Tuesday 14 July 2020

23 Dhul-Qa'da - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8318

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BUSINESS | 13 PENMAG | 16 SPORT | 20

Lewis Hamilton

calls for

unity to

'end racism'

Classifieds

and Services

section

included

QFB appoints

Abdulrahman

Totonji

as ACEO

QA Cargo to ship 1 million kilos aid for charities freeTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Airways Cargo is taking action like no other airline before and playing an active role in building tomorrow’s world. The world’s largest cargo airline is committed to helping people in need through its ‘1 Million Kilos’ campaign. From July to the end of December, charities will be able to use the services of Qatar Airways Cargo to transport humanitarian aid and medical supplies all over the world, free of charge.

Such action is unprece-dented in its scale. Qatar Airways is donating 1 million kilos of freight to selected cus-tomers around the world to give to the charities of their choice. This will allow the movement of medical equipment, human-itarian relief and essential products to where they are most needed, free of charge.

“This action was triggered by the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic is a tragedy for mil-lions of people, and we looked for ways how we, as an airline,

could help those in the greatest difficulty. This solution— shipping 1 million kilos of cargo free of charge – is a firm commitment for QR Cargo. More than just words, we wanted to act and to adopt a comprehensive approach based on actions for the future,” said Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo at Qatar Airways.

‘1 Million Kilos’ is the first chapter in an ambitious sus-tainability project called We Qare. Built on the four funda-mental pillars of sustainability (economy, environment, society and culture). We Qare is a series of concrete air cargo actions designed to create a positive impact on the industry and the world.

The history of the airfreight industry must change in line with the new challenges the world is facing. As the leading voice within the cargo market, QR Cargo is pioneering the future, sustainable and socially responsible air cargo industry.

H E Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater holding remote meetings with Ambassadors of Arab and African countries, yesterday.

Assistant Foreign Minister briefs Arab, African envoys about gradual lifting of COVID-19 curbs QNA — DOHA

Assistant Foreign Minister and Spokesperson of the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management H E Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater held two remote separate meetings with Ambassadors of Arab and African coun-tries accredited to the State, to brief them on the plan to gradually lift restrictions imposed in the State of Qatar as a result of the coro-navirus (COVID-19) pandemic and answer

their questions and inquiries about the four phases of lifting restrictions.

Their Excellencies Ambassadors praised the measures taken by the State of Qatar to preserve the health of all, especially the pro-vision of free high-quality health care services to all who live in Qatar.

H E Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for International Development Dr. Khalid bin Rashid Al Mansouri took part in the two meetings.

Imports in Qatar have stabilised: GACSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

The General Authority of Customs (GAC) has said that the data from the Maritime Customs Administration and the Air Freight Customs Admin-istration, have confirmed that the imports have now stabilised after witnessing a slight decline in March and April.

The Authority stressed in its monthly statistics published on its website that the movement of exports has been affected more because of fall in demand for Qatari products by the importing countries.

As for government proce-dures in the domestic ports, they are functioning normally and have adapted to the

commercial developments, said the Authority.

Regarding the impact of the coronavirus on the movement of exports, it clarified: “As for the impact of the effects of coronavirus on the movement of exports, the Maritime Customs Administration indi-cates that we must look at the situation with a broader per-spective because trade in the whole world is clearly affected by emergency global events.”

“Since the world has been adversely affected by this epi-demic, Qatari exports are also bound to be impacted by this situation due to the low demand for commodities in importing countries. Countries’ focus has shifted to securing strategic commodities like food items,

medical supplies, energy products etc.,” it added.

Regarding customs admin-istration of air freight, the General Authority of Customs said that it provided all possible customs facilities for companies through the single window system (Alnadeeb), including the issuance of the bill of lading for the consignment.

It also pointed out that there is no doubt that there are neg-ative effects of the spread of coronavirus, especially on the economic sector, which wit-nessed a noticeable decline in most countries, and this is not limited to the economies of the developing countries only, even developed economies are also hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.

Qatar Foundation and TED launch TEDinArabicTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Foundation and TED yesterday launched TEDinArabic – a two-year initiative that will provide a platform for thinkers, researchers, artists, and change-makers around the world to share ideas with a global audience, in the Arabic language.

The partnership has created TED’s first initiative to focus on sharing solutions, inventions, and stories in Arabic, with its aim being to place ideas that can change per-ceptions, benefit societies, and inspire others into the international spotlight.

The creation of TEDinArabic reflects Qatar Foundation’s (QF) commitment to preserving and cel-ebrating the richness of the Arabic language and promoting its enduring relevance to the world, and to providing platforms for people to share their knowledge, perspectives, and ideas.

TED is a non-profit organi-zation devoted to ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’, and the partnership with QF is built on a collective rec-ognition that everyone can make a difference to the world through the power of ideas.

Her Excellency Sheikha Hind

bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chair-person and CEO of Qatar Foun-dation, said: “Language is more than just a means of communi-cation; it influences the way we think and how we frame our perceptions on a subconscious level.

“With TEDinArabic, I hope we can continue the process of ampli-fying ideas from our region to a global audience in a language that is synonymous with innovation and new thinking. We are proud to be partnering with TED, with whom we share the belief that everyone’s mind and voice can make a dif-ference, as together we aim to build a new culture of idea-generation that stretches across the Arab world

and beyond.” Chris Anderson, Head of TED,

said: “We are thrilled to partner with Qatar Foundation to bring ideas from Arabic-speaking regions to the world.

“We at TED have always valued the power of delivering talks in one’s native language, and the nuance and richness that comes with doing so — the TEDinArabic initiative is an important step in that journey. As we bring this program to life, together with Qatar Foun-dation, we are grateful for the support of an organization that shares our passion and dedication to education and ideas.”

TEDinArabic will spread the ideas of Arabic speakers throughout

the world to new and diverse audi-ences, magnifying their reach and impact. High-quality content pro-duced in Arabic will be amplified by the initiative, which will include an idea search stretching across the Middle East with selected ideas being celebrated at events across the region in 2021.

The idea search will see 16 Arabic speakers being selected to give TED Talks at a flagship event in Doha in 2022, which will mark the culmination of the partnership and bring the TED conference experience to the heart of the Middle East, showcasing the boldest and most inspiring ideas to emerge from the Arabic-speaking world. � �P2

Qatar registers over

100,000 recoveries

from COVID-19THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 418 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.

Another 884 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 100,627. The Ministry has also reported two deaths due to COVID-19.

The deceased aged 70 and 79 were receiving the necessary medical care, said the Ministry. All new cases have been introduced to isolation 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 limiting 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 also said that Qatar has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world, as a result of Qatar’s young population, proactive testing to identify cases early, expanding hospital capacity, especially intensive care to ensure all patients receive the medical care they need, pro-tecting the elderly and those with chronic dis-eases. However, the Ministry has emphasized on the importance of taking precautions against COVID-19. �P2

Language is more than just a means of commu-nication; it influences the way we think and how we frame our perceptions on a subconscious level".

Her Excellency Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation

From July to the end of December, charities will be able to use the services of Qatar Airways Cargo to transport humanitarian aid and medical supplies all over the world, free of charge.

This will allow the movement of medical equipment, humanitarian relief and essential products to where they are most needed.

‘1 Million Kilos’ is the first chapter in an ambitious sustainability project called We Qare.

QNA — DOHA

Q a t a r S o c i e t y f o r Rehabilitation of Special Needs (QSRSN) organised a remote workshop on Filografi, which is the art of wires and nails. The workshop was held in cooperation with Al Shafallah Center for Persons with Disability, which operates under the umbrella of Qatar Foundation for Social Work.

The workshop aimed at providing persons with disabilities with a set of skills, developing their mental and muscular abilities, linking them with the national heritage and teaching them how to make distinctive paintings through nails, wires and colours, in addition to investing their free time.

During the interactive workshop, fine artist Nada Othman Seddik, a specialist a t t h e a s s o c i a t i o n ’ s educational and qualification centre, explained how to use strings and nails to draw a

specific shape or plate and how to choose colours to create tools and panels that are easy to be implemented by people with various types of disabilities.

On this occasion, Chairman of QSRSN Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani praised the spirit of cooperation between Al Shafallah Center and the QSRSN for the service of persons with disabilities in the State, saying that such distinguished and fruitful partnerships between the association and other bodies working in the disability field unite the ef forts a iming to achieve a decent and

safe life for persons with disabilities, and guarantee the improvement o f t h e performance and services provided to them and benefit the exchange of experiences among various institutions.

OFFICIAL NEWS

02 TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020HOME

FAJR SUNRISE 03.25 am 04.52 am

W A L R U WA I S : 28o↗ 37o W A L K H O R : 28o↗ 42o W D U K H A N : 29o↗ 41o W WA K R A H : 30o↗ 42o W M E S A I E E D 30o↗ 42o W A B U S A M R A 29o↗ 45o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 21:45 – 00:00 LOW TIDE 06:15– 17:21

Very hot daytime with some clouds and relatively hot by

night.

Minimum Maximum31oC 44oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.40 am06.29 pm

ASR ISHA

03.04 pm07.59 pm

Amir congratulates President of MontenegroDOHA: Amir 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

Milo Dukanovic of the Republic of

Montenegro on the occasion of his

country’s Statehood Day. Prime

Minister and Minister of Interior

H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin

Abdulaziz Al Thani also sent a cable

of congratulations to Prime Minister

of the Republic of Montenegro H E

Dusko Markovic on the occasion of

his country’s Statehood Day. -QNA

QSRSN, Al Shafallah Center organise Filografi workshop

QSRSN Chairman Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani

‘Doha Declaration has proven effective and achieved outcome in support of UN Agenda’QNA — DOHA

Qatar has confirmed that the global programme to implement the Doha Declaration issued by the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in 2015, has proven its effectiveness and achieved the highest possible outcome in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Devel-opment of the United Nations as the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) did not prevent the programme from continuing its work.

This came in a speech of the State of Qatar, delivered by Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Federal Republic of Austria and the permanent represent-ative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations and international organisations in Vienna, H E Sultan bin Salmeen Al Mansouri, via video conference, during the meeting of the United Nations Office On Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna on the activ-ities of the Global Programme under the slogan “Transforming Policies into Actions”.

His Excellency said that the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Doha Declaration a few months before the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Doha Dec-laration had its forward-looking vision in support of this plan and

its emphasis on seeking to implement comprehensive pol-icies and programmes that promote socio-economic devel-opment and provide support to other member states in their endeavours to this end.

His Excellency pointed out, during the meeting that was attended by a number of deputy ministers and officials from dif-ferent countries, comprising the Deputy Minister of Justice and Public Security of the Republic of El Salvador, the Deputy Min-ister of Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of El Salvador, the Deputy Minister of Public Security of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Peru and the judge of the Court of Appeal in Porto and the President

of the European Association of judges, that the Doha Declaration was built on the close interde-pendence and mutual impact of sustainable development and the rule of law. Its motto was to inte-grate crime prevention and criminal justice into the broader United Nations agenda in order to address social and economic challenges, strengthen the rule of law at the national and inter-national levels.

His Excellency pointed out that the implementation of the United Nations sustainable development agenda in 2016 began during the same year of the launch of the Doha Decla-ration Global Programme which is funded by the State of Qatar, the largest funding programme

provided by one country in the history of the UN Office. This syn-chronisation confirms the fore-sight of the political leadership of the State of Qatar and its belief in global solidarity when it decided to transform the Doha Declaration and the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into action pro-grammes for community pros-perity and the promotion of world peace.

His Excellency reviewed the achievements of the Global Pro-gramme during the past five years, and said that the sus-tainable development plan pledged to ensure no one will be left behind, and the global pro-gramme to implement the Doha Declaration achieved this goal in a practical way when it reached about 2 million people from 192 countries, and more than 55,000 people benefited from more than 500 activities of support and capacity building.

Al Mansouri affirmed, at the

end of his speech, the com-mitment of Qatar to continue working with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to build on the achievements of the global programme to implement the Doha Declaration and con-tinue to contribute to the imple-mentation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development goals at all levels.

His Excellency called on other countries to work with a shared responsibility spirit and support the activities and pro-grammes of the Office to achieve goals of the aforementioned agenda for the sake of rule of law, justice, equality, tolerance, openness and social inclusion for all, and to refrain from enacting and implementing any unilateral economic, financial or com-mercial measures that are incon-sistent with international law and the Charter of United Nations and hinder the full economic and social development of countries.

H E Sultan bin Salmeen Al Mansouri

Amir condoles with Cote d’Ivoire President

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani held yesterday via

telephone a conversation with H E

President of Cote d’Ivoire Alassane

Ouattara. During the phone call,

H H the Amir offered condolences

on the death of Prime Minister

Amadou Gon Coulibaly.-QNA

Al Tarfa Intersection opened to traffic after upgrading worksTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Public Works Authority ‘Ashghal’ yesterday announced the completion of upgrading works of Al Tarfa Intersection and its infrastructure service utilities, in addition to the construction of new service roads.

The recently completed intersection and roads have been opened to traffic, as part of the Road Improvement Works in Various Areas of Greater Doha Project - Phase five.

Engineer Essa Sultan Al Hillabi, the Project Engineer in the Roads Projects Department at ‘Ashghal’ highlighted the importance of Al Tarfa Inter-section since the recently opened intersection and street provides direct link to Al Tarfa Street, Jeryan Nejaima Street as well as the street leading to Wadi Al Banat area known as Leawaina Street which accom-modate significant traffic volume.

He pointed out that the intersection directly serves several important educational institutions such as Qatar Uni-versity, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences. He also stated that Al Tarfa Inter-section provides a link to Jeryan Nejaima area and Wadi Al Banat area as well as facilitating access to Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium and Doha Golf Club.

Eng Al Hillabi also explained that the completion of the upgrading works on Al Tarfa Intersection has significantly enhanced the traffic flow and reduced the congestion in the area especially that the project aimed at improving the traffic flow and increasing the vehicular capacity.

Engineer Al Hillabi indi-cated that in line with the Public Works Authority’s support to local manufacturers and in line with Ta’heel initi-ative which was launched by the Authority in 2017, local materials and manufacturers relied on for most of the project’s work. material sup-plied from local manufacturers included sewage, surface water and rain water drainage pipes, in addition to lighting poles

and luminaires. The local Qatari component used on the project has reached 80 percent.

Further to upgrading the intersection, a total 2.3km of road works and the con-struction of new service roads, the project’s scope of works also included the installation of a new lighting system and the upgrade of infrastructure utility services.

Infrastructure services’ enhancement works com-prised the upgrade of the surface and storm water drainage and the TSE lines in addition to protecting elec-tricity and telecommunications services’ lines and upgrading water lines. The road was also equipped by directional signs and road markings.

Al Tarfa Intersection has significantly enhanced the traffic flow and reduced the congestion.

Qatari-US Working

Group holds

meeting to enhance

cooperation

QNA — DOHA

The Qatari-US Working Group held a meeting via video conferencing tech-nology to discuss aspects of joint cooperation between the two sides, within the framework of the previously signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the field of work and combating human trafficking.

The meet ing was cochaired by Assistant Undersecretary for Labour Affairs at the Ministry of Administrative Devel-opment, Labour and Social Affairs Mohammed Hassan Al Obaidli, and Deputy U n d e r s e c r e t a r y , U S Department of Labour Martha Newton. A lineup of officials from both sides attended the meeting.

During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the steps taken by concerned author-ities in both countries regarding precautionary measures to counter COVID-19.

The meeting also dis-cussed joint activities and projects of both sides and exchanging experiences, according to the fields of cooperation agreed upon in awareness, training and learning about the best ways and methods to raise com-munity’s awareness of laws and legislations in labour affairs and to combat human trafficking.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides emphasised the need to continue holding meetings to discuss devel-opments in the implemen-tation of the signed memo-randum of understanding and agreements between the two sides.

Al Mansouri affirmed the commitment of Qatar to continue working with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to build on the achievements of the global programme to implement the Doha Declaration and continue to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development goals at all levels.

The workshop aimed at providing persons with disabilities with a set of skills, developing their mental and muscular abilities.

Qatar registers over 100,000 recoveries from COVID-19

FROM PAGE 1

“Even though restrictions are being lifted, and numbers are declining, this does not mean that the COVID-19 pandemic is finished in Qatar – every day between 50 and 100 people are admitted to hospital with moderate to severe COVID-19 symptoms,” the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) 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 happening in other countries around the world. Now more than ever, we must be careful and protect the most vulnerable.”

Qatar Foundation and TED launch TEDinArabic

FROM PAGE 1

Through its partnership with QF, TED will also build a custom digital destination to serve as a vault for TEDinArabic’s content library. This library will house content focusing on topics of the greatest relevance to the Arabic-speaking world, including blog articles, TED-Ed video lessons, and custom video content.

The impact of TEDinArabic will endure after the partnership between QF and TED concludes in 2022, with its website and content remaining live and accessible in order to continue sparking the imagination of Arabic speakers everywhere and empowering them to keep sharing their ideas.

03TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020 HOME

‘Our World Is Burning’ exhibition reopensRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

“Our World Is Burning,” a contemporary art exhibition presented in line with Qatar-France 2020 Year of Culture, has reopened its doors to visitors at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France.

Running until September 13, the exhibition organised by the French contemporary art centre Palais de Tokyo in collaboration with Mathaf showcases a wide array of artworks, majority of which are from Mathaf’s collection.

“Notre monte brûle” / “Our World Is Burning” exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in collaboration with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art has now re-opened,” Mathaf has announced on its official social media accounts.

The exhibition “draws up a fragmentary, sensitive map addressing the numerous

societal transformations in the Middle East in the context of global crisis of political debate and environmental fragility.”

Qatari artists Bouthayna Al Muftah and Faraj Daham are among the 30 contemporary artists from the region whose works are being showcased at the important exhibition at Palais de Tokyo, the biggest contemporary art museum in Europe.

Al Muftah reinterprets the folkloric traditions of Qatar, an area once home to pearl divers which saw a period of unprec-edented change in the latter half of the 20th century with the emergence of the oil industry. Daham, on the other hand, pays homage to the migrant workers of Qatar in his paintings.

For an in-depth experience of this exhibition, the accom-panying catalogue is available for purchase through In-Q’s website.

The catalogue, written in French and English, showcases work by the 30 contemporary artists who explore the impact of ongoing humanitarian and ecological crises in the Middle East and beyond.

The 192-page book features over 100 artworks, mostly from the collection of Mathaf, reflecting multiple perspectives on the complexities of the last decades. It also includes state-ments by the artists on their

practice and interpretation of current events, with intro-ductory essays by the curator Abdellah Karroum, Mathaf director and co-curator Fabien Danesi.

Each year since 2012, Qatar Museums has collaborated with a different nation to produce a specially curated Year of Culture, promoting mutual understanding across borders while providing opportunities for the people of each nation to

encounter and appreciate one another’s creativity.

In this ninth annual pro-gramme, the Qatar-France 2020 Year of Culture builds on strong, substantial, already existing ties between the two nations to produce a series of experiences of remarkable excitement including wide-ranging programme of exhibi-tions, festivals, bilateral exchanges, and events held in both nations.

A feature on Qatari artist Bouthayna Al Muftah in “Our World Is Burning” exhibition catalogue. RIGHT: Cover of “Our World Is Burning” exhibition catalogue which is available for purchase through the In-Q website. PICS FROM MATHAF’S FACEBOOK PAGE.

Ministry of Awqaf

distributes

third batch of

food baskets

QNA — DOHA

The Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs, represented by the General Department of Endowments, announced the distribution of a third batch of food baskets for needy families in the State of Qatar affected by the corona-virus (COVID-19).

The Ministry of Awqaf has been keen on supporting Hifz Al Naema Center and the fam-ilies registered with it, which reached nearly 1,500 families with more than 6,000 indi-viduals as it provided them with integrated food baskets, in addition to cooperating with Widam company to distribute meat to the these families.

On Eid Al Fitr, the Ministry distributed clothing to these families and approximately 2,600 workers through the management of Zakat Fund.

In this regard, Director-General of the General Direc-torate of Endowments Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Thani stressed the keenness of the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs to develop food baskets and encourage Hifz Al Naema Center to reach through this initiative to all families affected by the epidemic of the coronavirus (COVID-19), stressing that the increase in the number of beneficiaries of this initiative, following the increase in the number of beneficiaries who have been registered at Hifz Al Naema Center.

Launch of TEDinArabic laudedTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Key Qatari personnel endorsed and lauded the launch of TEDinArabic by Qatar Foundation (QF) in partnership with TED, yesterday.

TEDinArabic is TED’s first initiative to focus on sharing solutions, inventions and stories in the Arabic language. Minister of State and Pres-ident of Qatar National Library H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari has said that TED has been considered to be among the most distin-guished initiatives of its kind since its establishment in 1985.

“It has strengthened the belief that ideas have the ability to change our thinking patterns, our behaviour, and even our world. It has become an intellectual, cultural, and scientific phenomenon that resonates throughout the world. Although its talks have been firstly in English for many years, it has never-theless managed to success-fully overcome language and discipline barriers,” he said.

“Qatar National Library is delighted that Qatar Foun-dation and TED have part-nered to create a platform for the Arabic language. It is a partnership that illustrates the meaning of strengthening bridges of communication with cultural initiatives, and opening up horizons for exchanging ideas and expe-riences in the context of cul-tural diversity. And it rein-forces the importance of the Arabic language in our world, echoes the German poet Johann Wolfgang van Goethe’s statemen: 'It is pos-sible that there is no language in which thought, word and character can be harmonised

with ancient originality as is the case in the Arabic language'.

“This partnership will add a new dimension to the pros-perity of the Arabic language which is being currently wit-nessed throughout cyber-space, as international news-papers, news agencies, web-sites and magazines are launching Arabic-language platforms in order to reach out to Arabic-speaking audi-

ences,” he added.For more than 1,000

years, the Arabic language has been the primary language of human knowledge in the fields of thought, belief, liter-ature, philosophy, science, a s t r o n o m y , m e d i c i n e , pharmacy, and engineering. It was, and still is, the incu-bator of our heritage, and it remains, for us, a homeland of knowledge.

“We must make every

effort to revive the historical role of the Arabic language, as it is a constant component of our identity. This part-nership between Qatar Foun-dation and TED supports efforts to preserve identity and the Arabic language as well as to confirm its capacity to absorb ideas in various dis-ciplines of literature, sciences and the arts.

“We are confident that this new platform, TEDi-nArabic, will mark an important stage in expanding the circulation of the Arabic language and communicating its translation of human expe-rience in various disciplines. It will achieve wide reso-nance, response, and interest from all Arabic speakers, not only in Qatar and the Arab world, but also worldwide, so that the Arabic language remains active and alive,” said Al Kuwari.

Aysha Al Ansari, Head of Heritage Collections at Qatar National Library, has said that the Arabic language is one of the most expressive and pro-found languages in the world, characterised by the beauty o f i t s w o r d s a n d pronunciation.

But what distinguishes it further is that it has not changed throughout the ages, which is testament to the strength of our heritage and the progress of our nations, our civilisation, and our ancient culture. Many of the efforts being made by Qatar National Library, and its Her-itage Library, aim to preserve our Arabic language and its proud heritage, which is rep-resented in manuscripts, doc-uments, and books across various fields of knowledge.

“The partnership between Qatar Foundation and TED reflects the leading role that

Qatar is playing in promoting and preserving the Arabic language. Collaborating with global partners in creating a platform in Arabic to spread ideas across various aspects of knowledge contributes greatly to the prosperity of Arabic language, one of the six primary languages of the United Nations,” said Al Ansari.

“Despite the huge strides that Arabic content has achieved, thanks to infor-mation and communications technology and audio/visual

media, there are still many challenges facing our lan-guage, and Arabic content still needs to be promoted through more in i t ia t ives and partnerships.

“Through Qatar Founda-tion’s partnership with TED, focused on the Arabic lan-guage, we will move closer to achieving that continued prosperity of this language,” she added.

Aysha Al Ansari, Head of Heritage Collections at Qatar National Library

Minister of State and President of Qatar National Library H E Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari

Sidra Medicine performs endoscopic surgery on baby with misshaped skullTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Neurosurgeons at Sidra Medicine, a member of Qatar Foundation, have performed minimally invasive surgery on an infant born with a congenital condition called scaphocephaly.

Scaphocephaly is a disorder which occurs when the two parietal bones of the skull are prematurely fused together. It is characterised by a misshaped long and narrow head.

Baby Ahmed was referred to Sidra Medicine when doctors noticed that his skull was growing in an elongated shape and would require specialist attention. Following a thorough review of the options — tradi-tional open surgery versus the use of an endoscope — the Multidisciplinary (MDT) surgery team at Sidra Medicine went with the minimally invasive endoscopic approach.

Dr. Khalid Al Kharazi, Senior Paediatric Neuro-surgeon at Sidra Medicine who

led the endoscopic procedure on Ahmed said: “It was critical that Ahmed was transferred to Sidra Medicine during the first few weeks of his life. Early detection of his condition allowed us to use a minimally invasive approach when he was only two months old.

“The earlier an endoscopic approach is performed on children with scaphocephaly, the better the result as it would provide the best esthetic out-comes and lowest reoperation rate as well as minimal blood loss when compared to tradi-tional surgery. The procedure is harder to implement once the children are older than six months, as then we would have to consider using an open-surgery approach, which in some cases doesn’t allow for sufficient correction of the skull.”

Ahmed’s care was led by a multidisciplinary team of phy-sicians, surgeons and nurses from neurosurgery; cranio-facial and plastic surgery;

ophthalmology; genetics; ENT and orthotics. The MDT surgery clinic at Sidra Medicine is led by Dr. Mitch Stotland and Dr. Graeme Glass. The team also consulted Dr. Owase Jeelani, a visiting surgeon from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Ahmed’s endoscopy took two hours, and involved opening of the early suture as well as two small incisions to his scalp. Surgeons Dr. Al Kharazi and Dr. Ian Pople then used a small lighted endoscope to reconstruct Ahmed’s mis-shaped skull.

Dr. Ian Pople, Division Chief of Neurosurgery at Sidra Medicine said, “We take great pride in the varied cutting-edge surgical techniques available at Sidra Medicine, moving towards more truly keyhole techniques with our specialised endoscopic equipment. Our priority is to ensure that our young patients experience the least amount of pain and dis-comfort. Taking a minimally

invasive approach to treat baby Ahmed was safer as it meant that there would be decreased blood loss and a shorter oper-ative time. Most importantly it would allow Ahmed to be dis-charged earlier and back home

with his family in a matter of days.”

Following the endoscopy, Ahmed was discharged after only two nights, with the small incisions healed in a few days. He also underwent helmet

therapy by the MDT clinic’s craniofacial/plastic team to manipulate the correct shape of his skull. Within three months from the day of his endoscopy and with the help of his helmet, Ahmed now has a normal shaped head.

Commenting on the care Ahmed received at Sidra Med-icine, his parents said: “Our first moments with Ahmed were fraught with concern, as the doctors in the delivery room noticed his misshaped head right away. After going through the initial assessments, we were then referred to Sidra Medicine.

“To have such world-class care at our doorstep is life-changing. It saved us the time, resources and the challenges of taking him abroad for treatment. We are extremely grateful for the care that was provided at the hospital — which has been a very positive experience particularly under the care of Dr. Khalid Al Kharazi and Dr. Ian Pople.”

Ahmed with Dr. Ian Pople and Dr. Khalid Al Kharazi.

TEDinArabic is TED’s first initiative to focus on sharing solutions, inventions and stories in the Arabic language. Minister of State and President of Qatar National Library H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari has said that TED has been considered to be among the most distinguished initiatives of its kind since its establishment in 1985.

Qatar stresses

protection of

women during

conflictsQNA — GENEVA

The State of Qatar stressed yesterday the importance of protecting women and girls and guaranteeing their rights during crises resulting from conflicts and disasters.

This came in the statement of the State of Qatar read out by Third Secretary in Qatar’s Mis-sions to the United Nations in Geneva Talal Al Naama, in the annual discussion on women’s human rights as part of the 44th regular session of the Human Rights Council. He said the suf-fering of women compounds during such times, during their limited access to basic services such as education and healthcare, among others.

He added that women pay the heaviest prices during times of armed conflicts and violence they are subjected to.

He highlighted the lack of security, restriction of movement, and other burdens related to taking care of the family as a result of losing their breadwinner as other reasons.

He called on protecting women by enhancing account-ability and better monitoring of the violations.

04 TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020HOME

Ooredoo launches environment protection campaign

Qatar’s leading telecommuni-cations operator has announced the launch of a new campaign promoting protection of the environment.

Ooredoo’s Beach Clean-up Campaign focuses on keeping Qatar’s beaches clean for both the marine environment and those visiting, ensuring anyone paying a visit to one of the country’s many stunning beaches leaves only sandcastles when they depart.

The campaign kicked off on Sunday with the first beach clean-up at Sumaysimah Beach.

In collaboration between Ooredoo, Al Daayen Munici-pality and Friends of Envi-ronment Center, dozens of vol-unteers met at Sumaysimah Beach during the first day of the campaign with a social media hashtag of #LeaveOnlySand-Castles designed to encourage

beachgoers to take responsi-bility of cleaning the beaches after their visits.

Among who took part on the event were Ooredoo brand ambassador Ali Bin Tawar and influencers including Ola Al Fares, Hanan El Amadi, Saleh Elayan, Amina El Musa, Abdulla Al Mana, Hamad bin Nasser and Khaled Al Rayyes, alongside popular public figure Shams Al Qassabi.

The Beach Clean-Up initi-ative was established in con-junction with Al Daayen Munic-ipality, with both the telco operator and the Municipality pledging to ensure Qatar’s

beaches remain clean for the benefit of both marine life and those visiting to enjoy the best of nature.

Yousuf Abdulla Al Kubaisi, Chief Operating Officer, Ooredoo Qatar, said: “Sup-porting initiatives that promote protection of our environment is a key focus of our corporate social responsibility strategy, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and we are proud to be working with Al Daayen Municipality to ensure we keep Qatar’s beaches clean and encourage everyone using the beaches to share the responsibility.

We were incredibly pleased to see so many Ooredoo volunteers out in force on Sunday, despite the heat, and we look forward to many more such events in the coming months.”

Rashed Al Kharayein, Director of Al Daayen Munici-pality, said: “We are blessed

with many beautiful beaches in Qatar, and all citizens and res-idents share a responsibility to take care of them in order to preserve marine life and ensure we are all able to enjoy every-thing our beaches have to offer. We are delighted to work with

Ooredoo on this initiative, which we hope will encourage everyone to think of the envi-ronment when they visit the beach and play their part to maintain cleanliness and promote protection of our environment.”

At the end of the event, Al Daayen Municipality honoured Ooredoo for its prominent role in supporting communities and stakeholders in their efforts to protect and preserve the envi-ronm e nt f or f uture generations.

Volunteers are seen during the Beach Clean-up campaign at Sumaysimah Beach.

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

AMUAAQ organises walk and jog programme

Aligarh Muslim University Alumni Association, Qatar (AMUAAQ) organised recently a walk and jog programme for its alumni members at Al Bidda Park.

It was first of its kind gath-ering since the COVID-19 pan-demic, that followed all the Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Interior guidelines. The Ehteraz App was checked for the green code for all members, all had to use mask while walking (except jogging/exercising), social distancing of 3 metre was strictly followed and the group moved in col-lection of 10 members each.

Members of the AMUAAQ invited the members of the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) Delhi to attend. Two key members of JMI studied at both AMU and JMI. Following the meet and greet, the group moved for a short walk along the track at Al Bidda Park.

The highlight of the pro-gramme was a member of AMUAAQ, a doctor at Al Khor Hospital biked to the event, adding a flair to the physical

activity that was missed by the AMUAAQ group during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AMUAAQ President, Dr. Jaffery who works for the MoPH said this was organised to spread a positive message to the communities and mark the success of the careful steps that the government of Qatar has taken in a phased set-up. He highlighted the positive role the Ministry of Public Health, Min-istry of Interior and Supreme committee for Crisis Man-agement had played in con-taining the pandemic and opening up care facilities across Qatar to provide world class care to the population.

“Organising such event at this time was essential to help maintain a good mental health for all its members. It will set an example for the other com-munities,” he added.

The group was divided into 10 members each group jogged /walked while the other group exercised under the instruc-tions from the secretary of the Indian Sports Center Mohammad Habib un Nabi who is a member and senior adviser at AMUAAQ.

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Bhavans students perform well in CBSE examTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The CBSE Results of Class XII has brought laurels to Bhavans as the students scored excellent results in the CBSE examination.

Gautham M Premchand topped the school with 95.8 percent followed by Christo Byju who got 94.6 percent and Theekshika with 94 percent marks in science stream.

Karun Sam secured 85 percent and Fida Sameer with 84.2 percent are top scorers in commerce.

Argentina football star Javier Mascherano to feature on @GA4Good Instagram LiveTHE PENINSULA —DOHA

Argentina football star Javier Mascherano (pictured) will be the special guest on Thursday’s @GA4Good Instagram Live at 9pm, Doha time (GMT +3).

The current Estudiantes player will talk about the discipline and drive which has helped him win a host of major honours during his glittering football career, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) said on its website.

After making his name in the English Premier League with West Ham United and Liverpool, Mascherano joined Spanish giants Barcelona, where he won five La Liga championships and two UEFA Champions League titles. He also won 147 caps for Argentina and helped his nation reach the 2014 FIFA World Cup final, where they lost 1-0 to Germany.

Mascherano is the latest star to appear on @GA4good since the programme launched its online series. Previous guests were Xavi Hernández, Samuel Eto’o, Cafu, Tim Cahill and others. All the star chats can

be viewed on the programme’s Instagram page here.

Ahead of Mascherano’s appearance, former NAC Breda, Nottingham Forest and Netherlands striker, Pierre van Hooijdonk will be interviewed on @GA4Good at 4 PM Doha time on Wednesday. The World-Coaches ambassador will talk about his motivations in football.

Generation Amazing Programmes Director, Nasser Al Khori, said: “Javier Mascherano is such a prominent figure in football who, in addition to being a dom-inant player for club and country, has done some tremendous and admirable chari-table work with NGOs off the pitch as well. This kind of commitment to the community is a crucial part of what Generation Amazing does and I am sure that both our youth par-ticipants and general audiences can take so much from his incredible experience. We are thrilled about hosting him this week to explore these topics and more.”

Al Khori added: “It will also be inter-esting for youth to hear about the important work that Pierre van Hooijdonk has been

doing as a WorldCoaches ambassador. Again, this is a cause close to Generation Amazing. He does a brilliant job of reaching youth through football coaching, so we are very excited about the line-up.”

Last week, former Ajax and Netherlands star Anouk Hoogendijk, who is also a WorldCoaches ambassador, spoke about gender equality, as well as her experiences in football, on @GA4good. Hoogendijk detailed her dream and determination as a youngster to play for Ajax – despite the lack of a women’s team at the time.

A fisherman arranging fresh crabs at Corniche Fish Market on Sunday. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/ THE PENINSULA

Fresh fish on sale

The campaign was designed to encourage beachgoers to take responsibility of cleaning the beaches after their visits.

MES students excel in class XII CBSE examTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

MES Indian School produced excellent results in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Grade XII, Examination held in March 2020.

A total of 499 students appeared for the examination. In the science stream, Abdul Rasheed Mohammed Ali emerged as the school topper with 97.4 percent closely fol-lowed by Nafea Inayath and Sneha Mary Biju sharing the second position with 97.2 percent while Anjana C K and Gaadha Vinukumar shared the third position with 96.8 percent.

In the Commerce Stream, Athira Aravind and Meenakshi Gopikrishnan were the joint toppers of the school with 93.2 percent followed by Eliza Mary Mathew in the second position with 92 percent and Roshini Ray Varghese with 90.6 percent in the third position. In the Humanities Stream, Hafsa Anjum topped the school with 95.6 percent marks.

DFI hosts ‘First Cut Lab’ in special online editionThe Doha Film Institute (DFI) hosted a comprehensive ‘First Cut Lab’ in a special online edition which started on June 18, in a series of four main sessions, each dedicated to one select feature or short film.

Designed to foster the artistic potential of the selected rough cuts and to increase the sales, festival and circulation potential of the completed films, the workshops were open to film teams from Qatar or the MENA region whose projects were in different stages of post-production.

In line with the Institute’s mission to support promising talents from the region, the intensive workshop offered selected producer/director/editor teams an opportunity to receive expert feedback on their full rough cut from international film advisors as well as a con-sultant editor. Participants engaged in discussions and received direct feedback in

one-to-one meetings and in small groups via video-confer-encing platforms. At the end of the lab, creative teams received a written memo report that serves as a guideline for future edits and post-production of their films.

All projects for this year’s Lab received expert mentorship from First Cut Lab creator and Director Matthieu Darras, a

renowned festival programmer and former TorinoFilmLab artistic director as well as creator of the Pop Up Film Res-idency; Editor Mentors Ben-jamin Mirguet and Sebastian Sepúlveda; and Industry Advisers Sata Cissokho, Myriam Sassine, Gudula Meinzolt and Wim Vanacker.

The first session focused on Hamida Issa’s feature

documentary Places of the Soul (Qatar), which explores the duality between modernity and tradition and nature and civili-sation through the filmmaker’s journey to Antarctica with an environmental and leadership expedition. Khalifa Almarri’s short narrative Olayan (Qatar), a Qatari Film Fund project that thematises a Bedouin boy’s friendship with a camel calf, was featured in the second session.

The third session high-lighted The Maiden’s Pond (Lebanon, Qatar) by Bassem Breish, a feature narrative about a strained mother-daughter relationship, while the fourth session focused on Jihan Kikhia’s Searching for Kikhia (USA, Libya, Lebanon, France, Qatar), tracing the steps of the daughter of a peaceful oppo-sition leader to Qaddafi and her mother’s 19-year search to find him.

Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, Chief Executive Officer of DFI, said: “The Doha Film Institute

is deeply committed to ele-vating promising voices and talents from Qatar and the region through our diverse year-round training and devel-opment programmes. We are proud to be part of a global network of organisations that can extend access to the inter-nationally recognised First Cut Lab to our community and accelerate the success of standout projects ready to launch.”

“This year’s selected films will become part of a pres-tigious collection of First Cut Lab-supported debuts, many of which have gone on to premiere at international film festivals such as Cannes and the Ber-linale. More so, translating the workshop experience into a digital format will open up new forms of collaboration between our talented film teams and global mentors, whilst main-taining the creative spirit of skill enhancement through lively discussion and practical team work,” she concluded.

The online session of DFI’s First Cut Lab focusing on Khalifa Almarri’s short narrative “Olayan”.

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

05TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020 GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Erdogan: Hagia Sophia is Turkey’s internal matterANATOLIA — ANKARA

Turkey’s president on Sunday underlined that the Hagia Sophia’s status is an internal matter, urging other countries to respect the final decision of the country.

“The final decision-maker on the status of the Hagia Sophia is the Turkish nation, not others. This is our internal affair,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Istanbul-based journal Kriter.

Erdogan stressed that other countries should respect Tur-key’s decision, adding that the conversion of the iconic landmark from a mosque to a museum in 1934 was “a painful decision for our nation.”

He dismissed domestic and foreign criticism on the decision, saying they had “no value” in the courts.

On Friday, a top Turkish court annulled a 1934 cabinet decree, which had turned Istan-bul’s Hagia Sophia into a

museum. This verdict by the country’s Council of State paved

the way for its use again as a mosque after 85 years.

It ruled that the architec-tural gem had been owned by

a foundation established by Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, the conqueror of Istanbul, and pre-sented to the community as a mosque — a status that cannot be legally changed.

The Hagia Sophia was used as a church for centuries under the rule of the Byzantine Empire. It was turned into a mosque fol-lowing the conquest of Istanbul in 1453. In 1935, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum. Pres-ident Erdogan said the historical complex will be ready for worship

by Friday prayers on July 24. Erdogan underlined that in

Libya, warlord Khalifa Haftar and his supporters’ plans to capture the North African coun-try’s capital Tripoli failed thanks to Turkey’s determination. He pointed out that the war-torn country’s internationally recog-nized government had managed to remove Haftar’s forces from Tripoli in a short time.

“The gains on the ground will hopefully herald peace and tranquility in Libya,” said Erdogan, stressing Ankara’s support for Libya “in all areas, from health, transportation to infrastructure.”

Turkey secured its rights and interests in the Eastern Mediterranean via recent agree-ments with Libya on military and security cooperation, as well as maritime demarcation, Erdogan added.

He said Libya’s stabilisation would benefit not only Libya’s people, but also to the entire region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with a picture of Hagia Sophia or Ayasofya in the background, delivers a televised address to the nation in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday.

“The final decision-maker on the status of the Hagia Sophia is the Turkish nation, not others. This is our internal affair,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Istanbul-based journal Kriter.

People comply with face mask wearing rule in public places in Tehran yesterday, as 203 more fatalities over the last 24 hours raised the death toll in Iran to 13,032.

Iran says COVID-19 death toll tops 13,000AFP — TEHRAN

Iran reported yesterday more than 200 new coronavirus fatalities that took the overall toll in the Middle East’s dead-liest outbreak beyond 13,000.

“Unfortunately, in the past 24 hours, we have lost 203 of our compatriots due to the COVID-19 disease,” said health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari. “Based on this figure, the total number of victims has reached 13,032,” she told a tele-vised news conference.

Lari said another 2,349 people had tested positive for the virus, raising the overall figure in the country’s outbreak to 259,652. Iran has been strug-gling to contain the virus since announcing its first cases in February — two deaths in the Shia city of Qom.

The Islamic republic has

refrained from enforcing full lockdowns to stop the pan-demic’s spread. Official figures have shown an upward tra-jectory in new confirmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.

The Iranian government made the wearing of masks compulsory in closed public spaces from July 4, including on public transport.

State television, whose pre-senters now wear masks, said yesterday that police in Tehran were stopping commuters without masks from entering the subway.

Authorities in Qom tightened controls in banks and administrative offices to ensure the implementation of health protocols, including mask-wearing, Tasnim news agency reported yesterday.

Kuwait reports 614 infections, three deaths

QNA — KUWAIT CITY

The Kuwaiti health ministry yesterday announced 614 new Coronavirus (COVID-19) infec-tions in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 55,508, with three people succumbing to the disease as the death toll reached 393.

All the new cases were in contact with previously infected people or are being investigated for sources of infection, the Kuwaiti Health Ministry’s spokesman Dr Abdullah Al Sanad said in a statement carried by Kuwait News Agency.

Al Sanad said that among the new COVID-19 cases were 378 Kuwaitis and 236 non-Kuwaitis, pointing out that the number of swabs conducted during the last 24 hours was 4,086, with the whole count of such examinations reaching 437,422.

During the past 24 hours, 746 cases have recovered from the disease to bring the tally of recoveries to 45,356, the health ministry said.

The Omani Ministry of Health announced yesterday 2,164 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total number of positive cases in the country to 58,179, in addition to 2 deaths, which brings the total number of deaths to 259 and 37,257 recoveries.

Oman News Agency (ONA) reported the Ministry as saying in a statement that 146 cases are in intensive care unit.

No ‘operational restrictions’ on nuke programme: IranANATOLIA — TEHRAN

Iran does not face any “opera-tional restrictions” on its nuclear programme, the coun-try’s foreign ministry said yesterday on the 5th anni-versary of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

Speaking to reporters in Tehran, ministry spokesman Sayed Abbas Mousavi said Iran is making “steady progress” in nuclear enrichment after reducing commitments to the 2015 deal, also known as JCPOA.

Mousavi said Iranian nuclear program was “moving forward” under the aegis of Iran’s atomic energy organi-zation (AEOI) and in accordance with the UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA)’s safe-guards commitments and vol-untary implementation of the additional protocol.

Under the nuclear deal, Iran was required to restrict its nuclear activities and allow international inspections of its nuclear sites, in return for lifting of economic sanctions.

Tehran was allowed to install only 5,060 centrifuges at its main nuclear facility in Natanz until 2026 and uranium

stockpile was also reduced by 98 percent.

However, following the unilateral US withdrawal from the deal in May 2018 and re-imposition of sanctions, Iran gradually began to scale back its commitments under the deal. In January, Iran announced that it no longer considered itself bound by the restrictions on its nuclear program, moving back to the pre-2015 nuclear enrichment scheme.

In the past six months, Iran has gradually scaled up its uranium enrichment process, saying that it was “reversible” depending on the actions of the JCPOA signatories to salvage the deal. Last month, the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA detailed ways in which Iran had “exceeded limits” agreed to under the 2015 deal, calling on Tehran to “fully cooperate” with IAEA investigation into “unreported nuclear activity” at two of its nuclear sites.

Iran reacted sharply to the resolution, saying it will neither grant access to the IAEA on “baseless allegations” nor back down from its “principled posi-tions”. It also vowed an “appro-priate response”.

Houthis say they hit Saudi oil facility in drone, missile attackREUTERS — DUBAI

Yemeni Houthi forces hit a large oil facility in the southern Saudi Arabian city of Jizan in drone and missile attacks overnight, a Houthi military spokesman said.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said earlier it had intercepted and destroyed four missiles and six explosive drones fired by the Houthis over the border towards Saudi Arabia.

There was no Saudi confir-mation of where they were

intercepted or whether any-thing was hit.

Oil company Saudi A r a m c o o p e r a t e s a 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery in the Red Sea city of Jizan, which lies around 60km from the Yemen border. Aramco declined to comment.

“With many drones our armed forces targeted military aircraft, pilot accommodation and Patriot systems in Khamis Mushait, and other military targets at Abha, Jizan and Najran airports,” said Yahya

Sarea, a Houthi military spokesman.

“Additionally, the giant oil facility in the Jizan industrial zone. The strike was accurate.”

Khamis Mushait, Abha, Jizan and Najran are all in southwest Saudi Arabia near the Yemen border.

Cross-border attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement have escalated since late May when a truce prompted by the coronavirus pandemic expired. In late June, missiles reached the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Gunmen attack

army in Lebanon,

kill one soldier

REUTERS — BEIRUT

Gunmen opened fire on several army positions and a patrol in Lebanon’s Baalbek region in the Bekaa Valley overnight, killing one soldier, the military command said in a statement yesterday.

“A number of armed men fired at a patrol belonging to the army and military centres...which led to the martyrdom of one of the soldiers,” it said.

06 TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020AFRICA

Nelson Mandela’s daughter Zindzi dies

AFP — JOHANNESBURG

Zindzi Mandela, the youngest daughter of South Africa’s first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has died aged 59, her family and President Cyril Ramaphosa announced yesterday.

Daughter to Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, she was South Africa’s ambas-sador to Denmark at the time of her death.

“Ambassador Mandela passed away in the early hours of today, 13 July 2020, in a Johannesburg hospital,” Ram-aphosa said in a statement.

The cause of her death was not immediately revealed.

She had been designated to become South Africa’s envoy to Liberia after her stint in Copenhagen, which started in 2015. The Mandela family released a brief statement announcing her death, which said she was survived by her children and grandchildren.

Zindzi was born and raised in Soweto and was educated both at home and in neigh-bouring Swaziland.

She grew up while her father was incarcerated by the apartheid regime for 27 years.

Like her parents, she was involved in the liberation struggle and was an active member of the African National Congress (ANC) youth movement.

One of her most prominent moments was in 1985 when she read out — in front of a huge crowd of ANC supporters at a Soweto stadium— a letter in which her father rejected an offer of release from the then apartheid president, P.W. Botha. At the time Botha had offered to free Mandela from prison on condition he renounced the anti-apartheid violence and protests.

That letter, which she read dressed in yellow and black —the trademark colours her father had adopted as a statesman — “reinvigorated the values and principles of the struggle”, according to another anti-apartheid icon, retired archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“For the 27 years that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, his family— wife... and daughters Zindzi and Zenani — played a critical role symbolising the humanity and steadfastness of the anti-apartheid struggle,” said the Tutu Foundation. Paying tribute to Zindzi’s “unshakeable resolve of our fight for freedom”, Ram-aphosa offered his condolences on the loss of “a fearless political activist who was a leader in her own right”.

Morocco reimposes Tangiers lockdown after virus spikeAFP — RABAT

Morocco yesterday announced a return to lockdown measures in the northern port city of Tangiers to smother a new outbreak of the novel corona-virus, weeks after easing nationwide restrictions.

The city of about a million inhabitants was locked down from yesterday at noon local time, with public transport sus-pended, cafes and public spaces closed and movement restricted. Residents are only allowed to leave their homes “in cases of extreme necessity”,

the Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that “excep-tional authorisation from local authorities” would be required for movement within or beyond the city.

Authorities decided to reimpose the measures to

“prevent the spread of the virus” after “new infection clusters” appeared, it said.

The northern city, within sight of the Spanish coast on a clear day, has a vast port and is a key economic hub linking Africa with Europe and beyond.

Morocco had imposed strict nat ionwide lockdown measures after recording its first COVID-19 cases in March.

It began easing them in June and has since reopened cafes and restaurants, allowing domestic visitors to restart its vital tourism sector.

Its borders remain closed until further notice, except to Moroccans and residents abroad, who will be able to return from Tuesday onwards.

But despite masks being mandatory in public, new localised outbreaks of the disease have forced the shutdown of several cities.

Kenya wildlife reserves threatened as tourists stay awayAFP — TALEK, KENYA

In the majestic plains of the Maasai Mara, the coronavirus pandemic spells economic disaster for locals who earn a living from tourists coming to see Kenya’s abundant wildlife.

Even before the virus arrived in Kenya mid-March, tourism revenues had plum-meted, with cancellations coming in from crucial markets such as China, Europe and the United States.

According to the tourism ministry, the sector has lost $750m this year —roughly half of the total revenue in 2019. “We were fully booked in June but now we have zero bookings. Nothing. It’s terrible,” said Jimmy Lemara, 40, the manager of an eco-lodge in the private Ol Kinyei conservancy.

In the Maasai Mara, one of Africa’s most highly-rated wildlife reserves located in the vast flat plains of the Great Rift Valley, the local Maasai com-munity, traditional herders who make up 2.5 percent of the pop-ulation, now depend almost

exclusively upon tourism for their livelihood.

In a unique model set up to engage local communities in tourism, enabling them to see the value of wildlife and thus protect it, the Maasai now get revenue from renting their land to form private wildlife conservancies.

Some work as cooks, guides and security guards in the lodges while others give tours of their traditional homes or sell homemade crafts to tourists.

People in Talek, a dusty town situated at one of the entrances to the Maasai Mara national reserve, are gloomily buckling down, hoping for better days. Kenya has announced international flights will resume on August 1, but the high season is already lost.

“Since December, work has been extremely low, and now we’re in survival mode hoping to make 150 to 200 shillings ($1.4 to $1.9) a day, to be able to buy a meal,” said Ibrahim Sameri, 38, whose small mechanic workshop can gen-erate up to $30 a day in the high

season. Nalokiti Sayialel nor-mally sells bead necklaces and bracelets to tourists passing through.

“It’s been three months that I haven’t sold anything,” the 45-year-old said.

“This is terrible. Everything is stuck. Everything is shut down. (I have) never seen something like that”, said tour guide Petro Nautori who has had no work since January.

The Maasai Mara national reserve, run by the Narok county government, extends to the north with several pri-vately-managed conservancies renting land from the Maasai who in exchange do not graze their cattle or settle there.

This model has since 2005 allowed the doubling of the habitat for wildlife in this area.

On average, each land owner earns $220 per month, far more than the minimum wage in the area. However like other conservancies, Ol Kinyei is struggling and has agreed to only pay half the usual rent to the Maasai, after having to pay back deposits to tourists who

cancelled their holidays. The salaries of lodge employees have also been cut by half.

Some Maasai families are having to turn to selling their

precious livestock to earn money. “Because we’re getting little and it’s not enough to sustain the family for a living, I had to sell two goats worth

about 12,000 shillings to put on top of what I’m getting to keep me going,” said Julius Sanare, 41, head chef at the eco-lodge in Ol Kinyei.

A train steward wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), waits for passengers to board the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) train in Nairobi, Kenya, yesterday, after the Kenyan government started easing the lockdown restrictions following the outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus in the country, and allowed passenger trains to resume operations.

Moroccan municipal workers disinfecting a street in the southern port city of Safi, during a total lockdown ordered by the authorities following the discovery of several new cases of coronavirus at a fish canning factory there.

Nigeria doctors launch strike amid pandemicAFP — LAGOS

Doctors in Nigeria’s largest city Lagos began a three-day warning strike yesterday over welfare and inadequate protective kits, but said medics handling coronavirus cases would not be involved.

The industrial action is the latest in a string of stoppages by medics to hit Africa’s most populous nation as it struggles to halt rising infections.

Doctors under the auspices of the Medical Guild Association said they called the strike after the Lagos state government failed to meet demands for additional pay and better protection.

“The issue of COVID-19 hazard allowances and inducement allowances... approved by the federal gov-ernment to the doctors has not been approved by Lagos gov-ernment to her doctors,” leader Oluwajimi Sodipo said in a statement.

He said the stoppage would not include members working in coronavirus iso-lation wards despite a backlog in their wages.

“Doctors working in COVID-19 isolation centres are still being owed two

months; salaries which have remained unpaid at the moment,” he said.

“Our members are putting themselves on the line daily to provide care, and we need to do everything to protect our colleagues.”

The statement urged gov-ernment to provide enough personal protective equipment, prompt testing of health workers and insurance.

Nigeria has so far recorded over 32,500 cases and 740 deaths from the virus.

Lagos, the country’s largest city of 20 million inhabitants, accounts for the bulk of the cases.

More than 800 health workers have been infected by the virus, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The Nigerian Medical Asso-ciation — the country’s main doctors body —has launched or threatened a series of strikes during the pandemic over welfare and safety.

Repeated governments in Africa’s biggest oil producer have been accused of under-funding the health sector and experts warn it risks being overwhelmed if virus cases surge.

Ivory Coast Vice-President Daniel Kablan Duncan resignsAFP — ABIDJAN

Ivory Coast’s Vice-President Daniel Kablan Duncan (pictured), has stepped down, the presidency said yesterday, an announcement that comes on the heels of the sudden death of Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly on July 8.

Kablan Duncan, 77, “handed his resignation to the president on personal grounds on Feb-ruary 27”, it said in a statement

read by chief of staff Patrick Achi.

“After several conversa-tions, the latest of which took place on July 7, the president accepted (it) and on July 8 signed the decree ending Mr Kablan Duncan’s duties.”

Rumours that Kablan Duncan would be leaving office have circulated for several days.

He has traditionally been seen as close to President Alassane Ouattara, even though

he is a member of a party that was once part of his political

alliance before joining the opposition.

A veteran figure of Ivorian politics, Kablan Duncan served as foreign minister from 2011-12 and then as prime minister in charge of economy and finance from 2012-17.

In January 2017, he became the first vice-president in Ivory Coast’s history, taking up a post created under a new consti-tution adopted in 2016.

Ouattara “would like to pay

tribute to a great servant of the state, a man of power and com-mitment,” the statement added.

His departure was announced just five days after the shock death of Coulibaly, 61, a popular figure seen as Ouat-tara’s anointed successor for elections due in October.

Coulibaly had just returned to Ivory Coast after a two-month stay in France, where he received a coronary stent to alleviate heart problems.

DR Congo police fire tear gas to disperse protests over poll chiefREUTERS — KINSHASA

Thousands of opposition activists marched across Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital Kinshasa yesterday in renewed protest against the nomination of the election commission’s new head.

Demonstrators braved rain and a ban on protests because of the COVID-19 outbreak to voice their opposition to the proposed appointment of Ronsard Malonda as president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI).

Critics in Congo say Malonda is too close to former President Joseph Kabila, who still wields strong influence, and say his oversight of a contested 2018 election was problematic.

Police used tear gas to disperse crowds near parliament and in the east of the capital, where Jean-Pierre Bemba, a senior figure in the

opposition party alliance of LAMUKA, led a march of thousands, a witness said.

At least three people died in nationwide protests over Malonda’s appointment last week.

Malonda was a senior member of CENI during the 2018 election which was marred by accusations the commission tampered with results to deny victory to LAMUKA’s candidate Martin Fayulu.

“We do not want Ronsard Malonda at the head of the CENI, he is the driving force behind electoral cheating,” said a LAMUKA supporter named Edmond, who declined to give his full name.

Last week LAMUKA in a statement called Malonda an “agent” of Kabila’s FCC political alliance, and demanded a financial and operational audit of CENI.

The last month has seen rising tensions in the ruling coalition

A demonstrator holds a sign reading “the people always win” as opposition activists march during a renewed protest against the nomination of Ronsard Malonda as president of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, yesterday.

between supporters of President Felix Tsh-isekedi and those of his predecessor Joseph

Kabila, who maintains extensive power through his parliamentary majority.

Residents are only allowed to leave their homes “in cases of extreme necessity”, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that “exceptional authorisation from local authorities” would be required for movement within or beyond the city.

07TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020 ASIA

Malaysia PM wins test of support, ousts SpeakerAP — KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin narrowly won a motion to remove the speaker of parliament yesterday, scraping through the first test of his support nearly five months after taking power.

The move came as par-liament resumed after months of delay because of the corona-virus pandemic.

The success of the motion could thwart the opposition’s bid for a no-confidence vote against Muhyiddin, analysts said.

Lawmakers engaged in heated debate over Muhyiddin’s unprecedented proposal to replace the house speaker with his own candidate.

The government secured 111 votes against 109 for the oppo-sition. One lawmaker was absent and another abstained as he presided over the session.

“The vote suggests that Muhyiddin’s government has the numbers to stay in power. Replacing the speaker is crucial because it’s the speaker who decides if a vote of no-confi-dence can go ahead,” said James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at University of Tas-mania in Australia.

“The vote also confirms what we know already, that is

both sides are very close in terms of numbers and that Muhyiddin’s government is not stable,” Chin said.

Muhyiddin’s legitimacy has been challenged by the oppo-sition since he was sworn in on March 1 after a weeklong political crisis. Muhyiddin pulled his ethnic Malay party out of the governing alliance, triggering its collapse.

He formed a Malay-centric government with the oppo-sition, including the party of ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is on trial on multiple graft charges.

Then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad resigned in protest of the plan and filed a motion of no-confidence against his former party ally.

Chin said the speaker replacement suggested par-liament cannot act as an effective check and balance against Muhyiddin.

“Given that the new speaker

is nominated by Muhyiddin’s government. I can bet that Mahathir will not to stand a chance in getting rid of Muhy-iddin,” Chin said. “Muhyiddin is now in a much stronger political position after this.”

During the debate, gov-erning lawmakers said it was normal procedure to appoint new officers aligned with the new government. But Mahathir said the speaker should be someone who is neutral.

He said Muhyiddin’s move was unconstitutional because a replacement can only be made if the speaker dies or the seat is vacant, or after a general election.

The 95-year-old Mahathir, a two-time prime minister, was heckled by government law-makers who said he shouldn’t have resigned in late February.

Mahathir earlier claimed he has the support of a majority of lawmakers but that some have

been bribed to switch sides. The opposition has also recently failed to agree on who their new prime minister candidate should be, with Mahathir pushing for a candidate from East Malaysia and his former alliance opting for Anwar Ibrahim, who was slated to succeed Mahathir previously.

Lawyer Azhar Azizan Harun was later sworn-in yesterday

to replace former senior judge Mohamad Ariff Mohamad Yusof as the new house speaker. Azhar formerly was the Election Commission chairman under Mahathir but quit the post to take up his new role.

Nga Kor Ming, an opposition politician who was one of two deputy speakers, later quit in solidarity with Mohamad Ariff before Muhyiddin could

introduce a motion to replace him with a governing party lawmaker.

Mohamad Ariff told reporters later that his removal was extraordinary and may have set a new precedent in the Commonwealth.

“Any speaker who becomes a speaker for the government only is not a proper speaker,” he said.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin attending a parliamentary session, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, yesterday.

Philippines sees region’s biggest daily rise in coronavirus deathsREUTERS — MANILA

The Philippines reported Southeast Asia’s biggest daily jump in COVID-19 deaths yesterday and warned of more fatalities ahead, as authorities scrambled to verify thousands of suspected cases and pressure grows on hospitals after the easing of a lockdown.

The government and several large hospitals in the capital Manila said critical care capacity had been reached, adding to fears of its over-stretched health sector being deluged by the contagion.

The health ministry reported 162 new deaths that were con-firmed on Sunday plus another 65 yesterday, with 2,960 addi-tional infections. The Philippines over the past week has reported higher daily infections than Indonesia, which has Southeast Asia’s highest number of deaths and cases.

Philippine COVID-19 infec-tions have more than tripled to 57,006 since June 1 when restrictions started to ease to allow some public transport, restaurants and malls to reopen, in a bid to restart an economy decimated by some of the world’s strictest and longest curbs on movement and commerce.

Although the Philippines has ramped up testing lately, the 926,252 recorded represents less than 1 percent of the 107 million population.

The health ministry said there were nearly 12,000 sus-pected positive cases yet to be verified and the death toll of 1,599 would almost certainly rise.

“As part of ongoing data harmonisation, we cannot avoid seeing cases not yet included in

our official death count,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a news con-ference, adding that efforts to speed up data collection would mean greater numbers being reported in the coming days.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque described the out-break as an “intensifying chal-lenge” and said hospital occu-pancy in Manila had jumped to 70 percent from 48 percent a week ago due to a spike in cases.

Two of Manila’s biggest private hospitals declared on Monday they were at full capacity.

“Right now, the critical bed capacity especially for the intensive care units is already in the danger zone,” Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega told reporters.

Manila remains the centre of the outbreak, but Cebu city is becoming a new hotspot with a 10th of the country’s infections. It has since June 16 been under the highest level of restriction.

A resurgence in infections was to be expected with lockdown easing, former health minister Esperanza Cabral, said, but “the degree of increase” will depend on people’s compliance with social distancing rules.

Over 28,500 virus cases in India in 24 hoursANATOLIA — NEW DELHI

With 28,701 new cases in the last 24 hours, India yesterday saw the biggest surge in COVID-19 cases for the fifth day in a row, the Health Ministry data showed.

The country’s total tally of infections rose to 878,254 as the total death toll climbed to 23,174 with 492 more deaths.

The total number of cases in the country includes 301,609 active cases, 553,471 cured/dis-charged/migrated. The recovered cases now exceed active cases by over 240,000. With the new recoveries, the country’s recovery rate has now grown to

62.93 percent from earlier 61.53 percent . A total of 19,235 people recovered in the last 24 hours, according the official figures.

“India’s clinical protocol has focused on early detection through widespread testing, sur-veillance, prompt triaging, and clinical management of cases. This has resulted in one of the lowest case fatality rates of 2.66 percent ,” said Health Minister Harsh Vardhan during his visit to a COVID-9 facility in Delhi on Sunday. However, the active case mark has been steadily increasing, according to the data. It reached 100,000 on June 4, then went past 200,000 mark

23 days later, and another 100,000 was added 15 days later, taking the total count to over 300,000.

India now has 1,218 dedi-cated COVID-19 hospitals, 2,705 coronavirus health care centres, and 10,301 virus care centres.

The worst-hit western state of Maharashtra reported the highest number of new corona-virus cases at 7,827 in a single day, third single-day spike. The state currently has 103,813 active cases of the total 254,427, and 10,289 deaths.

The national capital of Delhi is the third worst-affected state in the country with numbers

continuously dipping. With 1,573 fresh cases and 37 deaths, the total tally in the state stands at 112,494. The state has shown a recovery rate of 80 percent.

With another spike in new cases as 4,244 more infections have been registered, the third worst-hit southern state of Tamil Nadu tally has risen to 138,470. A total of 1,966 people have died of the virus in the state. The spike in COVID-19 cases has increased the demand for pulse oximeters, but the Indian manufacturers have raised a concern that due to no customs duty on medical devices, the market is getting flooded with cheap imports.

Concern over new Sydney cluster as Australia virus cases surgeAFP — SYDNEY

Sydney residents were warned yesterday to put the brakes on partying as a new coronavirus cluster emerged at a city club on the heels of a major outbreak in Melbourne.

Three clubs in Sydney and its surrounds were closed after being linked to outbreaks or failing to comply with social dis-tancing requirements, while other events were under inves-tigation with Australia on edge over a resurgence of the virus.

The new cluster emerged after Melbourne entered a six-week lockdown on Thursday, and surrounding Victoria state was sealed off from the rest of the country in an effort to contain the virus.

Authorities reported 177 new infections in and around Mel-bourne yesterday, marking a

week of triple-digit increases.New South Wales police

assistant commissioner Tony Cooke yesteday slammed the “moronic behaviour of people at dance parties”, after local media published footage of large private get-togethers in Sydney’s wealthy eastern suburbs.

City residents are allowed a maximum of 20 visitors to their homes under restrictions which

have been gradually eased in recent weeks as the number of infections dwindled.

At least 21 infections have now been linked to a growing cluster at Sydney’s Crossroads Hotel , raising concern the virus could be spreading in the state.

A dozen military personnel who visited the club while poised to deploy on an anti-virus mission were yesterday in

isolation at an army base in rural New South Wales.

The state’s police minister David Elliott warned that if the situation was not brought under control, clubs could be closed again.

“If we have to close hotels and clubs again, the patrons will have to take some of the own-ership of that,” he told a press conference yesterday.

A medical worker tests a woman in her car at a coronavirus testing station at the Crossroads Hotel, in Sydney, yesterday.

New Zealand mosque shooter to represent himself at sentencingAFP — WELLINGTON

The gunman behind New Zealand’s Christchurch mosque shootings sacked his lawyers yesterday and opted to represent himself, raising fears he would use a sentencing hearing next month to promote his white-supremacist views.

Australian national Brenton Tarrant will be sentenced on August 24 on 51 murder con-victions, 40 of attempted murder and one of terrorism arising from last year’s mas-sacre, the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history.

He has pleaded guilty to the charges.

At a pre-sentencing hearing yesterday, High Court judge

Cameron Mander allowed Tar-rant’s lawyers, Shane Tait and Jonathan Hudson, to withdraw from proceedings at the request of their client.

However, the judge ordered “standby counsel” to be available next month in case Tarrant — who appeared in the Christchurch court via video link from an Auckland prison — changes his mind.

New Zealand Muslim Asso-ciation president Ikhlaq Kashkari questioned Tarrant’s motives, saying victims could be re-traumatised if the gunman were allowed to spout far-right rhetoric from the dock.

“My first concern when I read this was ‘Oh my God, what’s this guy up to, is he going to use this as a platform to

promote his views and thoughts?’,” he said.

“A lot of people are still going through trauma and this was seen as one of those events that would give them closure. I hope it’s not going to be some-thing that will trigger more pain instead.”

In March 2019, Tarrant gunned down Muslim wor-shippers during Friday prayers at two Christchurch mosques, live-streaming the killings as he went. His victims included children, women and the elderly.

The former gym instructor unexpectedly reversed his not-guilty plea in March this year, removing the need for a lengthy trial.

The terror and murder

charges all carry life sentences, setting a minimum non-parole period of 17 years while also giving the judge power to imprison without the possibility of release. New Zealand does not have the death penalty.

Survivors and the families of victims will be present during the three-day sentencing hearing and Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand spokeswoman Anjum Rahman said many would not want to hear from Tarrant.

While she did not want to speculate on Tarrant’s motive for representing himself, she said: “He has shown in the past that he likes to get attention and he wants attention.

“I feel this is all part of that mindset.”

Sri Lanka shuts schools again as virus cases surgeAFP — COLOMBO

Sri Lanka ordered government schools across the nation to shut yesterday, just a week after they re-opened, following a surge in new coronavirus cases.

The country has reported just 2,617 cases with 11 deaths, but army chief Shavendra Silva said nearly half the 1,100 residents and staff at a drug rehab facility near the capital had tested pos-itive in the past week, and some visitors may also have been infected.

At least 16 cases had emerged in villages elsewhere across the nation, officials said, most in the central-northern region.

“Based on the direction of health authorities, it is decided to close schools this week,” the education ministry said in a statement, adding that private colleges were also encouraged to shut their doors.

“We will review the situation next week.” Postal voting for next month’s parliamentary elections would be delayed in villages affected by the virus, the inde-pendent election commission said.

Sri Lanka’s ruling party on Sunday called off its rallies ahead of the upcoming poll and post-poned the re-opening of the international airport, which was planned for early August.

Lawmakers engaged in heated debate over Muhyiddin’s unprecedented proposal to replace the house speaker with his own candidate. The government secured 111 votes against 109 for the opposition. One lawmaker was absent and another abstained as he presided over the session.

The government and several large hospitals in the capital Manila said critical care capacity had been reached, adding to fears of its over-stretched health sector being deluged by the contagion.

It is also relevant to mention that these dialogues and meetings are permanent actions within the diplomatic world; in such the diplomatic relation of my country Peru and the States of Qatar.

Let us support our rulers, leaders of today and authorities and recognize their hard work and efforts put to safeguard our safety and the safety of our loved ones. Let us appreciate the day to day diligence that our heroes including medical teams, police officers, guards and others who have dedicated their lives in the previous months to keep safety and security in place.

08 TUESDAY 14 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

QATAR has maintained its number one position as the safest country in the world yet again, according to the crime index issued by “Numbeo”, the world’s largest database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide. Qatar has been retaining its number one position as the safest country in the Arab world throughout the 2015-2019 period and it achieved first place globally in 2017 and 2019.

The Numbeo ranking reflects the constant and out-standing level enjoyed by the country in the field of security and safety resulting from the significant decrease in the rates of crimes in the country during that period. In the classification, Qatar occupies 118th place as the country with lowest crime rate and ranks first in terms of security and safety.

Last year, Qatar has topped the list of Middle East and North Africa in the Global Peace Index for the ninth year in a row and has ranked 30th among 163 coun-tries included in the report of the London Institute for Economics and Peace.

This news may not be a surprise to the people living in the country, who have been enjoying the highest safety environment for decades.

The Numbeo report points to the highest level of safety and security in Qatar, thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Interior in its vision of achieving maximum security and stability in society and protecting lives and property. Safety and security enjoy highest priority in the Qatar National Vision 2030. It gives great impor-tance to safeguarding public and personal freedoms, protecting values and traditions and ensuring security and stability.

Qatar has enacted very effective laws to prevent crimes and to ensure peace and stability in the country and has established efficient mechanisms to ensure these laws are implemented effectively. It also ensure that whenever a crime is committed the culprit is caught without delay and brought to justice. All these measures, in turn, made Qatar an oasis of safety and security in the world.

The country while ensuring safety of the people in the country, plays a significant role in making the world at large a better place where people enjoy more peace and safety. The country is also a pioneer in peace diplomacy finding fruitful solutions to several internal disputes and conflicts in many countries. Qatar also plays a major role in hosting, sponsoring and partici-pating in global crime prevention conferences and other events.

It is sure that Qatar will maintain its unique position in the coming years too providing its people a place with more peace, safety and progress to live in with dignity and be a model to the rest of the world.

An oasis of safety and security

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Quote of the day

If basics are not followed, the only

way this pandemic is going to

go — it is going to get worse and

worse and worse.

Tedros Adhanom, WHO Director-General

A file photo of members of the United Nations Security Council gather during a meeting about the situation in Venezuela, in New York.

In the recent decades, international rela-tions have seen an important change marked by the various meetings held by heads of states and government repre-sentatives, where the interests of coun-tries become a one single priority.

The actions and the constant efforts put towards common bilateral and multi-lateral objectives reflect on how signif-icant it is to improve and endorse an effective and strategic relation between nations.

Thanks to the rapid technological ways of communication, today, the world is able to interconnect and exchange national and global issues and concerns that our planet is facing on a daily base through the virtual meetings that allow leaders and high authorities to converse to reach their common target in favor of all nations under any hard circumstances.

Beyond the usual and relentless dif-ferences that arise between leaders and heads of States, during the last few months and under the current circum-stances, we can highlight the positive and new scenario created in societies that many times transcends our own gov-ernment policies. Entitled as: “Summits

of Heads of States and Government.”These important conferences and

international meetings of heads of state or government bring together nations to strengthen ties and deepen development strategies in order to continue building consensus in the international community.

We believe that these approaches have an immediate effect on how to tan-gibly resolve the global issues as a result of frank and continuous direct dialogues characterized by set objectives.

The global leaders discuss various issues such as: the commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, economic and social growth, the fight against corruption, sustainable devel-opment, and respect of the sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention in the internal and external affairs of States among others.

Therefore, in the past decades, the international relations has been rede-fined and injected by a vast economic opening and a more globalized world which have significantly brought changes into the behavior of states, making prevail as mentioned in regards to inte-gration, cooperation and interde-pendence. These alterations are seen in the central themes of international and

regional forums as well as in the direct dialogues which is identifies as “presi-dential diplomacy”. It entails the creation of regulations according to the new situ-ations of the constant changing world society.

One of the most essential aspects that we need to mention is the historical evo-lution of our nations, the evolution of the numerous agreements and conventions signed by leaders of the world which have brought into light a framework of legality into diplomacy and the creation of strong and legitimate multilateral institutions such as the United Nations founded in 1947.

The United Nations was established to enable progress towards a peaceful and a prosperous world among other aspects which include international security, protection of human rights and sustainable development as well as the protection of the world’s environment and the fight against poverty.

It is also relevant to mention that these dialogues and meetings are per-manent actions within the diplomatic world; in such the diplomatic relation of my country Peru and the States of Qatar. There are spaces, in which the two leaders bear the greatest responsibility of leading their people into a better life style and an improved socioeconomic sta-bility, letting the frontrunner content with the advanced efforts and generated common well-being.

However, it is not always an easy task to accomplish, especially that conflicting interests may suddenly interfere between nations. When the issue has a consensus for mutual benefits and in favor of all humanity, supporting dialogues help achieve a common objective without any debate or interference.

The constant search in improving the well-being, health conditions, and a better quality of life leads us to address a central aspect of the international agenda, such as the interest in solving a hostile issue that the world is undergoing: the new pandemic coronavirus better known as COVID-19.

It is at this instant moment that our leaders come into play, that the leaders of countries exercise their role and work hard in order to prevent and protect every single citizen of the world from this dangerous phenomenon. With the support of each and every individual, it is an obligation to comply with the standards that have been implemented

by governments in order to achieve the normalization of our activities and to seek a safe and sound international environment.

As nations, we should be able to create new strategies and innovative measures to strengthen the multilateral sphere, within this multipolar world, to combine common interests in order that the international society benefits in an equitable and cooperative way.

This new form of communication through talks and dialogues with the help of new technologies and innovations, leaders and their counterparts will con-tribute and encourage the nations to con-tinue consolidating international organi-zations, multilateralism. We believe that actions are louder than words but without words there will be no improvement and no diplomatic rela-tions between nations. Thus, for these exact reasons, these conversations are key components to the strength of nations.

We are witnesses of a historical phe-nomenon; COVID-19 that although it is not considered a positive aspect to the development of our nations, we believe that its negativity will bring us strength and will make us unite and act as one nation.

We will consolidate values, values of solidarity, altruism, detachment for the common good of our nations within multi-diverse world, which will even-tually drive our societies to change and adapt to new ideas and challenges, more aware of our environment and always au courant of the current world’s revolution in order for us to be well prepared and collected to face any sort of future difficulties.

Let us support our rulers, leaders of today and authorities and recognize their hard work and efforts put to safeguard our safety and the safety of our loved ones. Let us appreciate the day to day dil-igence that our heroes including medical teams, police officers, guards and others who have dedicated their lives in the previous months to keep safety and security in place.

Heads of state strategies towards a better world

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09TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020 ASIA

WHO to probe origins of COVID-19 worldwide: ChinaANATOLIA — ANKARA

China yesterday said the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed to probe origins of COVID-19 around the globe.

Addressing a news con-ference in Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokes-woman Hua Chunying said: “Two experts from the World Health Organization arrived in China to conduct COVID-19 origin tracing work,” daily Global Times reported.

“China and the WHO have agreed that origin tracing is a matter of science; therefore, the WHO will conduct similar investigations around the world,” Hua added,

On Friday, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said two WHO experts were heading to China to interact with scientists there to study the transmission of corona-virus from animals to humans.

“As we continue to tackle the pandemic, we are also looking into the origins of the virus,” Adhanom said addressing a webinar.

The WHO move comes amid severe critique by the US and its allies that have been seeking probe into COVID-19 origins, which angered Beijing.

The WHO chief also said the global health experts will also prepare a scientific plan with their Chinese counter-parts to identify the zoonotic source of the COVID-19 virus.

Adhanom said the scientists want to learn about the progress made in understanding the animal reservoir for COVID-19 and how the disease leapt to humans from animals.

Funeral for Seoul mayor held as allegation details emergeAP —SEOUL

Mourners wept and deeply bowed before the coffin of Seoul’s mayor during his funeral yesterday, while a lawyer came forward with details about sexual harassment allegations against the late politician.

The allegations have split many in South Korea over how to remember Park Won-soon, who was found dead on Friday in a wooded area in northern Seoul. Park, a liberal who built his career as a reform-minded politician and champion of women’s rights, had been considered a potential candidate for president in 2022.

Police said there was no sign of foul play but refused to disclose the exact cause of his death. Seoul officials have said Park left a note saying “I feel sorry to everyone” and asking that his body be cremated.

Yesterday, lawyer Kim Jae-Ryon told reporters that she gave legal counsel to

one of Park’s former secretaries before a complaint was lodged with police over alleged harassment. Kim, who represents the ex-secretary, said the complaint was filed on July 8, the day before Park’s daughter called police to report her father missing, prompting a massive police search for him.

Kim said the ex-secretary said that Park sent her messages and photos that involved “harassment” and that she showed those to some of her friends, col-leagues and a local journalist. The woman said Park subjected her to unwanted “physical contact,” the lawyer said.

Kim’s news conference was the first of its kind since the allegations against Park were reported by local media when the police began their search for the mayor.

Police and Seoul’s city government didn’t immediately have official responses to the lawyer’s claims and refused multiple attempts to confirm

details in the complaint. Police have pre-viously confirmed that a complaint against Park was filed but have not given any details.

Kim’s office also refused request to contact Kim.

During the news conference, an activist read what she called a message by the former secretary.

“I was foolish. I have deep regrets. Yes, I should have screamed when it first happened, cried out and reported it,” the message said.

She was quoted as saying in the message that she found Park’s death “deeply disappointing” and hard to believe

Earlier Monday, the Seoul city gov-ernment held a funeral for Park with about 100 participants, a relatively small size given his prominence. Authorities cited coronavirus concerns for limiting participants, but some observers say opposition to a big, outdoor funeral was likely the reason.

11 dead in Afghanistan car bomb attackAFP — MAZAR-I-SHARIF

At least 11 security personnel were killed yesterday in an attack claimed by the Taliban on a rural office of Afghani-stan’s intelligence agency, offi-cials said.

The insurgents said a suicide bomber detonated a device inside a car near the National Directorate of Security (NDS) while gunmen stormed the building in Aybak city in the north of the country.

Abdul Latif Ibrahimi, gov-ernor of Samangan province, said 11 people were killed and 63 others, mostly civilians, were wounded in the explosion and gunfire.

The attack, which lasted for nearly four hours, ended after

security forces shot dead three armed men, the governor’s spokesman Sediq Azizi said.

“It was a huge explosion that broke all our windows,” said witness Haseeb, who only gave one name, a government employee who works near the NDS compound. “Many people have been wounded by flying pieces of glass.”

In recent months, the Taliban have carried out near-daily attacks against Afghan forces — even as the gov-ernment prepares to engage in peace talks with the militants aimed at ending the country’s decades-old war.

In two separate attacks on Sunday blamed on the Taliban, at least 19 security personnel were killed, officials said.

A group of 12 soldiers and police were killed in a seven-hour battle with Taliban fighters who attacked their outpost in the northern province of Kunduz, Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, the provincial council chief said.

Taliban forces have regu-larly attacked security forces in the northern province, often attempting to enter Kunduz city, which has briefly fallen twice to the militants in recent years.

In the second attack late Sunday in northeastern Bada-khshan, seven policemen were killed in fighting with Taliban fighters, Nik Mohammad, spokesman to the governor said. The Taliban claimed both attacks in Kunduz and Badakhshan.

Afghan security personnel inspect the site of a car bomb blast near the destroyed office building of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency in the city of Aybak, yesterday.

Infections on healthcare workers in Pakistan jump to over 6,000INTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in coronavirus infections amongst healthcare workers, growing to over 6,000 nationwide from 5,000, according to the ministry of national health services.

As per the ministry’s July 10 data, seen by Geo.tv, 6,025 healthcare providers have been sickened by the deadly virus. Of those ill, upwards to 61 per cent are doctors.

The number has shot up by a thousand in just two weeks, rising from 5,000 to 6,000 infected health professionals.

Healthcare workers are on the front lines of the coronavirus out-break in the country and have in the recent past complained of an influx of patients at public hospitals

and lack of protective gear to shield against the virus.

Medical workers are also at risk of contracting the infection due to being exposed to more viral particles.

The majority of medics who tested positive to date are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1,986, fol-lowed by Sindh, 1,752, Punjab, 1,100, Islamabad, 483, Balochistan, 451, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 139 and Gilgit-Baltistan, 114.

It is, however, unclear how accurate the tally is of the current sit-uation in hospitals as in Punjab, healthcare providers have not been tested since July 4, according to official documents from the province.

To date, 69 healthcare pro-viders have also died from the disease, of which majority, 26, have died in Sindh alone.

China hits US Senator, envoy with sanctions over XinjiangAFP — BEIJING

China yesterday slapped retal-iatory sanctions on three senior Republican lawmakers and a US envoy in a deepening row over Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs in the western Xinjiang region.

Some of the most out-spoken critics of China — Sen-ators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz along with Congressman Chris Smith — were targeted by the action, as well as the US ambassador-at-large for inter-national religious freedom, Sam Brownback.

The unspecified “corre-sponding sanctions” were announced days after the US imposed visa bans and asset freezes on several Chinese offi-cials, including the Communist Party chief in Xinjiang, Chen Quanguo, over rights abuses in the region.

The move was “in response to the US’s wrong actions”, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing.

“We urge the US to imme-diately withdraw its wrong decision, and stop any words and actions that interfere in China’s internal affairs and harm China’s interests,” she said.

“China will make a further response depending on the development of the situation.”

Sanctions will also be applied on the US Congres-sional-Executive Commission on China, an agency that mon-itors human rights in the Asian country.

The two countries have traded barbs and sanctions on

a slew of issues since President Donald Trump took office, from trade to more recent spats over the coronavirus pandemic, a security law in Hong Kong, and Chinese policies in the far west regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

Witnesses and human rights groups say that China has rounded up more than one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang in a vast brainwashing campaign aimed at forcibly homogenising minorities into the country’s Han majority.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week the United States was acting against “horrific and systematic abuses” in the western region including forced labour, mass detention and involuntary pop-ulation control.

China rejects the accusa-tions, but it has acknowledged sending Uighurs to “vocational education centres” to learn Mandarin and job skills in a bid to steer them away from ter-rorism and separatism fol-lowing a spate of deadly vio-lence in the fractious region.

“I have to point out that Xinjiang affairs are purely China’s internal affairs. The US has no right or basis to interfere,” Hua said yesterday.

China is “unwavering in its determination to fight against forces of violence and ter-rorism, forces of separatism, and that of religious extremism.”

“Its determination to oppose any external forces’ interference in Xinjiang affairs and China’s internal affairs is unwavering as well,” she added.

Walled City of Baku: A world cultural heritageBAKU, AZERBAIJAN

The Walled City of Baku, also known as Icherisheher (Inner City or Old Town) is the core of ancient Baku, the capital city of the medieval Azerbaijani state of Shirvanshahs.

As the historical and archi-tectural pearl of ancient Baku, it is an open sky museum, also called the Acropolis of Baku. With the development of the oil industry in Azerbaijan in late 19th century, the city expanded beyond the fortress walls and many buildings were con-structed outside the fortress walls, and Baku grew rapidly in size. The Walled City of Baku remained as a traditional resi-dential and historical centre coexisting with the surrounding city.

Icherisheher as the world heritage

Considering that this medieval city represents an out-standing and rare example of a historic urban ensemble and architecture, Unesco inscribed it on the World Heritage List in 2000, and it is being preserved under the auspices of Unesco as a historical-architectural reserve.

The splendour of Icher-isheher (Walled City of Baku) is

that it reflects a mixture of unique architectural monu-ments and the spatial urban planning with original street views. The historical city is still a vibrant city with residential areas housed by local communities.

The medieval street pattern creates a feeling of an endless maze that is perceived while walking within the city. Icher-isheher has retained the relative homogeneity of its architecture and urban pattern because of its exclusion from Baku’s dynamic urban development in the19th and 20th centuries. Icherisheher has preserved much of its defensive walls, which define the character of the property.

Monuments of Icherisheher

There are hundreds of his-torical-architectural structures in Icherisheher, a site no bigger than 22 ha, surrounded by the fortress walls. Four of these structures are of international and 28 of national significance.The remaining monuments (about 500) are of local value.

The most ancient mon-ument of Icherisheher is the Maiden Tower — symbol of the city of Baku. It is located in the heart of the Walled City of Baku and has a unique cylindrical form and distinctive interior. There are several theories about the history and purpose of the tower’s construction. According to some historians, people used the beacon tower for the purpose of sending alarm signals to other towers. There are also researchers who relate the history of the monument to ancient times, believing that the Maiden Tower goes back to the Zoroastrian period and was a Zoroaster cell, a fire-worship-per’s temple.

Another monument of uni-versal value, one of the pearls of Azerbaijan’s architecture, is the12th to 15th-century Shir-vanshahs’ Palace, located at the highest point of Icherisheher. It was the residence of the Shirvan governors. The Shirvanshahs’

Palace complex is composed of nine buildings: the Palace, the Divankhana (Courthouse), the Dervish’s Mausoleum, the Eastern Gate (Portal), the Palace Mosque, the Key-Qubad Mosque, the Palace Burial Vault, the Hammam (bathhouse) and the Ovdan (cistern).

Earlier monuments of Icherisheher include the Mohammed Mosque. It was built in 11th century. The cylin-drical minaret attached to the mosque ends on the top with a tracery muezzin balcony set on a stalactite cornice. A Quran aya is inscribed in Arabic with Cufic writing along the stalactite belt

on the upper part of the minaret. During Peter the Great’s marine expedition to Baku, by order of the Russian Fleet’s Admiral Matyushkin, artillery bom-bardment of the Palace from the sea caused serious damage to the monument. The top of the minaret was shattered, which is why the mosque is also called Siniqqala, broken tower.

Management of the Walled City of Baku

Icherisheher and its buffer zone, as designated by Presi-dential Decree No. 725 of 13 June 1998, are protected by the Law of the Republic of

Azerbaijan on the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Mon-uments, which among other clauses, forbids the destruction or alteration of registered mon-uments, regardless of whether they are in public or private ownership, without permission from a designated authority. In 2007, the Administration of State Historical-Architectural Reserve ‘Icherisheher’ was established as an institution responsible for the man-agement and conservation of the monuments within Icher-isheher and the entire archi-tectural and urban complex. for future generations.

The splendour of Icherisheher is that it reflects a mixture of unique architectural monuments and the spatial urban planning with original street views.

A view of Icherisheher, a historic city centre in Baku, Azerbaijan.

10 TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020EUROPE

EU preparing measures against China over HKREUTERS — BRUSSELS

The European Union is preparing countermeasures on China in response to Beijing’s new security law on Hong Kong, the EU’s top diplomat said yesterday, but envoys stressed the likely steps will not amount to economic sanc-tions.

Diplomats said there was broad support among EU member states for some action but tough measures were not being discussed in detail because of resistance from China’s closest trade partners in Europe, such as Hungary and Greece.

Like much of the West, the EU has denounced the decision by China’s parliament to pass national security legislation for the ex-British colony of Hong Kong despite an international outcry.

While European Com-mission President Ursula von der Leyen last month warned of “very negative conse-quences” for Beijing, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell detailed lighter measures after a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Brussels.

“We have agreed today to develop a coordinated European Union response to show support for Hong Kong’s

autonomy and civil society,” Borrell told a news conference after the meeting.

“This will comprise measures both at the European Union level and also measures falling on the member states national competencies in a coordinated approach,” Borrell said.

He said nothing specific had been decided but that EU foreign ministers had

discussed extending the EU’s export ban on “sensitive tech-nology” to Hong Kong.

Borrell was referring to any equipment or software that could be used for suppressing protests aimed at preserving Hong Kong’s autonomy granted under terms of its handover back to China by Britain in 1997.

EU governments could also review their extradition agree-ments with Hong Kong author-ities, review travel advice, increase scholarships for Hong Kong students and offer more visas to Hong Kongers, Borrell said.

Borrell said EU govern-ments could announce national steps separately, but the 27-nation bloc viewed its response as a package to be defined and made reality “in the coming days”.

Finland said it supported the idea of suspending extra-dition treaties with Hong Kong since the new security law meant detainees could be transferred to mainland China — where courts are controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

Earlier yesterday, Sweden publicly endorsed the measures first proposed by France and Germany and also supported by Denmark and the Netherlands.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right), and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte addressing a press conference after their meeting at the German governmental guest house in Meseberg, outside Berlin, yesterday.

European Union Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell

UK unveils post-Brexit border plans and ad campaignAFP — LONDON

Britain yesterday launched another Brexit advertising blitz and unveiled its first detailed proposals for managing the country’s borders after cutting ties with the European Union.

The campaign, aimed at future travellers to the bloc, businesses that trade with it, and EU citizens living in the UK, features adverts on television, radio and online.

The drive — “The UK’s new start: let’s get going” — follows similar publicity efforts last year before Britain formally ended its EU membership on January 31.

The country is currently in a standstill transition period until the end of the year as it

tries to negotiate a new trade deal with Brussels.

London has ruled out extending beyond December 31 despite a tight timeframe, talks being gridlocked in key areas and disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

The move has sparked alarm that almost half a century of economic integration with Europe and increasingly fric-tionless travel will end abruptly in a few months’ time.

But the government main-tains planning is on track.

A raft of proposed border measures, set out in a 206-page document, covers every aspect of trade with Europe, from the import and export of rough dia-monds to bottled drinking water. The blueprint confirms

the adoption of a staged approach to border enforcement over the first six months of 2021, with initial “light-touch” checks on goods from the bloc. Senior minister Michael Gove, charged with delivering Brexit smoothly, hailed the plans as “an important step which gives businesses the certainty and direction they need to prepare.

“It is time for our new start, time for us to embrace a new global destiny,” he told law-makers while unveiling the gov-ernment’s plans.

Adverts carrying a “check, change, go” strapline began appearing in newspapers yes-terday, and updated advice was given on government websites. Among the recommendations

are for travellers to get compre-hensive travel insurance and check their mobile phone roaming policy for increased charges. The announcement follows a government pledge of £705m ($890m) to prepare mainland borders with the EU post-Brexit. Plans for the frontier between British-run Northern Ireland, which will have a special trade status after Brexit, and the Republic of Ireland are due in the coming weeks.

There has been concern, even within the cabinet, that systems will not be ready, and businesses have repeatedly called for greater certainty about the new arrangements.

The EU warned earlier this month that Britain’s decision

not to extend the transition period meant “inevitable dis-ruptions” would occur immediately.

UK businesses that trade with the bloc are urged to prepare for changes regardless of any deal being struck, as the country was leaving the single market and customs union.

They now face various new bureaucratic hurdles, including making customs and safety and security declarations, and paying customs duties and sales taxes. That could see hundreds of millions of new customs dec-larations each year.

But the government said a new “computerised transit system” will handle them elec-tronically, backed by 500 new Border Force staff.

Kosovo President quizzed by war crimes prosecutorsAFP — THE HAGUE

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci arrived yesterday for ques-tioning by war crimes prose-cutors in The Hague, saying that “nobody can rewrite history” over his role in the 1990s war.

Thaci, 52, was indicted by a special tribunal in late June for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1998-99 con-flict with Serbia that won the province its independence.

Thaci and others are charged with being “criminally responsible for nearly 100 murders” in addition to other crimes against Serb, Roma and Kosovo Albanian victims while

he was leader of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

“Today I am here to respect what I dreamt and fought for, a free independent Kosovo based on equal rights, multi-ethnic society and rule of law,” Thaci told reporters outside the Kosovo Specialist Chambers.

“I am ready to face the new challenge and succeed for my son, my family, my people and my country. Nobody can rewrite history. This is a price of freedom.” Around two dozen Thaci supporters gathered outside the court for his arrival, chanting his name, holding up Kosovo flags and waving banners with slogans including

“Hashim is not simply a name — it is a symbol of an hon-ourable epoch.” A spokesman for the prosecutors at the court declined to comment on details of the questioning.

A number of Thaci’s former KLA colleagues have previously been interviewed by the court.

President since 2016 and prime minister before that, in recent years Thaci has taken part in talks aimed at normal-ising ties with Serbia, which still rejects the independence of its former province.

“Kosovo is a success story, I am very proud,” Thaci said before entering the heavily secured court building.

“I believe in peace through reconciliation and justice. I believe in dialogue and rela-tions with all nations.” A judge will decide later this year whether to formally charge Thaci, Kosovo’s most powerful politician. He has previously said he would resign if the charges were confirmed, insisting he is innocent.

He said on Sunday before his departure for The Hague that “our war was clean and just” and that “Kosovo was a victim”. “It’s true that we violated the laws of Slobodan Milosevic,” he said referring to Serbia’s former leader. But that was something he was proud of, he added.

Manhunt in Germany's Black Forest Police officers stand outside a wooded area on a road near Oppenau, southwestern Germany, yesterday, a day after a man threatened and disarmed police officers during an inspection and fled. In scenes reminiscent of the film “Rambo”, police in Germany’s Black Forest are hunting for a homeless man in combat gear and armed with a bow and arrow and other weapons. Several dozen officers and helicopters were deployed as the search entered its second day yesterday.

France agrees

¤8bn in health

worker pay rises

AFP — PARIS

The French government and unions signed an agreement yesterday giving over ¤8bn in pay rises for health workers, with the prime minister admitting the move was overdue in view of the coro-navirus pandemic.

During the peak of the out-break in France, people applauded every night health workers who in turn said that such gratitude rang hollow if it was not followed by con-crete steps.

The bulk of the package comprises ¤7.5bn ($8.5bn) for pay increases for nurses and careworkers, who will get an average monthly raise of ¤183.

There is also ¤450m for doctors intended to bolster wages for those who solely work in the public sector, a move aimed at luring them from more lucrative private clinics.

“No one can deny that this is a historic moment for our health system,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said after a signing ceremony that followed seven weeks of negotiations between government and unions.

“This is first of all recog-nition of those who have been on the front line in the fight against this epidemic,” he said.

“It is also a way of catching up the delay for each and every one — including perhaps myself — has their share of responsibility.” But some unions, including the hardline CGT, refrained from signing the accords, an indication that tensions over the issue may not be over.

Italy says migrant numbers on the surge again AFP — ROME

Italy is facing a surge in migrants, with arrivals almost one-third higher so far this year than last, interior ministry data showed yesterday.

The country, which is strug-gling to recover from a devas-tating coronavirus crisis that has killed nearly 35,000 people, is now seeing hundreds of migrants arrive at its shores every day — desperate people it says it cannot accomodate without help from other European countries.

This year, more arrivals are coming from Tunisia, with boats landing without assistance from the Italian coast guard or charity organisations.

Most migrants land on the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Sicily, while others make

it to southern parts of the mainland. More than 1,250 migrants arrived in the past three days, according to the latest ministry figures, which were released as Italy held a conference with EU and African nations on the ongoing crisis.

Ministry figures showed that a total of 8,988 migrants have reached Italy so far this year, compared with 3,165 for the same period in 2019, but far fewer than the 17,296 migrants who arrived over the same time span in 2018.

Yesterday, interior ministers from Algeria, France, Germany, Italy, Libya Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Spain and Tunisia met via video conference to “strengthen cooperation between law enforcement agencies” through police training and funding technical equipment.

Spanish court suspends local lockdown orderAFP — LERIDA, SPAIN

Catalan government officials were mulling action yesterday after a local court blocked a lockdown order confining 160,000 people to homes in a virus-hit area of northeastern Spain.

Faced with a rapidly rising number of infections in Segria — an area some 150 km west of Barcelona — the Catalan government on Sunday issued a stay-at-home order in and around the city of Lerida.

It was the first time such an order had been given since Spain’s state of emergency ended on June 21, drawing a line under one of the world’s toughest lockdowns.

Home to more than 200,000 people, the area saw cases increasing earlier this month, prompting regional officials to impose restrictions on July 4.

The situation worsened and on Sunday the Catalan government ordered 160,000 residents of the city and seven surrounding districts to stay at home from midnight.

But just hours later, the order was overturned by a judge who ruled it was illegal, saying such a restriction could only be imposed by the central government.

“The Lerida district court has decided not to ratify the measures because they are contrary to law,” tweeted the Catalan Supreme Court.

We have agreed today to develop a coordinated

European Union response to show support for Hong Kong’s autonomy and civil society.

‘EU may not reach recovery fund deal’AFP — BERLIN

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday it is unclear whether EU leaders will reach agreement on a ¤750bn pandemic recovery fund at this week’s summit, amid resistance from more frugal member states.

“The road that we have to tread is still rocky,” said Merkel ahead of Friday’s EU special summit. “I don’t know if we will reach an agreement.”

She stressed however that the recovery fund “must be

massive” and not cut down in size. “Because the task is enormous, the answer must also be huge,” she said, after hosting Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for talks.

“It must be particularly powerful in order to signal clearly that Europe wants to hold together in this difficult time. There is a political dimension to it”.

While the recovery fund was officially put forward by the European Commission, Merkel had drawn up the backbone of it along with

French President Emmanuel Macron.

The move to offer grants to the EU countries hardest hit by the pandemic, such as Italy, has smashed through long-held stereotypes of Germany as a “frugal” country.

Nevertheless, other northern member states have taken on the role of reining in spending.

Conte urged a quick deal. “We have to act swiftly, because history teaches us that the best reaction is not worth much if it comes too slowly.”

11TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Poland’s populist President narrowly wins re-electionAFP — WARSAW

Polish President Andrzej Duda has squeezed past his europhile rival to win re-election, official results showed yesterday, but the narrow victory puts his allies in the populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party government on the back foot.

The incumbent won a new five-year term with 51 percent in Sunday’s vote against War-saw’s liberal mayor Rafal Trza-skowski, who had promised to mend ties with the European Union.

Experts said the result means the governing PiS party, which has been criticised at home and abroad for contro-versial reforms of the judiciary seen as eroding democratic freedoms, will face a more con-fident opposition.

“It’s a small victory,” said Kazimierz Kik, a political expert from Kielce University.

“President Duda has won the election but the real success is for Rafal Trzaskowski and the opposition which has gained ground,” he said.

Anna Materska-Sosnowska,

a Warsaw University political scientist, said the high mobili-sation of young people for Trza-skowski pointed to “a new opposition force”.

But she warned there was also a “realistic” risk that Poland could begin to resemble Hungary, which has been accused of drifting towards authoritarianism under nation-alist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The government faces the immediate challenge of dealing with the fallout of the corona-virus pandemic, which is pushing Poland into a recession — the country’s first since the fall of communism three decades ago.

“Poland is split down the middle,” said Witold Orlowski, a professor at Warsaw Uni-versity of Technology Business School, predicting “a very dif-ficult period” ahead.

“On the one hand, even this slim victory is a PiS success and will allow it to continue to govern, at least technically,” Orlowski said.

“On the other hand the social and economic situation

will deteriorate and a large part of the electorate will blame the PiS.” On the foreign policy front, experts said Duda’s close ties with Donald Trump could also spell trouble ahead if the US President fails to win re-election in November.

Duda’s support was partic-ularly strong among older voters in rural areas and small towns and in the east of the country, while Trzaskowski has performed well with a younger electorate in larger cities and western regions on the border with Germany.

“The result of these elec-tions is a Poland divided in two with a not-so-rosy future, as it

will be difficult to ease the division and to restore the rela-tionship between the two sides,” analyst Kazimierz Kik told AFP.

The election had been due to be held in May but was delayed because of the pandemic.

Duda won the first round of voting on June 28 with 43.5 percent against 10 challengers, including Trzaskowski, who

came second with 30.4 percent.Ahead of Sunday’s run-off

vote, Trzaskowski campaigned hard to sway voters who backed other opposition candidates.

Four days before the first round, Duda became the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the start of the pan-demic and received praise from Trump for doing an “excellent job”.

Polish President Andrzej Duda talks to the media after the announcement of the first exit poll results, at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, on Sunday.

Coronavirus fatalities keep rising in BrazilANATOLIA — BUENOS AIRES

Brazil reported 631 more fatal-ities from the novel corona-virus over the past day, according to the Health Ministry figures released yesterday.

The total count of virus-borne deaths rose to 72,100 in the country.

A total of 24,831 more infections were confirmed across the Latin American country in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall tally to over 1.86 million.

The number of recoveries in the country passed 1.12 million.

Brazil, the world’s second worst-hit country by the pan-demic, is regarded as the epi-center of the outbreak in Latin America.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who recently contracted COVID-19, is accused of underestimating the threat of the virus.

Meanwhile, Bolivia’s economy minister said on Sunday that he tested positive for COVID-19, making him the fourth cabinet member with the virus, in addition to the country’s interim President who is in quarantine.

Economy Minister Oscar Ortiz joins the ranks of the ministers of health and mining, in addition to Anez’s chief of staff, all of whom are COVID-positive.

Ortiz, who was named the country’s new economy min-ister on Tuesday, released a video clip in which he said doctors admitted him to the hospital so his symptoms could be monitored.

Interim President Jeanine Anez has been at home in quarantine since she announced her positive test on Thursday. Her doctor has said she is asymptomatic.

“I send all my support to @OscarOrtizA,” Anez tweeted.

Argentina COVID-19 cases cross 100,000REUTERS — BUENOS AIRES

Argentina exceeded 100,000 cases of novel coronavirus infections on Sunday as it struggles to contain spiralling case rates despite a strict quar-antine imposed on the capital Buenos Aires and its surroundings.

The health ministry said 2,657 new cases confirmed overnight took the total to 100,166.

The South American country imposed a strict quar-antine in mid-March to stop the pandemic. It relaxed restric-tions slightly in May but then reinstated them in late June for

Buenos Aires and its sur-roundings due to a spike in cases. The death toll in Argentina from COVID-19, the illness caused by the corona-virus, is 1,845, a far cry from the 71,469 in Brazil by Sunday and the 11,682 in Peru.

But confirmed case numbers moved into four figures daily in early June and for the past four days have hit at least 3,000 daily.

Carla Vizzotti, deputy health minister, said the lockdowns would be maintained while hospitals continued to fill up.

“What we want to do is...decrease virus transmission and buy more time for the

health service to be able to respond,” she said.

Mauro Grossman, an intensive care doctor at Ezeiza Hospital in Buenos Aires, told Reuters he believed the peak was approaching. “We believe this peak will plateau and not decrease for a while,” he said.

“That is the most dangerous thing, being at peak for a long time, that is what is going to make beds fill up much faster and the intensive care beds get quickly occupied.”

Some 12.81 million corona-virus cases have been con-firmed worldwide, and 565,231 people have died, according to a Reuters count.

A file photo shows an aerial view of the empty 9 de Julio avenue in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Russia journalists protest ex-reporter’s jailingAP — MOSCOW

Moscow police yesterday detained more than a dozen journalists protesting the arrest and jailing of a former colleague on treason charges.

Police quickly rounded up the reporters who attempted to picket outside the Lefortovo pretrial detention facility where Ivan Safronov has been held since his arrest last Tuesday.

Safronov worked for a decade as a reporter covering military issues before becoming an adviser to the head of the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos. He is accused of

cooperating with Czech intelli-gence, allegations he has denied. Safronov’s lawyers said last week that the Federal Security Service (FSB) accused Safronov of passing sensitive information to Czech intelli-gence about Russian arms sales to the Middle East and Africa in 2017, when he worked as a cor-respondent for top Russian b u s i n e s s n e w s p a p e r Kommersant.

Yesterday, the FSB levelled charges against Safronov in Lefortovo, his lawyer Ivan Pavlov told reporters. He said the accusations lacked specifics, such as exactly what

information he passed to the Czechs and when it happened.

Safronov could face up to 20 years in prison if he is con-victed of treason. Safronov’s arrest sent shock waves through independent Russian media outlets, which dismissed the charges as absurd and mounted a campaign in his support.

Many former journalism colleagues alleged that the authorities may have wanted to take revenge for Safronov’s reporting that exposed Russian military incidents and opaque arms trade deals. Last year, the FSB reportedly opened an

inquiry following publication of an article by Safronov that claimed Russia had signed a contract with Egypt for the delivery of sophisticated Su-35 fighter jets. Kommersant later removed the report from its website, and no charges were filed. Roscosmos has said that Safronov didn’t have access to state secrets and that the charges didn’t relate to his work for the space corporation, which he joined in May.

Prior to that, Safronov worked for Kommersant for nearly a decade and for a year for another business daily, Vedomosti.

The incumbent won a new five-year term with 51 percent in Sunday’s vote against Warsaw’s liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who had promised to mend ties with the EU.

Ex-US envoy Richardson to meet Venezuela’s Maduro over prisonersAFP — WASHINGTON

Former US ambassador Bill Richardson will meet Vene-zuelan President Nicolas Maduro to seek the release of prisoners, his office said yesterday, a sharp contrast to the administration’s shunning of the leftist leader.

Richardson, “at the request of several American prisoners’ families, is travelling to Caracas

on a private humanitarian mission,” the former Demo-cratic politician’s office said.

He will “meet with Vene-zuelan President Nicolas Maduro to discuss the status of the American prisoners and other COVID-19 humanitarian issues,” the Richardson Center said on Twitter.

Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations and governor of New

Mexico who speaks Spanish flu-ently, has frequently embarked on missions to help US pris-oners, often to the unease of hawks in President Donald Trump’s administration.

The United States no longer recognizes Maduro as Vene-zuela’s president and has been trying unsuccessfully since early 2019 to oust the leftist leader, who presides over a crumbling e c o n o m y t h a t h a s

caused millions to flee. The administration has previously said that it will only speak to Maduro and his entourage about leaving power or about logistical issues, such as the status of the US embassy.

The State Department has voiced growing concern over the safety of six former execu-tives from the oil company Citgo — five of them dual US-Vene-zuelan nationals and one a US

resident. They were first arrested in November 2017 and accused of crimes including money laundering. Their fam-ilies scoff at the charges, saying that Maduro controls the judi-ciary and is notorious for corruption.

Roger Carstens, the US envoy for hostage affairs, said last month that all six men were “in mortal danger,” with several displaying symptoms in line

with COVID-19.Venezuela’s foreign min-

ister, Jorge Arreaza, countered that the authorities had respected their rights and accused the State Department of lying.

Richardson said last month that he had met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to seek the release of an American who was later freed to a State Department official.

Polarised North Macedonia votes amid virus surgeAFP — SKOPJE

North Macedonia heads to the polls tomorrow (Wednesday) to elect a government in the midst of a resurgence of coro-navirus cases, which has fuelled a bitter blame-game between rival camps.

The pandemic has heightened divides in a Balkan state whose acrimonious political scene has lurched from crisis to crisis in recent years.

On one side are the Social Democrats led by former prime minister Zoran Zaev, who is touting his success in ushering the country into Nato and getting a green light to start EU membership talks.

His right-wing rivals in VMRO-DPMNE, however, argue that the price of a name change was too high — Skopje added “North” to the country’s name last year in order to end a decades-old row with Greece, which claims exclusive rights to the name Macedonia for its own province.

While such identity debates may have been at the forefront of politics several months ago, the pandemic has changed the game, with the two sides trading accusations for the latest rise in virus cases.

For the past six months the country has been run by a shared caretaker Cabinet with members from both parties who have struggled to unite in the face of the crisis.

The interim government —which lacks a parliament — was only supposed to last until April, when a snap poll was originally scheduled.

The postponed vote is now being held amid a much larger wave of infections, which could dampen turnout.

After an initial outbreak was contained by mid-May, infections have sky-rocketed from the single digits to more than 150 daily, reaching nearly 8,000. More than 375 people have died in the country of around two million, the second highest death toll in the Western Balkans behind much larger Serbia.

Health authorities have issued special protocols for the election, including two days of early voting for infected patients and the infirm.

Opinion polls put the two main camps in a close contest with less than a quarter of the vote share each.

In previous years, the main party representing ethnic Alba-nians, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), has played a kingmaker role, giving it a seat in power for 16 out of the past 18 years. This time they have a new demand: naming their candidate as prime min-ister in exchange for an alliance. Composing around a quarter of the population, the Albanian minority has long complained of social and eco-nomic discrimination.

Russia may start

final trial of its

potential virus

vaccine in Aug

REUTERS — MOSCOW

A Russian institute developing one of the country’s potential coronavirus vaccines hopes to start its final stage testing in a small section of the general public in mid-August, the RIA news agency cited the insti-tute’s director as saying yesterday.

Globally, of 19 experi-mental COVID-19 vaccines in human trials, only two are in final Phase III trials — one by China’s Sinopharm and another by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. China’s Sinovac Biotech is set to become the third later this month. Early results from the first small-scale human trial of the vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow has shown it to be safe for use, according to a separate RIA report on Sunday.

“Around 14-15 August, I hope, the small amount of vaccine that we should be able to produce will enter public circulation,” Alexander Ginsburg, the institute’s director, was quoted as saying.

This will be equivalent to a Phase III trial, since people getting the vaccine will remain under supervision, RIA reported, citing Ginsburg.

Phase I and Phase II trials typically test the safety of a drug before it enters Phase III trials that test its efficacy on a bigger group of volunteers.

Human trials of the Gamaleya Institute’s vaccine began on June 18, with nine volunteers receiving one dose, and another nine testing the prospective booster dose.

The group did not expe-rience any significant side effects and is due to be released from hospital on Wednesday, RIA reported on Sunday, citing a director at the Sechenov University in Moscow where the trial took place. “Data currently available... shows the volun-teers to have developed an immune response to the coro-navirus vaccine,” the defence ministry, involved in the trials, was cited by RIA as saying.

12 TUESDAY 14 JULY 2020AMERICAS

Florida records 12,600 new COVID-19 casesREUTERS — WASHINGTON

Florida recorded more than 12,600 new coronavirus cases yesterday, its second-highest daily total since the outbreak began, coinciding with the state’s attempt to revive tourism and attract visitors to the recently reopened Disney World.

Florida along with Arizona, California and Texas have emerged as the new US epi-centers of the pandemic in recent weeks. Infections have risen rapidly in about 40 of the 50 states over the last two weeks, according to a Reuters analysis.

The latest numbers emerged hours after President Donald Trump took swipes at health experts in his gov-ernment leading the US response to the pandemic and his relationship further frayed with top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.

In the early morning, Trump retweeted accusations by a former game show host that “everyone is lying,” including the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the lead agency in the pan-demic response.

“The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19.

Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust,” Chuck Woolery wrote on Sunday night, without pro-viding evidence.

On Sunday, Florida reported a record increase of more than 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours.

If Florida were a country, that would rank it fourth in the world for the most new cases in a day, behind the United States, Brazil and India, according to a Reuters analysis.

The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Florida is quickly rising, with over 500 new patients in the past 24 hours raising to 8,000 the number in hospitals, according to a state agency.

Across Florida, 47 hospitals reported their intensive care units (ICUs) were completely

full, including eight hospitals in the Miami-Dade County hot spot.

No hospital ICUs were full in Orange County, Florida, where Disney World welcomed the public on Saturday for the first time since March. Guests must wear masks, undergo temperature checks and keep physically apart.

The Republican President, seeking re-election in November, has been increasingly critical of government health officials and their guidance as a steady rise in infections threatens the easing of shutdown restrictions across the country.

Doctors and the CDC have pleaded with the public to wear masks to limit the spread of the virus, but the issue has become politically divisive in the United States unlike many other coun-tries that have seen far lower rates of infection and death.

Seven months into the pan-demic, Trump wore a mask for the first time in public when he visited a Washington DC-area military medical center on Saturday.

He had previously refused to wear a mask in public or ask Americans to wear face cov-erings, saying it was a personal choice.

Sailors and Federal Firefighters combating a fire onboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard at Naval Base San Diego, on Sunday.

Fire still burning on US Navy ship, 57 hurtAP — SAN DIEGO, US

Firefighters were still battling a blaze yesterday on a Navy combat ship that injured at least 57 people and sent acrid smoke billowing over San Diego.

The fire began on Sunday morning aboard the USS Bon-homme Richard, apparently in a vehicle storage area as the ship was in a berth undergoing maintenance, according to Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck.

Initially, 17 sailors and four civilians were reported injured but the number had grown to 57 and five remained hospi-talized for observation, the US

Navy said yesterday.Firefighters attacked the

flames inside the ship while firefighting vessels with water cannons directed streams of seawater into the ship and hel-icopters made water drops.

“Sailors across this water-front are absolutely doing a magnificent job,” Sobeck said on Sunday.

He said there was no ord-nance on board, and while the ship holds a million gallons (3.7 million liters) of fuel, it was “well below” any heat source.

About 160 sailors and officers were on board when an explosion and flames sent up a

huge plume of dark smoke from the 840-foot (255-meter) amphibious assault vessel, which has been docked at Naval Base San Diego. That’s far fewer than the thousand typically on the ship when it’s on active duty, said Mike Raney, a spokesman for Naval Surface Force, US Pacific Fleet.

All crew members were accounted for, said Admiral Mike Gilday, chief of naval operations. The San Diego Air Pollution Control District warned that concentrations of fine particulate matter could reach unhealthful levels in some areas.

Canada, US likely to extend ban on non-essential travel REUTERS — OTTAWA

Canada and the United States are set to extend a ban on non-essential travel that was imposed to fight the corona-virus outbreak, although a final decision has not been taken, two Ottawa sources familiar with the matter said yesterday.

The ban, introduced in March, has been extended several times and is due to expire on July 21. The measure does not include trade.

Infections have risen rapidly in about 40 of the 50 US states over the last two weeks, according to a Reuters analysis, and the premiers of major

Canadian provinces say the frontier must remain shut.

Although some US politi-cians in northern states are pressing for the measures to be relaxed, the Ottawa sources said the extension was virtually inevitable given the seri-ousness of the crisis in the United States.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier told reporters talks between the two nations on the ban were continuing and said, “We will have more to say later this week, I’m sure.”

Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, Canada’s most pop-ulous province, yesterday said the situation in Florida was “staggering” and “scary.”

The chief medical officer in the Pacific province of British

Columbia said last week there was no chance of non-essential

travel with the United States this summer, given how widespread the virus was south of the border.

Trudeau said on July 8 that Canada had handled the out-break better than the United States, in a rare public comment on the faltering US effort.

The United States — which has a population almost nine times larger than Canada’s — has recorded more than 135,000 deaths compared to 8,783 in Canada.

Trudeau also said he had talked to US President Donald Trump earlier yesterday and reiterated his opposition to the possible imposition of tariffs on Canadian aluminum exports.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a news conference at Rideau Cottage, in Ottawa, Ontario, yesterday.

Actress Kelly Preston dies of breast cancer at 57REUTERS — WASHINGTON

American actress Kelly Preston who has appeared in films including “Jerry Maguire” and “Twins”, has died aged 57 after battling breast cancer for nearly two years, her husband, John Travolta, announced in an Instagram post late on Sunday.

“It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beau-tiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer,” the 66-year-old “Grease” actor said in his post.

“Kelly’s love and life will always be remembered. I will be taking some time to be there for my children who have lost their mother, so

forgive me in advance if you don’t hear from us for a while”, Travolta wrote.

Born Kelly Kamalelehua Smith in Honolulu on October 13, 1962, she changed her name

to Kelly Preston before securing her first film role in the 1985 romcom “Mischief,” then appeared in another teen comedy, “Secret Admirer”.

In the next few years Preston starred in films such as “SpaceCamp” and then “Twins” with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.

In “Jerry Maguire”, she played Tom Cruise’s fiancee Avery Bishop, then co-starred opposite Kevin Costner in “For Love of the Game”.

Preston last starred in the 2018 film “Gotti” in which she played Victoria Gotti, the wife of Mafia boss John Gotti, who was portrayed on screen by Travolta.

Travolta, star of the hit dance movies “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease”, met Preston in 1988 when they appeared together in a film called “The Experts”. They married on September 5, 1991, in Paris.

Preston is survived by her husband and their children —daughter Ella, 20, and 9-year-old son Benjamin.

Their son Jett died at age 16 in January 2009 during a family vacation in the Bahamas.

“I have never met anyone as courageous, strong, beautiful and loving as you,” her daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, wrote in a tribute posted on Instagram.

Kelly Preston at 71st Cannes Film Festival, France, on May 15, 2018.

George Floyd portrait in BrooklynTerrence Floyd (centre back), George Floyd’s brother, together with Democratic Representative Yvette Clarke, New York state Senator Roxanne Persaud, Attorney Sanford Rubenstein, Crisis Action Center President Rev. Kevin McCall, community advocate Mercedes Narcisse, and United Haitian Alliance representatives attends the unveiling of artist Kenny Altidor’s memorial portrait of George Floyd — who died on May 25 in Minneapolis with police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes — painted on a storefront sidewall of a supermarket in Brooklyn, New York, yesterday.

Mexico now has 4th highest coronavirus death tollREUTERS — MEXICO CITY

Deaths in Mexico from the coronavirus pandemic rose above 35,000 on Sunday, with the Latin American country overtaking Italy for the world’s fourth-highest death total, according to Reuters data.

But leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday that the pandemic was “losing intensity” in Mexico, and blamed what he called “conservative media” for causing alarm.

Mexico on Sunday recorded 276 additional fatalities and 4,482 new infections to bring its coronavirus death toll to 35,006, with 299,750 con-firmed cases. Italy has recorded 34,954 deaths and 243,061 cases. Mexico trails the United States, Brazil and the UK in total deaths.

While Italy appears to have tamed the virus, the pandemic is showing few signs of easing

in Mexico, where the gov-ernment has faced criticism for reopening its economy too soon. Lopez Obrador said he was briefed on the pandemic this past week and was optimistic.

“The report is positive, good. The conclusion is that the pandemic is going down, that it is losing intensity,” he said in a video message. Lopez Obrador also backed Hugo Lopez-Gatell, Mexico’s deputy health minister and corona-virus czar, after criticism of his handling of the crisis.

Lopez-Gatell has kept revising his projections for total fatalities and as recently as June forecast up to 35,000 deaths through October. In early May, the estimate was 6,000.

The coronavirus death toll per million residents in Mexico, whose population numbers about 120 million, is the 16th highest in the world, according to data by Statista.

Trudeau sorry for

‘mistake’ amid

charity uproar

REUTERS — OTTAWA

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized yesterday for taking part in a Cabinet decision to use a charity he and his family have worked with to administer a $900m ($663.4m) student grant program.

Trudeau, 48, is facing a third investigation for conflict of interest in a little over three years after his government tapped WE Charity Canada on June 25 to manage the program. The charity backed out about a week after the contract was announced.

“I made a mistake in not recusing myself immediately from the discussions, given our family’s history, and I’m sin-cerely sorry about not having done that,” Trudeau said in a news conference.

It is the second time in less than a year that the Prime Minister has apologized pub-licly for his actions in a live, nationally televised news con-ference. The first time was in September after decades-old images of him in blackface emerged.

“I was very aware that members of my family had worked with and contributed to the WE organization, but I was unaware of the details of their remuneration,” he said.

Trudeau and his wife have regularly participated in WE Charity events.

Costa Rica to start talks with IMF over loan, says President

REUTERS — SAN JOSE

Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado said on Sunday the Central American nation will begin negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to access a financial aid package to help offset the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The President did not discuss the size of the package but local media reports, citing central bank sources, said aid to Costa Rica would be about $2.25bn.

The standby arrangement (SBA) would bring in funds to offset diminishing gov-ernment revenue as the 2020 deficit looks set to exceed 9.7% of the gross domestic product, the Costa Rican finance ministry said.

“The extreme situation that COVID-19 has generated makes this agreement with the Fund essential to maintain the country’s eco-nomic stability in the coming years,” the President said Sunday on nat ional television.

The President said that it is still early to know what Costa Rica’s commitments will be, but that they would include measures to reduce spending, increase revenue and make public man-agement more efficient.

“These details will be dis-cussed not only with the IMF, but also with key political actors such as the Legislative Assembly,” he added.

As of Sunday, Costa Rica had registered 7,596 corona-virus infections and 30 deaths.

The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalised in Florida is quickly rising, with over 500 new patients in the past 24 hours raising to 8,000 the number in hospitals.