North Korea rejects Chinese vaccines: UNICEF
The Hindu
Pyongyang insists it has yet to see any cases of the virus — a claim that analysts doubt
North Korea has rejected around three million doses of a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, suggesting they should be given to countries in greater need, UNICEF said on Thursday. The impoverished North was the first country to impose a strict lockdown when it sealed its border in January last year to stop the virus spreading from neighbouring China, where it first emerged before sweeping the world. Pyongyang insists it has yet to see any cases of the virus — a claim that analysts doubt — but it has paid a huge economic price for the blockade, with the regime admitting in June it was tackling a “food crisis.”A crowd comprising farmers, researchers, professors, students, and horticulture enthusiasts thronged the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru, on Friday for the inaugural ceremony of the Triphal Diversity Show which showcased 300 mango, 100 jackfruit, and 100 banana genotypes in collaboration with ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli.
The State government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director-General of Police, Manish Kharbikar of the Economic Offences division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the alleged multi-crore scam in the government-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.