Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, UN says

Shabana Maani, gives a polio vaccination to a child in the old part of Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 29, 2021. (AP/File)
Short Url
Updated 16 September 2024
Follow

Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, UN says

  • It comes as a setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious 
  • Any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress

DUBAI: The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.

Afghanistan is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It’s likely that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions for other countries in the region and beyond.

News of the suspension was relayed to UN agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.

A top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques.

The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023.

“The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. “Partners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy.”

Polio campaigns in neighboring Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

As recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanistan and Pakistan were continuing to implement an “intensive and synchronized campaign” focusing on improved vaccination coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detections elsewhere.

During a June 2024 nationwide campaign, Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said.

But southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns, which are less effective than going to people’s homes.

Kandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptible children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinations, the WHO said. “The overall women’s inclusion in vaccination campaigns remains around 20 percent in Afghanistan, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,” it said.

Any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month.

Pakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccination campaigns aren’t run regularly and in a synchronized manner.

“Afghanistan is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back,” said Haq, the coordinator at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. “People from other neighboring countries, like India and Iran, don’t come to Pakistan in large numbers.”

There needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told The Associated Press.

The campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problematic global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, has missed multiple deadlines to wipe out the disease and technical mistakes in the vaccination strategy set by WHO and partners have been costly.

The oral vaccine has also inadvertently seeded outbreaks in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and now accounts for the majority of polio cases worldwide.

This was seen most recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of polio first seen in the oral vaccine, marking the territory’s first case in more than 25 years.


Philippines seeks to enhance energy security with new Saudi cooperation

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Philippines seeks to enhance energy security with new Saudi cooperation

  • Under national energy plan, Manila wants to increase renewable sources to 50 percent by 2040 
  • Saudi-Philippine cooperation can also explore tech, solutions related to climate change mitigation 

MANILA: The Philippines wants to expand its international energy partnerships and improve energy security with a new cooperation with Saudi Arabia, its Department of Energy said on Monday ahead of an official trip to the Kingdom.

Manila has been exploring clean and sustainable options to generate power as the country regularly suffers outages and faces high tariffs. Coal remains the main source of electricity in the Southeast Asian nation, accounting for more than half of its power generation. 

A Philippine energy mission was headed to Saudi Arabia on Monday for a two-day trip “aimed at enhancing energy security, driving economic growth, and fostering sustainable development,” the DoE said in a statement. 

“A major highlight of the mission is the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Energy of the KSA.” 

The latest mission follows President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s trip to Riyadh last October, during which a $4.26 billion investment agreement was signed with Saudi business leaders. 

At the time, some Saudi state-owned enterprises had expressed interest in investing in the Philippine energy sector, the DoE said. 

The preliminary agreement will provide “a framework for cooperation on key areas,” including renewable energy and natural gas, as well as relevant technologies and solutions related to climate change mitigation. 

Under the Philippine Energy Plan, the government aims to increase the share of renewable sources in the energy mix from 22 percent currently to 50 percent by 2040. 

Philippine authorities expect the country’s power demand to increase almost fourfold from 2020 to 2040, especially as it remains dependent on imported fossil fuels and has insufficient renewables.

“Partnerships with Saudi Arabia extend beyond addressing the current energy needs,” the energy department said, adding that the two countries can explore possibilities for joint research and development projects, policy exchange, and capacity building in areas such as carbon capture, use and storage, and hydrogen.

“As global efforts to transition to cleaner and more sustainable energy sources intensify, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia can cooperate in the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies.”
 


Three Pakistani policemen killed in attack at police HQ

Updated 3 min 11 sec ago
Follow

Three Pakistani policemen killed in attack at police HQ

  • Three assailants were killed by police

PESHAWAR: At least three policemen were killed in northwest Pakistan when Islamist militants stormed a district police headquarters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, a police source told Reuters.
The attack on the complex, which houses both the district police headquarters and a residential complex, was ongoing, the high-ranking police source said, adding that the assailants, who included suicide bombers, had been “pinned down” in the area.
Three assailants were killed by police, he added.
The source, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said three policemen were killed while resisting the assault on the Police Lines of District Bannu, which borders the restive North Waziristan tribal district on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Islamist militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, a spokesperson for the group said.
The roads around the complex have been closed to traffic as security forces moved to neutralize the remaining attackers, the police source added.
Bannu is about 350 kilometers from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, which is under strict security lockdown due to the arrival of Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Monday ahead of a regional leaders’ meeting this week.


French government wants new immigration law in 2025

Updated 14 October 2024
Follow

French government wants new immigration law in 2025

  • The government wants to extend the detention period for undocumented migrants deemed to be dangerous in order to better enforce expulsion orders

PARIS: The French authorities want to adopt a new immigration law next year, a spokeswoman said, as the new right-wing government seeks to crack down on immigration.
“There will be a need for a new law,” government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon told broadcaster BFMTV on Sunday.
The government’s plan to tighten immigration policies and border controls is emblematic of the rightward shift in French politics following this summer’s legislative elections that resulted in a hung parliament.
Michel Barnier’s government hopes the bill will be submitted to parliament at the beginning of 2025.
In September, a Paris student was raped and murdered in a case that has further inflamed a French debate on migration after a Moroccan was named as the suspected attacker.
The government wants to extend the detention period for undocumented migrants deemed to be dangerous in order to better enforce expulsion orders.
One of the options under consideration is to increase the maximum period of detention from 90 to 210 days, which is now only possible for terrorist offenses.
“We don’t rule out the possibility of considering other provisions,” said Bregeon, adding that there should be “no taboos when it comes to protecting the French.”
Last December, France already passed an immigration law.
The bill was hardened to gain the support of the far-right and right-wing MPs.
But the country’s highest constitutional authority censured most of the new amendments which were dropped before President Emmanuel Macron signed it into law.
The measures struck down by the Constitutional Council “will serve as a basis for the new immigration bill,” a government source told AFP. “Some of them could be modified and there will be additions.”
The most hard-line member of the government, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, has vowed to crack down on immigration. He has stirred controversy just days into the job, saying that “the rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred.”
Retailleau, who previously headed the Republicans party in the Senate, was seen as the driving force behind the tough legislation last year.
He wants to reinstate the offense of illegal residence, among other measures.
Gabriel Attal, Barnier’s predecessor and now leader in parliament of Macron’s Renaissance party, said on Monday that a new law on immigration did not seem a “total priority.”
“Adopting a law for the sake of a law makes no sense,” he told broadcaster France inter.
He said “the priority is to act so that the state can truly control who enters and leaves” France.


Ukraine says destroyed army transport plane in Russia

Updated 14 October 2024
Follow

Ukraine says destroyed army transport plane in Russia

  • Kyiv’s military intelligence agency said it had destroyed the Tu-134 transport aircraft overnight between Saturday and Sunday at a military airfield in the Orenburg region

KYIV: Kyiv said Monday its forces had destroyed a Russian military transport plane stationed at an airfield deep inside Russian territory over the weekend, the latest Ukrainian claim of an attack behind Moscow’s lines.
Ukraine has stepped up attacks inside Russian territory in recent months, targeting military sites and energy facilities, aiming to upend Russian military logistics.
Kyiv’s military intelligence agency said it had destroyed the Tu-134 transport aircraft overnight between Saturday and Sunday at a military airfield in the Orenburg region, which lies around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
“These Soviet-built airplanes are used mainly to transport leadership of the Russian defense ministry,” the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said on social media.
The agency posted footage of what Ukraine said was an arson attack, showing a blaze burning inside an aircraft, but it did not provide details of how the alleged attack was carried out.
There was no immediate comment on the specific claims from Moscow.
Since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has detained hundreds of people for alleged sabotage and arson attacks on military, railway and other infrastructure sites.


EU condemns all attacks on UN missions, foreign policy chief Borrell says

Updated 14 October 2024
Follow

EU condemns all attacks on UN missions, foreign policy chief Borrell says

  • Israel has disputed some UN accounts of incidents involving UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they were providing “human shields” for Hezbollah militants

AMSTERDAM: The European Union condemns all attacks against United Nations missions, the union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a response to targeting of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, by the Israel Defense Forces.
“Such attacks against UN peacekeepers constitute a grave violation of international law and are totally unacceptable. These attacks must stop immediately,” Borrell said in a statement on behalf of the EU published Sunday night.
“The EU condemns all attacks against UN missions,” Borrell said.
“It expresses particularly grave concern regarding the attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces against UNIFIL, which left several peacekeepers wounded.”
Israel has disputed some UN accounts of incidents involving UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said they were providing “human shields” for Hezbollah militants during an upsurge in hostilities.
In his statement, Borrell said “all actors” in the conflict have the obligation to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property.
“We urgently await explanations and a thorough investigation from the Israeli authorities about the attacks against UNIFIL, which plays a fundamental role in the stability of South Lebanon,” he said.

Spain's Foreign Minister has also made several key statements regarding the situation involving the UNIFIL and Israel. He condemned the attacks by Israel on UNIFIL, calling them "unacceptable."

He also emphasized that only the United Nations has the authority to order the withdrawal of UNIFIL forces, reaffirming the importance of the mission, stating that the work UNIFIL is doing is "valid and necessary."