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Ninety-two villagers have fallen ill in a mysterious outbreak in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet city (Photo: Phnompenh Post)

Mystery illness outbreak strikes 92, hospitalizes 10 in Campuchia

Ninety-two villagers have fallen ill in a mysterious outbreak in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet city. None of the cases are life-threatening, but 10 of the victims have been warded in hospital.

Ten people have fallen ill, with all of them exhibiting similar symptoms in a mysterious outbreak in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet city.

The symptoms experienced by the group include abnormal fever, sore throat, skin rashes, joint pains and, in some cases, convulsions, as reported by Khmer Times.

“The condition of the patients has improved but the medical team is still trying to ascertain the cause of the illness,” he said, adding four of them were women and two were children.

Speaking with doctors at the provincial hospital, Rath said although the cause has not been determined yet, doctors suspect it is Chikungunya disease, which is transmitted through the Aedes mosquito.

The medical personnel are also working to sanitise living environments in the vicinity of the outbreak and are taking additional measures to curb the Aedes aegypti mosquito population in target villages.

People with suspected health problems are called to seek treatment at health centres and referral hospitals.

900,000 British public sector workers are getting a pay rise amid coronavirus outbreak

Doctors, police, teachers and some other public sector workers in England are to receive above-inflation pay rises for their “vital contribution” to the UK.

The Treasury announcement affects nearly 900,000 workers in England, with doctors and dentists getting an increase of 2.8% and police and prison officers of 2.5%. Teachers will receive a 3.1% increase, and the armed forces 2%, The Guardian reported.

Other sectors covered by this increase include senior civil servants and the judiciary, whose pay will go up by 2%, and staff at the National Crime Agency, who get a 2.5% increase.

The pay awards for doctors and dentists, prison officers, the armed forces, civil servants and judiciary will be backdated to April this year. Police and teachers operate on a different pay year, so their increase will start in September.

The pay rise came as government borrowing rose to a record £127.9bn in the first quarter of the financial year due to soaring spending at the height of the coronavirus crisis, according to official figures.

Nurses, midwives, hospital porters and other NHS staff are, however, not covered by this pay round.

Anneliese Dodds. the shadow chancellor, said: “A pay rise for our police, nurses and teachers now is good news, but for many frontline workers it still won’t make up for a decade of real-terms pay cuts".

“And many other public sector workers – including those working on the frontline in social care – won’t get a pay rise out of this at all because the Tories haven’t made good on their promises to boost local authority funding.”

900,000 British public sector workers are getting a pay rise amid coronavirus outbreak (Photo: Slough Observer)

US claims Chinese hackers tried to steal COVID-19 data

The Justice Department on Tuesday publicly accused two Chinese hackers of stealing trade secrets from companies across the world and targeting American companies working on developing a vaccine for the coronavirus, AA.com reported.

According to a federal indictment released on Tuesday, the two individuals are accused of hacking into computer systems of hundreds of companies, governments, non governmental organizations, dissidents, clergy and democratic and human rights activists in the US and abroad for their own personal financial gain and for the benefit of Chinese government agencies.

The indictment says the hackers in recent months had researched vulnerabilities in the computer networks of companies developing COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

The accusations come as tensions between Beijing and Washington have risen quickly, mainly fueled by criticism from the Trump administration towards China for not having contained the coronavirus.

The case was filed earlier this month in federal court in Washington state and was unsealed on Tuesday. The Chinese citizens are each charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, unauthorized access to a computer and aggravated identity theft.

The Justice Department on Tuesday publicly accused two Chinese hackers of stealing trade secrets from companies across the world (Photo: ANews)

China allocates flood relief fund to farmers, agriculture production

China has allocated a 330 million yuan ($47 million) disaster relief fund to help farmers and agricultural production in southern provinces, as large parts of the country suffer the worst flooding in decades.

The fund is aimed at helping farmers resume production after the disaster and repairing damaged agricultural facilities, as well as reducing the loss of farm income, the ministry of agriculture and rural affairs said in a statement late Monday.

It will be distributed in provinces including Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and Sichuan, as reported by Reuters.

(Photo:Reuters)

XAU/USD bulls keep the reins at multi-year high beyond $1,800

While a sustained rise in the pandemic cases from the US increased hopes of America’s Phase 4 stimulus, European leaders’ agreement over 750 billion Euros of aid package also adds strength to the market’s rush towards the bullion. Further to increase buying momentum, vaccine news suggests that the cure to the pandemic is nearby.

Against this backdrop, Wall Street marked mixed closing with Nasdaq giving a part of the early-week gains. Further, the US 10-year treasury yields also dropped 1.5 basis points (bps) to 0.605% whereas S&P 500 Futures stays mildly positive around 3,250 by the press time.

Even if the economic calendar is lighter on Wednesday, mainly during the Asian session, updates concerning the US fiscal package discussions and vaccine news can offer intermediate moves to the precious metal. Additionally, any surprise announcements concerning the US-China tussle, which has been absent off-late will also offer a notable market reaction, according to FXS.

(Photo: FXS)

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