These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
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Seven more people arrested for suspected connection to rioting in Clarke Quay
Seven more people have been arrested for their suspected involvement in a rioting incident involving a deadly weapon in Clarke Quay last Saturday night (Dec 19), said the police on Tuesday. Six men, aged between 22 and 31, and a 22-year-old woman were arrested for several alleged offences in relation to the incident at Eu Tong Sen Street. They were arrested in island wide raids conducted between Sunday and Monday by officers from the Criminal Investigation Department and Central Police Division. The brawlers had fled the scene by the time police arrived after being alerted at about 10.40pm, while members of the public were helping two injured people. Four of the six men will be charged in court on Tuesday for the offence of being a member of an unlawful assembly. The remaining two men will be charged for voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous means and rioting with a deadly respectively on Thursday. The police are investigating the 22-year-old woman. In an update, police said that four of five men who were arrested on Sunday were charged with rioting armed with a deadly weapon. The fifth, a 30-year-old, will be charged with voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous means on Tuesday. Those found guilty of being a member of an unlawful assembly can be imprisoned for up to two years and fined. Those convicted of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous means can face life imprisonment, caning and a fine. The offence of rioting with a deadly weapon is punishable by a jail term of up to 10 years and caning. – The Straits Times
PM Muhyiddin among first Malaysians to receive Covid-19 vaccine
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is ready to roll up his sleeve and be part of the first batch to get the Covid-19 vaccine inoculation in a move to assure the people of its safety. He announced this in a televised message, saying that the frontliners would be the next group to get the jab. "After the frontliners, the vaccine will be given to the target groups comprising high risk groups including the senior citizens, those with noncommunicable diseases (NCD) and chronic respiratory illnesses," said the prime minister. Muhyiddin also said the government had just inked an agreement with AstraZeneca, a research-based biopharmaceutical company, to secure 6.4 million doses or 10 per cent more vaccines. "This means a guarantee to 40 per cent supply of vaccines have been secured via the agreements with the Covax Facility, Pfizer and AstraZeneca. "The government is also in the final stage of negotiation with Sinovac, CanSino and Gamaleya to secure vaccine supply increase of more than 80 per cent of the country's population or 26.5 million. "The 80 percent has surpassed our earlier target of 70 per cent (population) to get the vaccines. Based on all completed and ongoing negotiations, the government will fork out US$504.4 million (RM2.05 billion)," he said. The prime minister added the agreements with Sinovac, CanSino and Gamaleya would add value to the country's science and technology sector that would benefit the people and country's development. This includes vaccine bottling process in Malaysia; research and development as well as knowledge sharing and technology transfer. Muhyiddin said the government would continue negotiating with other pharmaceutical companies to ensure Malaysia would have enough supply of vaccines. "We will make certain that the acquired vaccines are safe and effective." The Vaccine Supplies Access Guarantee Special Committee, co-chaired by the Health Minister and the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, he said would ensure the vaccines could be acquired fast. The government expected to get and administer the first supply of one million vaccines from Pfizer to the target groups as early as February 2021, the prime minister said. – New Straits Times
Prayut warns of lockdown
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has assigned the Public Health Ministry to prepare for a new Covid-19 lockdown in case the pandemic spirals out of control. Gen Prayut said on Monday that public health officials were randomly testing migrant workers as far and wide as possible. "Everyone shares the responsibility for this mistake," he said. He said everyone should cooperate with the government and health authorities in containing the spread of Covid-19 among migrant workers "or else a lockdown will become unavoidable". The prime minister said he wanted to spend seven days to assess the Covid-19 situation to decide whether the New Year countdown should be held or not, as well as Children's Day. He asked the public not to panic and hoped the situation would improve after seven days. He added that the Public Health Ministry had assured him at its morning briefing that the situation was still under control. Dr Taweesilp Visanuyothin, spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), says the ministry will present its proposals at its next meeting with the premier. However, Dr Taweesilp said it was still impossible to decide whether New Year celebrations should be called off as part of the effort to contain Covid-19. Information compiled over the past two to three days about the outbreak in Samut Sakhon still wasn't sufficient to predict the situation during the upcoming holiday season, he said. "It will probably take about seven days to tell, around Dec 28, so, it's very hard to say at this point if celebrations should still be on or not," he added. The CCSA recorded 382 new infections on Monday, 360 of whom were migrant workers, as health authorities sped up screening migrant workers in Samut Sakhon potentially linked with the province's central shrimp market, a new virus hotspot. – Bangkok Post
Elderly people likely to be excluded from COVID-19 vaccination push
Traveling home for the holidays is regarded by many Indonesians as part of a ritual of devotion and respect for their elders but when the current pandemic set in this custom was quickly turned on its head. In Indonesia, there are at least 25 million people aged 60 years and above, categorized as the nation’s elderly. They account for 10.4 percent of over 630,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, but they also make up the largest share in the country's 19,000-plus fatalities at 39.3 percent, according to recent official data. And while the studies are ongoing, the general idea is that the older you are, the higher the risk of developing severe illnesses when you are infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. One Cabinet minister went as far as to say that people should not go home to their parents if they truly loved them. But in spite of all of this, the elderly are not likely to be among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, based on plans that Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto revealed to lawmakers recently. The reason for this has to do with the fact that potential vaccines are being trialled in the later stages only on people aged 18-59 years, as is the case with Chinese firm Sinovac’s CoronaVac, which is tapped for emergency use authorization in the near future, according to Terawan. Experts are in agreement that the targeted age group for vaccination should follow available trial data, and that prioritizing certain groups of people is necessary given the limited availability of vaccines. Priority groups typically start with frontline healthcare staff, essential service workers and people with health conditions that can lead to severe morbidity from infection. After that, immunization usually moves down the age groups from old to young, in line with case fatality rates. Prioritizing productivity Vaccines also might not work as well on the elderly, who commonly experience declining immunity as they age. But some experts believe that the elderly should still be prioritized in the vaccination program, using candidate vaccines with proven efficacy and safety among this age group. This means securing vaccine candidates from United States firms Pfizer and Moderna, both of which have reported efficacy rates well over 90 percent among test subjects over 65 years old, as well as the vaccine being developed by the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca, which has generated similar results in immune responses across all adult age groups. “The number of elderly people in the country is quite high, and I'm concerned about household clusters. I think they should also be prioritized, just like what the UK and the US are doing,” Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) biotechnology researcher Wien Kusharyoto told The Jakarta Post recently. – The Jakarta Post
Brutal killings involving cop spark outrage
The brutal killing of a woman and her son by an off-duty policeman in Paniqui, Tarlac province, on Sunday, which was caught on video that went viral on social media, was an act of “pure evil” and emblematic of the culture of violence and impunity within the ranks of the Philippine National Police, senators said on Monday. “Impunity breeds trigger-happy cops,” Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said. “So long as the culture of impunity exists in the country, and when there is a system that rewards misdeeds instead of punishing them, police abuses and violence will continue,” he said in a statement. “So long as the culture of impunity exists in the country, and when there is a system that rewards misdeeds instead of punishing them, police abuses and violence will continue,” he said in a statement. Sen. Francis Pangilinan said: “The incident is an outrage. That is the result of condoning and refusing to punish abusive and corrupt police.” “We expect this administration to condemn the incident and to ensure the perpetrator will be prosecuted instead of condoning or promoting these corrupt and abusive cops,” he said. President Duterte will not protect Nuezca, said his spokesperson, Harry Roque. “We condemn the incident in Tarlac. I want to make it clear; this is not a service-related double murder. If we’re not mistaken, this is a dispute over right of way. That policeman cannot invoke the defense that the killing was duty-related,” Roque said in a news briefing. The killings will be treated like an ordinary murder case and will be investigated, and the perpetrator will be charged, he said. “No ifs, no buts. There will be justice because we saw the evidence. The President will not protect him. We condemn this,” Roque added. – INQUIRER.net
Việt Nam needs to promote brand building for rice exports
While 2020 has been a successful year for Vietnamese rice exports, more must be done to accelerate the development of the national rice brand, experts have said. Rice export prices in Việt Nam jumped to their highest point since December 2011 last week, as a shortage of containers sent freight rates soaring and pushed Thai prices to a near four-month peak. Prices for Việt Nam’s 5 per cent broken rice hit US$500 per tonne, from the previous week’s $470-$490, Reuters reported. A shortage of containers has made it difficult for traders to ship rice to customers, a trader based in the Mekong province of An Giang said. For instance, freight rates for a 20-feet container to Africa have risen to $5,000 from $1,500 a couple of months ago, the trader added. Meanwhile, at the World Rice Trade Conference 2020 held by The Rice Trader (TRT) in earlier December, Vietnamese rice ST25 was named the second-best rice in the world. Last year, it was given first prize in Manila, the Philippines. The TRT World Rice Conference is the largest annual gathering of commercial and professional rice industry participants in the world. This is good news for Vietnamese rice and the rice exports are forecast to grow strongly in the future. The prize is also an opportunity to create a brand for Vietnamese rice, according to the agricultural experts, because after more than 30 years of exporting, Việt Nam's rice industry only has a national brand logo. Thailand and Cambodia have branded their rice to improve promotion activities on the global market and create confidence in quality. Therefore, their rice products have higher selling prices, Pham Thai Binh, General Director of Cong Trung An High-Tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, told Nhịp cầu đầu tư (Investment Bridge) newspaper. Meanwhile, local traders could not gain high prices for high-quality rice without a national brand, he said. Việt Nam is among the world's top rice exporters with the value the second highest in the world. Therefore, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently approved a project to develop Viet Nam's rice brand. – Viet Nam News
Quarantined at border: Recruitment agencies to suspend sending workers to Thailand until further notice
Strict border restrictions imposed on Sunday have led to 543 Cambodians being placed under 14-day quarantine at the three main border crossings – O’Smach, Doung, and Poipet. They were ferried to the quarantine sites by 23 military trucks. Le Chansangvath, director of Banteay Meanchey provincial health department, said 310 migrant workers came through Poipet International Border checkpoint yesterday, and all of them went into quarantine. He said that 46 of them had their samples taken for testing. Khlok Huot, director of Oddar Meanchey provincial health department, said the first batch of 172 Cambodian migrant workers arrived at the O’Smach International Border Checkpoint at about 11am and were transported by military trucks to Samraong city for the mandatory 14-day quarantine. Another 22, who arrived in the latter part of the day, were also taken to their respective quarantine centres after the initial health checks. In Battambang, provincial director of the administrative department Chhay Matinal, said 33 Cambodians had crossed through the Doung international border on Monday. While public health presence at the border together with relevant officials are further strengthened, the authorities at the seven provinces along the Thai border have remained vigilant and alert for no illegal entry. They are at Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Pailin, Preah Vihear, Oddar Meanchey, Pursat, and Koh Kong provinces. The government assured that they will strengthen compliance and enforcement efforts and not leave a stone unturned in their bid to stop the spread of the disease to communities residing at the Thai border. Cambodia tightened its Cambodia-Thai border following the surge of COVID-19 cases in Thailand especially at the Central Shrimp Market in Samut Sakhon’s Muang district on Sunday with more than 500 cases on Saturday. The Bangkok Post reported that in total, more than 800 COVID-19 cases have been found in Samut Sakhon, a coastal province that borders Bangkok to the west. – Khmer Times