Pakistan Plane Crashes Killing Over 100 Passengers On Board

   

   A passenger plane belonging to state-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has crashed near the southern port city of Karachi, killing all 107 passengers and crew, the city’s mayor has said.

  The PIA flight PK8303 was on a routine domestic service between from Lahore to Karachi, and was almost at the end of the 90-minute flight when it crashed on the approach to Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport. The Airbus A320 aircraft was carrying 99 passengers and eight crew members when it came down among houses, sending plumes of smoke into the air that could be seen from some distance away.

  Rescue workers and local residents were seen pulling people from the debris, as firefighters tried to put out the flames. “I heard a big bang and woke up to people calling for the fire brigade,” said a Karachi resident, Mudassar Ali. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was “shocked and saddened” by the crash, tweeting that he was in touch with the state airline’s chief executive.

  The disaster comes as Pakistanis across the country are preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid Al-Fitr, with many traveling back to their homes in cities and villages and only days after Commercial flights resumed after planes were grounded during a lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen sworn in for second term

 

  Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has been ​ sworn in for her second and final term in office on Wednesday, ​ in a ceremony at the Taiwan’s presidential palace in Taipei.

Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won January’s presidential and parliamentary elections by a landslide, vowing to stand up to China, which claims Taiwan as its own.

President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan is an independent state called the Republic of China, its official name, and does not want to be part of the People’s Republic of China governed by Beijing.

China has stepped up its military drills near Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen’s re-election, flying fighter jets into the island’s air space and sailing warships around Taiwan.

​ China cut off a formal talks mechanism with Taiwan in 2016 and views Ms Tsai as a separatist bent on formal independence for Taiwan.

TVC

Trump threatens permanent freeze on WHO funding in 30 days

 

  President Donald Trump threatened Monday to permanently freeze US funding to the World Health Organization unless "substantive improvements" were made within the next 30 days.

  Washington suspended funding to the WHO in mid-April, accusing it of being too close to Beijing and covering up and mismanaging the coronavirus pandemic.

  On Monday, Trump tweeted images of a letter he sent to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, informing the director-general that "if the World Health Organization does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization."

Senegal to re-open mosques and churches ease restrictions

 

   Senegalese President Macky Sall announced the re-opening of mosques and churches and the easing of other restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus, even as the largest one-day jump in cases was recorded on Monday.

   Sall ordered places of worship closed in March and imposed a dawn-to-dusk curfew. Since then, the daily pace of new cases has picked up, 177 on Monday from a previous high of 104, with increasing community transmission in hotspots such as the holy city of Touba. Senegal has recorded 1,886 coronavirus cases in total, including 19 deaths.

United States planning to accuse China of trying to hack vaccine data

 

  The F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security are reportedly preparing to issue an accusation that China’s most skilled hackers and spies are working to steal vaccine and treatment research from America to develop vaccines and treatments for the Coronavirus.

   A draft of the forthcoming public warning, which officials say is likely to be issued in the days to come, says China is seeking “valuable intellectual property and public health data through illicit means related to vaccines, treatments and testing,” New York Times reports.

Georgia Eases Anti-virus Restrictions

Georgia on Monday lifted most of the restrictions on economic activity that were imposed as part of measures to contain the coronavirus spread.

Industrial production and trade were allowed to resume, with the exception of large shopping malls and clothing retailers.

Georgians celebrated the decision, with many saying opening up the economy was a matter of survival for them.

“One or two more weeks of closed business and my family would have had no money for food,” said Kote Lagidze, owner of a car service station in Tbilisi.

The Georgian capital also lifted the ban on entry and exit to the city, in place since mid-April.

People queued up outside reopened shops observing measures limiting the number of people inside closed spaces.

Niko Avaliani, one of the shoppers waiting for his turn to enter a bookstore, said ending the lockdown was long overdue.

“There were no reasons for keeping the economy on hold any longer,” the 29-year-old historian told AFP. Each day contributed “more poverty,” he said.

“We have all been waiting desperately for the return to some kind of normalcy,” bookshop assistant Lamara Sordia said.

“It’s great that people can now indulge in little pleasures such as buying books.”

The government has said the country will reopen to foreign tourists as of July 1, while domestic tourism is set to resume in mid-June.

However, restaurants, cafes, and educational institutions remain closed for the time being and public transport operations are halted.

The Black Sea country of 3.7 million in March closed all non-essential businesses, declared a state of emergency and a night curfew, which will remain in place until May 22.

The restrictions have hit Georgia’s economy which is expected to shrink by four percent this year instead of the previously projected four-and-a-half percent expansion.

CHANNELS

British PM Issues New COVID-19 Guidelines Ahead Of Lockdown Plan

 

 

  Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued new public advice on the coronavirus on Sunday ahead of his announcement on how to ease a nationwide lockdown, but warned he would proceed cautiously as the death toll in Britain, already the highest in Europe, continues to mount.

In a televised address to the nation at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT), Johnson is expected to extend most of the stay-at-home orders imposed in late March, although garden centres are set to reopen.

But in a sign of a gradual shift towards getting the country moving again, he tweeted new public advice for people to “stay alert”, to replace the current slogan to “stay home, save lives”.

It urges people to stay at home “as much as possible” and limit contact with others, a more lenient message than previous rules to only go outside where necessary and to meet nobody outside your household.

Johnson, who himself spent a week in hospital with coronavirus last month, has made clear he will proceed with “maximum caution” in easing the lockdown.

He is looking at a plan to contain infection rates in the longer term, with ministers considering imposing a 14-day quarantine on anyone coming into the country from abroad.

An alert system is also being developed to monitor the outbreak, which will inform when and how lockdown measures might be lifted — or tightened — at a national and local level.

– Don’t run too fast –

Johnson has been criticised for failing to take the outbreak seriously enough at the start, still shaking hands in early March and delaying the imposition of a lockdown.

Britain has now recorded more than 31,500 deaths among people who have tested positive for COVID-19 — the second highest figure in the world after the United States.

There are growing demands from his own MPs to lift the lockdown as it wreaks economic havoc — the Bank of England this week predicted a 14-percent slump in British GDP this year.  But in an interview with the Sun on Sunday newspaper, Johnson warned that now was “the most dangerous bit”.

“We’re past the peak now but we’ll have to work even harder to get every step right,” he said.

“Mountaineers always say that coming down from the peak is the most dangerous bit. That’s when you’re liable to be over-confident and make mistakes.

“You have very few options on the climb up, but it’s on the descent you have to make sure you don’t run too fast, lose control and stumble.”

Channels

Professor reseaching covid-19 found shot dead at home

  

   v A University of Pittsburgh professor on the verge of making "very significant findings" researching Covid-19, according to the university, was shot and killed in an apparent murder-suicide over the weekend, police said.

  The research assistant professor, identified as Bing Liu, was found in his townhouse Saturday with gunshot wounds to the head, neck, torso and extremities, according to the Ross Police Department. Investigators believe an unidentified second man, who was found dead in his car, shot and killed Liu in his home before returning to his car and taking his own life.

Police believe the men knew each other, but say there is "zero indication that there was targeting due to his (Liu) being Chinese," according to Detective Sgt. Brian Kohlhepp. 

The university issued a statement saying it is "deeply saddened by the tragic death of Bing Liu, a prolific researcher and admired colleague at Pitt. The University extends our deepest sympathies to Liu's family, friends and colleagues during this difficult time."

"Bing was on the verge of making very significant findings toward understanding the cellular mechanisms that underlie SARS-CoV-2 infection and the cellular basis of the following complications," his colleagues at the university's Department of Computational and Systems Biology said in a statement.

Members of the university's School of Medicine describe their former colleague as an outstanding researcher and mentor, and have pledged to complete Liu's research "in an effort to pay homage to his scientific excellence."

Boris Johnson and Carrie name their baby boy Wilfred

 

  Prime Minister Boris Johnson and partner Carrie Symonds have announced the name of their newborn baby boy today.

The baby’s name is Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, after both their grandparents and the two doctors that saved the PM’s life from coronavirus. Carrie wrote on Instagram:

Police officer dies, seven others being looked for after their lorry was swept away by floods

   A police officer has been confirmed dead, and seven others are still missing after the truck they were travelling in on Thursday night, was swept away by raging flood waters in Baringo North area.

  The eight, alongside their other four colleagues, who survived the 7:30pm incident, were heading back to ASTU Chemoe camp after attending a security meeting at the Baringo County headquarters in Kabarnet Town, when the unfortunate happening occurred.

21 die after consuming contaminated liquor in Mexico

  21 persons have died and 13 others have been seriously injured in the Mexican state of Jalisco after ingesting contaminated liquor, regional authorities have said.

South Korea denies that Kim Jong-Un is dead

    The South Korea Government has denied that North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, is dead, saying that the dictator of the hermit nation is ‘alive and well’. There have been media reports in Chinese, Korean and American outlets that Kim was in a very poor state physically after undergoing heart surgery last week.

   Reports of Kim’s poor health emanated after he missed the celebration of his grandfather’s birthday on April 15, a very important celebration that he never misses. He had been seen four days before that at a politburo meeting, according to North Korean state media, KCNA.

U.S. states to cut oil production

     U.S. President Donald Trump has disclosed that Texas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota will cut their oil production, without giving specifics on numbers, amid a glut in energy supplies and shortages of storage that led to massive drops in prices on the market. “They gotta cut,” Trump said, speaking to reporters at the White House.

    He also said Canada would make cuts. “I want to help that industry,” Trump said, calling himself an “energy person.” He described the cuts as a “natural” evolution, responding to the market. The benchmark U.S. oil price, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), plummeted to an unprecedented minus 37 dollars at the end of Monday’s session.

One Million Masks Purchased From China Unfit For Health Workers – Canada Government

     The Canadian government said Friday that one million KN95 masks imported from China did not meet its strict standards and so could not be distributed to frontline health workers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Public Health Agency of Canada “has identified approximately one million KN95 masks as non-compliant with specifications for healthcare settings,” a spokesman told AFP. “These items were not distributed to provinces and territories for frontline health care response, and are being subsequently assessed for use in non-healthcare settings,” he said.

   Chinese model KN95 masks are similar to N95 masks, as well as the FFP2 model used in Europe. “Much of the world’s supply is manufactured in China and moving materials out of that country is highly complex,” said Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand. The relationship between Ottawa and Beijing has been on the rocks ever since the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive at Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, in December 2018 in Vancouver.

Bra-shaped face mask goes viral in Japan sell out minutes after launch

 

    Bra-shaped face masks in Japan sold out minutes after launch. Recently, bra-cup face mask memes surfaced online and went viral but a Japanese company decided to make them a reality and they sold out almost instantly.

President Trump May Postpone US Polls

   Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has predicted that US President Donald Trump will try to postpone the country’s November election in an attempt to win. “Mark my words, I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden said during an online fundraiser Thursday.

The 77-year-old former vice president said it is “the only way he thinks he can possibly win. “Six months before US voters head to the polls, Trump’s mind is already in election mode. But with a pandemic raging and job losses climbing to 26.4 million on Thursday, Trump’s path to victory may be harder than he anticipated.

President Donald Trump signs executive order halting immigration into US

 

   President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has signed an executive order limiting immigration to the U.S. for the next 60 days due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kenya central bank shifts its policy meeting to April 29

 

 The Kenyan central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee will hold its next meeting on April 29, it said on Tuesday, changing it from the initial scheduled date of April 27.

British 5G towers set on fire because of coronavirus conspiracy theories

 

   5G phone masts are being set alight in the UK after online conspiracy theories have misleadingly linked the cell towers to the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID -19: UN chief Antonio Guterres appreciates Nigeria’s response

 

  The international community has rated Nigeria's emergency responses to the outbreak of coronavirus in the country. The rating was given by the secretary-general of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres on Friday, April 3, in New York during a press briefing.