NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Gautam Adani’s flagship firm called off its $2.5 billion share sale in a dramatic reversal on Wednesday as a rout sparked by a U.S. short-seller’s criticisms wiped billions more off the value of the Indian tycoon’s stocks.
The withdrawal of the Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS) share offering marks a stunning setback for Adani, the school dropout-turned-billionaire whose fortunes rose rapidly in recent years in line with stock values of his businesses.
“Today the market has been unprecedented, and our stock price has fluctuated over the course of the day. Given these extraordinary circumstances, the Company’s board felt that going ahead with the issue will not be morally correct,” Adani said.
“Our balance sheet is very healthy with strong cashflows and secure assets, and we have an impeccable track record of servicing our debt. This decision will not have any impact on our existing operations and future plans,” the billionaire added in a statement to Indian exchanges.
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Adani, whose global business interests span ports, airports, mining, cement and power, is battling to stabilise his companies and defend his reputation.
“Once the market stabilizes, we will review our capital market strategy,” he added.
A report by Hindenburg Research last week alleged improper use by the of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation by the Adani Group. It also raised concerns about high debt and the valuations of seven listed Adani companies.
The Jan. 24 report has since triggered a $86 billion erosion in market capitalisation of seven listed Adani Group companies.
Adani Group has denied the allegations, saying the short-seller’s allegation of stock manipulation has “no basis” and stems from an ignorance of Indian law. The group has always made the necessary regulatory disclosures, it added.
REFUNDS
Adani Group was working with its bankers to refund the proceeds received by in the secondary share sale of Adani Enterprises. Anchor investors who had supported the issue included Maybank Securities and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
The company aims to protect the interests of its investing community by returning the proceeds, it said.
Adani Group had on Tuesday mustered enough support from investors for the share sale to proceed, in what some saw as a stamp of investor confidence amid the storm.
But after a brief respite, the selloff in Adani Group stocks and bonds resumed on Wednesday, with shares in Adani Enterprises plunging 28% and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSE.NS) dropping 19%, the worst day on record for both.
The fundraising was critical for Adani, not just because it would have helped cut his group’s debt, but also because it was being seen by some as a gauge of confidence as he faced the biggest business and reputational challenge of his career.
Wednesday’s stock losses saw Adani slip to 15th on the Forbes rich list with an estimated net worth of $75.1 billion, below rival Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) who ranks ninth with a net worth of $83.7 billion.
The share sale had succeeded on Tuesday even when the Adani Enterprises stock price in Mumbai markets traded below the offer price of the share sale.
“I do not know how the markets will behave in short term. But this is a measure to enhance (Adani’s) reputation since the investors were staring at a 30% loss even before the shares were alloted,” said Rajesh Baheti, chief executive, Crossseas Capital Services, an algo trading firm.
Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Jahnavi Nidumolu in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva, Kirsten Donovan and Alexander Smith
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UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand, Oct 9 (Reuters) – A three-year-old child who managed to survive last week’s massacre at a nursery in northeast Thailand slumbered through the horror under a blanket in the corner of a classroom.
Paveenut Supolwong, nicknamed “Ammy”, is normally a light sleeper, but at naptime on Thursday when the killer burst into the nursery and began murdering 22 children, Ammy was fast asleep with the blanket covering her face, her parents said.
It likely saved her life.
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She was the only child in the nursery to have escaped unscathed after former police officer Panya Khamrap killed more than 30 people, mostly children in the nursery, in a rampage through the town of Uthai Sawan.
“I’m in shock,” said Ammy’s mother, Panompai Sithong. “I feel for other families… I’m glad that my kid survived. It’s a mixed feeling of sadness and gratitude.”
On Sunday, the family’s wooden home was bustling with relatives and neighbours sharing plates of fish, papaya salad, and reflections on the tragedy.
They fussed over Ammy as she played in the yard in a flowery gown, an amulet tied around her neck, alternating between bewilderment and gap-toothed smiles at all the sudden attention.
Ammy’s parents said she seems to have no memory of the tragedy. Someone found her stirring in a far corner of a classroom, after the killer had left, and carried her out with her head covered by the blanket so she did not see the bodies of her classmates.
Of the 22 children stabbed to death, 11 died in the classroom where she was napping, according to police. Two other children were in hospital with serious head wounds.
RARE MOMENT OF JOY
On Sunday afternoon, the family sat in a circle as a religious leader read from a Sanskrit prayer book, conducting a Buddhist ceremony for children who endure bad experiences.
Ammy sat patiently in her mother’s lap, looking around shyly through big eyes and playing with two candles she held.
Tawatchai Supolwong holds his 3-year-old daugther Paveenut Supolwong, nicknamed Ammy, who is the only child survivor of the day care centre mass shooting, during a family meeting at their home in Uthai Sawan, Nong Bua Lam Phu province, Thailand, October 9, 2022. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
Relatives splashed one another with rice wine poured from a silver bowl and cried out wishes for good fortune.
They loaded Ammy’s tiny wrists with white threads for luck, pinching her cheeks and whispering blessings.
It was a rare moment of joy in a town plunged into grief.
In addition to the slaughter at the nursery, Panya rammed his pickup truck into passersby on the street and shot at neighbours in a two-hour rampage. Finally, he killed the woman he lived with, her son, and himself.
In the close-knit community, few have been left untouched.
From dawn on Sunday, families of the victims gathered at the temples where bodies are being kept in coffins. They brought treats for the souls of the dead, according to local traditions, including food, milk and toys.
Later in the day they sat for a Buddhist ceremony at the nursery, where mourners have left white floral wreaths and more presents.
At Ammy’s home, her mother said she believed spirits had protected her little girl.
“My kid is not a deep sleeper,” Panompai said. “I believe there must be some spirits covering her eyes and ears. We have different beliefs, but to me, I think it protected my kid.”
Another relative told local media Ammy’s survival was a “miracle”.
But the family had to break the news to her that her beloved best friend, two-year-old Techin, and her teacher were dead. “She was asking her grandmother, ‘Why don’t you pick up Techin from school?’,” Panompai said.
She does not yet know the full extent of the tragedy she lived through.
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Writing by Poppy McPherson; Editing by Susan Fenton
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Ex-policeman killed 34 at daycare centre using knife and gun
After attack, he killed wife and son, turned weapon on himself
Police depict attacker as stressed by marital, money worries
Thai flags fly at half-mast on buildings to mourn attack
UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Grief-stricken relatives sobbed and clutched toys at a children’s daycare centre on Friday, a day after a former policeman killed 34 people, most of them young children, in a knife and gun rampage there that has horrified Thailand.
Government buildings flew flags at half mast to mourn victims – 23 of them children – of the carnage in Uthai Sawan, a town 500 km (310 miles) northeast of Bangkok, the capital of the largely Buddhist country.
After leaving the daycare centre filled with dead, dying and wounded, the ex-officer went home and shot dead his wife and son before turning his weapon on himself.
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Police identified the attacker as Panya Khamrap, 34, a former police sergeant who had been discharged over drug allegations and who was facing trial on a drugs charge.
It was not clear if Panya still used drugs. An autopsy report indicated he had not used them on the day of the attack, national police chief Damrongsak Kittipraphat said on Friday.
“The reasons are probably unemployment, no money, and family issues,” he said, adding that the attacker and his wife had had “longstanding problems”.
One witness, Kittisak Polprakan, said he saw the attacker calmly walking out of the daycare centre – a pink, one-storey building surrounded by a lawn and small palm trees – after the massacre “as if he was just taking a normal stroll”.
“I don’t know (why he did this), but he was under a lot of pressure,” Panya’s mother told Nation TV, citing debts her son had run up and his drug taking.
Most of the children, aged between two and five, were slashed to death, while adults were shot, police said in the aftermath of one of the world’s worst child death tolls in a massacre by a single killer in recent history.
Police official Chakkraphat Wichitvaidya told Reuters autopsies showed the children had been slashed with a large knife, sometimes multiple times, and adults shot.
Three boys and a girl who survived were being treated in hospital, police said.
‘I IMMEDIATELY KNEW’
The aunt of a three-year old boy who died in the slaughter held a stuffed dog and a toy tractor in her lap as she recounted how she had rushed to the scene when the news first spread.
“I came and I saw two bodies in front of the school and I immediately knew that the kid was already dead,” said Suwimon Sudfanpitak, 40, who had been looking after her nephew, Techin, while his parents worked in Bangkok.
A woman prays at Wat Rat Samakee following a mass shooting in the town of Uthai Sawan, Nong Bua Lam Phu province, Thailand October 7, 2022. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
Another of the dead was Kritsana Sola, a chubby-cheeked two-year-old who loved dinosaurs and football and was nicknamed “captain”. He had just got a new haircut and was proudly showing it off, said his aunt, Naliwan Duangket, 27.
In the late afternoon, relatives wailed in pain as funerals were set to be held at Wat Rat Sammakhi. Some collapsed and had to be laid on straw mats and fanned by medical workers.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha met victims’ families in a sweltering compound crowded with police and media, after laying flowers and observing a moment of silence in front of the centre.
The government would try its best to take care of the families and the prime minister asked everyone to “be strong to get through this great loss,” said government spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri.
Late on Friday, King Maha Vajiralongkorn visited the hospital where the injured were taken, according to photographs posted by the government’s public relations office.
Reuters Graphics
Photographs taken at the centre by rescuers and provided to Reuters showed the tiny bodies of the killed laid out on blankets. Abandoned juice boxes were scattered across the floor.
“He was heading towards me and I begged him for mercy, I didn’t know what to do,” one distraught woman told ThaiPBS, fighting back tears.
“He didn’t say anything, he shot at the door while the kids were sleeping,” said another woman, becoming distraught.
About 24 children were at the centre when the attack began, fewer than usual as heavy rain had kept many people away, said district official Jidapa Boonsom.
Hundreds of people posted condolences on the Facebook page of the Uthai Sawan Child Development Centre under its last post before the massacre, an account of a visit the children made to a Buddhist temple in September.
In a message, the Vatican said Pope Francis had been deeply saddened by the “horrific attack”, which he condemned as an “act of unspeakable violence against innocent children”.
The massacre was among the worst involving children killed by one person.
In Norway in 2011, Anders Breivik killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a summer camp, while the death toll in other cases includes 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut in 2012, 16 at Dunblane in Scotland in 1996 and 19 at a school in Uvalde, Texas, this year.
Gun laws are strict in Thailand, but gun ownership is high compared with some Southeast Asian countries, and illegal weapons are common, with many brought in from strife-torn neighbours.
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Additional reporting by Orathai Sriring, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Chayut Setboonsarng, Juarwee Kittisilpa in Bangkok, and Philip Pullella in Rome
Writing by Ed Davies
Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Clarence Fernandez, Gareth Jones and Frances Kerry
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NA KLANG, Thailand, Oct 6 (Reuters) – A former policeman killed 34 people, including 23 children, during a knife and gun rampage at a daycare centre in northeast Thailand on Thursday, police said, before later shooting dead his wife and child at home and turning his weapon on himself.
In one of the world’s worst child death tolls in a massacre by a single killer in recent history, most of the children who died at the daycare centre in Uthai Sawan, a town 500 km (310 miles) northeast of Bangkok, were stabbed to death, police said.
The age range of children at the daycare centre was from two to five years, a local official told Reuters.
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Police identified the attacker as a former member of the force who was dismissed from his post last year over drug allegations and he was facing trial on a drugs charge.
The man had been in court earlier in the day and had then gone to the daycare centre to collect his child, police spokesperson Paisal Luesomboon told broadcaster ThaiPBS.
When he did not find his child there, he began the killing spree, Paisal said. “He started shooting, slashing, killing children at the Uthai Sawan daycare centre,” Paisal said.
“It’s a scene that nobody wants to see. From the first step when I went in, it felt harrowing,” Piyalak Kingkaew, an experienced emergency worker heading the first responder team, told Reuters.
“We’ve been through it before, but this incident is most harrowing because they are little kids.”
A large van that police said contained bodies of 22 people, mostly children, was seen by Reuters departing from a police station headed towards the city of Udon Thani, 80 km (50 miles) away, where autopsies would be performed.
‘I BEGGED HIM FOR MERCY’
A Reuters photographer also saw late on Thursday the body of the shooter, Panya Khamrapm, being moved in a bodybag from a van to a police station in the province.
Photographs taken at the daycare centre by the rescue team and shared with Reuters showed the tiny bodies of those killed laid out on blankets. Abandoned juice boxes were scattered across the floor.
“He was heading towards me and I begged him for mercy, I didn’t know what to do,” one distraught woman told ThaiPBS, fighting back tears.
“He didn’t say anything, he shot at the door while the kids were sleeping,” another woman said, becoming distraught.
Police said the attacker’s weapon was a 9 mm pistol and it had been obtained legally.
Thailand’s police chief said the perpetrator had tried to break into the premises and had mostly used a knife in the killings.
People gather outside a day care center which was the scene of a mass shooting, in the town of Uthai Sawan, around 500 km northeast of Bangkok in the province of Nong Bua Lam Phu, Thailand October 6, 2022. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
“Then he got out and started killing anyone he met along the way with a gun or the knife until he got home. We surrounded his house and then found that he committed suicide in his home,” Damrongsak Kittiprapas told reporters.
He said a few children had survived, without giving details.
About 30 children were at the facility – a pink, one-storey building surrounded by a lawn and small palm trees – when the attacker arrived, fewer than usual, as heavy rain had kept many people away, said district official Jidapa Boonsom, who was working in a nearby office at the time.
“The shooter came in around lunch time and shot four or five officials at the childcare centre first,” Jidapa told Reuters.
The attacker forced his way into a locked room where the children were sleeping, Jidapa said. A teacher who was eight months pregnant was also among those stabbed to death, she said.
The massacre is among the worst involving children killed by one person. Anders Breivik killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a summer camp in Norway in 2011, while the death toll in other cases include 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut in 2012, 16 at Dunblane in Scotland in 1996 and 19 at a school in Uvalde, Texas, this year.
The Beslan school hostage crisis in Russia in 2004 saw 186 children killed by a group of hostage takers.
Reuters Graphics
DRUGS CHARGE
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha was expected to visit the region on Friday. In a statement on Facebook, he called Thursday’s rampage a “shocking incident”.
Prayuth ordered all government departments to fly the national flag at half mast on Friday to mark a tragedy that “had caused grief to the entire nation”, his spokesperson Anusha Burapchaisri said.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida will visit families of the victims in Udon Thani on Friday, according to a local announcement.
The government said it would provide financial aid to the families to help cover funeral expenses and medical treatment.
The White House and the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres both expressed shock at the attack and sent condolences to the victims’ families.
Gun laws are strict in Thailand, where possession of an illegal firearm carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years. But ownership is high compared with some other countries in Southeast Asia. Illegal weapons, many brought in from strife-torn neighbouring countries, are common.
Mass shootings in Thailand remain rare, although in 2020, a soldier angry over a property deal gone sour killed at least 29 people and wounded 57 in a rampage that spanned four locations.
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Additional reporting by Poppy McPherson and Jiraporn Kuhakan in Na Klang, Orathai Sriring, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Chayut Setboonsarng and Juarwee Kittisilpa in Bangkok; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor, Robert Birsel and Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Kim Coghill, Clarence Fernandez, Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones
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NUSA DUA, Indonesia, July 9 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on Saturday for the first in-person talks since October after attending a G20 summit where the top U.S. diplomat led efforts to pressure Russia over its war in Ukraine.
U.S. officials say Blinken’s meeting with Wang in Bali, Indonesia, including a morning session of talks and a working lunch, is aimed at keeping the difficult U.S. relationship with China stable and preventing it from veering inadvertently into conflict. read more
“There is no substitute for face to face … diplomacy, and in a relationship as complex and consequential as the one between the United States and China there is a lot to talk about,” Blinken told reporters at the beginning of the meeting.
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“We very much look forward to a productive and constructive conversation,” he said.
Blinken is expected to repeat warnings to China not to support Russia’s war in Ukraine and the two sides will address contentious issues that include Taiwan, China’s extensive South China Sea claims, its expansion of influence in the Pacific, human rights, and trade tariffs.
However, both sides share an interest in keeping the relationship stable and Blinken and U.S. officials say President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to speak again in coming weeks, something Saturday’s meeting is likely to address.
“China and the United States are two major countries, so it is necessary for the two countries to maintain normal exchanges,” Wang told reporters.
“At the same time, we do need to talk together to ensure that this relationship will continue to move forward along the right track,” Wang said.
Daniel Russel, a top U.S. diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama who has close contact with Biden administration officials, said he believed a key aim for the meeting would be to explore the possibility of an in-person meeting between Biden and Xi, their first as leaders, possibly on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Bali in November.
The United States calls China its main strategic rival and is concerned it might one day attempt to take over the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan, just as Russia attacked Ukraine.
The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said on Tuesday he expected a “candid” exchange with Wang and said it would be another opportunity “to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine”.
Shortly before Russia’s Feb. 24 Ukraine invasion, Beijing and Moscow announced a “no limits” partnership. But U.S. officials have said they have not seen China evade tough U.S.-led sanctions on Russia or provide it with military equipment.
However, China has declined to condemn Russia’s actions and it has criticized the sweeping sanctions.
U.S. officials have warned of consequences, including sanctions, should China start offering material support for Russia’s war effort, which it calls a “special military operation” to degrade the Ukrainian military though Kyiv counters that it is an imperial-style land grab.
Despite their strategic rivalry, the world’s two largest economies remain major trading partners and Biden has been considering scrapping tariffs on a range of Chinese goods to curb surging U.S. inflation before the November midterm elections, with control of Congress in focus. read more
(This story has been refiled to edit headline to show first in person talks)
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Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Robert Birsel
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BANGKOK, May 21 (Reuters) – Representatives of the United States and several other nations walked out of an Asia-Pacific trade ministers meeting in Bangkok on Saturday to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, officials said.
The walkout was “an expression of disapproval at Russia’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and its economic impact in the APEC region,” one diplomat said.
Representatives from Canada, New Zealand, Japan and Australia joined the Americans, led by Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in walking out of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, two Thai officials and two international diplomats told Reuters.
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Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, saying it aimed to demilitarise and “denazify” its neighbour. Ukraine and the West say President Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression, which has claimed thousands of civilian lives, sent millions of Ukrainians fleeing and caused economic fallout around the world.
Another diplomat said the five countries that staged the protest wanted “stronger language on Russia’s war” in the group’s final statement to be issued on Sunday.
“The meeting will not be a failure if (a joint statement) cannot be issued,” Thai Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit told reporters, adding that the meeting was “progressing well” despite the walk out.
The walkout took place while Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov was delivering remarks at the opening of the two-day meeting from the group of 21 economies.
The delegations from five countries that staged the protest returned to the meeting after Reshetnikov finished speaking, a Thai official said.
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Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by William Mallard
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Separatist graffiti is seen on a road near Pattani June 6, 2014, one of three southernmost provinces of Thailand where government troops have fought Muslim insurgents since 2004. Graffiti reads “Hey Siamese – bring back our rights” REUTERS/Andrew RC Marshall
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BANGKOK, April 16 (Reuters) – Thai rebels sidelined from peace talks claimed responsibility on Saturday for deadly bombings in the country’s Muslim-majority deep south that broke a Ramadan holiday agreed between the main rebel group and the government.
The two explosions on Friday, which killed a civilian and injured three policemen, were carried out by “G5”, a militant group of the Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO), its president, Kasturi Mahkota, told Reuters.
More than 7,300 people have been killed since 2004 in the fighting between the government and shadowy groups seeking independence for the Malay-Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and parts of Songkhla. The area was part of the Patani sultanate that Thailand annexed in a 1909 treaty with Britain.
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Mahkota said by telephone the blasts in Pattani province represent “business as usual” for PULO, left out of the talks between the government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), which agreed two weeks ago to stop violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan through May 14. read more
A spokesman for the Thai security forces in the south, Colonel Kiatisak Neewong, said without naming PULO that a group not included in the peace talks were likely responsible for bombings aimed at disrupting the Ramadan truce.
The Thai team at the peace talks and the BRN declined to comment.
“The talks are not inclusive enough and it is going too fast,” said Kasturi, whose group objects to the agreement that would exclude the possibility of independence from Buddhist-majority Thailand.
The talks seek a political solution to the decades-long conflict under the framework of the Thai constitution. Talks have been frequently disrupted since beginning in 2013. The latest round started in 2019.
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Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok; Editing by William Mallard
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Feb 7 (Reuters) – Every day for the last three months, an average of six or seven families in Myanmar have posted notices in the country’s state-owned newspapers cutting ties with sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren who have publicly opposed the ruling military junta.
The notices started to appear in such numbers in November after the army, which seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected government a year ago, announced it would take over properties of its opponents and arrest people giving shelter to protesters. Scores of raids on homes followed.
Lin Lin Bo Bo, a former car salesman who joined an armed group resisting military rule, was one of those disowned by his parents in about 570 notices reviewed by Reuters.
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“We declare we have disowned Lin Lin Bo Bo because he never listened to his parents’ will,” said the notice posted by his parents, San Win and Tin Tin Soe, in state-owned newspaper The Mirror in November.
Speaking to Reuters from a Thai border town where he is living after fleeing Myanmar, the 26-year-old said his mother had told him she was disowning him after soldiers came to their family home searching for him. A few days later, he said he cried as he read the notice in the paper.
“My comrades tried to reassure me that it was inevitable for families to do that under pressure,” he told Reuters. “But I was so heartbroken.”
Contacted by Reuters, his parents declined to comment.
Targeting families of opposition activists was a tactic used by Myanmar’s military during unrest in 2007 and the late 1980s but has been used far more frequently since the Feb.1, 2021 coup, according to Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, senior advocacy officer at rights group Burma Campaign UK, which uses the old name for the former British colony.
Publicly disowning family members, which has a long history in Myanmar’s culture, is one way to respond, said Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, who said she was seeing more such notices in the press than in the past.
“Family members are scared to be implicated in crimes,” she said. “They don’t want to be arrested, and they don’t want to be in trouble.”
A military spokesperson did not respond to Reuters questions for this story. Commenting on the notices in a news conference in November, military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said that people who made such declarations in newspapers could still be charged if found to be supporting opposition to the junta.
VIOLENT CRACKDOWN
Hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar, many of them young, took to the streets to protest the coup a year ago. After a violent crackdown on demonstrations by the army, some protesters fled overseas or joined armed groups in remote parts of the country. Known as People’s Defence Forces, these groups are broadly aligned with the deposed civilian government.
Over the past year, security forces have killed about 1,500 people, many of them demonstrators, and arrested nearly 12,000 people, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a monitoring group. The military has said those figures are exaggerated.
Journalist So Pyay Aung told Reuters he filmed riot police using batons and shields to break up protests and livestreamed the video on the Democratic Voice of Burma, a news website. After authorities came searching for him, he said he hid in different locations in Myanmar before fleeing to Thailand with his wife and infant daughter. He was disowned by his father in November.
“I declare I am disowning my son because he did unforgivable activities against his parents’ wills. I will not have any responsibilities related to him,” said a notice posted by his father, Tin Aung Ko, in the state-owned Myanma Alinn newspaper.
“When I saw the newspaper that mentioned cutting ties with me, I felt a little sad,” So Pyay Aung told Reuters. “But I understand that my parents had fears of pressure. They might have worries of their house being seized or getting arrested.”
His father, Tin Aung Ko, declined to comment.
Two parents who disowned their children in similar notices, who asked not to be named for fear of attracting the attention of the military, told Reuters the notices were primarily intended to send a message to authorities that they should not be held responsible for their children’s actions.
“My daughter is doing what she believes, but I’m sure she will be worried if we got into trouble,” one mother said. “I know she can understand what I have done to her.”
Lin Lin Bo Bo said he hopes to one day go home and support his family. “I want this revolution to be over as soon as possible,” he told Reuters.
Such a reunification may be possible for some families torn apart in this way, according to Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, the rights activist.
“Unless they do it properly with lawyers and a will, then these things don’t really count legally,” she said of the disowning notices. “After a couple of years, they can go back to being family.”
So Pyay Aung, the journalist, said he fears his split with his parents is permanent.
“I don’t even have a home to go back to after the revolution,” he told Reuters. “I am so worried all the time because my parents are left under the military regime.”
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Reporting by Wa Lone and Reuters staff
Writing by John Geddie
Editing by Bill Rigby
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BANGKOK, Jan 29 (Reuters) – A beach in eastern Thailand was declared a disaster area on Saturday as oil leaking from an underwater pipeline in the Gulf of Thailand continued to wash ashore and blacken the sand.
The leak from the pipeline owned by Star Petroleum Refining Public Company Limited (SPRC) (SPRC.BK) started late on Tuesday and was brought under control a day later after spilling an estimated 50,000 litres (13,209 gallons) of oil into the ocean 20 km (12 miles) from the country’s industrialised eastern seaboard. read more
Some of the oil reached the shoreline at Mae Ramphueng beach in Rayong province late on Friday after spreading over 47 sq km (18 sq miles) of sea in the gulf. read more
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Workers clean oil spills caused by a leak from an undersea pipeline 20 km (12.4 miles) off Thailand’s eastern coast at Mae Ramphueng beach in Rayong province, Thailand, January 29, 2022. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
The navy is working with SPRC to contain the leak and said the main oil mass was still offshore with only a small amount washing up on at least two spots along the 12-km-long beach.
About 150 SPRC workers and 200 navy personnel had been deployed to clean up the beach and oil boom barriers had been set up, the navy said.
Twelve navy ships and three civilian ships along with a number of aircraft were also working to contain the spill at sea with booms and dispersant spray.
“We and the company are still working at sea to reduce the amount of oil by cornering the spill and sucking up the oil and spraying dispersant,” Rear Admiral Artorn Charapinyo, deputy commander of the first Naval Area command, told reporters.
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Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Stephen Coates
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BRUSSELS/BANGKOK, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Tens of millions of migrants may be denied COVID-19 vaccines from a global programme because some major manufacturers are worried about legal risks from harmful side effects, according to officials and internal documents from Gavi, the charity operating the programme, reviewed by Reuters.
Nearly two years into a pandemic that has already killed more than 5 million people, only about 7% of people in low-income countries have received a dose. Vaccine deliveries worldwide have been delayed by production problems, hoarding by rich countries, export restrictions and red tape. Many programmes have also been hampered by hesitancy among the public read more .
The legal concerns are an additional hurdle for public health officials tackling the coronavirus – even as officials say unvaccinated people offer an ideal environment for it to mutate into new variants that threaten hard-won immunity around the world. Many COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have required that countries indemnify them for any adverse events suffered by individuals as a result of the vaccines, the United Nations says.
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Where governments are not in control, that is not possible.
The concerns affect people, such as those displaced by the Myanmar, Afghanistan and Ethiopian crises, who are beyond the reach of national governments’ vaccination schemes.
For refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers, as well as people afflicted by natural disasters or other events that put them out of reach of government help, the global programme known as COVAX created a Humanitarian Buffer – a last-resort reserve of shots to be administered by humanitarian groups. Gavi, the vaccine alliance, is a public-private partnership set up in 2000 to promote vaccination around the world.
But that buffer does not have any mechanism to offer compensation. Gavi, which operates COVAX with the World Health Organization (WHO), says that where those applying for doses, mainly NGOs, can’t bear legal risks, deliveries from that stockpile can only be made if vaccine-makers accept liability.
The companies that are willing to do so under these circumstances provide only a minority of the programme’s vaccines, according to people familiar with the matter and the documents, written by Gavi staff for a board meeting starting at the end of November.
More than two-thirds of COVAX doses have come from Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N) and its partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE), AstraZeneca PLC (AZN.L) and Moderna Inc. (MRNA.O), Gavi says. Moderna declined to comment. AstraZeneca and Pfizer said they were in talks with Gavi but declined to comment further. All three said they are committed to making doses available to poorer nations at relatively low prices. Pfizer said it was collaborating directly with governments in Jordan and Lebanon to donate doses for refugees.
Mainly because of the legal concerns, less than 2 million doses have so far been sent from the buffer, Gavi says. About 167 million people risk being excluded from national programmes, according to United Nations data cited in the documents.
Unless all the firms accept legal liability, “access to vaccines for some populations will remain a challenge,” the Gavi documents say, adding that new crises will generate additional demand to cover displaced populations.
The vaccine makers’ reluctance to take on the legal risks is “a major hurdle” in attempts to provide vaccines for the buffer, a spokesperson for Gavi told Reuters. Gavi did not comment on the details in the documents, but said applications for vaccines are confidential until the doses are delivered. In September, Gavi’s CEO, Seth Berkley, tweeted an appeal to drugmakers to waive their requirements for legal indemnity.
Three Chinese drugmakers have agreed to shoulder legal risks when their shots are delivered through the buffer: SinoVac Biotech Ltd (SVA.O), Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd (1099.HK), and Clover Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd, according to the Gavi document. The drugmakers did not respond to requests for comment.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) of the United States confirmed it would waive a requirement for indemnity for deliveries from the buffer: “We are proud to be part of this effort to protect the world’s most vulnerable people,” said Paul Stoffels, Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer. He did not elaborate.
However, less than one-third of COVAX supplies have come from these four firms, COVAX data shows: Clover’s shot has not yet been approved so is not in use.
The global industry association, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), said “no company has refused to consider” taking on the legal risk. However, in the case of shots delivered from the buffer, it said some firms felt they could not do so without full knowledge of where and how vaccines would be used.
It would be hard to continuously monitor vaccines for safety in refugee camps, and delivery is logistically very challenging and not suitable for all types, said the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), which represents large pharmaceutical companies in Europe.
People may blame vaccines for problems that emerge afterwards even if they are unrelated, it said.
“This could then lead to an increased number of litigation cases … during which the safety and efficacy of the vaccine would be publicly questioned,” it said in a statement to Reuters. That might lead to increased vaccine hesitancy and a slower recovery from the pandemic, it said.
So far there is scant information on COVID vaccine litigation, but claims made to out-of-court compensation programmes are one measure of the risk. A programme in the United States has so far not paid out anything, public data show; neither has one set up by the WHO for lower income countries, the WHO said. In Europe, a handful of compensation awards have been granted for undisclosed amounts of money, official data from Denmark, Germany, Norway and Switzerland show read more .
Globally there have been few reported COVID infections among refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers – testing is not always systematic and infections can generate only mild symptoms especially in younger people.
But cramped conditions and weak healthcare expose them to high infection risk. This, combined with low levels of vaccination in a mobile population could favour the emergence of new variants and be a vector for infection, said Mireille Lembwadio, Global Vaccination Coordinator at the International Organization of Migration (IOM), a U.N.-related body that advises governments and migrants.
“Leaving them unvaccinated could help spread the virus and its variants across the world,” she said.
WAITING FOR DOSES
Francois Nosten, a French professor who helps coordinate healthcare for people from Myanmar living on the border with Thailand, is one of those waiting for vaccines. In June, he put in a request from the Humanitarian Buffer for 70,000 doses – some for some of the 90,000 or so who are sheltering in camps along the border, but most for unregistered migrants in the border town of Mae Sot and nearby villages.
Nosten, whose main work is researching malaria, is expecting the doses – a fraction of the more than 8 billion administered worldwide – this month. He has been told they will come from Sinopharm, and he hopes they can help inoculate key at-risk groups in Thailand’s Tak province. Gavi said delivery arrangements are still being finalised.
About 20,000 doses will be given to people in the camps by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a humanitarian group working with Nosten.
“At this point whatever vaccine we can secure we are grateful for,” said its Thailand Director, Darren Hertz. He added that the IRC believed the likelihood that a member of the refugee population would attempt to take legal action in case of side-effects was “extremely low.”
Hertz said the IRC has received a handful of ad hoc vaccine donations from the Thai government and is currently tackling significant outbreaks in five of nine camps on the border, where about 3,000 cases have been confirmed, including at least 26 deaths. A Thai foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed the government was working with the IRC on providing vaccinations in shelters along the border.
Nosten’s charity, Border Health Foundation (BHF), is one of eight organisations worldwide that have applied to distribute the shots from the Humanitarian Buffer and one of three to be approved, Gavi said.
Ann Burton, Chief of Public Health at the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, said the liability issue was one reason agencies have been slow to apply. The programme has also been delayed by the general shortage of vaccines and administrative hurdles read more .
Organisations applying for supplies from the buffer may not choose which vaccines they receive. Working with displaced people, Nosten said it would be more convenient to give them Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which offers protection after a single dose instead of the two doses needed for Sinopharm’s.
But the Sinopharm version will be “better than nothing,” he said.
More than 100 national governments have promised to offer vaccines where possible to all the displaced people on their soil, according to the IOM. However, the U.N. group says migrants and refugees are often effectively excluded from such schemes because of administrative or cultural hurdles.
In cases where governments aren’t in charge or have not agreed to vaccinate migrants, COVAX’s Humanitarian Buffer is the only option. At least 40 countries have yet to include unauthorised migrants in their vaccination programmes, according to the IOM – it and the UNHCR declined to name the countries.
Gavi set up the buffer in March 2021, planning to reserve up to 5% of vaccine doses as they become available to COVAX, which would amount to roughly 70 million doses so far.
The only shots delivered from the buffer so far – just over 1.6 million Sinopharm doses – landed in Iran in November, where high numbers of displaced Afghans have arrived, UNICEF Iran said. That’s enough to inoculate about 800,000 people; more will likely be needed, UNICEF said.
NEED FOR SPEED
The vaccine makers’ legal concern is rooted in the unprecedented speed of the effort to develop the COVID shots, the EFPIA said.
In normal circumstances, drugmakers buy insurance to cover liability for vaccines’ potential adverse effects. But COVID forced them to develop drugs so quickly that some side effects – for instance, a rare blood-clotting condition in some of those who took the AstraZeneca vaccine – are emerging as shots go into people’s arms.
Many governments and international agencies have set up compensation schemes to reimburse victims and avoid lengthy litigation. An emergency law invoked by the U.S. government provides legal immunity for drug companies for side effects from their COVID-19 vaccines used in the country. The only exception is for instances of “wilful misconduct.”
For drug companies, accepting potential liability runs counter to standard practice.
“Vaccine manufacturers try to minimize legal risks in almost every setting,” said John T. Monahan, Professor at Georgetown University. “The gold standard is full immunity from lawsuits. If they accept carve-outs, it may become more difficult to reach that goal.”
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Edited by Josephine Mason and Sara Ledwith
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