Wednesday 29 July 2020

8 Dhul-Hijja - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8333

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BUSINESS | 15 PENMAG | 19 SPORT | 23

Broad takes

500th Test scalp

as England seal

series win

Classifieds

and Services

section

included

Ooredoo

announces QR14bn

in revenue and net

profit of QR818m

Amir reviews brotherly ties with Sultan of OmanQNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held yesterday morning a telephone conversation with H M Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Sulatanate of Oman. At the beginning, H H the Amir and H M Sultan Haitham exchanged congratulations on the occasion of the approaching blessed Eid Al Adha.

During the call, they reviewed the strong brotherly relations between the two countries, as well as the prospects for strength-ening and developing them to serve the common interests of the two brotherly people, in addition to discussing the most prom-inent regional and international developments.

Amir directs sending medical assistance to South SudanAmir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has directed sending medical assistance to the Republic of South Sudan as a support from the State of Qatar for the efforts of South Sudan in combating the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Amir sends greetings to President of PeruAmir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday cables of congratulations to H E President of the Republic of Peru Martin Vizcarra on the occasion of his country’s Independence Day. Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin wAbdulaziz Al Thani also sent a cable congratu-lations to H E President of the Council of Ministers of Peru Pedro Cateriano on the occasion of his country’s Independence Day.

Qatar to host international LNG conference in 2025THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The LNG Events Series Steering Committee has announced that Qatar has been selected as the host country for LNG2025, the 21st International Conference and Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas.

Professor Joe M. Kang, the Chair of the LNG Events Series Steering Committee, the Inter-national Gas Union (IGU) Pres-ident, made the announcement marking the conclusion of a competitive process to decide the event’s 2025 host.

Prof. Kang, representing the three owners of the event: the IGU, the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), and the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), said, “Qatar’s key role in the future of the global LNG industry and the innovations it has pro-posed for LNG2025 made it an ideal host for the world’s pre-miere LNG industry event.” This will be the second time this global LNG event takes place in Qatar. The first time was in 2004, when Doha hosted LNG 14.

H E Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs and the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said: “We are pleased to be awarded the hosting rights for this pres-tigious global event to convene at the home of the world’s largest LNG producer. LNG2025 will be held at the right time, in the right place. It will coincide with a number of relevant his-toric events for the LNG industry including the start-up of the North Field LNG expansion project and the com-missioning of one of the largest

Carbon Capture and Storage schemes in the world, which will showcase to the world our strong commitment to the envi-ronment. LNG vessel deliveries under the largest LNG ship con-struction program in history will also be well underway at that time.”

Held every three years, the International Conference and Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas is the industry’s most rec-ognised LNG event, and is attended by thousands of del-egates, speakers, exhibitors, trade visitors, and other industry professionals.

The last edition, LNG2019, was held in Shanghai and the upcoming LNG2022 will be hosted in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The bid to host LNG2025 highlighted Qatar’s position at the forefront of the LNG industry, and its state of the art facilities and infrastructure that

would make this event a mem-orable and most productive one. Holding the event in Qatar highlights the positive role gas and LNG can play in meeting

growing global energy needs while at the same time reducing CO2 emissions, by showcasing the industry’s innovation at the LNG capital of the world.

‘Labour Re-employment Platform’ now available for all companiesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Chamber (QC) yesterday said that it has successfully developed its recently-launched initiative the “Labour Re-employment Platform” in a way that enables companies seeking to contract with new labourers and employees to login to the platform and select the required labourers.

“Thus, the platform’s mechanism of working has become in two directions after it was equipped only for companies with redundant or laid-off labourers,” the Chamber said in a statement.

QC also noted that companies that have redundant labour and companies that need labour can benefit from the services of the platform.

It pointed out that companies that have laid-off workers and employees can

register on the platform and log in their resumes, while individuals from labourers and professionals can also enter the platform and register their CVs to search for suitable work in the private sector.

At the same time companies that are willing to employ new labour can register on the platform, identify the available labour, choose from labour according to its requirements, and contract with them through the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLSA) in accordance with the laws and procedures in force in the state.

Qatar Chamber invited companies looking for new labour to login to the platform and benefit from the services it provides by filling an electronic form on the QC’s website and getting a link to enter the platform.

It is to be noted that the “Labour

Re-employment Platform’ was launched by the QC early this month with the aim to assist companies. The platform stressed the Chamber’s keenness to help companies get labour easily. QC added that it plays the role of mediator between companies that want to hire new workers and the com-panies that have laid off theirs.

MME releases guidelines, action plan for Eid Al AdhaSANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has issued a set of guidelines and its action plan to ensure the safety of people while buying sacrificial animals and at slaughterhouses during Eid Al Adha.

As per the guideline people should show Ehteraz app before entering the yards for buying sacrificial animals and slaughterhouses.

They are also required to wear face masks for their

safety and others.Widam has provided

35,000 animals for citizens and expatriate to sacrifice during Eid Al Adha.

The Ministry said that it h a s c o m p l e t e d i t s preparations for Eid Al Adha by providing veterinary doctors and inspectors and ensuring the safety and securi ty measures at slaughterhouses which will operate from 5am to 5pm throughout Eid Al Adha.

The details about the guidelines and action plan of MME during Eid Al Adha were

given in a joint press conference organised by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment yesterday at its headquarters at Corniche.

The press conference was attended by the officials from MME and Widam Food Company.

Assistant Undersecretary for Municipalities Affairs at MME, Mansour Abdullah Al Mahmoud, said that additional veterinary doctors and inspectors will be deployed to check the sacrificial animals before and after slaughtering to ensure the health and safety

of the people.He said that MME held a

number of meetings with Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Widam to implement best safety and health measures while providing services to people during Eid Al Adha.

CEO of Widam Food Company, Al Nawbi Salem Al Marri, said that the company provided 35,000 animals to meet the local demand for sac-rifice during Eid Al Adha. ��P6

QNTC, MoPH launch Qatar Clean program in all hotelsQNA — DOHA

Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC), in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), has launched the first phase of the “Qatar Clean” program in all hotels across the country aimed at preparing the tourism sector to welcome visitors.

The first stage of the multi-phased program focuses on ensuring the safety of hospi-tality workers and guests by setting standards for sterili-zation and disinfection that all hotel establishments must adhere to.

It complies with MoPH guidelines on reducing the spread of COVID-19 and com-plements independent measures being undertaken by hotels. Hotels meeting the requirements will be certified “Qatar Clean.”

H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, said:

“We welcome the imple-mentation of the Qatar Clean program and are pleased to cooperate with the National Tourism Council to provide a safe and healthy tourism experience for the residents of Qatar in all the country’s hotels. We will study the expansion of the initiative and its potential application in other sectors, in order to ensure our continued success in limiting the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and

maintaining the health and well-being of the people of Qatar.”

H E Akbar Al Baker, Sec-retary-General of QNTC and Group Chief Executive of Qatar Airways Group, remarked: “We are pleased to launch the Qatar Clean program and delighted by the support we have received from the Ministry of Public Health. We are confident that this will engender trust in safe tourism in Qatar. The Qatar Clean program is one of many initiatives by QNTC, in collaboration with our partners, to help the sector welcome back visitors; first from Qatar, and when con-ditions allow, from the rest of the world.”

Under the program’s guidelines, each hotel facility must appoint a Qatar Clean Program Manager responsible for overseeing employee training and overall com-pliance with the program requirements.

Hotels must sterilize their facilities daily, conduct fre-quent and thorough cleaning, use disinfectant in all rooms, air conditioning systems, equipment, water tanks, and toilets, and ensure stringent sterilization of guest areas, especially reception halls and lobbies.

Use of elevators by multiple guests at the same time will be pro-hibited, with a maximum capacity of 30 percent allowed. � �P6

We are pleased to be awarded the hosting rights for this prestigious global event to convene at the home of the world’s largest LNG producer. LNG2025 will be held at the right time, in the right place.

H E Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs and the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum

Companies that have laid-off

workers and employees can

register on the platform and

log in their resumes, while

individuals from labourers and

professionals can also enter

the platform and register their

CVs to search for suitable work

in the private sector.

02 WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020HOME

03WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020 HOME

Qatar Airways to resume flights to Helsinki todayTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Airways is set to resume three weekly flights to Helsinki from today, becoming the only Gulf carrier to serve four Nordic capitals.

The resumption of Hel-sinki flights will see the national carrier of the State of Qatar operate 22 weekly flights to the Nordics, with daily flights to Oslo and Stockholm and five weekly flights to Copenhagen.

The airline’s mix of modern fuel-efficient aircraft has meant its network has never fallen below 30 destinations throughout this crisis and has enabled the airline to adapt its plans and quickly resume routes to rebuild its global network.

By optimising its mix of air-craft and grounding its A380 fleet, the airline continues to fly only the right sized aircraft on all routes to the Nordics, reducing its environmental impact by offering sensible and responsible capacity to meet both passenger and cargo demand.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker said: “We are glad to see Hel-sinki return to our network, a significant indicator of the recovery of the Nordic travel market. With a total of 22 weekly flights to the region we are delighted to be the first Gulf carrier to offer flights to the four Nordic capitals of Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm.”

“While the drop in air travel demand due to COVID-19 forced us to temporarily suspend services to Helsinki, we are proud to have never stopped flying to Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm. As we pass the worst of the crisis, we look forward to increasing our services to the Nordic region to support the recovery of tourism and trade in the region.”

During the pandemic, in addition to scheduled pas-senger services, Qatar Airways Cargo have also operated a large number of scheduled freighters, charters and freight-only passenger aircraft to Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Helsinki to support Nordic exporters and transport essential medical supplies and PPE to the region. With the resumption of pas-senger flights to Helsinki, the airline will operate 39 weekly flights to the Nordic region, pro-viding more than 1400 tonnes of weekly cargo capacity each way.

Qatar Airways continues to lead the recovery of inter-national air travel. By the start of August, the airline’s net-work will expand to close to 500 weekly flights to over 75 destinations. Passengers from the Nordics can connect via the Best Airport in the Middle East, Hamad International Airport to the largest and broadest network in the region with over 30

destinations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Qatar Airways operations are not dependent on any spe-cific aircraft type. The airline’s variety of modern fuel-efficient aircraft has meant it can con-tinue flying by offering the right capacity in each market. Due to COVID-19’s impact on travel demand, the airline has taken the decision to ground its fleet of Airbus A380s as it is not com-mercially or environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market.

The airline’s fleet of 49 Airbus A350 and 30 Boeing 787 are the ideal choice for the most strategically important long-haul routes to the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.

Qatar Airways’ onboard safety measures for passengers and cabin crew include the pro-vision of Personal Protec-tive Equipment (PPE) for cabin crew and a complimentary protective kit and disposable face shields for passengers.

The resumption of Helsinki flights will see the national carrier of the State of Qatar operate 22 weekly flights to the Nordics, with daily flights to Oslo and Stockholm and five weekly flights to Copenhagen.

04 WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020HOME

QF awards innovation grants to eight startups to tackle COVID-19 challenges

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

To support the national and global responses to COVID-19, Qatar Foundation has deployed all resources, including staff operating at the frontlines, to develop solutions that help people and economies recover from the adverse socio-economic consequences of the pandemic. One such initiative of the organization-wide effort is the Innovation Coupon COVID-19 Challenge.

Innovation Coupon is a grant managed by QF Research, Development, and Innovation (QF RDI) to help local entrepre-neurs and startups scale their innovative ideas. Awardees of the Innovation Coupon COVID-19 Challenge Tier 1 are Pickup Order, Study Buddies, and Build Forward; awardees for Tier 2 include The Fight takes Flight, Combat Covid19 and ECO-Shield; while AltComm, Airlift, and Eco Probe won in Tier 3.

QF RDI’s Innovation Coupon provides three tiers of funding that help applicants gradually move their ideas forward from the development of proof-of-concept, exploration of value proposition, to identifi-cation of the path-to-market. Tier 1 provides funding of up to QR 50,000 to qualified indi-viduals applications, while Tier 2 and Tier 3 offers QR 100,000 and QR 200,000 worth of grants to successful individuals, SMEs, and Startups applicants.

“The COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be a strong driver of creativity and innovation, our community has been a rich source of innovative ideas that can help tackle the crisis. Our goal is to capture and to help develop these ideas into solu-tions for real-world problems not only to support the fight against the pandemic but to also create a viable and sustainable economic and social impact for the community,” said Dr. Rachid Zaffou, Technology and Inno-

vation Director, QF RDI.In May 2020, QF RDI

launched the Innovation Coupon COVID-19 Challenge aimed at supporting concepts designed to tackle challenges related to the virus. The call received close to 100 applica-tions from individual entrepre-neurs, SMEs, and startups with innovative solutions to social and economic aspects impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Of the 22 proposals shortlisted, eight were selected for grants, including a number of ideas submitted by Qatari females.

Among the awardees Pickup Order offers effective solution to the implementation of social dis-tancing in the food service market. Study Buddy, submitted by a Qatari female who is pas-sionate about children learning, is an online platform that allows children to find study partners or groups while maintaining social distancing.

Build Forward aims to sim-plify construction procurement

processes by creating an online platform that supports B2B pur-chase, sale, and rental of con-struction materials, tools, and equipment.

The Fight Takes Flight, Combat COVID-19 uses short animation videos featuring local characters to provide impactful learning experiences among children. ECO-Shield is a novel eco-friendly material produced from bamboo, pineapple, banana, and other food waste.

AltComm is an eye-tracking software that features novel, context-based recommender system. It offers valuable support to patients with com-promised communication in critical care settings. Eco Probe is a green and mobile com-posting solution, with a variety of commercial uses, from res-taurants to large-scale institu-tions. Airlift is a promising Qatari startup developing a low-speed, multi-functional, autonomous vehicle ideal for contactless delivery of packages.

Research and Development Complex at Hamad bin Khalifa University.

HMC announces working hours for Eid Al AdhaTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

All Emergency Departments and services across Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s network of hospitals will operate as usual, 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week.

The Pediatric Emergency Centers will also remain open 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week for medical emergencies involving patients under the age of 14 years.

H M C ’ s A m b u l a n c e Service will continue to operate 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week for people requiring emergency medical assistance

Inpatient Units across HMC’s hospital network will continue to operate 24-hours-a-day as usual.

The Nesma’ak Hamad Patient Contact Center will be closed from Thursday 30 July until Saturday 1 August and will reopen on Sunday August 2, at 7am.

If you have a scheduled appointment during or after the Eid holiday and cannot attend the appointment, please contact the Hamad Customer Service Center (Nesma’ak) on 16060 during operational hours. Any patient requiring information about clinic operating hours, their scheduled appointment, or wishing to change their appointment, can call Nesma’ak on 16060.

The Urgent Consultation Service (16000) will be closed on Thursday, July 30 until Saturday August 1 and will reopen Sunday, August 2 from 8am to 3pm. The service will return to normal operating hours on Sunday, August 9.

The Pharmacy Home Delivery Service will be closed on Thursday July 30, until Sat-urday August 1. The service will reopen Sunday, August 2 from 9am to 3pm and on Sunday August 9 will resume normal operating hours.

The Mental Health Helpline will be closed on Thursday, July 30 and resume services 8am to 3pm on Sunday, August 2. It will resume full operating hours on Sunday, August 9.

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has announced that it will reopen the dental clinic at West Bay Health Centre today.

All appointments, accordingly, will be redi-rected to West Bay Health Centre as they were before the closure.

West Bay Health

Centre dental clinic

reopens today

QCB announces

Eid Al Adha holidaysQNA — DO

Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has announced that the Eid Al Adha holidays for the current year for all financial institutions in the country (banks, currency exchanges, insurance companies, finance, investment, and financial consultants) will start from Thursday July 30, 2020 and will end on Tuesday August 4, 2020 provided that all financial institutions return to work before the public on Wednesday, August 5, 2020.

Qatar Embassy provides medical assistance to Dominican Republic

QNA — SANTO DOMINGO

The Embassy of the State of Qatar in the Dominican Republic has presented a shipment of medical and preventive supplies in assistance to the Dominican Republic, provided by Qatar Charity to help in tackle COVID-19 pandemic. The shipment was received by H E Minister of Foreign Relations of the Dominican Republic Miguel Vargas in the presence of the Acting Charge d’Affairs, at the Embassy of the State of Qatar to the Dominican Republic Yasser Awad Al Abdullah.

Qatar renews support for Afghan peace processQNA — NEW YORK

The State of Qatar renewed its support for the peace process in Afghanistan and the participation of Afghan women in peace, reaffirming its commitment to support Afghan-istan, including the continuous support for the reconciliation process between the Afghan parties to establish peace and stability.

This came in a statement delivered by H E the Permanent Rep-resentative of Qatar to the United Nations, Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani in a closed virtual meeting held by the UN Security Council in the Arria-formula on “Women and the Afghan Peace Process: Ensuring Womens Participation and Promoting their Rights.” The meeting was attended by H E the First Lady of Afghanistan Rula Ghani, H E Afghan Minister of Women Affairs Hasina Safi and member of the Afghan government negotiating team Habiba Sarabi.

H E the Permanent Represent-ative of Qatar said that the per-manent peace in Afghanistan is a fundamental issue for the State of Qatar, adding that the State of Qatar

has made great mediation efforts to support and facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan.

H E emphasized the importance of those efforts that resulted in signing the peace agreement in Doha last February between the United States of America and Taliban, noting that the Security Council welcomed the agreement as an important step towards ending the war in Afghan-istan. She stressed that the agreement will open the way for talks among Afghans, Taliban and those with interest in Afghanistan.

She also mentioned that the Afghan peace talks that were held in

Doha from 7-9 July under the aus-pices of the State of Qatar and Germany, in which 11 women rep-resenting government, civil society and media outlets participated in it.

She explained that the main goal of the meeting is to ensure the full representation of women in the talks, stressing that the meeting is in line with the commitment of the State of Qatar to guarantee women’s rights in peace processes.

H E stressed that without the par-ticipation of women, a peace set-tlement on a large scale would be less likely. In this context, she welcomed UN Security Council Resolution 2513 (2020) which affirms that any political settlement must protect the rights of all Afghans, including women, youth, and minorities.

She also praised the role played by the Group of Friends in Afghan-istan, co-chaired by the State of Qatar, the United Kingdom and Afghanistan, which was launched last year in recognition of the growing importance of supporting and empowering women in Afghanistan. The Permanent Representative of Qatar expressed pride in the

membership of the State of Qatar in the group, which seeks, as a strong partner for Afghanistan during its journey, to achieve peace and devel-opment and promote and protect human rights for all, including women and girls.

She stressed the need to consol-idate the achievements made so far in the field of empowering Afghan women and protecting their rights and interests, especially in the near future, as Afghanistan advances towards peace and development and the promotion and protection of human rights for all.

Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani reiterated the State of Qatar’s unwavering commitment to support Afghanistan, including continuous support for the Afghan-led reconcil-iation process to bring peace and sta-bility, stressing that the State of Qatar will continue to support the commit-ments of the international com-munity by supporting the full partic-ipation of women in the peace process to ensure that the peace agreement ultimately guarantees the protection, rights and interests of women.

Katara to hold Hayya Baya tomorrowTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Katara yesterday announced it will organise the “Hayya Baya” event tomorrow from 5pm to 8pm on Katara Beach Gates 12 to 21. This event comes in the context of the Cultural Village’s continuous endeavour to revive the folk heritage and instill customs and traditions of the Qatari identity, said Katara.

Katara assures that the “Hayya Baya” festival will be held within all safety precautions and preventive measures being taken against COVID-19. The festival includes two main events namely the dollhouse and the distribution of balloons, expected to make

children enjoy in a joyful atmos-phere. Katara is keen on devel-oping children’s culture in relation to the ancient folk traditions set to contribute to preserving the Qatari heritage by presenting intellectual and enjoyable events and programs.

“Hayya Baya” is an annual folk custom and popular tradition in the Gulf region, in which children gather in the beginning of the month of Dhul Hijjah. Children bring empty boxes or small wicker baskets, where some grains such as barley, wheat or lentil are planted, suspended in a safe place exposed to air and sun-light and watered and taken care by the children.

MoPH reports 283 new COVID-19 cases and 275 recoveriesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the regis-tration of 283 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. Another 275 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 106,603.

The Ministry also announced two new deaths of people aged of

24 and 67 years who were receiving the necessary medical care.

All new cases have been introduced to iso-lation and are receiving necessary healthcare according to their health status.

The Ministry further said that measures to tackle COVID-19 in Qatar have succeeded in flat-tening the curve and lim-iting the spread of the virus. The number of

daily new cases and hos-pital admissions has gradually declined over the past few weeks.

The Ministry has emphasized on the importance of taking pre-cautions against COVID-19. “Even though restrictions are being lifted, and numbers are declining, this does not mean that the COVID-19 pandemic is fin-ished in Qatar – every day between 50 and 100 people are admitted to

hospital with moderate to s e v e r e C O V I D - 1 9 symptoms,” the Ministry said.

“Unless we follow all precautionary measures, we may experience a second wave of the virus and see numbers increasing – there are already signs of this hap-pening in other countries around the world. Now more than ever, we must be careful and protect the most vulnerable.”

Innovation Coupon is a grant managed by QF Research, Development, and Innovation (QF RDI) to help local entrepreneurs and startups scale their innovative ideas.

The permanent peace in Afghanistan is a fundamental issue for the State of Qatar, said Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani. Qatar has made great mediation efforts to support and facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan.

05WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020 HOME

06 WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020HOME

Shura Council takes part in parliamentary debate on impact of discriminatory lawsQNA — DOHA

The Shura Council participated yesterday in a parliamentary discussion on gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Implementation of the Beijing Parliamentary Declaration held by the Inter-Parlia-mentary Union (IPU) and the UN Women, through video communication technology.

The discussion focused on the impact of discriminatory laws and the lack of legal pro-tection experienced by approximately 2.5 billion women and girls around the world, how to guide and support parliaments to enact legislation that responds to the interests of women, identify inequalities in their legal frameworks and undertake legal reforms to empower women and girls.

The Shura Council was represented in this discussion by member of the Council and member of the Bureau of the IPU of Women Parliamen-tarians H E Reem bint Mohammed Al Mansoori.

National address data approved for judicial notices

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

As the deadline to register in the national address ended on Sunday, the Ministry of Interior has said that the national address data has been approved for judicial notices.

On its official website, the Ministry said: “In the event the legal person does not provide his/her national address to the competent authority, the judicial notices within such authority will be considered valid and shall entail all the consequential legal effects arising therefrom.”

It also clarified: “The national address data approved for judicial notices are identified as follows, text message to mobile phone number, or a paper notice to the residence address, a paper

notice to the business address, a paper notice to the per-manent address abroad (if any), in case the final exit from the country is proven.”

The national address is the address chosen by a person to correspond with the state or other bodies. It will serve many government entities such as the Ministry of Munic-ipality and Environment; the Ministry of Justice; the Supreme Judiciary Council and Planning and Statistics Authority.

The Ministry said that this came based on “the decision No. 96 of 2019, implementing some provisions of Law No. 24 of 2017 on the national address, and after coordi-nation with Supreme Judiciary Council.”

Katara to unveil mural as tribute to medical frontlinersRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

A five-metre-high mural which was created by 12 artists in honour of medical frontliners battling the COVID-19 pandemic will be unveiled at the southern entrance of Katara during the Eid Al Adha celebrations.

The upcoming inauguration of the “Mural of Gratitude for the frontline healthcare profes-sionals in Qatar” was announced by the Cultural Village Foun-dation - Katara on its official social media accounts yesterday.

“The mural represents an acknowledgment of the medical staff fighting the COVID-19 pan-demic. It is an artwork of 5 meters high created by 12 fine-art artists at the south main entrance of Katara,” said Katara.

Artists around the world have been expressing their appreciation to healthcare workers who are at the forefront

in the fight against the pandemic through their artworks in various media, all inspired by the front-liners’ heroism.

Although this is the first time Katara will have a large-scale artwork dedicated to medical frontliners, the Cultural Village is home to a collection of stunning murals in various themes.

One of the more prominent murals that can be seen in Katara is called “Challenge.” The imposing 15sqm mural was unveiled last year in memory of the late Qatari artist Yousef Al Sadaat. Made up of more than one million mosaic tiles, the por-trait which covers the wall of Building 39 depicts the face of a sailorman glowing with the reflection of the blazing sunlight.

In January this year, a colossal two-storey hyper-real-isitic mural of an Arabian oryx bursting out of a wall was launched at the adjacent Building

40. The 11-metre wall painting titled “Al Maha Going Ahead” was created by internationally acclaimed Argentine muralist Martin Ron. The mural, which features the oryx — an iconic symbol of heritage in Qatar — with Doha’s scenic skyline in the backdrop was inspired by the strength of the country and its people, according to Ron.

A number of murals by con-temporary local artists can also be seen beneath the new Katara buildings adorning the walls of the stairways leading to the basement parking space. They are breathtaking with the out-of-the-box concepts and unique styles employed by each of their creators. They are part of Katara’s initiative aimed at promoting local art and moti-vating local artists to produce more unique artworks, thus reflecting Katara’s commitment to supporting local artists and the country’s burgeoning art scene.

MME prepares beaches for visitors during Eid Al Adha

SANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has announced that beaches across the country are ready to receive visitors during Eid Al Adha.

The announcement was made in a joint press conference organised by MME at its head-quarters at Corniche.

“The Ministry in collaboration with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) will provide medical service at the beaches, which attract growing number of vis-itors, like Sealine, Al Wakra Family Beach, Khor Al Udaid, Dukhan, Al Marona, Al Ghariya, Al Mafir and Fuwairit beaches,” said Undersecretary for Envi-ronment Affairs at MME, Eng

Hasan Jumah Al Muhannadi while addressing the press conference.

He said that beaches at Al Wakra, Sealine, Simaisima and Al Khor were dedicated for family and main entrances were marked in cooperation with Lekhwiya to facilitate the visitors.

“The Ministry prepared the action plan for the safety of vis-itors during Eid Al Adha. The municipal inspectors will be available at beaches. Signboards for the safety of swimmers were

placed,” said Al Muhannadi.He said that horse riding is

prohibited at beaches and water scooters and motorboats (tarad) should be loaded and unloaded at the designated pickup and drop points.

Speaking to The Peninsula Al Muhannadi said that lifeguards will be available at the beaches which attract swimmers during specific times.

“Visitors are allowed to do barbeque under certain rules and regulations like avoiding fire directly on the sand and clean out

the area before leaving the place otherwise they will receive fine tickets for environmental viola-tions,” said Al Muhannadi.

Undersecretary for General Services at MME, Eng. Ahmad Mohamad Al Sada said that the Ministry provided 1,060 garbage containers with dif-ferent sizes to collect all types of wastes at the beaches across the country and Doha Corniche for the uses of the visitors during Eid Al Adha.

He said that the Ministry will provide best services to the

visitors at the beaches. “The municipal inspectors will be deployed in the morning and evening to catch the violations like hygiene and others related to the environment at beaches,” said Al Sada.

Director of Natural Reserve Department at MME, Saleh Hasan Al Kuwari said the camping for Eid Al Adha will begin tomorrow and it will last until Saturday by the end of vacation.

He said that temporary camping is allowed during weekend which should be removed on time.

Al Kuwari urged campers to remove the camping after the end of Eid Al Adha vacation and avoid committing any violation.

Director of Al Sheehaniya Municipality, Jaber Hasan Al Jaber said that following the gradual lifting of COVID-19 restriction a team comprising representatives from municipal-ities and security agencies was formed to create awareness among visitors about hygiene and environmental protection.

Captain Ali Hasan Al Maliki from Lekhwiya said that police patrol will be deployed to ensure the security and smooth traffic flow at the beaches during Eid Al Adha.

Undersecretary for Environment Affairs at MME, Eng. Hasan Jumah Al Muhannadi (centre); Undersecretary for General Services at MME, Eng. Ahmad Mohamad Al Sada (second left); Director of Natural Reserve Department at MME, Saleh Hasan Al Kuwari (left); Director of Al Sheehaniya Municipality Jaber Hasan Al Jaber (right); and Captain Ali Hasan Al Maliki from Lekhwiya during the press conference held at MME headquarters to announce the preparation at beaches for Eid Al Adha.

Ashghal begins works on new interchange connecting eastern & western free zones with HIATHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has begun construction works of a new interchange at the southern entrance of G Ring Road near Ras Bufontas Free Zone, southwest of Hamad Interna-tional Airport (HIA) and just before the Airport Interchange.

This interchange is within the state’s plan to complete Ash-ghal’s highway projects, said a statement.

Ashghal clarified that when completed in 2022, this inter-change will connect eastern and western free zones with HIA, G Ring Road and surrounding road network, including Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor, Ras Abu Abboud Street and Al Wakra Main Road.

The new two level inter-change consists of works along 4kms, including three bridges, each of them with three to four lane dual carriageways and four exits. The capacity of the inter-change is about 10,000 vehicles per hour.

It also includes construction of three underpasses to facilitate networks of surface water drainage, treated water line for irrigation and telecommuni-cation lines, as well as 2km long service roads on both sides of the interchange.

The new interchange is stra-tegically important due to its location in the logistical area as it will facilitate movement of goods and commodities from HIA and Free Zone to all regions within and outside Doha, as the interchange is located on G Ring Road leading to southern regions, Industrial Area and Al Majd Road.

It also intersects with Ras Abu Abboud Street leading to

Corniche and Doha Downtown. The new interchange also facil-itates access to Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor that connects Hamad International Airport towards Umm Lekhba Interchange on Shamal Road, enhancing traffic towards Airport Street and Al Wakra Main Road.

Eng. Yousef Al Emadi, Director of Projects Affairs said that Ashghal implements its infrastructure projects based on the government’s plan and it is committed to meet deadlines.

The Project Affairs Director also pointed out that Ashghal’s highway network has accom-plished a qualitative surge in traffic across Qatar, and that all highway network projects are implemented as per Qatar Vision 2030.

Eng Bader Al Darwish, Manager of Highway Projects Dept at Ashghal clarified that several new highway projects are in the pipeline to be con-structed in near future.

In order to facilitate

implementation of construction works of the new interchange, Ashghal will implement a partial closure at the southern entrance of G Ring Road near Free Zone in Ras Bufontas, southwest of HIA just before Airport Interchange.

Thus, the emergency lanes in both directions will be closed, as well as one of the lanes from Al Wakra in the direction of Doha for a distance of 450 metres, from the evening of July 30 and will last for a period of one month.

Ashghal also announced it had started implementing the upgrading works of the D-Ring Road. The project aims at improving traffic on the three main intersections of the D-Ring Road to provide free flow traffic by increasing the number of lanes on Fereej Al Ali intersection (known as Al Tadamon Intersection), Nuaija Intersection and providing free flow traffic on the intersection know as Lulu intersection.

Eng Bader Al DarwishEng Youssef Al Emadi

The Ministry in collabo-ration with HMC will provide medical service at the beaches, which attract growing number of visitors, like Sealine, Al Wakra Family Beach, Khor Al Udaid, Dukhan, Al Marona, Al Ghariya, Al Mafir and Fuwairit beaches.

This interchange is within the state’s plan to complete Ashghal’s highway projects.

FROM PAGE 1

CEO of Widam Food Company, Al Nawbi Salem Al Marri, said that the company readied slaughterhouses to offer services for sacrificial animals which are operating across the country.

“The slaughterhouses include Al Wakra Automated Abattoir, Automated Abattoir at old Central Market, Slaugh-terhouse at Al Mazrouah, Al Sheehaniya Slaughterhouse, Al Rayan Slaughterhouse, Muaither Slaughterhouse and Al Shamal Slaughterhouse,” said Al Marri.

He said that Al Wakra Auto-mated Abattoir in an area of 14,000 sqm is operating with the slaughtering capacity of 9,000 heads of sheep in a day in addition to additional units for slaughtering cows and camels.

“Al Wakra Automated Abattoir helped greatly in reducing the waiting time of customers during previous Eid Al Adha,” said Al Marri.

“Widam provided service to order certain types of sacri-ficial animals through its app which features online payment

and delivery service before and during Eid Al Adha,” said Al Marri.

He said that delivery service will be provided safely with the help of a fleet of air-conditioned vehicles which will help in reducing crowd of cus-tomers at outlet and slaughter-houses to curb the risk of inter-action of people which is required due to COVID-19.

Speaking to The Peninsula, Musa Al Othman, Director of Public Relations at Widam said that the company offered 22,000 Sudanese sheep at the rate of QR480 per head including slaughtering and porter charges out of 35,000 sacrificial cattle which were made available for this Eid Al Adha. He said that sacrificial animals are available at Widam outlets besides the said slaughterhouses.

Head of Health Monitoring Section of Al Rayan Munici-pality Majid Burhan Al Zaidan said that teams of doctors and inspectors will be deployed at slaughterhouses to ensure the safety of sacrificial animals during Eid Al Adha.

FROM PAGE 1

Hotels must adopt mobile or other contactless procedures for check-in and check-out, and optimise spaces to maintain a distance of at least two meters between individuals.

Hotels must carry out daily temperature checks on all employees at the start of their shifts, as well as on suppliers and guests. Anyone exhibiting symptoms must immediately be placed in isolation, and the MOPH contacted.

Joint committees from QNTC and MOPH will continue to inspect hotels and their facilities to ensure program standards are applied and adhered to. Penalties will be imposed on violators.

Assistant Undersecretary for Municipalities Affairs at MME, Mansour Abdullah Al Mahmoud (centre); CEO of Widam Food Company, Al Nawbi Salem Al Marri (left) and Head of Health Monitoring Section of Al Rayan Municipality, Majid Burhan Al Zaidan, during a joint press conference on the preparation of Eid Al Adha, at the headquarters of MME yesterday.

QNTC, MoPH launch Qatar Clean program in all hotels

MME releases guidelines, action plan for Eid Al Adha

07WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020 HOME

MME’s committee issues 140 decisions on demolition, maintenance in 3 monthsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Committee for Building Maintenance and Demolition at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) issued 115 decisions for demolition and 25 for maintenance during second quarter (Q2) of this year.

A total of 140 decisions were issued at the rate of 54 decisions in April; 40 in May and 46 in June 2020, said the Ministry in a release. The committee also received 277 requests – 197 for demolition and 80 for mainte-nance from the municipalities during the period of study.

Since it was set up, the com-mittee received a total of 1,178 requests for demolition and 347 for maintenance from munici-palities. The necessary actions were taken by issuing appro-priate decisions following the law

No. 29 of 2006 for monitoring the buildings. Soi far, the com-mittee has issued 1,110 decisions. The committee is assigned to conduct study about the condi-tions of ramshackle buildings or those require maintenance.

The job of the committee is to inspect the buildings if it is needed to do so and to take nec-essary decisions in this regards - asking for conducting mainte-nance or demolition partly or completely.

The decisions are to be taken as per the safety requirements according to the specification of the Ministry under the rules and regulations of the Law No. 29 of 2006.

The committee also takes appropriate decisions on the tar-geted building giving a complete condition of it includes risks posed by the building to the

residents, neighbours, passerby and adjacent facilities.

A per the law, the initiatives in this regards will be taken by the owners of the buildings and the municipality concerned.

The committee is responsible to send the decisions to the municipality concerned within three days from the date of the issuance of the decision in a bid to take the necessary action.

As per the law, the committee is led by the director of Doha Municipality and members of the committee will be director of Al Rayan Municipality, Director of Legal Affairs Department, Director of Urban Planning Department, Director of Tech-nical Affairs Department at Doha Municipality, a representative from General Department of Civil Defense at the Ministry of Interior.

Falcon to contribute in post COVID-19 public transportTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Falcon, a new company which is pioneering safe, sustainable, tech-enabled micromobility solu-tions, has been launched in Qatar with the aim of changing the face of national public transport in a post COVID-19 world.

The company has been established by three Qatari investors with backgrounds in corporate and investment finance who plan to roll out upon finalising authorities’ approvals on their first app-enabled solu-tions at many transportation hubs in Q4 this year.

The founders have secured an international management team with entrepreneurial expertise in ride sharing schemes and artificial intelligence. They will steer Falcon into a global brand which solves major transport issues with sustainable solutions which meet post pan-demic users priorities.

“Our aim is to provide last mile connectivity, what we call micromobility, often to, or from, another transport mode such as

a bus, train, or car,” explained Hussain Abdulla, Falcon’s Man-aging Director.

“COVID-19 has led users to reprioritise their health and envi-ronmental priorities and Falcon addresses these concerns. Ride sharing enables social distancing when travelling and is much kinder to the environment helping to reduce carbon emissions and congestion. Users will also ride in

confidence with all equipment being sanitised and knowing they have the back-up of a Falcon Feeder maintenance van and crew on ground if needed.”

In its first operational phase, and in coordination with the rel-evant authorities, the company plan to open four charging docking stations, known as Nests, for its fleet of electric-powered scooters, bikes and mopeds which people can book via the Falcon app and use to get to their destination.

Eventually Falcon’s battery-powered micromobility vehicles will dot Doha’s streets providing last-mile connectivity to people who want a convenient mode to travel to their destinations.

Falcon invests heavily in research and development in renewable energy. Its vehicle charging options will include those powered by solar tech-nology while its Doha Falcon Hos-pital repair and storage facility, which will also house an AI-driven operations control centre, will run entirely on renewable energy.

ALECSO endeavor, since its establishment to preserve Arab culture and advance the causes of educational, cultural, scientific and environmental development, and the development of the Arabic language and Arab and Islamic culture within the Arab world.

08 WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

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

EDITORIAL

TIME and again Qatar has proved its reputation as a reliable partner and peace mediator in the international arena, which has brought not only peaceful solutions to several conflicts regionally and internationally but unprecedented levels of development and progress to the conflict-ridden regions. Qatar has successfully hosted several peace negotiations, the latest of which is the efforts for lasting peace in Afghanistan finally bringing the Taliban and the Afghan government to the negotiating table. The country had already brought the United States and Taliban face to face resulting in an agreement for prisoner release and withdrawal of foreign forces from the Afghan soil.

Qatar yesterday renewed its support for the peace efforts in Afghanistan and the participation of women in peace, reiterating its continuous support for the rec-onciliation process. The Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, H E Sheikha Alya bin Saif Al Thani, in a closed virtual meeting organised by the UN Security Council on “Women and the Afghan Peace Process: Ensuring Women’s Participation and Pro-moting their Rights”, said that lasting peace in Afghan-istan is a fundamental issue of the State of Qatar, adding that Qatar has made great mediation efforts to support and facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan.

The agreement signed in Doha in February between the United States of America and Taliban is not a minor achievement in the road to Afghan reconciliation as it was for the first time that the parties sat and talked face-to-face with the intention of bringing peace to a country beset with internal conflicts and wars for decades. H E Sheikha Alya also mentioned the talks under the auspices of Qatar and Germany in Doha from July 7 to 9, which discussed prospects of bringing sustainable peace to Afghanistan.

In 2011, Qatar had been instrumental in bringing peace and stability to Sudan by mediating negotia-tions which resulted in the signing of Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, which contributed to enhancing sustainability of security and stability. Sudanese min-isters had several times hailed the benefits and progress brought in by the document to the country and its people, especially to the youth.

Qatar’s diplomacy and its international policy do not rest on negotiating and achieving just a peace deal, but the it is particular about the progress of the country or region involving everybody, whether it is women, children, youth or the elderly. Qatar always aims at the wholesome development of people, which the country believes the only way to establish lasting peace.

Qatar’s fruitful peace mediation

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Quote of the day

People are still thinking about seasons. What we

all need to get our heads around is this is a new

virus and...this one is behaving differently. This

virus likes all weather.

Margaret Harris, World Health Organisation spokesperson

QNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar partici-pated yesterday in the cele-bration of the 50th anni-versary of the establishment of Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organ-ization (ALECSO), held via video conference technology.

The celebration was held at the headquarters of the organization in the Tunisian Republic, and the State of Qatar was represented by Sec-retary-General of the Qatar National Commission for Edu-cation, Culture and Science Dr. Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti.

In her speech during the occasion, Dr. Hamda Al Sulaiti highlighted the path of joint work between the State of Qatar and ALECSO, stressing the keenness of the State of Qatar under the leadership of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, “may God protect and preserve him”, to be a member and an active component in its performance, whether through the parent organization, or through its offices and subsidiary centers in Arab capitals.

She also pointed out how the growing relations between the State of Qatar and the organization

contributed to coordinating joint regional efforts aimed at emphasizing the main role of education, culture and science in shaping the consciousness of Arab peoples, promoting a culture of peace in the minds, working to protect human heritage in Arab countries, and supporting projects to develop educational systems and the protection of Islamic culture in Palestine.

Al Sulaiti revealed some activities, projects and events implemented by the State of Qatar with the participation of the organization, including but not limited to fostering dialogue among civilizations and cul-tures, regional projects to deal with crises and natural dis-asters, and the Alliance of Arab Cities in combating extremism and exclusion, and evaluating Educational curricula in Qatar, protection of people with special needs and opportunities in the use of information tech-nology, projects to protect and support heritage and rehabil-itate workers in archaeological museums.

In addition to the project of developing the capabilities of Arab youth in the field of Arab mobile applications, and cam-paigns to protect human her-itage in many Arab countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine from all dangers that

threaten it, noting that the State of Qatar’s contribution to the Organization’s projects is numerous and extends for many years past.

She emphasized the Arab organizations endeavor, since its establishment to preserve Arab culture and advance the causes of educational, cul-tural, scientific and environ-mental development, and the development of the Arabic language and Arab and Islamic culture within the Arab world. This is due to the organizations belief in the important and vital role that education and culture play in building the human, moral and behavioral system, and promoting the values of citi-zenship and a sense of belonging to it.

Also, she referred to the interests of ALECSO since its establishment in issues related to the advancement of the education sectors in the Arab world in all its stages, developing and supporting policies, systems and pro-grams to modernize educa-tional systems and enhancing its role in building human and achieving sustainable devel-opment in the Arab world.

Al Sulaiti added that the organization sought to bring Arab cultures closer and work to harmonize and interact

with other peoples cultures through dialogue of cultures and translation and trans-lation work for intellectual, literary and scientific work, as well as the organizations efforts in enhancing the capa-bilities of the sons of Arab countries and their cadres to achieve the goals of sus-tainable development 2030.

Al Sulaiti praised the role of Qatars National Com-mission for Education, Culture and Science in supporting and strengthening the relationship between the organization and the relevant state ministries and institutions, as well as exchanging opinions and advice on the most appro-priate ways and means to benefit from ALECSO, and what it provides of technical courses, activities, programs and useful experiences for the sustainable development plan to the state.

At the end of her speech, she stressed on the impor-tance of the Arab organization continuing to carry its mission, believing in its role in supporting joint Arab action and upgrading the education and culture system in the Arab world to serve the goals of sustainable development 2030, which is the basis of prosperity for the Arab peoples.

Last week’s 750 billion-euro ($877 billion) Covid-19 rescue fund marked a high point in the European Union’s plan to tackle the economic fallout of the virus. But a new flare-up in infections on the continent is a grim reminder of the more immediate epidemio-logical threat. While it’s not a second wave yet, it’s a serious test of government strategies intended to avoid one.

Cases are rising across the region at the highest pace since tough lockdown measures were lifted, although overall infections remain much lower than the outbreak’s April peak. In Spain, new daily cases hit almost 1,000 last week, driven by local spikes in areas such as Aragon and Catalonia, where nightclubs are now being closed and curfews applied on bars. In Belgium, an increase in infections has forced the government to roll out tougher social-distancing measures, such as limiting face-to-face interactions.

This shouldn’t come as a shock, given the epidemio-logical trade-off of easing

lockdowns. People are natu-rally moving around more as stay-at-home curbs are rolled back, and this was always going to give the coronavirus more opportunities to mingle. Even if offices and public transport are still quiet, European streets are filled with shoppers, diners, and drinkers. Google mobility data indicate human traffic is almost back to pre-virus levels in regions like Paris, Madrid and Italy’s Lombardy.

Estimates of the virus’s reproduction rate from Bank of America economists suggest that it’s risen back to around or above 1 in countries including the U.K., France, Italy, Spain and Belgium, meaning one infected person will on average spread it to more than one other person.

So far, the alertness of public authorities has been encouraging. While one might question whether nightclubs in Catalonia should have reo-pened, you could hardly accuse governments in general of sleepwalking into a new public-health crisis.

The new widespread curbs in Spain and Belgium are worrying, but smaller “smart lockdowns” have been

effective too in towns and regions in Germany, the U.K. and Italy. That’s tes-tament to the improvement in virus monitoring tools since the peak of the outbreak, as my colleague Ferdinando Giugliano has written. And the wearing of face masks, ini-tially discouraged in many countries, is now being wisely enforced by policymakers.

Less reassuring are the signs of social-distancing fatigue, particularly among young people. Case statistics in Spain show people in their 20s and 30s are a key source of new infections, as the warm weather, vacation season and reopening of bars and restaurants have made transmission dangers seem less urgent. While young people are far less susceptible to the worst manifestations of Covid-19, governments are right to worry about their ability to spread it. French Health Minister Olivier Veran this week implored young-sters to “be more vig-ilant,” warning that bars across France could be closed once again.

Given the natural reluc-tance of governments to shut their economies again,

Europe’s ability to avoid a new spiral of infections and lock-downs depends a lot on testing and tracing resources to keep tabs on chains of transmission. Much has improved in this department: France, Spain and Italy are testing so widely that only an estimated 1% of tests return a positive result. But there are gaps. Contact-tracing apps have been a flop, suf-fering from delays and low take-up. And testing labora-tories are suffering bottlenecks as demand exceeds supply, meaning results are slow to deliver.

This “new normal” of having to respond to the virus on a daily basis was never going to be easy, and until a vaccine or treatment is found it will create huge uncertainty for business sectors such as leisure and tourism. In Spain, the expected flow of tourists from abroad will slow after the U.K. and Norway imposed new quarantine measures on people returning from the country. Not every country has followed suit - France, for example, is only discouraging travel to Catalonia - but the risk of an EU-wide response is ever-present.

50th anniversary of ALECSO establishment

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What Spain is telling us about second wave of Coronavirus

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WISH announces new cash prize for Innovation Award Programme winnerTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The World Innovation Summit for Health is giving healthcare (WISH) entrepre-neurs the opportunity to share their ideas with the world. With the deadline for its Spark and Booster competitions – which make up the Innovation Award Programme – only days away, WISH has announced the addition of a new $5,000 prize to the already exciting array of awards and incen-tives on offer.

The first cash prize to be offered by WISH will be awarded to the grand winner selected out of the top 30 shortlisted Spark and Booster winning projects. Competition judges will be picking a winner based on which idea offers the most innovative solution aimed at solving the world’s most pressing healthcare issues or has the greatest potential for addressing the most urgent health challenges.

The WISH — a global health initiative of Qatar Foundation — first kicked off its Innovation Award Pro-gramme in 2013 and has expanded the programme this year by adding several new benefits for the Spark and Booster competition winners. The Spark Compe-tition is aimed at entrepre-neurs seeking to solve healthcare challenges by developing and validating a scalable project — typically early-stage schemes or start-ups — while the Innovation Booster Competition targets exciting inventions looking to scale-up and grow.

The contests, open to innovators based both locally and globally, are designed to provide talented healthcare entrepreneurs with a platform to promote ideas and products aimed at improving the delivery and quality of healthcare. This aligns with WISH’s mission to build a healthier world through global collabo-ration, something the COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus this year.

As well as the new $5,000 grand winner’s prize, a number of other opportu-nities are also on offer for shortlisted innovations. These include joining accel-erator programmes in Doha and London; receiving business incubation support at Qatar Science & Tech-nology Park — part of QF Research, Development, and Innovation; getting WISH media backing for up to 12

months; receiving an invi-tation to participate in WISH mini-summits and events; and becoming a WISH inno-vation programme alumni ambassador, along with mentorship and overall championing for up to a year.

As part of their award, successful entrants for each of the contests can also look forward to receiving an invi-tation to the WISH 2020 virtual summit in November 2020 to mark their entry into a community of acclaimed healthcare leaders and policymakers from across the world, for whom they will showcase their inventions. Depending on the development needs of their innovation idea, they will be offered the oppor-tunity to meet relevant experts and have one-to-one meetings with potential local and global investors.

During the summit, com-petition winners will take part in a series of workshops and master classes, led by global health innovation leaders, that are designed to help them optimise the effectiveness of their ideas and businesses.

Head of Innovation at WISH, Mahmoud El Achi, said: “Since 2013, WISH has provided a platform for around 100 of the most exciting global healthcare innovations at our summits. This year, we have signifi-cantly expanded the pro-gramme so that the inno-vators and entrepreneurs we select can fully benefit from being part of the global WISH community.

“From the large number of applications that we have received from around the world, it’s clear that the current global health crisis hasn’t dampened innovators’ enthusiasm for finding solutions to health chal-lenges. In fact, a number of applications have focused specifically on dealing with COVID-19.

“We’re making a final call for entries because we know there are more great ideas and products out there that need to be seen by a wider audience, and we don’t want them to miss out on the opportunity to enjoy our support.”

The deadline for both competitions is Friday, July 31, with the shortlisted winners to be announced in September. To apply, please visit https://www.wish.org.qa/innovationaward/

MES alumnus sets example through humane actTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

MES alumnus, Dr. Mohammed Fawaz, a 24-year-old doctor who works with the department of surgery and doing his post-graduation in medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, was in the limelight when he stabilised his critically ill patient with his timely act of donating blood in the absence of a suitable donor before performing the surgery.

A 30-year-old patient suf-fering from septic shock due to an infection in his lower left leg arrived in New Delhi AIIMS on July 21 and needed blood immediately and the patient’s family did not reach the hos-pital. Dr. Fawaz wasted no time and promptly donated blood to the patient and later

operated on him. This lifesaving act of

humanity by Dr. Fawaz at the time of emergency for his patient reached far and wide and was much appreciated by one and all.

“The patient came with his wife, who was not physically fit to donate blood. I wanted to take him to the oper-ation theatre and r e m o v e t h e infected parts so that he can be sta-b i l i s e d . W e couldn’t wait for his attendants to reach the hospital, so I decided to donate blood and get a few more

units from the blood bank,” said Dr. Fawaz while talking to the media in New Delhi.

Dr.Fawaz was an alumnus of MES Indian School who passed out in 2011 with flying colours.

Dr. Mohammed Fawaz donating blood.

Talabat partners with Qatar Charity, allowing users to donate during Eid Al AdhaTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The region’s leading food and delivery app, talabat, joined hands again with Qatar Charity for a generous gift-giving drive this Eid Al Adha. Customers can now donate Udhiyah to the less fortunate residents in Qatar through the talabat app.

Talabat and Qatar Charity have worked together in various projects throughout the year, giving more emphasis on Eid activities.

The two entities have signed an agreement to make the platform a channel for sending donations via Qatar Charity to a variety of causes.

Currently, customers can choose to share a meal for one person, a couple or a family in need during Eid. Additionally, talabat added the special Udhiyah, a term for Eid gifts, which includes a “sheep of

sacrifice” for sharing priced at QR520.

Francisco De Sousa, Man-aging Director of talabat Qatar, praises the local and residents’ outpouring support to talabat and Qatar Charity’s humani-tarian initiatives.

“Eid Al Adha falls at the right time to share our

blessings as we are facing the nation’s first stages of recovery from the pandemic. We encourage those who can take part in this selfless act as on this special occasion, food unites everyone. We are grateful to Qatar Charity for initiating such major projects for the sake of those in need.”

QC reviews decision to register new goods, requests for price increaseTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Chamber’s (QC) Food Security and Environment Committee held a webinar recently which was attended by owners of food distribution centres and representa-tives of food importing companies.

The webinar, headed by QC board member Mohamed bin Ahmed Al Obaidli, was also attended by several representa-tives of the relevant parties of the Com-mittee Tasked with Determining Maximum Prices and Profit Ratios and Food Outlets Committee.

The meeting reviewed challenges faced by suppliers and distributors in applying the decision to register the new prices of foodstuffs and consumer goods for the goods listed by the committee as well as the requests for increasing prices of food-stuffs and consumer goods.

The attendees also reviewed reasons for the committee’s decision to submit requests for increasing prices to the Quality Licence and Market Control Department, affirming that this step aims to study the market and combat the unjustified causes of price increase as well as obtain official approvals to increase prices in accordance with the list issued by the Ministry of Com-merce and Industry (MoCI), so that the sup-plier can distribute those goods after they arrive from abroad directly.

It was agreed during the meeting that requests to increase prices should be approved within two days from the date of submitting the request.

Al Obaidli also stressed the importance

of enhancing coordination with the Com-mittee Tasked with Determining Maximum Prices and Profit Ratios, notably in deci-sions related to food security.

He also underscored the importance of strengthening communication between the Food Security & Environment Committee and all companies working in the sector to identify the challenges facing companies and work to solve them, pointing out that it has been agreed with the MoCI to evaluate

the experience in coordination with the Chamber in October 2020, after three months of implementation.

Chair of Food Outlets Committee Abdul Rahman bin Abdulla Al Ansari also noted that the meeting touched on the need to activating agricultural fairs between Qatar and Algeria. “Qatari private sector is interested to further enhance cooperation with Algerian busi-nessmen.” he added.

Participants during the webinar organised by the Qatar Chamber’s Food Security and Environment Committee, in Doha, recently.

Safety measures in place for school registration assessment, says PHCCTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Primary Health Care Corpo-ration (PHCC) is delivering school registration assessment for the academic year 2020-2021, stressing that all necessary precautionary measures have been put in place to ensure the safety and welfare of the children.

Given the COVID-19 pan-demic, all new students are required to be screened and issued an electronic health cer-tificate by the Health Centres before joining school for the next academic year.

A dedicated team of doctors and administrators at PHCC evaluated the risks and extent of exposure before developing a robust procedure for the pre-school registration screening. The key focus was on limiting exposure, hence the screening can now be done in just a single visit. Other measures include pre-booked appointments to limit the number of students visiting the Health Centres.

Parents are requested to dial ‘107’ and choose the Stu-dent’s Medical Assessment option to make an appointment

for school assessments. A ded-icated team at PHCC will then electronically book all the nec-essary appointments for the student, for both dental and family medicine clinics. Parents need to accompany their children, and be present an hour before the appointment, bringing with them all nec-essary documents, including ID cards, valid health cards, vac-cination cards, and birth certificates.

An early visit is recom-mended to take care of matters such as registration at the reception, the nursing assessment, laboratory tests, and the social worker assessment. Thereafter, the child will undergo a dental and family physician check-up as per the scheduled appointment. The health certificate is issued once the assessments and examinations are done and lab-oratory test results are verified. Parents can collect their child’s e-file at reception before leaving the Health Centre.

Students registered in the PHCC COVID-19 Test and Hold designated Health Centres will be transferred to the following

alternative Health Centres for their medical assessment for those registered in the Muaither Health Centre will be directed to the Al Wajba Health Centre or Al Waab Health Centre, those registered in the Rawdat Al Khail Health Centre will be directed to either the Al Thumama Health Centre, Omar Bin Al Khattab Health Centre, or Airport Health Centre, those registered in the Umm Slal Health Centre will be directed to either the Qatar University Health Centre or Al Daayen Health Centre and those

registered in the Gharrafat Al Rayyan Health Centre will be directed either to the Leabaib Health Centre or Madinat Khalifa Health Centre.

PHCC qualified teams have been trained to receive stu-dents and parents and to facil-itate all required procedures at our Health Centres. The PHCC requests that parents abide by all precautionary measures established by the state for their safety and for the safety of children, which is a national, civic and moral responsibility.

MoTC opens Qatar Threat Hunters 2020THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Transport and Communications, in cooperation with the ITU-Arab Regional Cybersecurity Centre (ARCC), has opened the registration for Qatar Threat Hunters 2020.

MOTC is inviting all those who are interested in infor-mation security and those who have unique skills of detecting security threats to join the com-petition. Registration is available at https://cyberstars.pro/qatar/ until August 25, 2020. The com-petition is open for youth in the age group 17-24 and youth who are 24 years old and above.

The three winners from Qatar Threat Hunters 2020 competition from each age group will be nominated to par-ticipate and represent Qatar at the third edition of the Regional

Threat Hunters 2020, organised by ITU-ARCC in partnership with Silensec.

The competition revolves around several scenarios and challenges on cybersecurity domains such as ethical hacking, ICT infrastructure pro-tection, computer forensics and

malware analysis.This year’s competition

aims at further developing and sharpening the skills and talents in the Arab world in the realm of cybersecurity and keeping up with cybersecurity challenges emerging from the novel oronavirus pandemic.

The aim is to qualify and prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals and specialists and harness their capabilities for competing regionally and globally.

The competition in Qatar will be held on August 26 for participants from within Qatar, ending with selecting the three winners from each age group who will compete at the level of Arab countries in the regional stage that will be held during the fourth quarter of this year.

MoTC is inviting all those who are interested in information security and those who have unique skills of detecting security threats to join the competition.

A dedicated team of doctors and admin-istrators at PHCC evaluated the risks and extent of exposure before devel-oping a robust procedure for the pre-school registration screening. The key focus was on limiting exposure, hence the screening can now be done in just a single visit.

09WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020 HOME

10 WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Iran holds annual military drill amid tension with USAP — TEHRAN

Iran’s paramilitary Revolu-tionary Guard fired a missile from a helicopter targeting a replica aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, state television reported yesterday, an exercise aimed at threat-ening the US amid tensions between Tehran and Wash-ington.

The drill, in a waterway through which 20 percent of all traded oil passes, underlines the lingering threat of military con-flict between Iran and the US after last summer saw a series of inci-dents targeting oil tankers in the region. In January, a US drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad and Tehran responded by firing ballistic missiles targeting American forces in Iraq.

While the coronavirus pan-demic has engulfed both Iran and the US for months, there have been increasing signs of a confrontation as America argues to extend a yearslong UN weapons embargo on Tehran that is due to expire in October. A recent incident over Syria involving an American jet fighter approaching an Iranian

passenger plane also has renewed tensions.

Iranian commandos fast-roped down from a helicopter onto the replica in the footage aired yesterday from the exercise called “Great Prophet 14.” Other footage showed fast boats encircling the mock-up, kicking up white waves in their wake.

Iranian troops also fired anti-aircraft batteries at a drone target in the exercise from a location that state television described as being near the port city of Bandar Abbas. Troops also fired missiles launched from trucks on land and fast boats at sea, as well as shoulder-fired missiles.

The Guard will use “long-range ballistic missiles with the ability to hit far-reaching aggressor floating targets” during the drill, said Abbas Nil-foroushan, the Guard’s deputy commander for operations, according to Guard website sepahnews.com. That suggests the drill could see a repeat of what happened in 2015, when the Guard mock-sunk a replica.

It wasn’t immediately clear if all the footage was

from yesterday, as one overhead surveillance image that appeared to be shot by a drone bore Monday’s date. The exercise had been expected as satellite photos released Monday showed the fake carrier being moved into place by a tugboat.

A black-and-white satellite photo taken yesterday by Colo-rado-based firm Maxar Tech-nologies showed damage to the replica’s bow and several of its fake jet fighters.

“Our policies to protect the

vital interests of the dear nation of Iran are defensive, in the sense that we will not invade any country from the beginning, but we are completely aggressive in tactics and operations,” General Hossein Salami, the head of the Guard, was quoted as saying.

“What was shown today at this exercise at the level of aer-ospace and naval forces was all offensive.” State TV footage also showed Guard scuba forces underwater, followed by a cutaway to a blast hole just

above the waterline on the replica carrier.

That appeared to be a not-so-subtle reminder of US accu-sations last year that Iran planted limpet mines on passing oil tankers near the strait, which exploded on the vessels in the same area. Iran has repeatedly denied the actions, though footage captured by the American military showed Guard members remove an unexploded mine from one vessel.

AP — KFAR CHOUBA

Lebanon’s Prime Minister yesterday accused Israel of provoking a “dangerous esca-lation” along the border in an attempt to modify the mandate of a UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, cautioning against “a slide toward the worse” in coming days.

Hassan Diab’s comments came a day after the Israeli mil-itary said it thwarted an infil-tration attempt by Hezbollah fighters — setting off one of the heaviest exchanges of fire along the volatile Israel-Lebanon frontier since a 2006 war between the two enemies.

Hezbollah denied its fighters had engaged in any attack along

the border, but the Israeli mil-itary said it was sure the Ira-nian-backed group had carried out the operation, and Israeli forces in the area remained on heightened alert.

In a clear sign the Israeli military did not consider the episode to be over, the army said yesterday that the northern

frontier would be “reinforced with advanced fire capabilities, intelligence collection systems and special units.”

The announcement comes a few days after the military announced it was beefing up the northern border with infantry troops amid tensions with Hezbollah.

Israel had been bracing for an attack since an Israeli air-strike in neighbouring Syria killed a Hezbollah fighter last week. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to retaliate against any Israeli attack that kills one of its fighters. In a statement issued Monday night, the group said the exchanges of fire were unrelated to Hezbollah’s retal-iation, which was still coming.

Monday’s mysterious incident occurred in an area known as Chebaa Farms, an area captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War and claimed by Lebanon.

The area was quiet yes-terday, with villagers largely going about their daily business.

The mayor of Kfar Chouba, Nasser Al Qadiri, where most of the shelling took place, said the Israeli attacks triggered fires that caused huge losses in the fields and cattle of the villagers.

Peacekeepers from the UN mission known as UNIFIL could be seen at border outposts on Monday. The mission is up for renewal when its mandate expires August 31. Israel and the US are pressing for major changes in the way it operates on the ground to combat what they say is the spread of illegal arms to Hezbollah-dominated southern Lebanon.

The force has been deployed in southern Lebanon since an Israeli invasion in 1978.

Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday met with the country’s military chief and other senior military officials for a security assessment at the army’s Northern Command head-quarters near the Lebanese border.

Netanyahu accused Iran and its proxy Hezbollah of destabi-lizing the region and said Hez-bollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, “is serving this Iranian interest at Lebanon’s expense.” “We will continue to take action to thwart Iran’s military entrenchment in our region,” he said.

“We will do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves and I suggest that Hezbollah consider this simple fact. Israel is ready for any scenario.”

An image grab from footage obtained from Iranian State TV IRIB yesterday, shows soldiers rappelling down from a Russian-made military helicopter on to an Iranian mock-up imitating a US aircraft carrier during a military exercise near the Strait of Hormuz.

Turkey plans to

reopen schools

as long as virus

keeps receding

REUTERS — ANKARA/ISTANBUL

Turkey plans to reopen schools nationwide on August 31, to get students back into classrooms and free up working parents, assuming a recent stabilisation in coronavirus cases holds.

Teachers and adminis-trators are preparing on-site health precautions, but two government sources said that the daily infection rate may need to dip below the more than 900 seen recently to allow them to execute what they called Plan A.

Schools shifted to distance education in March, when Turkey identified its first case and began restricting movement.

Much of the economy reo-pened on June 1, after the school year ended, but masks and other hygiene measures are still required in public.

“We have been told that the schools will reopen, so we will see how it goes,” said a first-grade teacher in the southern city of Antalya. “I do feel a bit concerned about my students’ and my family’s health, of course.” About half of Turkey’s nearly 230,000 cases and more than 5,600 deaths are in its biggest city, Istanbul, the government says. The capital Ankara and Diya-rbakir in the mainly Kurdish southeast have also been hotspots.

One government source said that “if the number of cases decreases, all schools will be opened”, but that oth-erwise schools in high-infection areas might remain closed.

A second senior official said classes might have to remain online for some south-eastern provinces. “The nor-malisation is under way... but the numbers should have fallen faster.” A primary school teacher based in the southeast said some of her students had not had the means to attend online classes, adding: “Online teaching can never be as effi-cient as classroom learning.”

Temperature soars in BaghdadPeople cool off under an outdoor shower as the temperature soars in Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday.

Iran records 235

more virus deaths;

Oman reports 846

new casesANATOLIA & QNA — TEHRAN/MUSCAT

Iran yesterday confirmed 235 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus, bringing the nationwide death toll to 16,147, according to an official.

A further 2,667 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the overall count to 296,273, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.

She said more than 257,019 people have so far recovered and been discharged from hospitals, adding that 3,902 patients remain in critical condition.

Over 2.38 million tests have been conducted in the country to date, Lari added.

The alarming surge in daily fatalities has sent shock waves across Iran as the health care system is already overwhelmed.

One of the first countries in the region to bear the brunt of the COVID-19 outbreak, Iran on Feb. 19 reported its first two deaths in the city of Qom, 140km south of Tehran.

In the first wave of the out-break, single-day deaths peaked on April 4 with 158 fatalities, before dropping to their lowest (34) on May 25.

Meanwhile, the Omani Ministry of Health reported yesterday 846 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in Oman to 77,904, in addition to 9 new COVID-19 related death cases, bringing the total deaths in the country to 402, while the number of people recovered reached 58,587.

The Ministry said, in a statement broadcast by the Oman News Agency, that the 846 new cases of coronavirus (Covid-19), 771 of them were Omanis and the rest were non-Omanis.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to retaliate against any Israeli attack that kills one of its fighters. In a statement, the group said the exchanges of fire were unrelated to Hezbollah’s retaliation, which was still coming.

Lebanon accuses Israel of provoking border escalation

Mali Prime Minister urges

opposition to join unity govt

AFP — BAMAKO

Prime Minister Boubou Cisse yesterday reached out to Mali’s protest movement, saying it was “awaited and strongly desired” in a unity government to tackle the country’s deep political crisis.

“I hope that this offer of dialogue... can be heard by the stakeholders of the M5-RFP —not just heard but accepted,” Cisse said, referring to the June 5 Movement by its formal name.

Mali’s opposition yesterday, for the third time, rejected a compromise intended to defuse a weeks-long political crisis, alarming observers fearful that the poor Sahel country may slide into chaos.

In a statement, the so-called June 5 Movement demanded “more than ever” the resignation of President

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, accusing his government of bearing “full responsibility” for Mali’s crisis.

The bloc, whose leaders conferred by video link, also warned of sanctions against those who oppose its efforts at “normalisation”.

Within hours, Keita named a stripped-down cabinet with ministers for security, justice, foreign affairs and finance, and tasked it with negotiating the formation of a unity government.

But in scathing language, the June 5 Movement said it had “learned of the conclusions of the extraordinary summit with astonishment.”

ECOWAS “is continuing to reduce the socio-political crisis in Mali to a simple electoral dispute over the second round of the legislative elections,” it said.

'Darfur attacks seek to derail Sudan’s fragile transition'AFP — KHARTOUM

A new bout of deadly violence in Sudan’s ravaged Darfur region is an attempt to sabotage the country’s fragile transition since last year’s ouster of strongman President Omar Al Bashir, analysts say.

It threatens to derail Khar-toum’s renewed efforts to sta-bilise a harsh, drought-plagued region with a history of violence between mainly Arab nomadic herders and settled ethnic minority farmers over scarce land and water resources.

The latest attack, though smaller in scale, evoked dark memories of the wave of bloody violence that shook Darfur under Bashir’s rule, leading to international charges of war crimes and genocide.

In Saturday’s assault,

hundreds of armed men in pickup trucks descended on Masteri, a town largely inhabited by farmers from non-Arab minority groups, some 50km from the West Darfur state capital El Geneina.

The attackers looted and torched houses and also set fires in the local market, said the UN Office for the Coordi-nation of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The men killed more than 60 people, including eight women, mostly from the Masalit ethnic group, leaving behind corpses amid the charred remains of livestock and smoul-dering ruins of houses.

The bloody rampage lasted nine hours, said the Sudanese medical committee.

“The attack by 500 armed men in pick-up trucks on a

large village in the state of West Darfur requires real organi-sation,” argued Marc Lavergne, a Sudan expert at the French National Center for Scientific Research.

“It’s a message. The objective is to destabilise the country and show others abroad that the administration in Khartoum is only in control of the capital.” - Peace efforts - Ethnically diverse Sudan was rocked by nationwide pro-democracy protests from December 2018 against Bashir, leading to his ouster by the army in April last year.

A new transitional admin-istration of mainly civilian but also military leaders has taken charge and is launching reforms to move Sudan into a more democratic post-Bashir era.

The ousted strongman is

now on trial for the Islamist-backed coup that brought him to power three decades earlier.

Khartoum has also pledged to cooperate with the Interna-tional Criminal Court which wants to try Bashir on war crimes and genocide charges related to Darfur.

Following an uprising by ethnic minority rebels in 2003, his Arab-dominated regime unleashed the feared Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, on vil-lages suspected of supporting the rebels.

The scorched-earth cam-paign left 300,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million.

Human rights groups have accused Bashir’s government of conducting ethnic cleansing campaigns in Darfur and using rape as a weapon.

11WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020 ASIA

Vietnam locks down third largest city as virus cases grow

AP — HANOI

Vietnam yesterday locked down its third-largest city for two weeks after 22 cases of COVID-19 were found linked to a hospital, the government said.

The new cases in the central city of Da Nang are the first confirmed local transmissions of the virus in the country in over three months.

Public transport into and out of Da Nang was cancelled. Over the weekend, thousands of mostly Vietnamese tourists cut short their summer holidays in the popular beach desti-nation. The lockdown dealt a hard blow to the city’s tourism industry, which was just being revived after earlier corona-virus cases mostly subsided at the end of April. Hotel guests quickly ended their stays and cancelled upcoming trips upon the news of the first case, one hotelier said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

“Our hotel is now empty,” the hotelier said. “But we had to help our guests leave the city

when they still had the oppor-tunity yesterday.” Da Nang beaches, which host some 50,000 people a day, are now closed. Only security personnel were seen on the beaches yes-terday as they patrolled to ensure no one was gathering.

Authorities estimated several thousand people would be stranded by the transpor-tation shutdown and asked hotels to shelter them.

“We did not want to rush to the airport to leave the city

because of the risk of being in a crowded place. So we are now stuck here,” said Lien Nguyen, who is traveling with her family of four for their summer vacation.

“But it is not a bad place to get stranded for two weeks,” she said.

On Sunday, the government ordered unessential business to close and required people to practice social distancing in the city of 1.1 million people.

All 22 cases in the new

outbreak are patients and health workers at Da Nang hos-pital and family members.

With the new infections, Vietnam has reported 438 cases of COVID-19 without a death.

It had recorded no local transmissions of the virus since April, with all new cases coming from overseas. Vietnam on yes-terday dispatched an aircraft to Equatorial Guinea to repatriate 129 workers who have COVID-19, the health ministry said.

Police officers wearing face masks set up a barricade on a street in Da Nang city, Vietnam, yesterday.

University sacks HK pro-democracy leaderAFP — HONG KONG

A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist accused by China of trying to launch a revolution said yesterday he had been fired by one of the city’s top universities because of a conviction over his involvement in protests.

Law professor Benny Tai, 56, decried his sacking by the Uni-versity of Hong Kong and accused education chiefs of bowing to political pressure from Beijing.

“It marks the end of aca-demic freedom in Hong Kong,” he wrote on Facebook.

“Academic staff in education institutions in Hong Kong are no longer free to make controversial statements to the general public about politically or socially con-troversial matters,” he added.

Tai is a leading figure within Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

A staunch non-violence advocate, he was jailed last year over his involvement in huge pro-democracy protests in 2014 that brought parts of the city to a standstill for weeks.

He is often the target of vit-riolic statements from China’s government.

State media has described him as a “hardcore trouble-maker” colluding with foreign forces.

Earlier this month the Liaison Office — which repre-sents Beijing’s government in Hong Kong — accused him of trying to launch a revolution because he helped organise pri-maries to choose pro-democracy candidates to stand in upcoming legislative elections.

The University of Hong Kong did not respond to media enquiries over the sacking.

University chiefs launched a disciplinary investigation after Tai was released from a 16-month jail sentence last year.

Local media said 18 members of the committee voted for his removal, with two against.

“I am heart-broken to witness the demise of my beloved university,” Tai wrote.

“Yet, I will continue my research and teaching on the rule of law in another capacity. My fight for Hong Kong’s rule of law also will not stop,” he added.

Hong Kong has some of Asia’s best universities, aided by free-speech protections denied on the authoritarian mainland.

But Beijing has made no secret of its desire to overhaul schools and universities which it believes are partly responsible for the huge and often violent pro-democracy protests that broke out last year.

China has called for more patriotic education and has imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong which criminalises certain political views, such as calls for independence or greater autonomy.

Schools and libraries have already withdrawn books deemed to breach the new law.

Tai is not the only academic to face repercussions for taking part in protests.

On Monday local media reported that Shiu Ka-chun, another 2014 protest leader who was jailed, was told his contract with Hong Kong Baptist Uni-versity would not be renewed.

New Zealand suspends extradition treaty with Hong KongREUTERS — WELLINGTON

New Zealand has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and made a number of other changes following China’s decision to pass a national security law for the territory, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said yesterday.

“New Zealand can no longer trust that Hong Kong’s criminal justice system is sufficiently independent from China,” Peters said in a statement.

“If China in future shows adherence to the ‘one country, two systems’ framework then

we could reconsider this decision.” Beijing imposed new legislation on the former British colony earlier this month despite the protests of Hong Kong residents and Western nations, setting the financial hub on a more authoritarian track.

Australia, Canada and Britain all suspended extra-dition treaties with Hong Kong earlier this month. US President Donald Trump has ended pref-erential economic treatment for Hong Kong.

Peters said New Zealand will treat military and dual-use

goods and technology exports to Hong Kong in the same way as it treats such exports to China as part of a review of its overall relationship with Hong Kong.

Travel advice has been updated to alert New Zea-landers to the risks presented by the new security law, he added.

In a website statement, the Chinese embassy in New Zealand called the decision a violation of international law and gross interference in China’s internal affairs.

“The Chinese side has lodged its grave concern and

strong opposition,” an embassy representative said in the statement.

China reserves the right to make a further response, said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a daily news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, with annual two-way trade recently exceeding $21bn.

New Zealand’s ties with China have frayed recently after the Pacific nation backed Tai-wan’s participation at the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A file photo of one of the former leaders of the 2014 Occupy Central pro-democracy movement, Benny Tai, speaking to the media in Hong Kong.

Taiwan probes possible first local virus case in one month

REUTERS — TAIPEI

Taiwan yesterday was inves-tigating its first possible local coronavirus infection in more than a month, a Thai man who tested positive last week, as the island also faces a rise in cases brought from overseas.

Taiwan’s early response was effective in keeping the pandemic at bay, with just 467 infections and seven deaths. Most of the cases have been imported and have recovered.

Until the Thai man’s pos-itive test, the island had not seen a local case of corona-virus infection since June 24.

Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre said it was probing where and how the man contracted the virus. The migrant worker arrived on the island in January and tested positive on July 25, shortly after returning to Thailand.

More than 180 people who had contact with him in Taiwan have undergone health screenings, the centre said.

“We will make all nec-essary checks, clarifying how he got infected and whether there is a possibility for further contagion,” the centre’s deputy chief, Chuang Jen-hsiang, told reporters in Taipei.

Taiwan also reported five new coronavirus cases yes-terday, all imported and marking the biggest daily rise in infections since mid-April. The new cases were people who had returned to Taiwan from the Philippines and Hong Kong.

India’s COVID fatality rate dips to 2.25%IANS — NEW DELHI

As the confirmed COVID-19 cases in India have spiked to 14,83,156 of which 33,425 people have died, the falling fatality rate at 2.25 percent as per latest government reports has come as a ray of hope.

The Case Fatality Report (CFR) has reduced from around 3.33 percent in mid-June to 2.25 percent, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) data revealed yesterday when 47,703 fresh novel coronavirus cases, with 654 new deaths, were reported across the country in last 24 hours.

“India’s Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is progressively falling and currently, it is 2.25 percent. India continues its march as a country with one of the lowest fatality rates in the world,” the ministry said.

As per the MoHFW data, the recovery rate has also seen a sharp increase from around 53 percent in mid-June to more than 64 percent yesterday. With 35,176 patients discharged in the last 24 hours, the total recoveries stand

at 9,52,743, the data says.With improving daily

recovery numbers, the gap between the recovered cases and the active cases is also persist-ently increasing, said the data, adding it is 4,55,755 presently. This means the actual active case load is presently 4,96,988 and all are under medical supervision.

As per MoHFW, ramped up three-tier hospital infrastructure along with prompt and seamless patient management has helped consistent increase in the recov-eries. For the fifth day in a row, the ministry said, India has seen more than 30,000 recoveries per day.

This achievement, as per the ministry, is a result of effective implementation of containment strategy combined with house-to-house surveys, aggressive testing and standardised clinical management protocols based on a holistic standard of care approach which ensured that hospitals were left unburdened with supervised home isolation for the asymptomatic patients.

Under the guidance of Central government, state or

Union Territory (UT) govern-ments have focused on reducing the fatalities by effectively man-aging the severe cases and pri-oritising care of the high-risk population using field health care workers leading to decrease in the CFR across the country, the ministry said.

The ministry said that focused efforts of Centre and state and UT governments as well

as early detection and isolation along with handholding of states and UTs by the expert teams of All India Institute of Medical Sci-ences (AIIMS), New Delhi for effi-cient clinical management of hospitalised cases and periodic visits of central teams have borne results with continuously improving recovery rate.

Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state and reported

7,924 new infections, taking its tally to 3,83,723, followed by Tamil Nadu (2,13,723), Delhi (1,31,219) and Karnataka (1,01,465).

The national capital recorded a single-day spike of 613 cases taking the tally beyond 130,000 cases of which 10,994 were active cases as 3,853 people died and 1,16,372 were cured and discharged.

A health official wearing a personal protective equipment collects a swab sample from a woman to test for the coronavirus at a temporary testing facility in New Delhi, India, yesterday.

About 3 billion animals harmed in Australian bushfires, says WWFREUTERS — SYDNEY

Nearly 3 billion koalas, kangaroos and other native Australian animals were killed or displaced by bushfires in 2019 and 2020, a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said yesterday, triple the group’s earlier estimates.

Some 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million

birds and 51 million frogs were impacted by the country’s worst bushfires in decades, the WWF said. When the fires were still blazing, the WWF estimated the number of affected animals at 1.25 billion. The fires destroyed more than 11 million hectares across the Australian southeast, equal to about half the area of the United Kingdom.

“This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history,” said WWF-Aus-tralia Chief Executive Officer Dermot O’Gorman in a statement.

The project leader Lily Van Eeden, from the University of Sydney, said the research was the first continent-wide analysis of animals impacted by the

bushfires, and “other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere”.

The total number included animals which were displaced because of destroyed habitats and now faced lack of food and shelter or the prospect of moving to habitat that was already occupied.

The main reason for raising the number of animal casualties was that researchers had now assessed the total affected area, rather than focusing on the most affected states, they said.

The country battled one of its worst bushfire seasons ever from September 2019 to March 2020, resulting in 34 human deaths and nearly 3,000 homes lost.

The new cases in the central city of Da Nang are the first confirmed local transmissions of the virus in the country in over three months.

12 WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020ASIA

Malaysia’s Najib gets 12-year jail term in 1MDB corruption trialREUTERS — KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia’s former leader, Najib Razak, was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 12 years in jail yesterday in the first trial over a multi-billion-dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB.

In a case widely seen as a test of the nation’s resolve to stamp out corruption and which could have major political implications, high court judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years and a fine of 210m ringgit ($49m) for abuse of power.

Najib, 67, also received 10 years in jail on each of three charges of criminal breach of trust and three charges of money laundering for illegally receiving nearly $10m from SRC International, a former unit of the state fund.

“After considering all evi-dence in this trial, I find that the prosecution has successfully proven its case beyond a rea-sonable doubt,” Mohamad Nazlan said.

He ordered the jail terms to run concurrently.

The judge allowed a request

by Najib’s lawyers to delay the jail sentence and the fine, but asked Najib to post additional bail and report to a police station twice a month.

Najib had pleaded not guilty, and said he would appeal the verdict in Malaysia’s Federal Court if convicted. The verdict could potentially be partially or fully overturned, though that could take years.

The nearly $10m in the SRC case is a fraction of the funds

Najib is alleged to have misap-propriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the state fund.

Prosecutors say more than $1bn of 1MDB funds made its way into Najib’s personal accounts, over which he faces a total of 42 criminal charges.

US and Malaysian author-ities say $4.5bn is believed to have been stolen from 1MDB, a fund Najib founded to promote economic development, and used by his associates to buy art, a superyacht and fund the “Wolf of Wall Street” movie.

Prosecutors have also said $27m was used to buy a pink diamond necklace for Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and some of the money went into warchests for Najib’s election campaigns.

Former US attorney-general Jeff Sessions described the scandal as kleptocracy at its worst.

Allegations of corruption over 1MDB have hung over Najib for more than five years. But the criminal charges came only after his election defeat in 2018 when his successor

Mahathir Mohamad reopened investigations.

Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with Singapore’s Institute of International Affairs, said the verdict was “the first time a prime minister has been con-victed of essentially corruption- related charges and it testifies to the level of corruption in Malaysia”.

Politicians and others who had raised concerns about 1MDB years ago welcomed the verdict.

“All the heartbreaks were well worth it today. Well done Malaysia,” said Rafizi Ramli, a former opposition lawmaker

and 1MDB whistleblower.Najib’s lawyers had said he

was misled by Malaysian fin-ancier Jho Low and other 1MDB officials into believing that the funds banked in his accounts were donated by the Saudi royal family. Low has denied wrongdoing.

Judge Mohamad Nazlan said it was “far-fetched” to believe Najib could have been misled by Low and asked why he never questioned Low’s claim that the money was a donation.

Before sentencing, Najib told the court he never demanded or planned for the 42m ringgit in his account.

“There has been no evidence or witnesses to say so,” he said.

Najib can remain a law-maker but will be disqualified if his conviction stands after all legal avenues have been exhausted.

Najib’s party returned to power in February as part of an alliance led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who yes-terday said the government respected the verdict and was committed to the rule of law.

Sources said this week a guilty verdict could prompt Najib’s camp to withdraw support for the government, which has a razor-thin majority.

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak speaks during a news conference outside High Court, in Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.

In a case widely seen as a test of the nation’s resolve to stamp out corruption and which could have major political implications, high court judge Mohamad Nazlan Mohamad Ghazali sentenced Najib to 12 years and a fine of $49m for abuse of power.

Pakistan reports lowest single-day virus tally; recoveries riseANATOLIA — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan yesterday reported its lowest single-day tally of coro-navirus cases since May, as the country’s recoveries ratio also moved closer to 90 percent.

According to the Health Ministry, 936 more infections were recorded over the past 24 hours, bringing the overall count to 275,225.

Daily fatalities stood at 23, up slightly from the three-month low of 20 a day earlier, taking the death toll to 5,865.

Recoveries increased by 1,410 to reach 242,436, meaning that more than 88 percent of

Pakistan’s COVID-19 patients have now recovered, the min-istry reported.

Pakistan’s virus numbers have fallen considerably over recent weeks, but health experts believe this could be due to reduced testing in the country of over 212 million.

According to the Health Ministry, Pakistan has con-ducted over 1.9 million tests so far, with 19,610 more samples tested over the past 24 hours.

Authorities have imposed locality-based lockdowns in virus hotspots across 20 cities, and many officials, including Prime Minister Imran Khan,

have credited this strategy for the country’s improving numbers.

“The world is widely acknowledging our smart lockdown strategy as our cases are gradually declining,” Khan said at a media briefing on Monday.

However, he urged the public to follow all precautions during the upcoming Eid Al Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice, and the Islamic month of Muharram.

“Virus cases could spike again if people neglect the safety guidelines on Eid Al Adha and Ashura [anniversary of the

martyrdom of Hussain, the grandson of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him),” Khan warned.

The government of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, has announced strict restrictions ahead of this week’s Eid Al Adha holidays.

According to a notification, no social or religious gatherings will be allowed until August 5 in the province, which has reported more than 92,000 cases and over 2,100 deaths so far.

“All educational and training institutions, marriage halls, business centres, expo

halls, restaurants, amusements parks, public parks, sports clubs, retail shops, shopping malls and plazas will remain closed,” read the notification issued on Monday.

It said pharmacies, petrol pumps, grocery stores, bakeries, vegetable and meat shops, agri-culture machinery workshops, and spare parts shops will be allowed to operate.

Similarly, authorities in the capital Islamabad have announced that parks, hotels, and other recreational spaces will be closed during the three-day Eid holiday starting this Friday.

Storm lashes Australian coast threatening homesAFP — WAMBERAL

Homes perched on Australia’s stunning eastern coast were at risk of being swept away yesterday, after days of driving rain, high winds and monster swells smashed the coastline.

The last 48 hours have brought fresh warnings of gale-force winds, rain and powerful surf to an area north of Sydney, where around 40 seafront prop-erties have been damaged by successive storms in the last month.

“I’ve been living on this beach for 18 years,” said resident Gordon Cahill “we’ve had various storm events come and go. This time we’ve been nailed.” Erosion has long posed a threat in the seaside town of Wamberal, destroying homes in the 1970s and again washing away huge swathes of the beachfront from properties in 2016.

But as climate change drives rising sea levels and increases the frequency and severity of storms, the beach will be unlikely to recover as well between storms

as it has done in the past.The government estimates

39,000 buildings are located close to “soft” shorelines around Australia and are at risk of erosion.

Before the winter storms, res-idents of Wamberal had been campaigning for coastal protec-tions to be built.

Cahill, whose deck collapsed in the storm after the surf ripped away chunks from his neigh-bours’ properties, has been living on the beach for 18 years and said sandstone blocks put in place by the original owners of the property had saved his home.

He blamed local authorities for not allowing other residents to build similar protections.

“We have been bringing this matter up with council for the best part of 30 years, through various organisations, through various people, after every storm, and it’s always the same deaf-ening silence,” he said.

But since a devastating storm hit more than two weeks ago the response had been different, with emergency crews working to the

very last minute to help prevent further damage to properties, dumping sandbags and tonnes of rocks.

Margaret Brice — one of the few people to have remained to brave the latest weather — said the episode was “devastating”

and “nerve-racking.” “You can feel the vibra-

tions through the house, you go and look out every day and a little bit more has slipped away,” she said as set after set of frothing foam chipped away at the already crumbling

cliff face below.Unlike some houses in the

area, now directly endangered by erosion, her home had foun-dations driven into the bedrock but as the coast fell away, she wondered what would be left if nothing was done.

An aerial photo shows homes perched on Australia’s eastern coastal town of Wamberal, yesterday, that are at risk of being swept away after days of driving rain, high winds and monster swells smashed the coastline.

North Korea’s Kim boasts of his nukes amid stalled talks with USAP — SEOUL

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said his country’s hard-won nuclear weapons were a solid security guarantee and a “reliable, effective” deterrent that could prevent a second Korean War, state media reported yesterday.

Kim’s comments before war veterans marking the 67th anni-versary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War again show he has no intention of abandoning his weapons as prospects dim for resuming diplomacy with the United

States. North Korea has previ-ously ratcheted up fiery rhetoric or conducted weapons tests to wrest outside concessions. But some experts say Pyongyang will likely avoid serious talks with Washington before the US presidential elections in November as there is a chance for a US leadership change.

Kim said in his speech on Monday his country has tried to become “a nuclear state” with “an absolute might” to prevent another war and that it has now built such a deterrent, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

“Now, we’ve changed to a country which can defend itself reliably and unwaveringly against high-intensity pressures and military threats and black-mailing by imperialistic reac-tionaries and hostile forces,” Kim said.

“There won’t be any war on this land again and our national security and future will be guar-anteed firmly and permanently because of our reliable, effective self-defensive nuclear deterrent,” Kim said.

Kim’s speech followed recent remarks by both North Korean and US officials

suggesting they were reluctant to engage in a new round of diplomacy on the North’s nuclear program anytime soon.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said President Donald Trump would only want to engage with Kim if there were real prospects of progress. Kim’s sister and senior ruling party official, Kim Yo Jong, said a new summit would be “unpractical” for North Korea and that Pyongyang won’t gift Trump a high-level meeting that he can boast as a foreign policy achievement.

Kim Jong Un and Trump

met three times since Kim in 2018 abruptly reached out to Washington and Seoul for talks after expressing his intent to deal away his advancing nuclear arsenals.

Many experts were scep-tical of Kim’s disarmament commitment and said he only aimed to weaken US-led sanc-tions and perfect his nuclear programme.

The nuclear diplomacy remains largely stalled since a second Kim-Trump meeting in February 2019 in Vietnam col-lapsed without reaching any agreement because Trump Kim

rejected Kim’s proposal to get extensive sanctions relief in return for a limited denuclear-isation step.

Kim entered this year with a vow to bolster his nuclear program and threatened to unveil a new “strategic” weapon. He also said he would no longer be bound by a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.

Kim hasn’t performed such high-profile weapons tests, which some analysts say could completely derail diplomacy with the United States.

New statues

stoke sensitivity

between South

Korea, Japan

AP — SEOUL

A pair of new statues in South Korea of a man kneeling in front of a girl symbolising a victim of slavery by Japan’s wartime military is the latest subject of diplomatic sensitivity between the countries, with Tokyo’s government spokesperson questioning whether the male figure represents the Japanese prime minister.

Kim Chang-ryeol, owner of a botanic garden in the mountain town of Pyeongchang, said yesterday that he cancelled an unveiling ceremony for the bronze statues that was to take place on August 10 because of what he described as unwanted controversy.

Kim said the statues were his idea, but that he didn’t spe-cifically intend the male figure to be Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Since his inaugu-ration in 2012, Abe has stoked anger among South Koreans over his nationalistic stance on Japan’s wartime past and his demands that South Korea remove similar statues symbol-ising slavery victims in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul and other sites.

But the statues at Kim’s garden also drew criticism among some South Koreans, who described them as tacky or excessively provocative on social media. Kim defended the statues, saying they reflect his wish for the countries to resolve their conflicts over history. He didn’t expect the statues to trigger political debates.

During a briefing in Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Sec-retary Yoshihide Suga said it would be unacceptable under “international courtesy” if the statues’ male figure did indeed represent Abe.

13WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020 EUROPE

Spain slams Germany & UK over travel advisoriesREUTERS — MADRID

Spain reacted angrily yesterday to recommendations from Britain and Germany that their citizens avoid its islands and beaches because of an increase in coronavirus cases during what should be the height of the tourism season.

With advisories piling up on top of a quarantine order from Britain for returning travellers, Spain, which depends on summer visits by sun-seeking northern Europeans, is facing a major blow to any hopes of reviving its economy.

Tourism accounts for just over 12 percent of Spain’s GDP and nearly 13 percent of jobs. The country lost one million jobs between April and June, its biggest ever quarterly decline, and fears steeper losses as the summer season crashes.

“It’s very unfair because it’s not based on any sanitary cri-teria,” Francina Armengol, the head of the key tourist Balearic region, told Cadena Ser radio of the travel advisories.

Britain’s decision had no logical explanation, Armengol said, adding that the archipel-ago’s contagion rate was lower than that of the United Kingdom. The northern Spanish Aragon region said the no-travel advisories were “discriminatory”.

Their comments chimed with those of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who on Monday said it was a mistake for Britain to have considered Spain’s overall coronavirus rate rather than having a granular, regional approach.

On the streets of Madrid, the

reaction was one of outrage.“It annoys me because it’s

not as though they were espe-cially better off than us,” said Madrid resident Isabel Garcia, who works in marketing. “Eve-ryone is in a bad way, and the fact that they pick on Spain... It seems wrong.”

But Britain stood firm, saying it would stick to the sudden quarantine announced on Saturday and its late Monday move to extend a travel advisory against travel in mainland Spain to the Canary and Balearic islands.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday that Britain would take action to impose quarantines on other countries should COVID-19 infections rise.

“I’m afraid if we do see signs of a second wave in other coun-tries, it is really our job, our duty, to act swiftly and deci-sively to stop travellers coming back from those places seeding the disease here in the UK,” he told reporters.

The only glimmer of hope for Spain came from Britain’s junior transport minister Char-lotte Vere, who said that while London would continue to make decisions on a

country-wide basis, it was looking at setting quarantine rules for different regions “in the future”. She gave no timeframe.

Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said Madrid was working on con-vincing London to soften its stance.

“We are still talking to British authorities, explaining that the outbreaks in Spain are under control ... and making sure that the measures taken by Britain respond to epidemio-logical criteria and no other cri-teria that have nothing to do with COVID,” Laya told reporters in Athens.

Britons make up the biggest group of foreign tourists in Spain, with some 18 million travelling there last year, just over a fifth of the total number of visitors. Some 11.2 million Germans visited Spain, making them the second-largest group.

Britain’s quarantine alone could cost Spanish tourism $11.73bn in lost revenue, Jorge Marichal, the head of tourism association CEHAT, told La Sexta television.

Spain has recorded 278,782

coronavirus cases and 28,434 deaths, but the infection rates, which have jumped since a nationwide lockdown ended in June, vary widely from region to region. Catalonia and Aragon have seen the highest increases

in the past weeks.Britain has, however, been

the hardest-hit country in Europe. Some 300,111 people have tested positive for coro-navirus and there have been 45,759 deaths.

Work begins to recreate process that powers the SunAFP — SAINT-PAUL-LES-DURANCE

Fourteen years after receiving the official go-ahead, scientists began to assemble a machine in southern France yesterday that will seek to prove whether nuclear fusion, the process which powers the Sun, can be a safe and viable energy source for Earth.

The groundbreaking mul-tinational experiment, ITER, has seen components arrive in the tiny commune of Saint-Paul-les-Durance from all corners of the world in recent months.

The components must now be painstakingly put together to finish what is dubbed by ITER

in promotional material as the “world’s largest puzzle”.

The experimental plant’s goal is to demonstrate that fusion power can be generated sustainably, and safely, on a commercial scale.

“Fusion provides clean, reliable energy without carbon emissions,” said a statement from the 35 ITER partners: China, the 27 members of the European Union, Britain, Swit-zerland, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.

“Fusion is safe, with minute amounts of fuel and no physical possibility of a run-away accident with meltdown,” it added.

Furthermore, the fuel for fusion is found in seawater and lithium, abundant enough to supply humanity for millions of years.

“A pineapple-sized amount of this fuel is the equivalent of 10,000 tonnes of coal,” the statement said.

The ITER machine will be constructed from about a million components, and initial experiments are set to begin in December 2025.

The facility is meant to produce about 500 megawatts of thermal power, translating into about 200 megawatts of electric energy if operated con-tinuously, or enough to power some 200,000 homes.

Technicians work on the assembly line workstation for the construction of annular coils which will be part of the magnetic system that will contribute to confine and model plasma during the launch of the assembly stage of nuclear fusion machine "Tokamak" of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, southeastern France, yesterday.

World’s best restaurants include 3 in UK, one in US

BLOOMBERG — LONDON

Three UK restaurants and just one in the US make it into the top fine-dining establishments in the world, according to TripAdvisor, whose annual rankings are published today and bear little resemblance to the World’s 50 Best Restau-rants and other lists.

Auberge du Vieux Puits, in Fontjoncouse, France, takes first place, followed by La Ville Blanche, in Rospez, France; and then Chila, in Buenos Aires. The UK leader is the Black Swan at Oldstead, which previously won. Also in England, the Fat Duck takes 10th place and L’Enclume 14th. None of the three is in London. The top US entry is the French Laundry in Yountville, California, at 24th.

The so-called Travellers’ Choice winners are calculated based on the millions of reviews and opinions collected in 2019 from diners around the world. The awards take into account the quality and quantity of Tri-pAdvisor reviews and ratings specific to each award category. The absence of professional and expert judges means the awards tend to differ from other assessments.

For example, there’s no place in the list for winners of the World’s 50 Best, including Eleven Madison Park in New York; Noma, in Copen-hagen; nor the current holder, Mirazur, in the south of France.

On the other hand, the winner, Auberge du Vieux Puits, does hold three Michelin stars.

Ukraine President cancels visa requirements for Chinese touristsREUTERS — KIEV

Tourists from China will not need a visa to visit Ukraine from August 1 until January 31 next year under a decree signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his office said.

“The decree was signed in order to develop friendly rela-tions between Ukraine and China, as well as to intensify bilateral cooperation in the field of tourism,” it said in a statement.

Chinese citizens will be able to stay in Ukraine for 30 days within a six-month period.

China has become

Ukraine’s biggest trade partner since Kiev’s relations with Moscow collapsed after Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula and supported a pro-Russian separatist rebellion in the Donbass region in 2014.

Earlier this month, Zel-enskiy imposed visa-free rules starting from August 1 for tourists from Australia, New Zealand and several Arab states.

EU citizens, and tourists from the US, Canada and some other countries, were given the possibility of entering Ukraine for short trips without a visa 15 years ago.

Danish Prince recovering after brain clot surgeryAP — COPENHAGEN

Prince Joachim, the younger son of Queen Margrethe of Denmark, who underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain won’t suffer any long-term effects, the royal palace said yesterday.

The 51-year-old prince, who had been on vacation in France, was admitted to the Toulouse University Hospital late Friday and was operated on early Saturday.

“The blood clot in the brain was due to a sudden dissection of an artery, and the hospital’s medical team assesses that the risk of recurrence is very small when the artery has healed,” Lene Balleby, a spokeswoman for the royal household, said in a statement.

“It is the doctors’ assessment that Prince Joachim will not have any physical effects or other injuries as a result of the blood clot,” Balleby said. “Prince Joachim is expected to be moved out of the intensive care unit as soon as possible but will con-tinue to be hospitalised for some time to come.”

Joachim married Marie Cavallier, with whom he has two children, in 2008, and she became Princess Marie. He also has two children from his first marriage to Hong-Kong born Alexandra Manley, who became Countess of Freder-iksborg after their divorce in 2005.

Joachim is sixth in the line to Denmark’s throne after his elder brother, Crown Prince Frederik, and his brother’s four children.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday that Britain would take action to impose quarantines on other countries should COVID-19 infections rise.

‘Negligence’ blamed for Germany’s virus case riseREUTERS — BERLIN

Negligence is behind Germany’s steady rise in new coronavirus infections, the head of a state-funded research body said yesterday, adding it was unclear if a second wave was underway.

“The new developments in Germany make me very worried,” Lothar Wieler, of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases, said during his first news conference in weeks.

“The rise has to do with the fact that we have become neg-ligent,” he added, urging people not to flout social dis-tancing rules.

The number of daily new cases almost doubled yes-terday to 633, and the RKI, which is Germany’s most closely followed compiler of COVID-19 data, linked that to increased contact at parties and the workplace.

With 206,000 confirmed cases and just over 9,000 deaths, Germany wants to

avoid a second wave, which would bring back lockdowns after economically crippling restrictions that closed many businesses for six weeks in March and April.

Europe’s biggest economy withstood the pandemic with far fewer deaths than some large neighbours like France and Italy, owing to widespread testing, a well-equipped healthcare system and good adherence to social distancing.

The summer holiday

season has prompted fears that tourists returning from destinations experiencing a surge in new cases like Spain could sow the seeds of a second wave.

But Wieler downplayed that.

“It is irrelevant if you are on holiday or at home,” he said. “The holiday is as much a part of the precautions against the spread of COVID-19 as your work and home life. The setting is irrelevant.”

Police search German allotment garden in Madeleine McCann caseAFP — HANOVER

Police were searching an allotment plot in the northern German city of Hanover in connection with the disap-pearance of British girl Madeleine McCann, deploying an excavator and sniffer dogs to the scene.

Madeleine went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, as

her parents dined with friends at a nearby restaurant

Despite a huge international manhunt, no trace of her has been found, nor has anyone been charged over her disappearance.

“I can confirm that the search is being carried out in connection with our investiga-tions into the Maddie McCann case,” Brunswick prosecutor Julia Meyer said, when asked about the operation first reported by local Hannoversche

Allgemeine newspaper.Police began searching the

site, clearing trees and using an excavator to dig up the area.

Several police vehicles were parked along the side, while officers with spades were shov-elling in the cordoned-off zone. Police also used a forklift to transport large stones out of the area.

Meyer gave no details of how the plot was connected to the case or what they were hoping to find.

Police revealed in June that they were investigating a 43-year-old German man over the 2007 disappearance of three-year-old “Maddie”, saying they believe he killed her.

The suspect, who was not named by police but identified by German media as Christian B, lived in Hanover from 2007, according to the Hannoversche Allgemeine.

Christian B has a history of previous convictions including rape. He is currently serving a

sentence for drug trafficking in Kiel.

A court in Brunswick had separately sentenced Christian B to seven years in prison last December for an assault against a 72-year-old American tourist in 2005 — in the same seaside village of Praia da Luz where Maddie went missing.

But that sentence has not yet been finalised pending an appeal by the defendant’s lawyers over extradition technicalities.

According to police, the suspect lived in the Algarve region of Portugal between 1995 and 2007.

German prosecutors said in June they had “concrete evi-dence” that Madeleine is dead, despite British police continuing to treat her disappearance as a missing persons case.

However, despite repeated appeals for information, pros-ecutors have no forensic evi-dence and have so far not filed any formal charges.

British tourists arrive at the Tenerife Sur Reina Sofia Airport on the Canary Island of Tenerife, in Spain, yesterday.

14 WEDNESDAY 29 JULY 2020AMERICAS

Trump again pushes unproven drug as COVID-19 treatmentAP — WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump’s attempt to project a more serious tone about the corona-virus lasted for about a week.

Yesterday, he resumed spreading misinformation about how to fight the virus and amplifying criticism of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who said he’d keep his head down and do his job.

Social media platforms worked to remove multiple ver-sions of a video promoted by Trump that included unproven claims about treating people who test positive for the virus, but only after more than 17 million people had seen one version of it.

As he often does, the pres-ident used Twitter, where he has more than 84 million fol-lowers, to sow fresh doubt about the most effective ways to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and risked undermining his own recent admonitions to wear masks and maintain a social distance while hoping a vaccine will emerge in the coming months.

Trump retweeted a series of tweets advocating for the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloro-quine to be used in COVID-19

patients, including a video of a doctor claiming to have suc-cessfully used the drug on hun-dreds of patients.

Numerous studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine is not effective and the US Food and Drug Administration recently withdrew an order that allowed the drug’s use as a emergency treatment.

Trump also shared a post from the Twitter account for a podcast hosted by Steve Bannon, a former top White House adviser to Trump, accusing Fauci of misleading t h e p u b l i c o v e r hydroxychloroquine.

Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, responded to Trump’s tweets during an appearance yesterday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I go along with the FDA,” said Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychlo-roquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease.”

It’s not the first time Fauci has come under attack from Trump and those close to him.

The president’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, who has clashed with Fauci over hydrox-ychloroquine, recently penned a scathing attack on the doctor that was published by USA Today. The newspaper later said the opinion piece did not meet its standards.

In recent nationally tele-vised interviews, Trump himself has described Fauci as “a bit of an alarmist” and accused him of making “mistakes” in his coronavirus guidance to the American people.

Asked if he can do his job while Trump publicly questions his credibility, Fauci said Tuesday he’ll press ahead “no matter what” because of the stakes involved.

“I don’t tweet. I don’t even read them, so I don’t really want to go there,” Fauci said. “I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because

I think it’s very important. We’re in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic, a pan-demic. This is what I do. This is what I’ve been trained for my entire professional life and I’ll continue to do it.”

Asked about claims he’s been misleading the public, Fauci said: “I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.”

Trump shared a tweet of a video that’s circulating on social media pushing misleading claims about hydroxychloro-quine. Earlier in the pandemic, Trump advocated vigorously for hydroxychloroquine to be used as a treatment, or even a pre-ventative, telling people, “What have you got to lose?”

Trump also said he took a 14-day course of the drug.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube began scrubbing their sites of the video Monday because it includes misleading claims about hydroxychloro-quine, and glosses over the dangers of taking it. But dozens of versions of the video remain live on their platforms, with conservative news outlets, groups and internet personal-ities sharing it on their pages, where users have viewed them millions of times.

One version of the video had more than 17 million views

before Facebook took it down.Facebook is trying to remove

the video because it is “sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19,” according to Andy Stone, a spokesman for the platform.

Twitter also said it is working to remove the video. A tweet from the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., describing

one version of the video as a “must watch!!!” Monday night was also taken down by the platform. Twitter put Trump Jr’s account on a 12-hour timeout, meaning he cannot tweet or retweet during that period. He’s also required to delete the tweet before he will be reinstated. Twitter declined to say when the timeout began.

“The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci.

A volunteer directs a line of cars waiting to receive free medical-grade personal protective equipment (PPE), at a drive-through distribution centre set up in a Rose Bowl parking lot in Pasadena, California, yesterday.

Trump to reject new applications for ‘Dreamer’ migrant programmeREUTERS — WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump’s administration said yesterday that it will reject any new appli-cations for the so-called ‘ D r e a m e r ’ i m m i g r a n t programme and shorten the deportation protections of those whose eligibility is soon to expire and needs renewal.

The administration is pre-paring a fresh attempt to end the programme that shields from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States illegally after entering as children — a group often called ‘Dreamers.’

A senior administration official said there would be a lengthy review of a Supreme Court ruling last month that

found the administration had erred in the way that it had decided to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme in 2017. The official did not say how long the review would take.

DACA was put in place by former President Barack Obama and currently some 644,000 immigrants are enrolled.

The administration plans to continue its existing policy of not accepting new DACA applicants, a policy in place since 2017, the official told Reuters.

It will extend the eligibility by a year for those DACA immi-grants whose protection from deportation was due to expire, as long as they do not have a criminal record, the official said.

The previous policy had been to extend the eligibility for two years.

“These actions will limit the scope of the program while DHS and the administration review its legality, justifications for a possible wind-down and other considerations relevant to deciding whether to keep or wind down the DACA policy,” the official said.

The decision means the pro-gramme will remain in place through the November 3 presi-dential election, in which Trump is fighting for a second term against Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump has made his hardline stance on both legal and illegal immigration a central platform of his presi-dency and his 2020 re-election

campaign, but DACA is a com-plicated issue for him because of increasing public support of the programme.

The Supreme Court left the door open for Trump to attempt again to rescind the pro-gramme, ruling only that the administration had not met pro-cedural requirements and its actions were “arbitrary and capricious” under a federal law called the Administrative Pro-cedure Act.

The administration is due to file paperwork with the district court in Maryland on Tuesday clarifying its plan.

The official said the admin-istration will conduct “an exhaustive review” of the memos that it initially used to justify the winding down of the

programme.“We’re going to review all

of that and all the underlying communications that informed those documents, so that when the administration next acts on DACA, it will be anchored on this comprehensive review,” the official said.

Trump, in an interview with Noticias Telemundo earlier this month, said he would soon unveil an immigration measure that he said would include some protections for DACA.

“We’re working out the legal complexities right now, but I’m going to be signing a very major immigration bill as an executive order, which the Supreme Court now, because of the DACA decision, has given me the power to do that,” Trump said.

Obama, George

Clooney to hold

virtual fundraiser

for Joe Biden

REUTERS — WASHINGTON

Former President Barack Obama will be joined by actor George Clooney in Obama’s latest effort to boost Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

Obama and Clooney will engage in a “virtual conver-sation” according to an invi-tation to donors obtained by Reuters.

Tickets range from $250 to $250,000.

In June, Obama held a fun-draiser for Biden, Obama’s former vice president, that brought in more than $11m. Biden will face President Donald Trump in the November 3 general election.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced Biden to hold cam-paign events online or close to his Delaware home. But virtual fundraisers have proven to be effective for Biden, helping him and allied Democratic groups outraise Trump and Republican groups in May and June.

Biden will also give an address in Wilmington, Del-aware detailing how he would address systemic racism and racial economic inequality, the fourth and final plank of his sweeping plan to revitalise the coronavirus-hit US economy.

Clooney, an outspoken critic of Trump, and his wife Amal head the Clooney Foun-dation for Justice, a global human-rights advocacy organization. Last month, he donated $500,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit that provides legal rep-resentation to prisoners who may have been wrongly accused.

Protest groups sue US over tear gas, rubber bulletsAP — PORTLAND

Two groups protesting US agents sent to Portland by Pres-ident Donald Trump to tamp down demonstrations outside a federal courthouse have sued the Department of Homeland Security, alleging it violated the Constitution by sending federal law enforcement to disperse crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The Wall of Moms — a group of self-described mothers — and the Don’t Shoot Portland group filed the lawsuit late Monday against Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and other federal officials. The agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Members of the group of mothers have “been tear-gassed night after night, left vomiting and unable to eat or sleep because of the toxic poison blasted at them,” the

lawsuit said.It claimed the tactics are

unlawful and said the presence of the agents in Portland vio-lates “a foundational principle of American democracy” because the agents are essen-tially performing local police duties that are reserved for state and local authorities.

The lawsuit was filed in US District Court in Washington, DC after Portland’s mayor and the leaders of five other major US cities appealed to Congress to make it illegal for the US government to deploy agents to cities that don’t want them.

“This administration’s egre-gious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,” said the letter sent to US House and Senate leaders from the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Washington.

UN experts warn Venezuela it could be in breach of North Korea sanctionsREUTERS — NEW YORK

UN investigators monitoring compliance with sanctions on North Korea are looking into a possible military and tech-nology deal between Pyongyang and Venezuela and have warned Caracas that it could be in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

In two previously unre-ported letters to Venezuela’s UN Ambassador, Samuel Moncada — sent in October and last month — the independent panel of UN experts asked for specific

terms of the agreement and spelled out the UN sanctions that could bar such a deal.

The probe comes as US sanctions on the South American country — intended to force out President Nicolas Maduro over allegations he rigged his 2018 re-election —and increasing diplomatic iso-lation are pushing Venezuela to deepen ties with US adversaries like Iran and North Korea.

“Taking into consideration that such cooperation is a rec-ognised way for the DPRK to violate relevant UN resolutions,

the Panel would like to request a response ... concerning infor-mation regarding above sus-pected cooperation,” panel coordinator Alastair Morgan wrote on June 12.

North Korea’s formal name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The country has been subject to UNsanctions since 2006. The sanctions have been strengthened by the 15-member UN Security Council over the years in a bid to cut off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

The UN panel of experts reports annually to the council on sanctions compliance.

In its latest annual report, on March 2, the panel said it had started probing a possible mil-itary and technological coop-eration deal signed by Diosdado Cabello — who leads the ruling socialist party and a legislative body known as the National Constituent Assembly loyal to Maduro — during a September 2019 Pyongyang trip.

Reuters could not verify whether a military and tech-nological deal between North

Korea and Venezuela exists and the UN report and letters did not provide any details. In an October 2, 2019 tweet, Maduro congratulated Cabello for the “tremendous agree-ments” signed during his recent Asian tour, which included stops in North Korea and Vietnam.

The investigators’ October letter to Moncada includes a news report about the Maduro tweet as an exhibit; it is unclear whether their probe has unearthed further evidence beyond that report.

During a conversation with Cabello on state television the night of the tweet, Maduro ref-erenced military agreements but did not provide details or specify whether they were signed with North Korea or Vietnam.

“You were deployed with our brothers in North Korea and Vietnam, reaching great agree-ments for agricultural pro-duction, political formation, industrial production, com-mercial and energy exchange, for military support and coop-eration,” Maduro said.

Fire incident in San FranciscoThe firefighters are seen on a site of fire in San Francisco, California, yesterday.

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