As India surges, Bangladesh lacks jabs, faces virus variants

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — India’s surge in coronavirus cases is having a dangerous effect on neighboring Bangladesh, with health experts warning of imminent vaccine shortages just as the country should be stepping up jabs and as more contagious virus variants are beginning to be detected. On Saturday, health authorities said that for the first time, a coronavirus variant originally identified in India was found in Bangladesh, without providing further details. For weeks, South African variants have dominated the samples sequenced in Bangladesh. There are concerns that these versions spread more easily and that first-generation vaccines could be less effective against them.

Bomb kills at least 30 near girls’ school in Afghan capital

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A bomb exploded near a girls’ school in a majority Shiite district of west Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 30 people, many of them young pupils between 11 and 15 years old. The Taliban condemned the attack and denied any responsibility. Ambulances evacuated the wounded as relatives and residents screamed at authorities near the scene of the blast at Syed Al-Shahda school, in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said. The death toll was expected to rise further. The bombing, apparently aimed to cause maximum civilian carnage, adds to fears that violence in the war-wrecked country could escalate as the U.S.

China says most rocket debris burned up during reentry

BEIJING (AP) — China’s space agency says a core segment of its biggest rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere above the Maldives and most of it has burned up early Sunday.

India’s surge hits southern states, prompts more lockdowns

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Two southern states in India became the latest to declare lockdowns, as coronavirus cases surge at breakneck speed across the country and pressure mounts on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to implement a nationwide shutdown. At over 300,000, Karnataka’s capital of Bengaluru has the highest active caseload of any Indian city. But experts warn the worst is still ahead as India’s third-largest city buckles under oxygen shortages, overrun hospitals and crowded crematoriums. In Tamil Nadu state, the lockdown announcement followed a daily record of more than 26,000 cases on Friday. Infections have swelled in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for religious festivals and political rallies.

Maldives: Islamic extremists behind attack on ex-president

MALE, Maldives (AP) — A top official in the Maldives said Saturday that Islamic extremists were responsible for an explosion that critically wounded former President Mohamed Nasheed earlier this week, as police said they arrested two of four suspects. Hospital officials said Saturday that Nasheed, 53, was conscious and no longer needed breathing support, but remains in an intensive care unit after initial life-saving surgeries to his head, chest, abdomen and limbs. They told reporters that shrapnel from the blast damaged his intestines and liver, and that a piece of shrapnel broke his rib and had been a centimeter (0.4 inches) from his heart.

Myanmar junta brands ousted lawmakers ‘terrorists’

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s junta has labeled a shadow government of lawmakers and politicians ousted in a February coup and a people’s defense force that is being set up to confront security forces as terrorist groups. The government of national unity was established by elected legislators who were barred from taking their seats when the military seized power and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others. The junta has previously accused them of treason, and the announcement on state TV Saturday said they were being branded terrorists because of their participation in a civil disobedience movement — a popular revolt against the military takeover that has seen people taking to the streets daily despite the lethal use of force by authorities.

After lull, cases spread in Vietnam’s cities, provinces

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — After over a month with no local infections, Vietnam has recorded 176 confirmed coronavirus cases from several outbreaks that have spread to 19 provinces during the past 10 days, the Health Ministry said. The National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi, which has been at the front line treating COVID-19 patients, has been sealed off after a doctor, two nurses and more than 20 patients tested positive earlier the week. Meanwhile, the city’s K hospital, which is designated to treat cancer patients, also closed Friday after 11 cases of COVID-19 were found. “The situation is alarming because we are having multiple outbreaks scattered across the country with unclear sources of transmission and multiple variants of the virus,” Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said during a government meeting broadcast on national television VTV on Friday evening.

Philippine troops drive away armed rebels from public market

COTABATO, Philippines (AP) — Dozens of Muslim militants occupied a public market overnight in the southern Philippines before fleeing after a tense standoff with government forces, officials said Saturday. The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters did not take any hostage or put up resistance when army troops and police took positions at dawn Saturday near the public market in the farming town of Datu Paglas, said military spokesman Lt. Col. John Paul Baldomar. “They went into the market and stole food but got stuck inside when they saw that our forces have taken positions to ensure other buildings could not be threatened,” he told reporters.

Unsure vaccine waiver will help, some leaders urge exports

GENEVA (AP) — European leaders voiced increasing skepticism Friday that a U.S. proposal to lift patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines would solve the problem of getting shots into the arms of people in poorer countries, with some instead calling for more exports of the doses already being produced. While activists and humanitarian groups have cheered the Biden administration’s decision and urged others to follow suit, European Union leaders are hammering home the message that any benefit from a temporary waiver of intellectual property protections would be long in coming. Instead, they’ve taken the U.S., in particular, to task for not sharing more vaccines with the rest of the world.

WHO panel OKs emergency use of China’s Sinopharm vaccine

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization gave emergency use authorization Friday to a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinopharm, potentially paving the way for millions of the doses to reach needy countries through a U.N.-backed program rolling out coronavirus vaccines. The decision by a WHO technical advisory group — a first for a Chinese vaccine — opens the possibility that Sinopharm’s offering could be included in the U.N.-backed COVAX program in coming weeks or months and distributed through UNICEF and the WHO’s Americas regional office. Aside from efficacy numbers, the Chinese manufacturer has released very little public data about its two vaccines — one developed by its Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the other by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products.