BRIEFLY

UNITED STATES

Biden infection seems to be BA. 5 variant

The causative agent for US President Joe Biden's COVID-19 infection is "most likely" the BA. 5 variant, his physician said on Saturday. Biden's symptoms continue to improve, with sore throat, runny nose, loose cough and body aches, Kevin O'Connor announced in a memo to the White House after preliminary sequencing results had returned. "His voice remains deep," O'Connor added. "His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain entirely normal. His lungs remain clear." Biden, 79, is taking treatment well and will continue to take Paxlovid, an antiviral therapy produced by Pfizer.

Child labor used in Alabama factory

A subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co has used child labor in a plant that supplies parts for the Korean carmaker's assembly line in nearby Montgomery, Alabama, according to area police, the family of three underage workers, and eight former and current employees of the factory. Underage workers, in some cases as young as 12, have recently worked at a metal stamping plant operated by SMART Alabama LLC. SMART, listed by Hyundai in corporate filings as a majority-owned unit, supplies parts for some of the most popular cars and SUVs built by the automaker in Montgomery, its flagship US assembly plant.

THE PHILIPPINES

Three dead in campus shooting in Manila

Three people were killed and two others injured in a shooting incident on a campus in Manila on Sunday afternoon. The Metro Manila Development Authority said the shooting took place at 14:55 local time at the gate of Ateneo de Manila University before the law school's graduation ceremony. Former Lamitan mayor Rose Furigay, her bodyguard, and a school security guard who tried to stop the shooting were killed. The former mayor's daughter, who was supposed to graduate from the law school on Sunday, was injured.

Xinhua - Agencies