AMID SAFETY FEARS, GERMANY, ITALY, FRANCE SUSPEND ASTRAZENECA SHOTS

Germany, France and Italy said on Monday they would hit pause on AstraZeneca COVID-19 shots after several countries reported possible serious side-effects, throwing Europe’s already struggling vaccination campaign into disarray.

Denmark and Norway stopped giving the shot last week after reporting isolated cases of bleeding, blood clots and a low platelet count. Iceland and Bulgaria followed suit and Ireland and the Netherlands announced suspensions on Sunday.

The moves by some of Europe’s largest and most populous countries will deepen concerns about the slow rollout of vaccines in the region, which has been plagued by shortages due to problems producing vaccines, including AstraZeneca’s.

Germany warned last week it was facing a third wave of infections, Italy is intensifying lockdowns and hospitals in the Paris region are close to being overloaded.

France said it was suspending the vaccine’s use pending an assessment by the EU medicine regulator due on Tuesday. Italy said its halt was a “precautionary and temporary measure” pending the regulator’s ruling.

The WHO appealed to countries not to suspend vaccinations against a disease that has caused more than 2.7 million deaths worldwide. “As of today, there is no evidence that the incidents are caused by the vaccine and it is important that vaccination campaigns continue so that we can save lives and stem severe disease from the virus,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.

QUAD SUMMIT | SMALL CLIQUES WILL DESTROY INTERNATIONAL ORDER, SAYS CHINA

In a strong reaction to Friday’s first leaders’ summit of the Quad — India, the United States, Japan and Australia — and the upcoming visits this week of the U.S. Secretary of Defence to Japan, South Korea and India, China’s Foreign Ministry hit out at countries “forming enclosed small cliques”, describing it as “the sure way to destroy the international order”.

Monday’s statement from China was the latest that took aim at the four-country grouping, and the strongest one so far. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian accused “certain countries”, without naming them, of being “keen to exaggerate and hype up the so-called ‘China threat’ to sow discord among regional countries, especially to disrupt their relations with China.”

“However, their actions, running counter to the trend of the times of peace, development and cooperation and the common aspirations of the countries and peoples in the region, will not be welcomed or succeed,” he said in response to a question about Friday’s virtual summit attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

“Exchanges and cooperation between countries should help expand mutual understanding and trust, instead of targeting or harming the interests of third parties,” Mr. Zhao said. “Certain countries should shake off their Cold-War mentality and ideological prejudice, refrain from forming closed and exclusive small circles, and do more things that are conducive to solidarity and cooperation among regional countries and regional peace and stability.”

“The U.S. should treat China and China-US relations in a right mentality and in an objective and rational manner, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and work with China to focus on cooperation, manage differences, and place China-US relations back on the track of healthy and stable development.”

IRAN UNVEILS UNDERGROUND MISSILE FACILITY

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on Monday inaugurated a new underground facility designated for missile storage, the country’s state TV reported.

The report quotes Guard commander General Hossein Salami as saying that cruise and ballistic missiles will empower the force’s Navy even more. The TV report showed footage of scores of missiles in an enclosed space resembling an underground corridor. It did not say where the facility is located nor how many missiles are stored there.

Since 2011, Iran has boasted of underground facilities across the country as well as along the southern coast near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Iran claims to have missiles that can travel 2,000 km, placing much of the West Asia, including Israel, within range.

The U.S. and its Western allies see Iran’s missile programme as a threat, along with the country’s nuclear programme — particularly after Iran breached its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal, following the U.S. administration’s withdrawal from the deal in 2018. Last July, the Guard launched underground ballistic missiles as part of an exercise involving a mock-up American aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz.

PAKISTAN GOVT DEMANDS POLL PANEL TO RESIGN

The Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government on Monday called upon the chief and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to resign and the electoral body to be disbanded as the ruling party holds it responsible for failing to conduct the recent senate polls in a transparent manner.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, education minister Shafqat Mahmood, flanked by Information Minister Shibli Faraz and science and technology minister Fawad Chaudhry, demanded the replacement of current ECP’s officials with new ones to restore the public’s confidence in the institution’s ability to organize free and fair elections.

The incumbent government and the electoral body have been at odds since the conduct of the bypolls for the Daska assembly seat in Punjab last month, with the ECP accusing the government of massive rigging and ordering a repoll. The relationship worsened further following the ECP’s refusal to implement barcodes in the recent senate elections to allow for cross-checking of the ballot, claiming it did not have sufficient time to implement the measure.

NORTH KOREA: KIM JONG-UN'S SISTER WARNS US NOT TO 'CAUSE A STINK'

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has warned the US not to "cause a stink", as President Joe Biden prepares to set out his Korean policy.

In remarks on state media, Kim Yo-jong criticised the US and South Korea for conducting joint military exercises.

Her comments come a day before top US officials are due to arrive in Seoul.

The US government has said it has been trying for weeks to make diplomatic contact with North Korea.

Pyongyang has yet to acknowledge that President Biden is now in office.

Kim Yo-jong was quoted in the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper as saying: "A word of advice to the new administration of the United States that is struggling to spread the smell of gunpowder on our land from across the ocean.

"If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step."

Kim Yo-jong is the younger sister of Kim Jong-un and the only one of his siblings considered a close and powerful ally.

FACEBOOK TO PAY NEWS CORP FOR CONTENT IN AUSTRALIA

Facebook has agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Australia for journalism from its local mastheads.

The deal has been secured just weeks after Australia passed a controversial world-first law aimed at making tech platforms pay for news content.

News Corp has not disclosed the value of the three-year contract in Australia. Last month, it clinched a global deal with Google.

Mr Murdoch's media empire began with his Australian newspapers.

The deal covers all of News Corp's content in the country - which is a significant amount.

PRACHANDA SUGGESTS DROPPING ‘MAOIST CENTRE’ FROM PARTY NAME

Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Chief of Nepal’s CPN-Maoist Centre (MC), has proposed to drop “Maoist Centre” from the party’s name to make it acceptable for communist forces in the country, who do not like Maoism, to join it, according to a media report on Monday.

CPN-MC member Shiv Kumar Mandal said the former PM was always in favour of unity among all communist forces of the country and suggested that if dropping “Maoist Centre” from the party’s name could help unite these forces, then the party should be ready for that, The Himalayan Times reported.

The proposal comes as CPN-MC faces the heat to bolster the party after the Supreme Court recently nullified its merger with CPN-UML led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, it said.

BIGGEST SANDSTORM IN DECADE TURNS BEIJING SKIES YELLOW

Beijing was cloaked in thick yellow smog on Monday with pollution levels surging off the charts as the worst sandstorm in a decade descended on China's capital from the Gobi desert.

City residents used goggles, masks and hairnets to protect themselves from the choking dust and sand, with landmarks including the Forbidden City partly obscured behind an apocalyptic-looking haze.

The city government ordered schools to cancel outside sport and events and advised the public to stay inside where possible, as hundreds of flights were cancelled.

Chinese weather agencies blamed the poor air quality on a sandstorm sweeping across northern China from northern Mongolia, where authorities there said it had left several dead, before being carried south by winds and reducing visibility in Beijing to less than 500 metres.

Under heavy skies, which draped buildings in an eerie glow, Beijing residents fretted over the health risks of a storm which compounded days of hazardous PM 2.5 pollution in the capital.

GENOCIDE BY PAK ARMY IN FORMER EAST PAKISTAN NEEDS TO BE GLOBALLY RECOGNISED

It is matter of shame that the genocide committed by Pakistan in Bangladesh 50 years ago, which killed more than the holocaust and was aimed at changing ethnicity of a group, is yet to be globally recognised, according to a Paris-based think tank.

In a report of the Center of Political and Foreign Affairs on East Pakistan Genocide: Still Yearns for Global Acknowledgement, Mario de Gasperi wrote, " The Bangladesh genocide is considered to be the largest and longest since it covers the entire length of the nine-month-long liberation war of Bangladesh. Ironically the Bangladesh genocide remains unrecognised while other genocides in Europe and Africa have been acknowledged."

According to the report, three million people were killed, half-a-million girls and women were raped, and entire villages were laid to waste. Men became primary targets (almost 80 per cent male, as reported by the Bangladesh Genocide Archives). The abduction and subsequent rape of women by soldiers took place in camps for months. Many more were subject to "hit and run" rapes. Hit and run rape explains the brutality of forcing male family member-before their own death-view the rape of their female family member by soldiers.