Five die as gunmen target polio jab workers

Jalalabad: At least five people have been killed after gunmen targeted members of polio vaccination teams in eastern Afghanistan.

No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks that took place in the city of Jalalabad, as well as in the nearby districts of Khoyani and Surkhrud, according to Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor in Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the provincial capital.

Along with the five killed, at least four members of the polio vaccination teams were wounded, said Dr Jan Mohammad, who coordinates the anti-polio drive for the country’s east.

Mr Khogyani called the attacks cowardly, adding that two of the wounded were in critical condition.

Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan are the only two remaining countries in the world where polio is endemic, after Nigeria was last year declared free of the virus.

Brasilia: Brazil’s health ministry has documented 41 cases of Covid-19 related to the Copa America football tournament, including 31 players or staff and 10 workers who were hired for the event.

The ministry said all workers who tested positive were in Brasilia, where Brazil kicked off the tournament on Sunday with a 3-0 win over Venezuela.

The visiting Venezuela squad was depleted after nearly a dozen cases of Covid-19 involving players or staff.

Brazil stepped in late as emergency host of the 10-team continental championship despite the country having the second-highest number of recorded deaths from the coronavirus in the world, almost 490,000.

President Jair

Bolsonaro offered to hold the tournament in Brazil only two weeks ago after Argentina and Colombia were dropped as co-hosts.

He is a critic of social distancing policies and argues the economic impact of shutdown measures kills more people than the virus.

Shiyan: An investigation is under way into the cause of a gas line explosion at a market in central China, as the death toll rose to 25.

Rescuers climbed over smashed bricks and concrete to find victims after the blast early on Sunday that ripped through the market in Shiyan, Hubei province.

The two-storey building built in the early 1990s included pharmacies, restaurants and other businesses. More than

900 people were evacuated from the area.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has called for a thorough investigation in order to create a “good atmosphere” for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party on July 1, state media reported.

The second named storm of this year’s hurricane season, Tropical Storm Bill, has formed far off the North Carolina coast.

The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said the storm emerged from a tropical depression swirling about 335 miles off of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Bill had maximum sustained winds of 45mph and was moving to the north-east at 23mph.

The storm is expected to continue far off the Atlantic seaboard and not pose any immediate threat to land.

North Carolina: