While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, March 31
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the US Capitol on March 30, 2022.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
PM Lee calls for US to deepen economic ties in Asia-Pacific
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called for the United States to develop and grow its economic ties with the Asia-Pacific region, as he met with Democrat and Republican leaders on Wednesday (March 30).
The Biden administration is due to release its Indo-Pacific economic framework soon, which will lay out its economic strategy for the region.
"We hope to see these bear fruit in the years to come," said PM Lee, who is on a working visit to the US that ends Saturday.
WHO says most likely scenario shows Covid-19 severity will decrease over time
The World Health Organisation on Wednesday (March 30) released an updated plan for Covid-19, laying out three possible scenarios for how the pandemic will evolve this year.
"Based on what we know now, the most likely scenario is that the Covid-19 virus continues to evolve, but the severity of disease it causes reduces over time as immunity increases due to vaccination and infection," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a briefing.
However, the WHO head cautioned that periodic spikes in cases and deaths may occur as immunity wanes, which may require periodic boosting for vulnerable populations.
Sri Lanka faces 13-hour blackouts, hospitals stop surgery as crisis deepens
Sri Lanka announced nationwide 13-hour daily power cuts from Thursday (March 31) and more hospitals suspended routine surgeries after running out of life-saving medicines, as the cash-strapped island's economic crisis deepened.
The South Asian nation of 22 million people is in its worst economic spiral since independence in 1948, sparked by an acute lack of foreign currency to pay for even the most essential imports.
The state electricity monopoly said it was extending Wednesday's 10-hour power cut by another three hours from Thursday, enforcing a 13-hour rolling nationwide blackout.
Russians start to withdraw from Chernobyl: US
Russian forces have begun to pull out of the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power site, a US defense official said Wednesday (March 30), a day after Moscow said it would scale back attacks on two key Ukrainian cities.
Troops seized control of the Chernobyl site - where radioactive waste is still stored - on February 24, the first day of the invasion.
"Chernobyl is (an) area where they are beginning to reposition some of their troops - leaving, walking away from the Chernobyl facility and moving into Belarus," the US official said.
Action hero Bruce Willis to retire because of illness: Family
Action hero Bruce Willis, star of the Die Hard franchise, is to retire from acting due to illness, his family announced Wednesday (March 30).
"Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities," a post on Instagram signed by his family said.
"As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him."
