More than 40 Ugandan women, who were scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia, were removed from a plane over fake COVID-19 certificates, officials said.

Emmanuel Ainebyona, spokesman for the Ugandan Health Ministry, confirmed that the certificates found with those women were fake.

Led by Prima Kalungi, the security team first got permission from the plane crew before making the arrest.

Kalungi said the women, who were on board the plane at the Entebbe International Airport, had been recruited to work as house maids in Saudi Arabia.

In order to avoid such incidents, the Health Ministry spokesman said, all migrant workers going out of the country will have to take a new test with effect from Monday.​​​​​​​/aa

The UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis on Monday welcomed the extension of authorization for the Cilvegozu border gate in southern Turkey for one more year to dispatch humanitarian aid to needy Syrians.

During a visit to the UN aid loading facility in the Reyhanli district of Hatay province, near Turkey's border with Syria, Mark Cutts commented on the UN Security Council (UNSC) move to extend the cross-border mechanism authorization for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria through Turkey for another year.

Cutts said millions of Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance and the majority of these aids reach the region through the Cilvegozu border gate, which plays a vital role in this regard.

The official went on saying that the aid materials go to needy families in cities such as Idlib, Azaz, Jarabulus, Afrin, and Al-Bab through Turkey and over a thousand vehicles carrying aid crossed Cilvegozu into Syria.

The UNSC decision ensured that food, medical equipment, tents, water and personal care products will be sent to the region without interruption, he added.

International humanitarian aid to Syria was sent through four border crossings until 2020, with two of them were on the Turkish borderline. However, the count of crossings was reduced to two following a Russian veto. Later, Russians approved to keep only Bab al-Hawa border gate open for another year.

Syria has been mired in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Over the past decade, around half a million people have been killed and more than 12 million had to flee their homes./aa

Bomb attacks targeted two power transmission towers supplying electricity from Iran to Iraq on Monday by suspected ISIS/Daesh militants in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province, according to a local police officer.

"Unidentified gunmen believed to belong to ISIS/Daesh terror group blew up two electrical supply towers extending from Iran to Diyala with explosive devices," First Lieutenant Sha’lan al-Kamili told Anadolu Agency.

He said the attacks caused the destruction of the two towers and interruption of electricity supply in large areas in the province.

Over the past few weeks, electricity transmission lines have been the target of attacks in the northern provinces of Salahuddin, Diyala, and Kirkuk.

Iraq produces 19,000-21,000 megawatts of electricity.

For years, Baghdad has imported 1,200 megawatts of electricity from neighboring Iran to feed local electric power plants./aa

The Egyptian parliament on Monday approved a legal amendment that allows the authorities to sack civil servants who have links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The new amendment allows the Egyptian authorities to pass any gradual disciplinary action to fire suspected employees affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood which was outlawed by the Egyptian authorities since 2013.

The state-owned Al-Ahram daily reported that the parliament approved the amendment on the Dismissal Without Disciplinary Action Act of 1972, under which the second article allows the dismissal of civil servants, without disciplinary action, whose names are on the state list of terrorists.

The new amendment, however, allows the dismissed civil servants to appeal before Egypt's administrative courts.

Observers see the amendment as another step to fire all employees who are believed to be affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from the state's public institutions and bodies.

Following the military coup in Egypt in July 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood group was persecuted and outlawed in Egypt with most of its top leaders being arrested, including late Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi who died in a courtroom while on trial in 2019./aa

South Korea on Monday placed the “highest level” of social distancing restrictions in the capital Seoul and surrounding areas, as the country grapples with the Delta variant of COVID-19, local media reported.

The government imposed the restrictions in Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province for two weeks, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Under the new restrictions, the government banned gatherings of more than two people after 6 p.m. However, gatherings of up to four people will be allowed during the daytime.

Authorities also shut down entertainment facilities, while restaurants are allowed to have dine-in customers only until 10:00 p.m., according to the report.

The restrictions came after the country reported over 1,000 virus cases for the sixth consecutive day on Monday.

South Korea recorded 1,100 new cases, bringing the total number of infections to 169,146, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. With one more death, the total number of fatalities also raised to 2,044.

On Saturday, the country registered 1,378 cases, the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic.

South Korea extends travel ban on 6 countries

Citing “prolonged security risks,” South Korea also extended a travel ban on six countries and some parts of the Philippines.

The travel ban has been extended for the next six months on Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan and the southern region of the Philippine archipelago, the Zamboanga Peninsula, Sulu, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying.

Travel to Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan has been banned since 2007. Seoul imposed the ban on Yemen in 2011, Libya in 2014, and the islands in the Philippines in 2015, according to the news agency./aa

HARARE, Zimbabwe

In April last year, 19-year-old Trish Murongedzi, who was living with HIV, succumbed to COVID-19 at her home in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.

Barely a week after she died, her friend – 20-year-old Evelyn Chonzi, who had lived with HIV since birth -- also lost her life to coronavirus.

Worse yet, Chonzi’s boyfriend, 20-year-old HIV positive Michael Chidara, also died from coronavirus-related complications less than two weeks later.

But many Zimbabwean teenagers like 17-year-old Pritchard Hove, who has also HIV since birth, have been lucky. The coronavirus nearly claimed his life last year at a time when COVID-19-related deaths had peaked.

“I was almost killed by COVID-19 last year, and I don’t even know how I contracted the disease. But I thank God I’m alive today, still going strong with HIV all the way,” Hove told Anadolu Agency.

The teen said he was hospitalized when he showed coronavirus-related symptoms and was lucky to recover from the deadly disease.

“I was placed on a life support system in hospital and had to be closely monitored by doctors and nurses, so I was told [about that] when I regained my consciousness three days after falling seriously ill,” he said.

The main source of concern for Hove was his HIV/AIDS condition, and pummeled by the coronavirus, he thought this was the end.

“I thought I was going to die; worse considering my being HIV positive. Yes, my immune system was deteriorated after I was hit by the coronavirus, and I was sure I faced a certain death.”

HIV treatment difficult amid COVID restrictions

For Murongedzi’s widowed mother, 48-year-old Agness Zinhu, also HIV positive, the erratic supply of antiretroviral drugs during the peak of coronavirus cases was to blame for her only daughter’s death.

“It was hard to constantly get supplies of antiretroviral drugs when the COVID-19 cases peaked last year. And that was also the time when travel restrictions were also on the up and that meant my daughter and I had difficulties, having to move to collect our share of treatment supplies,” said Zinhu.

As a result, her daughter defaulted on antiretroviral treatment before she became infected with the coronavirus, resulting in her illness and subsequent death in April last year.

Murongedzi’s friend met a similar fate barely a week later.

Evelyn’s father, Donemore Chonzi, pinned the blame on COVID-19 restrictions.

“My daughter ended up defaulting on antiretroviral treatment because she couldn’t travel to collect her drugs during the lockdown last year meant to curtail the spread of COVID-19,” Chonzi, 53, said.

Consequently, said Chonzi, his daughter died.

Chidara’s brother, Denis, said his sibling suffered the effects of the coronavirus together with his girlfriend before they both eventually died, failing to cope with the impact of the virus while battling HIV.

“Michael died of AIDS, but I can tell you COVID-19 killed him because he fell sick due to AIDS after restrictions meant to overcome the coronavirus barred him from collecting his drugs from our local clinic,” Denis told Anadolu Agency.

COVID-19 threatens lives of HIV-positive teens

Born with HIV, Trish, Evelyn and Michael had lived well into their teens before contracting the coronavirus, which eventually indirectly killed them.

As the coronavirus continues to grip Zimbabwe, HIV/AIDS activists say teens here with HIV are living in fear, unsure of what will befall them amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

“Maybe health care centers responsible for distributing antiretroviral drugs will be shut down as coronavirus cases rise even among healthcare workers who are also responsible for dishing out treatment drugs to teens, in particular to those living with HIV,” said Pardon Gwangwava, a 22-year-old HIV positive university student in Harare.

Confusion over vaccination against coronavirus

For Zimbabwe’s HIV-positive teenagers, getting vaccinated against the coronavirus has become a new headache.

“Young people with HIV are affected by the coronavirus like many other citizens, but the main challenge is whether to get vaccinated or not. With new drugs being used to vaccinate people against the coronavirus, we do not know their effects on HIV-positive young people, which has created a psychological dilemma among them,” Chamunorwa Mashoko, who leads an advocacy platform known as the Advocacy Core Team in Zimbabwe, told Anadolu Agency.

In fact, Mashoko said, “the invasion of the coronavirus caused fear, anxiety and panic among people living with HIV. No one knew the coronavirus’ relationship with HIV.”

For many like Mashoko, lockdowns brought untold suffering as young people living with HIV were hindered from accessing medications, especially antiretroviral drugs.

Approximately 1.4 million Zimbabweans are living with HIV and AIDS, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Yet as many HIV-positive teenagers like Trish, Evelyn and Michael lose their lives in the face of coronavirus lockdowns. Over 66,000 coronavirus cases and more than 2,000 deaths have been reported in Zimbabwe since the disease broke out almost two years ago, according to the World Health Organization.

Public transport in Zimbabwe has also often faced bans during lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus, and this has meant tough times for many HIV-positive young Zimbabweans like 21-year-old Leonard Gumbo.

“It has become harder to live with HIV because there is completely no transport to use when anyone wants to collect drugs owing to rife lockdowns. Many people like myself have to travel to some distant healthcare centers before we access antiretroviral drugs,” he said.

But in July last year, as the coronavirus spread around the globe, UNAIDS launched a call center for people living with HIV in Zimbabwe in a bid to help HIV-positive people access treatment even amid lockdowns.

But not all Zimbabwean teens with HIV know about the call centers.

“I have not heard anything about such call centers,” said Hove who narrowly escaped death from the coronavirus./aa