World

A draft statement circulating the day before a Southeast Asian leaders’ summit on the Myanmar crisis included the release of political prisoners as one of its “consensus” points, said three sources familiar with the document. But in the final statement at the end of Saturday’s meeting, the language on freeing political prisoners had been unexpectedly watered down and did not contain a firm call for their release, two of the sources said. The absence of a strong position on this issue caused dismay among human rights activists and opponents of the coup, fueling criticism by them that the meeting had achieved little in the way of reining in the country’s military leaders. Activist monitors say 3,389 people have been detained in a crackdown on dissent by the military since the Feb. 1 coup,...

NEW YORK: Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday (Apr 22) offered inventors US$100 million in prize money to develop ways to fight global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or ocean. "Right now we've only got one planet," said Musk, CEO of electric carmaker Tesla. "Even a 0.1 per cent chance of disaster - why run that risk? That's crazy!" In January, Musk announced his intention to offer US$100 million in prizes and set out the contest rules on Thursday, Earth Day. What organisers called the "largest incentive prize in history" will last for four years through Earth Day, 2025. Carbon capture and storage has drawn growing interest as a warming climate has melted glaciers, intensified tropical storms and resulted in "sunny day flooding" of more and more coa...

SINGAPORE: Continued interest from foreign buyers, family offices and institutional funds has sustained demand for shophouses in the first quarter of 2021, following a strong burst of buying activity at the end of last year. There were 51 transactions in the first quarter of this year totalling S$328.3 million, according to data recorded on Apr 6. Although this is down from figures in the fourth quarter of 2020, which saw 57 sales to the tune of S$462.8 million, analysts said it is a good showing reflecting stable demand. Sales in the final quarter of last year had surpassed pre-pandemic levels, spurred by pent-up demand, lower costs of borrowing and high liquidity in the market, according to a report by Knight Frank. Coming into a new year, investors are still keen to invest in ...

YANGON: If you need cash in Myanmar, you have to get up early. Queues start forming outside banks at 4am, where the first 15 or 30 customers are given a plastic token that will allow them to enter the bank when it opens at 9.30am and withdraw cash, according to more than a dozen people who spoke to Reuters. If you do not get a token, you either have to queue for hours for the few functioning cash dispensing machines outside or go to black market brokers who charge big commissions. The cash crisis is one of the most pressing problems for the people of Myanmar after the Feb 1 military coup. The central bank, now run by a junta appointee, has not returned some of the reserves it holds for private banks, without giving any reason, leaving the banks short of cash. The banks themselves ha...

EVEREST BASE CAMP, Nepal: More than 30 sick climbers have been evacuated from the foot of Mount Everest, raising fears that COVID-19 may scupper a hoped-for bumper season on the world's highest mountain. Nepal's tourism industry suffered a devastating blow last year when the pandemic prompted a complete shutdown of its summits, costing millions in lost revenue. This year, authorities have eased quarantine rules in an effort to lure back foreign adventurers and have issued climbing permits to more than 400 people, a new record. An Everest permit alone costs US$11,000 and climbers pay upwards of US$40,000 for an expedition. But the warmer weather that ushers in safer conditions for scaling Nepal's dangerous snow-capped peaks has coincided with a deadly second wave of COVID-19 infecti...

SINGAPORE: A total of 76 members of staff at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) have been placed on leave of absence after a cluster of COVID-19 cases was detected, said the hospital's CEO Dr Eugene Soh on Friday (Apr 30). Speaking at a press conference by the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force, Dr Soh said the growing cluster is of particular concern, and the hospital is “acting fast with a three-pronged approach” to contain and control infections, while securing the safety of patients and staff members. The first step includes immediate containment measures to treat and isolate staff members or patients, said Dr Soh. “We have also identified patients and staff who are close contacts of the positive cases. Today, we have transferred 61 patients, including the confirmed patients to the...

SINGAPORE: A sea crew member who preliminarily tested positive for the B117 strain is the sole community case among 23 new COVID-19 infections reported in Singapore on Sunday (Apr 18). The remaining 22 cases were imported, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in its daily update. All were placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon their arrival in Singapore, it added. No new infections were reported in foreign workers' dormitories. COMMUNITY CASE TOOK HIS FIRST DOSE OF COVID-19 VACCINE The sea crew member, a 39-year-old Indonesian national who works on board a bunker tanker, is currently unlinked, said MOH. He had not disembarked from the vessel except to go for COVID-19 testing and vaccination. The man is asymptomatic and was detected when he was tested on Apr 15 as part of th...

Malaysia's economy contracted less sharply in the first quarter as domestic spending improved along with external demand in spite of a recent spike in coronavirus cases. KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's economy contracted less sharply in the first quarter as domestic spending improved along with external demand in spite of a recent spike in coronavirus cases. The economy shrank 0.5per cent over January-March from a year earlier, down for a fourth straight quarter, central bank data showed on Tuesday. It was better than the 2per cent contraction forecast in a Reuters poll and a 3.4per cent fall in the fourth quarter. "We expect GDP growth to remain within the projected 6per cent-7.5per cent this year," Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus told a virtual news conference. Mal...

WASHINGTON: China has taken initial steps to improve protection of US know-how under the "Phase One" trade pact, but must go further and implement those measures, the top US trade negotiator said Friday (Apr 30). China also was the source of most counterfeit goods used to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, including masks and sanitisers, the US Trade Representative said in an annual report on intellectual property protections among 100 US trading partners. The world's two top economic powers signed a pact in January 2020 to end a damaging two-year trade war, that mandated increased enforcement of US technology and patents. Beijing has approved a dozen of the many new measures proposed to improve protection of intellectual property under the deal, a senior USTR official told reporters. "...

Technology has to be part of the solution, but will not be a magical remedy after centuries of excessive carbon emissions, says MIT economics professor Daron Acemoglu. BOSTON: Humanity has never faced a collective challenge as daunting as climate change. Net global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions must be reduced to near-zero within the next three decades to give us even a fighting chance of keeping the temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels. The further we exceed that threshold, the more likely we are to run into truly catastrophic scenarios. With the United States back in the Paris climate agreement, this is the time for the world to re-engage with these epochal challenges. Bill Gates’ highly respected voice is thus a welcome addition to these efforts. In his...