Pakistan says it cannot find mpox patient as its ups airport screening
Pakistan says it is introducing new screening at airports after confirming at least one case of mpox infection, days after the World Health Organisation declared a global emergency over the virus.
Health officials are concerned about a new deadlier strain of the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, that has spread through several African countries.
The case reported in Pakistan involves a patient who had recently returned from a Gulf country. Pakistan’s health ministry said it had yet to determine the strain of the virus.
Mpox belongs to the smallpox family of viruses but causes milder symptoms including fever, chills and body aches, with more serious cases likely to develop characteristic lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.
Earlier this week, the WHO warned of the “very worrying” emergence and spread of a new variant of mpox associated with a “more severe disease and higher mortality rates” than the strain behind the global mpox outbreak in 2022.
Over 17,000 mpox cases have been confirmed in Africa with more than 500 deaths this year alone, mainly among children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the outbreak began at the start of 2023.
Pakistan’s health department confirmed that one case of mpox was detected in the country’s northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, withdrawing a previous statement that three cases of the viral infection were detected in the region this week on arrival from the UAE.
The health ministry said it had yet to confirm if the patient is infected with the new variant known as clade 1b, with the sequencing of a sample from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa patient underway.
“Once that’s done, we will be able to say what strain this is,” the health ministry said, adding that the “screening system at airports and entry points is being further strengthened”.
The ministry flagged concerns that the location of the confirmed mpox patient in Pakistan is currently unknown, as he is suspected to have gone to another district after providing his samples for tests.
“When we visited his home in Mardan, it was locked from [the] outside and his neighbours told us that the family has left for Dir,” the district health office (DHO) said.
“We approached our fellow colleagues of the health department in Dir district but they couldn’t trace him, even in Dir,” the DHO said.
The health ministry said it was carrying out contact tracing of the patient.
The new strain emerged in a Congolese mining town last year and is spreading to other countries in Africa as well as one case confirmed in Sweden on Thursday.
Clade 1b is said to cause milder symptoms with lesions on the genitals, making it harder to spot and more likely for people to sicken others without knowing they’re infected.
“It is concerning for two main reasons,” according to pox researcher Jonas Albarnaz from the Pirbright Institute.
“First, this is the first clade 1 mpox virus case outside Africa. This indicates that the extent of the international spread of clade 1 outbreak in DRC might be larger than we knew yesterday,” Dr Albarnaz said.
“And second, clade 1 mpox virus is associated with a more severe disease and higher mortality rates than the clade 2 virus responsible for the international mpox outbreak in 2022.”
One million doctors strike in India over trainee’s rape and murder
Doctors in India began a nationwide strike on Saturday in protest against the brutal rape and murder of a trainee medic at a hospital in the eastern state of West Bengal.
The doctor, a member of staff at the RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, had settled down for a nap in a lecture hall after working nearly 20 hours of a 36-hour shift when she was assaulted, her colleagues say. She was found dead last Friday and police have confirmed that the 31-year-old was raped and murdered.
A police volunteer working at the hospital has been detained in connection with the crime, but the victim’s family alleges more people were involved.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country’s largest union representing doctors and medical workers, called for a nationwide strike halting non-emergency medical services for 24 hours starting Saturday morning.
“Subsequent to the brutal crime in R G Kar Medical College Kolkata and the hooliganism unleashed on the protesting students, IMA declares nationwide withdrawal of services by doctors of modern medicine from 6am on Saturday to 6am Sunday for 24 hours,” the medical organisation said in a statement, adding that “all essential services will be maintained”.
The IMA called on the public to support its “struggle for justice”, and called the murder a “crime of barbaric scale due to the lack of safe spaces for women”.
“Junior doctors have all been on strike, so this would mean 90 per cent of doctors are on strike,” an IMA representative in the southern state of Telangana told Reuters.
The suspension of work has affected patients all across India, with the walkout of around a million doctors making it the largest in the country in over a decade.
“I have brought my ailing grandmother. They did not see her today. I will have to wait for another day,” said Raghunath Sahu, who was in a queue of patients at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in the eastern city of Cuttack.
Striking doctors and medical workers are demanding justice for the victim and a guarantee of safety inside medical campuses, including making any attack on on-duty medics an offence without the possibility of bail.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said it stood in solidarity with doctors in Kolkata and across India and called for urgent measures to improve the safety of female doctors in the workplace.
“The BMA is horrified by the rape and murder of a woman junior doctor in the hospital where she worked in Kolkata, India… This should never be a risk that any doctor ever faces in their place of work,” the BMA posted on X.
Earlier this week hundreds of thousands of women marched to chants of “reclaim the night” across several cities in India.
The nationwide demonstrations by doctors and women’s groups are fuelled by anger at the failure to impose tough laws to deter the rising tide of violence against women.
“The punishment should be the harshest possible, should come faster, so within public memory,” said senior criminal layer Shobha Gupta, who represented a Muslim woman raped during religious riots in Gujarat in 2002.
“When we are still angry about the crime, the result should come out. Punishment to play a role of deterrence, it should come faster,” Ms Gupta said.
India’s federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has taken over the investigation of the crime in Kolkata, has summoned several students from the RG Kar college and also questioned the hospital’s principal as it seeks to determine the circumstances surrounding the doctor’s murder.
The country’s health ministry has promised to form a committee on doctor safety, as it called on the striking medical workers to return to work.
Bangladesh’s protesters return some loot from Sheikh Hasina’s house
Protesters in Bangladesh have started returning the loot from the residence of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina as the new interim government struggled to restore law and order after months of violent protests.
Some 500 items, including 120 pieces of furniture, 70 electronic gadgets, and 150 mattresses, have reportedly been returned so far.
The stolen items started arriving after student leaders who drove the protests launched a campaign to recover the loot and restore the prime minister’s official ransacked residence.
Bangladesh continues to be riven by violence with more than 100 people injured in capital Dhaka on Thursday alone.
The violence began in late June when security forces cracked down on protesters demanding the rollback of a contentious jobs quota for relatives of the veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence.
After a brief lull, the protests turned into an agitation against Ms Hasina’s government. On 5 August, hundreds of protesters stormed the prime minister’s residence demanding her resignation. She fled away on a helicopter to India.
The protesters ransacked and looted the house, stealing clothes, furniture, refrigerators, laptops, a guitar, and even live and dead goats, chicken and rabbits.
An autorickshaw driver who had stolen 100,000 Bangladeshi taka (£659) from a drawer in one of the rooms has returned the cash, The Indian Express reported.
One protester, who had taken a duck and eaten it, paid money, while another returned jewellery, including a diamond nose-pin and a pendant.
Also returned were a pigeon and a cat. A cache of classified defence and security documents that was returned recently is being kept in a safe room guarded by the army.
The campaigners have set up a counter at the gate of the residence for people to drop back the looted items.
The campaigners told the newspaper they were trying to find a woman who was seen carrying a Dior luggage bag from the residence.
Meanwhile, more than 100 members and supporters of Ms Hasina’s Awami League party were injured when they were attacked by a mob of student protesters and political activists armed with bamboo sticks, iron rods and pipes in Dhaka.
The party’s supporters had gathered to mark the anniversary of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founder and the exiled prime minister’s father, despite the interim government cancelling it as a national holiday.
Ms Hasina had asked her supporters earlier this week to “pray for the salvation of all souls by offering floral garlands and praying” outside the museum of her father.
The protesters have been demanding a trial of Ms Hasina in connection with the killing of protesters. Police cases have already been filed against her and her party’s top leaders as well as senior police officials.
North Korea to partially reopen for foreign tourists after five years
The leading travel company taking tourists to North Korea says it hopes to send in the first Western tourists for almost five years by the end of 2024.
The nation was the first to close its borders to tourism at the start of the pandemic in January 2020 – and is the only country still to reopen. International passenger flights resumed in August 2023, but have not been open to tourists.
Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours told The Independent’s daily travel podcast: “A few hours ago, we were informed by our partners [in Pyongyang] in the National Tourism Administration that one specific area is going to open to all nationalities in December.”
That area is Samjiyon, a newly developed tourism complex in the far north of the country, near the Chinese border – and close to Paektu, the tallest mountain in North Korea.
“It’s not a full reopening of the country back to what it was, or more than what it was,” said Mr Cockerell. “It’s a specific opening of one, relatively obscure-up-till-now area.
“It’s considered to be the home of various guerilla bases used during the resistance of the Japanese occupation, and the official birthplace of Kim Jong Il as well. So there’s a lot of what the North Koreans call revolutionary history in the area.”
He said access to Samjiyon would likely be through a land crossing in the north of China, which has not previously been used by any Western tourists. North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong Un – son of Kim Jong Il – imposed the most severe border closure of any nation during Covid.
“It was a real, a proper lockdown beyond what most other people in the world have experienced,” said Mr Cockerell
“In the last year or so, they’ve slowly opened to some trade to some diplomats returning and to some Russian tourist groups who’ve been travelling in. But that’s that’s associated with the North Korean support for the Russian war effort.”
The Foreign Office warns against travel to North Korea, and tells British citizens: “You cannot get consular support within North Korea. “The security situation can change quickly with no advance warning about possible actions by the authorities. This poses significant risks to British visitors and residents.”
But Mr Cockerell said tourism “can only bring positives” and that visitors help to “open eyes and open minds, and these are things that should be promoted”.
He said: “The cure for isolation is not more isolation.”
Woman kicked off China flight for refusing to stow handbag under seat
A Chinese woman was escorted off a flight after she refused to stow her designer handbag under the seat in front of her, causing an hour-long delay.
A fellow passenger, who chose to stay anonymous, posted a video on social media platform Douyin, showing the entire incident which involved multiple conversations between the woman and the flight crew, the South China Morning Post reported.
The passenger said in her video that the woman refused to keep her Louis Vuitton handbag under the seat in front for takeoff and insisted on placing it next to her on the seat.
The incident occurred on 10 August on a flight from Chongqing municipality in southwestern China.
The flight had to return to the boarding gate, causing a delay of an hour as the woman was taken off. The delay also disrupted other flights.
Air passengers are always requested to keep their bags in overhead storage compartments or under the seats in front of them since anything that could become a projectile or block an escape route in case of turbulence or an evacuation is a safety hazard.
“The flight attendant could have offered her a bag to put her handbag in. Is it really necessary to waste an hour and kick her off the plane?” one Douyin user asked.
“The flight attendant did not insist on the rule for nothing. The woman should value her safety and that of other passengers rather than the bag,” said another.
The video shows the other passengers applauding as the woman is escorted out of the plane.
Last year, passengers on a flight from New Jersey to Atlanta took a vote on whether to have a woman removed after she started a fight with another traveller.
Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom to be extradited to US
Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom is set to be extradited to the US from New Zealand to face criminal charges relating to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload after he lost a 12-year legal battle.
New Zealand justice minister Paul Goldsmith said on Friday that he had signed orders to extradite the internet mogul to the US.
The decision could mark the end of an almost 12-year legal tussle with New Zealand authorities after US authorities shut down Mr Dotcom’s file-sharing website Megaupload and charged him with conspiracy, racketeering, and money laundering, along with three others.
German-born Mr Dotcom, whose birth name is Kim Schmitz, was arrested following a dramatic raid by New Zealand officials at his mansion in Auckland in 2012 along with three others. The raid was conducted at the request of the FBI.
Prosecutors said his website Megaupload raked in at least $175m (£136m) – mainly from people who used the site to illegally download songs, television shows, and films – before the FBI shut it down earlier that year.
He has, however, described himself as an “internet freedom fighter” and claims he had no control over what users uploaded on the website.
New Zealand’s justice minister said that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial but did not set a date for his extradition.
“I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial,” Mr Goldsmith said.
“As is common practice, I have allowed Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision. I will not, therefore, be commenting further at this stage.”
Reacting to the news, Mr Dotcom said, “Don’t worry I have a plan,” along with a wink emoji, and added, “I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving.”
In comments to the New Zealand Herald, he said he “received extensive advice” from government officials.
Mr Dotcom faces a maximum prison sentence of 55 years if convicted on all counts, according to the Justice Department.
A member of his legal team, Ira Rothken, said, “Our legal team is working on a judicial review in the High Court for Kim Dotcom in New Zealand. The fight for justice continues. The world is watching”.
Mr Dotcom, 50, founded the website in 2005, which went on to become hugely popular in the US. At its peak, the website became the 13th most popular in the world, accounting for 4 per cent of all online traffic.
He used to live in a Hong Kong hotel before gaining New Zealand residency in 2010. Two years later, he was arrested but was released on bail. The website generated millions of dollars in revenue, causing an estimated $500m in damages to copyright holders after copyrighted material was illegally shared on it.
He has since started a political party and another file-sharing website called Mega, alongside fighting the US prosecutors’ attempts to extradite him.
However, in 2021, New Zealand’s Supreme Court ruled that Mr Dotcom and two other men could be extradited.
Two of his former business partners, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, pleaded guilty to charges against them in a New Zealand court in June 2023 and were sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail. The US dropped efforts to extradite them in exchange for the guilty plea.
Prosecutors had earlier abandoned their extradition bid against a fourth officer of the company, Finn Batato, who was arrested in New Zealand. He left for Germany, where he died of cancer in 2022.
British judge condemned over Jimmy Lai case quits media freedom panel
A British judge who was condemned for upholding the conviction of pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong has quit a top media freedom panel.
David Neuberger, who is paid £40,000 to sit as an overseas non-permanent judge on Hong Kong’s top court, has withdrawn as chair of the high-level panel of legal experts that advises the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) advocacy group, an international NGO.
His resignation comes just days after voting to uphold a 14-month jail sentence for 76-year-old Beijing critic Mr Lai, who is a British citizen.
Lord Neuberger said it was “undesirable” that his work as an overseas judge in Hong Kong would distract from the mission of the MFC – which includes 51 countries – and resigned in a letter released on Thursday.
In the letter, Lord Neuberger said: “I have now concluded that I should go now, because it is undesirable that focus on my position as a non-permanent Judge in Hong Kong should take away, or distract, from the critical and impactful work of the High Level Panel.”
“It has been an enormous privilege and pleasure to work with so many intelligent, committed, and interesting people on such an important cause.”
But human rights groups have hit out at the decision. “He is choosing the court of Hong Kong over media freedom and integrity. We do not applaud Lord Neuberger’s resignation,” Mark Sabah of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation said. “It is absolutely astonishing that Lord Neuberger has chosen to remain on the Hong Kong Courts overseeing an appeal of British citizen, Jimmy Lai, and other pro-democracy activists, rather than step down.”
On Monday, the former Supreme Court judge voted to uphold the conviction of Mr Lai who supported anti-Beijing protests in 2019 and has been locked up for four years during a Beijing-led crackdown on dissent.
Former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten told The Independent on Tuesday that it was “obvious” the case Lord Neuberger upheld was an “act of vengeance” by the city-state’s government. Mr Lai’s son, Sebastien, said that time is “not on our side” to save his father, particularly given his age.
Mr Lai was jailed in 2021 for taking part in a pro-democracy rally, and faces a life sentence on separate national security charges described as “politically motivated” by Amnesty International.
Lord Neuberger told The Independent earlier this week that he would not comment on the Lai judgment as it had to “speak for itself”. He has previously vowed to stay on as a judge and said he would “support the rule of law the best I can”.
The Independent has reached out for comment from Lord Neuberger over his resignation from the Media Freedom Coalition.
More than 1,800 political prisoners have been detained in Hong Kong in a crackdown since mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Two British judges quit Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal in June and warned the territory was “slowly becoming a totalitarian state” with the rule of law “profoundly compromised”.
Mr Lai’s appeal centred on the questions of whether his conviction was proportionate to fundamental human rights protections set out in a pair of non-binding decisions by Britain‘s Supreme Court known as “operational proportionality”.
But Lord Neuberger’s judgment said the British court’s decisions should not be followed in Hong Kong as there is a difference between the legal frameworks for human rights challenges in the two jurisdictions.
British judges have sat on the Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal since 1997 on a non-permanent basis as part of an agreement when the city was handed back to China by the UK. The judges are all retired from their UK roles.
Typhoon Ampil: Thousands evacuated and hundreds of flights cancelled
Thousands of people in Japan have been ordered to evacuate and hundreds of flights and trains have been cancelled as typhoon Ampil bears down on Tokyo.
The widespread disruptions come as Japan is celebrating the Obon holiday week when millions of people return to their hometowns.
Ampil, which is expected to reach waters near Tokyo by Friday evening, is the seventh typhoon of 2024 to hit Japan. It is packing sustained winds of 162kph and moving north at 15kph, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Although Ampil is not expected to make landfall and may weaken to a tropical storm by Sunday, authorities have issued evacuation orders and warnings in anticipation of dangerous conditions.
The typhoon is expected to pass close to the Tokyo region, home to almost 40 million people, on Friday and move towards the Pacific coast.
In Fukushima prefecture, more than 320,000 residents of Iwaki city were ordered to evacuate to 30 designated shelters such as school gymnasiums and community centers.
Similar evacuation warnings were issued for at-risk areas in the cities of Asahi and Mobarashi in Chiba prefecture, located east of Tokyo.
As Friday progressed, Tokyo experienced drizzly and windy conditions, although the city’s streets were relatively quiet due to the Obon summer holiday period and the stormy weather. Despite the typhoon, stores in the capital remained open, though officials have urged residents to avoid rivers, beaches, and other potentially hazardous areas.
Shuichi Tachihara, chief forecaster at the Japan Meteorological Agency, warned of “extremely fierce winds and extremely fierce seas” as Ampil continued its path northward.
On the island of Hachijojima, south of Tokyo, residents were seen boarding up windows as the typhoon passed the Hachijo island group by midday Friday.
Japan Airlines has cancelled 191 domestic and 26 international flights, some of which were scheduled to arrive or depart from Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Friday.
All Nippon Airways announced the cancellation of 280 domestic flights on Friday, which it said would affect about 60,400 passengers scheduled to fly to regions such as Osaka, Fukuoka and Okinawa.
Approximately 90,000 travelers were affected by the cancellations, according to Japanese media reports.
Central Japan Railway cancelled all Shinkansen bullet train services between Tokyo and Japan’s industrial heartland of Nagoya on Friday.
Rail services on the Tohoku, Yamagata and Joetsu Shinkansen lines were operated on a reduced service from 11am on Friday.
Tokyo Disneyland, which typically remains open until 9pm local time, closed early at 3pm.
Yamato Transport, responsible for delivering packages for Amazon and other online retailers in Japan, suspended all deliveries in Tokyo and nearby regions for Friday and Saturday.
The weather agency warned residents in eastern regions to be highly vigilant against storms, high waves, heavy rains and possible landslides.
“We urge the public to stay informed about evacuation advisories and take early steps to seek safety,” disaster management minister Yoshifumi Matsumura said at a regular briefing.
In a rare advisory, Japan’s Coast Guard asked large vessels to evacuate Tokyo Bay and to avoid venturing out into the sea.
Japan is bracing for Ampil’s arrival less than a week after Storm Maria lashed the country with intense rainfall, prompting the evacuation of thousands of residents.
Footage from NHK public television shows muddy waters flooding rivers in towns like Iwaizumi, where a 2016 typhoon claimed nine lives.