OIL-STARVED VENEZUELA CELEBRATES ARRIVAL OF TANKERS FROM IRAN

Venezuelan authorities celebrated on Monday as the first of five Iranian

tankers loaded with gasoline docked in the South American country,

delivering badly needed fuel to the crisis-stricken nation that sits atop

the world's largest oil reserves.

The gasoline shipments are arriving in defiance of stiff sanctions by the

Trump administration against both nations, and they mark a new era in the

burgeoning relationship between Venezuela and Iran, which is expanding its

footprint in the Western Hemisphere.

"We keep moving forward and winning," Venezuela's Minister of Energy Tareck

El Aissami tweeted.

State TV played images of the ship pulling through Caribbean waters as

Venezuelan fighter jets flew overhead. Mr. El Aissami posted photographs on

his Twitter account of the sun rising over the tanker docked at El Palito

refinery.

Washington says both Iran and Venezuela are ruled by repressive regimes.Deep

gasoline shortages have plagued Venezuela for years, though the problem had

until recently largely spared the capital of Caracas.

Despite Washington's objections, the first ship arrived with no interference

from U.S. ships patrolling the Caribbean on what officials call a drug

interdiction mission.

Mr. Maduro on Sunday expressed gratitude to Iranian President Hassan

Rouhani, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ai Khamenei and the Iranian people

from "the bottom of my heart." He said Iran and Venezuela have a right just

like any other nations in the world to engage in trade.

We are "two rebel nations, two revolutionary nations that will never kneel

down before U.S. imperialism," Mr. Maduro said. "Venezuela has friends in

this world, and brave friends at that."

CHINA WARNS OF COUNTERMEASURES IF US UNDERMINES ITS INTERESTS IN HONG KONG

China on Monday threatened counter-measures against the U.S. if it was

punished for plans to impose a sedition law on Hong Kong, that the business

hub's security chief hailed as a new tool that would defeat "terrorism".

Beijing plans to pass a new security law for Hong Kong that bans treason,

subversion and sedition after months of massive, often-violent pro-democracy

protests last year.

But many Hong Kongers, business groups and Western nations fear the proposal

could be a death blow to the city's treasured freedoms and thousands took to

the streets on Sunday despite a ban on mass gatherings introduced to combat

coronavirus.

As police dispersed the crowds with tear gas and water cannon, Washington's

National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien warned the new law could cost the

city its preferential U.S. trading status.

But China's Foreign Ministry said Beijing would react to any sanctions from

Washington. "If the U.S. insists on hurting China's interests, China will

have to take every necessary measure to counter and oppose this," Foreign

Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters on Monday.

WUHAN USES SAMPLE POOLING TO CONDUCT 6.57 MILLION TESTS IN 10 DAYS

Wuhan, the city at the centre of China's COVID-19 outbreak, has conducted

6.5 million tests for COVID-19 in the past 10 days, officials said on Monday

following a massive citywide campaign launched on May 14.

The city launched the unprecedented 10 day-campaign to test all of its 11

million residents after a cluster of asymptomatic infections was reported on

May 9.

Target of 11 million

Between May 14 and May 23, 6.57 million tests were conducted, the health

authority said, falling a little short of the ambitious 11 million target,

which is expected to be reached this week. The city still managed to carry

out a record 1.47 million nucleic acid tests in a single day, on Saturday,

which marked a 15-fold jump in the daily testing prior to the campaign.

The tests, which were free, were carried out by throat swabs in designated

locations around the city. Each of the city's 13 administrative districts

was tasked with coming up with a plan, which would first prioritise

residential areas where cases had been reported. Children under six were not

tested.

The city managed to carry out such a large number by a method called sample

pooling, The Wall Street Journal reported. After individual samples are

collected, five to ten are bundled and processed in a single nucleic acid

test. The entire group is cleared if the test comes out negative. The

technique goes back to the Second World War when the U.S. military pooled

samples for syphilis screening, The Journal said.

The tests so far have not thrown up a high number of asymptomatic cases. On

Monday, 38 new asymptomatic cases were reported and Wuhan now has a total of

326 asymptomatic cases under observation.

Wuhan had completed three million tests in total before the campaign was

launched on May 14.

WHO PAUSES TRIAL OF ANTI-MALARIA DRUG IN COVID-19 PATIENTS DUE TO SAFETY

CONCERNS

The World Health Organization has suspended testing the malaria drug

hydroxychloroquine in Covid-19 patients due to safety concerns, WHO Director

General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.

Hydroxycholoroquine has been touted by Donald Trump and others as a possible

treatment for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The US President

has said he was taking the drug to help prevent infection.

"The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the

hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity trial while the safety data is

reviewed by the data safety monitoring board," Tedros told an online

briefing.

He said the other arms of the trial - a major international initiative to

hold clinical tests of potential treatments for the virus - were continuing.

The WHO has previously recommended against using hydroxychloroquine to treat

or prevent coronavirus infections, except as part of clinical trials.

Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies programme, said the decision to

suspend trials of hydroxychloroquine had been taken out of "an abundance of

caution".

AFGHAN GOVERNMENT FREES 100 TALIBAN PRISONERS

Afghan authorities released 100 Taliban prisoners on Monday as part of the

government's response to a surprise, three-day ceasefire the insurgents

called to mark the Id al-Fitr festival.

The pause in fighting, only the second of its kind in Afghanistan's nearly

19-year-old war, appeared to be holding on day two after the government

welcomed the truce by announcing plans to release up to 2,000 Taliban

inmates.

President Ashraf Ghani said his administration was also ready to hold peace

talks with the Taliban, seen as key to ending the war in the impoverished

country. "The government of Afghanistan has today released 100 Taliban

prisoners from Bagram prison," said National Security Council spokesman

Javid Faisal. He said the prisoner release was to "help the peace process"

and will continue until 2,000 prisoners are freed.

The Taliban insists Kabul must release all 5,000 members as agreed in the

deal with the U.S. "This process should be completed in order to remove

hurdles in the way of commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations," Taliban

spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Twitter.

COVID-19 CASES RISING, PLAN TO REIMPOSE STRICT LOCKDOWN AFTER EID: TOP

PAKISTAN OFFICIAL

Pakistan's key figure in fight against the coronavirus pandemic has warned

the people of the country to take precautionary measures "otherwise this

crisis could turn into a huge tragedy".

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Services, Dr Zafar Mirza,

has said that Pakistan's Covid-19 cases and deaths were on the rise and

"strict lockdowns" could be reimposed across the country if the trajectory

continued.

"As we promised when we eased the lockdown, if this trend continues we may

reimpose strict lockdowns after Eid," Dr Mirza said while speaking to the

media in Islamabad on Monday. He lamented that the government's instructions

and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to control the spread of the virus

were not being followed.

The warning comes weeks after Pakistan had started phase-wise easing of the

nationwide lockdown earlier this month.

Dr Mirza observed that apparently there was perception that threat of the

coronavirus was over. "Unfortunately, there is now this thinking among us

that this disease (Covid-19) was only here till Eid and that somehow it'll

disappear after Eid. This is a huge misunderstanding," he said.

Pakistan's coronavirus cases on Monday reached 56,349 with 1,748 new

patients while the death toll climbed to 1,167 after 34 people lost their

lives in the last 24 hours (bwteeen Sunday and Monday).

'GET READY': WHO WARNS OF 'SECOND PEAK' IN AREAS WHERE COVID-19 DECLINING

Countries where coronavirus infections are declining could still face an

"immediate second peak" if they let up too soon on measures to halt the

outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

The world is still in the middle of the first wave of the coronavirus

outbreak, WHO emergencies head Dr Mike Ryan told an online briefing, noting

that while cases are declining in many countries they are still increasing

in Central and South America, South Asia and Africa.

Ryan said epidemics often come in waves, which means that outbreaks could

come back later this year in places where the first wave has subsided. There

was also a chance that infection rates could rise again more quickly if

measures to halt the first wave were lifted too soon.

"When we speak about a second wave classically what we often mean is there

will be a first wave of the disease by itself, and then it recurs months

later. And that may be a reality for many countries in a number of months'

time," Ryan said.

"But we need also to be cognizant of the fact that the disease can jump up

at any time. We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on

the way down now it is going to keep going down and we are get a number of

months to get ready for a second wave. We may get a second peak in this

wave."

He said countries in Europe and North America should "continue to put in

place the public health and social measures, the surveillance measures, the

testing measures and a comprehensive strategy to ensure that we continue on

a downwards trajectory and we don't have an immediate second peak."

JAPAN LIFTS CORONAVIRUS EMERGENCY IN ALL REMAINING AREAS

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted a coronavirus state of emergency

in Tokyo and four other remaining areas on Monday, ending the restrictions

nationwide as businesses begin to reopen.

Experts on a government-commissioned panel approved the lifting of the

emergency in Tokyo, neighbouring Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures,

and in Hokkaido to the north, which had more cases and remained under the

emergency declaration after it was removed in most of Japan earlier this

month.

Abe said the lifting of the emergency does not mean the end of the outbreak.

He said the goal is to balance preventive measure and the economy until

vaccines and effective drugs become available.