The Niger State House of Assembly on Monday extended the suspension of plenary to comply with the lockdown order to contain the spread of coronavirus.
A statement by Alhaji Abdullahi Kagara, the Clark of the House, in Minna on Monday explained that the development was in line with the state government two weeks lockdown order to avert the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawmakers had adjourned plenary session from March 31 to April 14, to contain the spread of coronavirus.
President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, on Monday, warned against those seeking to exploit the nationwide lockdown over coronavirus “for their own sinister ends’’.
“It is despicable that criminals are using this period of the lockdown as a cover to break the law at a time when our law-enforcement authorities are occupied with supporting the national effort to contain the pandemic,’’ Ramaphosa said in his weekly presidential address.
He was speaking following reports of criminal incidents ranging from destruction of public properties to gender-based violence.
“It is a great indictment of our society that dozens of schools have been burgled, trashed or burnt to the ground.’’
When the lockdown is lifted and learning resumes, thousands of children will have no school to return to, depriving them of the right to education, he said.
The country has been under lockdown since midnight March 26.
Last week, Ramaphosa extended the lockdown by two weeks, to the end of April.
Electricity utility Eskom has also reported an increase in cable theft and vandalism of its infrastructure since the lockdown began, resulting in power supply interruptions and damage that will cost a considerable amount to repair.
“That public property is being vandalised while the entire country is experiencing hardship because of the lockdown, is a demonstration of utter disrespect and disregard for the majority of South Africans, who are law-abiding,’’ Ramaphosa said.
Criminals are also preying on the weak and vulnerable, the president said.
“It is disturbing that during a time of such immense difficulty for our country, women and girls are being terrorised inside their own homes, forcing them to make desperate calls for help.’’
The number of calls to the GBV (gender-based violence) National Command Centre has increased since the lockdown began, according to the president.
He said South Africa has heeded the call by UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, for governments to prioritise gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We continue to implement the Emergency Response Plan to end gender-based violence that was announced last year,’’ Ramaphosa said.
Support services to vulnerable women and children remain operational throughout the lockdown, including psycho-social services like counselling for women and children, sheltering and places of safety, and medico-legal services in cases of sexual violence, he said.
“I have a message for those callous criminals who think they can take advantage,’’ the president said.
The criminal justice system is not on leave as law enforcement authorities will deal with those who transgress the law, he warned.
The Premier League season must be played to a finish after the COVID-19 shutdown is over instead of using “artificial means” to decide the champions as well as relegation and Champions League spots, Crystal Palace Manager, Roy Hodgson has said.
With football in England suspended since March 13 due to the pandemic, Hodgson said teams might have to accept increased safety restrictions and having to play more games in a shorter period when play resumed.
“Everyone is in total agreement we need an end to this season,” the 72-year old told the club’s website.
“We don’t want artificial means of deciding who wins the league, who gets into the Champions League, who gets relegated and promoted.
“Ideally our players would have three or four weeks minimum to prepare for the first match back but I accept there may have to be a squeeze on that time frame.
“It might mean extra restrictions at our place of work.
“It may also mean that we have to play our remaining matches in a shorter period of time than we normally would have done and subsequently receive a shorter break between the seasons,” Hodgson said.
The season was originally suspended until April 30 but that has since been extended indefinitely, with the resumption of play now contingent on medical advice and government support.
Palace are 11th in the league and have nine matches left to play.
Saudi Arabia extended a nationwide curfew until further notice due to the coronavirus, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
This was after the kingdom reported more than 300 new infections on each of the last five days.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) warned of possible action against countries refusing to allow migrant workers to be repatriated.
Saudi Arabia placed its capital Riyadh and other big cities under a 24-hour curfew last week, locking down much of the population.
Residents are allowed to leave their houses only for essential needs inside their residential area.
Saudi Arabia extends coronavirus curfew
Elsewhere, the curfew which began on March 23 runs from 3 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The country has recorded 4,462 infections with 59 deaths, the highest among the six Gulf Arab states where the total surpassed 14,000 with 96 deaths.
Saudi Arabia has halted international flights, suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage, and closed most public places.
Other Gulf Arab states have taken similar precautions and seen the virus spread among low-wage foreign workers, many living in overcrowded accommodation.
Millions of migrant labourers, mainly from Asian countries, including Nepal, India and the Philippines, are among the region’s large expatriate population.
Bahrain said 45 of 47 new cases reported on Sunday were foreign workers.
The United Arab Emirates, the region’s tourism and business hub, has the second highest regional load at 3,736 cases and 20 deaths.
It warned it would review labour ties with countries refusing to take back citizens, including those who lost their jobs or were put on leave, and said it was considering strict quotas for work visas issued to nationals of those states.
“Several countries have not been responsive about allowing back their citizens who have applied to return home under the current circumstances,” the Human Resources and Emiratisation Ministry said, without specifying which countries.
India’s ambassador to the UAE on Saturday said India cannot repatriate large numbers of nationals while trying to combat the virus at home.
“Once the lockdown in India is lifted, we will certainly help them get back to their hometowns and their families,” Pavan Kapoor told the Gulf News daily.
Pakistan’s ambassador said the embassy was waiting for permission from Islamabad for repatriation flights and was hoping for “positive news soon”.
“We are very keen to bring Pakistanis back but we need to finalise our treatment and quarantine facilities,” Ghulam Dastgir said.
Aiming to contain the spread among foreign workers, Qatar has locked down a large section of an industrial area, Dubai sealed off two commercial districts and Oman closed off its Muscat governorate, which includes the capital.
Kuwait said late on Saturday airlines could operate outbound flights to repatriate foreigners.
Many Japanese have criticised Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe’s “stay home” message on social networks as more people struggle to make ends meet due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis.
The one-minute video clip on Abe’s Facebook showed the premier sitting on a sofa, cuddling a dog, taking a sip from a cup and reading a book.
The video uses a split screen, with Abe seen relaxing on one side while the other half shows popular musician Gen Hoshino strumming his guitar and singing a laid back song from another location.
“You don’t see your friends. You don’t go to drinking parties.
“However, everyone’s actions like these are helping save many lives,” Abe wrote on Twitter.
Hoshino said later on his Instagram that the clip of him singing was used without his permission.
Abe issued a state of emergency last Tuesday for seven prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, requesting residents in the regions stay at home, while critics argued the government’s plan will not provide enough support for small and mid-sized businesses.
“Our labour union has been swamped with calls from workers who were fired and those whose businesses were forced to suspend without any compensation due to the coronavirus pandemic,” Mitsuteru Suda, an official at the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Tobu, tweeted.
“Non-regular workers only drinking water, single mothers struggling to survive without paying utilities bills, temporary workers forced to leave their apartment, are you watching Abe relaxing at home? Stay alive and get angry!” Suda said.
Ministers of the OPEC+ countries agreed in a video conference on Sunday to boost oil prices by cutting production by 9.7 million barrels a day for May and June, Mexico’s Energy Minister Rocio Nahle tweeted.
The reduction is 300,000 barrels below the production cut which the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and all its allies within the expanded OPEC+ format had agreed on Friday.
Mexico refused to reduce its production by 400,000 barrels as demanded and maintained its offer of cutting 100,000 barrels.
The Energy Ministry in Kazakhstan also confirmed the agreement, Russian news agencies reported, along with energy officials from other countries.
US President Donald Trump praised the agreement among the world’s top oil producers, calling it a “great deal for all.”
“The big Oil Deal with OPEC Plus is done. This will save hundreds of thousands of energy jobs in the United States,” Trump said in a tweet.
He added: “I would like to thank and congratulate President Putin of Russia and King Salman of Saudi Arabia. I just spoke to them from the Oval Office.”
Trump confirmed on Friday that the US would cut oil production in coordination with Mexican oil reductions, in a bid to help the southern neighbour contribute to the global deal.
Crude oil prices have halved in the past two months as a global economic slowdown amid the coronavirus pandemic has lowered demand for the commodity, along with a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
It is unclear thus far how binding the agreement is and whether oil-producing countries will stick to it in practice.
Many members of the OPEC+ cartel, an expanded format of OPEC that includes Russia, have economies dependent on oil prices.
For the US, the sharp drop in oil has threatened its shale gas industry, with the cost of production effectively being too high relative to the price.
dpa/NAN.
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has rejected Interior Minister Suleyman Solyu’s resignation in the wake of a a much-criticised weekend curfew which caught millions of people by surprise.
Erdogan does not support the resignation and Soylu remains in office, the Communications Ministry said late on Sunday.
The interior minister stepped down Sunday after a botched start to the measure.
Solyu tweeted that was taking full responsibility for the 48-hour curfew imposed on Friday in 31 cities.
The authorities came in for a lot of criticism for announcing the curfew only two hours before it entered into force on midnight on Friday.
President Erdogan
Initially its deadline and details were unclear, leading to crowds in shops and widespread panic-buying with people defying the virus measures.
Only bakeries, pharmacies and some petrol stations are allowed to stay open during the curfew.
The opposition criticized the government for the sudden decision, which it said led to even further confusion.
Residents meanwhile adhered for the most part to the two-day partial lockdown.
Only a few citizens had violated the measure, the Interior Ministry said earlier on Sunday, according to state news agency Anadolu.
Turks in the 31 areas under lockdown, which include Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, are banned from leaving their homes from Friday midnight until midnight on Sunday.
Soylu had stressed an interview published Sunday in the Hurriyet newspaper that the curfew was to end at midnight.
The lockdown covered nearly 64 million people in the country of 83 million, the ministry said.
Solyu had admitted in the interview that he had not foreseen the panic-buying, but added he did not believe the crowds on Friday evening posed a problem.
In his resignation tweet, Solyu said that he had been proud to serve as interior minister and would remain loyal to Erdogan.
He also asked him and the Turkish people forforgiveness.
The communications ministry, in stating that Solyu would continue in his post, underscored the minister’s merits, noting that that he had waged a determined fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
Solyu, a member of Erdogan’s ruling AKP party has been interior minister since 2016.
Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said according to his party CHP, he did not believe Soylu had made the decision to resign by himself, but it had been an attempt to “save” Erdogan.
Turkey’s coronavirus death toll jumped by 97 in a day to hit 1,198 on Sunday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said. Confirmed cases rose to 56,956.
The weekend curfew is the strictest measure Turkey has taken so far.
Prior to it, people over 65, the chronically ill, and those under age 20 were banned from leaving their homes.
Schools, universities and public spaces are closed, as well as large events and mass prayers in mosques banned.
French President, Emmanuel Macron, will address the nation on Monday evening and is expected to clarify how long a previously announced extension of the county’s lockdown will last.
In a televised speech scheduled for 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), his third since the onset of the coronavirus crisis, the president will likely elaborate on last week’s move to extend France’s lockdown beyond the initial end date of April 15.
Macron will not indicate the crisis is yet coming to a close, French media reported on Sunday, citing unnamed top political sources.
France
The Journal du Dimanche wrote that existing restrictions on public life could even be extended into mid or late May.
France’s scientific council recently recommended the restrictions, which have been in effect since March 17 and should last at least six weeks.
People are only allowed to leave the house for one hour a day within a radius of one kilometre from their homes for essential reasons such as shopping, walking or other forms of exercise.
China reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases in nearly six weeks on Monday, as the country tries to prevent a second wave of COVIS-19 infections.
Authorities counted 108 new coronavirus infections over the past day, including 98 cases among travellers returning from abroad, according to the National Health Commission.
This is the highest number of reported infections since March 6, when authorities counted 143 new cases.
China is focusing its efforts on preventing a second wave of COVID-19 infections, especially among Chinese citizens returning from abroad.
Beijing on March 28 banned the entry of foreigners into China.
However, state media has reported that travellers crossing the border from Russia are spreading the coronavirus in the Chinese border city of Suifenhe in the north-eastern Heilongjiang province.
Around 300 cases of the coronavirus had been confirmed in the city by Saturday, including 100 infected people who did not appear to be showing any symptoms.
Of the new cases reported Monday, 10 were locally transmitted infections, including seven cases in Heilongjiang province and three cases in the southern Guangdong province.
The spike in locally transmitted infections comes after authorities had reported a string of days with no such new cases in late March.
A new cluster of infections is also feared in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, in Guangdong province.
CNN reported on Sunday that the African community in Guangzhou was being targeted amid prevention efforts.
Africans in the city have reportedly been evicted from their homes and turned away from hotels even if they hadn’t travelled abroad recently.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Sunday that it expected local authorities in Guangzhou to “reject all racist and discriminatory remarks”.
China has so far reported 82,160 coronavirus cases including 3,341 deaths and 77,663 recovered patientts.
