Washington: Guided by Mahatma Gandhi’s message of truth and non-violence, India achieved its long journey towards independence, US President Joe Biden said on the country’s 75th Independence Day, asserting that the commitment to respecting the will of the people through democracy continues to inspire the world.

Greeting Indians on the 75th Independence Day, Biden said in this moment of great challenges and opportunities, the partnership between India and the United States was more important than ever.

On this day, August 15, 1947, India achieved its long journey toward independence, guided by Mahatma Gandhi’s message of truth and non-violence, Biden said in a statement on Saturday.

Today, that foundational commitment to respecting the will of the people through democracy continues to inspire the world and is the basis of the special bond between our two nations. Over the decades, the ties between our people, including a vibrant community of more than four million Indian-Americans, have sustained and strengthened our partnership, he said.

Biden pointed out that in the past one year, the two nations have come together in new ways as they tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, including working in partnership with Japan and Australia through the Quad grouping to expand global manufacturing of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and to strengthen the last-mile coordination to reach people throughout the Indo-Pacific.

The US, India, Australia and Japan have established the Quad grouping as the leaders of the four countries in March this year expounded their vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, amidst China flexing its muscles in the strategically-vital region.

Together, we must show the world that our two great and diverse democracies can deliver for people everywhere. And as we do, the friendship between our nations will continue to flourish and grow, Biden said.

I wish all those celebrating today, in India, in the United States, and throughout the world, a safe and happy Indian Independence Day, he said in his message.

Extending warm wishes to the people of India on the country’s 75th Independence Day, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the bonds between the United States and India began over seven decades ago and have transformed into a growing partnership.

Our regional cooperation is expanding at an exponential pace as we continue to work together, alongside our partners, to advance our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific. From climate action and clean energy to space technologies, US-India bilateral cooperation is wide-ranging and stronger than ever before, he said.

As I said during my visit to New Delhi, there are few partnerships more vital than the one between the United States and India. Mindful of our seventy-four years of friendship, our two democracies will continue to build a better tomorrow. Happy Independence Day! Blinken said in his message.

Kabul: An Afghan official says forces at Bagram air base, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, have surrendered to the Taliban.

Bagram district chief Darwaish Raufi said Sunday that the surrender handed the one-time American base over to the insurgents.

The prison housed both Taliban and Islamic State group fighters. It came as the Taliban entered the outskirts of Kabul. 

ANKARA: Turkish authorities said Thursday the death toll from the severe floods and mudslides that struck the north of the country has risen to 17.

One other person is reported missing.

The floods battered the Black Sea coastal provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu, Sinop and Samsun on Wednesday, demolishing homes and bridges and sweeping away cars.

Helicopters scrambled to rescue people stranded on rooftops.

As floodwaters began to recede across the affected regions in Turkey’s north, a statement from the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency, or AFAD, said rescuers had recovered six bodies in Kastamonu.

An 80-year-old woman was reported missing in Bartin province.

The disaster struck as firefighters in southwest Turkey worked to extinguish a wildfire in Mugla province, an area popular with tourists that runs along the Aegean Sea.

The blaze, which was brought under control on Thursday, was one of more than 200 wildfires in Turkey since July 28.

At least eight people and countless animals died and thousands of residents have had to flee fierce blazes.

Climate scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme events, such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods and storms.

Such calamities are expected to happen more frequently on our warming planet.

Flooding inundated much of Bozkurt.

One building collapsed and a second building was damaged in the town, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

In Bartin province, at least 13 people were injured when a section of a bridge caved in.

The military said its helicopters airlifted 80 people to safety in the region.

Many of the affected areas were left without power and village roads were blocked.

Turkey’s Black Sea region is frequently struck by severe rains and flash flooding.

At least six people were killed in floods that hit the eastern Black Sea coastal province of Rize last month.

Beijing: China on Monday reported an anthrax pneumonia patient from northern Hebei Province’s Chengde city, who had contact history with cattle, sheep and products that come from these animals.

The patient was transported to Beijing by an ambulance four days ago after showing symptoms and the person was later quarantined and put under treatment, state-run Global Times reported, quoting the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Beijing CDC).

Anthrax is prevalent among cattle and sheep. Human beings usually get infected after coming in contact with sick animals or contaminated products. The most common way of infection — 95 per cent of reported cases — are caused by skin contact which lead to blisters and skin necrosis, the Beijing CDC said.

The most dangerous infection is anthrax pneumonia, which happens when a patient inhales dust containing bacillus anthracis and gets infected.

People can get intestinal anthrax after eating contaminated food, usually meat, and will develop symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Anthrax can be transmitted directly between human beings but it is not as infectious as flu or COVID-19.

Bacillus anthracis is a bacterium and multiple antibiotics are effective for treatment, the report said.

Since Sunday, Beijing has stepped up measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus cases by virtually banning people from travelling to the Chinese capital from provinces with COVID-19 cases in the country.

Beijing has rolled out a range of measures to strengthen the management of people returning from regions with relatively high virus transmission rates, including imposing restrictions on their purchase of railway tickets and air services.

So far, the coronavirus has claimed 4,848 lives, along with 105,904 confirmed infections, in China, according to Johns Hopkins University.

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration on Monday expanded its efforts to evacuate at-risk Afghan citizens from Afghanistan as Taliban violence increases ahead there of the US military pullout at the end of the month.

Current and former employees of the U.S. government and the NATO military operation who don’t meet the criteria for a dedicated program for such workers are also covered.

However, the move comes with a major caveat: applicants must leave Afghanistan to begin the adjudication process that may take 12-14 months in a third country, and the U.S. does not intend to support their departures or stays there.

Nevertheless, the State Department said the move will mean that “many thousands” of Afghans and their immediate families will now have the opportunity to be permanently resettled in the US as refugees.

It did not offer a more specific number of those who might be eligible for the programme.

“The US objective remains a peaceful, secure Afghanistan,” it said in a statement.

“However, in light of increased levels of Taliban violence, the US government is working to provide certain Afghans, including those who worked with the United States, the opportunity for refugee resettlement to the United States.”

The creation of a “Priority 2” category for Afghans within the US Refugee Admissions Program is intended for Afghans and their immediate families who “may be at risk due to their US affiliation” but aren’t able to get a Special Immigrant Visa because they did not work directly for the US government or didn’t hold their government jobs long enough.

To qualify for the Priority 2 category, Afghans must be nominated by a US government agency or by the most senior civilian US citizen employee of a US-based media outlet or nongovernmental organization.

The first group of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants, most of whom served as translators or did other work for U.S. troops or diplomats, who have cleared security vetting arrived in the US on Friday.

That group of 221 people are among 2,500 who will be brought to the US in the coming days.

Another 4,000 SIV applicants, plus their families, who have not yet cleared the security screening are expected to be relocated to third countries ahead of the completion of the US withdrawal.

Roughly 20,000 Afghans have expressed interest in the programme.

WORLD: Germany will start offering Covid booster shots from September and make it easier for 12-to-17 year olds to get a jab, the health ministry said Monday, amid concerns about the spread of the Delta variant.

Mobile vaccination teams should be sent into care and nursing homes, the text says, to offer Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna booster shots to residents, regardless of which vaccine they had originally.

Doctors will also be able to administer booster jabs to those who qualify, including people with weakened immune systems.

A booster shot will also be offered to anyone who received the two-dose AstraZeneca or single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the document released by Spahn’s ministry said, “in the interests of preventative healthcare”.

Both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are viral vector vaccines, whereas the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use novel mRNA technology that has shown high efficacy in studies.

The ministers also agreed to make the coronavirus vaccine more widely available to over-12s, going a step further than the country’s STIKO vaccines regulator.

The regulator currently only recommends the coronavirus vaccine for 12-17 year olds if they have pre-existing conditions or live with people at high risk from Covid.

Although adolescents who do not fall into those categories are still allowed to get vaccinated, in consultation with their parents and doctors, the cautious STIKO guidance has slowed take-up.

Germany’s health ministers agreed on Monday to encourage vaccination among teens by opening all the country’s vaccination centres to 12-17 year olds, alongside the possibility to get vaccinated at regular clinics.

The ministers stressed that the jab was voluntary but said getting children and teenagers vaccinated could “contribute significantly to a safe return to classrooms after the summer holidays”.

Although Germany is currently enjoying relatively low infection rates compared with neighbouring countries, case numbers have been creeping up in recent weeks mainly because of the more contagious Delta variant.

There are also concerns about a slowdown in the country’s vaccination rate, with just over 52 percent of the population fully inoculated. 

Within the European Union, the European Medicines Agency has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna shots for all over-12s.

STIKO head Thomas Mertens told public radio MDR that the body was still waiting for data from longer-term studies before deciding on issuing a more general vaccine recommendation for over-12s.

The problem, he added, “is not so much the children’s vaccinations”.

What is needed to help suppress a fourth Covid wave in Germany “is a high vaccination rate among 18-to-59 year olds”.

WASHINGTON: The first flight evacuating Afghan interpreters and others who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan landed early Friday at Washington Dulles International Airport, according to an internal US government document and a commercial flight tracking service.

An airliner carrying the 221 Afghans, including 57 children and 15 babies, according to the internal document obtained by The Associated Press, touched down at Washington Dulles International Airport in the early morning hours, according to tracking of the flight by FlightAware.

The evacuation flights, resettling former translators and others who fear retaliation from Afghanistan’s Taliban for having worked with American service members and civilians, are highlighting American uncertainty about how Afghanistan’s government and military will fare after the last US combat forces leave that country in coming weeks.

Family members are accompanying the interpreters and others on the flights out.

They were expected to stay at Fort Lee, Virginia for several days, U.S.officials said earlier this month.

Subsequent flights are due to bring more of the applicants who are farthest along in the process of getting visas, having already won approval and cleared security screening.

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden is asking states and localities to offer unvaccinated residents $100 to get their COVID-19 shots.

The cash reward for vaccination was one idea in Biden’s latest plan to boost lagging vaccination rates in many parts of the nation.

Rolled out Thursday, the core of his new plan is a requirement for federal workers to disclose their vaccination status to their agencies.

Biden is pointing to anecdotal evidence that a $100 reward will get results.

The White House says the Kroger grocery store chain tried it and saw vaccination rates jump to 75% from 50% among employees.

New Mexico, Ohio and Colorado have also experimented with the idea.

Biden says states and localities can use money from his COVID relief law to pay for the incentive programmes.

TOKYO: Japanese officials sounded an alarm on Thursday, July 29, 2021, after Tokyo reported record-breaking coronavirus cases for two straight days with the Olympics well underway. 

“We have never experienced the expansion of the infections of this magnitude,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters. He said the new cases were soaring not only in the Tokyo area but across the country. 

Tokyo reported 3,177 new cases on Wednesday, up from 2,848 on Tuesday, setting an all-time high and exceeding 3,000 for the first time. 

Japan has kept its cases and deaths lower than many other countries, but its seven-day rolling average is growing and now stands at 28 per 100,000 people nationwide and 88 in Tokyo, according to the Health Ministry. This compares to 18.5 in the United States, 48 in Britain and 2.8 in India, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

“While almost nothing is helping to slow the infections, there are many factors that can accelerate them,” said Dr. Shigeru Omi, a top government medical adviser, noting the Olympics and summer vacation. “The biggest risk is the lack of a sense of crisis and without it, the infections will further expand and put medical systems under severe strain.”

Tokyo has been under its fourth state of emergency since July 12, ahead of the Olympics, which began last Friday despite widespread public opposition and concern that they Games could worsen the outbreak.

People are still roaming the streets despite stay-at-home requests, making the measures largely ineffective at a time the more infectious delta strain is spreading, he said. “We have never seen the infections spread so rapidly.”

Alarmed by the surge in Tokyo, the governors of three prefectures adjacent to the capital said they plan to ask Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to place their areas under the state of emergency too. 

Experts say Tokyo’s surge is being propelled by the delta variant of the virus and there is no evidence of the disease being transmitted from Olympic participants to the general public.

Tokyo officials said Thursday that two foreign Olympic athletes are currently hospitalized and 38 others are self-isolating at designated hotels in the city. Gov. Yuriko Koike urged the organizers to make sure not to burden Tokyo’s hospitals. 

Nationwide, Japan reported more than 9,500 confirmed cases, a new record, on Wednesday for a total of about 892,000, with about 15,000 deaths.

As of Wednesday, 26.3% of the Japanese population has been fully vaccinated. The percentage of the elderly who are fully vaccinated is 70%, or 24.8 million people.

WELLINGTON: New Zealand on Monday agreed to repatriate an alleged Islamic State militant and her two young children, who have been detained in Turkey since February.

The decision follows a bitter dispute with Australia over which country needed to shoulder responsibility for the woman, who had been a dual citizen of both countries until Australia stripped her citizenship under its anti-terrorism laws.

The woman and her children were arrested when they tried to illegally cross from Syria into Turkey, according to Turkey’s Defense Ministry. Turkey identified her only by her initials, S.A., while New Zealand media say she is Suhayra Aden, who was 26 at the time of her arrest.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand had taken into account its international responsibilities and could not remove citizenship from anybody if it left them stateless.

“I made very strong representations to Australia that she should be permitted to return there. Her family moved to Australia when she was 6 and she grew up there before departing for Syria in 2014 on an Australian passport,” Ardern said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Australia would not reverse the cancellation of citizenship.”

Australian Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the woman lost her citizenship as a result of her own actions, and that ending citizenship for dual nationals engaged in terrorist conduct was an integral part of Australia’s response to terrorist threats.

“The government’s first priority is always to protect the Australian community,” Andrews said in a statement. 

Ardern said the safety and wellbeing of New Zealanders was the government’s paramount concern. She said there had been extensive planning with the police and other agencies. 

“I can assure people great care is being taken as to how the woman and her young children are returned to New Zealand and how they will be managed in a way that minimizes any risk for New Zealanders,” Ardern said.

Authorities declined to say when the family would be repatriated, citing legal and security concerns.

Ardern said anybody suspected of being associated with a terrorist group should expect to be investigated under New Zealand laws, although the case remained a matter for the police. 

New Zealand police confirmed an investigation was underway but declined further comment on whether the woman would face any criminal charges.