While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 23
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Thousands flee 'massive fire' at Rohingya camp in Bangladesh
At least 20,000 Rohingya have fled a huge blaze engulfing shanty homes at refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said Monday (March 22), in the third fire to hit the settlements in four days.
Nearly one million of the Muslim minority from Myanmar live in cramped and squalid conditions at the camps in the Cox's Bazar district, with many fleeing a military crackdown in their homeland in 2017.
Officials said the fire was believed to have started in one of the 34 camps - which span about 8,000 acres (3,237 hectares) of land - before spreading to two other camps.
NUS hostel residents to be swabbed after Covid-19 RNA found in wastewater
Residents of a hostel block at the National University of Singapore will need to be swabbed after traces of Covid-19 were detected in its wastewater.
Staff and students were informed in a circular seen by The Straits Times on Monday night (March 22). Dr Peck Thian Guan, director of the university's office of safety, health and environment, said low levels of Covid-19 viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) had been detected in a sample taken from an inspection chamber linked to bathrooms in the UTown Residence North Tower on Saturday.
The university has had a wastewater surveillance programme in place at all its hostels since Dec 7, as part of efforts to pick up coronavirus cases in a "safe, effective and non-intrusive way", Dr Peck said in the circular.
Britain imposes sanctions on Chinese officials, state body over Xinjiang
Britain imposed sanctions on Monday (March 22) on four Chinese officials and a state security body over human rights abuses against the mainly Muslim Uighur community in Xinjiang, part of coordinated action by some Western countries to put pressure on Beijing.
Earlier on Monday, the United States announced sanctions on two more Chinese officials linked to China's Xinjiang region and the European Union imposed sanctions on four Chinese officials, including a top security director.
Britain has repeatedly denounced torture, forced labour and sterilisations that it says are taking place against Muslim Uighurs on an "industrial scale" in Xinjiang and repeated its criticism on Monday.
Unequal vaccine distribution 'grotesque': WHO
The World Health Organisation on Monday (March 22) blasted the growing gap between the number of coronavirus vaccines administered in rich and poor countries, branding it a "moral outrage".
The WHO tore into wealthy nations now vaccinating younger people at low risk of developing Covid-19, saying they were doing so at the cost of vulnerable people's lives in low-income countries.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was "shocking" how little had been done to avert an entirely predictable "catastrophic moral failure" to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines.
1 in 3 Covid-19 survivors suffer long-term health issues: Review
At least one in three patients hospitalised with Covid-19 suffer long-term health issues including multiple organ problems and deteriorated mental health, according to a review of studies looking at the lasting impact of the disease.
Published in the journal Nature Medicine on Monday (March 22), the review looked at the frequency of symptoms among Covid "long-haulers", the most common of which include fatigue, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Authors of the research said the data pointed to an underappreciated health emergency that governments needed to study more closely and find ways to manage.
