Virus outbreak shuts down Vietnam city
HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnam on Tuesday locked down its third-largest city for two weeks after 22 cases of the coronavirus were found linked to a hospital, the government said.
The new cases in the central city of Da Nang are the first confirmed local transmissions of the virus in the country in more than three months.
Public transport into and out of Da Nang was canceled. Over the weekend, thousands of mostly Vietnamese tourists cut short their summer holidays in the popular beach destination. The lockdown dealt a hard blow to the city's tourism industry, which was just being revived after earlier coronavirus cases mostly subsided at the end of April.
Hotel guests quickly ended their stays and canceled upcoming trips upon the news of the first case, one hotelier said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Da Nang beaches, which host some 50,000 people a day, are now closed.
Authorities estimated several thousand people would be stranded by the transportation shutdown and asked hotels to shelter them.
On Sunday, the government ordered nonessential businesses to close.
New Zealand shifts on Hong Kong treaty
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand announced Tuesday that it will follow the lead of its intelligence allies by suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.
The move was made in response to China passing a sweeping new security law for the semiautonomous territory.
New Zealand is the final member of the "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing alliance to take such action after the U.S., Australia, Canada and Britain previously announced similar measures.
New Zealand relies on China as its largest trading partner. China each year buys billions of dollars worth of New Zealand's agricultural goods. But Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the new law went against commitments China had made to the international community.
"New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kong's criminal-justice system is sufficiently independent from China," he said.
Peters said there would be other changes to the relationship. New Zealand now will treat military and technology exports to Hong Kong in the same way as it treats such exports to China, he said. New Zealand also has updated its travel advice to warn its citizens about the risks they face under the new law.
Zimbabwe threat targets U.S. diplomat
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's ruling party has threatened the United States ambassador with expulsion, calling him a "thug" and accusing him of funding organizers of anti-government protests planned for Friday. The U.S. called the remark "deeply offensive."
Zimbabwe's government in recent weeks has increasingly accused the U.S. Embassy of supporting anti-government activists who are piling pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the economy collapses and as new allegations of corruption and human-rights abuses surface.
The embassy denies the accusations of meddling in politics in the southern African country.
Ruling ZANU-PF party spokesman Patrick Chinamasa said Monday that U.S. Ambassador Brian Nichols and a "coterie of gangsters" should stop "mobilizing and funding disturbances, coordinating violence and training insurgency. Our leadership will not hesitate to give him marching orders."
He added: "Diplomats should not behave like thugs, and Brian Nichols is a thug."
The embassy did not immediately comment on that. But the top U.S. envoy for Africa, Tibor Nagy, said on Twitter: "Comments from #ZANUPF -- while sadly not surprising -- are deeply offensive. We have summoned the Ambassador of Zimbabwe to explain."
Sydney cites virus risk in hushing protest
SYDNEY -- Police arrested a leader of an anti-racism protest and shut down the demonstration before it started Tuesday after courts ruled the gathering in downtown Sydney was illegal because of the coronavirus pandemic threat.
Organizer Paddy Gibson was among six people arrested in a park known as The Domain before the rally was to start at noon. Two police officers were photographed leading a defiant Gibson away.
Police outnumbered protesters. Officers told demonstrators to move on as they arrived and the area was cleared 15 minutes before the scheduled start.
New South Wales state Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Willing said five protesters were issued $710 fines for breaching pandemic crowd restrictions. Another protester was charged with using offensive language.
"We are not anti-the-right-to-protest. This is about public safety," Willing said.
"We understand that the issues that are in question here are significant and are sensitive to a lot of people. However, we must do what we can to ensure that the public in general are safe at this time," he added.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports