SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021 www.thepeninsula.qa7 SHA'ABAN - 1442 VOLUME 26 NUMBER 8567

Sport | 16

US economy gaining,

but recovery 'far from

complete': Powell

European qualifiers: Team Qatar departs for Hungary

Business | 13

2 RIYALS

1 9 9 6 - 2 0 2 1 S I L V E R J U B I L E E Y E A R

Amir to meet President of Seychelles tomorrowQNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will meet tomorrow at the Amiri Diwan with President of the Republic of Seychelles H E Wavel Ramkalawan, who arrives today on an official visit to the country.

H H the Amir and HE the President of Seychelles will discuss bilateral relations between the two countries, ways of supporting and enhancing them, and a number of issues of common concern.

Total number of doses administered

since the starting of the vaccination

campaign: 561,044

Total number of doses administered

in the last 24 hours: 21,278

Qatar administers 561,044 vaccine doses so farTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

As many as 561,044 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered since the start of the National COVID-19 Vacci-nation Program, shows data released by the Ministry of Public Health yesterday.

The Ministry also announced the registration of 497 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. Among them 402 are from community while 95 from travelers returning from abroad.

Also 315 people have recovered from the virus bringing the total number of cases recovered in Qatar to 159,787. In addition, the Min-istry also announced one new death, aged 61, who was

receiving the necessary medical care.

The Ministry further said that every day, hundreds of people are becoming sick due to the COVID-19 with many requiring admission to hospital to manage their symptoms.

“Since February 1, the number of people with COVID-19 admitted to hos-pital has doubled. Qatar’s strict quarantine policy for returning travelers enabled us to delay the introduction of new variants into this country for several months but we are now seeing pos-itive COVID-19 cases in the region and in Qatar with the new variants from the United Kingdom,” it added in a statement. �P2

Qatar condemns continued Israeli attacks, settlement activities

QNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar has expressed its strong condem-nation of the Israeli attacks and settlement activity in violation of international law through demolition, destruction, confis-cation, displacement, attempts to impose Judaization of the city of Jerusalem, attacks on Islamic and Christian sanctities, protection of extremist Israeli settlers, continued arrests, arbi-trary detention, as well as torture and imposing collective punishment on Gaza Strip.

This came in the statement delivered by Permanent Rep-resentative of Qatar to the United Nations in Geneva H E Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri, at the Human Rights Council at its 46th session, during the public debate on the situation of human rights in Palestine and in other occupied Arab territories.

He called for ending the policy of impunity enjoyed by Israel and ensuring accounta-bility for all those responsible for the violations committed against the Palestinians. He stressed the importance of the 7th item being included in the work of the Human Rights Council, noting that the attempts that seek to abolish it encourage Israel (the occupying power) to commit more serious violations and crimes against the Palestinian people, and push it to defy inter-national resolutions and cove-nants and disregard them.

He added that Qatar calls on the international community to assume its responsibilities to end the Israeli occupation of all Pal-estinian and Arab lands, protect the Palestinian people and ensure their right to self-deter-mination, and adhere to the principle of the two-state solution to establish an inde-pendent Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Qatari artist explores modern, traditional architectural elementsRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Qatari artist Shua’a Ali delves into the intersection between the modern and the traditional in a more globalised society in her series of conceptual artworks displayed in a recently launched solo exhibition dubbed “Rocks

and Bricks — A Crossroad” at Eiwan Al Gassar Gallery.

In this series, Shua’a mainly aims “to celebrate the current reconciliation of traditional and modern elements, in the recent architectural and cultural developments in Qatar.”

With globalization come challenges to local cultures as

they try to keep pace with the wave of modern developments occurring simultaneously around the world while attempting to preserve national identity.

Using basic building con-struction materials such as bricks, stones, granites and marbles, the artist is able to suc-cessfully express significant

meanings and messages she wants to convey visually through the objects on show. She preferred to utilize these construction materials to sym-bolise both modernization and cultural identity.

The centerpiece of the exhi-bition is “Tension and Con-nection” in which she places a

large stone in the middle of the installation to symbolize tradi-tional culture. Hanging around the stone are two different types of bricks emblematic of two decades of fast-paced architec-tural development in constant dialogue with cultural identity. Overall, the installation depicts contrast between modern and

traditional architecture further highlighted by the shadow the objects project on the wall.

The show also features “Equi-librium”, a series of 13 sculptures “inspired by location marks found in Qatar, which Shua’a Ali documents for her continuous research on discarded con-struction materials.” �P2

Large number of Larus Cachinnans birds, also known as Caspian gulls, taking flight on Al Wakra Beach yesterday. PIC. ABDUL BASIT/ THE PENINSULA

QNA — ZURICH

The FIFA Council officially approved yesterday the Arab Cup Qatar 2021, during the 15th meeting of the Council held at its headquarters in Zurich, Swit-zerland.

The President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, confirmed that the Council’s approval of the Arab Cup Qatar 2021 was among the events that the State of Qatar will organise in

preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Infantino said in a press conference after the FIFA Council meeting, that the aim of the Championship, which will be held for the first time in December this year in Qatar, is to determine the readiness of the State of Qatar to host major sporting events, especially the 2022 World Cup.

He added that the FIFA Council approved the

Championship as a celebration of Arab football skills, as well as attracting the world’s attention to Arab football, espe-cially since the matches of this tournament will be held on the World Cup stadiums, which will host the largest football event in the world a year later.

The Arab Cup Qatar 2021, will be held from December 1 to18, with the participation of 16 out of 22 Arab teams.

He also praised the work

done by the State of Qatar and the preparations that he described as distinctive for organising the 2022 World Cup, noting that this is the first time that he sees ready stadiums two years before the event, as well as that the eight stadiums that will host the World Cup are among the best stadiums in the world.

Infantino praised Qatar’s vision in planning the imple-mentation of projects and

stadiums for the 2022 World Cup.

He pointed out that the State of Qatar has provided great facilities for the fans of the World Cup, as they can move internally and reach the sta-diums in several different ways that take into account security and safety.

The FIFA Council received also a report on the interna-tional football situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. �P2

The President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, chairing the 15th Council meeting held at its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, yesterday.

Taking flight

FIFA Council approves Arab Cup Qatar 2021The Arab Cup Qatar 2021 will be held from

December 1 to 18 with the participation of 16

out of 22 Arab teams.

The aim of the Championship, which will be

held for the first time, is to determine the

readiness of the State of Qatar to host major

sporting events, especially the 2022 World Cup.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino praised Qatar’s

preparations for the 2022 World Cup, noting

that this is the first time that he sees ready

stadiums two years before the event.

Minimum wage comes into effect from todayTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

In implementation of Law No. 17 of 2020 regarding setting the minimum wage for workers and domestic workers, the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs has announced the implementation of the new minimum wage for all workers, starting from today.

In this context, all com-panies must comply with the minimum wage of 1,000 Qatari riyals and revise the employment contracts accod-ingly. as well as to allocating an allowance by the employer in

the event that adequate housing and food for the worker or domestic worker are not pro-vided, and the minimum housing allowance is QR500, the minimum food allowance is QR300, with the obligation to amend the employment con-tracts, the Ministry said in a statement on its website yesterday.

Last September, the Min-istry announced a six-month transition period to modify the conclusion of contracts so that employers could be able to prepare for the transition.

The Ministry of Adminis-trative Development, Labour

and Social Affairs emphasizes that adopting minimum basic wage, housing and food would generate better relations between the employer and the employee. The State of Qatar is the first country in the region to adopt a non-discriminatory minimum wage, this has formed a fundamental pillar in the reform programme and the transition plan to move towards a knowledge - based economy, as stipulated in Qatar National Vision 2030. Since the adoption of the law, the Ministry has con-ducted awareness campaigns for workers in multiple lan-guages. �P2

OFFICIAL NEWS

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani, Deputy Amir H H

Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani

sent yesterday cables of congratu-

lations to H E Samia Suluhu Hassan

on the occasion of her sworn in as

the President of the United Repub-

lic of Tanzania. QNA

Amir congratulates President of Tanzania

02 SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021HOME

W ALRUWAIS : 19o → 23o W ALKHOR : 20o → 27o W DUKHAN : 19o → 25o W WAKRAH : 22o → 34o W MESAIEED : 22o → 34o W ABUSAMRA : 18o → 26o

Relatively hot to mild at places

daytime with slight dust to blowing

dust at times and scattered clouds.

Minimum Maximum23

o

C 32o

C

WEATHER TODAY

LOW TIDE 3:33 – 15:03

HIGH TIDE 07:02– 22:40

PRAYER TIMINGSPPPPRAYRRRAAAYARA MMMMIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGMMMMMMMMMIIINNNNNNGGGGNNNNGGGIINNNNGNNNNNNNNN

PRAYERTIMINGS

FAJRSUNRISE

04.21 am 05.38 am

DHUHR 11.41 am

ISHA 07.17 pmMAGHRIBASR 03.08 pm

05.47 pm

MoPH to launch awareness campaignon importance of oral and dental careQNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar participates with the countries of the world in celebrating the International Day of Oral and Dental Health, which falls today, Saturday, March 20, under the slogan (Keep your mouth healthy).

On this occasion, the Min-istry of Public Health (MoPH), in cooperation with the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Primary Health Care Corpo-ration (PHCC), is launching an awareness campaign through the ministry’s official commu-nication platforms in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campaign aims to increase awareness about the importance of oral and dental care, and positive habits about the current oral and dental services in the community, and to enhance communication between dental services and prevention departments in various medical institutions with different sectors in society,

in addition to targeting all com-munity groups such as children, adolescents, and adults, and encouraging eat a healthy, bal-anced diet.

Dr. Wafaa Al Mulla, an oral and dental health specialist and official in charge of promotion and prevention at the National Oral and Dental Health Com-mittee, said that through the campaign, educational awareness-raising publications on oral and dental health will be published across all social media platforms of the Ministry of Public Health and social plat-forms for health sector partners, in addition to publishing an awareness film. Educate me by Hamad Medical Corporation.

This participation is part of the outputs of the National Committee for Oral and Dental Health, with the participation of HMC and PHCC.

Dr. Wafaa Al Mulla added that in conjunction with the World Down Syndrome Day that falls on March 21, the

Ministry of Public Health, in cooperation with Hamad M e d i c a l C o r p o r a t i o n , encourages children with Down syndrome and their families to adopt healthy and sound life-styles from a young age and reduce the spread of caries, in addition to changing wrong behaviours. These children have an approach to oral and dental health through the use of modern educational and sci-entific methods to reduce the percentage of caries according to their level of perception.

Within the framework of the National Health Strategy 2018-2022 and under the umbrella of the National Oral and Dental Health Committee, the MoPH launched National Oral and Dental Health Cam-paign last December through electronic communication plat-forms due to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Primary Health Care Corporation, in cooperation with the health authorities in

the State of Qatar, carried out the national oral and dental health surveys for school stu-dents and children with the aim of determining the level and quality of information related to oral and dental health and its sources for parents of children and students participating in the surveys, as well as determining the level of tooth decay among school students in the State of Qatar, to help compare the level of oral health information, its sources, and the prevalence of dental caries among male and female students, and Qataris and non-Qataris, in addition to knowing the relationship between the level of oral health information and health prac-tices, including dietary habits, with the extent of caries prev-alence among students.

There are also plans to implement surveys and other awareness programmes that are among the goals of the National Oral and Dental Health Committee.

416 referred to Public Prosecution for violationsQNA — DOHA

The designated authorities yesterday referred 416 people to the Public Pros-ecution for violating the preventive and precautionary measures enforced by the country to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Among them, 395 people were referred to the Public Prosecution for

not wearing masks in places where they are mandatory, while 7 were found vio-lating the maximum number of four people allowed in a vehicle including the driver, except when they are members of one family, 8 others did not respect safe distance, and 6 people for not installing Ehteraz app on their mobile phones.

The measure are in line with the

Cabinet decision, Decree Law No. 17 of 1990 on infectious diseases, and the precautionary measures in force in the country to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The designated authorities called on the public to adhere to the COVID-19 precautionary measures in place to ensure their safety and the safety of others.

MoQ organises contest for Mother's DayTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Mall of Qatar (MoQ) is cele-brating Mother’s Day by giving mothers and their families a chance to get valuable prizes in a photography contest.

Running until March 22, the contest allows visitors to capture their photo at the Mother’s Day photo booth at the mall, share it on their Facebook or Instagram accounts, and get the chance to win valuable prizes. Prizes include a gift box from Lush, a gift bag from Takara, a voucher from Oysho,

a breakfast for two, and an afternoon tea for two from Hilton Al Rayyan hotel. Partic-ipants will receive their photo instantly as a souvenir from Mall of Qatar.

Mall of Qatar’s gift card is an ideal present for mothers to leverage several discounts and offers. The gift cards can be purchased from customer service desks.

Emile Sarkis, General Manager of Mall of Qatar, said: “We celebrate all mothers on this precious day. Mall of Qatar i s p r o u d t o

mark these occasions with our communities in appreciation for the unconditional devotion. Our Mall of Qatar gift card is an ideal solution for those looking to lavish their mothers with gifts and offers. We will con-tinue our annual community initiatives and celebrate these happy occasions.”

Mall of Qatar, your favourite shopping and dining desti-nation, is proud to launch such initiatives to celebrate occa-sions with community, engage with visitors, and give them best chances to win valuable prizes.

Qatari designer shares insights onMandarin Oriental, Doha designTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatari designer Shaikha Al Sulaiti, Interior Designer at Msheireb Properties, spoke about her journey over-seeing the design inception of Mandarin Oriental, Doha.

Mandarin Oriental, Doha is one of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s first hotel’s in the Middle East, marking the blossoming of the Group in the region. Designed by legendary British designers David Collins Studio, Mandarin Oriental, Doha offers the perfect fusion of contemporary style and subtle Qatari elegance. Bringing Qatari heritage to life through subtle details that reflect the local environment, the hotel’s design enjoys an ele-gantly sophisticated feel that chimes perfectly with the rich cultural experience of Msheireb Downtown Doha.

Iconic Qatari elements adorn the hotel in modern, yet subtle design details and have been inspired by the aim of pre-serving the city’s unique heritage.

“The design concept was to find the perfect balance between the oriental identity of Mandarin Oriental and incor-porate a unique sense of place with decorative elements inspired by Qatari heritage,” said Al Sulaiti.

“The sense of place created from every pattern gives a feeling of nostalgia and remem-brance of old Qatar in the modern setting we have today,” she added.

Decorative elements show-cased throughout the hotel include abstract geometric

patterns inspired by the shapes of the country’s sand dunes, and designs showcasing handicraft craftmanship.

“My personal favourite design which I feel showcases the beauty of this hotel is the handmade straw marquetry by Alexander Lamont,” said Al Sulaiti.

“The intricate handicraft reminds of the weaving from traditional baskets which evokes the essence of Doha, therefore creating a work of art with a local narrative. The design is harmonious and intricate to build a story — it’s very refined, simple and clas-sical, but it has modern twists and layers of detail,” she added.

Aspects of Qatari heritage, culture and history are com-bined with timeless luxury to create a unique hospitality experience for the city. Inspired by heritage, texture and lay-ering of contemporary design, David Collins Studio has created a truly breath-taking design that gives a feeling of nostalgia and remembrance of old Qatar in the modern setting we have today.

Qatar strongly condemns attack on Riyadh refinery

DOHA: The State of Qatar has

strongly condemned, the attack

on the Riyadh refinery in the sis-

terly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In a statement issued yester-

day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

considered targeting vital facilities

an act of sabotage that violates

all international norms and laws,

and that would affect the security

and stability of energy supplies in

the world.

The statement renewed the

firm position of the State of Qatar

in rejecting violence, criminal and

sabotage acts, regardless of the

motives and reasons. QNA

“Tension and Connection” installation by Qatari artist Shua’a Ali on show at “Rocks and Bricks — A Crossroad” exhibition at Eiwan Al Gassar Gallery. PIC: RAYNALD C RIVERA/THE PENINSULA

Qatari artist explores modern, traditional architectural elementsFROM PAGE 1

In each piece, Shua’a Ali puts one material on top of another creating a juxtaposition of different elements symbolic of the link between modern and traditional.

In two of the sculptures, the artist cast bricks in bronze “to honour modern achievements and to give importance to prime construction materials that have traveled time and space.”

The exhibition also includes a rec-reation of the artist’s studio in which the artistic process from concept to the finished pieces, from inspiration to realization of the project is show-cased in great detail.

Shua’a Ali is a self-taught artist whose interest in art was developed at a young age. Having lived in dif-ferent cities for over two decades has profoundly influenced her art practice, but puts great emphasis

on incorporating her roots in her works from paint ings to sculptures.

“My sculptural works are an extension of the works on canvas and paper, moving toward 3-Dimensional objects and utilizing them to deliver similar themes and concepts related to culture and present day experiences. In these works I use juxtaposition and balance to elevate the works by cre-ating a greater whole from single solid objects,” she said.

“The methods used are a contin-uation of the layering paint techniques, evolving into stacking and balancing of solid objects. I consider the sculp-tural works as a 3-Dimensional collage of materials translating into a mode or communication with the viewer,” she added.

The exhibition is open every day from 4pm to 10pm until end of this month.

Qatar administers561,044 jabs

FROM PAGE 1

The Ministry added: “This new variant is much more contagious and spread more easily between people than the existing strain and may be associated with increased severity of disease. The good news is that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vac-cines being used in our vacci-nation program are effective against the new variants.”

The pace of the vacci-nation programme, the Min-istry said, means that there is finally hope of a gradual return to normal for us here in Qatar and people around the world.

“But this will not happen in the next few weeks or months. COVID-19 will con-tinue to be a threat to our health for the majority of 2021 and until all eligible members of our population have been vaccinated, we must continue to follow the preventive measures.”

Shaikha Al Sulaiti

FIFA Council approves

Arab Cup Qatar 2021

FROM PAGE 1

The Bureau of the FIFA Council had extended to April 2021 the temporary amendments to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players regarding the release of players for international duty, and FIFA, the confederations, and FIFA’s member associations remain in dia-logue with national authorities about exemptions from quarantine rules for national team players.

The FIFA Council recognized that the highest priority in football is the health of the players, and therefore the discussion around the release of players for interna-tional duty must maintain this perspective, especially as the public health situation develops around the world.

Minimum wage comes into effect from todayFROM PAGE 1

in addition to reaching out to employers and companies, and has worked to establish regulations to support the implementation of the minimum wage in coordination with the various

competent authorities in the country. This step is being implemented in cooperation with the International Labour Organi-zation (ILO) and in consultation with national and international experts and a wide range of workers and employers

from different economic sectors.Based on that, the Ministry calls on

individuals and employers to apply the adoption of the minimum wage, and for inquiries, you can call the hotline 16008.

03SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021 HOME

SC participatesin tree plantationcampaignQNA — DOHA

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC)’s sustainability team participated recently in a tree-planting campaign organised by the Public Works Authority (Ashghal)’s Supervisory Committee of Beautification of Roads and Public Places in Qatar.

It is part of the ‘Qatar Beau-tification and our Kids Planting Trees’ campaign, which was launched in September 2019 in cooperation with the Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment. It aims to plant one million trees across the country by 2022.

A team from the SC’s Gen-eration Amazing programme and several SC ambassadors participated in the campaign targeting children’s partici-pation in planting trees on the Al Khor Coastal Road to raise awareness among community members about sustainability, planting trees, and preserving the environment.

Secretary of the Super-visory Committee of Beautifi-cation of Roads and Public Places in Qatar, Eng Amna Al Badr, called on all groups of society to participate in the planting campaign, indicating that the committee had organised it in cooperation with the SC and the participation of many school children.

Al Badr said the committee is coordinating with authorities

to reach the goal of planting one million trees by 2022, when the country hosts the FIFA World Cup.

Commenting on his partic-ipation, Mohamed Saadoun Al Kuwari, an SC ambassador, affirmed that football’s impact is significant in changing peoples’ lives for the better, stressing the World Cup’s importance in making a shift in the history of different coun-tries and spreading positive thought.

Talking to QNA, Al Kuwari said Generation Amazing is an SC programmeme that focuses on many initiatives related to hosting the World Cup, including sustainability and supporting the environment, adding that cooperating with the Public Works Authority and inviting students to participate in the planting campaign is necessary to promote the importance of sustainability.

Speaking to QNA, Tim Cahill, an SC ambassador, expressed his happiness to par-ticipate in the campaign, which supports the efforts of sustain-ability and the preservation of the environment as one of the core values of the SC in hosting the 2022 World Cup. He described his participation as very distinctive, especially since such events contribute significantly to Qatar hosting a sustainable edition of the World Cup and leaving positive impacts throughout the country in terms of sustainability.

HMC holds development courses for Qatari staffTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Hospitality Department has recently held a number of professional development courses for Qatari leaders in the Corporation’s Security Department. The courses were aimed at developing skills and expertise of security staff in in their respective field to support them in meeting the needs of all patients, visitors, and staff.

The courses, which were organised in collaboration with a Doha-based international training centre, gathered 14 leaders from the Security Department. Several partici-pants have passed multiple assessments and advanced to higher levels in the programme while other participants will continue their development in the workplace.

Hamad Al Khalifa, Chief of Health Facilities Development and Acting Chief of Business Services at HMC, said the objec-tives of the development pro-gramme are in line with HMC’s expansion plans to meet the increasing demand for its services. The programme includes sessions on planning skills, problem-solving skills, information technology, team management, as well as several other skills that are essential for security staff members and supervisors to perform their job duties in an efficient and effective manner.

“The programmeme is focused on building essential skills and competencies through a qualified bi-lingual team. The programme uses effective coaching and mentoring methods to develop the skills of

the participants, with a special emphasis on practice and reviews of development out-comes. The programme also includes a variety of case studies, role-playing exercises, presentations, educational videos, and group activities,” added Al Khalifa.

Hassan Majed Al Jassim, Executive Director of Hospi-tality at HMC, said the courses come as part of the Security Department’s plan for con-tinuing professional devel-opment of security staff and security supervisors and said: “Over the past two years, fourteen Qatari security leaders have been participating in pro-fessional development activities to obtain the internationally accredited ILM level-3 certifi-cation in leadership and

management. This programme has been implemented by the training consulting firm Red Rock International.”

“HMC has identified the need to develop the skills and competencies of its security leaders through the provision of a personal skills development programme. This comes in line with the developments in the roles and responsibilities of security staff and supervisors across medical facilities, espe-cially with the continued expansion of HMC in the past few years. We encourage all our security leaders to take part in these development activities to develop their professional skills,” Al Jassim added.

H M C ’ s H o s p i t a l i t y Department is staffed with a team of experienced, highly

qualified professionals to meet the needs of patients, staff, and all members of the public. A number of Qatari security leaders who participated in the development programme said the programme sessions were very informative and will help them improve their performance.

Reda Mousa Ali, Security Coordinator at Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City and Hamad General Hospital said: “The pro-gramme focused on improving our planning and team man-agement skills to ensure we are able to effectively interact with visitors in the Medical City and meet their needs. I’m currently working on completing the remaining courses within this internationally accredited programme.”

Participants during the HMC’s professional development programme, held recently.

QU celebrates achievements on College of Health Sciences DayTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar University (QU) College of Health Sciences (CHS) recently held CHS Day to cele-brate its remarkable achieve-ments for the last academic year 2020-21.

The virtual celebration showcased the College’s achievements in academic, research, professional, and community service. The cer-emony was attended by Dr. Egon Toft, the Vice-President for Medical and Health Sci-ences, Professor Asma Al-Thani, Associate Vice-President for Strategic Planning, and Dr. Hanan Abdul Rahim, Dean of the College of Health Sciences in addition to College faculty members, students, parents and representatives from various healthcare partners.

During the ceremony, around 174 of the clinical

preceptors and supervisors were recognised for their support to three departments’ clinical and practical training: Biomedical Sciences, Human Nutrition, and Public Health.

Dr. Hanan Abdul Rahim,

Dean of the College of Health Sciences, thanked the healthcare partners from Aspetar, Hamad Medical Cor-poration (HMC), the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA),

Qatar Foundation (QF), Sidra Medicine, and Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) for their substantial contribution in supporting CHS students during clinical placement, especially in the challenging COVID-19 conditions.

Dr. Abdul Rahim said, “Your contributions to our students’ training are what make our pro-grammes so successful. Your mentorship and supervision not only teach skills but shape the professional perspectives of our students as well.”

During the ceremony, departments presented high-lights of their academic, research, and service achieve-ments through video presentations.

Besides, 47 students from the three programmemess, Bio-medical Science, Human Nutrition, and Public Health, donned their white coats,

signaling that they have reached the clinical practice milestone of their degrees.

The College also celebrated the successful completion of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Board of Cer-tification (BOC) exam for 10 Bio-medical Sciences programme graduates.

Dr. Egon Toft, Vice Pres-ident for Medical and Health Sciences, praised the academic, technical, and administrative staff of the College who drove CHS achievements despite the c h a l l e n g i n g g l o b a l circumstances.

“The College of Health Sci-ences has shown skill, energy, and enthusiasm to tackle con-temporary health challenges through active research efforts and high-quality program-memes that will continue to innovate per the country’s needs,” Dr. Toft said.

New study on social trends in QatarQNA — DOHA

Doha Institute for Graduate Studies launched the first session of a longitudinal survey entitled: Qatari Social Attitudes and Well-Being, funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).

The study is led by members of the teaching staff of Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, in cooperation with a number of local and interna-tional institutions such as Sidra Medicine and University of Canterbury.

This research is a three-year longitudinal national study that deals with social attitudes, personal values and health outcomes for Qatari cit-izens and residents of Qatar, Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at Doha Institute Dr. Diala Hawi said.

Dr. Hawi said that through this project, we expect to learn how psychology is manifesting itself in Qatar, as we will go beyond mere descriptions and prevalence reports, by focusing on the nature and predictions of psychological issues, social attitudes and behavior.

Furthermore, Dr. Hawi said that the study aims to expand our knowledge about how and why people and their life circumstances change over time, as the research questions will address the personal, social, structural and environ-mental characteristics of the Qatari society, therefore, the importance of this study lies in the fact that these areas of research have not been studied extensively on this large national scale.

Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at Doha Institute Dr. Diala Hawi indi-cated that the results of this study will be used to identify areas that require immediate attention and intervention, and to implement successful mental health strategies, public policies and social interventions.

She also explained that since the same individuals will be monitored over three years, the project will be able to track minor and rapid changes in trends and values over time and in response to life events.

Doha Festival City to mark World Water Day and Earth HourTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Doha Festival City, Qatar’s one and only choice for shopping, dining and entertainment, is set to celebrate World Water Day and Earth Hour, with a number of environmental activities to promote a culture of conservation, under Festival Cares.

On March 27, Festival City will pay tribute to Earth Hour by decreasing its electricity con-sumption between 8.30pm and 9.30pm. The Mall will dim both Chandelier Lights in its Luxury Area, and alternate switching lights on and off in the Center Court, to cut consumption by 50 percent. The Mall will also promote for electricity preservation among visitors by spreading awareness and sustainability mes-sages all around the mall on its digital screens.

Celebrating World Water Day on March 22, Fes-tival City reaffirms its commitment to saving water resources, especially in the arid region of the Gulf. The mall follows a number of measures aimed at controlling and limiting water consumption.

Throughout all the seasons, and during summer in particular, Doha Festival City adjusts its irrigation system using a timer that allows to control the amount of water used in landscape. Irrigation mechanisms in place are also sustainable and employ the already used waters – from the Mall’s ventilation systems and cooling tower, as well as harvested storm water, to sprinkle the lawns and plants.

Doha Festival City also chooses to grow plants that are suitable for the Gulf region and do not require high level of water consumption. Fur-thermore, the Mall is currently upgrading its system to enable the utilization of TSE (treated sewage effluent) waters for chilled water circulation, and will be able to fully rely on TSE water for its Chillers

in the second half of 2021, while undertaking further action to boost the sustainability of its operations.

Robert Hall, Doha Festival City General Manager, said: “We are committed to continuously improving our operations in protecting the envi-ronment in Qatar. Through contributing to major initiatives in this field, the Mall also aims to educate its visitors on the importance of sustainability, enticing them to contribute to national efforts“.

“Doha Festival City has received the highest level of sustainability certification from Gulf Organ-ization for Research and Development (GORD) – we are a sustainable mall, and we try to do deploy every effort to reduce the environmental impact of our operations ”, Robert concluded.

Doha Festival City is open from 10am to 10pm from Saturday to Wednesday, and 10am to 11pm on Thursdays and Fridays. In line with the pre-ventative measures set out by the authorities, Doha Festival City has introduced stringent health and safety measures throughout the mall for its staff and visitors.

A screen grab shows Qatar University students during the CHS Day celebration.

A view of Doha Festival City.

QRCS team visits Qatariclinics at Zaatari campTHE PENINSULA— DOHA

The high-profile delegation of Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) currently in Jordan visited the Qatari Clinics operated by QRCS at the Zaatari Syrian Refugee Camp in Mafraq Governorate, which are funded by Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) under is QUEST Health programme.

The scheme is aimed at providing life-saving medical services for children and women at the Zaatari Camp, by backing the Qatari Clinics working there, amid severe humanitarian con-ditions lived by the Syrian inhab-itants of the camp.

With the support of QFFD, the Qatari Clinics offer primary and secondary health care, as well as referral services, for children and adults for one year.

Headed by Ali bin Hassan Al Hammadi, Secretary-General of QRCS, the dele-gation met the administration and security managements of the camp. Then, they took a tour of the different depart-ments of the Qatari Clinics, including patient registration, outpatient clinics (such as internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, and dental), labo-ratories, pharmacy, nutrition

clinics, and vaccination unit.A meeting was held with

the medical and administrative staff of the Qatari Clinics to know about how work was going on, the achievements they made, and the challenges they faced.

Also, they met Iad Shtiat, Public Health Officer of the Office of the UNHCR at the Zaatari Camp.

He gave an overview of the functions of the Qatari Clinics at three of the camp’s 12 blocks. According to him, the medical facilities were originally planned to serve Block No. 8, but due to the increasing demand, their scope was expanded to serve the popu-lation of three blocks.

Shtiat emphasised the important role being played by the Qatari Clinics, in light of the pressing need for medical services.

Another meeting was held with Dr. Mohamed Motlak Al-Hadid, President of Jordan Red Crescent Society (JRCS), to discuss the work progress and coordinate the agenda of the visit.

QRCS is operating the Qatari Clinics at the Zaatari Syrian Refugee Camp in Jordan, under an agreement with QFFD.

04 SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021MIDDLE EAST

The Saudi statement did

not blame the Houthis for

yesterday’s attack. But a

few hours earlier, Houthi

military spokesman Brig.

Gen. Yehia Sarie reported

the group had fired six

drones at an unnamed

Aramco facility in Riyadh,

without providing

evidence for what he

described as a “high-

accuracy hit”.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seen on a screen as he gestures during a video call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel, in Ankara, Turkey, yesterday.

Erdogan, EU chiefs discuss relations and East Med ahead of summitREUTERS — BRUSSLES

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Union chiefs discussed eastern Medi-terranean tensions and Turkey-EU ties in a video call yesterday, ahead of an EU summit due to address fraught relations with Ankara.

Last year, tensions flared over a decades-old dispute between Turkey and Greece over maritime jurisdiction in the Mediterranean. Both have accused each other of illegal actions, while the EU has backed member state Greece.

EU leaders had threatened punitive measures against Ankara over its offshore activ-ities. But the EU froze plans for further measures against

executives at state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) after Turkey withdrew a research vessel from disputed waters.

The Turkish presidency said Erdogan told European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Ankara had maintained its “con-structive approach” in the Med-iterranean despite “provoca-tions” from Greece and Cyprus.

“President Erdogan said he expected a result from the March 25-26 EU summit that will pave the way for concrete efforts” to move forward, it said in a statement, adding Erdogan had repeated a proposal for a regional eastern Mediterranean conference.

Ankara and Athens have resumed talks over their dispute, easing months of ten-sions. Their foreign ministers are expected to meet in Ankara next month.

In a separate statement, the European Commission said “the EU side underlined the impor-tance of sustained de-esca-lation and of further strength-ening confidence-building to allow for a more positive EU-Turkey agenda”.

Turkey, an EU candidate since 2005, has repeatedly urged the 27-nation bloc to update a 2016 migrant deal under which it curbed entries into Europe in exchange for EU financial support, saying the bloc has not kept its promises.

Drone attack on oil facility in Riyadh; no damageAP — DUBAI

A drone attack struck an oil installation in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh yesterday, the Saudi state-run news agency reported, igniting a blaze at the facility deep in the kingdom’s territory.

The dawn attack caused no injuries or damage, and did not disrupt oil supplies, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. The kingdom is facing more frequent airborne assaults as Saudi-led coalition forces battle Iran-backed Houthi rebels across the southern border in Yemen. Most recently, drones struck Ras Tanura, the country’s largest crude oil refinery with capacity of 550,000 barrels a day, raising concerns about the expanding capabilities of Saudi Arabia’s regional foes.

Details about yesterday’s attack remained slim, and authorities did not name the impacted facility. Aramco, the kingdom’s oil giant, does have a refinery just southeast of Riyadh. That refinery pro-duces petrol, diesel, jet fuel and other products for con-sumption around the king-dom’s capital.

The Saudi statement did not blame the Houthis for yester-day’s attack. But a few hours earlier, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yehia Sarie reported the group had fired six drones at an unnamed Aramco facility in Riyadh, without providing evidence for

what he described as a “high-accuracy hit”. Riyadh lies some 1,000km from Yemen’s soil, but the rebels have fired drones and missiles at the Saudi capital before.

While Houthi-claimed attacks on Saudi Arabia rarely cause damage, strikes on major oil facilities in the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, raise the risk of a disruption in world oil supplies. In the fall of 2019, a drone and missile attack struck two key Saudi oil installations and halted about half of the country’s oil sup-plies. Although the Houthis claimed responsibility, both Washington and Riyadh blamed Tehran for the attack. Iran denied involvement.

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis since March 2015, months after the rebels swept into Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and seized much of the country’s north.

Relatives of Palestinian Atef Hanaysha, mourn during his funeral in Beit Dajan, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, yesterday.

Israei troops shoot dead Palestinian in West BankREUTERS — BEIT DAJAN, WEST BANK

Israeli troops shot dead a Pales-tinian yesterday as demon-strators protesting against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank hurled rocks at soldiers, a witness said.

The man was shot in the head during a protest near the villlage of Beit Dajan, near Nablus, and was taken to a hos-pital where he later died, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The Israeli military said it was examining the incident.

A photographer said a group of Palestinians threw stones at two Israeli soldiers posted at the protest, and the soldiers then opened fire. The Israeli military said that “dozens of Palestinian

hurled rocks” at its troops, who “responded with riot dispersal means and by firing into the air”.

“We are aware of reports regarding a Palestinian casualty. The cause of the injury is still unknown. The incident is being examined,” it said. Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

The protest in Beit Dajan, near the city of Nablus, was a weekly demonstration against Israel’s West Bank settlements.

The Palestinians, who have limited self-rule in the West Bank, say Israel’s settlements there will deny them a viable state.

Hezbollah chief says will support new cabinet if announced on Monday

REUTERS — BEIRUT

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said he would support a new Lebanese cabinet if one is announced on Monday, but said that a government formed solely of specialists would not last.

President Michel Aoun is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri next week.

The two politicians have been wrangling for months as the country sinks deeper into financial crisis. Aoun is an ally of Iran-backed Hezbollah, listed as a terrorist group by the United States.

“If the prime minister-designate agrees with the pres-ident on Monday a gov-ernment of specialists we will agree,” Nasrallah said in a tele-vised speech.

“I am now saying to eve-ryone a government of both technocrats and politicians which will not allow anyone to run away from responsibility is better,” he said.

Lebanon’s economic meltdown is posing the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. Politi-cians have since late 2019 failed to agree a rescue plan to unlock foreign cash which Lebanon desperately needs.

Hariri met with Aoun earlier on Thursday after a heated political exchange on Wednesday, later saying a new cabinet that would re-engage the IMF was the only solution to Lebanon’s woes.

Nasrallah said a gov-ernment that sought to implement reforms required by the International Mon-etary Fund would find diffi-culty with issues such as subsidy removal.

“If the IMF comes and says we should lift subsidies, will the Lebanese be able to with-stand that?” Nasrallah said.

Israeli PM’s fate rests on razor-thin margins in final pollsAP — OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

A final batch of polls by Israeli media outlets yesterday showed a razor-thin election, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fate likely turning on the performance of small parties and a former ally who has criticized him but has not ruled out joining his coalition.

The elections next Tuesday —the fourth in less than two years — are widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who has presided over one of the world’s

most successful coronavirus vaccination campaigns but is also on trial for corruption.

The polls show Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party in the lead, projecting that it will win around 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, Israel’s par-liament. But an alliance with his natural allies, the ultra-Orthodox parties and a small far-right party, would only yield around 50 seats.

On the other side is an ide-ologically diverse array of parties committed to ousting Netanyahu, which together are projected to win 56-60 seats,

also just short of a majority. Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party, the largest in the anti-Netanyahu bloc, is projected to win around 20 seats.

The most likely kingmaker appears to be Naftali Bennett, a right-wing former ally of Netanyahu whose Yamina party is projected to win around 10 seats. He has not ruled out joining either camp. Mansour Abbas, the leader of an Arab Islamist party, is also uncommitted, but polls are divided on whether his party will win four seats or fall below the electoral threshold.

A slightly better or worse

performance by either bloc could change the calculations. A number of small parties, including the far-right Religious Zionist Party, the centrist Blue and White, and the left-wing Meretz, are at risk of falling below the electoral threshold and winning no seats. In that case their votes would essen-tially be wasted, to the benefit of the other bloc.

One forecast commissioned by the Kan broadcaster, sur-veyed 1,406 people and had a margin of error of 2.6%. The Maariv newspaper polled 1,001 people with a 3.2% margin of

error, while the Israel Hayom newspaper surveyed 2,087 people with a margin of error of 2.1%. Israel bars polling in the five days before the vote.

Unofficial exit polls will be released by main broadcasters after polling stations close on Tuesday night. The official count takes a few days. The president will then ask whomever appears most likely to form a government to try to do so, launching weeks of negotiations. If no one succeeds in assembling a 61-seat ruling coa-lition, then another round of elections would be held later this year.

Hospitals in Syria’s capital full with coronavirus patientsAP — DAMASCUS

Intensive care units in public hospitals in the Syrian capital Damascus have reached full capacity due to a sharp rise of coronavirus infections, leading doctors to transfer patients to hospitals in other provinces, the health ministry said.

The announcement was a rare public acknowledgment of the severity of the outbreak in Syria, which has been ravaged by a decade of conflict that had major effects on the medical sector.

Syria has reported a rise in infections in recent weeks that included President Bashar

Assad and his wife Asma who are currently recovering, according to the president’s office.

Syria reported 149 new cases on Thursday, raising the total of registered infections in the country to 16,925, including 1,130 deaths since the first case was reported in March last year.

The number is believed to be much higher as most Syrians cannot afford to have a PCR test. Syria is in a deep economic crisis, as the war has left more than 80% of the population below the poverty level.

A test at a private hospital or clinic costs 126,500 Syrians

pounds - about $28 at the black market rate - at a time when most monthly incomes in Syria are less than $100.

The head of the emergency department at the health min-istry, Toufic Hasaba, told state news agency Sana that intensive care units in Damascus’ four state-run hos-pitals are full and those in need were taken to hospitals in other provinces earlier this week.

Hasaba urged people to take precautionary measures including wearing masks, social distancing and sanitization.

The health ministry said that coronavirus cases have shot up over the past two

weeks, but did not give a reason.

The pandemic, which has severely tested even developed countries, has been a major challenge for Syria’s health care sector, already depleted by years of conflict that killed more than half a million and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.

Syria began a vaccination campaign earlier this month, but no details have been given about the process. The health minister said the government procured the vaccines from a friendly country, which he declined to name.

REUTERS — ISTANBUL

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that Joe Biden’s comments about Russia’s Vladimir Putin, in which he said he thought he was a killer, were unacceptable and unfitting of a US president.

In a TV interview broadcast on Wednesday, Biden said: “I do” when asked if he believed Putin was a killer, prompting US-Russia ties to sink to a new low. Putin later responded that “he who said it, did it.”

“Mr. Biden’s statements about Mr. Putin are not fitting of a president, and a president coming out and using such remarks against the president of a country like Russia is truly unacceptable, not something that can be stomached,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.

“In my opinion, Mr. Putin has done what is necessary by giving a very, very smart and elegant answer,” he added.

Ties between Ankara and Washington, Nato allies, have been strained over a host of issues in recent years including Turkey’s acquisition of Russian defence systems and policy differences in Syria.

Turkish police

arrest HDP officials

Erdogan: Biden's comments on Putin unacceptable

REUTERS — ISTANBUL

Turkish police detained three district heads of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and seven others in Istanbul yesterday over alleged links to militants, police said, two days after a court case began over banning the party.

Separately, Turkey’s Human Rights Association (IHD) co-chairman Ozturk Turkdogan was arrested by police at his home, IHD said, prompting human rights groups to call for his release. There was no official statement why he was held.Media reports said Turkdogan was detained as part of those raids.

A prosecutor filed a case with the Constitutional Court on Wednesday demanding a ban on the HDP, the culmi-nation of a years-long crackdown against parlia-ment’s third-largest party. The HDP called it a “political coup”.

State-owned Anadolu news agency said yesterday that police arrested 10 people over alleged links to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants — deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

Prosecutors have ordered 12 arrested in total, including former provincial heads of the HDP, it said.

05SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Protest for political change

Samia Suluhu Hassan sworn in as Tanzania’s first woman PresidentAP — DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA

Samia Suluhu Hassan made history yesterday when she was sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president after the death of her controversial predecessor, John Magufuli, who denied that COVID-19 is a problem in the East African country.

Wearing a hijab and holding up a Holy Quran with her right hand, the 61-year-old Hassan took the oath of office at State House, the government offices in Dar es Salaam, the country’s largest city.

The inauguration was wit-nessed by Cabinet members, former presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Jakaya Kikwete. The former heads of state were among the few people in the room wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19.

Hassan succeeds Magufuli, who had not been seen in public for more than two weeks before his passing was announced on state TV late on Wednesday. Magufuli had denied that COVID-19 was a problem in Tan-zania, saying that national prayer had eradicated the disease from the country. But Magufuli acknowledged weeks before his death that the virus was a danger.

A major test of Hassan’s new

presidency will be how she deals with the pandemic. Under Magufuli, Tanzania, one of Africa’s most populous coun-tries with 60 million people, made no efforts to obtain vac-cines or promote the use of masks and social distancing to combat the virus. This policy of ignoring the disease endangers neighboring countries, African health officials warn.

Speaking at her inaugu-ration, Hassan gave little indi-cation that she intended to change course from Magufuli.

“It’s not a good day for me to talk to you because I have a wound in my heart,” said Hassan, speaking Kiswahili. “Today I have taken an oath dif-ferent from the rest that I have taken in my career. Those were taken in happiness. Today I took the highest oath of office in mourning,” she said.

She said that Magufuli, “who

always liked teaching,” had pre-pared her for the task ahead. “Nothing shall go wrong,” she assured, urging unity.

“This is the time to stand together and get connected. It’s time to bury our differences, show love to one another and look forward with confidence,” she said. “It is not the time to point fingers at each other but to hold hands and move forward to build the new Tanzania that Pres-ident Magufuli aspired to.”

Hassan will complete Magu-fuli’s second term that began in October. She has had a meteoric rise in politics in a male-dom-inated field. Both Tanzania and the surrounding East African region are slowly emerging from patriarchy.

After Magufuli selected her as his running mate in 2015, Hassan became Tanzania’s first female vice president. She was the second woman to become

vice president in the region, after Uganda’s Specioza Naigaga Wandira who was in office from 1994 to 2003.

Born in Zanzibar, Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago, in 1960, Hassan went to primary school and secondary school at a time when very few girls in Tanzania were getting educa-tions as parents thought a woman’s place was that of wife

and homemaker.After graduating from sec-

ondary school in 1977, Hassan studied statistics and started working for the government, in the Ministry of Planning and Development. She worked for a World Food Program project in Tanzania in 1992 and then attended the University of Man-chester in London to earn a post-graduate diploma in economics.

In 2005, she earned a master’s degree in community economic development through a joint program between the Open Uni-versity of Tanzania and Southern New Hampshire University in the US. As president, Hassan’s first task will be to unite the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party behind her, said Ed Hobey-Hamsher, senior Africa analyst with the Verisk Maplecroft research firm.

Tanzania’s new President Samia Suluhu Hassan inspecting a guard of honour mounted by the Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces after she was sworn into office following the death of her predecessor John Pombe Magufuli, at State House in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, yesterday.

Blinken urges Somali leaders to hold ‘transparent’ elections

REUTERS — WASHINGTON

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday urged Somalia’s leaders to set aside political objectives and hold transparent elections.

“We call on Somalia’s federal and member state leaders to set aside narrow political objectives, uphold their responsibilities to the people of Somalia, and agree to immedi-ately hold transparent and inclusive elections,” Blinken said in a statement.

Ethiopia warns fugitive Tigray leaders to surrenderAP — HAMDAYET, SUDAN

Ethiopia’s prime minister issued a “final notice” yesterday to the fugitive leaders of the country’s embattled Tigray region, saying they should surrender peace-fully to avoid “severe punishment” and prevent the “misery of their people.”

At the same time, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed urged the untold hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans who have fled their communities over the past four months of fighting to return to their homes within a week and resume “normal lives.” Abiy’s notice alleges that some civilians took up arms, perhaps under threat of force, but said they “are not the main culprits.”

The new warning came as people described seeing a larger presence of Ethiopian forces on the way to the place that Tig-rayans have used to flee the region, the border crossing into the remote town of Hamdayet in Sudan. Ethiopian and allied forces for months have allegedly blocked people from crossing, though more than 60,000 have made it into Sudan.

Abiy’s new statement does not say what exactly will happen if Tigray’s fugitive political and military leaders do not turn themselves in. It reminds them to “do their part by learning from the devas-tation and damage so far” and preventing further bloodshed.

No one knows how many

thousands of civilians or com-batants have been killed since months of political tensions between Abiy’s government and the Tigray leaders who once dominated Ethiopia’s gov-ernment exploded in November into war. The region remains largely cut off from the world, with few journalists allowed in, and only now are steps being taken to allow the United Nations human rights office into Tigray to help investigate alle-gations of atrocities.

Meanwhile, civilians have suffered. Witnesses in Ham-dayet and elsewhere have told The Associated Press of wide-spread killing and looting by soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, a longtime Tigray enemy which is accused of

teaming up with Ethiopia in the conflict. Ethiopia’s government has denied their presence.

Witnesses also have described being stripped of pos-sessions and forced from their homes by forces from the neighboring Amhara region, another ally of Ethiopia in the war.

For the refugees in Ham-dayet, there is little hope of going home or even having one to return to, no matter what the prime minister is now urging.

“There is no point in going back,” 58-year-old Belaynesh Beyene told the AP as her children and grandson shel-tered in a makeshift house of rough straw to keep out the dust.

Their home in the Tigray

region’s Dansha community has been taken over by members of an Amhara youth militia, she said, and when she spoke with friends this week, they said they were leaving too, weary of the death threats against Tigrayans.

Ethiopia’s government has bristled at allegations of ethnic cleansing, including by the United States government, and denied them. But witnesses and humanitarian workers have described scenes where Ethi-opian federal authorities are hardly present or stand by, watching, as Tigrayans are targeted.

To make her way to Sudan safely, Belaynesh said, she hid her ethnic Tigrayan identity by speaking Amharic.

Demonstrators carrying sign boards and national flags during a protest demanding political change, in Algiers, Algeria, yesterday.

Former president de Klerk diagnosed with cancer

REUTERS — JOHANNESBURG

Former South African pres-ident and Nobel Peace Prize winner FW de Klerk has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the tissue that lines the lungs, his foun-dation said in a statement.

“Mr De Klerk will start a course of immunotherapy next week. There is no immediate threat, and we are confident that the treatment will be suc-cessful,” read the statement that was released late on Thursday.

De Klerk, 85, headed South Africa’s white minority gov-ernment until 1994, when Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress party swept to power. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela, but his role in the transition to democracy is highly contested more than 20 years after the end of apartheid.

Congo President seeks to extend 36 years stay in officeAP — BRAZZAVILLE

After 36 years in power, Republic of Congo’s President Denis Sassou N’Guesso appears poised to extend his tenure as one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders in the elections to be held tomorrow amid opposition complaints of interference with their campaigns. The front-runner among the six remaining challengers is Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, who finished second during the last election in 2016 but lacks significant support outside the country’s two largest cities.

Kolelas already has complained about being blocked from boarding a plane to make a campaign stop in the north.“Congo has become a police state,” Kolelas said on the campaign trail. “I want to give back some fundamental freedoms to the Congolese people. I want to give hope to the Congolese people.”

Some civil society groups also have voiced concerns in the lead-up to the

vote in this Central African country often overshadowed by its vast neighbor, Congo, which has a similar name.

“We have serious reservations that a peaceful, participatory, transparent, free and credible presidential election can be organised in the current condi-tions,” the Catholic bishops’ conference said in a statement ahead of the election.The country’s military was allowed to vote early on Wednesday, prompting a few opposition figures to accuse Sassou N’Guesso’s party of stuffing ballot boxes.

“The vote of the military is an aber-ration,” said Anguios Nganguia Engambe, a magistrate candidate. “I know that the same soldiers who are currently voting in uniform will do so on (Sunday) in civilian clothes, since their military status is not mentioned on the electoral list.” The government, though, denied the allegations and said preparations had been made for a free

and credible election.“We have done everything possible

to ensure that the distribution of the cards takes place without hindrance throughout the country so that each Congolese can fulfill his civic duty,” Henri Bouka, head of the national inde-pendent electoral commission, said.

The 77-year-old Sassou N’Guesso first came to power in Republic of Congo in 1979 and served until the 1992 election when he finished third. He then took hold of the country again as a militia leader after a four-month civil war in 1997 and has been at the helm ever since, winning three elections.

Only the presidents of Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon have served more years on the African continent.

Five months before the 2016 vote, a constitutional referendum removed term and age limits that would have barred Sassou N’Guesso from running again.

Supporters carry effigy of President Denis Sassou Nguesso as they attend his last rally in support of his re-election in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, yesterday.

Exiled Syrian who helped light fuse of uprising mourns the terrible costREUTERS — AMMAN

When Syrian teenager Basheer Abazed was arrested a decade ago for scrawling anti-government graffiti on his school wall, he never imagined an uprising would flare that would devastate his country. Now, he mourns the terrible human cost of the revolt.

“The war...broke a lot of things in our lives, it took away our childhood and joy, it made us grow up before our time,” Abazed, now 25, said by phone from Turkey where now lives, exiled far from his hometown of Deraa in southwestern Syria.

Deraa became the cradle of the uprising and later insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad after two dozen teenagers including Abazed were rounded up and tortured by secret police for writing slogans against the Syrian autocrat.

The youths’ act of defiance

emulated the start of other “Arab Spring” uprisings that overthrew dic-tators and their brutal treatment in detention brought long latent dis-content boiling to the surface. It esca-lated into street protests that were met with deadly fire by armoured security forces. Clashes spread nationwide and metastasized into civil war that devastated much of Syria before Assad snuffed out the insur-gency with Russian and Iranian help.

Abazed, one of over two million Syrians who fled the war to neigh-bouring Turkey, recalls how a Syrian security officer forced him to confess under duress that he had scrawled the slogan, “Your turn is coming, Doctor Bashar.”

Abazed was freed days later as the first round of mass pro-democracy demonstrations loosened the authorities’ iron grip and security forces resorted to gunning down peaceful protesters.

Samia Suluhu Hassan will complete Magufuli’s second term

that began in October. She has had a meteoric rise in politics in

a male-dominated field. “This is the time to stand together and

get connected. It’s time to bury our differences, show love to

one another and look forward with confidence. It is not the

time to point fingers at each other but to hold hands and move

forward to build the new Tanzania that President Magufuli

aspired to,” she said.

06 SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021ASIA

Myanmar security forces kill nine as Indonesia calls for end to violenceREUTERS — YANGON

Security forces killed at least nine opponents of Myanmar’s February 1 coup, a funeral service and media said yesterday, as Indonesia urged an end to violence and Western ambassadors condemned what they called the military’s immoral, indefensible actions.

Police and soldiers have used increasingly violent tactics to suppress demonstrations by supporters of detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but that has not deterred the pro-testers and crowds turned out again yesteray.

Security forces opened fire in a confrontation in the central town of Aungban as they tried to clear a protesters’ barricade, media and a witness reported.

“Security forces came to remove barriers but the people resisted and they fired,” the witness, who declined to be identified, said by telephone.

An official with Aungban’s funerary service, who declined to be identified, told Reuters eight people were killed, seven on the spot and one wounded person who died after being taken to hospital in the nearby town of Kalaw.

The spokesman for the junta was not immediately available for comment but has previously said security forces have used

force only when necessary. Critics have derided that.

One protester was killed in the northeastern town of Loikaw, the Myanmar Now news portal said. One person was shot and killed in the main city of Yangon, social media posts showed. Reuters could not confirm that death.

Police ordered people in some Yangon neighbourhoods to dismantle barricades and have been hunting for protest leaders, residents said. Video on social media showed police forcing a man to crawl down on a street on all fours.

Demonstrators were also out in the second city of Man-dalay, the central towns of Myingyan and Katha, and Mya-waddy in the east, witnesses and media reported.

Ambassadors of Western countries condemned the vio-lence as “immoral and indefen-sible”, in particular in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar industrial dis-trict, where dozens were killed over several days after Chinese-owned garment factories were torched last weekend.

“Internet blackouts and suppression of the media will not hide the military’s abhorrent actions,” they said in a statement.

The total number of people killed in weeks of unrest has risen to at least 234, based on a tally by the Assistance Associ-ation for Political Prisoners activist group.

Myanmar’s Asian neigh-bours, led by Indonesia, have offered to help find a solution but failed to make headway.

The 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has long held to the principle of not com-menting on each other’s internal affairs, but there are growing signs that the Myanmar crisis is forcing a reassessment of that.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo made some of the strongest comments yet from a regional leader on the crackdown.

“Indonesia urges that the use of violence in Myanmar be stopped immediately so that there are no more victims,” Jokowi, as he is known, said in

a virtual address. “The safety and welfare of

the people must be the top pri-ority. Indonesia also urges dia-logue, that reconciliation is carried out immediately to restore democracy.”

Myanmar’s coup leader, General Min Aung Hlaing, took part in a video conference with regional defence chiefs on Thursday, his first international engagement since seizing power, state television showed.

At the meeting, the head of Indonesia’s armed forces, Hadi Tjahjanto, expressed concern over the Myanmar situation, the Indonesian military said on its website.

Singapore’s military chief, Lieutenant-General Melvyn Ong, also expressed “grave concern” and urged Myanmar to avoid lethal force, the Sin-gapore defence ministry said yesterday.

Authorities have tightened restricted on internet services, making information increas-ingly difficult to verify, and also clamped down on private media.

The UN human rights office said this week about 37 jour-nalists had been arrested so far. Two more were detained in the capital, Naypyitaw, yesterday while covering a hearing for an arrested member of Suu Kyi’s party, said the Mizzima news

portal, the former employer of one of them, Than Htike Aung.

The other detained reporter was Aung Thura of the British Broadcasting Corp (BBC). The BBC said they were taken away by unidentified men and it called on authorities to help find its accredited journalist and confirm he was safe.

Suu Kyi, 75, faces accusa-tions of bribery and other

crimes that could see her banned from politics and jailed if convicted. Her lawyer says the charges are trumped up.

The army has defended its takeover, saying its accusations of fraud in a November 8 election swept by Suu Kyi’s party were ignored by the elec-toral commission. It has promised a new election but not set a date.

A still image of protesters hiding behind barricades during an anti-coup protest in Myawaddi, Myanmar, yesterday.

China ends espionage trial of Canadian citizen

REUTERS – DANDONG, CHINA

The trial of Canadian citizen Michael Spavor, detained by China since late 2018 on suspicion of espionage, ended yesterday after closed-court hearing of around two hours, in a case embroiled in a wider diplomatic spat between Wash-ington and Beijing.

Spavor and his lawyer appeared for the hearing and the court will later set a date to issue a verdict, the Dandong Intermediate People’s Court said in a statement on its website.

Chinese courts have a con-viction rate of over 99 percent.

The 45-year-old Canadian businessman was not seen outside the court and there was no word on his condition.

China arrested Spavor and fellow Canadian Michael Kovrig in December 2018, soon after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, on a US warrant.

Beijing insists the deten-tions are not linked to the arrest of Meng, who remains under house arrest in Vancouver as she fights extradition to the United States.

Kovrig, a former diplomat, is due to go on trial on Monday in Beijing.

Officials from the Canadian embassy and other nations including United States, Neth-erlands, United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Australia, Sweden and Germany were present outside the court as

they sought access to the hearing. They were not allowed to enter.

“We are disappointed in the lack of access and the lack of transparency,” Jim Nickel, charge d’affaires at the Canadian embassy in China, said ahead of the hearing.

“The reason that has been given is it’s a so-called national security case and their belief is that the domestic law overrides international law, which in fact is not the case. China does have international obligations to allow consular access,” he added.

Nickel said Canadian offi-cials last saw Spavor on Feb-ruary 3 and had made multiple requests to see him ahead of the trial, but those requests were denied.

Foreign diplomats waving at police cars exiting the Intermediate People’s Court where Michael Spavor stood trial, in Dandong, Liaoning province, China, yesterday.

Nepal approvesIndia vaccine foremergency useREUTERS —KATHMANDU

Nepal yesterday gave emer-gency authorisation to India’s COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN, becoming only the third country to approve the shot, developed by Bharat Biotech and a state research institute.

COVAXIN was shown to be 81 percent effective in an interim analysis of late-stage trial data on some 26,000 people in India. The vaccine was approved for emergency use in India in January and Zimbabwe cleared it early this month.

“Conditional permission has been granted for emer-gency use authorisation,” Nepal’s Department of Drug Administration said in a statement.

Wedged between India and China, the Himalayan country has already received more than 2.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India, including 1 million doses as a gift.

China has also promised 800,000 doses of its own vaccine but the time for the delivery of the Chinese shots is unknown.

The latest approval comes as authorities in Nepal said they were suspending their vaccination campaign because of a lack of supply.

Jageshwar Gautam, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Population, said more than 1.6 million people had received their first shots under the inoculation drive begun in January.

Nepal has reported 275,750 cases and 3,016 deaths so far, according to gov-ernment data.

Cambodia tycoon faces probe after wife-beating videos go viralREUTERS — PHNOM PENH

A Cambodian property tycoon is being investigated by police after a montage of video clips showing him attacking his ex-wife went viral this week, prompting a rebuke from the government as it faces pressure to take tougher action on domestic abuse.

Following outrage over the video, Duong Chhay, 31, took to Facebook Live to accuse his former wife of having provoked his violence — earning some sympathy in a nation where campaigners point to a culture of victim-blaming around gender-based abuse.

The businessman, whose father is a police general, was not immediately arrested, but

he was stripped of a royal hon-orific, reprimanded by the women’s ministry, and police said they were investigating the case.

“Right now, our officers are working on this matter,” Phnom Penh police spokesman San Sokseiha said, declining further comment.

The hour-long collection of clips shows Chhay beating his former wife, cosmetics entre-preneur Deth Malina, also 31, dragging her by the hair, kicking her and pushing aside their children and her parents.

It was apparently compiled from CCTV footage recorded in their home up until December last year, when the couple divorced.Neither Chhay nor his lawyers could not be reached

for further comment.Malina said in a Facebook

livestream yesterday that she would not file a police com-plaint against Chhay over the abuse.

The video, which had more than 2 million views by the end of the day but has since been removed, sparked a lively debate on social media about domestic violence in the socially conservative Southeast Asian nation.

Women’s campaigners noted that many people —including women — had found ways to justify Chhay’s violence. “That some social media users appear to side with him fol-lowing his ‘explanations’ shows more needs to be done to combat harmful gender

stereotypes and entrenched social norms,” said Chak Sopheap, head of Cambodian Center for Human Rights.

Cambodia has made progress in eradicating gender-based violence, but many fun-damental challenges remain, “not the least being that author-ities themselves have perpe-trated violence against women,” she said.

“While this incident has made headlines in recent days ... it is sadly just one of many.”

In April, a woman was jailed after refusing to wear more conservative outfits while selling goods via livestream - two days after Prime Minister Hun Sen said scantily dressed online vendors were encour-aging sexual assault.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said safety and welfare of the people must be the top priority. Ambassadors of Western countries condemned the violence as “immoral and indefensible”.

India: COVID-19 infections at over three-month highREUTERS — NEW DELHI

India’s coronavirus infections surged to more than a three-month high yesterday, led by a record daily increase in the western state of Maharashtra, where authorities have adopted fresh curbs to restrain the spread of the disease.

India’s overall tally of infec-tions stands at 11.51 million, the highest after the US and Brazil. The country reported 39,726 new virus cases yesterday, its highest since November 30.

Deaths rose by 154 to 159,370, data from the health ministry showed.

Maharashtra, home to

India’s commercial capital, Mumbai, reported record 25,833 cases, accounting for 65% of the country’s new infec-tions in the past 24 hours. This marks the single highest daily case count in the state, topping the numbers of September 2020, when India was adding close to 100,000 cases a day.

The state health minister said they have requested 2 million vaccine doses per week from the federal government, with the aim of inoculating 300,000 people per day.

“We are aggressively vac-cinating people in the state,” Maharashtra’s health minister, Rajesh Tope, told reporters.

US-China talks to wrap up after acrimonious openingREUTERS — ANCHORAGE

Senior US and Chinese officials are set to conclude their talks in Alaska after a dramatic opening round laid bare the depth of tensions between the world’s two largest economies at the outset of the Biden administration.

The run-up to the talks in Anchorage, which followed visits by US officials to allies Japan and South Korea, was marked by a flurry of moves by Washington that showed it was taking a tough stance, as well as by blunt talk from Beijing warning US to discard illusions that it would compromise.

After pointed opening remarks on Thursday from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about China’s chal-lenge to a rules-based interna-tional order, China’s top dip-lomat Yang Jiechi lashed out with a speech criticising US democracy, and foreign and trade policies.

The United States accused China of “grandstanding” for its domestic audience, and both sides suggested the other had broken diplomatic protocol.

The rebukes played out in front of cameras, but a senior US administration official told reporters that as soon as media had left the room, the two sides “immediately got down to business” and held substantive, serious, and direct talks.

Blinken and Yang, joined by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi, have a final session.

While much of President Joe Biden’s (pictured) China policy is still being formulated,

including how to handle the tariffs on Chinese goods imple-mented by his predecessor Donald Trump, his adminis-tration has so far placed a stronger emphasis on demo-cratic values and allegations of human rights abuses by China.

“I am very proud of the sec-retary of state,” Biden told reporters at the White House yesterday morning when asked about the meeting.

In recent weeks, top Republicans have given a nod to efforts by Biden to revitalise relations with US allies in order to confront China, a shift from Trump’s go-it-alone ‘America First’ strategy.

Biden has partially staked his approach on China to rebuilding American domestic competitiveness, and several top Republicans, whose coop-eration will be crucial to the success of those plans, backed his administration in the face of the heated exchanges from the first day of talks.

“I have many policy disa-greements with the Biden Administration, but every single American should unite against Beijing’s tyrants,” Republican Senator Ben Sasse said in a statement.

Afghan govt, Taliban agree to accelerate peace talksREUTERS — MOSCOW

The Afghan government and the Taliban agreed yesterday to try to accelerate peace talks, at a meeting in Moscow that followed an international conference there on the peace process, Afghanistan’s top peace official and a Taliban spokesman said.

The United States, Russia, China and Pakistan called on Afghanistan’s warring sides to reach an immediate ceasefire at the conference, held in Russia just six weeks before a deadline

agreed last year to withdraw US troops.

“We expressed our read-iness to accelerate the (peace) process,” Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconcil-iation, told Russia’s RIA news agency. “They (the Taliban) did as well.”

Moscow hosted the interna-tional conference on Afghan-istan on Thursday, at which the nations involved issued a joint statement calling on the Afghan sides to reach a peace deal and curb violence, and on the

Taliban not to launch any offen-sives in the spring. They also said they “did not support the restoration of the Islamic Emirate.”

Taliban political spokesman Mohammad Naeem, speaking to media in Moscow, took issue with the statement, saying it was up to the Afghan sides to decide their system of gov-ernance and it should be an Islamic system.

“What is stated in the dec-laration is against all principles and is not acceptable,” he said.

A members of the Taliban’s

political office Suhail Shaheen reiterated Abdullah’s remarks that negotiations should be sped up and warned Washington against keeping troops in the country beyond the agreed withdrawal date.

“After that, it will be a vio-lation of the agreement. That violation will not be from our side, but it will be from their side. So, in that case, if there is action, of course, there will be reaction,” he said.

The Moscow conference aimed to shake up largely stalled negotiations which have

been taking place between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Qatar’s capital Doha.

The Moscow conference was the first time the United States had sent a senior repre-sentative to talks on Afghan-istan under a format launched by Russia in 2017. Washington agreed last year with the Taliban to withdraw its troops by May 1 after nearly two decades, but President Joe Biden’s administration is reviewing its plans for Afghan-istan and says all options remain on the table.

Philippines clears Russia shot as virus cases riseBLOOMBERG — MANILA

The Philippines cleared Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, while it reimposed stricter limits for restaurants and mass gath-erings to stem resurging coro-navirus infections that soared by a record yesterday.

The vaccine developed by Russia’s Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology “may be effective to prevent COVID-19” for people 18 years and older, Phil-ippine Food and Drug Admin-istration head Eric Domingo said.

The Southeast Asian nation adds to a growing list of coun-tries to grant emergency approval to the Russian vaccine, which has shown 91.6 percent efficacy. Vaccines from Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE, AstraZeneca Plc. and Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

have earlier been authorised by the local regulator, with the latter two currently used to inoculate health workers.

Moderna Inc has signed a deal with the Philippine gov-ernment and private sector led by business tycoon Enrique Razon to supply 20 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines, the nation’s virus task force said in a separate statement Friday.

The Philippines, which has Southeast Asia’s second-worst outbreak, reported a record surge in COVID-19 infections yesterday with 7,103 new cases, bringing the total to 648,066.

The government ordered dine-in restaurants to operate at half capacity until April 4 in areas under general community quarantine including the capital, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said at a televised briefing. Conferences and reli-gious gatherings were also

limited to 30 percent of the venue’s capacity, while museums and other tourist

attractions will be shut.Earlier travel restrictions

were however loosened, with

all returning citizens and foreign diplomats allowed to enter.

North Korea hints at severingdiplomatic ties with MalaysiaREUTERS — SEOUL

North Korea said yesterday it would sever diplomatic rela-tions with Malaysia after the Southeast Asian nation extra-dited a North Korean man to the United States to face money-laundering charges this week.

Malaysia denounced North Korea’s move as unwarranted and disruptive to regional peace, adding that the extra-dition had been carried out according to law.

North Korea did not name its citizen in a statement carried by state media KCNA, but Malaysia said Mun Chol Myong, who was arrested in 2019, was extradited on Wednesday after he had already exhausted several legal appeals.

“Malaysia denounces (North Korea’s) decision as unfriendly and unconstructive, disre-specting the spirit of mutual respect and good neighbourly relations among members of the international community,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said Malaysia would close its embassy in Pyongyang in response and order all diplo-matic staff at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur to leave the country within 48 hours.

North Korea’s foreign affairs ministry also warned Wash-ington would “pay a price” in the statement, according to KCNA.

Mun’s arrest in 2019 came after the United States accused him of laundering funds through front companies and issuing fraudulent documents to support illicit shipments to North Korea. He had denied the

allegations, saying they were politically motivated.

The North Korean foreign ministry had called the extra-dition a “nefarious act and unpardonably heavy crime” by Malaysian authorities, who had “offered our citizen as a sac-rifice of the US hostile move in defiance of the acknowledged international laws.”

Kuala Lumpur’s once-close ties with North Korea were severely downgraded after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged brother, Kim Jong Nam, was killed at a Kuala Lumpur airport in February 2017 when two women smeared his face with VX nerve agent, which the United Nations lists as a weapon of mass destruction.

Malaysia suspended oper-ation of its embassy in 2017 after it secured the safe return of nine citizens held in Pyongyang in exchange for the release of Kim Jong Nam’s body.

Despite a promise by Malay-sia’s then-premier Mahathir Mohamad during an apparent

thaw in diplomatic relations in 2018, the embassy never resumed operations. North Korea had used Malaysia as a hub for its arms export oper-ation, and to set up business entities for funneling money to

North Korea’s leadership.“We warn in advance that

the US — the backstage manip-ulator and main culprit of this incident — that it will also be made to pay a due price,” KCNA reported.

On Thursday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the administration of Pres-ident Joe Biden would complete a review of its North Korea policy in the next few weeks in close consultation with allies.

A member of the media is seen outside the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, yesterday.

A worker in hazmat suit disinfects a street as a preventive measure against the spread of coronavirus disease at a village in Manila, yesterday.

3 Indonesian hostagesrescued after sea mishapAP — MANILA

Philippine police rescued three Indonesian hostages and captured one of their Abu Sayyaf captors when the mili-tants’ speedboat was lashed by huge waves and overturned as they were fleeing government operations, the military said yesterday.

Authorities were searching for a fourth Indonesian kidnap victim who was on board the speedboat when it capsized off Pasigan Island Thursday night in the southernmost province of Tawi Tawi, regional military commander Lt Gen Corleto Vinluan, Jr said.

A Philippine police report said villagers found the Indo-nesian men along the shore of South Ubian town in Tawi Tawi and called the police.

The men were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf gunmen off Malaysia while working for a Malaysian fishing firm in January last year. The eight captives were taken across the

sea border to Sulu province in the southern Philippines, where three of the victims were later freed and another was shot and killed while attempting to escape when their captors clashed with troops.

“The terrorists are evading the ongoing intensive military operations in Sulu so they sailed to Tawi-Tawi bringing along the captives with them,” a Tawi Tawi military com-mander, Brig Gen Arturo Rojas, said.

The Abu Sayyaf demanded ransom for the Indonesians but the captives came from poor fishing families and the Indo-nesian government has a no-ransom policy, Vinluan told DZMM radio network when asked if money changed hands.

One of those rescued was a 45-year-old Abu Sayyaf mil-itant. Other militants in a sep-arate speedboat remain missing although a man appar-ently from that boat was rescued by a passing passenger vessel.

Seoul ends mandatory virus test for foreignersREUTERS — SEOUL

Authorities in the South Korean capital of Seoul will scrap a controversial order for all foreign workers to be tested for COVID-19, they said yesterday, after an outcry sparked complaints by embassies and a human rights probe.

The move came after the headquarters of the nation’s pandemic control effort said it had asked the city to withdraw the order and improve testing policies to eliminate discrimination or rights violations.

“The request is to prevent anti-COVID-19 efforts from causing any discrimination or human rights violations against citizens and foreign nationals,” the headquarters said in a statement.

City authorities still recom-mended testing for both foreign and Korean workers in “high-risk” workplaces, however.

The reversal came as the National Human Rights Com-mission confirmed it was investigating if the policies of several local governments for all foreign workers to be tested were discriminatory.

Seoul and the province of Gyeonggi are among the local government bodies to have ordered such tests, drawing criticism from South Korean lawmakers, university officials, and foreign ambassadors.

Gyeonggi, where the order is in force until Monday, said it had dropped a separate requirement for negative tests by foreigners being hired for jobs.

Malaysia denounced North Korea’s move as unwarranted and disruptive to regional peace, adding that the extradition had been carried out according to law.

Taiwan: China bolstering ability to attack, blockade islandREUTERS — TAIPEI

China is bolstering its ability to attack and blockade Taiwan, deploying long-range missiles to prevent foreign forces helping in the event of war and using psychological warfare to undermine faith in Taiwan’s military, the island’s defence ministry said.

The ministry, in its once-every-four-years defence review, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, warned China was deploying “grey zone” warfare tactics to subdue the Chinese-claimed island, seeking to wear Taiwan down with repeated drills and activities near its airspace and waters.

“China has continued to modernise its military and increase its capability in a war with Taiwan,” it said.

China’s Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

China views democratic Taiwan as its own territory, and has ramped up military activ-ities in recent months, seeking to assert its sovereignty and

express displeasure at Wash-ington’s support for the island.

The review offered sobering details about the threat Taiwan faces from the world’s largest armed forces.

It said China was building copies of Taiwanese facilities so it could train to attack them and was conducting landing drills to simulate invading Taiwan.

China has the ability to par-tially shut down Taiwan’s key ports and sea routes and cut off sea transport to the island, while its deployment of long-distance missiles is aimed at stopping foreign forces from assisting Taiwan, it said.

China’s “hostility and

threats against us have increased, elevating the risks of an accident and conflict and destroying stability and peace across the Taiwan Strait.”

Chinese aircraft, including drones, are flying repeatedly in Taiwan’s air defence identifi-cation zone, seeking to wear out Taiwan’s air force, it added.

China is also spreading “fake news” in Taiwan to try and “damage people’s faith in the country”, the report said.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said earlier this month that China would resolutely deter any separatist activity seeking Taiwan’s independence.

Taiwan leade Tsai Ing-wen (pictured) says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name, and that she will defend its democracy and sovereignty.

Tsai is overseeing a military modernisation programme, including building submarines, upgrading Taiwan’s air force, and developing long-range mis-siles of its own.

But its armed forces are dwarfed by China’s which is adding stealth jets, aircraft car-riers and other advanced equipment.

Taiwan is a key source of tension between Beijing and Washington, the island’s main arms supplier and international backer, and was raised in high-level Sino-US talks in Alaska on Thursday.

US President Joe Biden’s government has moved to reassure Taiwan that its com-mitment to them is “rock solid”, especially after China stepped up its military activity near the island shortly after Biden’s inauguration.

Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name, and that she will defend its democracy and sovereignty.

07SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021 ASIA

A diplomat of one would-be partner said the Mercosur experience had shown the European Union had become a challenging partner with which to do a trade deal. The lesson drawn was to try to resolve all issues up front to avoid being dragged into a second round of “quasi-negotiations”.

08 SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021VIEWS

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 through a number of initiatives run by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Devel-opment and Qatar Fund for Development has done a tremendous job in last many years to promote education particularly in marginalized communities or in countries facing wars and other natural disasters. It is fact that edu-cation is the force which takes societies on the path to progress, stability and prosperity and can defeat chal-lenges posed by poverty, crime and extremism.

Qatar, represented by Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United Kingdom represented by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that aims to support the education of children in Northwest Syria and provide them with their needs. The agreement aims to provide important resources that would guarantee the contin-uation of the educational process. This cooperation will also strengthen QFFD’s vision of giving hope and pro-moting peace and justice, by providing support to 130,000 children and 11,683 teachers in 435 schools.

Few days ago, the State of Qatar, represented by Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD), and the State of Palestine, represented by the Ministry of Higher Edu-cation and Scientific Research, also signed a memo-randum of understanding (MoU) for a contribution through the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, which is meant to benefit 339 young Palestinians from the marginalised and refugees in the countries of the diaspora, to be imple-mented over a period of five years with co-financing.

The memorandum provides support to Palestinian refugee students and assistance in completing their university education, as an expression of the com-mitment and responsibility of the State of Qatar towards marginalised students and refugees and its support to help them continue their learning journey. In 2014, QFFD in cooperation with the Education Above All Foundation, established Al Fakhoora Program, which is a vital and comprehensive system of education in Gaza that aims to restore and reconstruct universities and schools demolished by the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

Earlier this month, Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and the Ministry of Education in the Republic of Kenya had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in support of equitable access to quality primary education for out-of school children (OOSC) in Kenya, which will be delivered by Unicef. Contributions stemming from the signing of this MoU will support education opportunities for 250,000 OOSC, reaching the most marginalised children, including those with disabilities in urban informal settlements and arid and semi-arid lands. The programme will be implemented by Education Above All Foundation’s (EAA) strategic partner, Unicef, and aims to increase the capacity and accountability of communities to enhance the enrolment and retention of OOSC.

Education for prosperous tomorrow

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Quote of the day

The US trial over the killing of George Floyd

presents a "crucial, defining opportunity for justice”

that has been denied to countless other families,

urging efforts to address the root causes of racial

discrimination.

Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

A file picture shows leaders posing for an official photo at Mercosur trade bloc annual summit in Luque.

As the European Union looks forward to a fresh start with the United States under a new president, it is riddled with doubts over another transat-lantic relationship.

A trade pact struck in 2019 with the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay after two decades of talks promised to be the EU’s largest deal, with the removal of 4 billion euros ($4.8 billion) of import tariffs on its products.

But two years later, it is unclear when - or whether - it will enter force due to Europe’s concerns over Amazon deforestation and scepticism about Brazil’s commitment to tackling climate change under Pres-ident Jair Bolsonaro.

The doubts are amplified by a new EU trade strategy unveiled in February that says would-be partners of the world’s richest trade bloc should uphold standards on the environment and labour rights.

While few noticed when the EU began talks with Mer-cosur in 1999, scrutiny of trade deals has since

intensified, particularly after the bloc launched Transat-lantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotia-tions with the United States in 2013, drawing mass protests.

The EU seeks greater cooperation with the United States on trade now U.S. Pres-ident Joe Biden has replaced Donald Trump, but TTIP talks, suspended in 2016, will not be revived. The Mercosur saga is being closely watched by other potential partners, aware that an investment accord agreed with China in December also faces close inspection.

“Trade is hard enough as it is. These extra issues just make it more difficult for the EU to do deals with anyone else,” said David Henig, a director at pro-free trade think tank ECIPE.

Apart from Australia and New Zealand, there were no “easy deals” left on the horizon for the EU, Henig said, noting potentially tough negotiations to come with ASEAN countries, including Indonesia and the Philippines.

Portugal, with close ties to South America, made con-cluding the deal a priority of its presidency of EU affairs in the first half of 2021, saying Europe’s credibility was at stake. A trade accord needs backing from the European Parliament and EU members to enter force and far from all are convinced.

France and Ireland, both beef producers wary of meat imports, threatened to block the deal months after it was agreed, as fires ripped

through Brazil’s rainforest.Austria has since taken the

lead. “No to Mercosur” is written into its new gov-ernment accord and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler, a Green, wrote to Portugal’s prime minister this month, saying Austria would “do its utmost” to oppose the deal.

Brazil’s agriculture min-ister Tereza Cristina Dias and the vice president Hamilton Mourao say environmental concerns are a mask for European protectionism. But both sides recognise the agreement will not pass in its current form.

Brazil, the fifth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, has aggressive long-term plans to cut emissions and curb deforestation, but Bol-sonaro’s weakening of envi-ronmental enforcement has shaken confidence they can be reached.

Critics say 15 pages in the existing Mercosur text on labour and the environment lack teeth. The European Commission now proposes securing clearer commit-ments. It won broad support from EU countries for the idea this month. Mercosur coun-tries say they are awaiting a text on climate change and deforestation.

One Mercosur diplomat, asking not to be named, cau-tioned it should be balanced, not just list EU demands.

The European Parliament wants a commitment to mon-itoring and enforcement of universal standards and clear consequences for violations.

“Without this, then it

would be problematic. There are some critical voices in more or less every political group,” Bernd Lange, chair of the parliament’s trade com-mittee, said.

The parliament rejected a multi-country anti-counter-feiting trade agreement on counterfeiting in 2012, but Lange said the parliament preferred to improve than to reject deals.

“It’s now up to the negoti-ation process to find a solution.” What awaits are renewed talks with an unclear end date.

French Trade Minister Frank Riester has said France wants, for example, to see what Brazil will do at the United Nations climate change conference in November, giving France the chance to push the deal in early 2022 when it has the EU presidency.

However, that would coincide with French Pres-ident Emmanuel Macron’s campaign for re-election in a potentially tight race, in which a Mercosur deal could cost him support.

Some advise waiting even further into next year, with Brazil’s presidential election due in October.

A diplomat of one would-be partner said the Mercosur experience had shown the European Union had become a challenging partner with which to do a trade deal. The lesson drawn was to try to resolve all issues up front to avoid being dragged into a second round of “quasi-negotiations”.

THE WASHINGTON POST

There have been many moments when it seemed as though the United States would tackle climate change, only for hopes to be dashed. Now,it has another chance. President Joe Biden promised to put global warming at the top of his agenda, and congressional Democrats, for now clinging to narrow majorities, are beginning to offer plans.

The danger is imminent. The world cannot afford another round of nice-sounding proposals followed by inaction. Congress must go big on climate change.

One plan, the sprawling Clean Future Act, released earlier this month by the leaders of several House com-mittees, would have the country reach net-zero

greenhouse emissions by mid-century, starting with massive decarbonization of the electricity sector over the next decade. The bill would require utilities to derive increasing amounts of their electricity from clean sources, which include renewables, nuclear power and, for a limited time and at a dis-counted rate, natural-gas-fired power plants. The bill would invest in electric car infrastructure, compensate coal country for lost jobs and ask states to develop emis-sions-cutting plans that would address any areas federal programs failed to cover.

Elements of the Clean Future Act might have bipar-tisan appeal, but the package as a whole is unlikely to attract GOP support. No doubt sensing that Democrats would seek to impose emissions

regulations and mandates, as does the Clean Future Act, some Republicans and industry players have begun talking up market-based reforms that would be less costly and disruptive. Major oil companies now favor taxing at some level the carbon content of fuels such as gasoline. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called for such a tax in February. Even the American Petroleum Institute, a longtime opponent of climate action, is reportedly considering endorsing a carbon tax.

These voices should have spoken up a decade ago. Democrats have been reluctant to embrace such a plan since 2010, when they proposed a carbon pricing bill and slammed into a wall of coal-state and industry oppo-sition. Since then, the left has

soured on market-based emissions policies. Many Democrats now favor massive spending and regulations instead.

But market-based incen-tives should be part of any climate legislation, for reasons of policy and politics alike. Democrats need more than their side to get a com-prehensive bill. They need 10 Republican votes to reach 60 in the Senate. The only other option is using reconciliation, a parliamentary maneuver that allows budget-related bills to pass the Senate by a simple majority. But climate mandates would not qualify for reconciliation. Using rec-onciliation, Democrats could enact massive federal sub-sidies but not climate regula-tions. They also could impose carbon taxes, or a mix of carbon taxes and spending.

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European countries occupy nine of the top 10 spots on the list of the world’s happiest places, with New Zealand rounding out the group. The top 10 countries are Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Austria.

09SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021 EUROPE

Happiness Report: World shows resilience in face of COVID-19AP —STOCKHOLM

The coronavirus brought a year of fear and anxiety, loneliness and lockdown, and illness and death, but an annual report on happiness around the world released yesterday suggests the pandemic has not crushed people’s spirits.

The editors of the 2021 World Happiness Report found that while emotions changed as the pandemic set in, longer-term satisfaction with life was less affected.

“What we have found is that when people take the long view, they’ve shown a lot of resilience in this past year,” Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, one of the report’s co-author, said from New York.

The annual report, produced by the UN Sustainable Devel-opment Solutions Network, ranks 149 countries based on gross domestic product per person, healthy life expectancy and the

opinions of residents. Surveys ask respondents to

indicate on a 1-10 scale how much social support they feel they have if something goes wrong, their freedom to make their own life choices, their sense of how corrupt their society is and how generous they are.

Due to the pandemic, the surveys were done in slightly fewer than 100 countries for this year’s World Happiness Report, the ninth one compiled since the project started. Index rankings for the other nations was based on estimates from past data.

The results from both methods had European coun-tries occupying nine of the top 10 spots on the list of the word’s happiest places, with New Zealand rounding out the group. The top 10 countries are Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Austria.

It was the fourth

consecutive year that Finland came out on top. The United States, which was at No. 13 five years ago, slipped from 18th to 19th place. On a shortened list ranking only those countries surveyed, the US placed 14th.

“We find year after year that life satisfaction is reported to be happiest in the social democ-racies of northern Europe,” Sachs said. “People feel secure in those countries, so trust is high. The government is seen to be credible and honest, and trust in each other is high.”

Finland’s comparative success in curbing COVID-19 may have contributed to the

enduring trust the country’s people have in their gov-ernment. The country took rapid and extensive measures to stop the spread of the virus and has one of Europe’s lowest COVID-19 mortality rates.

“In Finland as well, of course, people have been suf-fering,” Anu Partanen, author of The Nordic Theory of Every-thing said yesterday in Helsinki. “But again in Finland and the Nordic countries, people are really lucky because society still supports a system buffering these sorts of shocks.”

Overall, the index showed little change in happiness levels

compared to last years’ report, which was based on information from before the pandemic. “We asked two kinds of questions. One is about the life in general, life evaluation, we call it. How is your life going? The other is about mood, emotions, stress, anxiety. What we have found is that when people take the the long view, they’ve shown a lot of resilience in this past year,” Sachs said.

“Of course, we’re still in the middle of a deep crisis. But the responses about long-term life evaluation did not change deci-sively, though the disruption in our lives was so profound.” Issues that affect the well-being of people living in the United States include racial tensions and growing income inequality between the richest and poorest residents, happiness experts say.

“As for why the US ranks much lower than other similarly or even less wealthy countries, the answer is straightforward,” said Carol Graham, an expert at

The Brookings Institution who was not involved in the report. “The US has larger gaps in hap-piness rankings between the rich and the poor than do most other wealthy countries.”

Report co-author Sonja Lyubormirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, noted that American culture prizes signs of wealth such as big houses and multiple cars more so than other countries, “and material things don’t make us as happy”.

Conversely, people’s per-ception that their country was han-dling the pandemic well con-tributed to an overall rise in well-being, Sachs said. Several Asian countries fared better than they had in last years’ rankings; China moved to 84th place from 94th last year. “This has been a difficult period. People are looking past it when they look for the long term. But there are also many people that are suffering in the short run,” he said.

AstraZeneca jabs resume in Europe after clot scareAP — WARSAW

Countries across Europe resumed vaccinations with the AstraZeneca shot yesterday, as leaders sought to reassure their populations it is safe following brief suspensions that cast doubt on a vaccine that is critical to ending the corona-virus pandemic.

France’s Prime Minister rolled up his sleeve to get the shot and Britain’s planned to, as did a handful of other senior politicians across the continent where the inoculation drive has repeatedly stumbled and several countries are now re-imposing lockdowns as infec-tions rise in many places.

Britain is a notable exception: The outbreak there is receding, and the country has been widely praised for its vac-cination drive, though this week it announced that it, too, would be hit by supply shortages. European Union countries, by contrast, have struggled to quickly roll out vaccines, and the pause of the AstraZeneca shot by many this week only

added to those troubles.The suspensions came after

reports of blood clots in some recipients of the vaccine, even though international health agencies urged governments to press ahead with the shot, saying the benefits outweighed the risks.

On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency said that the vaccine doesn’t increase the overall incidence of blood clots, though it could not rule out a link to a small number of rare clots. The move paved the way for more than a dozen European countries to begin using the vaccine again.

“It’s clear that the revocation of the suspension is for us a great relief because we have to strongly accelerate the vaccination cam-paign,” said Dr. Giovanni Rezza, the head of prevention at the Italian Health Ministry. Rezza said that Italy only reluctantly halted the campaign out of an abun-dance of caution, but needed to ramp it back up quickly to make up for lost time now that EMA had ruled positively.

He said Italy needed to more than double the 200,000

vaccinations per day the country had reached before the suspension to reach its goal of inoculating 80% of the popu-lation by September.

Health experts have expressed concern that even though the suspensions were brief, they would damage con-fidence in the vaccine at a time when many people are already hesitant to take a shot that was developed so quickly.

While many EU countries have struggled with such reluc-tance, it’s even more of a worry in developing nations that may not have any other choice of vaccine. AstraZeneca, which is cheaper and easier to store than many rival products, is key to vaccination drives in many poorer countries.

Amid these concerns, several politicians got the shot yesterday, including French Prime Minister Jean Castex, Slovenia’s President and Prime Minister, and a German state governor. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also plans to. Britain never suspended use of AstraZeneca.

Castex, 55, said he wanted to show full confidence in the shot. The former director of the Pasteur Institute, Patrick Berche, told BFMTV the move was “a very beautiful gesture.” But some French might look askance since he was the first to get a dose after the suspension.

France restarted the vaccine with some restrictions that seemed aimed at reducing the risk of potential side effects

even further. Other countries that are resuming their use of AstraZeneca shots include Slovenia and Bulgaria, a the Balkan nation of 7 million where only 355,000 people have been vaccinated with a first dose so far — the lowest number in the European Union.

Infections and hospitaliza-tions are rising dramatically in many parts of Europe, with many officials saying they are

either entering are already are in a “third wave”.

In Poland, more people are on respirators than at any time since the start of the pandemic and children make up a greater percentage of those hospi-talized. Officials blame the surge on a more transmissible mutation first identified in Britain that is spreading like wildfire in the country, and they say the worst is yet to come.

Prime Minister Jean Castex (55) of France reacts after receiving the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Hopital d’Instruction des Armees Begin, in Saint-Mande, on the outskirts of Paris, yesterday.

Germany: Centre-right frets over ruling CDU’s declineREUTERS — BERLIN

Germany’s pro-business Free Democrats, emerging as a pivotal force ahead of September elec-tions, worry that declining support for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats could scupper their chances of joining up to keep the centre-right in power.

An internal Free Democrats (FDP) analysis reveals that the party privately considers the CDU’s slide in two state elec-tions last weekend as a potential “catastrophe” for the centre-right camp, even as the FDP publicly celebrates its own resurgence.

The document, obtained by Reuters, describes Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), as a “powder keg” ready to explode over their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The CDU/CSU alliance, known as the Union, benefited early in the pandemic from a “rally round the flag” effect, the FDP said, as voters backed Merkel in a time of crisis. A “halo” effect saw her popularity spread across her party, but this had evaporated.

“Confidence in good gov-ernance has been met with serious management failures in government,” the FDP document read, citing problems with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, test kits and bridging grants.

The report is significant because the FDP, which is led by the 42-year-old Christian Lindner and has been emboldened by gains in a regional vote last Sunday, are potential kingmakers in a

national government after Sep-tember’s federal elections.

The CDU slumped to record defeats in two state votes on Sunday after its muddled pan-demic response, setting back its prospects at the federal elec-tions, which they will face without Merkel, who is standing down after holding power since 2005.

The CDU’s slump gives the FDP no grounds for celebration, the analysis read, as it opens up the risk of a left-wing coa-lition of the ecologist Greens, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the far-left Linke taking power after the September vote.

“This would be a political catastrophe in view of the chal-lenges facing Germany,” the analysis said. The FDP has been strongly critical of the ruling CDU/CSU alliance over its han-dling of the pandemic and for what it says is a violation of civil liberties from lockdown measures.

In the southwestern auto-motive hub of Baden-Wuert-temberg, the FDP increased its share of the vote in Sunday’s state election to 10.5% from 8.3% in the previous poll in 2016.

The gains opened the way for a potential regional alliance of the Greens, SPD and FDP, dubbed a ‘traffic light’ coalition after the parties’ colours. Before Sunday’s vote, the Greens had ruled in coalition with Merkel’s party. Agreement on a traffic light coalition in Baden-Wuert-temberg would bolster the chances of the same parties seeking a national coalition in September, a scenario that would cast Merkel’s conserva-tives into opposition for the first time since 2005.

UN biodiversity summit delayed againREUTERS — BRUSSELS

A UN biodiversity summit, held up as the chance to strike a global agreement to protect the planet’s plants, animals and ecosystems, has been delayed for a second time, the organ-isers said yesterday.

The event will now take place from October 11-24 in Kunming, China, the United Nations said in a statement, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the cause of the delay. The summit had been originally scheduled for October 2020, before the pandemic pushed it back to May 2021.

Nearly 200 countries will negotiate the text of a new

global treaty on protecting nature — akin to the 2015 Paris Agreement, under which nearly 200 countries pledged to take action to avert catastrophic climate change.

With growing recognition that it will not be possible to tackle climate change without restoring the health of nature, scientists have said a minimum of 30% of the planet must be safeguarded through protected areas and conservation.

A draft of the Kunming agreement included this pledge, which has the backing of the EU, Canada and Britain.

By expanding protected areas — which can mean curbing or banning commercial

or extraction activities, or restoring forests and wetlands — the aim is to slow the species loss that threatens not only the environment, but the economy.

The non-profit Nature Con-servancy has warned that 30% to 50% of all species could be lost by 2050, triggering huge economic losses. Losing bees, butterflies and other pollinators could cause a drop in annual agricultural output worth $217 billion.

The rescheduled conference is due to take place one month before the United Nations’ next major climate summit, which is scheduled for November 2021, having been delayed by a year.

Bulgaria charges six people over alleged spy ring

REUTERS — SOFIA

Bulgarian prosecutors said yesterday that they had charged six Bulgarians, including senior officials from the defence ministry and military intelli-gence, with spying for Russia.

Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev said it was the first time such a spy ring had been uncovered in Bulgaria since the end of the World War Two.

Five of the suspects were arrested in a large-scale oper-ation by national security officers in Sofia on Thursday, when one of the men tried to escape, the prosecutors said.

They said a former senior official from Bulgarian military intelligence had recruited people with access to classified information from Bulgaria, Nato and the European Union.

The leader of the group used his wife to pass the information to an official at the Russian embassy in Sofia, said Siyka Mileva, a spokeswoman at the state prosecution’s office. “We can conclude that the criminal group has posed a serious threat for the national security by col-lecting and handing to a foreign country information which constitutes state secrets of Bulgaria, Nato and the European Union,” she said.

The prosecutors said the group had been operating for a long time and that the investi-gation was ongoing. Bulgaria, an EU and Nato member, has expelled six Russian diplomats for suspected spying in the past two years. Russia remains Bul-garia’s biggest energy supplier and the two countries retain close cultural and other links.

Park bloomTwo women sit on a bench in Greenwich Park, amid the coronavirus disease outbreak in London, Britain, yesterday.

Cases have been rising in Germany, driven by an easing of restrictions in recent weeks just as a more transmissible variant of the virus has spread, underlining the need to accelerate vaccinations to protect the vulnerable.

10 SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021EUROPE

Germany warns vaccinations alone will not contain virusREUTERS — BERLIN

Germany’s health minister warned yesterday that there was not enough vaccine in Europe to contain the COVID-19 third wave, as the country sought to get its rollout back on track following a three-day pause in using the AstraZeneca shot.

Case numbers have been rising in Germany, driven by an easing of restrictions in recent weeks just as a more transmis-sible variant of the virus has spread, underlining the need to accelerate vaccinations to protect the vulnerable.

Health Minister Jens Spahn defended the suspension, which was lifted on Thursday after European Union regulators said the benefits outweighed the risk, as providing transparency.

“We can reintroduce Astra-Zeneca but prudently with informed doctors and appropri-ately educated citizens,” he said in a weekly news conference.

But he warned that vacci-nations alone would not be able to contain the third wave as there are not enough doses, and said restrictions that were lifted may have to be reimposed to contain the spread of the virus.

“The rising case numbers may mean that we cannot take further opening steps in the weeks to come. On the con-trary, we may even have to take steps backwards,” Spahn said.

State leaders are also due to discuss with Chancellor Angela Merkel later ways to speed up the

vaccination campaign, among other by allowing family doctors to start administering doses at their surgeries.

The suspension was the latest hurdle in Germany’s vac-cination campaign, which has been plagued by delivery delays and news reports of side-effects. As of yesterday, just 8.5% of the population had received a first shot.

German state leaders said they were ready to quickly catch up on lost time. In Berlin, anyone who was due to receive an AstraZeneca shot earlier in the week can turn up at vacci-nation centres this weekend without an appointment.

Meanwhile, the premier of the southwestern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Win-fried Kretschmann, 72, is due to receive an AstraZeneca vac-cination, in a move to shore up confidence. But Bodo Ramelow,

the premier of Thuringia in eastern Germany, said he would not advise his wife, who needs to use blood thinners due to a risk of thrombosis, to get the Astra-Zeneca shot although he would do so himself.

Karl Lauterbach, the main health expert of the SPD, Mer-kel’s junior coalition partner, said it was important to not create the impression that the AstraZeneca vaccine was not suitable for younger women.

In Germany, eight people were diagnosed with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) within about two weeks of being vaccinated. They were among the 1.6 million recipients of the shot as of Wednesday, with CVST cases higher among women.

Lauterbach said the higher incidence could be due to the fact that younger women work in the health sector or in kin-dergartens, groups that have received the AstraZeneca vaccine in higher numbers.

Spahn said he hoped vacci-nations could take place in doctors’ practices from April 19 at the latest, but warned that supply would remain restricted.

Germany expects to receive 15 million doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine in the second quarter, a few million fewer than initially expected, he said. Spahn also spoke out in favour of signing a supply deal for the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19, but said there needed to be greater clarity on the quantities available.

France recommends AstraZeneca for over-55 onlyREUTERS — PARIS

France’s medical regulator approved the resumption of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vacci-nations yesterday, but in a break with guidance from the European watchdog said it should be given only to people aged 55 and older.

Medical staff said the French recommendation, which came just weeks after Paris had ini-tially said the Anglo-Swedish vaccine should be used only on people under 65, risked con-fusing the public and deepening public mistrust in the vaccine.

On Thursday, the European

Medicines Agency said the vaccine was safe for all age groups. It said it was convinced the benefits outweighed the risks after reports of rare instances of blood clotting.

However, France’s National Authority for Health (HAS) took note of evidence that the clotting affected younger people mostly, whose risk of dying from COVID-19 was lower than the elderly, and departed from the EMA’s line.

“When it comes to Astra-Zeneca, I have to say I sympa-thize with those who struggle to make sense of it all,” said Marie-Louise Pradin, a doctor

based in the northern city of Lille. “The reports of adverse effects don’t look good. But we, as professionals, know they are rare and not necessarily linked to the vaccine. Now, the HAS puts out this advice. I know many patients will just refuse to take it,” she said.

France was one of more than a dozen European Union states that suspended use of the Anglo-Swedish vaccine this week. An EMA review covering 20 million people in Britain and the European Economic Area, which links 30 European coun-tries, included seven cases of blood clots in multiple blood

vessels and 18 cases of a rare condition that is difficult to treat called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).

The HAS said it would review its opinion soon as new data came in. Guidance would also be given soon to those under 55 who have already received a first dose of Astra-Zeneca, it added.

The new restrictions add yet another complication to France’s troubled vaccination rollout, which has been beset by red tape, supply difficulties and public mistrust.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine is such an important part of our

vaccination campaign. There is no other alternative. We can’t do without it,” said Jacques Bat-tistoni, head of a general prac-titioners’ union.

France has so far delivered 5.7 million first doses — roughly 8% of the population — com-pared with more than 25 million in Britain and more than 100 million in the United States.

Pensioner Damien Gander said he harboured no doubts about the safety of the Astra-Zeneca shot as he received the injection. “Since the beginning, I have believed the vaccine is safe. People are in a panic but there are always side effects.”

'Oh no, not again!’ — People in Paris shudder at new lockdown measuresREUTERS — PARIS

Camila Campodonico was at work in Paris on Thursday evening when the government announced the city was entering a new lockdown to combat COVID-19, and she knew her plans for a get-together with friends this weekend were over.

“I heard that and I said: ‘Oh no, not again. A lockdown.’ I wasn’t very happy,” said Cam-podonico, a student from Argentina who is working tem-porarily for a marketing company. With intensive care units close to overflowing,

French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that Paris res-idents could only leave home for essential trips or exercise, and non-essential travel to other parts of the country was banned.

Large numbers of Paris res-idents headed to railway sta-tions yesterday morning so they could get out of the city before the restrictions, due to last for a month, come into force at midnight.

At the Gare de l’Est station in Paris, there were long lines of people at the ticket office. People, some with pets, rushed to board trains heading for Strasbourg and Luxembourg.

Valentino Armilli, 27, was going to visit his parents in Thionville, in the Lorraine region in eastern France, for the weekend. He took the decision to go there on Thursday night, because of the new lockdown.

“My parents had COVID-19 a month ago and I have not seen them since. This weekend is the last time for a long while that I’ll be able to see them,” he said.

At the Montparnasse train station, Anna Henry, a 21-year-old student, said she had decided to go to her parents’ place in Brittany, western France, describing the latest Paris lockdown as “a bit too much”.

Madrid maverick banks on relaxed COVID-19 stance for re-electionREUTERS — MADRID

The conservative leader of Spain’s Madrid region has for months defied the leftist central government and health author-ities by keeping bars and shops open during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now Isabel Diaz Ayuso is betting on a snap election in May, which she called in a surprise move last week, to vindicate her policy and win more sway over the country’s wealthiest region, whose economic mainstay is trade and services.

Madrid has been the only major European capital to

maintain social life practically unrestricted since a nationwide lockdown ended in mid-2020. Its open bars and cultural venues have attracted visitors from a locked-down neigh-bouring France.

Other regions have shut non-essential activities as advised by health experts. The central government had let regional authorities manage the pandemic response after the end of a devastating first wave.

Madrid’s infection rates have been higher than else-where in mainland Spain lately, but Ayuso, 42, argues they were never out of control and are a

tolerable risk. She says “health is not just about not getting infected”, but also about pre-serving social interaction and keeping the economy afloat.

Madrid still has an 11pm curfew and a ban on members of different households gathering under the same roof as part of Ayuso’s “balanced response”.

While some epidemiologists are critical of her loose stance, they say infection rates have lately been kept in check by the fact a large part of Madrid’s pop-ulation have antibodies because of previous infection. In the first wave, the region was hit hard and thousands died, even with the

general lockdown in place.Opinion polls give Ayuso

and the conservative People’s Party (PP) she represents 40% support among likely voters, about double the result in the previous election in May 2019, and well ahead of Spain’s main ruling Socialist Party, on 28%.

“It is very likely that we will see a group of progressive but also entrepreneurial voters back Ayuso because she has left businesses open,” said Maria Jose Canel, a political scientist at Complutense University.

Analysts such as Ignacio Jurado of Carlos III University say Ayuso’s frequent clashes

with the leftist government have likely boosted her popu-larity as much, if not more, than her pandemic management.

Opponents label her a pop-ulist in the mould of former Pres-ident Donald Trump. The election is seen as a mid-term test for Spain’s fragmented political class that could point to new trends.

To win re-election, career politician Ayuso, whose cam-paign slogan is “Socialism or freedom”, would still need the support of the far-right Vox party, whose backing in the regional assembly brought her to power in 2019 in a coalition with the centrist Ciudadanos.

Switzerlandpostpones plansto lift curbs

REUTERS — ZURICH

Switzerland has postponed plans to relax its COVID-19 restrictions, the government said yesterday, citing increasing coronavirus cases and insufficient progress on vaccinations.

Switzerland had planned to allow outdoor events like football matches and concerts with up to 150 people from Monday as well as allowing restaurants to open terraces to outdoor diners, but instead opted for a more cautious approach as neighbouring France and Germany also rein in reopening.

“The risk of an uncon-trolled increase in the number of cases is currently too great for further openings,” the gov-ernment said yesteray. “In addition, too few people have yet been vaccinated to prevent a sharp rise in hospitaliza-tions.” The number of corona-virus cases in Switzerland and neighbouring Liechtenstein rose by 1,750 on Thursday, well above the seven-day average of 1,285 cases.

Currently, infections are expected to double every three to four weeks, the gov-ernment said, warning new variants of COVID-19 make up to 80% of the new cases. “We’ve known for awhile that they aren’t merely more infectious, but also more dangerous,” Health Minister Alain Berset said. The gov-ernment did relax restrictions on indoor meetings for fam-ilies and friends, up to 10 people from five previously, ahead of Easter.

Hospitals in Vienna straining as country weighs opening terraces

REUTERS — VIENNA

Vienna’s hospitals are close to the level of strain from COVID-19 reached last autumn that forced a lockdown to be imposed, Austria’s health minister said yesterday, days before a decision on whether to let restaurants open outdoors.

Infections have been steadily increasing since Austria loosened its third lockdown on February 8 by letting non-essential shops reopen despite stubbornly high COVID-19 cases at the time. A nighttime curfew replaced all-day restrictions on movement.

Austria has recorded 504,581 cases of the disease so far, including 8,982 deaths. The number of new infections reported rose above 3,500 yes-terday, the highest level since early December, when cases were falling during the second national lockdown.

The government plans to let restaurant, cafe and club terraces reopen on March 27, a decision it will review on Monday. “In some regions we have a situ-ation that I think is really alarming as far as the situation in intensive care wards is con-cerned,” Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said.

Of Austria’s nine provinces, the strain is greatest in Vienna and the province surrounding it, Lower Austria, as well as Burgenland, wedged between Lower Austria and Hungary, Anschober said. “We are no longer far away from the capacity utilisation situation that we had in the autumn,” Anschober said of those provinces.

Public health agency AGES’s coronavirus dashboard shows the utilisation rate of intensive care beds is highest in Burgenland at 79%, followed by Lower Austria with 50% and Vienna on 48%.

Passengers walk to board a train at Montparnasse railway station in Paris as the French capital will enter at midnight its third lockdown imposed to slow the rate of the coronavirus disease contagion, in France yesterday.

Call for action on climate changeFridays for Future activists protest calling for a “Global Day of Climate Action”, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues, in Vienna, Austria, yesterday.

EU to back vaccine export checks when leadersmeet next week

REUTERS — BRUSSELS

EU leaders will endorse prolonged export checks and seek to coordinate an eventual lifting of travel curbs when they meet next week to discuss COVID-19 vaccination shortages, according to a draft decision seen by Reuters.

The bloc is facing a third wave of the pandemic but has been struggling to ensure enough vaccines, its sluggish inoculation campaign falling behind those of Britain, the United States and Israel.

“Accelerating the pro-duction, delivery and deployment of vaccines remains essential to overcome the crisis,” the 27 national leaders are due to say in a joint statement following their next talks on March 25-26.

The leaders will also discuss the latest threat by their exec-utive European Commission to stop exports to Britain, which the EU says has not shared shots amid cuts in deliveries to the bloc promised by the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca.

While France, Germany and Italy broadly support tighter export curbs on those who do not reciprocate, coun-tries including the Nether-lands, Belgium and Ireland are more cautious about cutting off the UK.

EU countries have often failed to stick to a joint approach on COVID-19, fighting over vaccines and equipment, or introducing uni-lateral travel and border checks that weigh on trade and businesses inside the bloc.

By a vote of 228-197, the Democratic-controlled House passed the Dreamers bill with only nine Republicans supporting it. The legislation would allow Dreamers to live, work, serve in the military and continue their educations without the threat of deportation and to eventually win US citizenship if they meet a set of requirements.

11SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021 AMERICAS

US House approves protections for ‘Dreamers’REUTERS — WASHINGTON

The US House of Representa-tives on Thursday passed bills providing a pathway to citi-zenship for immigrants nick-named “Dreamers”, who are living illegally in the United States after entering as children, as well as for a large number of immigrant farmworkers.

The two measures now go to the deeply divided Senate where they face a difficult climb.

By a vote of 228-197, the Democratic-controlled House passed the Dreamers bill with only nine Republicans supporting it. The legislation would allow Dreamers to live, work, serve in the military and continue their educations without the threat of deportation and to eventually win US citizenship if they meet a set of requirements.

The House then approved the farmworker bill, 247-174, to shield about 1 million immigrant laborers, many of whom have

been in the United States for decades, from deportation.

Both measures are among several attempts by Democrats to reverse former President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.

The legislation coincides with Democratic President Joe Biden’s efforts to contain the number of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border, many of whom are fleeing dangerous conditions in Central America.

Many Republicans attacked the Dreamer legislation, saying the southwest border needed to be secured before taking any new steps on immigration reforms. Dreamers, numbering around 1.8 million young immi-grants, made the dangerous journey on their own, with parents or hired hands, often to escape gang violence in Hon-duras, Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries.

Many have spent most of their lives in the United States

and have been educated in US schools. During Thursday’s debate over the Dreamer bill, Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal noted she came from India to the United States alone at the age of 16, saying, “Let’s stop the hypocrisy of criminalizing immigrants.”

But Republican Represent-ative Chip Roy said Democrats were doing “nothing to address cartels who have ownership of our border right now” and are pushing legislation that would prove to be “a magnet for traffic of more children”.

The White House backed both bills. But it also urged law-makers to adopt broader reforms in Biden’s sweeping immigration bill introduced last month, saying this would secure the border and “address the root causes of instability and unsafe conditions causing migration from Central America”.

Biden’s wide-ranging plan would provide a path to US cit-izenship to the 11 million immi-grants in the country illegally. The Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, said this week that goal does not have enough

support in the House or Senate.“We can’t keep waiting,”

Biden wrote on Twitter. “I urge Congress to come together to find long term solutions to our entire immigration system so we can create a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system, tackle the root causes of migration and legalize the undocumented population in the United States.”

The bills passed on Thursday got a boost from the US Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lob-bying group, which cited worries over immigrant workers’ “uncertain future”.

It also noted that American workers employed at busi-nesses established by Dreamers would gain job security from the legislation and that visa improvements for agriculture workers would help US opera-tions with year-round labor needs, such as dairy farms.

The Dreamers bill also

would help a separate group of immigrants, who came from countries that were devastated by civil wars and natural dis-asters, and had qualified for temporary protections in the United States.

As president, Trump rolled back the Temporary Protected Status program. In 2017 he also rescinded former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program aimed at shielding qualifying Dreamers from deportation.

Court rulings and the Biden administration have kept DACA alive, at least for now. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell panned the House efforts on Thursday, saying they would exacerbate problems at the border, further dimming prospects in that chamber, where a superma-jority of at least 60 of 100 members are needed for most legislation to advance.

Mexico to tighten borders in bid to curb virus spreadREUTERS — MEXICO CITY

Mexico’s government said late on Thursday that it would restrict movement on its southern border with Guatemala to help contain the spread of COVID-19 as the Biden administration set out plans to loan Mexico vaccines to fight the pandemic.

Mexico’s announcement that it would curb travel on the Guatemala frontier dovetails with its preparations to step up enforcement efforts in the area against surging illegal immigration, according to a Reuters report.

The mutually beneficial steps follow weeks of diplomacy to address concerns over rising apprehensions of migrants trying to enter the United States, many of them unaccompanied minors, as well as setbacks to Mexico’s initial vaccine rollout.

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has drawn heavy fire from Republican opponents over the mounting challenge posed by the border. Mean-while, his Mexican counterpart has pressed him for vaccines to offset shortages as midterm elections approach.

Andres Rozental, a former Mexican deputy foreign minister for North America, said it looked

as though a trade-off was occurring, even if it was unlikely that any senior figures in either administration would admit that publicly. “It’s a give and take, a win-win for both,” he said.

When asked if the two countries had done a quid pro quo, White House spokes-woman Jen Psaki said border security and Mexico’s vaccine requests were part of “multiple layers” of dialogue between governments that were “unre-lated” in origin. Roberto Velasco, a senior Mexican foreign ministry official, told local radio the two announce-ments were not linked, and belonged to parallel discussions between the governments.

Confirming details, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico and the United States were crafting a deal for 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, and that he would reveal more soon.

“This would be the best start for a broad cooperation on vac-cines,” Ebrard wrote on Twitter.

A US official said that under the loan deal, Mexico would receive doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine that the United States is not using. Canada is also set to receive 1.5 million

Asylum-seeking migrants from Central America, who were airlifted from McAllen to El Paso, Texas, and deported from the US, talk to a Mexican government employee outside the office of the Center for Integral Attention to Migrants (CAIM) in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Thursday.

doses under the accord.With promised deliveries

slow to materialize, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has cast about worldwide for vaccines, eager to inoculate as many Mexicans as possible before legislative elections on June 6. Mexico’s foreign min-istry said that to contain COVID-19, restrictions for non-essential crossings on its borders with the United States and Guatemala took effect yes-terday, and remain in place until midnight of April 21.

In recent months, Mexico had announced extensions to travel restrictions on its US

border without mentioning the frontier with Guatemala, where new daily COVID-19 cases are now substantially lower than they were in January.

Mexico’s own infections have fallen sharply in the last few weeks, and the two southern states covering most of the border with Guatemala are at the lowest alert level.

Guatemala is one of three Central American countries struggling with poverty and vio-lence that have helped drive migration to the United States.

Notwithstanding US con-cerns, Mexico’s government has itself been worried about the

sudden influx of migrants.Former official Rozental said

that even if Mexico stemmed the flow from Central America, it faced a tougher time stopping its own citizens heading for the United States, with the Mexican economy still weak and expec-tations for a US recovery growing.

Biden’s friendlier approach to immigration compared with that of his Republican prede-cessor, Donald Trump, and his $1.9 trillion economic stimulus plan would only serve as a “pull factor,” Rozental argued. “The word is out,” he said, “that it’s easier to get to the United States than it was.”

Gunmen kill 13 police in daytime ambush in central MexicoREUTERS — MEXICO CITY

Gunmen killed at least 13 Mexican police in an ambush a short distance outside the capital on Thursday, local authorities said, in one of the worst mass slayings of security forces to rock the country in recent years.

Photos of the grisly scene circulated on social media showing a bullet-riddled police car and an unmarked truck, along with officers’ bodies scat-tered out along the street or still inside the car.

The convoy of security per-sonnel was attacked in broad daylight by suspected gang members in the Llano Grande area in the municipality of Coatepec Harinas as it patrolled the area, said Rodrigo Mar-tinez-Celis, security minister for the State of Mexico.

Eight of the slain officers were state police, while five other were police assigned to the state prosecutor’s office.

The area is southwest of Mexico City and about 64km south of the city of Toluca, the

capital of the populous State of Mexico, which surrounds much of the capital. “This attack

is an affront to the Mexican state. We will respond with all force and support of the law,” the minister said.

Mexico’s National Guard mil-itarized police and the armed forces are searching by land and air for the perpetrators.

It was unclear how many suspected criminals were killed or wounded in the incident, or if it involved any of the coun-try’s main drug cartels.

Cuba okays second homegrown vaccine for late phase trialsREUTERS — HAVANA

Cuba’s drug regulatory authority late on Thursday approved a second COVID-19 vaccine candidate for late-stage clinical trials as the country races to secure a homegrown shot to quell its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic and sell abroad.

The Communist-run Car-ibbean island nation, which has long experience with developing and exporting vaccines, is one of a handful in the region that have not started vaccinating against COVID-19, as it is counting on its own candidates.

This month, Cuba started late-phase trials of its most advanced experimental vaccine, named Soberana (Sov-ereignty) 2, reflecting national pride in its relative self-reliance in areas like healthcare despite the decades-old US trade embargo.

On Thursday, the Cuban regulatory authority gave the green light for it to start such trials for Abdala, named after a poem by 19th century Cuban independence hero Jose Marti, which like Soberana 2 targets the spike protein of the novel coronavirus.

Authorities will start

recruiting about 48,000 vol-unteers between the ages of 19 and 80 in Cuba’s eastern prov-inces for a randomized, pla-cebo-controlled trial of the three-shot vaccine next week, according to Cuba’s official reg-istry of clinical trials.

The study is to be com-pleted in July, with first results due for publication in August. Cuba is going through its worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic after opening its borders late last year.

The island of 11 million inhabitants is registering 600-1,000 daily cases, well above the scores or a handful per day for most of last year, although its cumulative tallies of cases and deaths at 64,414 and 384 respectively remain well below the global averages per capita.

The government has vowed to vaccinate the entire popu-lation this year with one of its five experimental shots in development.

Critics argue any vaccine development is a gamble and it should be acquiring shots already approved to start immunizing the most vul-nerable sectors of the popu-lation while it awaits results from its own trials.

Obrador thanks Biden for COVID-19 shots to ease shortageREUTERS — MEXICO CITY

Mexico President thanked his US counterpart Joe Biden yesterday for agreeing to provide 2.7 million COVID-19 vaccines to help offset a shortfall in its inoculation drive.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news briefing that the United States will send doses of Astra-Zeneca’s vaccine, which are slightly more than the 2.5 million US officials had previ-ously indicated.

“We thank President Biden for sending us these vaccines,” Lopez Obrador said in the eastern state of Veracruz, noting the deal was reached on good terms for Mexico and that he hoped the vaccines would be arriving from next week.

Due to delays in promised deliveries, Mexico has scrambled to obtain enough vaccines for its inoculation plans, leaning increasingly on Russia and China to secure doses. Lopez Obrador said that in return for the vaccines, Mexico would give the United States what it had “always” given, namely “friendship and cooperation across all spheres”.

He said that the vaccines would help Mexico reach its goal of inoculating its popu-lation of 126 million, beginning with a first shot for all people over 60 by the end of April.

Venezuelan farmers seek permission to import diesel

REUTERS — CARACAS

Venezuelan farmers said on Thursday that they had asked the government to allow them to import diesel themselves to alleviate shortages of the fuel that are hindering food production and distribution.

Diesel has become scarce in the crisis-stricken nation amid very low output at state oil company Petroleos de Ven-ezuela’s refining network, and escalating US sanctions barring foreign oil companies from swapping fuel for Vene-zuelan crude.

Groups representing ranchers and milk producers said they were seeking tem-porary authorization due to the current crisis. “We want them to give producers the pos-sibility at least temporarily, given the circumstances, in order to stay afloat,” Armando Chacin, president of the Fed-enaga ranchers’ federation, said.

Truckers say service sta-tions are rationing fuel, while farmers warn that they cannot plant or harvest crops. Roger Figueroa, president of the Cavilac dairy producers’ group, said that producers had gone six weeks without receiving diesel shipments, and warned super-market milk inventories could soon run low. Sugar producers have requested also permission to import diesel from Colombia.

Mexican police officers work at a crime scene where gunmen killed at least 13 officers in an ambush, in Coatepec Harinas, Mexico, on Thursday.

The CDC advises at least 3 feet of space between desks in elementary schools, even in towns and cities where community spread is high, so long as students and teachers wear masks and take other precautions. It said 6 feet should still be maintained in common areas, such as school lobbies, and when masks can’t be worn, such as when eating.

12 SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2021AMERICAS

CDC changes school guidance, allows desks to be closerAP — NEW YORK

Students can safely sit just 3 feet apart in the classroom as long as they wear masks but should be kept the usual 6 feet away from one another at sporting events, assemblies, lunch or chorus practice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday in relaxing its COVID-19 guidelines.

The revised recommenda-tions represent a turn away from the 6-foot standard that has sharply limited how many stu-dents some schools can accom-modate. Some places have had to remove desks, stagger sched-uling and take other steps to keep children apart.

Three feet “gives school dis-tricts greater flexibility to have more students in for a pro-longed period of time,” said Kevin Quinn, director of main-tenance and facilities at Mun-delein High School in Chicago.

In recent months, schools in some states have been dis-regarding the CDC guidelines, using 3 feet as their standard. Studies of what happened in some of them helped sway the agency, said Greta Massetti, who leads the CDC’s com-munity interventions task force.

While there is evidence of improved mental health and other benefits from in-person schooling, “we don’t really have the evidence that 6 feet is required in order to maintain low spread”, she said.

Also, younger children are less likely to get seriously ill from the coronavirus and don’t seem to spread it as much as adults do, and “that allows us that confi-dence that that 3 feet of physical

distance is safe,” Massetti said.The new guidance:� Removes recommenda-

tions for plastic shields or other barriers between desks. “We don’t have a lot of evidence of their effectiveness” in preventing transmission, Massetti said.

� Advises at least 3 feet of space between desks in ele-mentary schools, even in towns and cities where community spread is high, so long as stu-dents and teachers wear masks and take other precautions.

� Says spacing can also be 3 feet in middle and high schools, so long as there is not a high level of spread in the community. If there is, spacing should be at least 6 feet.

The CDC said 6 feet should still be maintained in common areas, such as school lobbies, and when masks can’t be worn, such as when eating.

Also, students should be kept 6 feet apart in situations where there are a lot of people talking, cheering or singing, all of which can expel droplets containing the coronavirus. That includes chorus practice, assemblies and sports events.

Teachers and other adults should continue to stay 6 feet from one another and from stu-dents, the CDC said.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the revised rec-ommendations are an “evi-dence-based roadmap to help schools reopen safely, and remain open, for in-person instruction.” “Safe in-person instruction gives our kids access to critical social and mental health services that prepare them for the future, in addition to the education they need to succeed,” she said.

Last year, the CDC advised that one way for schools to operate safely was by keeping children 6 feet apart.

In contrast, the World Health Organization suggested 1 meter - a little over 3 feet - was sufficient in schools. The American Academy of Pedi-atrics says desks should be 3 feet apart and “ideally” 6 feet.

A recent study in Massachu-setts looked at infections of stu-dents and staff members in schools that used the 3-foot standard and those that used the 6-foot one. It found no significant difference in infection rates. The guidance change comes at a time when new, more contagious var-iants of the coronavirus are increasingly spreading. That means a continued emphasis on mask wearing and other such measures, Massetti said.

US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris receive an update on the fight against the coronavirus disease pandemic as they visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, US, yesterday.

Biden condemns attacks on Asian Americans in AtlantaBLOOMBERG — ATLANTA

President Joe Biden denounced racially motivated attacks on Asian Americans in an Atlanta speech yesterday, following the murders of eight people in shootings this week at spas around the city.

The deaths, which included six Asian women, have raised nationwide alarm about an increase of such incidents during the pandemic. Biden set aside plans for a more political trip in which he would promote his $1.9 trillion stimulus to focus on the violence.

“He understands and knows the past year that the com-munity has been vilified, they’ve been scapegoated and they’ve been attacked,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris also visited the

headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to receive an update on the pandemic.

Police say they’re still inves-tigating the motive of the man they’ve arrested for the shootings, who frequented busi-nesses like the ones he attacked, but the killings renewed con-cerns about threats and violence against Asian Americans after former President Donald Trump repeatedly blamed the corona-virus outbreak on China.

White House Press Sec-retary Jen Psaki said this week that Trump bears some blame for the violence, citing his fre-quently offensive comments about the origins of the virus.

A coalition called Stop AAPI Hate has recorded nearly 3,800 incidents of harassment, assault and civil rights viola-tions against Asian Americans between March 19, 2020 and the end of February, and found

that Asian-American women report “hate incidents” more than twice as often as men. AAPI is an acronym for Asian Amer-icans and Pacific Islanders.

Police arrested Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old White man, in connection with the Atlanta-area murders. Biden tweeted later that day that the motives of the shooter remain unknown but the “Asian-American community is feeling enormous pain tonight.” “The recent attacks against the community are un-American,” Biden said. “They must stop.” The President on Thursday ordered US flags on federal property lowered to half-staff to honor the victims.

Georgia, once a Republican bastion, voted narrowly for Biden in 2020 and then elected two Democrats in runoff elec-tions in January to the Senate, giving the president’s party control of the chamber.

Biden to meet Putin ‘when the time is right’REUTERS — ON BOARD AIR FORCE ONE

US President Joe Biden, who said earlier this week he thought Vladimir Putin was a killer, will meet with the Russian leader “when the time is right,” the White House said yesterday.

“He’s not going to back off,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said. “He’s going to be very frank and very open about that relationship.” On Thursday, Putin said he and Biden should hold live online talks in the coming days.

“The President will meet with President Putin when the time is right,” Jeanne-Pierre said. “President Biden and President Putin have different perspectives of their respective countries, but where they agree is that we should con-tinue to look for ways to work together where it is in our mutual interest.”

Biden doing fine after stumbling while boarding Air Force OneREUTERS — ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE

US President Joe Biden is doing fine after stumbling on the steps as he climbed aboard Air Force One yesterday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

She suggested high winds at Joint Base Andrews near Washington may have been a factor. “It’s very windy outside,” said Jean-Pierre when asked about his stumbling. “He is doing 100 percent fine.” She did not say whether Biden had been checked by a traveling phy-sician after the episode.

Boarding a flight to Atlanta, Biden stumbled slightly about halfway up the 25 or so stairs, recovered, then stumbled again and briefly went down on one knee, according to video footage. The President appeared to rub his left knee before getting back up, then completed the stairs at a slower pace. He stopped at the top of the stairs, turned around and offered a crisp salute.

Four men linked to Proud Boys chargedREUTERS — WASHINGTON

A federal grand jury charged four leaders of the far-right Proud Boys with conspiring to block Congress from certifying US President Joe Biden’s election on the day of a deadly assault on the Capitol, according to court papers unsealed yesterday.

The indictment alleges that Ethan Nordean of Washington, Joseph Biggs of Florida, Zachary Rehl of Pennsylvania and Charles Donohoe of North Carolina conspired to encourage members of the group to attend the Stop the Steal protest in Washington, DC, on January 6.

All four defendants in the superseding indictment released yesterday are the leaders or organizers of Proud Boys chapters in their respective states, the indictment says. It says they worked to obtain par-amilitary equipment used for the attack on the US Capitol, dismantled metal barriers set up to protect the building, and communicated using handheld radios and encrypted mes-saging applications.

It also says the effort included soliciting donations through an online crowd-funding campaign to help the Proud Boys pay for protective gear, and an online fundraiser that generated more than

$5,500 to help cover travel expenses to Washington.

More than 300 people have been charged in connection with the attack which left five people dead after a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.

Approximately 20 people charged to date are associated with the Proud Boys, and some of the others have been tied to anti-government militias such as the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.

The indictment also alleges they made their intentions clear as far back as November, with Biggs declaring in a social media post on November 5, threatening war if the election was stolen from Trump, who lost the vote.

Later that month, on November 27, Nordean declared: “We tried playing nice and by the rules, now you will deal with the monster you created.”

On January 5, 2021, a new encrypted messaging channel called “Boots on the Ground” was created, and more than 60 users participated, including the four defendants and a fifth unindicted co-conspirator, the indictment says.

Biden approval grows as more Americans get jabsREUTERS — NEW YORK

The number of Americans who approve of President Joe Biden has grown steadily since he took office, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling released yesterday, driven by concrete steps his adminis-tration has taken to address the public health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

The March 17-18 national opinion poll found that 59% of adults in the United States approved of Biden’s overall job performance, while 35% disap-proved and 6% said they were

not sure. The number of adults who approve of Biden is up by about 4 percentage points since a poll that ran in late January, and the increase is largely due to a rise in Biden’s popularity among independents.

About six in 10 independents said they approved of Biden in the latest poll, up from about five in 10 who felt the same way in January. The poll found that Americans appear to be the most satisfied with Biden’s handling of the nation’s coronavirus response, and more than half of the country approves of his

influence on the US economy.Sixty-five percent of Amer-

icans said they approved of Biden’s handling of the pan-demic, and 52% of adults said they liked his stewardship of the economy and jobs. The strong approval numbers come as more coronavirus vaccines are administered in the United States, with the country on track to meet the president’s goal of administering 100 million doses well ahead of a late April target.

The United States has been so successful at securing a vaccine stockpile that Biden has

started to make plans for sup-plying other countries with doses of a shot that has yet to receive US authorization. Mean-while, the public also has started to receive cash payments as part of a stimulus plan that Biden and congressional Democrats approved earlier this month.

The poll showed the public was more critical, however, of Biden’s record so far on immi-gration, as the administration confronts an influx of migrants at the southern border with Mexico. About 41% said they approved of Biden’s handling

of the immigration system, while 45% disapproved. Repub-licans were especially critical with 79% saying they disap-proved of Biden’s record on immigration, while 73% of Democrats said they approved of his handling of border issues.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 1,005 adults, including 456 Democrats and 374 Republicans. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of four percentage points.

Request rejected to move trial of former policeman in Floyd death

REUTERS — MINNEAPOLIS

The judge in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of George Floyd, yesterday denied Chau-vin’s request to move his trial to a different county, saying publicity on the case had spread far and wide.

Chauvin’s lead lawyer, Eric Nelson, has complained to the court that publicity around the trial has tainted the jury pool in and around Minneapolis, citing in particular the city’s announcement last week that it would pay Floyd’s relatives $27m to settle their wrongful-death lawsuit.

Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill ruled against Chauvin, saying that delaying or moving the trial would make it no easier to seat an impartial jury in one of the most scrutinized cases in the history of US policing. “I don’t think there’s any place in the state of Minnesota that has not been subjected to extreme amounts of publicity in this case,” Cahill said.

The judge, however, par-tially granted a separate request by Chauvin to show the jury evidence of an earlier episode

A protester carries a “Black Lives Matter” flag during a demonstration in Portland, Oregon, US, in this March 8, 2021 picture.

in which Floyd was arrested by police. That occurred about a year before Chauvin held his knee for about nine minutes on the neck of a handcuffed, prone Floyd on May 25, 2020.

Cahill and the lawyers in the case have questioned 57 potential jurors in court since last week to weigh their impar-tiality as Chauvin, dressed in a suit and tie, takes extensive notes on a yellow legal pad.

All of them said they were aware of video showing Chauvin, who is white, with his knee on Floyd’s neck as Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, begged for his life. Almost all said they had seen at least some of the footage, which sparked global protests against police brutality and racism. Twelve jurors have been seated so far, and the court continued seeking two more members to serve as alternates.

Two autopsy reports con-cluded that Floyd’s death was a homicide, caused in part by the way the arresting officers held him on the ground. Both reports noted Floyd had under-lying health conditions, including hypertension, and the drugs fentanyl and metham-phetamine in his system.

Chauvin has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. One of Chauvin’s main defenses will be to dispute the cause of death, arguing that it was actually the fentanyl, a powerful opioid, that killed him.

Prosecutors from the Min-nesota attorney general’s office have complained the defense is seeking to smear Floyd’s character, and that whether he had high blood pressure or struggled with an addiction is irrelevant to the charges.