Malls receiving more shoppers

Saturday 5 September 2020

17 Muharram - 1442

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8371

Choose the network of heroes Enjoy the Internet

SPORT | 16BUSINESS | 11

China will keep

opening service

industries to the

world, says Xi

Messi staying

at 'club of his

life' to avoid

court fight

Container Terminal 2 project at HamadPort fully on trackIRFAN BUKHARI & SIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

A week after the arrival of first vessel at Hamad Port’s Container Terminal 2 (CT2), the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) yesterday high-lighted the strategic importance of the port saying that it contributes to achieving economic diversification and supporting major national projects.

“Hamad Port contributes to achieving economic diversification and supporting major national projects, as the port received Doha Metro trains to support the sustainable transport network in the country. The port has a pioneering role in stimulating commercial movement, meeting the needs of the local market, and supporting trade exchange between Qatar and the outside world,” said the Ministry on its official Twitter yesterday.

Meanwhile, QTerminals has said that work on Container Terminal 2 is fully on track. “QTerminals has received the first batch of 12 trailers that will support CT2 operations. A further 12 units will be delivered during September and October. All the trailers are Made in Qatar. CT2 – fully on track,” tweeted QTerminals.

In another tweet, QTerminals announced that all 3 HHMC Quay Cranes

for operations in CT2 have been loaded successfully on M/V Hua Sheng Long. “Delivery to Hamad Port is expected early October,” it announced.

In a number of tweets, the Ministry of Transport and Communications yes-terday said that Hamad Port is distin-guished by its huge potentials as the general cargo terminal has a capacity of seven million tonnes per year, the multi-use terminal is one million tonnes per year of grain and 500,000 cars in addition to livestock. “The three con-tainer terminals will handle 7.5 million TEUs annually upon completion of all stages of development,” it added.

On Hamad Port’s importance, the Ministry added that it attracts the largest international shipping companies due to its prestigious position, modern fleet, advanced systems and its leadership in providing high-quality marine services to all ships. “The port has entered the Guinness World Records title as the deepest artificial basin ever made on earth,” the MoTC tweeted.

It is pertinent to mention that Hamad Port had added a new achievement to its series of achievements in September last year by setting a new Guinness World Records title as the deepest arti-ficial basin ever made on earth.

Hamad Port’s basin is 4km long, 700 meters wide and 17 meters deep. Basin construction took about two and a half years of excavation, during which over 6900 tonnes of explosives were used to challenge the drafts - with full

commitment to preserving wildlife and marine life - to extract more than 44.5 million cubic meters of dredged material, which was later used in other con-struction works at the project, resulting in huge savings. �P3

After more easing of restrictions with the start of Phase 4 reopening, malls around Qatar are witnessing a good turnout of shoppers. A view of the Mall of Qatar, yesterday. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

Four arrested for violating home quarantine conditionsQNA — DOHA

The competent authorities yesterday arrested four people who violated the requirements of the home quarantine, they committed to following, which they are legally accountable for, in accordance with the procedures of the health authorities in the country.

It is in implementation of the precautionary measures in force in the country, approved by health authorities repre-sented in the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) to ensure the achievement of public safety and to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The four persons who are currently being referred to prosecution: Abdulaziz Atallah Ajlan Al Anzi, Ahmed Yousef Ahmed Al Bineid Al Mohannadi, Salman Murshid Awad Al Subaie Al Anzi and Hamad Ahmed Mohamed Salih Yasin.

The concerned authorities in the state call on citizens and residents who are subject to quarantine to fully adhere to the requirements set by the Ministry of Public Health, to ensure their safety and the safety of others.

The concerned authorities warned that anyone who vio-lates these conditions will expose himself to the penalties stipulated in accordance with the provisions of Article (253) of the Penal Code No. (11) of 2004, and the provisions of Law No. (17) of 1990 regarding the pre-vention of infectious diseases, and Law No. (17) of 2002 on the protection of society.

Parents should not fear sending children to school: Health officialSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

Allaying parents’ fears about opening of schools, an official of Ministry of Public Health has said that parents should not be afraid of schools, because most of the COVID-19 cases that have been recorded are due to family gatherings.

The official further said that for preventing overcrowding and following health precau-tionary measures applied in all schools, parents should bring their children to schools early.

“All the administrative staff and teachers have been trained on how to deal with suspected cases of coronavirus and how to act in such cases. There are also special isolation rooms for assessment of such cases,” said Dr. Soha Al Bayat, Head of Vac-cination Department at the Min-istry of Public Health.

Speaking to a local TV channel, she said: “Also, there is continuous follow-up and contact with the concerned

authorities, as a committee has been formed that includes the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Min-istry of Interior to follow up sus-pected cases and to alert the school and its staff. Such

suspected cases will not be allowed to enter the school unless a medical test is con-ducted to know health status.”

Regarding the parents fears on sending their children to schools, Al Bayat said that parents should not be afraid of

schools, because most of the coronavirus cases that have been recorded are due to family gatherings. Therefore, she said, it is better to warn children about gatherings in public places or with other families without taking the precautionary

measures. “Parents must adhere to the precautionary measures not only at schools, but also at home,” she affirmed.

Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, Chair of the National Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of the Infectious Diseases Division at Hamad Medical Corporation had recently said that the most infected cases with coronavirus during the last period were found within the same family, which often came from one of its members.

The schools after reopening are applying a number of pre-cautionary rules to avoid spread of coronavirus as it is forbidden for students to gather outside or inside the school building, as well as the necessity to report about any symptoms, whether high temperature or other symptoms.

Likewise, wearing masks and measuring the temperature before entering the school, and taking into account the distance between each student are compulsory.

People satisfied with MoI e-services platforms during COVID-19 crisisIRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

Like many other digital services of government entities which are being fully utilised by the people during COVID-19 pandemic, Ministry of Interior’s Metrash2 app and website are serving masses who due to observing precautions prefer making many transactions online.

In an ongoing online survey on the website of the Ministry of Interior, around 77 percent respondents termed their expe-rience of using e-services pro-vided through Ministry of Inte-rior’s Metrash2 app and MOI website as ‘excellent’.

To a question asked by the Ministry of Interior on people’s

experience about e-services provided through Metrash2 app and MOI website during the COVID19 cris is , 799 respondents, out of total 1,037 votes cast, termed the expe-rience as ‘excellent’.

The survey was launched on August 13 and set to close on September 30.

According to online survey, 13 percent respondents termed their experience of using e-services of Metrash2 app and MOI website as ‘good’ while only 7 percent people expressed their dissatisfaction over it. Only 3 percent people were undecided and chose ‘don’t know’ option.

According to data released in the end of April this year, the number of Metrash2 users have

exceeded 1 million while the transactions completed since the beginning of the year 2020 until April 22, 2020 reached more than 2.3 million trans-actions and the total inquiries about the services in Metrash2 exceeded 5 million inquiries.

There are over 200 services available currently on Metrash2 for the individuals and companies.

The most used services in 2020 include renewing vehicle licences, registering national address, renewing residence permits, visa extension and paying fines for traffic viola-tions. In order to promote digital transformation, more than 40 e-services had been added to Metrash2 application in 2019. �P2

Katara beach chosen for fish farming

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment has chosen Katara Beach for farming 40,000 sha’am fish, as it is a natural reserve and a suitable environment for breeding of this kind of fish.

Katara beach is appro-priate due to restrictions on fish hunting and its high envi-ronmental characteristics which make it suitable venue for the breeding of this type of fish in order to enrich fish stocks and to protect marine biodiversity in of Qatar, Katara said a statement. �P2

QTerminals has received the first batch of 12 trailers

that will support CT2 operations.

All 3 HHMC Quay Cranes for operations in CT2 have

been loaded successfully on M/V Hua Sheng Long.

Delivery to Hamad Port is expected early October.

Hamad Port contributes to achieving economic

diversification and supporting major national projects.

Three container terminals will handle 7.5 million TEUs

annually upon completion of all stages of development.

Most of the COVID-19 cases that

have been recorded are due to

family gatherings.

For preventing overcrowding and

following health precautionary

measures applied in all schools,

parents should bring their children to

schools early.

It is forbidden for students to gather

outside or inside the school building.

They have to report about any symptoms, whether

high temperature or other symptoms.

02 SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2020HOME

FBQ Museum launches ‘Artists in the time of COVID-19’ exhibitionRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Sixty varying artworks by Qatar-based artists are on show at ‘Artists in the time of COVID-19’ exhibition, which opened yesterday at the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum (FBQ Museum).

Many museum visitors, artists and art enthusiasts came to see the rich col-lection of artworks created by artists from different backgrounds and ages which consist of paintings, digital prints, photography, installations, videos, and mixed media, among others.

The art pieces reveal how the artists have coped with the pandemic, turning fear and anxiety as well as hope and determination into creativity.

Among the interesting artworks on show are Michael Conjusta’s acrylic painting titled “COVID-19 Heroes”, Basma Abouzeid’s pastel on paper ‘Wishing the Coronavirus pandemic

ends soon”, Hassan Alsalat’s digital print “Scars of Humanity” and a mosaic piece called “Looking into the Future”

created by Naseema Shukhoor using around 5,000 black-and-white textile buttons.

FBQ Museum’s The White Majlis, an independent space offering common ground for the creative com-munity, hosts the exhibition which runs until October 3.

The show is the first instalment of a three-part exhibition series which is a product of a crowd-sourced initi-ative launched by the museum in April which encouraged artists in the country to translate their thoughts and experiences of the pandemic into stunning art pieces to be enjoyed by art enthusiasts.

With an overwhelming response from the country’s art community,

demonstrated by the huge variety of artworks received by the museum, it decided to present the artworks in three exhibitions.

The second and third parts of the exhibition are scheduled to be held from October 9 to November 7 and from November 13 to December 12, respectively.

The exhibition provides art lovers and museum visitors added value to their tour with an exceptional expe-rience and inspiring pieces of art created by more than 30 talented Qatar-based artists.

Established in 1998 as a non-profit museum foundation of public interest, FBQ Museum is home to a growing collection of more than 50,000 objects developed throughout decades of dedicated and enthusiastic col-lecting of a diverse and eclectic body of works across four themes, including Islamic Art, Qatar Heritage, Vehicles, and Coins & Currency coming from four continents and different time periods.

“They are not alone” (left) and “Scars of Humanity” by Hassan Alsalat on display at ‘Artists in the time of COVID-19’ exhibition which opened yesterday at the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum. RAYNALD C RIVERA/THE PENINSULA

Can model UN programmes make school curriculum more effective? THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Every year, at the end of each THIMUN Qatar conference, Fatima El Mahdi takes a moment to look at the faces of her beaming students and relish in their evident pride of having successfully capped a year’s worth of preparation, learning, and growth.

As the head of THIMUN (The Hague International Model United Nations) Qatar since 2018, El Mahdi has worked closely with groups of pas-sionate young adults, from the moment they sign up to the cul-mination of their efforts during their participation in THIMUN conferences.

In fact, it is these relation-ships that have inspired her to advocate for the necessity of embedding the THIMUN prin-ciples of open discourse, debate, and professional growth into curriculums in schools across Qatar.

“There has been a lot of con-versation around education in Qatar Foundation — about dis-rupting the education paradigm. It’s encouraging to hear them happening in forums like the World Innovation Summit for Education, and being enacted by Qatar Foundation through the creation of Academyati, for example,” El Mahdi explains, referencing the biennial forum on education and the newly-founded progressive Qatar Foundation (QF) school that breaks down the traditional classroom learning model and reimagines education though exploration and discovery.

“But the next step should be recalibrating the current cur-riculum in schools across Qatar

to model the THIMUN forums — in essence to provide a safe space for students to engage in open discussions about global issues on a day-to-day basis and develop essential skills for life in the process.”

The THIMUN Qatar Regional Office was created as a joint project between QF and the THIMUN Foundation in 2011. The office supports efforts around the region to develop programmes and events for young people to seek — through discussion, negotiation, debate, and personal action — solutions to the various problems of the world.

THIMUN Qatar’s flagship conference is the annual Model United Nations event held each February. And to enable stu-dents to become better prepared for their roles as Model UN Del-egates in the February con-ference, THIMUN Qatar developed the Qatar Leadership Conference (QLC). QLC is the largest professional devel-opment conferences in the Middle East, with more than 900 participating students from eight countries, that supports the development of soft skills such as debate, leadership, com-munication, public speaking, entrepreneurship, and furthers the understanding of the United Nations’ Sustainable Devel-opment Goals.

In her role at THIMUN Qatar, El Mahdi observes first-hand how students who participate in the extracurricular programme develop and grow into confident students and critical thinkers.

“Within the framework of THIMUN Qatar, these students are engaging in debate on global issues; issues that they will one

day face in the real world,” El Mahdi said.

“If we frame their everyday learning to be reflective of the global issues addressed in THIMUN Qatar, more and more students will have the chance to participate in meaningful exchange that addresses issues that matter from around the world in a safe and nurturing way.

“Students today have a very different sense of community because we are living in a digital age. They have access to any information they want. As edu-cators, we should be open to exploring global issues in the classroom on an everyday basis by making it a part of the cur-riculum so that those important conversations can be guided and explored within the context of our lives and values and belief systems.

“Not only will they be more engaged, but by facing the issues — the positive and the negative — we are empowering students and will instil in them a confi-dence to take any challenge or issue they will encounter later in their lives.”

El Mahdi notes that extra-curriculars like THIMUN Qatar can only do so much and can only reach so many students.

“But if we take the THIMUN Qatar model and incorporate its successful components into cur-riculum, we’ll be giving more students the chance to engage in open dialogue and mean-ingful personal development that extends to the classroom and beyond. And only then can we finally begin to create the holistic educational landscape that we are striving for.”

Marine vessels permitted to operate at 30% capacityTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

In line with the fourth phase of gradual lifting of restrictions on the movement of marine vessels, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) has announced that a kind of vessels permitted to operate at a 30 percent maximum capacity, including the crew.

According to the Ministry announcement on its website yesterday, the marine vessels permitted are as follows, per-sonal boats, rental boats, yachts, daily cruising boats, jet boats, personal shows.

Water scooters are per-mitted to operate for one person only. The Ministry has

also called on all citizens and residents to adhere to the pre-cautionary measures imposed in the country.

In a statement on Twitter, the Ministry also said: “Your compliance with safety requirements shows your a w a r e n e s s o f t h e i r importance.”

MoPH: 225 more recover, 217 new casesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 217 new

confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. Among them 203 are community cases and 14 from travellers returning from abroad.

Another 225 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 116,538.

QRCS provides services to over 1.6 million beneficiaries in Qatar; elects new Board of DirectorsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) held its annual general meeting (AGM) recently at the Sheikh Ali bin Jabor Al Thani auditorium, QRCS head-quarters. The quorum was achieved as stipulated by Law No. 12/2004 concerning private societies and professional asso-ciations and in conformity with QRCS statute.

Presided over by Dr. Mohamed bin Ghanem Al Ali Al Maadheed, QRCS President, the meeting was attended by QRCS Secretary-General, Ali bin Hassan Al Hammadi, Eng. Ibrahim Abdullah Al Maliki, Chief Executive Director, board members, and heads of department.

The Regulatory Authority for Charitable Activities (RACA) was represented by Mohamed Ali Al Qayed, Director of Risk Management and Compliance, and Rashid Al Mohannadi, senior legal researcher. Rep-resentatives of the external auditing firm Deloitte & Touche were also present, including Medhat Salha, Partner, and Samer Al Jogol and Tareq Alozom, Audit.

After the approval of agenda items, Al Hammadi expressed thanks for every employee and volunteer who contributed to the last year’s success. According to him, it was by their efforts that all these achievements were

possible, towards QRCS’s humanitarian mission of helping the vulnerable everywhere.

Dr. Al Maadheed talked about the end of his 20-year tenure at QRCS, during which he held several leadership positions. It was ultimately concluded with the glorious feat against coronavirus (COVDI-19), together with other national organisations.

Then, an overview was given about the operational results of QRCS in 2019. Eng Al Maliki presented the data of Relief and International Devel-opment Division, Volunteering and Local Development Division, and Resource Mobi-lisation Department.

The presentations on medical services and media and digital transformation were explained by Abdullah Al Qatan, Executive Director of Medical Affairs Division, and Ammar Mohamed, Director of C o m m u n i c a t i o n , respectively.

In Qatar, QRCS provided social, medical, and awareness services to more than 1.6 million beneficiaries, at a total cost of nearly QR331m. Glo-bally, 186 relief and devel-opment projects were imple-mented for the benefit of 7.7 million victims of disasters and conflicts.

The overall cost of interna-tional operations amounted to QR174.7m.

Salha presented the audit report on QRCS’s closing financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, which were found valid and generally conforming to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Upon the recommendation from external auditor, the AGM members endorsed the audited financial statements and dis-charged the Board of Directors from liability. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. International (TAGI) was announced an external auditor for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020.

The outgoing Board of Directors was thanked by the AGM members, and a new board was elected for the term 2020-24, under the super-vision of the representatives of RACA and external auditor and authorised delegates of the AGM.

These new board of directors are President Sheikh Abdullah bin Thamer Al Thani; Vice-President Dr. Aisha bint Yousef Al Mannai; and Sec-retary Ali bin Hassan Al Hammadi.

The members are Dr. Khaled Ibrahim Al Sulaiti; Omar Hussein Al Fardan; Dr. Abdul-Salam Al Qahtani; Mohamed Mahdi Al Yami; Saleh Ali Al Mohannadi; Rashid Saad Al Mohannadi; Ibrahim Hashim Al Sada; and Soad Saidan Al Hamad.

New elected Board of Directors and senior officials of Qatar Red Crescent Society.

FBQ Museum’s The White Majlis, an independent space offering common ground for the creative community, hosts the exhibition which runs until October 3.

People satisfied with MoI e-services platforms during COVID-19 crisis

FROM PAGE 1

In an earlier report pub-lished in The Peninsula, an official at the General Direc-torate of Information Systems of the Ministry of Interior, said that the subscribers on Metrash2 are not just using Metrash2 services for them-selves but rather for their

families as well. “The main feature of the e-services in the Ministry of Interior is that they are always subject to devel-opment and modernisation, especially Metrash2, which cur-rently offers more than 180 e-services,” the official had said.

Before adding any service

to Metrash2, all the feedback and the public’s satisfaction is taken into account in order to improve the quality and diver-sification of these services. All MoI e-services offered through Metrash2 are available in six languages, including Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Urdu and Malayalam.

Katara beach chosen for fish farmingFROM PAGE 1

The Cultural Village Foun-dation — Katara pays great attention to everything that would preserve the diversity of the environment and achieve sustainable environmental development, either through its

various cultural activities or through its support to initiatives in this field in order to preserve the environment in general, i n c l u d i n g m a r i n e environment.

Katara is also keen on spreading environmental

awareness, whether heritage, through its heritage marine activities and informing new generations about it, or through its cooperation with various authorities in the country to enhance the State’s efforts in protecting the environment.

FAJR SUNRISE 03.57 am 05.16 am

W A L R U WA I S : 31o↗ 38o W A L K H O R : 31o↗ 40o W D U K H A N : 29o↗ 40o W WA K R A H : 31o↗ 40o W M E S A I E E D 31o↗ 40o W A B U S A M R A 27o↗ 43o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 05:48 – 18:04 LOW TIDE 01:36 – 12:58

Hazy at some places at first becomes hot daytime with local clouds and chance of scattered rain.

Minimum Maximum32oC 42oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.33 am05.49 pm

ASR ISHA

03.02 pm07.19 pm

03SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2020 HOME

DFI’s Short Film of the Week delves into loss, displacement

RAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Award-winning documentary Just Another Memory dives deep into the recesses of the film-maker’s thoughts of her war-torn country Yemen and its people with profound love and longing.

Streaming on Doha Film Institute (DFI) YouTube channel since Thursday as this week’s fea-tured short film, the 14-minute documentary by Yemeni-Russian journalist and filmmaker Mariam Al Dhubhani is deeply affecting as it tackles the subject of sudden displacement because of war, and moving on amid thoughts of the ongoing conflict back home.

While the film is a quiet per-sonal reflection on loss and dis-placement, it also spotlights on the ill effects of a devastating war that the world generally disregards.

With great visuals and poignant sound design blending well, the film effectively delivers internal and external conflicts in a film brimming with human emotion.

Just Another Memory is Al Dhubhani’s directorial debut and was produced as part of DFI’s annual Documentary Lab in 2018 which was led by world-renowned Cambodian docu-mentary filmmaker Rithy Panh.

The film was adjudged Best Documentary at the 2018 Ajyal Film Festival and has partici-pated in various festivals around the world.

Previously, Al Dhubhani had worked in a number of films which gained acclaim including her first short film We are the Peace (2011), which

received an award in Yemen’s first film festival and Wishes for the New Year (2012), which was the first chalkboard ani-mation in the Middle East.

Just Another Memory was uploaded on Thursday on DFI’s YouTube channel as part of the second season of its Short Film of the Week initiative.

Launched in April, the initi-ative brings the very best of DFI-supported films for film enthu-siasts to enjoy in the comfort of their own homes. The initiative aims at encouraging people to stay home amid COVID-19 pan-demic while lending support to Qatari films and Arab cinema.

The series kicked off with the short narrative Al Johara helmed by Qatari filmmaker Nora Al Subai. Other films which had been featured were Red by Kholood Al Ali, Elevate by Hamida Issa, In the Middle by Mariam Al Dhubhani, The Unlucky Hamster by Abdulaziz Mohammed Khashabi, Gubgub by Nouf Al Sulaiti, Land of Pearls by Mohammed AlIb-rahim, Smicha by Amal Al Muftah, Kashta by AJ Al Thani, 1001 Days by Aisha Al Jaidah, Caravan by Suzannah Mirghani and The Palm Tree by Jassim Al Rumaihi.

A still from the film Just Another Memory by Mariam Al Dhubhani.

Bedaya reopens ‘Dukan’ at Katara to support entrepreneursTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Bedaya Centre for Entrepreneurship and Career Development (Bedaya Centre), a joint initiative by Qatar Development Bank and Silatech, has announced the reopening of ‘Dukan Bedaya’ at Katara Cultural Village following the easing of (COVID-19) restrictions.

Bedaya, will also initiate the process of receiving applications from entrepre-neurs keen on being part of the Dukan platform which provides them with the opportunity of launching their products, selling them, and showcasing them to the large segment of the society.

Dukan Bedaya was established to support local projects to promote and sell their various products. It is one of the most creative and significant initiatives launched by Bedaya Centre in 2017. The project aims to support small, medium, micro and home-based businesses that face difficulties in starting, launching, promoting and selling their goods in the

market. Dukan is the ideal location for hosting and supporting multiple entre-preneurial projects at the same time under the same roof.

The Centre has announced the terms and conditions necessary for entrepre-neurs to participate in ‘Dukan Bedaya’ at Katara Cultural Village , which can be accessed through its website. Entrepre-neurs who wish to showcase their

products in Dukan Bedaya must ensure that their products are locally designed or manufactured, the businesses is licensed and most importantly the products must have good and high-quality packaging and wrapping.

Dukan Bedaya also provides many advantages for entrepreneurs and business owners, such as providing a space to display their products, providing them with a detailed sales report and cus-tomers’ criteria report, in addition to pro-viding a sales representative, all at nominal cost.

Clients visiting Dukan Bedaya at Katara must show their green Ehtiraz status in addition to wearing face masks and gloves. Dukan’s working hours are from 4pm to 10pm from Sunday to Wednesday, and from 4pm to 11pm from Thursday to Saturday.

Talking about the reopening of Dukan Bedaya at Katara, Abdulla Faleh Al Saeed, Board Member and Acting General Manager of Bedaya Center said,”

The coronavirus pandemic forced us to temporarily close our operations at ‘Dukan Bedaya’ but thanks to awareness showed by the community and adherence to general guidelines, we have witnessed a significant decrease in the number of daily registered cases. Accordingly, it was decided to reopen ‘Dukan’ for both entre-preneurs and the public with full adherence to the instructions, precau-tionary measures and health guidelines.”

He said that the reopening Dukan at this stage is very important as it provides a great opportunity once again for small, medium and home-based projects by pro-viding them with a distinct space to display their products at competitive prices.

“This initiative comes in line with the centre’s goals to help young people in establishing and strengthening their projects in a way that facilitates a new generation of entrepreneurs to contribute in the acceleration of economic growth in the country,” Al Saeed added.

QF partner Northwestern Qatar panelists reflect on aftermath of Beirut explosionTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Panelists from Northwestern Qatar engaged in a discussion on the social and economic implications of the port of Beirut explosion, reflecting on personal experiences and providing political and historical context within the state of Lebanon.

The webinar, The Beirut Explosion – What lies Ahead for Lebanon, featured three Leb-anese speakers from North-western Qatar: Sami Hermez, interim director of the Liberal Arts Program and associate professor in residence; Kim Makhlouf, a journalism student; and Lebanon-based alumna Jaimee Haddad. The session was moderated by Keelie Sorel, director of student affairs.

The explosion in Beirut,one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history occurred on August 4 and devastated the Lebanese capital, killing nearly 200 people, injuring thousands, and leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless.

In opening session, Hermez, an anthropologist who studies violence and social movements in Lebanon and the Arab world, placed the explosion in context to the country’s recent civil upheaval and the decades of neglect by the Lebanese gov-ernment that, he said, drove the country to the brink of collapse.

Hermez said that this

explosion, as well as the uprising that began in October 2019, in response to gov-ernment corruption and a worsening economic situation, are “part of one continuous war that Lebanon has been embroiled in since its inde-pendence. It’s not a static con-flict, it has been through various periods and episodes, where new actors buy into the system of the old ones.”

If there was one “gain” from the protests, Hermez said it was “a revolution in consciousness and how to think about the sit-uation in Lebanon.” However, he also noted that because the protests were leaderless and accompanied by an economic collapse, it “suited the ruling

class really well because they were able to point to the pro-tests as a reason for why the economy was crashing, because it intersected with the banking system shutting down and the implementation of capital control on the Lebanese people.”

Other issues, Hermez noted, include the “patronage system that is subsidised through eco-nomic corruption,” as well as “the Israeli occupation of Pal-estine, which is a significant node, and the political sectarian power sharing system, which was set up under the French mandate,” — all which con-tributed to the worsening conditions.

Providing perspective from

the ground, Haddad, who relo-cated to Lebanon in January and works for a local NGO, described her first visit to Beirut a few days after the explosion as “driving into an apocalypse” with the city’s bare buildings, shattered glasses and debris covering most of the area. Despite the distress and anxiety, Haddad felt optimistic as she observed the youth and NGOs “on the ground cleaning up the city … and stepping in for the government that isn’t there.”

Makhlouf, a student in Doha, felt the distance between Qatar and Lebanon after the explosion. “Missing out on things that happen back home with your friends and family is so debilitating,” she said, “… not being there for your country makes you feel like a traitor… but, I put myself to work imme-diately” because “…there’s no such thing as a small contribution.”

Makhlouf used her social media channels and blog to raise awareness about the situation and provide a platform for people from Lebanon to voice their stories. “As a journalism student, I was able to connect with people, ask them the right questions, and make their voices heard through my articles.”

The panel discussion was co-sponsored by the Middle East Studies Committee and the Student Affairs office at North-western Qatar.

A screenshot of Sami Hermez, interim director of the Liberal Arts Program and associate professor in residence, during a webinar on the Beirut explosion.

HEC Paris’ next International

Executive MBA program in Qatar

scheduled for February 2021THE PENINSULA — DOHA

HEC Paris will welcome the new intake of its much sought-after International Executive MBA (EMBA) program in Qatar in February 2021.

For this intake, HEC Paris is offering an early bird discount of 15 percent starting from Sep-tember 1. “We are really pleased to announce this special offer for our International Executive MBA, which provides additional financial support to participants wishing to enrol in this program in what has been a very chal-lenging year,” said Michael Lefante, Director of Marketing and Events.

“Our EMBA program is highly acclaimed throughout the world and around 35 percent of our par-ticipants launch start-ups or new business ventures either during or after the program.”

“We provide participants with an opportunity to specialise in an area of their choice, which allows them to become an expert in a specific sector. Our special focus on strategy, leadership and the global business environment ensures that participants benefit from comprehensive, innovative and applicable knowledge and skills,” he said. The International Executive MBA is a practical and intense 15 to 18-month program developed to provide participants with an understanding of the social, economic and environ-mental aspects of international business, as well as the skills to

implement their vision. The cur-riculum is built around three components: 11 core courses cov-ering key business areas, a spe-cialisation (major), and a final strategic business project (cap-stone project). The compre-hensive core courses include modules on strategy, analysis and implementation, as well as lead-ership and human resources management.

Participants who enrol for the International EMBA program benefit from a world-class faculty as well as senior participants who bring a wealth of practical business experience from a wide spectrum of industries. Besides, graduates of the program also become part of the institution’s prestigious alumni network worldwide, featuring over 60,000 members, which was ranked number one by The Econ-omist in 2019.

Just Another Memory is Al Dhubhani’s directorial debut and was produced as part of DFI’s annual Documentary Lab in 2018 which was led by world-renowned Cambodian documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh. The film was adjudged Best Documentary at the 2018 Ajyal Film Festival and has participated in various festivals around the world.

Georgetown students to study protecting education in conflict in collaborative course with EAATHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Conflict and situations of inse-curity deprives millions of young people of an education globally, a crisis that is the focus of a new course at QF p a r t n e r G e o r g e t o w n University in Qatar (GU-Q), offered in collaboration with the Protect Education in Inse-curity and Conflict program (PEIC) of the Education Above

All Foundation (EAA). The course, titled “Edu-

cation and Conflict” is the first of its kind in the university’s curriculum, and aims to introduce GU-Q students to the importance of education for global human development and the necessity of protecting edu-cation from conflict, insecurity, and health crises.

The dean of GU-Q, Dr. Ahmad Dallal, said, “Through

this collaboration, which brings together our university’s com-mitment to academic excellence and service with EAA’s expertise in education policy, we hope to inspire our students to consider the fight for education rights in terms of global citizenship and responsibility.”

He went on to emphasise the importance of the course, saying “By empowering young learners with the knowledge,

skills, and understanding of the stakes involved, we can con-tribute to the global effort to protect education in conflict and crisis, and prepare the next generation of leaders who will shape the policies that will create real change.”

The course is led by Dr. Anne Nebel, associate dean for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, and will feature guest lectures from experts at

EAA and Educate a Child, as well as GU-Q alumni working in related fields and GU-Q stu-dents working as EAA Youth Advocates.

Students will learn about various kinds of disruption to education and methods of ana-lyzing the impact of conflict and insecurity for the individual and society, on local and interna-tional levels. They will examine the role of international

frameworks in addressing the crisis and apply their learning to a class blog project which will document student analysis and ideas for change.

Course instructor Dr. Anne Nebel said: “One of the things we really wanted and hoped would come out of this course and collaboration, is for stu-dents to contribute in real time to the thinking of solving this crisis in education.”

The International Executive MBA is a practical and intense 15 to 18-month program developed to provide participants with an understanding of the social, economic and environmental aspects of international business.

Container Terminal 2

project at Hamad

Port fully on track

FROM PAGE 1

The port was inaugurated three years ago, ahead of schedule and at a lower cost, to be Qatar’s main gateway for trade with the world, and pillar to support the prosperity of the national economy in line with the goals of Qatar’s National Vision 2030.

The first vessel had arrived at Hamad Port’s Container Terminal 2 (CT2) on August 29, 2020. The ship was loaded with the first shipment of the rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGs) for vertical container transportation. RTGs will be installed on CT2 quay directly to be used in the initial oper-ation of CT2. The area of Phases 1 & 2 of Hamad Port’s CT2 is 380,000sqm.

Swab testing in Amman suburb

04 SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2020MIDDLE EAST

Palestinian factions unite against US-backed initiativeAFP/ANATOLIA — RAMALLAH

Palestinian factions on Thursday night staged a rare show of unity to underline their rejection of the US-backed normalisation deal between Israel and the UAE.

“We cannot accept anyone speaking in our name. We have never allowed it, and we will not allow it, ever,” said Pres-ident Mahmoud Abbas at a meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah beamed live by vid-eoconference to a parallel meeting held at the Palestinian embassy in Beirut.

“We will never accept the United States as the sole mediator for negotiations (with Israel), and we will not accept its plan” for a peace settlement, said Abbas, calling for Pales-tinian “unity” in the face of Washington’s strategy.

The meeting was the first since 2013 bringing together Abbas, head of the mainstream Fatah party and West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, and Islamist Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah — albeit virtually, rather than in the same room.

Haniyah, whose rival movement controls the Gaza Strip, also called for a united front, via videoconference from Beirut.

“We must restore our national unity, put an end to

division and establish a unified Palestinian position... to con-front projects directed against our people,” said the Hamas chief.

Under a US initiative unveiled this year, Israel would retain control of the disputed city of Jerusalem as its “undi-vided capital” and annex settle-ments and other areas in the occupied West Bank.

On August 13, US President Donald Trump announced an agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalise ties.

Under the US-brokered deal, the Jewish state has sus-pended, but not permanently dropped, annexation plans in

the West Bank. The UAE became the third Arab country to agree to normalise ties with Israel, after Egypt signed a peace deal in 1979 and Jordan followed suit in 1994.

The Palestinians have roundly condemned the accord as a “betrayal” by Abu Dhabi of the struggle to establish a state of their own, incorporating ter-ritories seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, with east Jerusalem as its capital.

In a final communique released after the talks, the Pal-estinian factions announced

they had approved the creation, within five weeks, of a joint committee to organise “the popular resistance” and “put an end to the divisions” between themselves.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week undertook a regional tour, which took him to Sudan, Bahrain and Oman, in the hope of convincing other countries in the region to follow the Emiratis.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian group Hamas yesterday criti-cised Bahrain for opening its airspace to flights between the

United Arab Emirates and Israel. “The help of some countries

to the UAE in implementing its normalisation agreement with Tel Aviv, supports the Israeli] occupation to implement its expansionist policy in the region at the expense of the Arab rights,” said Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasim.

Qasim demanded countries prevent the UAE from imple-menting the normalisation deal with Israel as such a policy “encourages the [Israeli] occu-pation to commit more crimes” against the Palestinian people.

On Thursday, Bahrain allowed its airspace for all flights between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv, according to a Bahraini official in the Ministry of Trans-p o r t a t i o n a n d Telecommunication.

The statement comes a day after Saudi Arabia also allowed the UAE flights to cross over its airspace to Israel.

On Monday, the first Israeli commercial flight landed in Abu Dhabi as a practical step in implementing the normali-zation deal with Israel, also passing over Saudi airspace.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shows the maps of historical Palestine, the 1947 United Nations partition plan on Palestine, the 1948-1967 borders between the Palestinian territories and Israel, and a map of US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a Palestinian state under his new peace plan, as he speaks in the West Bank’s Ramallah on Thursday during a video conference with representatives of Palestinian factions gathered at the Palestinian embassy in Beirut. RIGHT: Assistant Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), Talal Naji, Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Ziad Al Nakhala, and Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyah attending the meeting in Beirut.

Rescue workers dig through the rubble of a badly damaged building in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, in search of possible survivors from a mega-blast at the adjacent port one month ago, after scanners detected a pulse, yesterday.

Survivor search grips a grieving Beirut a month after blastAP — BEIRUT

Rescue workers yesterday used cranes, shovels and their bare hands to search the rubble of a building that collapsed in last month’s catastrophic explosion in Beirut, hoping to find a survivor after a pulsing sound was detected.

The search took place one month after the August 4 blast that killed 191 people, injured 6,000 others and traumatised Lebanon, which already was suffering under a severe eco-nomic crisis and financial col-lapse. A march and a vigil were held yesterday as well as a moment of silence at 6:08 pm, the moment that marked the most destructive single incident in Lebanon’s history.

The search operation in the historic Mar Mikhail district on a street once filled with crowded bars and restaurants has gripped the nation for the past 24 hours. The idea, however unlikely, that a sur-vivor could be found a month later gave hope to people who

followed the live images on tel-evision, wishing for a miracle.

Search operations first began on Thursday after a dog used by the Chilean search and rescue team TOPOS detected

something as it toured Gem-mayzeh and Mar Mikhail streets and rushed toward the rubble. Images of the black-and-white 5-year-old dog named Flash, wearing red shoes to protect its

paws, circulated on social media. The episode revealed the raw anger and grief that per-sists in Beirut a month later.

“As far as I can understand from my Chilean colleagues, the

search area is quite narrow,” said a French civil engineer who identified himself only as Emmanuel. He added that the search area is not very deep and is just above the vault of the ground floor.

“What we are searching for at the moment is likely one person” not under much material, he said, adding that they are using a big vacuum machine, excavators and more rescue workers.

After hours of searching, the work was suspended briefly before midnight on Thursday, apparently to find a crane. That sparked outrage among pro-testers at the scene who claimed the Lebanese army had asked the Chilean team to stop the search. In a reflection of the staggering distrust of the authorities, some protesters donned helmets and started searching themselves while others tried to arrange for a crane. “Where’s your con-science? There’s life under this building and you want to stop the work until tomorrow?” one woman screamed at a soldier.

Iran condemns sacrilegious cartoons by French magazineANATOLIA — TEHRAN

Iran strongly condemned the republishing of sacrilegious caricatures insulting the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) by a notorious French magazine.

The provocative move by Charlie Hebdo, a left-wing French magazine infamous for publishing anti-Islamic content, has drawn widespread anger and outrage across the Muslim world.

The caricatures were first published in 2006 by a Danish newspaper Jylllands Posten, sparking a wave of protests across the world then.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that any irrev-erence to the Prophet (PBUH) of Islam or other divine Prophets is “unacceptable” for Muslims of the world.

“The French magazine’s offensive move, which has been repeated on the pretext of freedom of speech, has hurt the sentiments of the mono-theists,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

He described the repub-lishing of cartoons as a “pro-vocative move” that amounts to an “insult to the Islamic values and beliefs of over one billion Muslims in the world.”

F r e n c h P r e s i d e n t Emmanuel Macron refused to take action against the mag-azine owners, defending the move under the garb of

“freedom of expression”.Khatibzadeh, however, said

the freedom of expression has a “great value” and must be used in a “constructive way” in line with the idea of peaceful co-existence and under-standing among religions.

Many clergymen in Iran also condemned the blas-phemous move by the French magazine.

Mohammad Reza Zarie Khormizi, a senior cleric and academic from the city of Qom, told Anadolu Agency that the move was “a deliberate attempt” to hurt the sentiments of Muslims.

“It is not happening for the first time and needs to be con-demned in strongest terms,” he said. “Such acts are driven by their hatred for Islamic values and disrespect for revered Islamic figures.”

Prominent Iranian car-toonist Mazyar Bijani, while condemning the move, said it is a conspiracy against Islam and Muslims carried out by their enemies for a long time.

Last week a copy of Holy Quran was desecrated in Sweden by far-right extremist groups, which also drew strong reaction in Muslim countries.

Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, who heads the religious semi-naries in Iran, termed it a “ridiculous act” and called on the international community to “take strong notice” of this extremism.

Macron ‘hysterical’ over Syria and Libya, says TurkeyREUTERS — ANKARA

Turkey’s foreign minister said yesterday French President Emmanuel Macron had become “hysterical” over developments in the Libyan and Syrian conflicts and a dispute over maritime boundaries in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Relations between NATO allies Turkey and France have deteriorated over conflicting policies in Syria, Libya and Tur-key’s dispute with Greece over energy resources, and the two sides have traded barbs in recent weeks.

Ankara accuses Paris of

politically backing Libya’s Khalifa Haftar against the Tripoli-based government rec-ognised by the United Nations, having previously given him military assistance to fight mil-itants. Paris denies this.

“In Libya they (France) sup-ported the putschist Haftar and made a grave mistake,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said “Things changed, balances shifted, Haftar was defeated and Macron became hysterical.”

Turkey and France also almost came to blows in June after a French warship attempted to inspect a Turkish vessel as part of a UN arms

embargo against Libya.Speaking to reporters in

Ankara, Cavusoglu also said Turkey had thwarted French hope for Haftar to capture the Libyan capital by lending military support for the Government of National Accord (GNA), repelling Haftar’s assault in June. “With that hysteria, he didn’t know what to do. Right after that, he said our ships had harassed their ships in the eastern Mediterranean but couldn’t document this and was humiliated.”

There was no immediate comment from Macron’s Elysee office or the French foreign ministry on Cavusoglu’s

remarks. France has supported Greece in the east Mediter-ranean, joining military exer-cises with Italy, Greece and Cyprus amid conflicting Greek-Turkish claims to continental shelves in areas of exploration for oil and natural gas.

Cavusoglu said France was the country provoking Greece the most in the eastern Medi-terranean and urged Paris to cooperate with Turkey to achieve regional stability.

“There is no need for such hysterical behaviour from France, it makes them look laughable. We are two NATO member countries.”

Coronaviruscases surgingin AnkaraREUTERS — ANKARA

Surging coronavirus cases in Ankara are stretching hospitals to the limit and Turkish author-ities need to impose a fresh lockdown to bring the virus under control, doctors in the Turkish capital say.

The city is now the epi-centre of Turkey’s COVID-19 outbreak, the government announced this week, and although authorities say there is no plan for a lockdown as yet officials privately say new measures may be needed soon.

“Ankara has become Wuhan,” said geriatrics pro-fessor Mustafa Cankurtaran at Ankara’s Hacettepe medical faculty, referring to the Chinese city where the new coronavirus first emerged.

“A 10-14 day lockdown should be imposed. Health capacity may be exceeded,” he tweeted on Wednesday, urging the government to open all medical centres, including private health units.

Two officials said the number of cases in Ankara was rising faster than antici-pated, and current measures including mask-wearing and social distancing were not having the results they anticipated.

A man reacts as a swab sample is taken from his nose for coronavirus disease in a suburb of the Jordanian capital Amman, after a rise in the number of infections, yesterday.

Virus toll above22,000 in Iran

REUTERS — DUBAI

Iran’s death toll from the novel coronavirus rose by 118 to 22,044 health ministry spokes-woman told state TV yesterday, with the total number of iden-tified cases spiking to 382,772

Sima Sadat Lari said that 2,026 new cases were iden-tified in the last 24 hours in Iran, one of the worst-hit countries in the Middle East.

“We will never accept the United States as the sole mediator for negotiations (with Israel), and we will not accept its plan” for a peace settlement, said President Abbas, calling for Palestinian “unity” in the face of Washington’s strategy.

Sunset in Kuwait

Tunisians protest

05SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2020 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

People walk along a boardwalk that stretches into the sea as the sun sets over Kuwait City, yesterday.

Bitter anniversary in Zimbabwe a year after Mugabe diedAFP — HARARE

Despondent and waiting in a long queue for daily food handouts from a well-wisher, Milka Mandimutsa gets nostalgic about Zimbabwe’s autocratic and longtime ex-leader Robert Mugabe, who died a year ago.

Had Mugabe been still ruling Zimbabwe, “I don’t think it (life) would be like this,” said the woman, in her late 20s, waiting to receive a portion of cooked beans and white maize meal in the working-class town of Chitungwiza, 30km south-east of Harare.

“He was far much better,” said the unemployed Mandi-mutsa, who was born after Mugabe was already a decade in power.

Another woman in the

queue echoed her sentiments. “Ever since the new pres-

ident took power, I have not seen anything positive,” said Diana Nhemachena, also in her 20s, bemoaning the high cost of living in the country where official inflation is more than 800 percent.

Mugabe died on September 6 last year, aged 95 in a Sin-gapore hospital, two years after he was forced to resign in 2017, and after 37 years in power.

Zimbabweans thronged the streets celebrating his ouster.

His successor Emmerson Mnangagwa came in with promises to fight corruption, revive the moribund economy and reduce poverty.

But many Zimbabweans say they are worse off than they were under Mugabe despite his creating an authoritarian

regime which savagely repressed opponents.

He is also remembered for implementing controversial land reforms 20 years ago that resulted in economic collapse.

But far from being the expected messiah, Mugabe’s former deputy Mnangagwa has also become known for brutally crushing his opponents.

A month ago, he threatened to “flush” out bad “apples”, two weeks after an opposition pol-itician and a journalist were arrested on charges of incitement to commit public violence.

P o l i t i c i a n J a c o b Ngarivhume’s crime was calling for non-violent protests on July 31 against state corruption and journalist Hopewell Chin’ono tweeted in support of the planned demonstrations. They

were released on bail on Wednesday after 45 days in detention.

Other critics, including an opposition lawmaker, are still being held.

In January last year, sol-diers shot dead 17 people fol-lowing protests sparked by the doubling of fuel prices.

“Much as he (Mnangagwa) says he...is soft as wool, people who knew him well called him ‘ngwena’ which means croc-odile,” said Harare-based political analyst Cyprian Ndawana.

“If you look at the traits of the crocodile, it’s dangerous from the front, it’s dangerous from the back. It’s dangerous in water and on the ground,” Ndawana said adding that many people are struggling more now than they were under Mugabe.

“The citizenry is roundly impoverished, reduced to a life-style of ferreting for basic sustenance”.

“It is now a headache to be alive. Life is a grind. It is now a mammoth task for households to score the minimum goal of putting food on the table,” he said.

Zimbabwe’s economy improved during a power-sharing government between Mugabe and the main oppo-sition Movement for Demo-cratic Change, but since the deal crumbled, the economy has been on a downturn for over a decade.

This week the government unexpectedly announced plans to give some land back to white farmers.

The announcement created confusion and forced the

government to re-issue state-ments clarifying the plans.

It later emerged that only 37 of more than 4,000 farmers who were evicted would be eligible for the reinstitution of title to their land. They are a special group of foreign farmers who enjoyed pro-tection under an international investment deal.

For Harare-based inde-pendent economist Gift Mugano, while “Mugabe was not good... the current gov-ernment has gone further than Mugabe.”

“Nothing has changed apart from the fact that the current government has gained more experience in killing the economy,” Mugano said.

The government insists there is no crisis in the country.

Ten soldiers killed in central Mali ambushAFP — BAMAKO

At least 10 Malian soldiers were killed in an overnight ambush in a central region near the Mauritanian border where armed militant groups are rampant, security and local sources said yesterday.

It is the third time Malian security forces have suffered heavy losses since the military took power in a coup on August 18.

According to an internal security ministry report, 10 soldiers were killed, including a senior officer, in the attack in Guire and four vehicles were torched.

An elected official from the Guire region confirmed the toll.

“In the night, shots pre-vented us from sleeping, it looked like bombs, our houses were shaking,” the official said by phone.

A local administrator speaking on condition of ano-nymity said men on motor-cycles had been in the area since Monday.

Four Malian soldiers were killed and 12 others wounded on August 27 in a militant ambush near the central town of Mopti, before the army killed 20 enemy fighters, it said.

The army said it also suf-fered major equipment losses.

Four soldiers had been killed five days earlier when their vehicle was hit by a bomb.

That incident also occurred in central Mali, a volatile, eth-nically-diverse region that has been badly affected by the revolt.

Protests in Nigeria against power, fuel price hikeANATOLIA — LAGOS

Protests broke out in Nigeria’s southwestern state of Osun yesterday against the recent hike in electricity and petrol prices, local media reported.

Demonstrations organised by the Coalition for Civil Soci-eties kicked off from Freedom Park in the state capital Osogbo, according to local newspaper The Punch. The protesters

condemned the increase in electricity and petrol prices as the “highest level of insensi-tivity and wickedness from the President Muhammad Buhari-led All Progressives Congress government.”

Petrol prices in the oil-rich country have increased for three straight months, rising from slightly over 121 naira ($0.32) per liter in June to over 143 naira ($0.38) in July, 150

naira ($0.39) in August, and 162 naira ($0.43) in September.

As for electricity, authorities have approved a rise in rates starting September, although a previous tariff hike slated for July 1 was halted by Nigeria’s par-liament. Power distribution com-panies had been asked to put off any tariff increase until the first quarter of 2021 due to “the current economic challenges in Nigeria,” according to The Punch.

Libyan families file US lawsuit accusing Haftar of war crimesREUTERS — WASHINGTON

Two Libyan families filed a civil lawsuit in a US federal court late on Thursday accusing Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), of war crimes, human rights abuses and torture during a 2016-2017 offensive to seize a key Libyan district, a court filing showed.

The complaint, the third filed in a US. court against the military commander, is linked to 2016-2017 siege of the Libyan district of Ganfouda, which had been encircled for months as Haftar waged a years-long mil-itary campaign to drive Islamist-led opponents from eastern city of Benghazi.

The fate of civilians trapped in Ganfouda had been a major point of contention, with the United Nations and interna-tional human rights groups calling for them to be granted safe passage amid allegations of human rights abuses by both sides.

The criminal complaint, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, seeks compensatory damages from Haftar, who is a US citizen and previously lived in Virginia, according to media

reports. Lawyers for the Libyan families also wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr, calling him to launch criminal proceedings against Haftar.

“Mr. Haftar and his forces, which are being supported by countries such as Russia, have been accused of horrific war crimes and crimes against humanity by respected inter-national organizations across the world,” the families’ lawyer said in the letter.

In the complaint, plaintiffs detailed how Haftar’s forces, during their assault on Gan-fouda in 2016-2017, repeatedly struck their block by shelling and air strikes, preventing their safe evacuation.

Duncan Levin of New York law firm Tucker Levin PLLC, who represents Haftar and his sons, had no comment on Friday.

Libya descended into chaos after the NATO-backed over-throw of long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Since 2014, it has been split into rival camps. An internationally recognized government and allied armed factions control the northwest, while Haftar’s LNA holds sway over the east.

Haftar is supported by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, while the interna-tionally recognized government is backed by Turkey.

President Donald Trump’s April 2019 phone call to Haftar raised questions about where Washington stood on Libya. Months later, the United States began to openly oppose Haftar’s Tripoli offensive, express its discontent against Russian involvement and called on all external forces to stand down.

Tunisians stage a demonstration in front of Embassy of Spain demanding the release of Tunisian migrants who are held under bad living conditions at a migrant camp in Spain’s Melilla city, in Tunis, Tunisia, yesterday.

Sudan, key rebel group to restart peace talksAP — CAIRO

S u d a n ’ s t r a n s i t i o n a l government and a powerful rebel group that controls large swaths of the country’s restive south said yesterday they have agreed to resume peace talks, a development that boosts hopes of ending the country’s decades-long civil wars.

The commitment comes days after the government reached a deal with other rebel groups to quell conflicts stemming from the rule of ousted autocrat Omar Al Bashir.

The Sudan Liberation Movement-North, led by Abdel-Aziz Al Hilu, and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok signed a joint letter of intention late on Thursday in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Abada, stressing the “necessity” of finding “a comprehensive and just political solution” to the conflicts. It did not specify when the talks would restart.

Negotiating an end to the rebellions in Sudan’s far-flung provinces has been a crucial goal for the transitional gov-ernment, which took power after the military overthrew al-Bashir in April last year, fol-lowing months of pro-democracy protests. Cash-strapped authorities are keen to slash military spending, which takes up 80% of the national budget.

Al Hilu’s faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement-North, also known as SLPM-North, is Sudan’s single largest rebel group. It engaged in pre-vious rounds of peace talks but remained skeptical of the coun-try’s ruling Sovereign Council,

comprised of both civilian leaders and military generals, including some from al-Bashir’s tenure.

Along with another major rebel group, the faction skipped the signing of the agreement earlier this week in South Sudan between the gov-ernment and a rebel alliance known as the Sudan Revolu-tionary Front, dimming pros-pects for meaningful change on the ground.

The SLPM-North has also threatened to call for self-determination in the vast areas it controls if its demands are not met. Just days ago, Al Hilu accused the transitional gov-ernment of adopting the “evasive” tactics of Bashir’s administration throughout tor-tuous peace negotiations that have dragged on for nearly a year.

To lay the groundwork for a future deal, Al Hilu and Hamdok agreed in principle on a range of political issues that have frustrated efforts to reach a deal in the past.

Sudan’s constitution “should be based on the prin-ciple of separation of religion and state,” the statement said, acknowledging a long-held demand of the ardently secu-larist SLPM-North. The sides also agreed to let the rebel group retain its weapons until they ink an accord calling for new security arrangements.

Al Hilu’s movement con-trols large chunks of territory in the war-scarred Blue Nile and South Kordofan provinces, home to a significant Christian minority that long complained of discrimination under Al Bashir.

South African pharmacy in racism row over black hair imagesAFP — JOHANNESBURG

A leading South African retail pharmacy chain sparked a racism row yesterday after posting images on its website describing black hair as “dull” and white hair as “normal”.

Angry South Africans took to social media pillorying Clicks Pharmacy for what they deemed racially insensitive images that categorised black hair as “dry & damaged” and “frizzy & dull” while an image of blonde hair was captioned “normal” and “fine & flat”.

“Not only is this disrespectful to black lives, it is also evidence of an absence of representation and diversity within the

organization,” tweeted Zozibini Tunzi, who wears short natural hair and was crowned Miss Uni-verse in December. “And we are talking about a South Africa with a population of about 80% black people.... No ways,” she wrote.

Radical leftist opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party lawmaker Mbuy-iseni Ndlozi tweeted mostly in capital letters: “We are the black majority & should never, ever accept racism in any form. Our hair, our skin & our bodies, in our country & the world, must be respected”.

The pharmacy has pulled down the images and issued “an unequivocal apology”.

“We are strong advocates

of natural hair and are deeply sorry we have offended our natural hair community,” it said in a statement on its Twitter account. “We have made a mistake and sincerely apologise for letting you down,” said the pharmacy group, one of the two largest in the country.

The images sparked hashtags #RacismMustFall and #BlackHairIsNormal—with black women proudly posting their afros. The EFF member of parliament, who has more than a million followers on Twitter, urged black people to “get their justice” at the pharmacy, which boasts of more than 500 branches across the country.

The criminal complaint, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, seeks compensatory damages from Haftar, who is a US citizen and previously lived in Virginia, according to media reports. Lawyers for the Libyan families also wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr, calling him to launch criminal proceedings against Haftar.

06 SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2020ASIA

Australian PM wants internal borders open by December; protests at virus curbs growREUTERS — MELBOURNE/SYDNEY

Australia’s prime minister pressed states yesterday to reopen their borders by December and ease restrictions, as businesses and locked down households vented their frus-tration over deepening revenue and job losses.

Prime Minister Scott Mor-rison said the country would look to bring more Australians home, raising the cap from 4,000 a week, and suggested an eventual travel bubble with New Zealand would boost tourism and help revive the economy, which has fallen into recession for the first time since 1991.

Seven of Australia’s eight state and territory leaders agreed to map out a path to open borders by December, by coming up with a definition for “hot spots” to manage travel around the country, Morrison said following a National Cabinet meeting.

He said he had told New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern that Australia would also look to apply the same hot spot approach to New Zealand.

“In the absence of a vaccine, we may have to live this way

for years,” Morrison told reporters.

Australia’s biggest state Western Australia, which has not had a local transmission for 129 days and has no social or business restrictions, rejected the plan to re-open its border until the eastern states contain the coronavirus.

Western Australia state premier Mark McGowan said the desert borders which sep-arate his state would stay closed to save lives and protect the nation’s largest mining operations.

Australia’s early interna-tional border closures, lock-downs and social distancing restrictions has seen it record far fewer coronavirus infections and deaths than other nations. Nationally there have been around 26,100 infections and 737 deaths.

Australia’s tourism industry

welcomed the push to reopen internal borders in time for summer holidays and Christmas.

“Our industry remains on its knees in the fight of its life and has each month been losing thousands of jobs and $6bn in activity from the forced shutdown of domestic travel alone,” said Margy Osmond, chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum.

Victoria, the second-most populous state, is the epicentre of Australia’s latest wave of cases, mainly in the state capital Melbourne. Daily new infections have dropped to double digits this week thanks to a strict lockdown imposed on August 2.

Melbourne is nearing the end of the six-week lockdown which includes a night time curfew, an hour a day of outdoor exercise and travel

limits to within 5km of home. Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews is due to outline plans tomorrow for easing restrictions.

Businesses have been calling for the economy to reopen but Andrews does not want to lift restrictions quickly and then be forced to shut down again with another wave of infections.

“There is simply no alter-native but to ease out of these restrictions in a safe and steady way,” Andrews told reporters.

The strict lockdown has led to calls for protests this weekend, which police have

aggressively tried to shut down. Video footage of police seeking to detain a woman and a man for inciting people to protest have gone viral on social media.

James Bartolo, who calls himself the leader of the Con-scious Truth Network, on Friday posted a video of police entering his house with a battering ram after he refused to open the door. He had earlier posted videos saying he was going to join an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne on Saturday.

Police confirmed a 27-year-old man had been arrested and charged with incitement, pos-session of prohibited weapons

and two counts of resisting police.

On Thursday, police came under fire for arresting and handcuffing a pregnant, pyjama-clad woman at her home for promoting an anti-lockdown protest in the regional town of Ballarat.

Victoria reported a record 59 deaths yesterday, the highest daily total for the country since the start of the coronavirus pan-demic, but that included 50 pre-viously unrecorded fatalities in aged care homes in July and August. It also reported 81 new cases, taking the state’s total infections to 19,415.

People wear face masks in the city centre as the state of New South Wales continues to report relatively low numbers of new daily cases of the coronavirus disease, in Sydney yesterday.

Border row: Indian, Chinese defence ministers to meet in MoscowREUTERS — NEW DELHI

The defence ministers of India and China were expected to hold talks in Moscow, government officials said, the highest level face-to-face political contact since tensions flared along their disputed mountain border in May.

Both sides deployed addi-tional forces along the frontier running through the western Himalayas, after a clash in June, during which 20 Indian soldiers

were killed in hand-to-hand fighting.

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was given clearance to meet his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe in Moscow, where both are attending a Shanghai Cooper-ation Organisation meeting, an Indian government official said. The request for the meeting came from the Chinese side, the official added.

“Subsequently a green signal was given for the

meeting,” the official said, asking not to be identified because of Indian service rules.

There was no word from China, but Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China’s state-backed Global Times newspaper said on Twitter that a meeting between the defence ministers was expected.

Despite the brutality of the clash in June, both sides appeared to observe a protocol to avoid the use of firearms in the high altitude region. And

while there have been no further clashes reported, the situation on the frontier remains tense.

Military commanders and diplomats have been holding talks to end the standoff on the Line of Actual Control, or the de facto border, but there has been little progress.

Last weekend, Indian offi-cials said forces on the border mobilised to deter Chinese troops, whose movements sug-gested they aimed to occupy a hilltop that India considered to

be within its territory. “The situation along the LAC

is slightly tense,” Indian army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane told Reuters partner ANI during a tour of the frontier in the Ladakh region, adding that he believed talks could help resolve the situation.

A US government source said in Washington that the US assessment is that neither China nor India are interested in pushing the dispute to the point that they would engage in war.

COVID-19 casessurpass232,000 inPhilippines

ANATOLIA — MANILA

The Philippines has emerged as a hotspot in the western Pacific as novel coronavirus cases surpassed 232,000 yesterday.

The health department of the country said in a statement 3,714 new coronavirus cases were reported, bringing the national total to 232,072. At least 160,549 patients have recovered from the illness, with 29 percent of the total cases are active infections in the country. Capital Metro Manila is the epicenter of the virus.

The COVID-19 fatalities climbed to 3,737 after 49 more deaths were reported. There are 113 operational laboratories that conduct coronavirus tests to determine the illness. Philip-pines has conducted 2.7 million tests so far since the outbreak of the virus.

The archipelago nation reported its lowest cases in a month on Thursday with 1,987 infections.

In the southern Bangsamoro autonomous region, eight new infections were reported taking the total caseload to 696, the government said in a statement. It added that 477 patients have recovered from the illness, while 18 patients lost their battle against the virus.

The global death toll now exceeds 869,000, with more than 26.3 million cases recorded in 188 countries and regions since last December. More than half of all patients worldwide — over 17.53 million — have recovered, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.

Ships and aircraft fromIndia, Sri Lanka intensifyefforts to put off tanker fire

AP — COLOMBO

Ships and aircraft from Sri Lanka and India intensified efforts to extinguish an oil tanker fire burning for a second day yesterday as officials warned of possible massive environmental damage to Sri Lanka’s coast if the ship leaks or explodes.

The tanker, carrying nearly 2 million barrels of crude oil, was drifting about 22 nautical miles from the coast, army chief Lt Gen Shavendra Silva said.

The tanker’s third engineer was hospitalised with injuries and another crew member was initially described as missing but later confirmed to have died. Both are Filipino. The con-dition of the injured crew member is stabilising, Silva said.

The fire on the MT New Diamond, which began on Thursday in an engine room boiler, has not spread to the tanker’s oil storage area and no

leak has been reported, the navy said.

The head of Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Authority, Darshani Lahan-dapur, warned that if a leak or explosion occurs, “it could be a huge environmental disaster for the whole world.” She said Sri Lanka does not have the resources or capacity to combat such a massive disaster, and therefore, “we have informed countries in South Asia to help us if necessity arises. They have responded positively.” She said her organisation plans to take legal action over the fire and has sought legal advice from the attorney general.

Terney Pradeep, the envi-ronmental authority’s general manager, said the ship is drifting toward the coast at a speed of 0.7 nautical miles per hour.

“If an oil spill happens after it reaches near the coast, there could be huge damage on the

beach,” he said.The tanker was about 38

nautical miles east of Sri Lanka when the fire began. The navy sent four ships in response to the fire on Thursday, and other ships and aircraft from Sri Lanka and India later joined the firefighting efforts.

The tanker had 23 crew

members — 18 Filipinos and five Greeks. Twenty-one crew left the tanker uninjured as the fire burned.

A Sri Lankan air force heli-copter was dumping seawater with a bucket on the burning tanker, air force spokesman Group Capt. Dushantha Wijens-inghe said. The air force was

also flying an observation aircraft.

“The fire is still raging,” navy spokesman Indika Silva said. The tanker was trans-porting crude oil from the port of Mina Al Ahmadi in Kuwait to the Indian port of Paradip, where the state-owned Indian Oil Corp. has a refinery.

Fireboats battling to extinguish a fire on the Panamanian-registered crude oil tanker New Diamond, some 60km off Sri Lanka’s eastern coast, yesterday.

Senior Cambodian opposition figure allowed back in politicsAP — PHNOM PENH

A prominent former opposition politician in Cambodia had his ban on political activities lifted on Thursday after the government approved his request for political rehabili-tation.

The action was made known with publication of a royal decree.

Son Chhay had been a law-maker with the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was dissolved by court order in November 2017 after the gov-ernment accused it of treasonous activities. The court’s action was generally seen as intended to

assist Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party win the 2018 general election.

Son Chhay, a senior CNRP member, was automatically banned from politics for five years. The party, which had been the parliamentary opposition, would have been the only credible challenger in the polls, which the ruling party ended up sweeping.

Son Chhay could not be reached for comment on the lifting of his ban. He holds both Cambodian and Australian citi-zenship, and since his old party was dissolved has been living quietly, most of the time in Australia.

Seven of Australia’s eight state and territory leaders agreed to map out a path to open borders by December, by coming up with a definition for ‘hot spots’ to manage travel around the country, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Thailand races to contact trace as coronavirus reappears

REUTERS — BANGKOK

Thailand is racing ahead with contact tracing after detecting its first domestic coronavirus infection in over three months, health officials said yesterday, with tests conducted on nearly 200 people with possible exposure to the new case.

Thailand reported its first non-imported case in after over 100 days on Thursday, after a prisoner a day earlier had tested positive for the coronavirus during a man-datory test for new inmates.

“We traced his movement back two weeks before he had symptoms on August. 29,”

Sopon Iamsiri thaworn, director of Bureau of General Communicable Diseases, told a news conference.

The man, 37, had worked as a nightclub DJ at three dif-ferent venues in the capital Bangkok during the past two weeks, officials said, before he was jailed for a drugs-related offence.

So far, 194 people

considered at risk, including family members, inmates and people at the court where he had appeared have tested neg-ative, Sopon said, adding that authorities were using a gov-ernment smartphone appli-cation to contact those who had checked-in at those venues.

All of the country’s new cases in the last three months have been found in

quarantine in individuals who were returning from overseas.

Thailand has reported a relatively low 3,431 cases and 58 COVID-19 deaths overall, with 96 patients currently being treated in hospital. That compares with more than 232,000 and 187,000 infec-tions in the Philippines and Indonesia respectively.

Thai authorities advised those concerned about exposure to the new case to seek testing and to quarantine at home.

“If you suspect that you’ve come into contact with this DJ, you can come in for free tests,” senior health official, Ritdej Chareonchai, said.

Thailand has reported a relatively low 3,431 cases and 58 COVID-19 deaths overall, with 96 patients currently being treated in hospital. That compares with more than 232,000 and 187,000 infections in the Philippines and Indonesia respectively.

In a letter made public yesterday, the UN special rapporteurs on human rights warned parts of the legislation “appear to criminalise freedom of expression or any form of criticism” of China.

07SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2020 ASIA

China tells UN expertsto stop ‘meddling’ in Hong Kong affairsAFP — BEIJING

China issued a fierce rebuke yesterday to UN experts who said a draconian national security law imposed upon Hong Kong poses a serious risk to the city’s freedoms and breaches international legal obligations.

Beijing has faced a barrage of criticism over the legislation, imposed late June after pro-democracy protests rocked the semi-autonomous city last year.

The law, which criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces, carries a maximum life sentence and has intimidated many protesters into silence.

In a letter made public yes-terday, the UN special rappor-teurs on human rights warned parts of the legislation “appear to criminalise freedom of expression or any form of crit-icism” of China.

In customarily strong lan-guage, China’s foreign ministry was swift to strike down the alle-gations, saying the law “punishes an extremely small number and protects the absolute majority” in the financial hub.

“Some people disregard the facts and maliciously slander China’s human rights situation... and crudely interfere in China’s internal affairs,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.

“Stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs and China’s affairs in any way.” Hong Kong lurched

into chaos last year as pro-democracy protesters — furious at perceived encroachment by China on the city’s freedoms — clashed with police.

Unrest has simmered down thanks to coronavirus restric-tions and the chilling effect of the security law — under which more than 20 people have been arrested, including a prominent media tycoon.

The letter by the UN advisers — the first issued since the law blanketed the southern Chinese city — gave a vigorous dissection of the damage being inflicted upon the freedoms once enjoyed in Hong Kong, enshrined in an agreement made before the 1997 handover from British colonial rule back to China.

The security law “poses a serious risk that those funda-mental freedoms and due process protections may be infringed upon”, the

rapporteurs said. The letter warned the legislation could “impinge impermissibly on the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and of peaceful assembly”.

The rapporteurs urged China’s “reconsideration” of the legislation and for a fully inde-pendent reviewer to be appointed to ensure it complies with China’s international human rights obligations.

They also expressed concern over one of the most controversial points of the law — which allows cases to be transferred from the juris-diction of Hong Kong to mainland China — and warned it could undermine the right to a fair trial.

The broadly worded law criminalised certain political speech overnight, such as advo-cating sanctions against China or greater autonomy or inde-pendence for Hong Kong.

Lawyers for some of the more than 20 people arrested under the law so far say police are trawling historical actions of pro-democracy activists to beef up their cases. The UN experts also raised concerns over the definition of terrorism under the national security law.

They warned it extends to damage of physical property such as transport facilities — which goes well beyond the UN Security Council’s definition of terrorist conduct as aiming to cause death or serious bodily harm.

A Filipino crew member of Gulf Livestock 1, a cargo ship carrying livestock and dozens of crew members that went missing after issuing a distress signal due to Typhoon Maysak, is rescued by Japan Coast Guard crew members on the vessel Kaimon at the East China Sea, to the west of Amami Oshima island in southwestern Japan, yesterday.

Third crewman from cattle ship rescued on lifeboat off JapanREUTERS — TOKYO/SINGAPORE

A third crewman from a cargo ship that capsized this week off the coast of Japan with more than 40 crew and some 6,000 cattle on board was found alive yesterday after he was spotted by a search plane, Japan’s coastguard said.

The man, 30-year-old Fil-ipino Jay-nel Rosals, was found on a liferaft waving for help 2km off Kodakarajima, a small island in Japan’s southern Kagoshima prefecture, the coastguard said.

He was conscious and was able to walk when the coast guard rescued him. Rescuers also found an overturned orange lifeboat floating at sea

some 4km off Kodakarajima, but no one was found on that boat.

Rosals was only the third crew member to be found so far from the Gulf Livestock 1, which capsized in the East China Sea on Wednesday and is believed to have sunk.

The ship, with 43 crew on board and a cargo of 6,000 cattle, had sent a distress call amid strong winds and heavy seas whipped up by Typhoon Maysak. Earlier yesterday, it emerged the vessel had a history of mechanical issues.

Rosals’ rescue came hours after another crewman died after being pulled unconscious from the water by the coast-guard. The search is still on for

the remaining 40 crew members. Rescuers have also found a life jacket and cattle carcasses in the area where the ship is believed to have sunk.

Gulf Livestock 1 lost engine power before it was hit by a massive wave, according to Chief Officer Sareno Edvarodo, who was rescued on Wednesday.

Edvarodo, a 45-year-old Filipino, remains in hospital. The crew was made up of 39 people from the Philippines, two from New Zealand, and two from Australia, the coast-guard said.

Several maritime reports logged over the past two years showed the ship may have had some mechanical defects and revealed operational concerns.

Heavy rains in LahoreMotorists and pedestrians wade through a flooded street during heavy monsoon rains in Lahore yesterday. More than 100 people died in August because of the monsoon, which has also destroyed over 1,000 homes.

South Korean doctors split over strike deal as virus infections surgeREUTERS — SEOUL

South Korea’s top medical body faced a rift yesterday after trainee doctors rejected a deal by its leader to end a two-week-old strike, although the government backed down from reform plans aimed at averting future epidemics.

Some of the trainees vowed to continue the walkout by about 16,000 interns and res-ident doctors to oppose the government measures, such as increasing the number of doctors and building public medical schools, among others.

The strike has hindered efforts to damp a new wave of coronavirus infections, with 198 new cases on Thursday taking the nation’s tally to 20,842, with 331 deaths, while a surge in critical cases led to a dearth of hospital beds..

The government says its initiative could help tackle similar crises in future, but the doctors say it would merely swell their numbers in cities, without improving medical services and work conditions in rural provinces.

Lim Hyun-taek, a senior official of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), said he had filed a non-confidence motion against its president, Choi Dae-zip, who signed the pact, for not holding sufficient consultations

with members. “We were not informed of the agreement at all,” said Park Ji-hyun, the head of the Korean Intern Resident Association, adding that the deal fell short of its demands.

In a statement, a third group of doctors affiliated to the KMA demanded Choi’s res-ignation. Telephone calls to the association to seek comment went unanswered.

Dozens of trainees, some wearing surgical gowns, pro-tested at a parliament building, waving banners condemning the “hasty agreement”.

Choi had urged the trainees to return to work after he signed the deal with Health Minister Park Neung-hoo to end the strike. “Our shared goals of improving work con-ditions and building a rea-sonable medical system cannot be achieved by a strike alone,” Choi said in a statement.

Park said the government would halt the proposed reforms and discuss them again with the healthcare industry and parliament once the virus outbreak had stabilised.

South Korea has ordered another week of social dis-tancing curbs for the region around the capital, Seoul, until September 13, although Thurs-day’s daily caseload fell below 200 for the first time in more than two weeks.

COVID-19 tests ordered in select areas across NW PakistanINTERNEWS — PESHAWAR

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has directed concerned authorities to conduct COVID-19 tests in all the dis-tricts where processions and gatherings with regard to Muharram were carried out.

He issued these directives while presiding over a meeting of Provincial Task Force on COVID-19 in Peshawar. The meeting was told that there had been a significant decline in coronavirus cases across the province whereas the recovery ratio of corona patients was also above 90 percent.

More than 34,000 virus patients have been recovered so far across the province while only 20 patients are under treatment in hospitals.

The Chief Minister expressed satisfaction over the implementation status of SOPs at tourist sites as well as in the Muharram processions.

The meeting also reviewed preparations regarding reo-pening of educational institutes in the province and decided that the final decision to this effect would be taken in consultation with the National Command and Operation Center.

Meanwhile, the Chief Min-ister said the government is actively working for providing relief to the flood affected people in the province.

Over 7,100 more virus cases in Southeast AsiaANATOLIA — JAKARTA

The number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asian countries has risen to 491,993, officials confirmed yesterday, including 11,827 fatalities and 364,686 recoveries.

At least 7,113 new cases and 132 deaths were recorded in member states of the Associ-ation of Southeast Asian Nations over the past day.

In Philippines, the worst-hit in the region, total infections climbed to 232,072 after the Department of Health

confirmed 3,714 new cases. The country reported 49 more virus-related fatalities, raising the nationwide death toll to 3,737, while recoveries jumped by 1,088 to reach 160,549.

Indonesia reported 82 more fatalities over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 7,832, according to the country’s Health Ministry. A further 3,269 infections were recorded in the country, taking the tally to 187,537, while recoveries rose by 2,126 to reach 134,181.

Singapore recorded 40 new

cases of the virus yesterday, bringing the tally to 56,948. At least 56,028 patients have recovered so far, while fatal-ities remained unchanged at 27.

In Malaysia, the Health Min-istry confirmed 11 more cases, pushing the tally up to 9,385. The number of recoveries in the country reached 9,092, while the death toll stands at 128.

Total cases in Myanmar climbed to 1,133 after 75 more infections were confirmed, while recoveries reached 359. One more fatality from the virus moved the death toll to 359.

Pakistan’s only Asian elephant prepared for new homeAFP — ISLAMABAD

A team of international vets using tran-quiliser darts, flatbreads and the soothing lyrics of Frank Sinatra conducted a medical examination yesterday on Pakistan’s only Asian elephant, ahead of his planned move to Cambodia. The plight of Kaavan, an over-weight, 35-year-old bull elephant has drawn international condemnation and highlighted the woeful state of Islamabad’s zoo, where conditions are so bad a judge in May ordered all the animals to be moved.

Following the high court ruling, Austria-based animal welfare and rescue group Four Paws International were enlisted to help move Kaavan — whose case was boosted by the singer and activist Cher

— as well as two brown bears and three wolves. A transport crate must be built and the elephant habituated to it before he can be flown to a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary in a “jumbo” jet — probably a giant Antonov An-225 airlift cargo craft.

But first, experts must know how Kaavan has fared since his last examination in 2016, so yesterday they sedated him to get up close. Armed with a tub filled with bananas and flatbreads, Four Paws veter-inarian Amir Khalil coaxed the elephant into his emptied-out concrete bathing pond while head vet Frank Goeritz used a tran-quiliser pistol to fire three large darts into the animal’s shoulder.

Unaccustomed to close human contact, the elephant grew a little agitated,

prompting Khalil to sing Sinatra’s classic melody “My Way”, which appeared to calm the pachyderm as he chomped on chapatis.

Once the tranquilisers kicked in, Khalil and Goeritz measured Kaavan’s hefty frame and girth, took blood samples and inserted a microchip in his left ear. “He is in good general condition... but he is totally obese, he weighs way too much and his feet are terrible,” said Goeritz, pointing to the ele-phant’s cracked and malformed toenails that will need medical attention.

Goeritz said Kaavan has been eating up to 200kg of sugar cane each day and deprived of intellectual stimuli. “He is bored. He needs definitely physical and mental challenges,” said Goeritz, who has previ-ously worked with elephants across Africa.

Amir Khalil (right) and Frank Goeritz take measurements of Kaavan, an elephant at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, yesterday.

08 SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

EDITORIAL

QATAR has always been at the forefront when it comes to helping world community particularly in assisting those nations which are passing through difficult times due to various reasons like wars, natural calamities and pandemics.

Qatar through different national organisations like Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD), Qatar Charity and Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) and in coor-dination with international organisations especially different United Nations bodies is helping people across the world who are fighting against poverty, diseases, illiteracy and natural disasters.

In an implementation of the directives of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Qatar Fund for Development has now signed a Multi-Year Contribution Agreement with the Global Fund in the amount of $50m. The partnership aims to end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria by 2030 thereby contributing to the Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

The new Multi-Year Contribution Agreement will further strengthen the partnership established in 2017 between QFFD and the Global Fund where QFFD made a contribution of $10m for a first funding cycle. The Global Fund’s long-standing commitment to fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics is well aligned with the Qatar Fund for Development’s over-arching goal of promoting health as a central com-ponent for sustainable development and empowering people to lead a healthy and prosperous life.

The State of Qatar, represented by Qatar Fund for Development, is also continuing support for devel-opment projects in the Federal Republic of Somalia as it started asphalt paving work on the Mogadishu-Afgoye road within Somalia Roads Project.

This project is part of the Somalia Roads Project, which is working on the construction of two roads, which are the Mogadishu-Jawhar Road and the Mogadishu-Afgoye Road, with a length of 112km. The length of the Mogadishu-Afgoye road is 22km. The project will con-tribute to providing an ideal infrastructure by establishing highways between the capital Mogadishu and the neigh-boring cities (Afgoye, Balad and Jawhar).

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Qatar Fund for Development is continuing to implement a project to support knowledge and reading activities for displaced Syrian children in camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, as part of the ‘QUEST’ fund initiative. QFFD’s support for the project amounted to QR7m, showing the deep commitment of the State of Qatar to support the humanitarian needs of the Syrian people, and affirming the role of education and knowledge in shaping the future of Syria, in partnership with international and regional organisations.

Helping nations

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OFFICE: TEL: 4455 7741 / 767FAX: +974 4455 7758

MANAGING EDITOR: TEL: 4462 7505

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR: TEL: 4455 7769

LOCAL NEWS SECTION: TEL: 4455 7743

BUSINESS NEWS SECTION: TEL: 4462 7535

SPORT NEWS SECTION: TEL: 4455 7745

ONLINE SECTION: TEL: 4462 7501email: INFO@PEN.COM.QA

PUBLIC RELATIONS: TEL: 4455 7613email: PR@PEN.COM.QA

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT: TEL: 4455 7837 / 780FAX: 4455 7870, email: adv@pen.com.qa

CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT: TEL: 4455 7857email: adv@pen.com.qa

SUBSCRIPTION & DISTRIBUTION: TEL: 4455 7809 / 839 FAX: 44557819, email: info@tawseelqatar.com

D-RING ROAD, POST BOX: 3488, DOHA - QATAREMAIL: editor@pen.com.qa

Quote of the day

A COVID-19 vaccine is not a requirement. Of course,

if vaccines are developed we’ll really appreciate it.

And for Tokyo 2020 this will be great. But if you ask

me if that’s a condition - it's not a condition.

Toshiro Muto, Tokyo Olympic CEO

A screen-grab of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivering a speech via video at the opening ceremony of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), at a media centre in Beijing, yesterday.

Finding a vaccine against COVID-19 that works and can be distributed widely enough to help stop the pandemic is a global priority. Given the urgency, governments are doing all they can to fund research and incentivize firms to ramp up trials - pre-ordering doses, lowering regulatory barriers to market and granting manu-facturers immunity from costly future injury-related lawsuits.

But when does the scramble for supply start to look like corner-cutting?

Even in a pandemic as deadly as this one, public trust in a vaccine is vulnerable. A July-August Ipsos worldwide poll for the World Economic Forum found that while three in four adults were interested in getting a COVID-19 vaccine if it was available, only 37% had a “strong” interest in doing so. That’s a far cry from the estimated herd immunity threshold of 55% to 82%. The top two reasons cited for not wanting to take a COVID-19 vaccine are a fear of side effects and doubts it will actually work - not extreme “anti-vaxx” sentiment.

While an effective vaccine would be an unquestionable public good, you can see how fears of a rush job might take hold. Vladimir Putin’s shock approval last month of a vaccine before large-scale patient trials had been completed is a gamble that could actually set back Russia’s response to COVID-19, as my colleague Max Nisen has argued. In the U.S., Donald Trump wants a vaccine rolled out before Election Day, sparking worries that an eventual green light will be seen as a political decision rather than one based on comprehensive data.

On top of that comes the practice of offering legal immunity to makers of vac-cines and emergency treat-ments. While helpful in keeping companies from getting bogged down in court battles, it isn’t exactly con-ducive to building public trust.

For example, the U.S.’s existing “PREP” pandemic legislation shields firms from almost all injury-related law-suits unless the cause is deemed willful misconduct (a high bar). That’s an “extraor-dinarily broad” view, explains Wendy Parmet, professor of law at Northeastern Uni-versity. While financial com-pensation is available, it is covered entirely by the tax-payer, capped at a lifetime maximum of $311,810 regardless of the injury and decided by a special panel with no opportunity for

judicial review. It has served to pour fuel on anti-vaxxers’ outrage, rather than silence them.

No wonder some patient advocates have been spooked by lobbying pressure in Europe - where the burden of liability is seen as less favo-rable for drugmakers - to adopt a system closer to the U.S. one, as reported by the Financial Times. While the European Commission insists it won’t compromise on safety, or change liability rules, it has suggested govern-ments could take on “certain” legal claims.

This has led to public anger in the past. During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, many European govern-ments took on liability risk in exchange for fast-tracked vaccines, some of which ended up being recalled over links to narcolepsy. A with-ering Council of Europe report at the time warned such deals privatized vaccine profits and socialized the risk of injuries, calling for more balance in future.

The race for a COVID-19 vaccine could therefore do with a few speed bumps in the name of trust. The need for large-scale patient trials hasn’t gone away, and more data and disclosure on the road to approvals for public use might help win over an important priority group - health-care workers. They aren’t immune to vaccine skepticism: In France, the

birthplace of Louis Pasteur, a 2014 survey found one-quarter of doctors thought some recommended vaccines were useless, and one-fifth thought children were being given too many shots. Given they have the ear of their patients, this is an issue.

It should also be possible to preserve an effective supply of vaccine doses without tipping the scales of liability completely away from manufacturers.

One idea floated by a British Institute of Interna-tional & Comparative Law research project is for a new COVID-19 compensation fund designed to deal both sympathetically and effi-ciently with injury claims without having to go through the courts. Instead of being funded entirely by the tax-payer, it could be part-financed by the private sector, thereby ensuring pharma firms have some skin in the game. This won’t cure vaccine hesitancy overnight, but it might allay some fears.

There are limits to engaging with vaccine critics, of course, and no quarter should be given to hardened anti-vaxxers - vaccination has a 200-year history and played a critical role in eradi-cating the likes of smallpox and polio. But there’s still time to extend a hand to the hesitant.

Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering the European Union and France.

JAPAN NEWS-YOMIURI

Society and the economy, which have been damaged by the spread of the novel coro-navirus, must be recon-structed. Each candidate aiming for the post of prime minister needs to clearly present the course Japan should take and speak concretely on how to deal with domestic and foreign issues.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has announced his candidacy in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, which will choose a successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. With the campaign officially starting on Tuesday and the voting and ballot counting on Sept. 14, the outline of the election is becoming clear, centering on three candidates: Suga, LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Fumio Kishida and former LDP Sec-

retary General Shigeru Ishiba.All three are veterans who

have held important posts. It is hoped that they will use their expertise to actively discuss policies.

At a press conference, Suga said, “I’d like to inherit Prime Minister Abe’s policies and push them forward,” emphasizing his intention to maintain Abe’s economic policy package, known as Abenomics.

The Abe Cabinet has helped corporate per-formance recover and improved the employment environment through fiscal spending and bold monetary easing. It is commendable that Suga has indicated his intention to take the reins of government with priority on the economy.

On the other hand, it cannot be said that the growth strategy has produced results. Discussions on sustainable

social security systems and fiscal reconstruction are mostly lagging. Such issues should not be left unad-dressed. It is not sufficient to only express the intention to continue the policies of the Abe Cabinet.

During Abe’s long-running administration, multiple cases of the destruction and sloppy handling of records, as well as falsification of official docu-ments, have been discovered. It is true that public distrust has spread.

It is questionable that Suga has described all of these issues as “having already been settled.” Even if he becomes the new prime minister, trust in his adminis-tration could be shaken. It seems that he will have a responsibility to make efforts to examine and improve decision-making and doc-ument management.

Kishida announced his

policies centering on measures against the corona-virus. He expressed his intention to expand virus testing and implement eco-nomic stimulus measures flexibly. Ishiba focused on policies to eliminate overcon-centration of population and government functions in Tokyo and build a safer nation, such as by establishing a disaster prevention ministry.

Both Kishida and Ishiba stressed the need to support research on artificial intelli-gence and develop digital infrastructure. It is under-standable that they are trying to make up for the weakness of Abenomics and revitalize the economy.

Five of the LDP’s seven factions expressed support for Suga. He has the upper hand in terms of Diet members’ votes, which account for 75% of the total votes.

Trust in COVID-19 vaccines could turn on a knife edge

/PeninsulaQatar

/ThePeninsulaQatar

/Peninsula_Qatar

/ThePeninsulaNewspaper

+974 6698 6188

www.thepeninsula.qa

Next PM must do more than continue Abe cabinet policies

Established in 1996

LIONEL LAURENT BLOOMBERG

There are currently more than 30 candidate vaccines being tested on humans, with at least eight in final-stage Phase III trials, which typically involve tens of thousands of people.

09SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2020 EUROPE

WHO says ‘will not endorse’ vaccine if not safe, effectiveAFP — GENEVA

The World Health Organization insisted yesterday that it would never endorse a vaccine that has not proven safe and effective, amid concerns over the rush to develop a jab for COVID-19.

Across the globe, govern-ments are hoping to deploy a vaccine as soon as possible against the virus, which has infected well over 26 million people, killed hundreds of thou-sands, upended millions of lives and wreaked havoc on the global economy.

Under normal procedures, test administrators must wait for months or years to verify that vaccine candidates are safe and efficacious.

But as the pandemic

continues to take a devastating toll, there has been massive pressure to roll out a vaccine quickly, sparking concerns that testing standards could be lowered.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted that was not the case. “WHO will not endorse a vaccine that is not effective and safe,” he told a virtual briefing. He also took issue with the so-called anti-vax movement that has been stoking fears about the vaccines in development.

They might be able to “build narratives to fight against vac-cines, but the track record of vaccines tells its own story,” he said. There are currently more than 30 candidate vaccines being tested on humans, with at least eight in final-stage

Phase III trials, which typically involve tens of thousands of people.

“It is a very optimistic sce-nario because there’s a huge field of candidates,” WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swami-nathan told yesterday's briefing, emphasising that only around

10 percent of candidate vac-cines succeed.

She explained that the “unprecedented speed of devel-opment of COVID vaccines” was largely enabled by prior invest-ments in vaccine platforms for other diseases, which had been repurposed for use against the novel coronavirus.

But she stressed, developers must not skip over the various phases of stringent testing.

“No vaccine is going to be mass-deployed before the reg-ulators are confident and the governments are confident and that WHO is confident that these vaccines have met the minimum standards of safety and efficacy.”

Tedros voiced hope that one would soon become available “so that the world can get back

to norma.”. But while the WHO has said it expects to see results from a range of Phase III trials by the end of the year, it yes-terday tempered hopes that a vaccine is imminent.

Pointing to the massive challenge of manufacturing and rolling out vaccines to the bil-lions around the world who need them, widespread vacci-nation is not expected to begin until the middle of 2021.

Tedros stressed that, initially at least, supply would be limited. “Priority must be given to vacci-nating essential workers and those most at risk,” he said, stressing that “the first priority must be to vaccinate some people in all countries, rather than all people in some countries”.

The WHO has set up a mechanism, known as Covax,

aimed at ensuring a more equi-table distribution of any future vaccines, but has struggled so far to raise the funds needed to provide for the 92 poor coun-tries that have signed up.

But Tedros hailed yesterday that 78 high- and upper-middle income countries and econ-omies have now confirmed they will participate, including Germany, Japan, Norway and the European Commission in just the past week.

He pointed out that in an interconnected world, “the virus will continue to kill and the eco-nomic recovery globally will be delayed” if poorer countries are unable to gain access to a vaccine. Sharing equitably, he said, is “not just a moral imperative and a public health imperative, it’s also an economic imperative”.

US President Donald Trump (centre), Kosovo's Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti (right) and Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic (left) listen to US Vice-President Mike Pence during a signing ceremony, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Serbia, Kosovo sign economic pactAFP — WASHINGTON

Former foes Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on a historic pact to normalize economic rela-tions, US President Donald Trump announced yesterday at the White House.

And in a fresh diplomatic success for the US leader, both Kosovo and Serbia also agreed to improve their relations with Israel — Kosovo will formally recognize the Jewish state and Serbia will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“A truly historic day,” Trump said, with Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic sitting beside him in the Oval Office.

“By focusing on job creation and economic growth, the two countries were able to reach a real breakthrough on economic cooperation across a broad range of issues.”

Trump praised his special emissary Richard Grenell for bringing the two sides together, two decades after they fought a bloody war that left 13,000 dead.

“It took decades because you didn’t have anybody trying to get it done,” Trump said of the agreement. “There was a lot of fighting and now there’s a lot of love,” he said. “Economics can bring people together.”

Speaking to reporters in the

White House, Vucic said Trump had done a “great job,” praising his commitment to the Balkan region, while Hoti called it a big step forward — though neither Serbia nor its former territory formally recognize the other.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci hailed the agreement in a statement, praising Trump for advancing the cause “of peace, economic development and Euro-Atlantic future”.

Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, “must now continue to work for membership in

international organizations and for new recognitions, for our country to be fully consolidated domestically and interna-tionally,” he wrote.

Details of the agreement were not immediately available, but it was expected to be limited to the normalization of some economic ties, easing com-merce and opening up road, rail and air links between the former Balkan war foes.

The talks included repre-sentatives of major US eco-nomic aid agencies including the Export-Import Bank,

suggesting US financial support was involved in bringing the two sides together.

The European Union has brokered talks for nearly a decade to thaw the bitter rela-tionship between Serbia and its former territory, but many of the agreements they set have not been implemented. An effort focused on business and commerce was launched more recently by US officials.

But Serbia made clear during the talks that it would not go as far as recognizing Kosovo as a fully-fledged state.

Russia vaccine ‘passes early trial test’AFP — LONDON

Patients involved in early tests of a Russian coronavirus vaccine developed antibodies with “no serious adverse events”, according to research published in The Lancet yes-terday, but experts said the trials were too small to prove safety and effectiveness.

Russia announced last month that its vaccine, named “Sputnik V” after the Soviet-era satellite that was the first launched into space in 1957, had already received approval.

This raised concerns among Western scientists over a lack

of safety data, with some warning that moving too quickly on a vaccine could be dangerous. Russia denounced criticism as an attempt to undermine Moscow’s research.

In the Lancet study, Russian researchers reported on two small trials, each involving 38 healthy adults aged between 18 and 60, who were given a two-part immunisation. Each par-ticipant was given a dose of the first part of the vaccine and then given a booster with the second part 21 days later.

They were monitored over 42 days and all developed anti-bodies within the first three

weeks. The report said the data showed that the vaccine was “safe, well tolerated, and does not cause serious adverse events in healthy adult volunteers”.

The trials were open label and not randomised, meaning there was no placebo and the participants knew they were receiving the vaccine and were not randomly assigned to dif-ferent treatment groups.

Researchers underlined that larger and longer trials — including a placebo comparison — would be needed to establish the long-term safety and effec-tiveness of the vaccine for pre-venting COVID-19 infection.

Russia defies West as Nato urges cooperation over Navalny poisoningAFP — MOSCOW

Russia defied threats of new Western sanctions yesterday in a staring match over the poi-soning of Alexei Navalny, as Nato demanded Moscow uncover its Novichok nerve agent programme.

A new crisis in ties between Russia and the West broke out after Germany said this week there was “unequivocal evi-dence” that President Vladimir Putin’s top foe had been poi-soned using the infamous Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.

Western leaders and many Russians have expressed horror at what Navalny’s allies say is the first known use of chemical weapons against a top oppo-sition leader on Russian soil.

The 44-year-old lawyer fell ill on a Siberian flight last month and was evacuated to Germany for treatment. He has been in an artificially induced coma for the past two weeks.

The Kremlin has denied the Russian state is to blame, and yesterday Putin’s spokesman indicated that Moscow would not budge. “A whole number of theories including poisoning were considered from the very first days,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “According to our doctors, this theory has not been proved.”

Over the past few days pro-Kremlin figures have wheeled out a number of eyebrow-raising theories including that Navalny might have been poi-soned by Germans in Berlin or have poisoned himself.

Yesterday, a toxicologist told Russian reporters the opposition politician’s health could have deteriorated due to dieting, stress or fatigue, insisting no poison had been found in his samples in the Siberian city of Omsk where he was treated for the first two days.

“The patient used diets to lose weight,” the chief toxicol-ogist for the Omsk region, Alex-ander Sabayev, said. “Any external factors could have

triggered a sudden deterioration. Even a simple lack of breakfast.”

Russia has in the past denied responsibility for a 2018 Nov-ichok attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England, as well as a litany of similar incidents.

In Brussels, Nato called for an international probe into Nav-alny’s poisoning and demanded Moscow reveal details of its Nov-ichok nerve agent programme to the OPCW global chemical weapons watchdog.

After an emergency meeting of Nato’s ruling council, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said all members were united in condemning the “horrific” attack on Navalny. Germany briefed the other 29 nations on the case and Stoltenberg said there was “proof beyond doubt” Novichok was used.

“The Russian government must fully cooperate with the Organisation for the Prohi-bition of Chemical Weapons on an impartial international investigation,” Stoltenberg said.

The Novichok attack on Skripal in 2018 led to seven Kremlin diplomats being expelled from their Nato mission. While Stoltenberg did not rule out a similar reprisal this time, he stressed that the Navalny poisoning was quite different from the Skripal attack, which happened on the soil of a Nato member.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell earlier called on Moscow to cooperate with an international probe into the poisoning and said the 27-nation bloc would not rule out sanctions. The EU said the use of chemical weapons “is completely unacceptable under any circumstances (and) con-stitutes a serious breach of international law and interna-tional human rights standards.”

In Moscow, a court threw out a complaint by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation over investigators’ perceived inaction, the group said.

Berlusconi hospitalised after contracting virusAFP — MILAN

Italy’s flamboyant former prime minister Silvio Ber-lusconi has been hospitalised, his aides said yesterday, days after the media tycoon became the latest high-profile figure to contract the coronavirus.

Berlusconi, 83, was taken to San Raffaele hospital in Milan on Thursday night after suffering “certain symptoms”, his entourage said. But it said the move was just “a precaution”.

The billionaire tested pos-itive for coronavirus earlier this week after returning from a holiday at his luxury villa on Sardinia’s jet-set Emerald Coast. The AGI news agency said Berlusconi was hospi-talised in a room that he often occupies when staying at the facility. AGI said this indicates that his condition is not serious,

or he would be in intensive care.Italian news reports said

the ageing politician showed signs of the onset of pneu-monia. Licia Ronzulli, a senator with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, said the former prime minister “spent the night in hospital to check on his con-dition... but he is fine”.

Berlusconi announced on Wednesday that he had tested positive for the novel corona-virus and was in quarantine at home. Two of his children — daughter Barbara, 36, and son Luigi, 31 — have also contracted the virus, as has his companion Marta Fascina.

Berlusconi had insisted on Wednesday that he would continue his political activ-ities. “I will be present in the electoral campaign with inter-views on televisions and in newspapers,” he said.

Mother allegedly suffocates five children to death in GermanyAFP — BERLIN

A 27-year-old German woman is suspected of smothering five of her children as she was feeling “emotionally over-whelmed”, investigators said yesterday, a day after the lifeless bodies were found in their family apartment.

The suspect then attempted suicide by throwing herself under a train, before being rescued with serious but not life threatening injuries, said lead investigator Marcel Maierhofer. She is believed to have “carried out the act while she was feeling emotionally over-whelmed, and that too is the motive,” said the investigator.

Police believe that the three girls aged one, two and three, and two boys aged six and eight were sedated and then smothered to death either on Wednesday or Thursday. A sixth child, 11, survived. He had told schoolmates in a group chat that all his siblings were dead, said investigators.

He was likely able to avoid the grim fate of his siblings because he was in school at the time of their killing, said Maierhofer. Police found the bodies in the suspect’s apartment in the city of Solingen in North rhine-Westphalia state after they were alerted by the suspect’s mother, who had herself learnt of her grandchil-dren’s fate from her daughter.

The suspect is believed to be emotionally distressed after a separation from her third husband a year ago. The man is the father of four of the six children.

Large industrial blast in UKA picture taken by Kent Fire & Rescue Service yesterday shows a fire following an explosion at a building on an industrial site in Hoo, southeast England. A large industrial explosion rocked households in southeast England early yesterday, with fire services saying they were battling to contain the resulting blaze hours later. “Ten fire engines and a height vehicle are in attendance, and crews are working to tackle the blaze,” Kent Fire and Rescue Service said. Videos posted online showed flames and a plume of black smoke rising high into the night sky, with the fire still raging as dawn broke. The fire service said no casualties had been reported. The cause of the blast is not yet known.

With two months to go until Election Day, all eyes are turning to the key swing states that could tip the election one way or the other. Pennsylvania and Florida — both won by Trump in 2016 in tight contests over Hillary Clinton — are particularly in the spotlight.

10 SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2020AMERICAS

Vote-by-mail begins in North Carolina as White House campaign gets uglyAFP — WASHINGTON

The US election is officially open: North Carolina yesterday launched vote-by-mail opera-tions for the November 3 contest between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which is getting uglier by the day.

Worries about the unabated spread of the coronavirus are expected to prompt a major increase in the number of ballots cast by mail, as Amer-icans avoid polling stations.

In a country on edge over the health crisis and a national reckoning about race, the next two months will test the ability of the world’s largest economy to organize its election pro-foundly changed by the pan-demic. North Carolina was to begin mailing out more than 600,000 ballots, in response to a major spike in demand.

Other key battleground states such as Wisconsin will follow in the coming weeks. How Americans vote has become another flashpoint in an increasingly divisive political landscape. A recent poll by USA Today and Suffolk University showed that 56 percent of Republican voters surveyed said they would go in person to vote, while only 26 percent of Dem-ocrats plan to do the same.

One out of every four Biden voters said that if the Demo-cratic former vice-president loses on November 3, they would not be ready to accept a Trump victory as “fairly won.” About one in five Trump voters said a similar thing.

As he seeks a second four-year term, Trump has for months sowed doubt among his

base about the legitimacy of an election with a significant number of mail-in votes.

Trump — who himself votes by mail in his adopted home state of Florida — has repeatedly, and without evi-dence, said mail-in voting could lead to widespread fraud.

He even has suggested to his supporters that they try to vote twice to test the system -- earning him scorn on social media and from Democrats.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, reminded users that voting by mail has a “long history of trust-worthiness” in the United States, as does voting in person.

The tense campaign battle between Trump and Biden heated up on Thursday when The Atlantic magazine reported that the Republican incumbent had referred to US Marines buried in a World War I cem-etery in France as “losers” for getting killed in action.

The backlash was swift, and

A woman departs the United States Post Office near uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, yesterday. Worries about the unabated spread of the coronavirus are expected to prompt a major increase in the number of ballots cast by mail, as Americans avoid polling stations.

Trump sent a barrage of tweets on Thursday and another yes-terday to defend himself. “The Atlantic magazine is dying, like most magazines, so they make up a fake story in order to gain some relevance,” Trump wrote.

“Story already refuted, but this is what we are up against.” The story refers to a visit to France made by Trump in November 2018, for the cen-tenary commemorations of the end of the Great War.

Trump did not visit the Aisne-Marne American Cem-etery near Paris, officially because his helicopter could not take him there due to bad weather.

But The Atlantic, citing four

anonymous sources who said they had firsthand knowledge of the discussions, reported that he had told senior staff: “’Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers’.”

On the way back to Wash-ington from a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump erupted, slamming the allegations as “dis-gusting, grotesque, reprehensible lies”. “I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes,” he said. His top aides quickly launched a counteroffensive, flooding social media with pictures of the President with US soldiers.

But excerpts from his cam-paign speeches in 2016, when he mocked late senator John

McCain — a prisoner of war for years in Vietnam — also quickly returned to the fore.

With two months to go until Election Day, all eyes are turning to the key swing states that could tip the election one way or the other. Pennsylvania and Florida — both won by Trump in 2016 in tight contests over Hillary Clinton — are par-ticularly in the spotlight.

According to the latest poll by Quinnipiac University, Biden has a solid lead in Pennsylvania, with 52 percent support to 44 percent for Trump. In Florida, the two men are running neck-and-neck, with 48 percent for the Democratic challenger and 45 percent for the incumbent.

Nearly 200 law enforcement officials endorse Biden

REUTERS — WASHINGTON

Nearly 200 current and former law enforcement officials endorsed Democratic US pres-idential nominee Joe Biden yesterday, reflecting a push to challenge President Donald Trump’s message that the Republican incumbent is the candidate of “law and order”.

Trump has said a Biden presidency would lead to law-lessness, while seeking to tie the former vice president to civil unrest fueled by police shootings of Black Americans.

For his part, Biden has accused Trump of stoking vio-lence with his rhetoric. Biden has embraced calls from pro-testers for policing reforms but has denounced the rioting and looting that have disturbed some of the mostly peaceful protests across the country.

“He has condemned vio-lence of all kinds, and there is no question that I would feel safe in Joe Biden’s America,” Tom Manger, a former police chief in Montgomery County, Maryland, said in a statement.

The list of endorsements announced by the campaign included current and former prosecutors, sheriffs and other law enforcement officials from around the country.

The health crisis has been overshadowed in recent days by civil unrest in Portland, Oregon, and Kenosha. Trump and Biden both visited Kenosha this week.

The President promised to help the city recover from several nights of violent pro-tests and arson, while Biden met with Blake’s family and emphasized racial healing.

A photo taken on August 18, 2020 shows soldiers from the 4th Military Region of the Brazilian Armed Forces taking part in the cleaning and disinfection of the Municipal Market in the Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brazil tops 4 million COVID-19 casesAFP — RIO DE JANEIRO

Brazil topped four million COVID-19 cases on Thursday as health ministry officials said infections were beginning to slow in the world’s second worst-hit country.

Since the first case came to light on February 26, the South American colossus has registered more than 4.04 million infections and over 124,600 deaths.

There were almost 44,000 new cases over the previous 24 hours, and 834 fatalities. The

health ministry said the number of infections were slightly reducing in recent days, amid hopes that the pandemic had peaked following months when the daily average of deaths was over 1,000.

Since the end of August, Brazil has averaged around 870 COVID-19 fatalities with 40,000 new infections a day. “This is the beginning of what we hope is in fact an improving trend,” said Mauricio Sanchez, an epidemi-ologist at Brasilia University.

However, he warned the

trend was “very timid” and said the slowdown in cases should be maintained for two or three weeks to be able to draw any firm conclusions.

Brazil has recorded a death rate of 589 per million inhab-itants but there is a huge dif-ference between the figures in the north (746) and the south (309.) Paulo Lotufo, professor of epidemiology at the Uni-versity of Sao Paulo, said the numbers suggest that Brazil could be on the verge of improvement.

Suspect in Portland shooting killed by police during arrestREUTERS — PORTLAND

Police shot and killed an anti-fascist activist in Washington state on Thursday night as they moved in to arrest him on sus-picion that he fatally shot a right-wing counterprotester last weekend in Portland, Oregon, officials said.

Michael Reinoehl, 48, was wanted on a charge of murder and was armed with a handgun when members of a US Mar-shals Service fugitive task force shot him dead in Olympia, Washington, after he left an apartment building and got in a car around 7:30pm, according to the Marshals Service and the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

“We can confirm at this time that the suspect was armed with a handgun,” the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, which is responsible for investigating the incident, said in a statement yesterday.

“During the attempt to apprehend him, shots were fired at the suspect in the vehicle and he fled from the vehicle on foot. Additional shots were fired at the suspect and he was later pronounced deceased at the location,” the sheriff’s office statement said.

Earlier, the Marshals Service said Reinoehl had pro-duced a firearm and threatened

officers’ lives. Portland police on Thursday had issued a warrant for Reinoehl’s arrest and asked US marshals to locate him. “It sounded like fireworks, it was that many shots,” bystander Jashon Spencer said in an online video.

Reinoehl, who had pro-vided security for Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, was allegedly involved in the shooting of Aaron Danielson on Saturday night, the Marshal’s Service said.

Danielson, 39, was among a caravan of supporters of Republican President Donald Trump who rode in pickup trucks into downtown Portland and clashed with protesters demonstrating against racial injustice and police brutality.

Reinoehl was killed only hours after Vice News broadcast a video in which he appeared to admit he had shot Danielson and said he had acted in self-defense. “I had no choice. I mean, I, I had a choice. I could have sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color. But I wasn’t going to do that,” he said in the video, adding he feared he would be stabbed.

Reinoehl was previously cited for carrying a loaded gun at a July 5 Portland protest, resisting arrest and interfering with police.

New York probes suffocation of Black man hooded by policeAFP — NEW YORK

Several hundred peaceful demonstrators marched on Thursday in New York’s Times Square over the death of a black man that police hooded and forced face down on the road, according to video footage that prompted a probe from the state’s attorney-general.

The demonstrators gathered under a steady rain to demand justice for Daniel Prude, whose family said he died on March 30 after being removed from life support, seven days after the police encounter upstate in the city of Rochester.

Dubbing the footage “deeply dis-turbing,” New York’s Governor Andrew

Cuomo said he had “full faith” the attorney-general’s investigation would “ensure that justice is served”. The 41-year-old’s family and activists made his death public on Wednesday, after receiving body cam footage through an open records request.

The news of yet another police killing of an African American triggered fresh outrage, three months after protests ignited nationwide over George Floyd, who was choked to death during an arrest while handcuffed.

Prude’s family demanded legal action against the officers involved, who were suspended on Thursday. Letitia James, New York state’s top prosecutor, said an investigation was under way.

“Mr. Daniel Prude was failed by our police department, our mental health care system, our society and, he was failed by me,” Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said. “We cannot continue to fail black lives this way,” she told a news conference.

“Racism is alive and well in every system in America.” Prude’s brother told journalists he had called police March 23 as Daniel suffered a mental health episode. “I placed a phone call for my brother to get help, not to get lynched,” Joe Prude said outside Rochester’s City Hall on Wednesday.

“How many brothers have to die for society to understand this has to stop?” When officers arrived Prude was

unarmed and naked in the road, according to the video. Police ordered an initially compliant Prude to get on the ground, but after being handcuffed he became increasingly agitated.

Officers then put a “spit hood” on him and forced his head to the pavement. Moments later he lost consciousness.

He died in hospital a week later, when life support was switched off.

Local media said an autopsy ruled the death a homicide caused by “com-plications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint”. The report also listed a low level of the drug PCP in Prude’s blood. “He was treated inhumanely and without dignity,” community organizer Ashley Gantt said.

Facebook to ban new politicalads on cusp of US election

AFP — SAN FRANCISCO

Facebook said that it will ban new political advertising the week before the US election, one of its most sweeping moves yet against disinfor-mation as CEO Mark Zuck-erberg warned of a “risk of civil unrest” after the vote.

The social media giant vowed to fact check premature claims of victory, stating that if a candidate tries to declare himself the winner before final votes are tallied “we’ll add a label to their posts directing people to the official results”

And it promised to “add an informational label” to content seeking to delegitimize the results or claim that “lawful voting methods” will lead to fraud. “Anyone who is saying the election is going to be fraudulent, I think that’s prob-lematic,” Zuckerberg said in a CBS interview on Thursday.

Facebook also started lim-iting its Messenger service to allow users to forward missives to no more than five people or groups at a time “to help curb the efforts of those looking to cause chaos, sow uncertainty or inadvertently undermine accurate information”.

The moves follow sharp criticism of Facebook’s han-dling of the 2016 presidential election, when it failed to restrict disinformation from Russian operatives that spread conspiracy theories and dis-couraged voting in some cases.

Zuckerberg has long favored a hands-off approach to candidate statements, but he said a new policy was needed for last-minute ads because “in the final days of an election there may not be enough time to contest new claims”.

Twitter placed notices on a Trump tweets “to prevent people from sharing advice about voting twice, which may be illegal.” Facebook con-firmed that it removed video of Trump’s comments in North Carolina advising that people vote twice, and added infor-mation labels to Trump posts related to voting.