed for the first time to isolate themselves at home instead of going to one of China’s sprawling quarantine centers. The government has yet to confirm that.
Forecasters say the struggling economy, already under pressure from weak demand for Chinese exports and a government crackdown on debt in the real estate industry, might be contracting this quarter.
Regulators have responded by freeing up more money for lending and are trying to encourage private investment in infrastructure projects. They have eased some financial controls on real estate developers to reverse a slump in one of China’s biggest industries.
Read: China security forces are well-prepared for quashing dissent
“Policymakers are focusing their efforts on spurring growth,” Eurasia Group analysts said in a report. “However, even if China’s transition away from a strict zero-COVID policy is more decisive and accelerated, meeting public health milestones like increasing elderly vaccination will take months.”
On Monday, the government reported 30,014 new cases, including 25,696 without symptoms. That was down from last week’s daily peak above 40,000 but still close to record daily highs for China.
Xi’s government has held up “zero COVID” as proof of the superiority of China’s system compared with the United States and Western countries. China’s official death toll stands at 5,235 since the start of the pandemic versus a U.S. count of 1.1 million.
China also has suffered a possible rise in fatalities among people with cancer, heart disease and other conditions who struggled to get care while hospitals focused on treating virus cases. Data on those deaths haven’t been reported.
Indonesia's Mt. Semeru eruption buries homes, damages bridge
Improved weather conditions Monday allowed rescuers to resume evacuation efforts and a search for possible victims after the highest volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island erupted, triggered by monsoon rains.
Mount Semeru in Lumajang district in East Java province spewed thick columns of ash more than 1,500 meters (nearly 5,000 feet) into the sky Sunday. Villages and nearby towns were blanketed with falling ash, blocking out the sun, but no casualties have been reported.
Read more: Strong quake shakes main Indonesia island; no tsunami alert
Hundreds of rescuers were deployed Monday in the worst-hit villages of Sumberwuluh and Supiturang, where houses and mosques were buried to their rooftops by tons of volcanic debris.
Heavy rains had eroded and finally collapsed the lava dome atop the 3,676-meter (12,060-foot) volcano, causing an avalanche of blistering gas and lava down its slopes toward a nearby river. Searing gas raced down the sides of the mountain, smothering entire villages and destroying a bridge that had just been rebuilt after a powerful eruption last year.
Semeru’s last major eruption was in December 2021, when it blew up with a fury that left 51 people dead in villages that were buried in layers of mud. Several hundred others suffered serious burns and the eruption forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. The government moved about 2,970 houses out of the danger zone, including from Sumberwuluh village.
Lumajang district chief Thoriqul Haq said villagers who are still haunted by last year's eruption fled on their own when they heard the mountain start to rumble early Sunday, so that “casualties could be avoided.”
“They have learned an important lesson on how to avoid the danger of eruption,” he said while inspecting a damaged bridge in Kajar Kuning hamlet.
He said nearly 2,000 people escaped to emergency shelters at several schools, but many were returned to their homes Monday to tend their livestock and protect their property.
Increased volcanic activity Sunday afternoon prompted authorities to widen the danger zone to 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the crater, and scientists raised the volcano’s alert level to the highest, said Hendra Gunawan, who heads the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center.
People were advised to keep off the southeastern sector along the Besuk Kobokan River, which is in the path of the lava flow.
Read more: Death toll from Indonesia earthquake reaches 310 as more bodies found
Semeru, also known as Mahameru, has erupted numerous times in the past 200 years. Still, as is the case with many of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, tens of thousands of people continue to live on its fertile slopes.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines, and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.