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SPORT | 19BUSINESS | 13

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Saturday 7 March 2020

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www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 24 | Number 8189

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TRAFFIC DEATH RATE IN QATAR FALLS

2015: The total number of traffic deaths 2272016: The total number of traffic deaths 178

2017: The total number of traffic deaths 1772018: The total number of traffic deaths 1682019: The total number of traffic deaths 154

Amir directs allocation of $2m to GazaQNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held a telephone conversation with Head of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Dr Ismail Haniyah, who briefed His Highness on the damage caused by the tragic fire in the Nuseirat Camp in the Gaza Strip, espe-cially the martyrs and the injured.

During the call, H H the Amir expressed his condolences to the brotherly Palestinian people. His Highness informed the Head of the Movement that he directed the allocation of $2m to assist the brothers in Gaza as a result of the damage caused by the accident.

The Head of the Movement expressed his sincere thanks and gratitude to H H the Amir, expressing his appreciation for this generous human gesture, and His Highness standing beside the brotherly Palestinian people in general and the Gaza Strip in particular.

QNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held yesterday telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of the Italian Republic, H E Giuseppe Conte, on bilateral ties and the means to enhance them.

H H the Amir expressed during the call the solidarity of the State of Qatar with Italy regarding the spread of coronavirus, expressing his and the Qatari people’s condolences to the families of the victims, and the wishes of a swift recovery to those who are ill.

His Highness expressed confidence in the Italian government’s ability in dealing with the impacts of the epidemic, adding that the State of Qatar is ready to provide all the possible help in that regard.

For his part, H E Prime Minister of the Italian Republic thanked H H the Amir for his interest and support of Italy in fighting the epidemic, welcoming the State of Qatar’s cooperation in that regard.

The phone call also covered the latest regional and international devel-opments, particularly the situation in Libya and ways to maintain security and stability in the country.

Amir holds telephone conversation with Italian PM; offers Qatar's help

Qatar 2020 Census: Electronic service sees big demandQNA & THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Planning and Statistics Authority’s electronic service for the Qatar 2020 census is seeing big demand from families and individuals in Qatar.

The demand reflects the societal awareness of the census, which is entering its final phase. The authority said that a total of 2,700 families registered in the service just hours after its launch. The authority called on the rest of citizens and residents to fill in their information electroni-cally, with online registration open until March 15, 2020 on www.psa.gov.qa/ar/Pages/default.aspx

The website allows all Qatari citizens inside and outside the country as well as residents to input their infor-mation required for the census. Families and individuals who registered will be allowed to fill in their information electron-ically from March 22 to April 10 without a need for a visit of the field worker.

In a tweet yesterday, the Authority said: “A few hours after the electronic registration was opened, around 2,677 fam-ilies registered in the services which indicates to high awareness of Qatari society.”

In another tweet, the Authority called on the rest of the citizens and residents who wish to fill in their information and information of their fam-ilies for online registration to complete the procedure until March 15, 2020.

The Planning and Statistics Authority dedicated a toll free number (8000800) to respond to any enquiries on the service.

On Wednesday, the Planning and Statistics

Authority (PSA) had launched the online registration service for individuals and families for Qatar 2020 Census, as part of the final phase of the census process.

The Authority is imple-menting the final phase of the census fieldwork in the imple-mentation of the Decision of the Council of Ministers No. 4 of 2018 regarding conducting the general census of popu-lation, housing, and establish-ments for 2020.

Earlier, the Authority had pointed out that it would com-municate with the people who registered in this service by sending text messages over the phone to each subscriber to inform them of the date spec-ified for completing the elec-tronic form of the census, in addition to how to enter it to ensure accuracy in the process of providing data and ensure its complete confidentiality, and this according to the Official Statistics Law of 2011.

Steady drop in road fatalities in last 5 yearsSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

Despite a significant increase in the number of vehicles and population in Qatar, the road fatalities dropped gradually since 2015 until last year according to the General Direc-torate of Traffic statistics. In five years from 2015 to 2019, traffic deaths decreased by more than 70 cases.

In 2015, the total number of traffic deaths was 227 while in 2019 the number decreased to 154 death cases. “The statistics also indicates that the total number of road fatalities in 2016 was 178, while in 2017 the number was 177 and in 2018 it stood at 168,” said the General Directorate of Traffic on its official Twitter account.

It also said that the General Directorate aspires and working hard to reduce traffic deaths to least in the coming years. The biggest challenge at present for the Traffic Department is to reduce the number of run over accidents, which constitute 28.6 percent,

from the statistics of 2019 which were separately released recently.

In its 4th annual Qatar Traffic Report (QTR) for year 2019, recently released by the Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC), the average number of extra hours spent due to congestion is 92 hours per commuter in 2019.

The data also shows that the traffic conditions in Q4 2019 were about 12 percent better than those in Q4 2018. This indicates that road projects completed by Ashghal in 2019 had a positive impact on traffic flow.

The report further indicates that the opening of the Doha Metro has contributed posi-tively to the traffic conditions late in the year by reducing the number of car trips, expecting traffic behaviour to keep improving as key ongoing road projects are completed later in 2020 and the full impact of Qatar Metro as a major and reliable public transport option is felt throughout the year.

According to the report;

January, February, March 2019 were the most congested months in the year with a Con-gestion Index of 27.7%. The highest congestion period during the workdays is the morning peak (around 7-8am) during which the average con-gestion index is 30.1%.

Despite all efforts by the General Directorate of Traffic and authorities concerned, the

Department said there are many challenges like running traffic awareness campaigns in different languages for expatriates of different nationalities.

Also, increase in the number of new vehicles and the increase in the number of drivers and population as a result of comprehensive ren-aissance projects.

MoPH announces three new cases of COVID-19QNA & THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of three new confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the State of Qatar who were in quarantine.

Two cases are of Qatari cit-izens and the third case of their family of another nationality who returned from the Islamic Republic of Iran recently. This brings the number of confirmed cases of the virus in the country to eleven so far.

The three infected were admitted to the Communicable Diseases Center under com-plete isolation and all are in stable conditions, the MoPH said in a statement.

MoPH confirmed that the infected persons have not con-tacted with community members since their arrival,

and indicators of disease out-breaks in the State of Qatar remain low. The positive cases that were diagnosed and recently announced all have a stable health status.

MoPH takes all precau-tionary measures to reduce the outbreak of the coronavirus, as all incoming travelers are sub-jected to initial detection by thermal cameras in all of the country’s outlets upon their arrival in the State of Qatar, and a medical clinic has been set up at the airport to deal with any suspected case.

The contact center of coro-navirus (COVID-19) in the Min-istry of Public Health receives any communications or inquiries related to the virus around the clock on the toll-free number (16000).

Meanwhile , Hamad Medical Corporation and the

Ministry of Public Health in an awareness campaign on their social media accounts have advised people to frequently wash their hands to stop the spread of infection. For a pro-tection against COVID-19, people have been advised to always wash their your hands after coughing or sneezing; before, during and after pre-paring food; before eating; after using the restroom; when caring for patients; when their hands are dirty and after han-dling animals.

People have also been advised to cover their nose and mouth (while coughing, sneezing) with a clean napkin and make sure to throw the used napkin in the trash imme-diately and if a napkin is not available, make sure the top of their shirts’ sleeves, not their hands.� �P2

Water sport enthusiasts indulging in water sports activities during the weekend at West Bay lagoon beach yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN/THE PENINSULA

A Musical Evening in Paris enthralls packed Katara audienceRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Music lovers were transported back in time when Paris was the epicentre of music and the arts in “A Musical Evening in Paris” featuring outstanding perform-ances by Qatar Philharmonic

Orchestra musicians and Qatar Music Academy faculty members.

The concert held at Katara Drama Theatre on Thursday as part of the celebration of Qatar-France 2020 Year of Culture and the Francophonie month, saw over a dozen masterworks

by well-known French com-posers and others who had adopted Paris as their home played by the talented musicians.

Welcoming the capacity audience, Franck Gellet, Ambassador of France to Qatar, said that the concert

highlighted music “from the 19th century to the turn of the 20th century when Paris was at the center of the world’s cul-tural stage.”

Gellet pointed out that the show was one of the events organised in line with Qatar-France 2020 Year of Culture

which is a celebration of the rich relationship between the two friendly countries.

He invited the audience for several upcoming Year of Culture events such as Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra’s shows “April in Paris” - a chamber music concert at the

Museum of Islamic Art on April 9, and “Nuit Francaise Beau Soir… Music by Ravel, Franck and Debussy” at the Qatar National Library on April 17, as well as an exhibition which fea-tures works by Pablo Picasso which opens this month at the Fire Station.� �P2

In a tweet, the Planning

and Statistics Authority

said: “A few hours after

the electronic registration

was opened, around 2,677

families registered in the

services which indicates

to high awareness of

Qatari society.” The

Authority called on the

rest of the citizens and

residents who wish to

fill in their information

and information of

their families for online

registration to complete

the procedure until March

15, 2020.

OFFICIAL NEWS

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim

bin Hamad Al Thani, Deputy Amir

H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad

Al Thani, Prime Minister and Min-

ister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid

bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani

sent yesterday cables of congrat-

ulations to the President of Ghana,

H E Nana Akufo-Addo, on the occa-

sion of his country’s independence

anniversary. QNA

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani, Deputy Amir H H

Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani,

Prime Minister and Minister of Inte-

rior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa

bin Abdulaziz Al Thani sent cables

of condolences to the President of

Peru, H E Martin Vizcarra, and Sec-

retary-General of the United Nations,

H E Antonio Guterres, on the death

of former United Nations secretary-

general, Javier Perez. QNA

DOHA: Qatar condemned the attack

on a political rally in the Afghan cap-

ital, Kabul, and resulted in deaths

and injuries. The Ministry of Foreign

Affairs reiterated Qatar’s firm position

on rejecting violence and terrorism,

regardless of the motives and rea-

sons. The statement expressed the

condolences of Qatar to the families

of the victims and the government

and people of Afghanistan, wishing a

speedy recovery for the injured. QNA

Amir sends congratulations to President of Ghana

Amir condoles with Peru President, UN Secretary-General

Qatar condemns attack in Kabul

02 SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2020HOME

16 female students of Qatar University honoured at 13th Education Excellence Day award ceremonyTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

A total of 16 students from QU were honoured by Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the 13th Education Excellence Day award ceremony 2020 held at the Doha Sheraton under the theme ‘Excellence Builds Generations’.

The 16 of the QU students received the award in Uni-versity Graduate category, 3 platinum and 12 gold medals, In addition one student was awarded in Literary category.

These students were Dana Essa Al Ansari, Aisha Adel S M Al Jaber, Aisha Mubarak S A Al Mohannadi, Alyaa Sabah S A Al Kuwari, Alanoud Ali Al Daeiya, Almaha Ali H S Al Khalaf, Afia Ali H Alsaadi Alyafei, Eiman Mohammed A M Al Ansari, Afnan Ahmad M A Al Awlaqi, Noor Ahmed M I Al Sayyed, Dhoha Yaqoub H S Al Malki, Aisha Khalid Al Mulla, Amna Mohamed Al Khater, Aisha Khalifa Al Mohannadi, Shaikha Mohammed A M Al Subaey and Noor Hashim Al Mushaddani.

The honourees expressed their sentiments on excellence awards. The students men-tioned this is continuation of their journey and motivation

to work hard in future. These awards will encourage them to strive more for their homeland.

Afia Ali H Alsaadi Alyafei, Aisha Khalid Al Mulla, Aisha Mubarak S A Al Mohannadi, Shaikha Mohammed A M Al Subaey are four of the QU stu-dents, who expressed their feelings on winning the gold medal at the Education Excel-lence Award in the University Graduates category.

While expressing her feelings, Afia Al Yafei said: “The award I received today is the reward of 16 yearlong hard work, the environment I had plays a great role in achieving this award. I am honored to receive this award and I strive to do more for my country.”

Aisha Al Mulla, said: “I have always had a clear vision towards education since my childhood, with the apper-ception and support of my family I have achieved my goal. The real reward was to receive this award from Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and this will push me more towards my educational journey which will now con-tinue with my Master’s Degree in Accounting.”

Shaikha Al Subaey, said: “I

heard about the award in the fourth year of my studies at Qatar University, and I found that I was eligible to receive the award. Academic excellence at young age has motivated me to continue my studies in future.”

Aisha Al Mohannadi said: “I feel honored to receive this award from Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The Educational Excellence Award makes me struggle more to excellence in future and I hope to be nominated for the

Masters category in future.” Dana Essa Al Ansari,

another QU student, who won the Platinum Medal in Uni-versity Graduates category said: “It was my goal to receive this award, as I saw one of my family member receiving it last year which inspired me. Cur-rently I am studying my Masters of Science in Biological and Biomedical sciences from Hamad Bin Khalifa University and seeking to complete my PhD form Qatar University.”

Brookings Doha Center and American Society of International Law co-organise workshop on transitional justice in the Arab regionTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Brookings Doha Center and the American Society of Inter-national Law co-organized a workshop titled “Innovation in Transitional Justice: Experi-ences from the Arab Region.”

Over 30 experts gathered to highlight existing achievements and innovations in the pursuit of transitional justice, and to explore new ways of thinking about transitional justice amid ongoing conflict and authori-tarianism in the Arab region. The workshop focused on eight countries: Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon.

Commenting on the occasion Noha Aboueldahab, fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, said: “With the wealth of experience the participants brought with them, I have no doubt that we have made some great headway in thinking about how to address these issues both from a research and policy perspective.”

Featuring six interactive sessions, participants offered their insight on a wide range of themes, such as: pursuing accountability during war and authoritarian rule, art and tran-sitional justice, and transitional justice policy in Arab states.

The workshop is the second

organized by Brookings Doha Center on the topic of transi-tional justice in the Arab world. In October 2017, 18 experts from across the region con-vened in Doha to discuss chal-lenges facing transitional justice in the region. This year’s iter-ation is an expansion of the pre-vious workshop with the objective of developing the Arab transitional justice network of practitioners, poli-cymakers, civil society, and scholars.

The Brookings Doha Center also hosted Sihem Bensedrine, president of the Truth and Dignity Commission in Tunisia, who talked about her country’s

experience in implementing transitional justice. “The tasks of the Truth and Dignity Com-mission,” she said, “are to determine responsibility of committed violations and who

should be held accountable, as well as to bring justice to the victims, and carry out reforms so that these violations do not recur.”

She added: “All conditions

must be met in transitional justice in order to achieve justice.” The session was mod-erated by Nadim Houry, exec-utive director of the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI).

The Brookings Doha Center and the American Society of International Law co-organised a workshop titled “Innovation in Transitional Justice: Experiences from the Arab Region.”

A total of 16 students from Qatar University were honoured by Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the 13th Education Excellence Day award ceremony 2020 at the Doha Sheraton.

The 16 of the QU students received the award in University Graduate category, 3 platinum and 12 gold medals, In addition one student was awarded in Literary category.

Qatar condemns bombing in TunisiaDOHA: Qatar has condemned the

bombing that took place in the Tuni-

sian capital, Tunis, and resulted in

injuries. The Ministry of Foreign

Affairs reiterated Qatar’s firm position

on rejecting violence and terrorism,

regardless of the motives and rea-

sons. The statement expressed the

State of Qatar’s wishes of a speedy

recovery for the wounded. QNA

French Ambassador to the State of Qatar, Franck Gellet, with other officials during the opening of “A Musical Evening in Paris” concert on Thursday at Katara Drama Theatre. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

'A Musical Evening in Paris' enthralls packed Katara audience

FROM PAGE 1

Presented by the French Institute in Qatar in partnership with Qatar Music Academy and the Francophone Qatari Women Association, the unique concert, divided into two parts, was enhanced by a Parisian ambience through the backdrop – the first was a soiree at the home of musician and muse Pauline Viardot while the second part was a meeting of Les Apaches at painter Paul Sordes’ home, which proved how music had deeply influ-enced the arts during that time.

The show opened with

Chopin’s “Polonaise in A flat Op. 53” performed by Denys Bodnar on piano and culminated with Dutilleux’s “Sonatine” featuring flutist Nicole Prebler and Bodnar.

The concert also featured opera singer Anna Dieterich’s rendition of Duparc’s “Chanson triste,” Faure’s “Apres un reve, Op. 7,” and Biezet’s “Ouvre ton Coeur” accompanied by Debbie Armstrong on piano.

Piano duets of Chabrier’s “España” and Ravel’s “Feria” by Belen Navarro and Juan Lago were two of the distinctive numbers in the show as well as

the performance of Gershwin’s famous jazz-inspired compo-sition “An American in Paris” performed by violinist Lorena Manescu and Debbie Armstrong on piano.

The concert repertoire also included Dukas’ “Villanelle” played by Rachel Seay, Lorena Manescu’s performance of Enescu’s “Balada” and rendi-tions of Debussy compositions by Debbie Armstrong and Aniko Kovacs. Narrations in the French language by the Fran-cophone Qatari Women Asso-ciation further enhanced the distinctive appeal of the show.

QGBC honourssustainability strategy of FIFA and SCQNA — DOHA

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), FIFA and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LLC have received special recog-nition from Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) after jointly delivering the Sustainability Strategy for Qatar 2022.

The SCs Sustainability & Environmental Senior Manager Eng. Bodour Al Meer, received the QGBC Special Award during the Qatar Sustainability Awards 2020. The award was presented by Chairman of QGBC, Issa Al Mohannadi, and Director of QGBC Meshal Al Shamari.

Al Meer said: “Sustainability has been at the core of our planning and preparations for 2022 from the very beginning. We want to ensure that this tour-nament acts as a catalyst for sig-nificant long-term contributions to sustainability in Qatar and the region.

“The strategy we developed in collaboration with FIFA aims to maximise our tournaments positive impact from prepa-ration, to staging and legacy activities. We are proud to be receiving this award its tes-tament to our hard work in developing a strategy which benefits Qatar, the region and the world.”

Developed by the SC, FIFA and the FIFA World Cup Qatar

2022 LLC, the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Sustainability Strategy is a first of its kind sus-tainability strategy for a FIFA World Cup , as it is a joint strategy between the host nation and FIFA. Aligned with Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 2018-2022, as well as 11 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the strategy applies to all functional areas and projects involved in the preparations for and staging of the tournament, along with post-event activities.

Five sustainability commit-ments have been defined to deliver that vision: (1) to develop human capital and safeguard workers’ rights; (2) to provide an inclusive tournament expe-rience; (3) to catalyse economic development; (4) to deliver inno-vative environmental solutions; and (5) to set an example of good governance and ethical business practices.

Al Meer added: “A massive amount of work went into pre-paring a sustainability strategy which utilises the unique ele-ments of the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East and Arab world. On behalf of everyone involved, including colleagues from the SC, FIFA and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LLC, a huge thank you to QGBC for this recognition.”

MoPH announces

three new cases

of COVID-19FROM PAGE 1

They have been further advised to try to avoid any contact with people who show symptoms of respiratory dis-eases such as coughing or sneezing and visit the nearest health centre or hospital if they have any flu symptoms.

People have been advised to make sure they wash their hands with soap and water and if soap and water are not available clean their hands with hand sanitiser. “Avoid touching your nose, eyes and mouth with unclean hands and avoid trav-elling to countries that have a wide spread of the disease,” advised the Ministry. Qatar Civil Aviation Authority has advised people to not travel if they have any of these symptoms: fever, runny nose, muscle ache, coughing, sore throat, difficulty in breathing and headache.

FAJR SUNRISE 04.36 am 05.51 am

W A L R U WA I S : 17o↗ 26o W A L K H O R : 17o↗ 26o W D U K H A N : 11o↗ 27o W WA K R A H : 11o↗ 26o W M E S A I E E D 11o↗ 26o W A B U S A M R A 10o↗ 28o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 03:12 – 13:59 LOW TIDE 10:51 – 20:56

Misty to foggy at places at first becomes moderate

temperature daytime with some clouds and slight dust at

places later, relatively cold by night.Minimum Maximum18oC 27oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.45 am05.41 pm

ASR ISHA

03.07 pm07.11 pm

03SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2020 HOME / MIDDLE EAST

NAWIC Qatar organises visit to Al Janoub Stadium to celebrate Women’s DayTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

In order to celebrate International Women’s Day, NAWIC Qatar, the first National Association of Women in Construction in the Middle East, organised a site visit to Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakra on the afternoon of March 5.

Thanks to the Supreme Com-mittee of Delivery and Legacy, around 20 NAWIC members were able to visit the first fully air-conditioned stadium in the world under the guidance of Abdulaziz

Abdullah Jabir Al Ishaq, Project Director, Al Janoub Stadium & Precinct, said a statement.

During the 2-hour tour, NAWIC’s women (and 4 men) working in the building industry were able to learn all the various aspects in the construction process of the only 4-star GSAS (Global Sustainability Assessment System) certified stadium in the world so far: From the air-con-ditioning to the seats for the sup-porters (half of which will be dis-tributed to other facilities after the

2022 World Cup as agreed with FIFA).

NAWIC’s President, Billie Teshich, shared her impres-sions in company of one of NAWIC’s founding members, Carly-Jane Figgis: “This building clearly summarises how Qatar’s efforts as the host country of FIFA 2022 World Cup have paid off. Al Janoub Stadium clearly shows how Qatar invested in innovations in order to become a pioneer in building Sports infrastructure.”

The members of NAWIC Qatar during the site visit of Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakra.

Mercure Hotel announces special offer on Women’s Day

The Mercure Hotel has announced a special offer on International Women’s Day. ‘Book for 2 and pay for 1’ will be the special buffet offer for ladies in celebration of the International Women’s Day at Mercure Hotel’s La Brasserie Restaurant. The offer is for lunch or dinner tomorrow. Due to limited seating, advance booking must be made by today.

Families enjoying fine weather at the Al Bidda Park in Doha, yesterday. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA.

Weekend leisure

Qatari artist showcases 47 artworks at Katara RAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Experimenting with fresh mediums, Qatari artist Ahmed Nooh created a collection of distinct artworks showcased in his latest solo show titled Atabat Al Helm (Threshold of Dream) which opened on Wednesday at Katara Art Centre.

Launched by Saif Saad Al Dosari, Human Resources Director at Cultural Village Foundation (Katara), the exhi-bition features 47 artworks Nooh made from 2017 to 2019 using abstraction as basis for his artistic vision.

For this exhibition, the pro-lific artist delved into a complex combination of diverse style, materials, abstract symbols and words to create a systematic relationship between words and images and their connota-tions in an aesthetic context.

The opening of the exhi-bition was attended by some of Doha’s prominent contem-porary artists who praised Nooh’s quality works on show.

Well-known Qatari artist

Salman Al-Malik, Director of the Visual Arts Center, lauded the exhibition and the artist’s profound experience as shown by the artworks on display which proves his remarkable artistic progress which might have been impacted by his stay in Paris.

It can be recalled that Nooh had his three-month residency at the renowned Cité interna-tionale des Arts in Paris in 2018 as an extension of Qatar Museums’ (QM) Fire Station: Artist in Residence programme in Doha where he also did a residency prior to his Paris stint.

For Iraqi sculptor Ahmed Al Bahrani, Nooh’s experience is distinct and reveals his

professionalism and perfec-tionist nature artistically.

Qatari artist Faraj Daham, on the other hand, praised Nooh’s commitment to his art and his distinct experience in which he tends to becoming innovative introducing some-thing new every time. He said the artworks are strong and expressive as the artists used new raw materials.

Pioneering Qatari painter Hassan Al Mulla, said that Nooh had taken a bold leap in which he combined various art schools and artistic concepts and linked the cultures of East and West.

Ahmed Nooh is a Member of the Souq Waqif Center for Fine Arts, and Member of the

Katara’ Fine Arts Association. He joined the Visual Arts Center for several years, during which he produced paintings and drawings. He was selected as one of the artists to join the Fire Station: Artist in Residence

2017/2018 as well as resident artist at Cité internationale des Arts in Paris from August to November in 2018 after which he made his debut solo exhi-bition at Fire Station titled “Traces of Life.” During the

group exhibition at the culmi-nation of his residency at the Fire Station, he exhibited burnt books as a commentary on the vanishing practice of reading physical books in today’s society.

Saif Saad Al Dosari (left), Human Resources Director; and Ahmed Nooh (second left), Qatari artist, with other Qatari artists during the opening of Nooh’s exhibition on Wednesday at Katara Art Centre.

For this exhibition, the prolific artist delved into a complex combination of diverse style, materials, abstract symbols and words to create a systematic relationship between words and images and their connotations in an aesthetic context.

DPS-MIS holds fun activity for kidsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Clay modelling is fun for kids of all ages. The tactile nature of clay lets young children develop their imaginations and their motor skills while having fun. In order to sparkle the creativity of the little ones and think out-of-the-box, the DPS-MIS Class Preparatory conducted a clay modelling activity on March 2 in the class with a lot of gaiety and enthusiasm. The topic selected was traffic light.

Road safety, traffic rules

and regulations for kids are some of the significant topics the kids learn in school. They learn the importance of three colours of traffic lights which say; stop, wait and go. To enhance the topic and make it more interesting, the clay activity was planned in such a way where the children learnt in a fun way and got engrossed with a high degree of creativity.

Under the guidance and direction of teachers, the little ones pounded, squeezed, rolled

and blended the clay with joy and made a signal light on a rectangle shape paper and dis-played it with pride. Ice-cream sticks were fixed on the back of the paper to resemble signal light pole.

This activity helped the kids to boost their self-confidence. The finished product was a treasure to cherish for the young ones. They experienced a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. It was a great way to develop imagination.

The students of DPS-MIS with the clay models on road safety and traffic rules during the activity.

Turkey’s treatment of refugees lesson of humanity, says OktayANATOLIA — MERSIN, TURKEY

Turkey has given the world a lesson of humanity by opening its doors and being a safe haven for refugees, the country’s vice-president said yesterday.

Speaking at an event in the southern Mersin province, Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay strongly criticised Greece for its cruelty towards asylum seekers. “Greece is shooting bullets and using tear gas at innocent people,” Oktay said in an address at the inauguration of a hospital, asking: “How does

this cruelty conform with the EU’s values?” The world would be up in arms if Turkey ever acted the way Greece does today, he added.

“The effects of the crisis in Syria are obvious but the world still questions our presence in the region,” Oktay noted.

He said there was no mil-itary solution to end the humanitarian catastrophe being witnessed in Syria, stressing that Turkey was always in favor of diplomacy, negotiations, and a political set-tlement. “But we did not

hesitate to use force when it was necessary to ensure the security of our borders, fight terrorism, and prevent human suffering,” said Oktay.

Turkey launched Operation Spring Shield on Feb. 27 after at least 34 Turkish soldiers were martyred in an Assad regime airstrike in Idlib, north-western Syria. Turkish soldiers are working to protect local civilians under a September 2018 deal with Russia, which prohibits acts of aggression in Idlib but was consistently vio-lated by the regime and its

allies. The operation was also in retaliation to rising regime aggression that led to the dis-placement of hundreds of thou-sands of civilians, who took shelter near Turkish borders.

In the latest Turkish oper-ation, thousands of regime forces and many of its military hardware — including battle tanks, war jets, helicopters, air-defense systems, and howitzers — were neutralised.

On Thursday, an agreement for a cease-fire in Idlib was reached after an hours-long meeting in Moscow between

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian coun-terpart Vladimir Putin.

Turkey’s deputy foreign minister yesterday held a phone talk with UN High commis-sioner for refugees and briefed the organisation about the influx of asylum seekers towards Turkey due to the sit-uation in Idlib, Syria.

According to diplomatic sources, Yavuz Selim Kiran said about two million people had been displaced since December 2019 when regime forces mounted the aggression

in northern Syria. Kiran told UN’s Filippo Grandi that Turkey could no longer bear the burden of the migration crisis on its own and the pressure caused asylum seekers residing in Turkey to mobilize towards western and northern territories to cross into Europe.

He condemned the harsh Greek response to asylum seekers, adding such policies did not comply with the Geneva Convention of 1951 or any other international agreements, the sources said.

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Iran yesterday announced a surge in coronavirus cases and 17 more deaths including an adviser to the foreign minister, raising the total number of people killed to 124.

The Islamic republic is bat-tling the world’s deadliest out-break of the disease outside China where it originated.

Iran has confirmed 1,234 new cases over the past 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 4,747, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference.

The new cases “are probably those who had been infected with the virus two weeks ago and... just came to us with symptoms,” he added.

Several politicians or gov-ernment officials are among those who have been killed by the disease in Iran.

Hossein Sheikholeslam, an adviser to Iran’s foreign min-ister who took part in the 1979 US embassy hostage crisis, died from the virus late on Thursday, state news agency Irna reported. A former ambassador to Syria, he also served as deputy foreign minister from 1981 to 1997.

Iran has tested more than 15,980 people for novel coro-navirus since it emerged in the country, Jahanpour said.

“The number of those who have recovered from the disease has reached more than 913,” he added. Iran has been scrambling to contain the rapid spread of coronavirus which has infected people in all 31 of

its provinces. Jahanpour said Tehran has 1,413 confirmed cases so far, which is the highest among all provinces and makes it an “epicentre” for the virus.

He bemoaned the “heavy traffic in the north of the country” as Iranians flock to popular tourist spots “despite numerous warnings and all the threats this poses.”

“Please, do not travel to northern provinces... by doing this you are gifting the virus to your family and friends,” Jahanpour said.

The country has closed schools and universities until early April in a bid to contain the virus, but according to the official, the long holidays ahead appear to have prompted people to travel north.

Iranian authorities warned yesterday they may use “force” to limit travel between cities.

The threat may be to stop people from using closed schools and universities as an excuse to go to the Caspian Sea and other Iranian vacation spots.

Iran on Thursday announced it would put check-points in place to limit travel between major cities, hoping to stem the spread of the virus.

Tehran cancelled Friday prayers across its major cities. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates meanwhile limited prayers to two verses of the Quran so they lasted no longer than 10 minutes, over concerns about the virus.

Iran has not officially quar-antined any province, but it has tried to limit domestic movement and set up check-points across the country.

It stepped up restrictions yesterday as the police announced all people trav-elling to Mazandaran and Gilan — other than residents of those provinces returning from elsewhere —will be turned back.

Gilan is one of the country’s worst-hit provinces. Six of those who died from the virus are politicians or government officials.

Other officials who have died of coronavirus include lawmaker Mohammad Ali Ramezani and Mojtaba Pour-khanali, an agriculture min-istry official, both from Gilan.

The others were Ahmad Toyserkani, an adviser to the judiciary chief, Hadi Khosro-shahi, a former envoy to the Vatican, and Mojtaba Fazeli, a secretary to a senior cleric.

Iran coronavirus death toll reaches 124 as cases soar

Fire fighters and municipality workers with protective suits disinfecting the streets, buses and taxies as a precaution to COVID-19, in Tehran yesterday.

REUTERS — NAZARETH

Iraq has banned entry to travellers coming from France and Spain, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday, bringing the total number of coun-tries on its entry ban list to 11 as it tries to stem the spread of coronavirus.

The ban does not extend to Iraqi citizens and foreign diplomats, a ministry spokesman said in a statement. Iraq has so far recorded 38 cases of coronavirus and two deaths.

The health minister, who heads Iraq’s coro-navirus response task force, called on all Iraqis in Iran—which has suffered the

world’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak outside China — to return by March 15 before border crossings are closed and only four airports open to them. Overland trade with Kuwait and Iran is to be suspended between March 8-15, the health minister added in a decree.

Iraq is alarmed about any spread of the coro-navirus from neighbouring Iran. Iraq’s first recorded case was of an Iranian student who was then sent home, and the rest had all visited Iran recently. Iraq has close cultural and reli-gious ties with Iran and annually receives mil-lions of Iranian pilgrims.

Iraq puts France, Spain on coronavirus entry ban list

Tehran lawmaker Fatemeh Rahbar is in a coma after being infected, according to the Isna news agency.

A host of other officials have been infected and are under quarantine, including vice-pres-ident Masoumeh Ebtekar, deputy health minister Iraj

Harirchi and grand ayatollah Musa Shobairi Zanjani, who is considered one of Iran’s highest religious authorities.

Semiofficial news agencies posted images of long traffic lines as people tried to reach the Caspian coast from Tehran yesterday, despite authorities

earlier telling people to remain in their cities.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared a 30-day state of emergency in Palestinian areas of the West Bank after his government found seven people infected with coronavirus.

At least 10 Palestinians dead in Gaza market fireAP — GAZA STRIP

At least 10 Palestinians were killed on Thursday when a fire broke out at a busy market in central Gaza Strip, the health ministry said.

The flames that spread rapidly through the market at the Nusseirat refugee camp also injured 58 people, of whom 14 were in critical condition, according to the ministry. The dead included six children and two women.

The fire burned a bakery, several stores and dozens of stalls and vehicles. The Interior Ministry said initial findings by investigators indicated a gas leak at the bakery might have started the fire.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas rulers announced that Qatar Amir H H Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had allocated $2m in compensation for damage and losses the fire caused.

With a population of nearly 2 million, the Gaza Strip is one of the world’s most densely populated areas. It’s a 360-sq km corridor of land, sand-wiched between Israel and Egypt.

The two countries imposed a blockade on the territory when the militant Hamas group seized it in 2007.

The blockade, three devas-tating wars with Israel and dozens of skirmishes have d a m a g e d G a z a ’ s infrastructure.

People attending the funeral ceremony of those who lost their lives in a fire that broke out at Nuseirat Camp in Gaza City, Gaza, yesterday.

Hossein Sheikholeslam, an adviser to Iran’s foreign minister who took part in the 1979 US embassy hostage crisis, died from the virus late on Thursday. A former ambassador to Syria, he also served as deputy foreign minister from 1981 to 1997.

Look beyond the veil, says Israel’s first hijab-wearing lawmakerREUTERS — NAZARETH

A female Muslim lawmaker from Israel’s Arab minority is set to become the first in parliament to wear a hijab, or head scarf, after Arab parties won their largest ever showing in this week’s election.

Iman Yassin Khatib, 55 (pictured), won a place on the Joint List coalition’s slate of 15 seats in the 120-member Knesset. The party draws most of its votes from Israel’s 21% Arab minority — who are Palestinian by heritage but Israeli by citizenship.

The mother of four served as the manager of a community centre in the Galilee village of Yafat an-Nasreh on the outskirts of Nazareth, the city where Jesus grew up, before entering national politics.

“There is no way (the hijab) won’t capture people’s attention. But what’s more important is what is inside: the ability and potential to advance our community,” said Khatib as she accepted congratulations and posed for selfies on a street in Nazareth.

Khatib said she felt her hijab had sometimes stirred anti-Islam sen-timent in Israel, whose nine million population is mostly Jewish.

“Every challenge I faced in my life was made harder because I wear a hijab,” she said. But she urged people to “look beyond the veil”.

Israel’s Arab minority is mostly descended from the Palestinians who lived under Ottoman and then British colonial rule before staying in Israel after the country’s 1948 creation.

It is predominantly Muslim, but also includes members of the Christian and Druze faiths.

Many Arabs complain of discrim-ination in areas such as health, edu-cation and housing, and their leaders accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of incitement against them during recent elections.

Netanyahu’s Likud party counters that its 15 billion shekel ($4.34bn) investment plan for the Arab sector is the largest ever by an Israeli gov-ernment. Arab voter turnout surged to 64.7% in Monday’s election, its highest in 20 years. That gave the Joint List coalition two more seats in par-liament than in last September’s ballot.

It is the third-largest party in the Knesset after Netanyahu’s Likud and the centrist Blue and White Party. But its influence will likely be limited since no Arab party has ever joined an Israeli government.

Arab voters key to blocking Netanyahu-led hardliners majority

AP — TIRA, ISRAEL

A surge in Arab voter turnout was key to depriving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist allies of a parliamentary majority in this week’s Israeli election.

Undercutting Netanyahu’s ambitions was celebrated as sweet payback in the nearly 2 million-strong minority that the hardline leader had relent-lessly tried to tarnish as dis-loyal to the state.

An Arab-led alliance of parties is sending more law-makers than ever to the new parliament, giving them unprecedented leverage to deliver results for their constit-uents and potentially transform Israel’s electoral politics for years to come.

Looking to galvanize his nationalist base, Netanyahu lambasted Arab lawmakers during the campaign as ter-rorist sympathizers who advo-cated for Palestinian interests and were a danger to the country. But the harsh rhetoric, coupled with concern over President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan and other legis-lation deemed discriminatory, seems to have backfired by energizing Arab voters. “He’s a little racist and talked trash about Arabs, Arabs, Arabs. He talked dirty, and we showed him what Arabs can do,” Mahmoud Hazkiya, a 31-year-old salesman in the central Israeli town of Tira, said with a smile. “Arabs are interested now, and we are not getting what we deserve.”

Breaking out of years of political apathy, nearly 65% of Israel’s Arab citizens voted in Monday’s election — up from 59% in the September vote and 49% last April. It marked the highest Arab turnout since 1999. With mergers among the Jewish-led leftist parties leaving their Arab candidates out of rea-sonable slots for parliament, Arabs rallied around the Joint List, with 88% casting their ballots for the umbrella group.

Together with a projected 20,000 Jewish votes, the Joint List surged to an all-time high of 15 seats, emerging as the third largest party in parliament.

05SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2020 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Rare calm in Idlib after ceasefire dealREUTERS — IDLIB, SYRIA

Syria’s war-ravaged northwest woke up to relative calm yesterday, its skies free of warplanes for the first day in months, following a Russian-Turkish ceasefire deal.

The agreement raised hopes of an end to one of the bloodiest phases in the nine-year conflict but residents in Idlib were scep-tical this deal would last longer than previous ones.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group and journalists in Idlib province said the truce that came into force at midnight appeared to be holding. Observ-atory chief Rami Abdel Rahman reported “a complete absence of regime and Russian war-planes in the Idlib airspace”.

He said an exchange of fire before dawn killed six regime fighters and nine members of the Turkistan Islamic Party, a Uighur-dominated group, but in general belligerents seemed to be observing the ceasefire. Syrian state news agency Sana also reported calm in the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish coun-terpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached a deal after hours of talks in Moscow on Thursday.

The agreement will create a security corridor along the key M4 highway in northern Syria, where Turkish and Russian forces will launch joint patrols later this month.

A Russian-backed gov-ernment offensive on the last rebel bastion in the country has

killed hundreds of civilians since December and displaced close to a million people.

Putin told a joint news con-ference after the talks that the agreement would “serve as a good basis for ending fighting” in Idlib and for “stopping the suffering of the civilian popu-lation”. Erdogan said 12 Turkish monitoring posts set up around the Idlib region under a pre-vious deal in 2018 would

remain there.“We will be on alert for any

violation or attack by the regime,” the Hurriyet news-paper reported him as saying.

European and UN officials welcomed the Moscow deal and said they hoped to see a lasting cessation of hostilities, but res-idents of the conflict-torn region had low expectations.

Ahmad Qaddour, a 29-year-old who lives in a displacement

camp with his wife and two children, said he had learned to always expect the worst. “We do not have any confidence in the regime and Russia regarding this ceasefire,” he said. In the town of Kafartakhareem, a cor-respondent saw dozens protest against the lack of a provision to allow displaced families to return home.

The United Nations has descr ibed the mass

displacement in just three months as the worst humani-tarian emergency since the start of the war in 2011. Tensions had risen in recent weeks between Damascus and Turkey, which has had troops in northern Syria since 2016 and backs rebel groups. A regime strike last month in Idlib killed 34 Turkish soldiers, the heaviest loss of personnel for Ankara since its military intervention in Syria.

Arab League, UNchiefs discussLibyan crisis

QNA — CAIRO

Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres discussed in a telephone conversation the latest devel-opments in the Libyan crisis.

During the call, Secretary-General of the Arab League expressed appreciation to Ghassan Salame, the UN envoy to Libya, who resigned on Monday, for the important role he played and his dedication in serving peace and stability efforts in Libya throughout his tenure, a statement by the Arab League said.

Aboul Gheit reaffirmed the Arab League’s keenness to continue its close cooperation with the UN to resolve the Libyan crisis and support every effort aimed at stopping the military operations taking place there, and accompany the Libyan parties in the paths of security, political and eco-nomic dialogue that started in the Berlin Summit.

Aboul Gheit also briefed Guterres on the most important results of the last meeting of the Council of the Arab League, which was held at the ministerial level on Wednesday.

Guterres welcomed the Arab League’s firm com-mitment to settling the Libyan crisis and its keenness to con-tinue cooperation with the UN in this direction, stressing that the UN will continue to build on the efforts of Ghassan Salame on all tracks of the Libyan dialogue.

Suicide bombers near US embassy in Tunis kill one policeman, injure 4AP — TUNIS

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the US Embassy in Tunisia yesterday, killing one police officer and wounding four others, the Interior Ministry said.

Lawmaker Yosri Dali, head of the armed forces and security commission, confirmed eye-witness reports that the bombers were on a motorcycle. Dali said in an interview with Radio Mosaique that they blew themselves up when a police patrol stopped them to ask where they were going.

Sofiane Selliti, spokesman for the judiciary’s counter-ter-rorism office said the attackers’ motorcycle was “packed with explosives.” He described on Radio Mosaique a horrific scene, saying the attackers’ body parts fragments were flung a considerable distance.

Hundreds of police swarmed around the embassy on the outskirts of Tunis, the Tunisian capital, after the bombings. Sharpshooters could

be seen on the roofs of nearby buildings and major streets were blocked. Security units were placed on maximum alert, the Interior Ministry said.

A ministry spokesman, Khaled Lahyouni, said one of the five officers injured in the blast had died after surgery. A civilian was slightly injured.

The spokesman insisted the dead attackers had targeted the officers on patrol and not the US Embassy. An angry crowd of hundreds of people stormed the embassy compound in 2012.

The US State Department said it was “outraged” by the attack and saddened by the fatality. It said one of the US Embassy’s local employees was injured, but it didn’t elaborate. The State Department said it is working with local authorities on the investigation.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Authorities did not confirm media reports naming the attackers.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military

Affairs, Clarke Cooper, said combating terrorism is “a long-term proposition … there’s always going to be a threat wherever you are globally.”

This North African nation’s transition to democracy has been marred by Islamist extremist attacks. Dozens of people were killed in two attacks in 2015, at the noted Bardo Museum outside Tunis, and at a luxury beach hotel near Sousse, in the east.

Since the fall of Tunisia’s hard-line secular dictatorship in January 2011, extremists have increasingly come into the open. Some prisoners serving time for extremist-linked con-victions have walked free.

A flag inside the walled-off American diplomatic mission fluttered above the attack site outside the embassy’s com-pound. Police taped off the area, which was littered with charred debris, and forensic teams

sorted through remnants of the explosion.

The US Embassy, located in a residential area on the out-skirts of Tunis, came under assault in 2012 along with a nearby American school by crowds angered by an anti-Muslim film produced in the United States. Security forces killed four people during the attack in which the American flag was torn down and replaced with an Islamic flag,

Police and forensic experts inspecting the scene of an explosion near the US embassy in the Tunisian capital Tunis, yesterday.

People taking part in a support rally for Turkey following the ceasefire agreement between Turkey and Russia in Syria’s Idlib, yesterday.

Five villagers killed in Chad region hit by ethnic violence

AFP — N'DJAMENA

Gunmen killed five villagers in an eastern region of Chad plagued by deadly ethnic violence between nomadic herders and sedentary farmers, local officials said yesterday.

The attack took place on Thursday near the Sudan border in the Sila region, where President Idriss Deby lifted a state of emergency in January in hopes the violence had abated.

“The villagers were returning from the market last night and they were brutally fired upon,” Sila governor N’Dimabeal Boyalnar Gaucher said, without specifying the identity of the attackers.

“The same scenario occurred four months ago” in the same place,” he said.

Tensions between indig-enous settled farmers and nomadic Arab herders in the arid Sahel have simmered for years, sometimes erupting into deadly clashes.

UN food agency welcomes Turkey-Russia truce agreementANATOLIA — GENEVA

The UN World Food Program yesterday welcomed Turkey and Russia’s agreement on a cease-fire in Syria’s Idlib province.

“A relative calm is being reported there this morning after weeks of intense fighting which has created a humani-tarian crisis with up to one million people displaced,” WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told journalists at the UN in Geneva.

Ankara and Moscow agreed to a cease-fire effective as of midnight Thursday amid escalating tensions in Idlib.

She said that the lull in the fighting, which does not mention safe zones for civilians, “should allow those caught in the firing line to access to desperately needed humanitarian assistance.”

Byrs said that the number of dis-placed from the Idlib conflict was the highest since the beginning of the Syrian

War which is about to enter its 10th year.“People trapped in northwest Syria

are in urgent need of life-saving human-itarian assistance, including food, shelter, and medicines,” she said.

Byrs said that food prices in Idlib have risen by 120%, making families wholly reliant on food assistance from WFP and partners.

The region faces delays in delivery and distribution as some of the WFP’s p a r t n e r s h a v e t h e m s e l v e s

been displaced. It has been extremely difficult to track, identify, and located all displaced people in need of help due to the rapid movement of people in the region.

Byrs said that in Syria, 6.5 million people are food insecure in the country and 75% of people in the war-torn country are living in extreme poverty.

WFP delivers food assistance monthly to 4.5 million people across Syria.

ANATOLIA — IDLIB, SYRIA

A demonstration was held in northwestern Idlib province of Syria to show support after Turkey and Russia agreed in Moscow to a new cease-fire in the war-torn province.

The crowd gathered in the city center in Idlib, carrying banners reading: “The revo-lution is ongoing,” “Turkish martyrs are our brothers, we are very upset,” and “Assad is a war criminal”.

A Turkish flag was raised on a pole in the square and the crowd chanted slogans for con-tinuation of Turkish military presence in the region.

Turkey launched Operation Spring Shield after at least 34 Turkish soldiers were martyred last week in an Assad regime airstrike in Idlib province.

Demonstration

supporting

Turkey in Idlib

Somalian soldiers parade at the graduation ceremony at the Somalia-Turkish Task Force Command in capital Mogadishu, yesterday.

Somalia clears World Bank debt, enabling first loans in 30 yearsBLOOMBERG — MOGADISHU

Somalia’s government cleared its arrears to the World Bank’s International Development Association, enabling the warn-torn nation to borrow from the lender for the first time in three decades.

Somalia repaid the debt after accessing a $365.9m bridge loan from the Nor-wegian government, the World Bank said in a statement on its website. The repayment is part

of a comprehensive plan for arrears clearance that also includes the International Mon-etary Fund and the African Development Bank.

“With this clearance, Somalia has fully re-established its access to new resources from IDA and paved the way to receive debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country and Multilateral Debt Relief Ini-tiative to promote growth and recovery over the coming years,” the bank said.

Cameroon confirms first two cases of coronavirusAFP — YAOUNDE

Cameroon said yesterday it has confirmed its first two cases of the novel coronavirus, a French national who arrived in the capital Yaounde in February and a Cameroonian who came in contact with him.

Cameroon is the first central African country to reg-ister a case of the deadly virus, and one of five sub-Saharan nations. The country’s health ministry released a statement announcing the 58-year-old French man had tested positive.

Several hours later, another statement confirmed the second case, adding that both men have been placed in isolation in a Yaounde hospital. In sub-Saharan Africa, Senegal has registered four cases, all foreign nationals, and South Africa, Togo and Nigeria have one case each since the out-break emerged in December in China. Experts have expressed concern over the continent’s vulnerability to outbreaks of contagious diseases.

06 SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2020ASIA

AP — NEW DELHI

India is bracing for a potential explosion of coronavirus cases as authorities rush to trace, test and quarantine contacts of 31 people confirmed to have the disease.

It is screening international travellers at 30 airports and has already tested more than 3,500 samples. The Indian army is preparing at least five large-scale quarantine centers.

For weeks, India watched as cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, multiplied in neighboring China and other countries as its own caseload remained static - three students evacuated from Wuhan, the disease epicenter, who were quarantined and returned to health in the southern state of Kerala.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government said last week that community trans-mission is now taking place. India has shut schools, stopped exporting key pharmaceutical ingredients and urged state gov-ernments to cancel public fes-tivities for Holi, the Hindu springtime holiday in which people douse each other with colored water and paint.

Modi canceled travel plans to Brussels for an India-EU

summit amid a rising caseload in Belgium, and tweeted that he would not attend any Holi festivities.

Experts fear these precau-tions won’t be enough for India’s beleaguered, under-funded and under-staffed health system to stave off an epidemic. Here are their foremost concerns:

As the virus spread globally, India began bolstering its ability to test and detect the virus. While the National Institute of Virology at Pune remains the main testing facility, the gov-ernment has identified 35 addi-tional labs for testing.

But concerns remain over India’s overstretched health infrastructure - a single state-run hospital for every 55,591 people on average and a single hospital bed for every 1,844 people. India needs about 10

times more doctors to meet the norms prescribed by the World Health Organization, a shortfall of at least 500,000 doctors.

Experts fear that an epi-demic would cause other routine health care functions to suffer.

“Everything will become about COVID-19. And other routine services like immuni-zation or taking care of maternal mortality would be affected,” said Anant Bhan, a global health and policy expert.

India’s health performance, an index that includes access to primary care, maternal mor-tality rates and child health, runs the spectrum, with some states outperforming others by almost 2.5 times, according to the government-run think tank NITI Aayog.

The best performer was Kerala, the small state that

found and treated India’s first three cases. The worst was Uttar Pradesh, a state with roughly the population of Brazil that has detected at least six cases. Kerala has a doctor for approx-imately every 6,000 people, while Uttar Pradesh has one for every 18,000 people. The ine-qualities are further pro-nounced between urban and rural areas, with the bulk of the available beds concentrated in India’s cities.

India spent an average of $62.72 per person on health care in 2016, according to WHO, compared to China’s $398.33.

Inequalities could make prevention even harder. In places with limited access to clean water, washing hands to prevent the spread of the virus is difficult, said Dr. Gagandeep Kang, a microbiologist who heads India’s Translational

Health Science and Technology Institute. Retired virologist and pediatrician Dr T. Jacob John said these inequalities aren’t just a reflection of not spending enough on health care, but also of not knowing where to spend.

“The last time a needs-based survey was done for India’s health care was in 1946,” he said, adding that the coun-try’s “health management system is very inadequate for India’s existing problems, let alone new ones.”

India’s health minister told Parliament that the “need of the hour” is to contain viral clusters, to prevent and break chains of transmission. But in India, with a population of 1.4 billion, that is far from easy.

Take the city of Agra, famous for the Taj Mahal, where six Italian tourists tested pos-itive for the virus. Apart from

the 40,000 tourists who visit the monument each day, the city has a population of more than 4 million, with nearly 3,000 people crammed into every square mile. Following WHO advice, the Indian gov-ernment has told people keep a distance of at least six feet from others.

But “anywhere you’ve a dense population, all the issues of social distancing become challenging,” Kang said.

With the virus lockdown in China resulting in shortages in India, the government halted the export of 13 key drug ingre-dients and the medicines made from them on Tuesday.

Although India is the world’s primary supplier of generic drugs, it relies on China for nearly 70% of the active phar-maceutical ingredients it uses for making medicines.

India’s beleaguered health system braces for virus surge

Students wearing protective masks leave after taking their exams, in New Delhi, yesterday.

Bhutan bars tourists after first case Bhutan said yesterday it would bar arriving tourists for two weeks after confirming its first case of the coronavirus, a tourist who spent several weeks in neighbouring India.

The tiny Himalayan kingdom, which is heavily reliant on high-end tourism for foreign exchange, said a 79-year-old American who entered by air from India on March 2 had tested positive for the virus. “The government will impose two weeks’ restriction on all incoming tourists with immediate effect,” Bhu-tan’s health ministry said in a statement. “This is to enable rig-orous monitoring, source assessment of infection, and mitigate the situation.” The government also announced the closure of several schools and the postponement of international confer-ences and seminars for two weeks. The ministry said the patient, who had entered India on February 21, had been put in quar-antine in hospital in the capital, Thimpu.

Bangladeshi woman in Kolkata hospitalA Bangladeshi woman has been admitted in the infectious diseases hospital in Beliaghata, Kolkata, with suspected symptoms of coronavirus, an official said. The sick woman has a number of symptoms which are also associated with the deadly disease. Her husband has returned from Dubai recently. Another youth from Bhagabapnpur in East Midnapore district is also being brought to the ID hospital with several classical symptoms of the disease which has affected 31 people in India so far.

Australia shuts school after pupil tests positive for virusREUTERS — SYDNEY

Australia ordered its first school closure yesterday after a 16-year-old pupil tested positive for the coronavirus, as authorities struggle to contain the outbreak in the country.

Australia has recorded 60 cases of infection and two elderly people have died from the virus. While the majority of people contracted the disease overseas before returning

home, Australia is on heightened alert as coronavirus begins to spread locally.

A 16-year boy in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, became the latest to be diagnosed.

Desperate to ensure coro-navirus doesn’t spread, Aus-tralia ordered the closure of Epping Boys High School in the city’s north for at least one day, while the nearly 1,200 pupils and staff will need to quarantine themselves. “Students at the

school are advised to stay at home and self-isolate over the weekend,” New South Wales (NSW) state government said in an emailed statement.

“Staff are also asked to stay at home and self-isolate. The school will provide a further update over the weekend about next steps.” NSW Health Min-ister Brad Hazzard said the teenager is believed to have contracted the virus through contact with another

coronavirus patient, making his a case another local trans-mission. The closure comes as Australia’s government readies to announce a stimulus package to cushion the economic hit of the virus. Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the multi-billion dollar package would target sectors most affected by the coronavirus. Local media reported the government was considering subsidising wages for small- and medium-sized

businesses amid fears of wide-spread job losses that could lead to a recession.

Australia’s A$2 trillion economy has already hit turbu-lence after 29 years of recession-free growth, with many economists predicting a contraction in the current quarter. The government on Thursday warned that the crisis will subtract at least half a per-centage point from first quarter growth.

Indonesia confirms

two more cases,

total rises to four

REUTERS — JAKARTA

Indonesia confirmed yesterday that two more people had tested positive for the corona-virus, taking the total of confirmed cases to four.

The two Indonesians were in their 30s and had been tested after being in contact with the first two confirmed cases, Health Ministry official Achmad Yurianto told a news briefing.

Indonesia had announced its first confirmed cases on Monday, a mother and her daughter who live in the Depok area near Jakarta.

Great Barrier Reef enters crucial period in coral bleachingAP — CANBERRA

The Great Barrier Reef is facing a critical period of heat stress over the coming weeks following the most widespread coral bleaching the natural wonder has ever endured, scientists said yesterday.

David Wachenfeld, Chief Scientist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the government agency that manages the coral expanse off northeast Australia, said ocean temperatures over the next month will be crucial to how the reef recovers from heat-induced bleaching.

“The forecasts... indicate that we can expect ongoing levels of thermal stress for at least the next two weeks and maybe three or four weeks,” Wachenfeld said in a weekly update on the reef’s health.

“So this still is a critical time for the reef and it is the weather conditions over the next two to four weeks that will determine the final outcome,” he said.

Ocean temperatures across most of the reef were 0.5 to 1.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the March average.

In parts of the marine park in the south close to shore which avoided the ravages of previous bleachings, ocean temperatures were 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above average. The authority has

received 250 reports of sightings of bleached coral due to elevated ocean temperatures during an unusually hot Feb-ruary. The 345,400-square kil-ometer (133,360-square mile) World Heritage-listed colorful coral network has been devas-tated by four coral bleaching events since 1998. The most deadly were the most recent, in consecutive summers in 2016 and 2017.

Scientists fear the latest coral death rate could match those events.

“At the moment, it’s defi-nitely the most extensive bleaching event we’ve ever had,” US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Watch scientist William Skirving said yesterday.

“It’s certainly an end-to-end bleaching event with severe bits at each end and it’s not looking good for the southern end, but it really depends on the weather in the next two weeks,” he said.

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a sci-entist from the Australian Research Council Center for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, said how much of the bleached coral would recover and how much would die would not be known for weeks.

“I’m very worried about the situation given how warm the temperatures are on the Great Barrier Reef and what the pro-jections are,” Hoegh-Guldberg said.

An injured Myanmar military pilot (centre) is carried to an ambulance as he arrives at Lashio Airport, after a helicopter crashed during take off in Shan State, in Lashio, yesterday.

Diplomats safe after copter crashes in MyanmarREUTERS — YANGON

Foreign military attachés aboard a Myanmar military helicopter escaped serious injury when it crashed in eastern Myanmar yesterday afternoon, a Western diplomat

said. The helicopter was bound for the commercial capital Yangon when it crashed shortly after taking off from Lwe Khan village in northern Shan state, Myanmar military spokesman Zaw Min Tun said. He said two pilots had been

injured but declined to elab-orate. “Foreign attachés from several countries, including the United States, were on board,” a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “None was injured seriously.”

Bangladeshis protest upcoming visit by Indian premierANATOLIA — DHAKA

Large numbers of protesters in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka gathered after weekly yesterday prayers demanding the cancel-lation of an upcoming visit by India’s premier.

Accusing India’s Narendra Modi of “patronising violence” in his country, the demon-strators demanded their gov-ernment cancel an earlier invi-tation to Modi for an official

visit. “Bangladesh has been holding the spirit of harmony for generations after generations.

The founding leader of the ruling Awami League Party, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also struggled for establishing com-munal harmony in this country. So we cannot accept any extreme leader like Modi in our country,” said Nur Hossain Kasemi, one of the organizers of the protest, addressing the

rally.Protesters chanted slogans

against Modi and riots in the Indian capital, New Delhi, saying Modi “has no place in Bangladesh”. They also held banners and placards, with some condemning “deaths of Muslims” in Delhi, while others read: “We want punishment of Modi”, “Modi has no place on the soil of Bangladesh”. Just after the prayer, demonstrators from multiple mosques flocked

to the street, with security forces standing guard as the procession paraded through the city.

Leaders of the platform also urged international organiza-tions including the UN and Organization of Islamic Coop-eration to take action against India for alleged deaths of Muslims residents in New Delhi and other parts of the country protesting a controversial new citizenship law.

Bomb blast leaves

Rohingya boy

dead in Rakhine

ANATOLIA — YANGON

A Rohingya Muslim boy was killed and five others injured in a series of bombings in Myanmar’s conflict-hit Rakhine state, according to officials yesterday.

“We received reports of blasts in two Muslim villages today,” said a local police officer on condition of ano-nymity as he was not the authorized spokesperson.

The slain boy is 12 years old, he added. It remains unclear who is responsible for the attacks. Tha Sein, a regional lawmaker, said this was the latest attempt to incite violence between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists.

It is screening international travellers at 30 airports and has already tested more than 3,500 samples. The Indian Army is preparing at least five large-scale quarantine centers.

07SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2020 ASIA

Japan-South Korea tensionsflare over virus travel curbsAP — SEOUL

South Korea announced it will end visa-free entry for Japanese citizens starting on Monday in retaliation for a two-week quarantine imposed by Japan on all visitors from South Korea because of its surging viral outbreak.

South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister, Cho Sei-young, also announced yes-terday that it will strengthen travel entry restrictions on all foreign citizens coming from Japan and could reduce the number of airports at which flights from Japan can land.

Cho’s announcement came hours after South Korea expressed “extreme regret” over Japan’s travel restrictions a n d w a r n e d o f countermeasures.

He said Japan’s move was based on a misunderstanding of South Korea’s active efforts to fight the virus, which he insisted were in contrast to Japan’s “non-transparent and passive quarantine activity” reflected by its much smaller number of virus tests.

“Our government once again expresses our deep regrets over Japan’s measures that it unilaterally announced without prior consultation or notification,” Cho told reporters.

Relations between South Korea and Japan sank to their lowest point in decades last year as they feuded over trade issues, wartime history and military cooperation. South

Korea has not taken any coun-termeasures against more than 90 other nations that have banned or restricted visitors from the country.

The 14-day quarantine announced by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday also will apply to vis-itors from China. The gov-ernment in Beijing issued a softer response, with Foreign

Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian saying that Japan’s m e a s u r e s w e r e “understandable.”

South Korea has confirmed more than 6,500 cases of infection with the new coro-navirus, but its numbers of new cases have been declining in recent days.

South Korean Foreign Min-ister Kang Kyung-wha sum-moned Japanese Ambassador Koji Tomita to protest Japan’s move and described it as “unscientific,” citing progress in the country’s quarantine efforts.

Tomita replied that Japan is facing a “critical period” that will determine whether it can successfully stem the spread of the virus. Japan counts more than 1,000 cases, including about 700 from a cruise ship.

Passengers check in at a Japanese airline desk at Gimpo International Airport, in Seoul, yesterday.

Global infections surpass 100,000AFP — PARIS

Coronavirus has infected more than 100,000 people across 91 countries globally, according to an AFP tally yesterday.

The death toll reached 3,407, while the total number of infections hit 100,002, after a surge in cases worldwide since Thursday at 1700 GMT, notably in virus hotspot Iran which clocked 1,234 new cases.

China — excluding the ter-ritories of Hong Kong and Macau — where the epidemic emerged at the end of December, had 80,552 cases, of which 3,042 were fatal. There were 143 new infections and 30

deaths there since 1700 GMT on Thursday.

Outside China, a total of 19,450 cases have been recorded around the world since the epidemic began, including 365 deaths.

There have been 2,349 new cases and 31 new deaths outside China since 1700 GMT Thursday.

The most affected countries after China are: South Korea (6,284 cases, 42 deaths), Italy (3,858 cases, 148 deaths), Iran (4,747 cases, 124 deaths) and France (577 cases, nine deaths).

Since Thursday 1700 GMT, China, South Korea, France, Spain and the Netherlands have recorded new deaths.

Serbia, the Vatican, Slovakia, Peru and Bhutan have con-firmed the first cases on their soil.

Asia has recorded a total at 1500 GMT yesterday of 88,388 cases (3,101 deaths), Europe 6,284 cases (165 deaths), Middle East 4,993 cases (127 deaths), US and Canada 194 cases (12 deaths), Oceania 68 cases (two deaths), Latin America and the Caribbean 34 cases, Africa 41 cases.

This assessment was carried out using data collected by AFP offices from the competent national authorities and infor-mation from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Malaysia’s anti-graft chief quits after govt changes

AP — KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia’s anti-corruption chief has tendered her resig-nation, becoming the second top official to quit following the fall from power of a reformist ruling alliance once led by Mahathir Mohamad.

Latheefa Koya (pictured) said in a statement yesterday that there was no pressure on her to leave but that she decided to quit as head of Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission to return to her practice as a human rights advocate.

Her move mirrored that of Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, who has said he resigned because of the change in government. Both Thomas and Latheefa were appointed by Mahathir after his alliance ousted former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s scandal-plagued government in a historic vote in 2018.

Mahathir’s ruling alliance collapsed last week after his Bersatu party ditched the pact to join forces with Najib’s party and several opposition parties to form a new Malay-majority government.

Mahathir quit as prime minister to protest working with Najib’s party. His former ally and Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin was appointed as new premier.

Latheefa said that she met Muhyiddin on Thursday to explain her decision to resign.

She also briefed the new premier about ongoing actions and efforts to recover money stolen from the 1MDB state investment fund from abroad and that he was “fully sup-portive” of these actions.

Latheefa and Thomas have overseen corruption charges against Najib, his wife Rosmah Mansor and several gov-ernment officials over the 1MDB scandal, which has also prompted investigations in the US and several other coun-tries. Several other former political leaders have also been hauled to court for graft charges.

It is unclear how their res-ignations will affect the ongoing trials. Latheefa said it would be “business as usual” at the agency and believed it would remain uncompromising in fighting corruption.

Muhyiddin, facing a divided nation, has appealed for support and pledged to form a corruption-free Cabinet. He has postponed Parliament’s sitting by more than two months to May 18, that effectively delayed any moves by Mahathir’s camp to seek a no-confidence vote against him. Muhyiddin and Mahathir were former members of UMNO when they formed Bersatu in 2016 amid anger over a massive cor-ruption scandal involving the 1MDB state investment fund.

Seven missing in Pakistan building collapse, toll risesAFP — KARACHI

Pakistani rescuers using their bare hands searched yesterday for seven people missing after an apartment building collapsed, as more bodies were pulled from the rubble, taking the death toll to 16.

Soldiers have been deployed to help in the search efforts after a five-storey building and two adjoining houses collapsed in the port city of Karachi on Thursday.

The residential building had been constructed as a four-storey complex, but another floor was added about a year ago, in violation of con-struction rules, officials said.

According to building inspector, the sewage system appeared to have triggered the disaster, but a full technical investigation would be carried out.

“The death toll in the building collapse rose (from 11 on Thursday) to 16, after five more bodies were pulled out of the rubble today,” Salma Kauser, a senior health official in Karachi, said.

An official at the Abbasi Shaheed hospital confirmed the toll.

Rehan Hashmi, a senior municipal official, said the army had been deployed to help with the rescue and recovery mission. “Seven people are still missing, but it is premature to say whether they were trapped under the debris or not.”

Narrow alleyways have restricted the access of heavy machinery to the disaster site, meaning much of the rubble is being cleared manually.

South Korea’s First Vice-Foreign Minister, Cho Sei-young, said Japan’s move was based on a misunderstanding of South Korea’s active efforts to fight the virus.

Facebook shuts Singapore, UK offices

Gunmen open fire at Kabul gathering, 32 dead

AP — KABUL

Gunmen opened fire yesterday at a ceremony in Afghanistan’s capital attended by prominent political leaders, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens more before the two attackers were slain by police, officials said.

The IS militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its website.

Militants from IS have declared war on Afghanistan’s Shias, and many of those at the ceremony were from the minority Shia sect. The cer-emony commemorated the 1995 slaying of Abdul Ali Mazari, the leader of Afghani-stan’s ethnic Hazaras.

The Taliban said they were

not involved in the attack, which came less than a week after the US and the group signed an ambitious peace deal that lays out a path for the with-drawal of American forces from the country.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said 32 people were killed and 81 wounded in the attack in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul. The Health Ministry gave the same death toll but said 58 were wounded. All of the casualties were civilians, Rahimi said.

Opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah, who is the country’s chief executive and was a top contender in last year’s presi-dential election, was among several prominent political offi-cials who attended the

ceremony but left before the attack and were unhurt.

Karim Khalili, the chief of Afghanistan’s high peace council, was delivering a speech when the gunfire interrupted him. He was not hurt and later went on TV to denounce the violence.

Several witnesses said that, amid the panic, members of the security forces at the event had fired on civilians in the crowd.

After opening fire, the two gunmen holed up in a half-fin-ished apartment building, leading to a five-hour standoff with security forces. They were eventually killed and security forces cleared the building, Rahimi said. The area was cor-doned off by dozens of security forces.

Security forces stand guard after an armed and bomb attack targeting a commemoration ceremony marking the death anniversary of political leader of the Hezbe Wahdat Abdul Ali Mezari, in Kabul, yesterday.

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region declares emergency on devastating droughtBLOOMBERG - TIEN GIANG

Vietnam’s prolonged drought, coupled with an extensive buildup of salinity, have driven five provinces in the country’s rice bowl to declare a state of emergency.

“This year’s drought and salinity have been way more devastating than what we saw four years ago,” said Nguyen Thien Phap, head of the water resources department in Tien Giang, one of the provinces that announced the emergency in

the Mekong Delta.The entire area of fruit trees

in Tien Giang province, or about 310 sq miles), are at risk, while 24,000 hectares of rice fields will give below-normal yields, said Phap, adding that water usage upstream on the Mekong by nations including China, Laos and Thailand increased the dryness.

The Mekong Delta, which produces more than half the country’s rice, has so far seen a total of 33,000 hectares of rice fields damaged and nearly

70,000 households suffer from lack of water, Vietnam National Television reported yesterday, citing latest data from the coun-try’s department of water resources.

Salinity of four grams a liter will continue to spread in the Delta, affecting as much as 110km in some major estuaries this month, according to a report by the Southern Institute of Water Resources Research in Ho Chi Minh City. That’s three to five kilometers more than in the same period in 2016.

Another severe spell of salinity is expected in the short term, while water flows from the Mekong River into the region this month remain very low, estimated at 20 percent less than the same period in 2016, according to Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

Lack of rain combined with growing water consumption on river tributaries, as well as increased water storage in dams, are likely to spur drought and make saline intrusion more

severe and longer-lasting, Hoang Phuc Lam, the centre’s deputy director, said in a report.

The government estimates drought and salinity will affect 362,000 hectares of rice and 136,000 hectares of fruit trees in the Delta this year, while more than 120,000 households will experience a water shortage.

As of March, salinity had hit about half the districts in 10 of the 12 provinces and one city in the region.

The persistent drought in

the Delta in 2016 caused losses worth $384m with 250,000 hectares of rice, 130,000 hec-tares of crops and 30,000 hec-tares of fruit trees destroyed, according to local news website VnExpress. It was regarded as the worst drought in the region of more than 17 million people in data going back to 1926.

While the Delta is a key rice-growing area, the crop is grown in almost all of Vietnam, which is the world’s third-largest exporter, behind India and Thailand.

AFP — SINGAPORE

Facebook said it was shutting its London office and part of its Singapore base for “deep cleaning” after an employee in the Asian city state was diagnosed with coronavirus.

A staff member working at the US technology giant’s Marina One office in Sin-gapore was yesterday diag-nosed with COVID-19, a spokesman said. “We have immediately closed the affected areas for deep cleaning and advised employees based in the

affected area to work from home until 13 March,” he said in an emailed statement.

The infected employee had also visited Facebook’s London offices between Feb-ruary 24 and 26.

“We are therefore closing our London offices until Monday for deep cleaning and employees are working from home until then,” the spokesman said. Facebook has already closed its Shanghai office until further notice, while employees in Italy and South Korea have been encouraged to work from home.

Children across Syria are enduring the impact of a merciless war and will continue to suffer long after the guns have gone silent, pointing out that over the past nine years, schools and hospitals have been bombed, families have been torn apart and young lives have been lost.

08 SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

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

EDITORIAL

QATAR has always been at the forefront in helping Palestinian brothers who are facing numerous hard-ships for decades due to occupation forces. In fact, Qatar has always extended its generous help to all communities in distress across the globe.

Yesterday, Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani directed the allocation of $2m to assist the brothers in Gaza as a result of the damage caused by tragic fire in the Nuseirat Camp in the Gaza Strip.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held a telephone conversation with Head of the Political Bureau of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Dr. Ismail Haniyeh, who briefed His Highness on the damage caused by the tragic fire in the Nuseirat Camp in the Gaza Strip, especially the martyrs and the injured. The Head of the Movement expressed his sincere thanks and gratitude to H H the Amir, expressing his appreciation for this generous human gesture.

Few days ago, Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had donated QR50m to the ‘Haqq Al-Sham’ campaign. In May last year, Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had directed allocation of $480m for brethren Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The support came to reflect the bonds of brotherhood and the ties of Arabism and religion between the Qatari and Palestinian peoples, in order to help the brotherly Palestinian people to obtain their necessary life needs in the difficult circumstances imposed by the Israeli occupation forces, and the decline in the international humanitarian support provided to them.

In a similar generous gesture by the State of Qatar, Chairman of Qatar’s Gaza Reconstruction Committee, Ambassador H E Mohammed Al Emadi, announced last month the postponement of monthly instalments for beneficiaries from the His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa City in Khan Yunis governorate in southern Gaza Strip for 2020. Ambassador Al Emadi responded to the requests made by residents of the city, in light of the dif-ficult economic conditions the people of Gaza are going through, which prompted them to request delaying the payment of instalments.

In December last year, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) and Al Azhar University – Gaza (AUG) had celebrated the inauguration of the uni-versity’s new toxicology and pharmacology lab, under a project to establish specialist medical labs at Gaza medical education institutions.

Commendable generosity

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Quote of the day

For sure I am pleased for the ceasefire, the ceasefire is

good news. The EU is liaising with other international

partners, including the UN, Nato and the US so that the

clear international consensus in favour of de-escalation

and a lasting cease-fire is strongly reinforced.

Josep Borrell, EU Foreign Policy Chief

Syrians returning to their homes in the town of Binnish, in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province near the Turkish border, yesterday, following a Russia-Turkey ceasefire deal.

QNA — NEW YORK

The Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore, and World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley call to end the violence in Syria and to improve access across the country.

After two-days visit to the country, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore and World Food Programme Exec-utive Director David Beasley said, “Children across Syria are enduring the impact of a mer-ciless war and will continue to suffer long after the guns have gone silent, pointing out that over the past nine years, schools and hospitals have been bombed, families have been torn apart and young lives have been lost”, UN news center reported.

The agency chiefs also stressed the need to improve economic conditions and provide families with basic services.

“The millions of people whose lives have been shattered

by war can no longer afford to put food on the table as the Syrian economy has taken a nosedive in recent months,” flagged Beasley.

They stressed that being able to move staff and supplies across conflict lines and borders is critical for reaching the popula-tions most in need, particularly as 11 million people in the country, five million of whom are children, require humanitarian assistance.

“The war has left Syria a broken country and above all, the people desperately need peace”, underscored the WFP chief.

The international organiza-tions said, the situation of children and families in the northern regions of Idlib has become more dangerous.

In the past three months alone, more than half a million children have been displaced, further aggravating an already dire situation in northwest where 2.8 out of four million people were already estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance,

according to the UN humani-tarian affairs coordination office, OCHA.

Moreover, some 180 schools are out of operation because they were destroyed, damaged or used to shelter displaced fam-ilies. And since last year, food prices have increased by 120 percent.

UNICEF and WFP are working jointly to help prevent and treat malnutrition, strengthen data collection, and provide student meals to keep children in school.

Amid a dangerous escalation in fighting, they traveled to northwest Syria where one-third of the population are food insecure, one-in-three children are out of school, and over half of all health facilities non-functional.

Meanwhile, in the northeast, despite the heroic efforts of humanitarian partners, tens of thousands of children continue to languish in displacement camps, deprived of the most basic services.

Like it or not, we may have to submit to the intrusion of big data because of the corona-virus.

South Korea is at the cutting edge of how this could work in a democracy. Tracking down patient zeros - the first documented cases - and the ones that follow is becoming critical to con-tainment and public safety. There won’t be a cure or vaccine anytime soon. The global number of cases is nearing 100,000. South Korea has the largest out-break outside China, with almost 6,000 cases. The surge has largely been con-tained to the city where it erupted, Daegu, around a reli-gious cult.

Central to South Korea’s approach has been the extensive collection and effective use of data as a public good - in this case, disease sur-veillance and testing. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion’s daily reporting details patients affected and being tested, connections between them and what provinces they’re in. It includes fatality rates by age and gender. Health authorities posted a detailed

log of patients’ whereabouts prior to confirmation of infection. Their names weren’t given, but they were num-bered. People were informed that this personal information was being collected and publi-cized. They didn’t have a choice. A Wall Street Journal report chronicled this: “Patient No. 12 had booked seats E13 and E14 for a 5:30pm. showing of the South Korean film, “The Man Standing Next.” Before grabbing a 12:40pm. train, patient No. 17 dined at a soft-tofu restaurant in Seoul. Patient No. 21 drove her car to attend a weekday evening church service.”

From a visit to a funeral home to a restaurant and bakery, a website that uses government data now allows tracing infected individuals. Color-coded by timing, it allows people to avoid those places and enables so-called social distancing, or staying away from large groups and crowds. It’s a more focused way to confront the epi-demic than living in a gener-alized state of paranoia. And far more targeted than locking down entire cities. App developers are using the public data to warn users if an infected person is within 100 meters. Because the corona-virus has been asymptomatic in some cases, tracing those infected is even more important.

Tech giants have mined data this way in mar-keting for at least a decade. Scientists have analyzed data

from Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Trends to understand human mobility. Cellphone data has been used to track cholera outbreaks and the role of crowds. South Korea is pulling all these threads together. It’s also collecting data from pharmacies and doctors on how medication is being dispensed, and plans to use a similar system to ensure people aren’t hoarding masks.

The more information you have, the more you can do with it. South Korea’s growing pile of data has enabled authorities to quickly test for the disease and keep pace with its rapid spread. Knowing that the cases are concentrated in Daegu has helped ramp up testing there. That’s a big step forward. In previous outbreaks, delays in collecting and tracking led to slow response times.

This capacity hasn’t been conjured from nothing. South Korea has spent years investing in technology and, more recently, biotech-nology. Research and devel-opment spending accounts for around 4.5% of gross domestic product, topping the list of countries in the Organization for Eco-nomic Cooperation and Development, which average around 2.37%. Given the out-sized role of companies like Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. in the country’s life, South Koreans are highly tech-enabled, with nine out of 10 people on the

internet and 95% using smartphones.To be sure, disease surveillance isn’t new. Typically, healthcare professionals need to inform public health officials for selected diseases. That takes time. Voluntary sharing risks misreporting, with no vali-dation from lab tests. There are other pitfalls, especially data collection based on human behavior and media coverage. For instance, Google and the US Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention teamed up for web data on searches around the flu. In 2013, Google’s esti-mates for Christmas-time flu peak were almost double the CDC’s. Meanwhile, Google underestimated swine flu.

Putting data to work effectively isn’t an easy task. In China, a highly connected and watched society, fears of misuse and mass-scale sur-veillance abound. Beijing has resorted to data to track cit-izens in the ongoing quaran-tines across the country. The US doesn’t seem to have the data, or at least isn’t mar-shaling it effectively. Much of what it collects is in the hands of Big Tech. Testing and reporting for the coronavirus is proving difficult. In Europe, even if governments wanted to fully utilize all available information, new privacy laws would get in the way.

Anjani Trivedi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial com-panies in Asia.

UN officials call for immediate endto violence in northwestern Syria

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09SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2020 EUROPE

EU urges solidarity as virus strains medical suppliesREUTERS — BRUSSELS

European Union officials held an emergency meeting in Brussels to urge solidarity among the 27 EU countries as they try to cope with potential shortages of medicine and protective gear caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

Many EU countries rely on China, the source of the out-break, for drug ingredients, and they are now struggling to avoid shortages after the epidemic disrupted supplies and delayed shipments.

Protective gear, like face masks, is already in short supply in most EU countries, officials said, which puts doctors and nurses at risk.

Europe needs to bring medical production back to Europe, because it relies too much on imports from non-EU countries, officials in France and Germany, the EU’s largest countries, have said.

France imports about 40% of drug ingredients from China, a situation that the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called over-reliance on Beijing.

“This is not something that will be solved tomorrow, but we must start this discussion today so that we have a solution after tomorrow,” Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober told reporters at the meeting in Brussels.

No immediate shortages of medicines have so far been experienced in the EU because of the epidemic, officials said, but concerns were mounting after India, the world’s largest

producer of generic medicines, restrained some exports.

The bloc already faced shortages of several drugs, including for respiratory dis-eases, before the outbreak.

To combat the existing shortage of protective gear, for which demand has grown expo-nentially in Europe since the beginning of the crisis, health commissioner Stella Kyriakides called for “solidarity” among EU states.

But France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Lithuania have blocked exports of pro-tective equipment to avoid risks of shortages in their own terri-tories. .

Belgium’s health minister, Maggie De Block, called the bans “paradoxical” and urged to remove them. Other min-isters criticised those measures.

Italy, the EU country hardest hit by the outbreak, has for-mally requested help from other EU states to meet its needs for protective gear.

Italian health minister Roberto Speranza said more needed to be done at EU level to meet existing needs.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, last week began joint procurement of face masks and other pro-tective gear on behalf of 20 EU states, but the effort probably won’t secure enough supplies before April, officials said.

EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton said he was con-fident that EU-based manufac-turers could meet the growing demand for protective gear in the coming weeks, provided that production was coordinated.

Ministers also discussed

measures to prevent the spread of the virus, informing each other on actions taken at national level.

Free movement of citizens within the EU’s open-border

Schengen area has so far not been limited because of the epidemic.

“I believe any measures to limit travel across borders is not appropriate, based on what we

know about the situation of the virus at the moment,” German health minister Jens Spahn said. “If we got a consensus on this today, I would see this as an important signal.”

EU Commissioner for internal market and consumer protection, industry, research and energy, Thierry Breton (left); European Commissioner in charge of Health, Stella Kyriakides (centre), and Dutch Minister of Medical Care, Bruno Bruins, during a Ministers of Health meeting on COVID-19, at the EU headquarters in Brussels, yesterday.

$2bn needed to develop COVID-19 shot, says epidemic response groupREUETSR — LONDON

A global coalition set up to fight epidemic diseases issued a call yesterday for $2bn to support the development of a vaccine against the new coronavirus that is causing COVID-19 infec-tions around the world.

Describing the outbreak as an “unprecedented threat in terms of its global impact”, the Coalition for Epidemic

Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) said that while con-tainment measures would help slow the spread, a vaccine was key to longer-term control.

“It is increasingly clear that containment measures for COVID-19 can only slow down its spread and the virus is now entering a stage of unprece-dented threat in terms of its global impact,” said CEPI’s chief executive Richard Hatchett

“It is critical that we ... invest in the development of a vaccine that will prevent people from getting sick.”

CEPI announced within weeks of the start of the out-break that it would put $100 m into an initial programme of vaccine development with the aim of having potential vaccine candidates in early stage clinical trials in as little as 16 weeks.

But yesterday it said these

funds would be fully allocated by the end of March. “Without immediate additional financial contributions the vaccine pro-grammes we have begun will not be able to progress and ulti-mately will not deliver the vac-cines that the world needs,” Hatchett said.

CEPI launched in 2017 with initial funding of $460 million from the governments of Germany, Japan and Norway,

the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun-dation and the Wellcome Trust global health charity. Its aim was to speed up the process of developing vaccines against new and unknown diseases.

The British government yesterday announced another $26m of additional funding, beyond 30 million of funding it had previously given to CEPI, and urged other donors to join the efforts to find a vaccine.

President Putin dismisses talk about extending his ruleAP — MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin (pictured) said yesterday that he doesn’t want to scrap term limits or resort to other suggested ways of extending his rule, but he kept mum about his future plans.

Putin has proposed a sweeping set of constitutional amendments, which are seen by his critics as part of his efforts to stay at the helm after his current six-year term expires in 2024. The Kremlin-controlled parliament is

expected to approve the changes next week, after which they will come for final approval in a nationwide vote set for April 22.

Political pundits and Kremlin foes have speculated that Putin could use the changes to scrap term limits and remain president; shift into the prime minister ’s seat with strengthened powers; or con-tinue calling the shots as the head of the State Council.

But Putin rejected all those options during a meeting with workers and activists in

Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow. Asked if he really wants to

step down after completing his term because he’s tired of his post, Putin responded coyly that he likes his job and is thankful to the people who support him.

He noted, however, that he considers scrapping presi-dential terms harmful for the country’s future even though it could benefit from political sta-bility at present.

Putin added that trans-forming Russia into a parlia-mentary republic isn’t a good

idea because the country needs a strong presidential authority.

He also dismissed sugges-tions that he could shift into the post of the head of the State Council after his term ends, saying such a move would divide the government and would be disastrous for the country.

The 67-year-old Putin, who has been in power for more than 20 years, becoming Rus-sia’s longest-serving ruler since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, didn’t offer any clue about his political future.

Serbia downplays US sanctions threat over Russian weapons

Prince Harry, Lewis Hamilton open Silverstone museum

AP — BELGRADE

Serbia will continue to source weapons from “friendly states” despite a looming threat of US sanctions in the event of further such deliveries from Russia, the Serbian defence minister said yesterday.

“Serbia is not a colony” and will decide for itself about “the strengthening and equipping of its armed forces,” Aleksandar Vulin said in a statement.

US officials have spoken openly about introducing sanc-tions against Serbia if Moscow sends more arms to the country, especially those which could jeopardise the security of neighbouring Nato-member states.

Serbia has recently received a sophisticated anti-aircraft system from Russia which has also provided fighter jets, attack helicopters and armoured vehicles to the Balkan country.

Vulin, who is known for his

pro-Russian stance, said the recent deliveries are for defensive purposes. He said there is no reason for sanctions from “any country which respects international law and Serbia’s right to independently decide” how to arm itself.

Russia’s arming of Serbia is watched with unease in the West and among its neighbours amid growing tensions in the Balkans which went through a devastating civil war in the 1990s. Nato intervened in Serbia to stop a bloody Serb crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists in 1999.

Despite formally seeking to join the European Union, Ser-bia’s populist leadership has further strengthened close political and military ties with Slavic ally Russia, as well as China.

Serbia has pledged to stay out of Nato and refused to join Western sanctions against Russia for its policies in Ukraine.

No immediate shortages of medicines have so far been experienced in the EU because of the epidemic, but concerns were mounting after India restrained some exports: Officials

European countries, companies pledge to cut plastic wasteREUTERS — BRUSSELS

Thirteen European countries and tens of companies yesterday pledged to use less plastic and recycle more, a move NGOs said was positive but no substitute for government regulations on plastic pollution.

The Netherlands, France and Denmark spearheaded the

“European Plastics Pact”, which was signed by two of Belgium’s three regions and a host of firms, including German chem-icals firm Henkel and Finnish oil refiner Neste.

Participants commit to make their plastic packaging “reusable where possible and in any case recyclable” by 2025, while increasing plastics col-lection, sorting and recycling

capacity by 25 percentage points.

They aim to produce at least 20 percent less virgin plastic —meaning newly made plastics that don’t contain recycled materials — by 2025. Com-panies will aim to use at least 30 percent recycled plastics in their products and packaging by 2025.

“If we want to tackle

climate change, we need to look beyond energy to mate-rials. We have to start treating plastic as the valuable raw material it is and keep it out of our oceans,” Dutch envi-ronment minister Stientje van Veldhoven said.

NGOs welcomed the pledge but said it did not let govern-ments off the hook.

“It remains completely

voluntary and can never be considered as a replacement for ambitious regulatory measures on single-use plastics and pack-aging,” said Delphine Levi Alvares from Zero Waste Europe.

The EU will ban single-use plastic straws, cutlery and plates by 2021, in a bid to stop them littering the environment. Next week the bloc will unveil

a “circular economy” plan to cut waste in sectors like plastics and construction.

Researchers estimate the world has produced more than 8.3 billion tonnes of virgin plastics.

Only 9 percent of this has been recycled, with 79 peercent ending up in landfills or the natural environment, and the rest incinerated.

Britain’s Prince Harry (centre), Duke of Sussex with Britain’s Formula One world champion driver Lewis Hamilton during a visit to officially open the Silverstone Experience at Silverstone motor racing circuit, in central England, yesterday. The Silverstone Experience is the new home to the archive of the British Racing Drivers’ Club. The museum brings the extensive heritage of Silverstone and British motor racing to life through a dynamic, interactive and educational visitor experience.

Explosives team deems device found in London car ‘not viable’AP — LONDON

British police said a “suspi-cious device” found in a car north of London was deemed “not viable” and a bomb disposal team is checking a second car.

Bedfordshire Police said two men were arrested and bomb disposal experts were dispatched after the device in the first vehicle aroused concern in Luton, which is around 56km from the British capital.

One man was arrested at the scene while a second man was arrested nearby soon after.

A cordon around the area of concern was put in place and a number of nearby prop-erties were evacuated as a precaution.

After reviewing the device, the explosive ordnance dis-posal team deemed it to “not to be viable.” Police said the EOD team was looking over a second car.

No further details were disclosed.

“This is a complex investi-gation and we continue to have officers in the area while we work to establish the cir-cumstances which led to the device being found,” police Superintendent Jaki Whittred said.

“I understand that this is concerning for local residents in Luton but I’d like to reassure you that our officers, EOD spe-cialists, and a number of our partner agencies are working closely together to ensure the safety of the public.”

10 SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2020EUROPE

EU dangles prospect ofmore aid as migrantcrisis enters second weekREUTERS — KASTANIES

The European Union yesterday pleaded with migrants on the Turkish border to stop trying to cross into Greece but dangled the prospect of more aid for Ankara as a standoff between Greek riot police and refugees entered a second week.

Tens of thousands of migrants have been trying to get into Greece, an EU member state, since Turkey said on Feb-ruary 28 it would no longer try to keep them on its territory as agreed in 2016 with the EU in return for billions of euros in aid.

Greek and Turkish security forces again deployed tear gas yesterday, witnesses said, sending plumes of smoke above the Kastanies-Pazarkule border crossing. Some migrants dabbed stinging eyes with water. Other trekked through fields probing for chinks in the well-guarded frontier.

“The news about the alleged openness (of the Greek-Turkish border) is false and people should not try to move there,” the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told reporters during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Croatia.

The EU could offer more money beyond the $6.79bn

pledged in 2016 to help the ref-ugees but Turkey must first stop using them as a “bargaining chip”, he said.

Turkey, which hosts nearly 4 million Syrian war refugees, says the EU has failed to honour earlier promises. It also wants more European support in Syria, where its troops are facing off against Russian-backed Syrian government forces.

In a sign of the EU’s hard-ening stance since the 2015 migration crisis, when more than a million migrants entered Europe from Turkey, the min-isters in Zagreb said they were ready to take “all necessary measures” to stop illegal crossings into Greece, without elaborating.

Migrants such as 18-year-old Ahmad al-Sadeq, from Syria’s war-ravaged Idlib

province, are unlikely to heed such warnings.

“We will stay here for months. We hope that public pressure will grow and force the Greek government to change its mind. The situation requires some heart, not tear gas and fences,” said Sadeq, who got into Greece on Thursday but was then sent back.

“We left Syria to escape a government that murders women and children ... and now we are here at Europe’s mercy.”

But Fawzi Uzbek, 37, an Afghan national who wants to reach Germany, said he would probably soon head back to Istanbul, where he has been working in a factory for about 18 months.

“The Greeks know that if they open the gates they will get many more people (arriving) on this side of the border,” said Uzbek, sitting in a makeshift tent he had constructed near the border for himself, his wife and four children.

About a quarter of the migrants at the border are Syrian and most of the rest are Afghans, Pakistanis, Iranians and Africans, according to Turkish estimates.

Greece says it has repulsed around 35,000 migrants trying to cross its border in the past

week. Turkey has deployed 1,000 special police to the area to halt the pushback of migrants onto its territory.

Athens plans to extend its border fence by a further 40km, sources with knowledge of the matter said. It has also stepped up naval patrols in the Aegean to deter migrants trying to reach Greek islands such as Lesbos by dinghy.

Turkey’s coastguard rescued about 120 migrants, including small children, early yesterday. The migrants said the Greek coastguard had disconnected their boats’ motors, leaving them

adrift in the Aegean.On Lesbos, just a few miles

from the Turkish coast, fish-ermen, hoteliers and shop-keepers expressed concern that more migrant arrivals would further harm their island’s rep-utation as a dream holiday destination.

“Most businesses, at least tourism businesses, are going to hell,” said Vangelis Papastavros, whose wife owns a hotel in Mytilene, the largest town on an island which already houses some 20,000 migrants in camps in mostly squalid conditions.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the crisis with German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, saying migration regulations between Ankara and the EU were not working and needed to be revised, the Turkish presidency said.

The EU’s Borrell said a new ceasefire deal brokered by the presidents of Turkey and Russia for Syria’s Idlib province could facilitate increased humani-tarian help to Syria and for the refugees housed in Turkey. He said the EU would host a donor conference on June 29 and 30.

Greece police and border units use tear gas and water cannon to disperse asylum seekers, waiting in the region between the Kastanies Border Gate and the Pazarkule Border Gate, yesterday.

Athens plans to extend its border fence by a further 40km. It has also stepped up naval patrols in the Aegean to deter migrants trying to reach islands such as Lesbos by dinghy.

US, UK and Estonia accuse Russia of cyber attack on Georgia govtAP — LONDON

The United States, United Kingdom and Estonia accused Russia’s military intelligence of conducting cyber attacks against the Georgian government and media websites in an attempt “to sow discord and disrupt the lives of ordinary Georgians.”

The three countries raised the issue at the Security Council after Georgia’s ambassador wrote to the UN’s most pow-erful body in February about the large-scale attack in October.

Estonian Ambassador Sven Jurgenson read a statement afterward, flanked by UK

Ambassador Karen Pierce and acting US deputy ambassador Cherith Norman Chalet, saying the cyber attacks “are part of Russia’s long-running campaign of hostile and destabilising activity against Georgia and are part of a wider pattern of malign activity.”

The three Western countries said the attacks demonstrate “a continuing pattern of reckless ... cyber operations against a number of countries” by Russia’s GRU military intelligence.

“These actions clearly con-tradict Russia’s attempts to claim it is a responsible actor in cyberspace,” they said, adding that “irresponsibility in cyber-space is detrimental to all of us.”

Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said that the October 28 cyber attack was “targeted at Geor-gia’s national security and intended to harm Georgian cit-izens and government struc-tures by disrupting and para-lyzing the functionality of various organisations, causing anxiety among the general public.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has rejected the accusations as “unfounded and politically driven,” saying there was no evidence of Russian involvement. It added that the accusations reflect Georgia’s efforts at “demonisation” of Russia and would further cloud ties.

In 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a botched attempt to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Moscow then recognised the independence of South Osset ia and another breakaway Georgian province, Abkhazia, and set up military bases there.

Russia has taken on the issue of cyber-crime at the United Nations.

In December, the UN General Assembly approved a Russian-sponsored resolution starting the process of drafting a new international treaty to combat cyber-crime, over

objections from the European Union, the United States and other countries.

The resolution establishes an expert committee repre-senting all regions of the world “to elaborate a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of infor-mation and communications technologies for criminal purposes.”

The committee is expected to meet in August to agree on an outline of its activities.

Chalet, the US envoy, said at the time that the resolution “will undermine international cooperation to combat cyber-crime at a time when enhanced coordination is essential.”

Eel smuggler given suspended jail term in UKAFP — LONDON

A seafood salesman was given a two-year suspended jail sentence yesterday for smug-gling endangered eels worth more than $69m out of Britain.

Gilbert Khoo played a “leading role” in a large-scale commercial operation to ille-gally export endangered European glass eels, Judge Jeffrey Pegden told a London court.

He also said the criminal operation had a “significant environmental impact” on the species, which are threatened with extinction unless threats against them are closely controlled.

The judge, sitting at Southwark Crown Court, ordered Khoo, from Chess-ington, southwest London, to

carry out 240 hours of unpaid community work.

Further hearings are scheduled to retrieve the pro-ceeds of crime from the oper-ation, the court was told.

Khoo, 67, was convicted at the same court last month of six offences relating to the illegal importation and movement of the rare elvers.

British border force officers found a live consignment of baby European eels, originally from Spain, hidden under a load of chilled fish at London Hea-throw Airport.

They were due to be exported to Hong Kong on Feb-ruary 15, 2017.

The 200kg consignment had an estimated value of at least £5.7 million on the black market in East Asia, where they are a delicacy in high demand.

The eels were later safely released back into the wild.

Khoo was arrested when he returned to London on a flight from Singapore and investi-gators found paperwork showing he had been smuggling the rare creatures between 2015 and 2017.

Khoo imported elvers from European countries, held them at a farm in Gloucestershire, southwest England, then repackaged and labelled them as “chilled fish” to be sent onwards to East Asia.

The National Crime Agency, which investigates serious and organised crime, estimates that in those two years, Khoo exported or had attempted to export 1,775 kg of eels.

The slippery contraband had an estimated black market value of £53 million.

Macron urges citizens to restrict visits to elders

AFP — PARIS

President Emmanuel Macron yesterday urged the French to limit visits to elderly people who are most vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus that has already left nine dead in the country and made hundreds ill.

Macron, who shook up his agenda this week to focus on efforts to contain the outbreak, said on a visit to an old peo-ple’s home that they were by far the most vulnerable to its effects.

“Our absolute priority is to protect the people who are the most fragile in the face of this virus,” Macron said.

“The nation is behind our old... during this epidemic and we need to limit our visits as

much as we can,” he said.He admitted this could

prove “heartbreaking” at times but said the measure was simply one of common sense.

He emphasised that young people should not be visiting the old because “as we know, they (the young) transmit the virus a lot”.

The French health ministry said yesterday that the number of cases of coronavirus infection had jumped by a further 154 to 577, with two more deaths bringing the total toll to nine.

Those who died in France so far have been old with pre-existing conditions.

Macron said that the situ-ation was likely to last several weeks and that people should

show the “spirit of responsi-bility” without giving into panic.

The health ministry said its priority was to slow the spread of the virus to limit the effects for the population when the peak of the virus is reached.

“People who are old are more at risk and should be pro-tected,” the ministry added.

One of the worst-hit regions in France is the Haut-Rhin in the east, where the number of cases jumped eightfold inside eight hours to 81, according to local officials.

The senior state official for the region, Laurent Touvet, announced a series of measures including closing some schools and banning gatherings of more than 50 people.

A nurse escorts a patient with COVID-19 symptoms to a tent set up in a courtyard of the Henri Mondor Hospital in Creteil, near Paris, yesterday.

Activists accuse Bulgarian govt of illegally allowing waste burningREUTERS — SOFIA

Bulgaria’s government has secretly allowed three ageing coal-fired power plants to burn unclassified waste, flouting local and European Union laws, according to a complaint filed with the European Commission by lawyers from London-based charity ClientEarth.

The environmental group’s lawyers, together with two Bulgarian green activist groups, accused the gov-ernment in skipping formal permit procedures and keeping Bulgarians in the dark about the health and environmental risks from waste burning in the old plants.

“Burning waste without the correct filters is a major hazard for those living around the plants,” ClientEarth lawyer Dominique Doyle said in a statement.

According to ClientEarth, the Bobov Dol plant in western Bulgaria and Brikel in the south were given permission through confidential letters to burn 500,000 tonnes of waste over six months — 10,000 times more waste than is allowed without an appro-priate permit update — starting late 2018.

A third plant — Republika Pernik — was verbally given permission to burn waste for six-months, they said.

Google search must show man’s acquittal first: Spanish court

AP — MADRID

A Spanish court has partially accepted Google’s appeal against a ruling that ordered it to erase news articles about a man accused of abuse, but the new judgement said the company had to display the man’s acquittal at the top of any search results.

A National Court decision yesterday said that freedom of expression took precedence over personal data protection in this case. However, given the case’s special circumstances, the person’s acquittal must appear in first place in internet searches, it ruled.

In 2017, Spain’s Data Pro-tection Agency ruled in favour

of a psychologist who was tried and acquitted on three counts of u abuse for which he faced a possible 27 years in prison.

The man, whose name was not released, applied to have Google’s search engine erase 10 news articles relating to the case that appeared when his name was keyed in.

The agency ordered eight story links to be blocked, saying the news was obsolete.

Google appealed, arguing that the articles were of public interest and access to them should be protected by free speech laws. It also maintained they were of current interest and not outdated.

Expanded testing is considered crucial to slowing the spread of the respiratory illness in the United States, where the death toll reached 14 with more than 230 cases in at least 17 states.

11SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2020 AMERICAS

Trump signs $8.3bn bill to fight coronavirus, expand testing

REUTERS – WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump signed a bill yesterday allo-cating $8.3bn to bolster the country’s capacity to test for the new coronavirus and fund other measures to stem an outbreak that has now infected some 100,000 people worldwide.

Expanded testing is con-sidered crucial to slowing the spread of the respiratory illness in the United States, where the death toll reached 14 by yes-terday morning with more than 230 cases in at least 17 states. Worldwide, more than 3,400 people have died after becoming infected with the virus, most of them in China.

“We’re doing very well,” the President said. “But it’s an unforeseen problem... came out of nowhere but we’re taking care of it.” Trump said he had spoken to California Governor Gavin Newsom about a cruise ship that was barred from docking in San Francisco after at least 35 people developed flu-like symptoms. The ship has been linked to two confirmed cases of the illness caused by the virus called COVID-19.

“We’re doing testing on those people,” Trump said.

More than $3bn included in the spending bill is intended for research and development into vaccines, test kits and treat-ments. There are no so far no approved vaccines or treat-ments for the illness.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who was present at Trump’s bill signing, said the CDC had already sent tests with the capacity to test 75,000 people for the virus to public health labs around the country. He said a private con-tractor was working with the CDC to send kits capable of testing 400,000 people to private hospitals and labs nationwide.

“The production and shipping of tests that we’ve talked about all week is com-pletely on schedule,” Azar said.

Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, earlier acknowledged issues that slowed distribution of coro-navirus tests, but said the overall response was going well.

“There were certainly some missteps in the beginning,” he told NBC’s Today program.

US Vice-President Mike Pence, tasked by Trump to lead the coronavirus response, on Thursday said there were not yet enough tests to meet demand going forward.

The virus spread to four more US states on Thursday — Colorado, Maryland, Tennessee and Texas — and the number of cases in New York doubled to 22, eight of which were con-nected to a Manhattan lawyer

who lives in Westchester County, north of the city.

Washington’s King County, where 12 of the US fatalities have been recorded, remains the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States. At least six of those deaths were people at a nursing facility in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland.

As in other countries, Amer-icans this week faced a new reality in which they were often asked to stay home from work, schools were closed, large gath-erings and sporting events can-celed, and stores emptied of staples like toiletries and water. The University of Washington announced that all classes would be held virtually for the rest of the winter term to limit contagion.

In Seattle, illness triggers work-from-home trendAFP — SAN FRANCISCO

Tech firms in Seattle, a new focal point for the coronavirus epidemic, were telling employees this week to take advantage of technology to work remotely in an effort to contain the outbreak.

Ten of the 12 US fatalities from the outbreak have been in the northwest state, leading to an emergency declaration by the state and proactive measures in the community where tech plays a major role in the economy.

Online retail and cloud computing colossus Amazon, which has transformed the northwestern US city with its urban campus, has given its more than 50,000 employees in the region a green light to work remotely.

“We are recommending that employees in Seattle/Bellevue who are able to work from home do so through the end of the month,” Amazon said.

Facebook and Google, which have been steadily expanding operations in Seattle, are also encouraging workers in the state of Washington to stay away from the office to reduce risks.

Microsoft, with head-quarters in Redmond, a short distance from Seattle, put out word to employees this week that if possible, they should work from their residence for the next couple of weeks.

People considered more vulnerable to succumbing to COVID-19, such as those older than 60 years of age or with medical conditions, were told to arrange for time off if their jobs require them to go to the office, according to an online post by Microsoft. “We are pro-viding real-time guidance to

employees in all affected regions,” the company said.

Amazon this week con-firmed that an employee in Seattle had been quarantined after testing positive for the new coronavirus. Workers known to have been in close contact with the ill employee were notified.

Coronavirus deaths at a nursing home in the Seattle suburbs have heightened con-cerns in the area, where aero-space giant Boeing has major operations. Boeing said that its facilities in that area remain open, and there has been no crimp to aeroplane production. Boeing sent out word to workers late on Wednesday that someone who works on a 777 aircraft production line went home ill with flu-like symptoms. As a precaution, Boeing sent home other workers who were part of the sick employee’s team, according to the message.

Tech firms have also been taking precautions closer to home in Silicon Valley. Lyft said it encouraged its San Francisco staff to work from home for the remainder of the week after it learned one of its employees was in contact with someone who was exposed to COVID-19. “The team member has not exhibited any symptoms, and is in touch with medical profes-sionals,” Lyft said. The Lyft headquarters in San Francisco, which remains open, was to undergo a deep-clean..

Twitter staff across the world were asked to work from home starting early this week in an effort to stop the spread of the deadly new coronavirus epidemic. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley titans have taken to con-ducting job interviews remotely instead of in person due to virus spread concerns.

US President Donald Trump holds up the $8.3bn emergency funding bill to combat COVID-19, after signing it in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Lights, camera... no action? Hollywood rocked by epidemicAFP — LOS ANGELES

The new James Bond movie delayed. Studios scrapping film festivals. Blockbuster produc-tions shut down. Hollywood is being rocked by the unprece-dented challenge of the new coronavirus, insiders said.

“I have never seen anything where this many films are going to be affected all at once,” said Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations. “There’s isolated incidents or tragedies that happen, that might affect a certain film. But this really does infect all the industry from top to bottom.”

Industry estimates put the financial loss from Asian theaters already shuttered this year around $2bn. Major

Hollywood titles including “Mulan” — Disney’s China-set live-action blockbuster — have been placed on hold in China. The last-minute global delay of 007 adventure “No Time To Die,” including its US and European releases, highlights the borderless impact of the virus.

For now, US theater attend-ances are holding steady despite fears of spreading infection, and “Mulan” remains penned in for launch this month in North America. But new coronavirus outbreaks in California and New York, and multiple deaths in Washington state, could impact receipts.

“We’ll see a little bit of downturn this week — by the time ‘Mulan’ comes out, if this breaks as big as it did in China,

it’s going to change the entire landscape,” said Bock. Mean-while, massive buyers including Netflix, Amazon and Apple have pulled out of the SXSW festival in Texas — an important market-place for movies. The impact will not be restricted to major studios.

More than 50,000 people have signed an online petition calling for SXSW to be canceled. While organizers insist it is still going ahead, reports of further high-profile dropouts including Warner Bros and CNN have sown doubts.

Other movie gatherings including CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and the Cannes film fes-tival, are under scrutiny. Pro-duction of movies has also been hit. A scheduled three-week shoot for the new

Tom Cruise-starring “Mission Impossible” in Italy — one of the worst-affected countries — was stopped last month.

Paramount moved the filming out of “an abundance of caution for the safety and well-being of our cast and crew.” Netflix is looking for alternative locations to shoot a part of new Dwayne Johnson movie “Red Notice” that had been due to film in Italy.

Any blockage in the relentless pipeline of movie production could leave a dearth of movies further ahead. “The longer that goes on, the fewer films that we get in the pipeline for 2021, 2022,” said Bock. “This has the potential to really cripple the theatrical industry the longer it goes on.”

People wear protective face masks at a subway after reports of the coronavirus in Sao Paulo, Brazil, yesterday.

Bill Clinton says his 'relationship' with Lewinsky was to ‘manage anxieties’AFP — NEW YORK

Bill Clinton said he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky to help him deal with the stress of being president as he opened up in a documentary released yesterday about the scandal that led to his impeachment.

In the four-part Hulu series, Clinton says his relationship with the then White House intern was a means “to manage my anxieties,” and that he felt “terrible” the affair came to define Lewinsky’s life.

“It was awful what I did,” added the 73-year-old. “We all bring our baggage to life and sometimes we do things we shouldn’t do.” Clinton described the affair as motivated by life’s “pressure and disappointments and terrors, fears of whatever, things I did to manage my anx-ieties for years”.

Bill and Hillary Clinton were interviewed separately about what they recall from that time for the series entitled “Hillary", focused on the life of the former first lady. Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky and subsequent denial about it under oath led to his impeachment in December 1998. He was acquitted by the

Senate in February 1999 but the scandal came to define his pres-idency. Hillary Clinton says she felt “devastated and so per-sonally hurt” when her husband told her about the affair.

They both talk about how Hillary told him to inform their daughter Chelsea before the news became public. “So, I did that, which was awful,” said the ex-president. “What I did was wrong. I just hated to hurt her,” he added.

Bill Clinton insisted nobody in his position would have thought about the risks they were taking by having the affair. “You feel like you are staggering around, you have been in a 15-round prize fight that was extended to 30 rounds and here is something that will take your mind off of it for a while. That is what happens,” he explained.

The 42nd president also reflects on how the incident

affected Lewinsky, who was 22 when the two-year affair began in 1995, saying he thinks her life has been “unfairly” defined by it. “Over the years I have watched her trying to get a normal life back again. But you got to decide how to define normal,” he told the

interviewer.Both Clintons reflect on Hil-

lary’s decision to stand by her husband. She said she has been both criticized and praised over the years and suggested the #MeToo movement had led people to view her decision dif-ferently. “It is a funny time we live in, the kind of public opinion shifts and people say, ‘Oh, so noble, she stayed in her marriage’ to ‘Oh, it is so incomprehensible that she stayed in her marriage,’” says Clinton. “You know that there are forces (at) work in a society that people are working through themselves,” she adds.

Bill says he felt “so grateful” that his wife stuck by him. “God knows the burden she paid for that,” said Bill. He also contem-plates how he has changed in the more than 20 years since the scandal. “I am a totally different person than I was. Maybe it is just getting older, but I hope it was also going through a lot of this.”

Nasa names next Mars rover ‘Perseverance’AFP — WASHINGTON

Nasa late on Thursday announced the name of its next Mars rover: Perseverance.

It will be the fifth explor-atory vehicle on the Red Planet following in the tire tracks of the similarly augustly titled Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity.

The name was announced at an event at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia, to congratulate Alex Mather, the seventh grade student who picked it.

“Alex’s entry captured the spirit of exploration,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate. “Like every exploration mission before, our rover is going to face challenges, and it’s going to make amazing discoveries.”

Following its forebears, Perseverance was named by school-age children in nationwide contests — starting from Sojourner in 1997 to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which landed on Mars in 2004, to Curiosity, which has been exploring Mars since 2012.

The latest contest began last August, with 4,700 volunteer judges including teachers and

space enthusiasts whittling down the pool to 155 semifi-nalists, before nine names were put to the public on Nasa’s website. More than 770,000 votes were cast online before the space agency decided the winner.

He will receive an invitation to travel with his family to Cape Canaveral in Florida to witness the rover begin its journey, when it launches between July 17 and August 5 this year.

This window was chosen because the Earth and Mars are in good positions relative to each other at that point.

Perserverance is projected to land in February 2021.

The mission has two new objectives: To seek out signs of ancient life, and then sample materials and prepare a cache that can be returned to Earth on a return trip.

It builds on the same tech-nology platform used by Curi-osity, but will be able to land more precisely and has an onboard system to avoid haz-ardous terrain on descent.

It also has an improved wheel design, and carries a drill for coring samples from the Martian rocks and soil as it scours for signs of ancient microbial life.

Bill Clinton (left) and Monica Lewinsky.

US man executed for triple police murder

AFP — WASHINGTON

The US state of Alabama on executed a man found guilty of murdering of three police officers, despite a campaign to save him by activists including celebrity Kim Kardashian.

Nathaniel Woods, 44, was accused of being the “mas-termind” behind the 2004 deaths of police officers allegedly lured into an ambush when they tried to arrest him on drug charges. Woods did not pull the trigger but was given the same sentence as the gunman, Kerry Spencer.

Spencer described Woods as “100 percent” innocent in a recent letter to US media, saying that “I know this to be a fact because I’m the person that shot and killed all three of the officers.” Woods, who always protested his inno-cence, died by lethal injection.

“Tonight, justice has been served,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said.

Woods was convicted by 10 of the 12 jurors in 2005. Alabama is the only US state that does not require an unan-imous verdict to impose the death penalty. Woods was the fifth person to die by execution in 2020 in the United States.

Biden has shot into pole position ahead of fiery leftist rival Bernie Sanders with a soothing message of restoring calm and “decency” to America.

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Trump prepares scorched earth campaign against BidenAFP — WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump makes no secret of the scorched earth campaign he’ll mount against Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden — complete with questioning the former vice-president’s cognitive abilities and accusing him constantly of corruption.

A veteran senator and former wingman to Barack Obama, Biden has shot into pole position ahead of fiery leftist rival Bernie Sanders with a soothing message of restoring calm and “decency” to America.

But a race against Trump will resemble a demolition derby more than a debate on decorum. As part of his folksy plain “Joe” persona, Biden often says he’ll beat Trump “like a drum” in November.

Trump, though, has been banging his own drum for months, mocking Biden’s pro-pensity for verbal stumbles, insinuating that the 77-year-old is senile, and tarring him as corrupt. Trump’s reaction to the Biden surge on Super Tuesday gave a taste of what’s to come.

Yes, he congratulated Biden the next day on the “incredible comeback,” but in the same breath he suggested the Dem-ocrat he calls “Sleepy Joe” is controlled by “handlers”. And all week he has publicly lam-pooned Biden’s gaffes, saying that if he’d made them “it would be the end of the road”.

Despite this, all the signs are that Trump fears Biden more than Sanders. For months, Trump has been revving up a potential battle against the self-declared democratic socialist he nicknames “crazy Bernie”. In Trump world, a showdown with Sanders, a man who visited the Soviet Union with his wife as newlyweds, praised

communist Cuba and wants to reorder the entire US economy, would be the perfect gift.

Warnings of a “socialist nightmare” wind deeply through Trump’s stump speech. At a rally last week, Trump even polled the crowd on which can-didate would be better for him. The crowd shouted for Sanders.

Trump agreed. “I think Bernie’s easier to beat,” he said.

Biden carries the baggage of decades spent in Congress and the fact he is even older than 73-year-old Trump. He will also face internal party opposition from diehard Sanders supporters.

But as a centrist and

someone still strongly associated with the popular Obama, he appears to spook the Republican president. Last year, Trump risked everything on a wild goose chase to find proof that Biden corruptly procured his son Hunter a cushy job in Ukraine while serving as vice president. Despite strong-arming Ukraine’s fragile gov-ernment to cooperate and sending his personal lawyer on muckraking missions, Trump never found evidence that there was anything criminal going on.

For his efforts, he got himself impeached in the lower House, even if the Republican-held Senate promptly voted for his acquittal.

But expect the Hunter Biden story to become central to the election if Biden becomes the Democratic nominee. Trump will make sure of it.

“That will be a major issue in the campaign. I will bring that up all the time,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday in an interview that more closely resembled a friendly chat between two colleagues.

“I don’t see how they can

answer those questions,” Trump said. “That was purely corrupt.”

Trump’s eventual opponent, aided most likely by the vast funds and media savvy of unsuccessful candidate Michael Bloomberg, will counter that the president is the one steeped in corruption.

Even the issue of children getting sweetheart deals would be easy to throw back: Trump is frequently accused of nepotism in making his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner senior White House advisors.

But Trump is skilled at bare knuckle politics and never more so than in exploiting the con-trast between what he claims is his physical prowess and Biden’s frailty.

Rarely does a campaign rally go by without Trump rid-iculing Biden’s mental sharpness and verbal miscues — which some suggest are linked to his lifelong battle against stuttering. Trump not only reenacts Biden’s words, but adds confused facial expres-sions and portrays aides fran-tically trying to get their man off the stage.

File photos of US President Donald Trump (left) and Democratic presidential hopeful and former vice-president, Joe Biden.

US warns against all travel to Haiti

AFP — WASHINGTON

The United States on Thursday warned its citizens to avoid all travel to Haiti due to a surge in crime, including a risk of kidnapping.

The State Department raised its travel alert to the highest possible level for the poorest country in the Americas, which is in the throes of both a political and security crisis.

“Violent crime, such as armed robbery and carjacking, is common. Kidnapping is wide-spread,” the State Department said. “Kidnappers may use sophisticated planning or take advantage of unplanned oppor-tunities,” it said.

It warned as well of the risk of violent demonstrations and said that Haitian emer-gency services such as ambu-lances are “limited or non-existent.” The United States has already curtailed activities of embassy staff in Haiti, who are barred from using any public transportation or taxis or travelling anywhere between 1am and 5am.

Public anger has been boiling for months against Pres-ident Jovenel Moise, who in May was accused of involvement in a major corruption scandal.

The political uncertainties have slammed the brakes on international investment, and a third of the population faces severe food insecurity, the last stage before famine, according to the World Food Programme.

Weinstein taken to NY's infamous Rikers jailAFP — NEW YORK

Disgraced former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was taken to New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail on Thursday, ten days after he was convicted of molestation and abuse.

The 67-year-old “Pulp Fiction” producer had been in a Manhattan hospital since his landmark conviction on Feb-ruary 24 after he complained of chest pains following the verdict.

Weinstein — whose films won multiple Oscars — was transferred to an infirmary

ward at Rikers following an operation, his spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, said. “He had a blockage removed,” he said. Multiple US media reported that Weinstein had a stent installed.

Weinstein was found guilty of a criminal act in the first degree and abuse in the third degree following a high-profile trial that lasted several weeks.

The #MeToo movement against misconduct hailed the verdict as historic but Wein-stein’s team say they plan to appeal. A jury convicted him abuse on former production

assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and of violating ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013.

He was cleared of the most serious charges of predatory assault but faces up to 29 years in prison when he is sentenced on March 11. Los Angeles prose-cutors have brought separate misconduct charges against him.

Rikers is one of America’s most high-profile prisons and has incarcerated celebrities including Sid Vicious, rapper Tupac Shakur and former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

All-women orchestraMembers of the Argentine Armed Forces all-women orchestra, play during their presentation in the framework of International Women’s Day — ahead of the March 8 official day — in Buenos Aires, yesterday. The Women’s Armed Forces Orchestra is the first musical group to bring together musical officers and non-commissioned officers from the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Brazil recalls all diplomatsand officials from VenezuelaAFP — BRASÍLIA

Brazil recalled its entire corps of diplomats and foreign service officials from Vene-zuela while ordering the government of Nicolas Maduro to pull out its representatives in Brazil, a government source said on Thursday, further hard-ening ties between the two.

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had already branded the government of radical leftist Maduro a “dicta-torship” and he, in return, has called Bolsonaro a “fascist” “No-one will remain in all of Venezuela,” said the source after the Official Journal revealed earlier on Thursday that four diplomats and 10 offi-cials were ordered home from the Brazilian embassy and con-sulates in Venezuela.

The Official Journal cited the foreign ministry in saying that staff would be withdrawn from the embassy and the con-sulate in Caracas, the consulate in Ciudad Guayana and the vice consulate in Santa Elena de Uairen, on the Brazilian border.

The withdrawn diplomats include Rodolfo Braga, the head of the embassy, and Elza Moreira Marcelino de Castro, the consul general in Caracas.

Brazil is one of the more than 50 countries to have rec-ognized the claim of Vene-zuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido to be his country’s acting president. Guaido made

the proclamation early last year following the opposition-con-trolled parliament’s branding of Maduro as a usurper over his 2018 re-election in a poll widely derided as rigged.

Brasilia has also recognized the ambassador to Brazil appointed by Guaido, Maria Teresa Belandria. The last Maduro-appointed ambassador to Brazil was withdrawn in 2016. The source didn’t say when the recall would be completed but Brazilian media said it will be done within two months.

However, the measure does not mean the embassy will be closed, the source said. There are an estimated 10,000 Brazilians living in Venezuela who could be affected by the measure. “The Brazilian government is consid-ering how assistance will be pro-vided,” the source said.

Recently, Maduro accused Bolsonaro of dragging Brazil’s military “into an armed conflict with Venezuela.” That was a ref-erence to an attack by deserters on a military detachment in Ven-ezuela’s Bolivar state that borders Brazil, after which five Venezuelan military personnel claimed asylum in Brazil.

Venezuela’s economy has been devastated by a political and economic crisis. The announcement comes before Bolsonaro is set to leave Sat-urday for the US cities of Miami and Dallas, where he will likely seek to lure foreign investment in Brazil.