Life in the crossfire of Venezuela's slums
Life in the crossfire of Venezuela's slumsThe neighborhood of Cota 905 in Caracas shares a name with the gang that runs it with impunityCARACAS - A Venezuelan soldier takes cover behind an armored vehicle. The scene played out this month in the slum of Cota 905, which shares a name with the gang that runs it with impunity. In the early morning hours, shots rang out and members of the Cota 905 gang took to the streets ordering inhabitants to stay at home and cautioning police not to enter. Then, the police surrounded four of the slums, including Cota 905. Caracas slum residents have long been left to their own devices.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 26, 2021 04:41 UTC
Make merit, stay home
One of them is a dhamma centre located in the Muang district, which will be closed for 14 days. Members of the dhamma centre are not allowed to travel outside the province and all gatherings are prohibited. At the same time, district officers are ordered to examine all dhamma centres in their neighbourhood and carry out random Covid-19 screenings. Last year, when the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) issued an order to temporarily close 34 locations, temples and dhamma centres were not included in the announcement. The Chiang Mai dhamma centre is not the only place where a new Covid-19 cluster has been found.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 26, 2021 00:45 UTC
The importance of testing
By 8pm, early birds had already started to line up in front of a temple for testing the next morning. The free testing could only accept 900 walk-ins per day for a week. Even if you test positive (false-negative result), the process will help screen out those who are actually infected," he said. However, those at high risk should contact local clinics and hospitals for free rapid testing. Those who test positive should be better informed of the guidelines otherwise, when they get worse, they will be left to themselves.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 25, 2021 23:37 UTC
Sinovac may be only choice for many
Sinovac may be only choice for manyA medical officer provides a Covid-19 jab with the Sinovac vaccine at Bang Sue Grand Station. Most appear to be pinning their hopes on the mRNA vaccines which are not yet available in Thailand. For everyone else, especially those who reject the Sinovac vaccine out of their belief that this Chinese-made product is inferior in quality or a C-grade vaccine, as the media opposition politicians and celebrities keep saying, it's a grim business. Of the vaccines procured by the government -- Pfizer and Moderna, both mRNA vaccines, AstraZeneca, a viral vector vaccine, Sinovac and Sinopharm, both inactivated vaccines -- Sinovac is said to be the least effective against the Delta variant. According to him, about 700,000 medics were mostly fully inoculated with Sinovac vaccine and only 880 were infected with Covid-19.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 25, 2021 23:26 UTC
Macron pressured to apologise for nuclear tests in French Polynesia
Macron pressured to apologise for nuclear tests in French PolynesiaPresident Emmanuel Macron (centre) is making his first official trip to French Polynesia. PAPEETE: French President Emmanuel Macron faced pressure to apologise for the devastating impact of decades of nuclear testing as he kicked off his first official trip to French Polynesia. - 'Highest thyroid cancer rates' -Macron will be "encouraging several concrete steps" regarding the legacy of nuclear tests, with the opening up of state archives and individual compensation, a French presidential official who asked not to be named said. "We're expecting an apology from the president," said Auguste Uebe-Carlson, head of the 193 Association of victims of nuclear tests. One of three French territories in the Pacific, French Polynesia has a population of around 280,000 over a huge swath of island groups spanning an area comparable in size to Western Europe.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 25, 2021 09:56 UTC
Wuhan tests all citizens after Delta variant found
Wuhan tests all citizens after Delta variant foundChina's Wuhan city will test all of its 12 million residents for the coronavirus, an official said on Tuesday, after the place where the virus emerged in late 2019 confirmed its first domestic cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant. - REUTERSPublished: 4 Aug 2021
Source:Bangkok Post
July 25, 2021 06:56 UTC
India: on the frontline of climate change
India: on the frontline of climate changeFlooding is common during India's monsoon season but climate change is making the monsoon stronger, according to a report from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. NEW DELHI: Swathes of India are battling deadly floods and landslides after heavy monsoon rains, just the latest example of how the vast country is on the frontline of climate change. A glaciologist who investigated the site told AFP the catastrophe was "clearly a fallout of climate change and in itself a tell-tale of our future". But climate change is making the monsoon stronger, according to a report from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in April. But scientists say climate change may be making lightning more frequent.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 25, 2021 04:30 UTC
Almost half of Thais trust social media for Covid info: poll
Almost half of Thais trust social media for Covid info: pollA pregnant woman receives a Covid-19 jab at Bang Sue Railway Central Station, where walk-in vaccination services for vulnerable groups - Thai nationals aged 60 and over, women at least 12 weeks pregnant and anyone weighing 100kg or more - are available from July 22 until July 31. (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)Medical personnel and other experts provide the most reliable sources of information about the Covid-19 pandemic, but almost half the population trust social media, according to the result of an opinion survey by the Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, or Suan Dusit Poll. The poll was conducted online during July 19-22 on 1,691 people throughout the country to compile their opinions on the flow of information about Covid-19, with respondents allowed to choose more than one answer to each question. Asked what sources of information they thought were reliable, 65.30% chose doctors and medical personnel; 59.75% cited academics, researchers, experts and influencers; and 46.98% social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Asked how they assessed the flood of information, 43.99% said they were confused, 40,75% fairly confused and 15.26% not confused.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 25, 2021 03:11 UTC
The girl who was all 'eyelashes and legs'
The girl who was all 'eyelashes and legs'I was rightly admonished by a reader for not mentioning model Twiggy in last week's column concerning the "Swinging Sixties" in London. Born Leslie Hornby, being so thin she was nicknamed "Twigs" at school and among friends long before she became well-known. "At 16, I was a funny, skinny little thing, all eyelashes and legs," she said in an interview. Through the regular references in Private Eye, Neasden developed such a reputation that just the mention of the place by any comedian would probably get a laugh. After one court decision went against him he came out with the wonderful "if that's justice, then I'm a banana".
Source:Bangkok Post
July 24, 2021 21:56 UTC
Bureaucracy still baffles
Bureaucracy still bafflesAll the requirements of bureaucracy in this country have not changed in more than 100 years. The district asked my three brothers and my sister to show up at the same time. Jason A JellisonGive Covid jabs to everyoneRe: "Ministry launches vaccine drive for elderly foreigners," (BP, July 23). My point to the ministries is that there are a lot of elderly foreigners living elsewhere in the country besides Bangkok. I ask meat-eaters, will you please adopt a less selfish diet so your own children can have a future?
Source:Bangkok Post
July 24, 2021 21:56 UTC
No 'one-size fits all' model suited for lockdowns, experts say
No 'one-size fits all' model suited for lockdowns, experts sayThailand is struggling with soaring Covid-19 infections with more than 14,000 new cases a day. Known in Thailand as the "Wuhan model", some sectors are sceptical whether imposing such measures would work here. Public support neededChina has received mixed messages from the Wuhan lockdown, according to Mr Yang. For lockdown measures to work, first the public must understand what the restrictions are and why they need to cooperate, he said. "But with all that said, you can't still use the Wuhan or Guangzhou model as a whole in Thailand.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 24, 2021 21:22 UTC
Charles and Diana's 'wedding of the century'
Iconic moment: Charles, Prince of Wales, kisses his bride, Lady Diana Spencer on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on July 29, 1981, after their wedding. PARIS: Their fairy-tale marriage 40 years ago this month was dubbed the "wedding of the century". But for Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer it would all end in tears, recriminations and tragedy, with the after-effects still being felt by the British royals today. Prince Charles then laid the gold ring on her left hand and at 12:20 pm precisely, AFP wrote: "Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer are married." While Diana would have become queen upon Charles' accession to the throne, Camilla will merely be queen consort.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 24, 2021 04:41 UTC
Boxing fights for reputation
Tokyo: As the Thailand Boxing Association (TBA) seeks redemption after an embarrassing Rio 2016 campaign, the sport is fighting to restore its reputation. Four Thai fighters will attempt to bury the ghosts of 2016 Games where the national boxing team returned home empty-handed. The quartet are Chatchai-decha Butdee (men's 57kg), Juthamas Chitrapong (women's 51kg), Sudaporn Seesondee (women's 60kg) and Baison Maneekon (women's 69kg). Thitisan Panmod, probably Thailand's best prospect in boxing, was forced to pull out of the Games due to a knee injury. As part of moves to make Olympic boxing more similar to the professional fight game, at Rio pros were allowed to compete for the first time.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 24, 2021 03:11 UTC
National park or treasure?
National park or treasure? On Monday, the Thai government is expected to re-submit its application to list Kaeng Krachan National Park and its adjacent forest complex as a Unesco World Heritage site at the Extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee meeting convened in Fuzhou, China. This national park has been marred with notorious reports of conflicts between state park officials who resorted to heavy-handed measures to evict indigenous Karen villagers from the forest where they had settled for more than a century. If Thai delegates achieve their goal, Thailand will just get another World Heritage site. After all, having World Heritage status means the notorious Kaeng Krachan National Park must be treated as a treasure of mankind, and not just a tourism booster.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 23, 2021 21:56 UTC
Govt was floored by variants, says WHO
Govt was floored by variants, says WHOPeople walk past a food shop at Ratchawat market in Dusit district on Friday. (Photo: Apichart Jinakul)The Thai government's reaction to new variants was ill-advised and has contributed to the soaring number of cases sweeping across the country, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). "I think the main reason for Thailand's problems was the emergence of the new variants. "Vaccine research may struggle to keep up with the rate of change we're currently seeing in the virus," he added. "Public health officials are working very hard and the public too, are trying their best to comply with official measures, but high levels of contagion are still our main challenge.
Source:Bangkok Post
July 23, 2021 21:38 UTC