Tuberculosis (TB) infections among children in the European region rose 10 percent in 2023, indicating ongoing transmission and the need for immediate public health measures to control the spread, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
WHO’s European region, which comprises 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia, reported more than 7,500 cases among children under 15 years of age in 2023, an increase of over 650 cases compared to 2022.
“The worrying rise in children with TB serves as a reminder that progress against this preventable and curable disease remains fragile,” said Hans Henri Kluge, WHO’s Regional Director for Europe.
Askar Yedilbayev, regional TB adviser for WHO’s European region, said in an interview that a rise in overall cases might indicate improved diagnoses. However, it could also result from increased cross-border movement due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the two countries with the highest disease burden in the region.
Children under 15 years of age made up 4.3 percent of all TB cases in the European Union, a joint report by the WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control showed.
This shows an increase in cases in this age group for the third consecutive year, which Yedilbayev said was a “worrisome scenario.”
WHO has previously warned that funding cuts from global donors will undo progress in controlling TB infections across low- and middle-income countries. These cuts can hurt TB programs in non-EU countries, fueling a rise of hard-to-treat strains, the agency said.
Several local, on-ground workforces have been hurt from the funding cuts, and the supply of diagnostics and treatments remains at risk, said Yedilbayev.
TB, among the top 10 causes of death worldwide, is a potentially fatal bacterial infection that mainly affects the lungs and spreads through coughing or sneezing.
WHO calls for immediate action as report shows 10% rise in child TB infections in European region
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WHO calls for immediate action as report shows 10% rise in child TB infections in European region
- WHO’s European region reported more than 7,500 cases among children under 15 years of age in 2023
- Children under 15 years of age made up 4.3 percent of all TB cases in the European Union
Exec linked to Bangkok building collapse arrested
BANGKOK: Thai authorities said they have arrested a Chinese executive at a company that was building a Bangkok skyscraper which collapsed in a major earthquake, leaving dozens dead.
The 30-story tower was reduced to an immense pile of rubble when a 7.7-magnitude quake struck neighboring Myanmar last month, killing 47 people at the construction site and leaving another 47 missing.
Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong told a news conference Saturday that a Thai court had issued arrest warrants for four individuals, including three Thai nationals, at China Railway No.10 for breaching the Foreign Business Act.
The Department of Special Investigation, which is under the justice ministry, said in a statement Saturday that one of the four had been arrested — a Chinese “company representative” who they named as Zhang.
China Railway No.10 was part of a joint venture with an Italian-Thai firm to build the State Audit Office tower before its collapse.
Zhang is listed as a 49-percent shareholder in the firm, while the three Thai citizens have a 51-percent stake in the company.
But Tawee told journalists that “we have evidence ... that the three Thais were holding shares for other foreign independents.”
The Foreign Business Act says that foreigners may hold no more than 49 percent of shares in a company.
Separately, Tawee said several investigations related to the collapse were ongoing, including over the possibility of bid rigging and the use of fake signatures of engineers in construction supervisor contracts.
Earlier this month Thai safety officials said testing of steel rebars — struts used to reinforce concrete — from the site has found that some of the metal used was substandard.
The skyscraper was the only major building in the capital to fall in the catastrophic March 28 earthquake that has killed more than 3,700 people in Thailand and neighboring Myanmar.
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of breaching Easter truce
- The 30-hour truce had been meant to start Saturday to mark the religious holiday
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of keeping up its attacks on the front line
KRAMATORSK: Russia and Ukraine on Sunday accused each other of violating an Easter truce announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The 30-hour truce had been meant to start Saturday to mark the religious holiday, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of keeping up its attacks on the front line.
While Ukrainian troops told AFP that fighting had eased, Zelensky said Russian forces staged hundreds of shelling and drone assaults along the front line despite the surprise truce.
“The Ukrainian army is acting and will continue to act in an absolutely mirror image” of Russia,” he warned.
Zelensky also renewed a proposal for a 30-day truce.
Moscow said it had “repelled” assaults by Ukraine and accused Kyiv of launching hundreds of drones and shells, causing civilian casualties.
“Despite the announcement of the Easter truce, Ukrainian units at night made attempts to attack” Russia’s positions in the Donetsk region, its defense ministry added.
Russian troops had “strictly observed the ceasefire,” the defense ministry insisted.
Rescue services in the eastern town of Kostyantynivka said they had recovered the bodies of a man and a woman from the ruins of building hit the previous day by Russian shelling.
The Russian-appointed mayor of Gorlovka in occupied Donetsk, Ivan Prikhodko, said two civilians had been wounded there, without giving details.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and now occupies around 20 percent of the country.
Putin’s order to halt all combat over the Easter weekend came after months of efforts by US President Donald Trump to get the war rivals to agree to a ceasefire.
But on Friday, Trump threatened to withdraw from talks if no progress was made.
Ukrainian soldiers told AFP that they had noticed a lull in fighting.
A drone unit commander said that Russia’s activity had “significantly decreased both in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions,” combat zones in the south and northeast where the unit is active.
“Several assaults were recorded, but those were solitary incidents involving small groups,” the commander told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Fewer guys (soldiers) will die today.”
Russian “artillery is not working. it is quiet compared to a regular day,” Sergiy, a junior lieutenant fighting in the Sumy border region, wrote to AFP in a message.
Ukrainian troops “are on the defensive,” he added. “If the enemy doesn’t move forward, they don’t shoot.”
AFP journalists monitoring in eastern Ukraine heard fewer explosions than usual and saw no smoke on the horizon.
Putin announced a truce from 6:00 p.m. (1500 GMT) Saturday to midnight Sunday Moscow time (2100 GMT), saying it was motivated by “humanitarian reasons.”
Zelensky responded that Ukraine was ready to follow suit and proposed extending the truce for 30 days to “give peace a chance.”
But he said Sunday that Russia “has not yet responded to this.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin had given no order to extend the truce.
In Kyiv, as Easter Sunday bells rang out, people doubted Russia’s good faith.
“They’ve already broken their promise,” said 38-year-old Olga Grachova, who works in marketing. “Unfortunately, we cannot trust Russia today.”
Natalia, a 41-year-old medic, said of Zelensky’s 30-day proposal: “Everything we offer, unfortunately, remains only our offers. Nobody responds to them.”
People in Moscow welcomed an Easter truce and hoped for more progress toward an end to the war.
“We dreamt of course that peace would come by Easter. Let it come soon,” said Svetlana, a 34-year-old housewife.
“I think that this awful thing will end at some point, but not soon,” said Irina Volkova, a 73-year-old pensioner.
“All is not going well for us in Ukraine,” she added. “People are dying, our guys are dying.”
Moscow said this weekend that it had now recovered 99.5 percent of its Kursk region, which Ukrainian troops occupied in a surprise offensive in August.
Syrian refugee says UK government has ‘broken her heart’ by blocking terminally ill mother’s visit
- Ola Al-Hamwi fled Syria with her husband, Mostafa Amonajid, in 2015 after the couple lost their baby in a bombing
LONDON: A Syrian refugee has said the British Home Office has “broken her heart” after it moved to block her terminally ill mother from traveling to the UK to spend her final days with the grandchildren she has never met, it was reported on Sunday.
Ola Al-Hamwi fled Syria with her husband, Mostafa Amonajid, in 2015 after the couple lost their baby in a bombing.
They were unable to take Al-Hamwi’s mother, Soaad Al-Shawa, with them when they escaped the conflict.
Now living in Glasgow with their three children, aged seven, five and one, Al-Hamwi and Amonajid were granted refugee status and applied to bring Al-Shawa, 57, to the UK under the refugee family reunion scheme — but their request was rejected, The Guardian newspaper reported.
Al-Shawa, who has only communicated with her grandchildren via video calls, was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer last year.
In November, doctors in Syria gave her about six months to live. A second application for family reunion was submitted following her diagnosis, but was again rejected by the Home Office.
The family appealed the decision, and in April a judge at the first-tier tribunal of the immigration court ruled in their favor, citing Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to family life.
The family were overjoyed by the decision.
“My mum really perked up when she heard the news and started to eat more,” said Al-Hamwi. “All she wants to do before she dies is to see us and the kids.”
Plans were swiftly made for Al-Shawa’s neighbors to help her travel to neighboring Jordan or Lebanon, where Amonajid would meet her and accompany her to the UK.
Because Al-Hamwi and Amonajid are refugees, they are unable to return to Syria themselves to be with her.
However, on April 10, the Home Office submitted a request for permission to appeal the judge’s ruling to a higher court — a process that can take an average of eight months.
The news has left the family devastated.
“There isn’t much time, if we can get her here we will provide everything for her. When the Home Office asked for permission to appeal against the decision of the judge who said my mum could come here they didn’t think about how they are breaking my heart,” Al-Hamwi said.
“My message to the Home Office is, ‘Please help my mum to see us before she dies.’ We haven’t told my mum that the Home Office has asked to appeal against the decision for her to come to the UK,” she added.
The family’s solicitor, Usman Aslam, said: “We could feel the family’s relief when they won the appeal, then their horror that the Home Office have sought permission to appeal. We immediately sought an expedition of their permission application.
He continued: “I have written to the Home Office directly expressing my outrage. Whilst I fully respect their right to seek permission to appeal, it is regrettable they have chosen this case of a dying woman. We are hoping that the Home Office will show compassion and allow her to spend what little time she has left with her family.”
A Home Office spokesperson told the Guardian: “It would be inappropriate to comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.”
Bangladeshi police seek Interpol red notice for ex-PM Hasina
- Authorities are also requesting Interpol red notice for Hasina’s ministers
- Police move is part of trial process over student protest killings last year
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police have requested an Interpol red notice against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is wanted for alleged involvement in the killings of hundreds of people during student protests that forced her to step down and flee last year.
In early July, a student-led movement began with peaceful demonstrations initially sparked by opposition to public-sector job quotas.
But they were met with a violent crackdown by security forces after two weeks, which according to UN estimates left more than 600 people dead. The deaths led to a nationwide uprising that forced Hasina to resign and leave for neighboring India in early August, ending her 15 years in power.
By October, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal had issued arrest warrants for Hasina and more than 40 other people who are linked to the protest killings.
“The assistance from Interpol is being sought to repatriate the accused persons,” Enamul Haque Sagor, assistant inspector general at the Bangladesh Police Headquarters, told Arab News on Sunday.
“Our all-out efforts are there to make (the red notice issuance happen) as soon as possible.”
Red notices are published by Interpol, an intergovernmental organization of 196 member countries. They serve as requests for law enforcement around the world to detain individuals for whom member states have issued arrest warrants.
Bangladeshi police are also seeking red notices for 11 other people linked to the protest killings, including Hasina’s Awami League general secretary, Obaidul Quader, and former home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.
The red notice application was submitted at the request of the International Crimes Tribunal, which had sought police assistance after issuing the arrest warrant last year.
The special court will hear at least 70 cases related to the July-August violence.
Established in 2010 during Hasina’s rule, the International Crimes Tribunal is a domestic court responsible for investigating and prosecuting suspects of the 1971 genocide committed by the Pakistan Army and its local collaborators during the Bangladesh Liberation War. It also has jurisdiction over other war crimes and crimes against humanity.
King Charles and Queen Camilla greet crowds after Easter service
- Prince Andrew’s attendance was notable after he was absent from the royals’ Christmas service amid scrutiny of his links with an alleged Chinese spy
LONDON: Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla briefly greeted onlookers after an Easter service at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, an important fixture in the calendar of the monarch, who is supreme governor of the Church of England.
Charles and Camilla, who was wearing a pale blue hat and dress, were joined by the Princes Andrew and Edward, Anne, the Princess Royal, and other family members at the 15th Century chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Prince Andrew’s attendance was notable after he was absent from the royals’ Christmas service amid scrutiny of his links with an alleged Chinese spy. The scandal-hit prince was accompanied by his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York.
The king’s oldest son and heir William, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Catherine were absent. They are spending Easter with their children in Norfolk, east England.
Camilla, who was handed a posy of flowers, wished “Happy Easter” to members of the crowd after the Easter Matins service.
On Thursday, the king used his annual Easter message to reflect on war, human suffering and the heroism of those who risk their lives to help others.
In 2024, the Easter service was Charles’ first appearance at a public event following the announcement of his cancer diagnosis in the previous month.
Catherine, Princess of Wales, was also treated for cancer last year. She said in January she was relieved in be in remission.
