* Polish rate decision: expected to remain on hold
* Brazil cenbank readies 75 basis point rate hike
* EM stocks down for 4th day after Wall St tumble
By Shashank Nayar
May 5 (Reuters) &#8211; Most emerging market currencies eased on Wednesday against a stronger dollar as hints of the potential for higher U.S. interest rates weighed on high-yielding assets, while investors eyed continuing rises in coronavirus infections in a number of large markets.
In India, where cases and the number of deaths from COVID-19 have soared in the past month, banks pulled the Mumbai stock market higher after the central bank rolled out measures to support the economy, including more debt moratoriums.
The Chinese yuan dipped 0.1% after reports that G7 members were aiming to take a harder line against China&#8217;s forced use of labour in its northwestern Xinjiang province.
In contrast to India and other developing countries still struggling with the pandemic, the U.S. economy quickly got backup to run at full steam and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that rate hikes may be needed to prevent overheating and quell coming inflationary pressures.
&#8220;(There are) concerns on the part of many market participants &#8230; that inflation might not just rise on a temporary basis but permanently,&#8221; said Esther Reichelt, an analyst at Commerzbank.
&#8220;This could force the Fed to normalise its monetary policy more quickly than it is expecting right now.&#8221;
MSCI&#8217;s indexes of emerging market currencies and stocks fell for the fourth consecutive session, also weighed down by a jump in coronavirus infections in Thailand and Taiwan, one of the largest weights in the indexes along with China and South Korea.

South Africa&#8217;s rand held steady after private sector activity expanded at its strongest rate in nine years in April, however prospects of a higher U.S. interest rate regime dulled the appeal of high-yielding assets like the rand.
Investors now await key Polish and Brazilian central bank rates announcements due later in the day, with Poland expected to leave interest rates unchanged while Brazil readies 75 basis point rate hike.
Brazil&#8217;s real could make substantial gains in the year ahead on the back of the country&#8217;s big exports of commodities that have surged in value, and the draw of rising interest rates during a likely quiet spell.
Most central European currencies dropped against the euro with Poland&#8217;s zloty falling 0.5%, the most among its peers, while Hungary&#8217;s forint and the Czech crown losing between 0.1% and 0.2%.
For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2021, see http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2021, see https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX

For TOP NEWS across emerging markets
For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see
For TURKISH market report, see
For RUSSIAN market report, see
(Reporting by Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
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EMERGING MARKETS-Currencies drop on U.S. rate hike hints; India debt moves boost stocks

By Aziz El Yaakoubi and Marwa Rashad
DUBAI, May 5 (Reuters) &#8211; Saudi Arabia is considering barring overseas pilgrims from the annual haj for the second year running as COVID-19 cases rise globally and worries grow about the emergence of new variants, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Such a move would restrict the pilgrimage to Mecca, a once in a lifetime duty for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it, to Saudi nationals and residents of the kingdom who were vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 at least months prior to attending.
While discussions about a possible ban have taken place, there has been no final decision on whether to pursue it, they said.
Before the pandemic enforced social distancing globally, some 2.5 million pilgrims used to visit the holiest sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long haj, and the lesser, year-round umrah pilgrimage, which altogether earned the kingdom about $12 billion a year, according to official data.
As part of economic reform plans pursued by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom was hoping to raise the number of umrah and haj pilgrims to 15 million and 5 million respectively by 2020, and aimed to double the umrah number again to 30 million by 2030. It aims to earn 50 billion riyals ($13.32 billion) of revenues from the haj alone by 2030.
Two sources familiar with the matter said authorities have suspended earlier plans to host pilgrims from overseas, and will only allow domestic pilgrims who have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 at least six months before the pilgrimage.
Restrictions will be applied on the age of participants as well, one of the sources said.
A second source said the plans were initially to allow some numbers of vaccinated pilgrims from abroad, but confusion over types of vaccines, their efficacy and the emergence of new variants has pushed officials to reconsider.
The government media office did not respond to a request for comment.
Saudi Arabia, which stakes its reputation on its guardianship of Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, barred foreigners from the haj last year due to the pandemic for the first time in the kingdom&#8217;s modern history, allowing it only to a limited number of Saudi citizens and residents.
COVID-19 infections are still rising in 35 countries globally. There have been at least 153,508,000 reported infections and 3,351,000 reported deaths caused by the new coronavirus so far.
India leads the world in the daily average number of new deaths reported, accounting for one in every four deaths reported worldwide each day.
Crowds of millions of pilgrims from around the world could be a hotbed for virus transmission, and in the past some worshippers have returned to their countries with respiratory and other diseases.
In February, the government suspended entry to the kingdom from 20 countries, with the exception of diplomats, Saudi citizens, medical practitioners and their families, to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus.
The ban, which is still in place to date, includes people arriving from the United Arab Emirates, Germany, the United States, Britain, South Africa, France, Egypt, Lebanon, India and Pakistan. ($1 = 3.7530 riyals) (Marwa Rashad reported from London; Editing by William Maclean)
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Saudi Arabia considers barring overseas haj pilgrims for second year, sources say

By Maytaal Angel
LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) &#8211; Nearly 20 million more people faced food crises last year amid armed conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and weather extremes, and the outlook for this year is again grim, according to a report by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC).
The humanitarian agency, set up in 2016 by the European Union and United Nations, also warned that acute food insecurity has continued to worsen since 2017, the first year of its annual report into food crises.
&#8220;We must do everything we can to end this vicious cycle. There is no place for famine and starvation in the 21st century,&#8221; said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
He added that conflict and hunger need to be tackled jointly, as they reinforce one another.
Defined as any lack of food that threatens lives, livelihoods or both, acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse impacted at least 155 million people last year, the highest number in the report’s five-year existence.
It warned the situation is not expected to improve this year, driven first and foremost by conflict, but with containment measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic an exacerbating factor.
Two out of three people affected by food crises last year were in Africa, though other parts of the world were not spared, with Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and Haiti among the 10 worst hit locations last year.
In Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen, 133,000 people were in the most severe or &#8220;catastrophe&#8221; phase of food insecurity, requiring urgent action to avert widespread death and a total collapse of livelihoods.
&#8220;While conflict continues to displace people, disrupt livelihoods and damage economies, the COVID-19 pandemic (has) exacerbated pre-existing drivers of fragility, hitting the most economically vulnerable households particularly hard,&#8221; the report said. (Reporting by Maytaal Angel Editing by Mark Heinrich and Jan Harvey)
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Nearly 20 million more people hit by food crises in 2020

DAKAR, May 5 (Reuters) &#8211; A French journalist kidnapped by Islamist militants in the northern Mali city of Gao last month has appeared in a video appealing to French authorities to do everything they can to free him.
&#8220;I&#8217;m Olivier Dubois. I&#8217;m French. I&#8217;m a journalist. I was kidnapped in Gao on April 8 by the JNIM (al Qaeda North Africa).
&#8220;I&#8217;m speaking to my family, my friends and the French authorities for them to do everything in their power free me,&#8221; Dubois said in a 21-second video shared on social media.
Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the clip&#8217;s authenticity.
Malian authorities were not immediately available for comment. The French foreign ministry declined to comment.


(Reporting by John Irish and Bate Felix ; editing by John Stonestreet)
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French journalist kidnapped in northern Mali appears in video

HAVANA, May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Cuba&#8217;s state cigar monopoly, Habanos S.A., said on Tuesday that China had displaced Spain last year as its top market but rising demand in the Asian giant could not compensate for declines in sales elsewhere, with global revenue down 4% to $507 million.
Curbs on travel last year due to the pandemic dealt a serious blow to demand from countries reliant on tourism as well as sales at duty free, Habanos said in a statement.
Cuba&#8217;s hand-rolled cigars, which include brands such as Cohiba, Montecristo and Partagas, are considered by many as the best in the world.
Habanos usually holds a festival early in the year for wealthy tobacco aficionados and retailers during which they tour plantations and factories and meet in the evenings to puff on Cuban smokes at extravagant parties.
This year, though, with Cuba grappling with its worst outbreak of COVID-19 yet and other countries also struggling to curb contagion, it is instead holding three days of virtual events, which kicked off on Tuesday.
&#8220;2020 has been a challenging year not just for our business but for the whole of humanity,&#8221; Habanos said in a statement.
Cigars are one of the top exports for the Cuban economy, which shrank 11% last year as the pandemic and increased U.S. sanctions exacerbated the cash crunch.
The Caribbean island cannot sell its signature export to the biggest market worldwide for cigars, the United States, due to the decades-old U.S. trade embargo.
Europe remains the top regional market for Habanos, accounting for 50% of sales, followed by the Asian-Pacific area, which accounts for 16.2%, according to the statement.
The state-run Cuban News Agency cited Habanos officials at the event on Tuesday as saying that sales in Europe and Asia-Pacific had risen 2% and 10%, respectively. Revenue dropped 31% in Africa and the Middle East, however, and 21% in the Americas. (Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Nelson Acosta; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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China becomes top market for Cuba’s legendary cigars

By Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS, May 5 (Reuters) &#8211; World Trade Organization members will assess on Wednesday signs of progress in talks on a proposal by South Africa and India to waive patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines in order to boost supply to developing countries.
They want to ease rules of the WTO&#8217;s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreement. WTO decisions are based on consensus, so all 164 members need to agree.
Ten meetings in seven months have failed to produce a breakthrough, with 60 proposal sponsors from emerging economies, backed by a chorus of campaign groups, Nobel laureates and former world leaders, pitted against richer developed countries, such as Switzerland, the United States and in the European Union, where many pharmaceutical companies are based.

WHERE ARE THE TALKS NOW?
After a 10th round of talks on April 30, the waiver proposal&#8217;s backers said they would revise their text from October in time for the next TRIPS council meeting in the second half of May before a further discussion on June 8-9.
The new text could be more limited than the current proposal.
Norway&#8217;s ambassador Dagfinn Sorli, the council chair who will brief Wednesday&#8217;s WTO General Council, expressed &#8220;careful optimism&#8221;.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus talked on Monday of &#8220;encouraging progress&#8221;, but said the process needed to be completed as soon as possible. The WHO said in April that of 700 million vaccines globally administered, only 0.2% had been in low-income countries.

THE PROPONENTS ARGUMENT
The Indian/South African proposal in October says property rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information hinder timely access to affordable vaccines and medicines essential to combat COVID-19.
They say the waiver should last for an unspecified time period, with an annual review until it terminates, and call for unhindered global sharing of technology and know-how.
They say there cannot be a repeat of the early years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, when a lack of access to life-saving medicines cost at least 11 million African lives.
The WHO head and 375 civil society and campaign groups such as Doctors Without Borders back the proposal and former leaders from Britain&#8217;s Gordon Brown to Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union have jointly written to U.S. President Joe Biden urging him to support it.
THE COUNTER VIEW
Big drug companies oppose patent waivers, as do Britain, Switzerland and the United States. The main Western producers are Moderna, Johnson &amp; Johnson, AstraZeneca and jointly Pfizer and BioNTech.
They say vaccine development is unpredictable and costly and that strong IP protection helped provide the incentive for the development of vaccines in record time and will do so again in work on tackling new variants or in a future pandemic.
Proponents counter that some of the money was public funds.
Big Pharma also says vaccine-making is difficult &#8211; witness the production problems non-specialist AstraZeneca has faced &#8211; so suspending patents alone will not bring more shots.
Complex vaccines require deep cooperation between developers and manufacturers. Any failure to make them properly could undermine public confidence in vaccine safety, they say.
They also point to over 260 partnership agreements already in place for production and distribution and comment that, under the existing TRIPS agreement, governments can allow produces to make a patented product without the consent of the patent owner. Developing countries have such &#8220;compulsory licences&#8221; to push down prices for HIV/AIDS medication from 2002 to 2007.
The situation though is fluid. In Brazil, the only developing country to oppose the waiver, the Senate has passed a bill to suspend COVID-19 vaccine patents. It has become quieter at the WTO since April.
The White House said last week it was considering options to maximise global supply of vaccines, including backing the waiver.

THIRD WAY
WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has suggested a &#8220;third way&#8221; as a compromise, laying out global action to increase vaccine access after a meeting with producers, governments and others.
She urged vaccine makers to increase technology transfer to bring in new manufacturing capacity and to be transparent on contracts and pricing.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told the same meeting that extraordinary times required courage and sacrifice from governments and leaders &#8211; but also from industry. On Tuesday, she said economic recovery depended on addressing global vaccine inequity. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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EXPLAINER-COVID-19 vaccine patents dominate global trade talks

May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Pesticide and seed maker Corteva Inc on Tuesday reported better-than-expected profit and revenue and raised its net sales forecast for the year, helped by strong demand for its herbicides and insecticides.
The company, spun off in 2019 after a merger of Dow Chemical and Dupont, has laid off employees and retired some assets to cut costs as it faces increased competition in North America, a weaker Brazilian real and sharper focus from shareholders after a battle with activist investor Starboard Value LP.
First-quarter net sales rose 6%, with strong demand for its new products including Arylex, Enlist and Rinskor herbicides and Isoclast and Pyraxal insecticides.
Record corn and sunflower volume in Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, along with strong Safrinha sales in Brazil buoyed seed sales.
Corteva said it now expects net sales for the full year to range between $14.6 billion and $14.8 billion, compared to between $14.4 billion and $14.6 billion forecast earlier.
The company reaffirmed its expectation for operating earnings to range between $1.85 and $1.95 per share.
Corteva, however, warned that it experienced cost increases in freight and logistics, as well as raw materials, as global economies reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Operating earnings per share of 79 cents for the first quarter beat estimates of 65 cents, while organic sales of $4.20 billion surpassed the $3.81 billion expected by analysts. (Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
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Corteva raises 2021 sales forecast on strong demand for herbicides, insecticides

By Robin Emmott
BRUSSELS, May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; The European Union and India will agree to relaunch free-trade talks stalled since 2013 at a virtual summit on Saturday, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters, as concerns about China&#8217;s rise bring Brussels and New Delhi closer.
The draft statement, which must be signed off by EU ambassadors on Wednesday and needs New Delhi&#8217;s final approval, would bind together two of the world&#8217;s biggest economies in an alliance seen as a counter to China&#8217;s power.
If approved, the EU and India will say: &#8220;We agreed to resume negotiations for a balanced, ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement which would respond to the current challenges,&#8221; according to the draft statement.
The draft said that leaders would also seek an investment protection agreement, and a third deal on so-called geographical indications, which aim to protect specialised agricultural produce from France&#8217;s champagne to India&#8217;s Darjeeling tea.
A 2020 study by the European Parliament put the potential benefits of a trade deal with India for the EU at up to 8.5 billion euros ($10.2 billion), although the estimate was made before Britain&#8217;s departure from the bloc.
The draft statement also sets the stage for an agreement for the EU and India to build joint infrastructure projects around the world, to be described at the summit as a connectivity partnership in transport, energy and digital sectors.
The deal would follow on from a similar accord signed between the EU and Japan in 2019, seeking an alternative to Chinese largesse that raised suspicion in the West and Tokyo.
&#8220;Our partnership will promote a transparent, viable, inclusive, sustainable, comprehensive, and rules-based connectivity,&#8221; the draft summit statement said, in a veiled criticism of Chinese-financed projects that have sent debts in some central Asian and Balkan countries soaring.
Since 2013, China has launched construction projects across more than 60 countries, known as the Belt and Road Initiative, seeking a network of land and sea links with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
The EU will also win Indian support for its new plan to step up its influence in the Indo-Pacific region, using areas from security to health to protect its interests and counter China, although the bloc insists its strategy is not against Beijing.
&#8220;We emphasized our commitment to a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific space, underpinned by respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, democracy, and rule of law,&#8221; the draft statement said. ($1 = 0.8318 euros) (Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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EU, India to revive stalled trade talks, draft statement says, in counterweight to China

By Amlan Chakraborty
NEW DELHI, May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; The abrupt suspension of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday had several top international cricketers scrambling to return home but it is unlikely to be a smooth passage out of India for many of them.
The Indian cricket board (BCCI) has promised &#8220;secure and safe passage&#8221; for all participants but existing travel restrictions make it a complicated process for many, especially the 40-odd Australian contingent, including 14 players, in India.
Australia has banned travellers from India, including its own citizens, from entering the country until May 15, on pain of jail and fines.
Cricket Australia (CA) could not have good news for the likes of Steve Smith and David Warner in a statement with the Australian Cricketers&#8217; Association (ACA).
&#8220;CA and the ACA respect the decision of the Australian Government to pause travel from India until at least May 15 and will not seek exemptions,&#8221; it said.
The Australian board said it was &#8220;in direct contact&#8221; with the BCCI &#8220;to ensure the safe accommodation and repatriation of Australian players, coaches, match officials and commentators back home to Australia&#8221;.
Former test player and commentator Michael Slater, stranded in Maldives, had earlier criticised the ban on arrivals from India, saying Prime Minister Scott Morrison has &#8220;blood&#8221; on his hands.
Morrison dismissed that as &#8220;absurd&#8221; on Tuesday.
&#8220;What we&#8217;re doing here is we&#8217;ve got a temporary pause in place because we&#8217;ve seen a rapid escalation in the infection rate in people who have travelled out of India,&#8221; Morrison said on the Nine Network.
Returning will not be straightforward for England&#8217;s World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, who leads IPL&#8217;s Kolkata franchise, and 10 of his compatriots either.
Britain added India to its travel &#8220;red-list&#8221; last month, which means the English contingent will have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel.
The England and Wales Board (ECB) said it was in touch with the English contingent &#8220;as arrangements are put in place for them to return home safely&#8221;.
&#8220;The ECB &#8230;thanks the BCCI for its commitment to do everything in its powers to arrange for the secure and safe passage of all those taking part in the competition,&#8221; an ECB spokesperson said.
The South African cricket board said it was making arrangements to bring back players and support staff.
&#8220;Those travelling back to South Africa will undergo home quarantine in line with the current World Health Organization recommendations,&#8221; Cricket South Africa said in a statement. (Additional reporting by Nick Said; editing by Giles Elgood)
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Cricket-Foreign players seek way out of India after IPL suspension

SOUTH AFRICA&#8217;S GOVERNING ANC SAYS NATIONAL WORKING COMMITTEE REAFFIRMED THAT MEMBERS CHARGED WITH CORRUPTION OR OTHER SERIOUS CRIMES MUST &#8216;STEP ASIDE&#8217; WITHIN 30 DAYS OR FACE SUSPENSION
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SOUTH AFRICA’S GOVERNING ANC SAYS NATIONAL WORKING COMMITTEE REAFFIRMED THAT MEMBERS CHARGED WITH CORRUPTION OR OTHER SERIOUS CRIMES MUST ‘STEP ASIDE’ WITHIN 30 DAYS OR FACE SUSPENSION

By Mark Gleeson
CAPE TOWN, May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Africa&#8217;s World Cup qualifiers have been thrown into crisis after a ban on numerous stadia across the continent left many countries facing the prospect of hosting matches next month outside their borders.
The Confederation of African Football, in a circular to member associations this week, has issued a list of approved stadiums for the first two rounds of group matches in June.
The list leaves a quarter of the 40 teams competing for places in Qatar 2022 without a venue to play their home qualifiers.
Those affected include Senegal, who competed at the last World Cup in Russia in 2018, and Mali, who were among the top seeded teams for the preliminaries.
Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, Niger and Sierra Leone have all not had their home stadiums approved as CAF cracks down on poor infrastructure around the continent.
They now face a tight deadline to upgrade venues before the first set of matches begin on June 5 or they will have to host them elsewhere.
Senegal open their Group H campaign at home to Togo in the first week of June, but their iconic Leopold Senghor Stadium is closed for renovations and alternate venues used for recent internationals declared unfit by CAF.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya and Uganda have had their main stadiums rejected but will still be able to play at home at smaller, alternate venues.
The group phase of Africa&#8217;s World Cup preliminaries has the 40 countries divided into 10 groups of four. They will play six matches each through until October.
In November, the group winners will pair off into five playoff ties with the aggregate victors qualifying for the finals in Qatar next year.
African football has long been blighted by poor stadium facilities and sub-standard pitches and CAF have steadily shown more resolve in banning venues.
But in March, a similar ban on several stadia across the continent for the last round of Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers was lifted at the last minute. CAF gave no explanation for the change of heart. (Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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Soccer-Africa World Cup stadium ban plunges qualifiers into crisis

* Overseas support for dirty energy may breach international law
* G20 export credit agencies provide about $40 billion annually
* Green groups expect rise in litigation against such financing
By Megan Rowling
BARCELONA, May 4 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; Governments could face litigation if they do not step up efforts to stop their export credit agencies financing fossil fuel infrastructure and activities overseas, legal experts and climate activists warned on Tuesday.
Advocacy group Oil Change International released a legal opinion saying the agencies &#8211; which provide loans, insurance and guarantees for businesses to invest abroad &#8211; should stop lending to oil, coal and gas projects around the world immediately.
&#8220;If they continue doing this, they are breaching international law,&#8221; said Jorge E. Viñuales, a professor of law and environmental policy at the University of Cambridge who authored the opinion with Matrix Chambers barrister Kate Cook.
They concluded that in the context of accelerating climate change and shrinking space for countries to emit more greenhouse gases, there is an &#8220;in principle&#8221; requirement on states under international law to stop funding fossil fuel projects.
Governments should also reduce existing support for fossil fuel-related projects and activities within a clear time-frame, and avoid locking in polluting infrastructure that could use up a large part of the world&#8217;s remaining carbon budget, they added.
A growing group of European nations and South Korea have pledged they will no longer use government money to fund coal mining and coal power plants in developing countries.
But climate campaigners also want donor governments to set deadlines to end similar backing for oil and gas.
The United States said last month its departments and agencies would seek to end international backing for carbon-intensive energy projects and promote the flow of capital toward &#8220;climate-aligned&#8221; investments.
The legal opinion issued on Tuesday examines how obligations under customary international law, international climate change law, international human rights law and guidelines by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) apply to export credit agencies.
Such agencies based in G20 countries provided about $40 billion annually for fossil fuel activities from 2016-2018, support that has not dropped since the adoption of the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to Oil Change International.
Viñuales said scientific evidence on the urgency of curbing global warming, as well as its surging impacts on people&#8217;s lives, gave export credit agencies a legal responsibility to act.
&#8220;It&#8217;s like walking around a park and seeing a drowning man &#8211; your obligations of care are different than if the man was not drowning,&#8221; he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
Alongside the release of the legal opinion, green groups sent letters to officials in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden and the United States, urging them to immediately halt support for fossil fuel projects &#8220;consistent with international law obligations&#8221;.

COURTS DISPEL &#8216;HAZE&#8217;
Climate experts have widely welcomed a decision by Britain to end overseas fossil-fuel financing starting from last month &#8211; but London is not applying the policy retroactively.
That led environmental group Friends of the Earth to seek a judicial review, recently given the green-light by Britain&#8217;s High Court, of about $1 billion in UK public funding for a large natural gas project in violence-hit northern Mozambique.
Karen Hamilton, programme officer with the Canadian group Above Ground, said civil society organisations looking to safeguard the climate were increasingly turning to legal tools.
&#8220;This opinion makes it clear that export finance for oil, gas and coal might become the next target of climate litigation,&#8221; she said in a statement.
Viñuales noted recent high-profile cases on climate change have been based on how lagging action by governments to reduce planet-warming emissions is affecting citizens&#8217; human rights.
Last week, Germany&#8217;s top court ordered the government to update its climate law by the end of 2022 to outline how it will bring emissions down to almost zero by 2050, siding with a young woman who argued rising sea levels would engulf her family farm.
This and other lawsuits, often backed by green groups, have relied on legal norms that were already in place but whose application in a warming world was only now being made explicit, Viñuales said.
Governments &#8220;can no longer hide in the haze&#8221;, he added.
Laurie van der Burg, senior campaigner with Oil Change International, said states and their export credit agencies had now been put &#8220;on notice&#8221;.
&#8220;The opinion launched today puts serious legal muscle behind what was already a compelling moral and financial imperative: public money should not be used to prop up dirty projects and aggravate the dire climate crisis that is already affecting millions across the globe,&#8221; she said in a statement. (Reporting by Megan Rowling @meganrowling; editing by Laurie Goering. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)
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Legal opinion puts governments ‘on notice’ over export finance for fossil fuels

POLISH HEALTH MINISTER SAYS PEOPLE TRAVELLING FROM BRAZIL, INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA WILL HAVE TO QUARANTINE WITH NO EXCEPTIONS
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POLISH HEALTH MINISTER SAYS  PEOPLE TRAVELLING FROM BRAZIL, INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA WILL HAVE TO QUARANTINE WITH NO EXCEPTIONS

(Repeats with EMRG/FRX named item code)
* MSCI EM gauge 0.1% higher
* India&#8217;s cases cross 20 million-mark
* Turkey&#8217;s lira 0.8% weaker
* South Africa allocates extra $276 mln for vaccines
* Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E
By Tom Arnold
LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Emerging market stocks struggled to make headway on Tuesday as Taiwan and India wrestled with rising COVID-19 infections, with the latter seeing cases surge past 20 million.
Taiwan&#8217;s main stock index, one of the strongest performers in Asia so far this year, was 1.7% down in a second consecutive day of heavy losses, amid a rare rise in infections.
In choppy trade, India&#8217;s NSE Nifty 50 index added 0.3% as encouraging corporate earnings were offset by uncertainties around the pandemic.
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called for a nationwide lockdown after the world&#8217;s biggest surge in coronavirus infections has seen the country become the second to pass the milestone of 20 million cases, after the United States.
&#8220;(Indian) markets will likely remain choppy for some time because of the uncertainties around the pandemic. Investors will be waiting for clarity on the vaccine situation, plateauing of cases and whether we will see a central level lockdown again,&#8221; said Aishvarya Dadheech, fund manager at Ambit Asset Management.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index, of which Taiwan and India are among the largest components along with China and South Korea, was flat.
Chinese markets were closed for a holiday, while stock gauges in Hong Kong and South Korea were 0.8% and 0.6% higher, respectively, with the latter ending a five-day losing streak.
With the U.S. dollar drifting higher as investors weigh whether a roaring U.S. economic recovery may force interest rates higher, emerging market currencies were under pressure.
MSCI&#8217;s emerging markets currency index was 0.1% lower, with South Africa&#8217;s rand, a barometer for wider emerging market risk sentiment, 0.6% weaker.
South Africa&#8217;s government has allocated an extra 4 billion rand ($276 mln) to buy COVID-19 vaccines and extend a special distress grant to thousands of people hit by the pandemic.
Turkey&#8217;s lira was 0.8% weaker in the wake of Monday&#8217;s data showing annual inflation in April rose to its highest level in nearly two years, pressuring the central bank to keep policy tight.
The lira has tumbled around 13% since mid-March when President Tayyip Erdogan replaced Naci Agbal, a well-respected and hawkish central bank governor, driving up import costs for import-dependent Turkey.
Russia&#8217;s rouble was 0.2% firmer against the dollar.
Russian factory activity growth slowed down in April following a smaller rate of increase in output and a renewed decline in new orders, according to IHS Markit&#8217;s Purchasing Managers&#8217; Index headline reading.
(Additional reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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RPT-EMERGING MARKETS-Stocks struggle amid COVID-19 surges

SYDNEY, May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; A woman approached Australia&#8217;s Prime Minister Scott Morrison in tears on Tuesday after he held a news conference in Queensland, as she made an emotional plea for him to help her family in Cameroon and asylum-seekers from Africa.
The incident was caught on camera after Morrison had just finished a news conference in the city of Rockhampton, where he fielded questions about his travel ban on Australian citizens returning from COVID-ravaged India.
Morrison, whose government has a hardline immigration policy, listened to the woman and told her that government officials would help her as he crouched down and held her hands, before helping her back to her feet.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve lost half of all my family. I&#8217;ve got no family left if you don&#8217;t help me. Everybody will die. Help me, help me,&#8221; she pleaded.
Cameroon&#8217;s two western Anglophone regions have been gripped by fighting since 2017 as English-speaking rebels try to break away from the predominantly Francophone government.
More than 3,500 people have died and 700,000 have been displaced in the violence with both sides accused of committing atrocities.
The woman later told Australia&#8217;s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) she had made the public display to ask Morrison to help desperate people seeking asylum from Cameroon.
&#8220;There are people seeking asylum and Australia must try to help them escape,&#8221; the woman told the broadcaster, identifying herself only as Lillian.
Under Canberra&#8217;s immigration policy, asylum-seekers who reach Australia are sent to Australian-run detention camps offshore. (Reporting by James Redmayne and Paulina Duran in Sydney; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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Australian PM hears emotional plea for Cameroonian asylum-seekers

CAPE TOWN, May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; The story on South Africa allocating extra funds to fight COVID-19 is withdrawn. The story was based on a Treasury document from February and is not new. There will be no replacement. STORY_NUMBER: L1N2MR0A6 STORY_DATE: 04/05/2021 STORY_TIME: 0738 GMT
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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ADVISORY-Story on South Africa allocating extra funds to fight COVID-19 withdrawn

* Concerns about possible side effects slow rollouts
* Even health workers refusing shot in some countries
* Mixed messages over expiry dates adds to confusion
By Maggie Fick
NAIROBI, May 4 (Reuters) &#8211; When Edith Serem received her COVID-19 vaccination last month at a hospital in Nairobi where she works as a doctor, nurses jokingly warned she might start speaking in a foreign language.
Serem said some colleagues got the AstraZeneca shot after watching her closely for several days to see if she was okay, but others refused, still wary of possible side effects.
Health experts worry that public scepticism about taking the relatively small number of doses African countries have battled to procure could prolong a pandemic that has already killed more than 3.3 million people worldwide.
&#8220;I&#8217;m not an anti-vaxxer &#8230; I have my children vaccinated up to date with everything out there, but this one? I&#8217;m not comfortable,&#8221; said a doctor in Kenya, who declined to be named as she was not authorised to speak to the media.
&#8220;If there is no data on long-term effects then we are all being guinea pigs. What happens in 10 years after this vaccine?&#8221;
So-called vaccine hesitancy is a global phenomenon. France and the United States are struggling with it and scepticism is on the rise in some Asian countries such as Japan.
In Africa, health experts say a combination of warnings about possible rare blood clots, the rubbishing of vaccines by some leaders and mixed messages over expiry dates have all contributed to the slow rollout across the continent.
COVID-19 has also not hit Africa&#8217;s 1.3 billion people to the extent it has ravaged some countries in Europe, Brazil, the United States and India, leaving some on the continent doubting the seriousness of the disease.
The official death toll in Africa now stands at 121,000, lower than the United Kingdom alone.
Last week, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), John Nkengasong, again implored citizens to stay vigilant, calling India&#8217;s COVID-19 disaster a wake-up call.

ANGRY AND SUSPICIOUS
While Ghana and Rwanda have all but finished administering the doses they received last month, the rollout in some countries is so slow it could take years to use the limited shots they have, let alone inoculate their adult populations.
Kenya, for example, began vaccinating 400,000 frontline health staff and other essential workers in early March after receiving more than a million AstraZeneca doses from the global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX.
By April 25, Kenya had only vaccinated 152,700 health workers, health ministry data shows.
Chibanzi Mwachonda, head of Kenya&#8217;s main doctors union, said the government had now offered the doses more widely because of the slow uptake of the vaccines, which the United Nations says will expire on June 28.
Health workers were already angry and suspicious because the government had failed to provide enough protective equipment, Mwachonda said. Now, many felt the government had not adequately addressed concerns about possible side effects, he said.
Kenya&#8217;s health ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Africa&#8217;s most populous nation, Nigeria, received its first consignment of 3.92 million AstraZeneca shots on March 2. By April 23, just over 1.15 million doses had been administered.
At that pace, it could take until mid-August to use the doses and nearly a decade to vaccinate the adult population. The shots will expire on July 9, a government official said.
Chika Offor, founder of the Vaccine Network for Disease Control advocacy group in Abuja, said the decision by some European governments to restrict or stop using AstraZeneca shots had compounded Nigerian fears.
In Ivory Coast, vaccination centres have been quieter than expected, raising fears that doses will be left unused when they expire in June, two health workers at the National Institute of Public Hygiene told Reuters.
The West African country vaccinated 105,110 people between March 1 and April 21 after receiving an initial shipment of 504,000 doses. At that rate, it would take more than two years to use the 1.7 million doses it has ordered from COVAX so far.
The health workers said some centres in Abobo, a suburb of the main city Abidjan, were only getting 20 people a day coming in for shots. In Treichville, a densely populated area of the city, Reuters saw health workers sitting idle with no patients.
Joseph Benie, director of the hygiene institute, said they had issued public statements about the vaccine&#8217;s safety.

PUBLIC CONFUSION
Democratic Republic of Congo, meanwhile, received 1.7 million AstraZeneca doses from COVAX in early March.
It delayed their rollout after several European countries suspended the vaccine to investigate rare blood clots but 10 days after its drive inoculation drive got underway, only 1,300 people in a country of 85 million had received a shot.
The government is now returning 1.3 million doses to COVAX before they expire.
Africa CDC&#8217;s Nkengasong said the slow uptake in Congo did not surprise him as an Africa CDC survey found only 60% of Congolese wanted the vaccine compared with 90% of Ethiopians.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Africa CDC have repeatedly advised that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the risks.
Yet some African leaders have denounced the shots, including Tanzania&#8217;s recently-deceased president, Nigerian state governors and the head of a South African nurses union.
Mixed messaging about vaccine expiry dates has added to the confusion.
The WHO and Africa CDC urged African countries not to waste donated vaccines after Malawi said it would destroy more than 16,000 AstraZeneca doses stamped with an April 13 expiry date.
Nkengasong said an analysis by the Serum Institute of India, which made the doses, showed they could be used until July 13 &#8211; but WHO&#8217;s Africa director, Matshidiso Moeti, said they should be stored until more information was available.
&#8220;Haphazard vaccine rollout is dangerous,&#8221; said Irungu Houghton, executive director of Amnesty International Kenya. &#8220;Public confusion at this time really feeds into vaccine scepticism.&#8221;
(Additional reporting by Edward McAllister in Dakar and Libby George in Lagos; Editing by Katharine Houreld and David Clarke)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html
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EMERGING MARKETS-Currencies drop on U.S. rate hike hints; India debt moves boost stocks

Saudi Arabia considers barring overseas haj pilgrims for second year, sources say

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SOUTH AFRICA’S GOVERNING ANC SAYS NATIONAL WORKING COMMITTEE REAFFIRMED THAT MEMBERS CHARGED WITH CORRUPTION OR OTHER SERIOUS CRIMES MUST ‘STEP ASIDE’ WITHIN 30 DAYS OR FACE SUSPENSION

Soccer-Africa World Cup stadium ban plunges qualifiers into crisis

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POLISH HEALTH MINISTER SAYS PEOPLE TRAVELLING FROM BRAZIL, INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA WILL HAVE TO QUARANTINE WITH NO EXCEPTIONS

RPT-EMERGING MARKETS-Stocks struggle amid COVID-19 surges

Australian PM hears emotional plea for Cameroonian asylum-seekers

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