ISLAMABAD: Pakistan received 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine from the United States on Friday, easing pressure on Islamabad in overcoming the shortage of COVID-19 vaccines.
According to a US embassy statement, the vaccines were delivered to the Pakistani people in partnership with the COVAX global vaccine initiative, UNICEF, and the government of Pakistan.
It says this donation was part of the 80 million doses the United States was sharing with the world, “delivering on our pledge to facilitate equitable global access to safe and effective vaccines, which are essential to ending the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The latest development comes days after hundreds of Pakistani expatriate workers rallied in Islamabad, demanding they should be quickly vaccinated with the Moderna, Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines so they can travel abroad.
Pakistan has mostly relied on Chinese vaccines, but some Middle Eastern countries want travelers to produce a certificate to show they’ve received specific vaccines.
Pakistan gets 2.5 million doses of Moderna from US
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Pakistan gets 2.5 million doses of Moderna from US
- Vaccines were delivered to the Pakistani people in partnership with the COVAX global vaccine initiative
- The latest development comes days after hundreds of Pakistani expatriate workers rallied in Islamabad
Heatstroke killed 33 Indian polling staff on last voting day: state election chief
- Navdeep Rinwa, chief electoral officer for the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where voting in the seventh and final stage of elections ended Saturday, said 33 polling personnel died due to the heat
While there have been reports of multiple deaths from the intense heatwave — with temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in many places — the dozens of staff dying in one day marks an especially grim toll.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said temperatures at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh reached 46.9 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit).
Navdeep Rinwa, chief electoral officer for the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where voting in the seventh and final stage of elections ended Saturday, said 33 polling personnel died due to the heat.
The figure included security guards and sanitation staff.
“A monetary compensation of 1.5 million rupees ($18,000) will be provided to the families of the deceased,” Rinwa told reporters.
Experts say that when a person is dehydrated, extreme heat exposure thickens their blood and causes organs to shut down.
Rinwa reported a separate incident in which a man queueing to vote in the city of Ballia lost consciousness while waiting in line.
“The voter was transported to a health facility, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival,” Rinwa said.
India is no stranger to searing summer temperatures.
But years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks set to win a third straight landslide election victory after voting ended on Saturday.
Exit polls showed he was well on track to triumph and Modi himself was certain he had prevailed.
The results will be formally announced on Tuesday.
China says it saw armed Philippine personnel on vessel in disputed South China Sea
- Incident occurred near the Second Thomas Shoal, an area of the South China Sea where Beijing and Manila have had an escalating maritime dispute for months
The incident occurred near the Second Thomas Shoal, it said, an area of the South China Sea where Beijing and Manila have had an escalating maritime dispute for months.
Top Modi opponent to return to jail after India vote ends
- Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of the capital Delhi and a key opposition leader, was detained in March over a long-running corruption probe
NEW DELHI: A top opponent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would return to jail Sunday, the end of the bail term issued to allow him to campaign in just-concluded national elections.
Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of the capital Delhi and a key leader in an opposition alliance formed to compete against Modi in the polls, was detained in March over a long-running corruption probe.
He is among several leaders of the bloc under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest the month before general elections began as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
India’s top court granted him bail last month, giving a fleeting boost to the opposition’s quixotic campaign to oust Modi, but ordered him at the same time to return to custody once voting in the six-week poll concluded.
He will hand himself into Delhi’s Tihar prison on Sunday afternoon, he said.
“I came out for election campaign for 21 days... today I will surrender by going to Tihar,” he wrote on social media.
However, he said he would first visit a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, pray at a Hindu temple and visit his party office to “meet all the workers and party leaders.”
“All of you take care of yourselves,” he added. “I will take care of you all in jail. If you are happy, then your Kejriwal will also be happy in jail.”
Kejriwal’s government was accused of corruption when it implemented a policy to liberalize the sale of liquor in 2021 and give up a lucrative government stake in the sector.
The policy was withdrawn the following year, but the resulting probe into the alleged corrupt allocation of licenses has since led to the jailing of two top Kejriwal allies.
Hindu-nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks set to win a third straight landslide election victory after voting ended on Saturday.
Exit polls showed he was well on track to triumph and Modi himself was certain he had prevailed, saying he was confident that “the people of India have voted in record numbers” to re-elect his government.
Results will be formally announced on Tuesday.
California firefighters battle wind-driven wildfire east of San Francisco
- Gusty winds have fueled the Corral Fire burning near the city of Tracy, 96 kilometers east of San Francisco
- The blaze grew to 18 square kilometers within hours, sending dark plumes of smoke high into the sky
SAN FRANCISCO: California firefighters aided by aircraft battled a wind-driven wildfire burning Saturday in an area straddling the San Francisco Bay Area and central California, authorities said.
Gusty winds have fueled the Corral Fire burning near the city of Tracy, 96 kilometers east of San Francisco, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the city of Livermore, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
The blaze grew to 18 square kilometers within hours, sending dark plumes of smoke high into the sky. It was 40 percent contained, Cal Fire said.
Interstate 580, which connects the San Francisco Bay Area to San Joaquin County in central California, was closed in both directions from Corral Hollow Road to Interstate 5 due to the lack of visibility from the smoke, the California Department of Transportation said in a statement.
The San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services issued an evacuation order, pinpointing the wildfire in an area east of Interstate 580. Residents between Corral Hollow Road and Tracy Boulevard were ordered to leave their homes, with residents south of Tracy Boulevard told to be prepared for evacuation.
North Korea sends 600 more trash balloons over border, South says
- Balloons carrying garbage such as cigarette butts, cloth, paper waste and plastic were found across Seoul overnight
- Military monitoring the starting point and conducting aerial reconnaissance to track down and collect the balloons
SEOUL: North Korea sent some 600 balloons carrying trash into South Korea overnight, Seoul said on Sunday, in Pyongyang’s latest move to rile its rival neighbor.
The balloons carrying garbage such as cigarette butts, cloth, paper waste and plastic were found across the capital from 8 p.m. to 10 a.m. (1100 GMT on Saturday to 0100 GMT on Sunday), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
It said the military was monitoring the starting point and conducting aerial reconnaissance to track down and collect the balloons, which have large bags of trash suspended beneath them.
North Korea on Wednesday sent hundreds of balloons carrying trash and excrement across the heavily fortified border as what it called “gifts of sincerity.” Seoul responded angrily, calling the move base and dangerous.
South Korea’s Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said during a meeting with US Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd on the sidelines of the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore on Sunday that the balloons violated the armistice agreement, according to South Korea’s military.
The two reaffirmed a coordinated response to any North Korean threats and provocations based on the South Korea-US alliance’s combined defense posture, it added.
Emergency alerts were issued in North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces and some parts of Seoul on Sunday, urging people not to come into contact with the balloons and to alert police.
South Korea’s National Security Council standing committee will meet on Sunday afternoon to discuss whether to resume blasting loudspeakers at North Korea in response to the trash balloons, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the presidential office.
South Korea stopped blaring propaganda across the border in 2018 after a rare summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
