Premier League: to attract FDI, Man Utd fi re past ...

US deployment to Afghanistan raised

Amir congratulatesPakistan president

Youth DevelopmentIndex: Qatar ranked2nd in Arab world

8 killed in fi refi ghting plane crash in Turkey

US President Joe Biden yesterday increased the number of American troops being sent to Afghanistan to help evacuate embassy personnel and Afghan civilians, and warned the Taliban, who were headed for Kabul, not to hinder the mission. After consultations with his national security team, Biden said a total of “approximately 5,000” US soldiers - up from 3,000 - will now be deployed to organise evacuations and the end of the US mission after 20 years on the ground. Biden again defended his decision to withdraw the US military from Afghanistan. Page 8

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani sent yesterday cables of congratulations to Pakistan President Dr Arif Alvi on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day. HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz al-Thani also sent a similar cable of congratulations to Prime Minister Imran Khan. (QNA)

The Youth Aff airs Department at the Ministry of Culture and Sports has announced that Qatar made progress in the Youth Development Index 2020, ranking second in the Arab world and 32nd globally. The index is issued by The Commonwealth Association and measures the status of young people in 181 countries around the world. Qatar achieved a great progress in the new index, advancing 43 places at the global level and two levels at the Arab level. Commenting on the occasion, HE the Minister of Culture and Sport Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali congratulated the youth on the achievement, expressing pride of the youth energies in the state. The minister said that the achievement is the fruit of the eff orts exerted by the youth in the service of their society and their homeland, and their active participation in the youth centres and sports clubs. To Page 4

Turkey battled disaster on two fronts yesterday with eight people dying when a firefighting aircraft crashed and rescuers racing to find survivors of flash floods in the north that have killed at least 55. Ankara and Moscow announced that all eight people on the Russian plane had perished on the fire-fighting mission. Page 11

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978SUNDAY Vol. XXXXII No. 12006

August 15, 2021Muharram 7, 1443 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

Premier League: Man Utd fi re past Leeds as Chelsea, Liverpool cruise

SPORT | Page 1BUSINESS | Page 1

Qatar ‘well-positioned’ to attract FDI, stimulate business sector, say experts

FM urges Talibanto adopt ceasefi re,aim for politicalAfghan solutionQNADoha

HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Min-ister of Foreign Aff airs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met yester-

day with Head of the Political Offi ce of the Tali-ban Movement Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and his accompanying delegation.

The meeting dealt with reviewing the latest developments in Afghanistan at the security and political levels, in addition to following up on the Afghan peace talks taking place in Doha.

HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs, during the meeting, called on Taliban to de-escalate and agree to a ceasefi re, to contribute to eff orts aimed at speeding up the process aimed at reaching a comprehensive political resolution that guarantees a prosperous future for Afghanistan’s government and people.

Qatar, in co-operation with the United Na-tions and international partners, continues its eff orts that have been ongoing for many years to establish peace, security, and stability in Af-ghanistan.

Doha has also hosted last week an expanded international meeting on Afghanistan, that was crowned with an agreement by the participants on a number of positions including the impor-tance of accelerating the peace process, nego-tiations over tangible proposals from the two Afghan sides, in addition to working on rebuild-ing trust, ending violence between the two sides, and respecting international law.

The participants also stressed that they will not recognise any government in Afghanistan that is imposed using military force.

Reuters adds from Kabul: Taliban forces captured a major city in northern Afghanistan yesterday, sending Afghan forces fl eeing, and

drew closer to Kabul, where Western countries scrambled to evacuate their citizens from the capital.

The fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, confi rmed by a provincial council offi cial, was another impor-tant capture for the militants, who have swept through the country in recent weeks as US-led forces withdrew. Kabul and Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan, are now the only big cities not in Taliban hands.

The United States and Britain are now rushing several thousand troops back into the country to evacuate citizens amid concern Kabul could soon be overrun.

Security forces from Mazar-i-Sharif were es-caping towards the border, Afzal Hadid, head of the Balkh provincial council, told Reuters.

“The Taliban have taken control of Mazar-I-Sharif,” he said. “All security forces have left Mazar city.” The city appeared to have fallen largely without a fi ght, although sporadic clash-es were continuing nearby, he said.

Earlier in the day, Taliban seized a town south of Kabul that is one of the gateways to the capi-tal.

Many Afghans have fl ed from the provinces to the capital, driven out by fi ghting and fearful of a return to hardline Islamist rule , as resistance from Afghan government forces crumbles.

As night fell on Saturday, hundreds of people were huddled in tents or in the open in the city, by roadsides or in carparks, a resident said.

President Ashraf Ghani held talks with local leaders and international partners but gave no sign of responding to a Taliban demand that he resign as a condition for any ceasefi re.

His focus was “on preventing further insta-bility, violence, and displacement of my peo-ple”, he said in a brief televised address, add-ing that security and defence forces were being consolidated. Page 11

HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met with Head of the Political Office of Taliban in Doha yesterday.

227 killed as major quake rocks Haiti

ReutersPort-au-Prince

A major earthquake killed at least 227 people in southwestern Haiti yesterday, reducing churches, hotels and homes to rubble in the latest tragedy to hit the impoverished Caribbean nation already mired in humanitarian and political crises.The 7.2-magnitude quake, which was followed by a series of aftershocks, struck 8km from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, about 150km west of

the capital Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10km, the USGS said.That made the temblor which was felt as far away as Cuba and Jamaica potentially bigger and shallower than the magnitude 7 earthquake 11 years ago that killed tens of thousands in the poorest nation in the Americas.This one - which occurred around 8.30am local time - hit farther away from the capital, however. In Port-au-Prince, it was strongly felt but did not appear to have caused major damage, meaning there will likely be fewer fatalities than the devastating 2010 disaster.

The nearest big town was Les Cayes, with a population of around 126,000, where many buildings collapsed or suff ered major damage, according to authorities, who said they were searching for survivors in the rubble.Prime Minister Ariel Henry declared a month-long state of emergency.In Les Cayes, locals said water had briefly flooded the coastal town, causing panic amid fear of a tsunami, but then appeared to retreat. Haitian media outlets reported some people along the coast had already fled to the mountains. Page 8

A view of a collapsed building following the earthquake, in Les Cayes, Haiti, yesterday.

Workers’ vaccination centrepasses 1mn doses milestoneQNADoha

Qatar’s Vaccination Center for Business and Industry Sector has administered more than one million doses of the coro-

navirus vaccine since it opened its doors in June.Located near Asian Town in Mesaimeer, the

Qatar Vaccination Center for Business and In-dustry Sector has more than 300 stations and a capacity to administer more than 25,000 doses a day.

The vaccination facility, one of the largest vaccination centres in the world, is the result of a unique collaboration between the Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corporation, Pri-mary Health Care Corporation and Qatar Char-ity, with support from the Ministry of Interior and ConocoPhillips-Qatar.

Dr Khalid Abdulnoor, who is Senior Con-sultant Emergency Medicine at Hamad Med-ical Corporation and lead for the Qatar Vac-cination Center for Business and Industry Sector, said his team were proud to reach this milestone.

“This centre is playing an important role in continuing to support the safe roll-out of Qa-tar’s phased plan to lift Covid-19 restrictions by ensuring that service workers have access to the vaccine and are protected,” he said.

“We are proud to have reached this milestone and we are committed to vaccinating as many eligible members of our community as possible to help us get back to normal.”

Dr Abdulnoor reminded the community that the Vaccination Center for Business and Indus-try Sector operated on an appointment-based system.

“The Covid-19 Vaccination Scheduling Unit is set up to support the booking and appointment process at the vaccination centre. People will only be seen with an appointment; we do not ac-cept walk-ins,” he said.

90% of eligible population gets Covid-19 vaccineThe Ministry of Public Health yesterday announced that 90% of Qatar’s eligible population (12 years and above) have now received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine. This amounts to 77.9% of the total population of the country. So far 4,076,666 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been given since the start of the National Vaccination Programme.

31st Doha Int’l Book Fairto be held in Jan 2022

The 31st Doha International Book Fair will be held from January 13- 22, 2022, the Qa-

tar Cultural and Heritage Events Center (QCHEC), the organiser of the event, announced yesterday.

The United States of America (USA) will be the guest of honour of the upcoming international event as part of the Qatar-USA 2021 Year of Culture, and according to a tradition that have been introduced since 2010 by selecting a country to be the guest of honour of the event, where USA was the fi rst guest of honour followed by Turkey, Iran, Japan, Brazil, Ger-many, and France at the 30th round.

The organising committee said registration for participation in the fair will start today and continue until November 1, 2021, while No-vember 18 will be the deadline for paying the participation fees, and November 15 will be the deadline for submitting the passports of the rep-resentatives of the participants.

Receiving the cargoes of books will start on September 15, 2021 and January 2, 2022 will be the last date for receiving them. Stalls have to be cleared by January 23.

Qatar Cultural and Heritage Events Center at the Ministry of Culture and Sports has formed a number of executive committees for organising the event including the technical and the culture commit-tees, besides, the management of in-

stitutional communications and the events management committee.

The application for participation by the publishing houses, cultural organisations, research institutes, societies, universities, the interna-tional organisations and the min-istries could be made through the website of the book fair at www.dohabookfair.qa . Submitting an ap-plication indicates that the applicant accepts the terms and conditions for participation mentioned on the website.

However, the management of the fair has the right to accept or reject any application without showing any reason and without any liabilities. All participating entities should have a valid publishing or distribution li-cence and its publications should not be less than 50 titles. To Page 4

2 Gulf TimesSunday, August 15, 2021

QATAR

Al Khor expansion project for workers sees 98% occupancyWaseef, the leading

real estate manage-ment and marketing

company, has announced that the Al Khor Workers Recreation Expansion Project has achieved 98.6% occupancy.

A press statement issued by Waseef said the project is one of the pioneering development projects developed by Barwa Real Estate Group and it’s implement-ed with the aim of raising the standard of living of the work-force in the country.

The project, which has a ca-pacity of 3,000 workers, is lo-cated in the Al Khor Industrial Area, and extends over a land area of 69,757sq m, and includes 516 one- and two-room apart-ments, in addition to a hyper-market with an area of 7,962sq m, and a multi-purpose hall with an area of 300sq m. The project also includes all the necessary infra-structure such as a sub-electric-ity station, internal roads, and all required services such as water, electricity, sewage, irrigation, communications, surveillance cameras, internal roads, parking lots, and pump rooms with tanks for water, fi re and gas.

Waseef explained that the oc-cupancy rates in this pioneering project amounted to 98.6% as the housing units were leased to national companies operating in various sectors in accordance with Barwa Real Estate Group’s strategy that aims to improve the quality of life and improve the living life of all categories of expatriate workers. This is done by providing housing units with specifi cations in areas close to the working areas while meeting all there requirements.

Waseef explained that the hypermarket in this project was leased to a well-known entity and will be opened soon. In ad-dition, Waseef provides many

services in this project. These include providing maintenance for all systems and buildings, and security guards service. These are in addition to provid-ing cleaning services on an on-going and periodic basis as well as continuously monitoring se-curity and emergency systems in order to ensure the best possible environment for the benefi ciar-ies of the project.

The project that aims to raise the standard of living for work-ers by providing integrated rec-reational and sports facilities includes four cricket pitches, four football grounds, three vol-leyball courts, four basketball courts, and four kabaddi courts. These are in addition to a super-market, 35 shops, two outdoor cinemas and a mosque along with various public services. The project’s sports facilities are also used on several occasions by several government agencies and private companies.

Waseef noted that the occu-pancy rate of the shops in this project has reached 35% and that the supermarket is leased to one of the parties while the cin-emas will be operated by Waseef management.

Waseef added that the con-tinuous work by the relevant government agencies to pro-vide international quality roads

in the city of Al Khor and link them with the main highways in its neighbourhoods, helped the project get linked to many im-portant facilities and vital main roads. This provides fl exible traf-fi c for residents in the project in addition to easy access to many vital areas and facilities in all re-gions of the country in an easy, fast and safe manner.

The project that aims to raise the standard of living for workers by providing integrated recreational and sports facilities.

‘Volunteers can play a crucial

role in organising Shura polls’

Volunteers and voluntary organisations should be utilised in the upcoming

Shura Council elections to en-hance the overall process through the various services they could off er, a number of Qatari citizens have pointed out.

Speaking to local Arabic daily Arrayah, they said that there are various tasks that could be undertaken by the volunteers in the upcoming Shura Council elections, building on their suc-cessful experiences at the vari-ous local, regional and interna-tional sports, health and cultural events hosted by Qatar.

Accordingly, they pointed out that a selected group of young people should be chosen to take part on the voting day to be trained and equipped with the necessary skills and information to be able to guide the voters in order to maintain a smooth poll-ing process.

Hamad al-Hajiri stressed the importance of volunteers in or-ganising the upcoming Shura Council elections as they have played key roles in the suc-cess of various major events in the country. He asked the enti-ties concerned in the country to start accepting volunteers for this purpose and train them ac-cordingly, equipping them with the necessary skills to handle

the inquiries of the voters. Fur-ther, he suggested that some ki-osks should be introduced at the major shopping malls across the country to further introduce the process to the people.

Saleh al-Dossari pointed out that young Qataris are active participants in public service as throughout the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic as they played a major role as volunteers with Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) in stemming the spread of the disease. Their expertise could be utilised for the upcoming elec-tions and the young people could volunteer to off er various related public services.

Khalid al-Shajira said that

young people in the country are in an excellent position to invest their potential in voluntary work drawing on their past experience. He urged qualifi ed young people to play an active role in making the upcoming elections a success through enhancing public aware-ness on the related issues.

Sultan al-Kuwari said that the people taking part in the organi-sation of the voting and elec-tion processes would refl ect the spirit of national solidarity and fi delity. He said that as the Shu-ra Council is a new experience in the country, the participation of volunteers in organising and in-troducing the process would be key to its success.

MoI awareness seminar on Metrash2 and e-services

The Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), in association with the General Directorate of Information Systems, will hold an awareness seminar today on Zoom, focusing on Metrash2 and e-services provided by the ministry. The virtual seminar will be held from 9.30am-11am. According to an off icial MoI press statement, off icials from the General Directorate

of Information Systems will participate. The webinar will highlight the features of Metrash2 application, terms and conditions to activate Metrash2 and multiple services of the departments under the MoI available in the application. Off icers will also speak about E-Wallet, the new window added in the Metrash2 and details regarding national address. The targeted audience of this seminar are

the admin, HR, finance, safety and security managers and PROs of the public and private companies and schools and the heads, representatives of expat communities. Members of the public also can attend the seminar. The Zoom meeting ID for the webinar is 618 675 4109 & Passcode: 12345. The webinar will be presented in Arabic with English translation.

QATAR3Gulf Times

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Barwa Real Estate projects in industrial cities meet workers’ needs

The segment of workers, one of the key partners in the urban and economic

processes in the state, enjoys a unique standing in the invest-ments of the Barwa Real Estate Group. Barwa ensures the com-mitment of the group to its com-munity responsibility towards this segment through the devel-opment of projects that provide them with all real estate solu-tions in obtaining high-ranking housing.

These projects also provide all living facilities and services that meet their all needs and inspira-tions to embody the real mean-ing of sustainable labour cities

concept, in accordance with the international standards of the worker housing, which ensures their enjoyment of a decent resi-dential environment to achieve the objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030.

Due to the great development of energy projects, Barwa Group developed real estate projects for the working segment in Ras Laf-fan, Mesaieed, and Dukhan in-dustrial cities to keep pace with the urban development plans of these cities that ensure the en-hancement of community sus-tainability therein.

These projects include the Ras Laff an industrial city workers’

accommodation project, which consists of 560 residential units for workers and 128 residential units for employees. In addition, it developed four more buildings for senior and junior employees and another two-storey building for dining halls, mosque, and a commercial building.

The Mesaieed workers’ ac-commodation project services the energy industrial areas lo-cated south of Qatar. This project consists of 1,733 residential units and meets all aspects of work-ers’ quality of life, as it provides many services and facilities, such as Wi-Fi and TV networks, pri-mary care, kitchens, dining halls,

outdoor gym, a supermarket, in-door and outdoor spaces for oth-er activities, and a mosque.

The Workers’ Zekreet village, located in Dukhan city, consists of 200 residential units for work-ers and 48 residential units for junior employees. This project keeps pace with the growth of the projects located in the western area of Qatar.

Waseef Company, a subsidi-ary of the group and one of the leading companies in the fi eld of real estate, facilities, and as-sets management, manages these projects and provides them with all diverse services, such as secu-rity and safety services, general

cleaning, and periodic mainte-nance works to maintain a suit-able environment that meets the requirements of workers and companies.

These projects are part of the innovative solutions off ered by the Barwa Real Estate Group to address the challenges of Qa-tar’s economic boom, which has contributed to bringing in large numbers of workers from major companies implementing large projects, as well as to the imple-mentation of the group’s com-munity promises to set up devel-opment projects that serve the real-life needs of the labour force in Qatar.

Barwa Group developed real estate projects for the working segment in Ras Laff an, Mesaieed, and Dukhan industrial cities to keep pace with the urban development plans of these cities.

QRCS distributes hygiene materials to municipality, cleaning workers

The Volunteering and Lo-cal Development Division of Qatar Red Crescent

Society (QRCS) has distributed hygiene materials to 2,000 mu-nicipality and cleaning workers.

This was, according to an offi -cial QRCS press statement, in co-ordination with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment’s (MME) Mechanical Equipment Department.

Done in conformity with all coronavirus preventive meas-ures, the distribution of hy-giene materials is part of the ‘Your Health Is a Priority’ ini-tiative of the ‘Stand Together’ programme, a social welfare scheme for expatriate work-ers in Qatar. It is aimed at im-proving the health condition of labourers, better integrating them into the community, and encouraging them to observe hygiene standards, in particu-lar during the summer. And this comes at a time when the pandemic, though coming to an end, still requires concerted ef-

forts to restore life to normality.Nasser Malallah al-Malki,

head of the volunteers section at QRCS, said that this is a joint activity with the MME to pro-mote hygiene practices among workers, which would be good for them and for the community at large.

“Expatriate workers are among the top priorities on our local development agenda, es-pecially amid such a universal

emergency. Here in Qatar, things are going back to normal step by step, so we need to keep observ-ing the coronavirus preventive measures,” al-Maliki said.

“Even though restrictions are being eased, this remains a health emergency,” he added. “We have to raise awareness among the public regarding hygiene prac-tices, which are key to protection of diff erent diseases, particularly in summer.”

QRCS has distributed hygiene materials to 2,000 municipality and cleaning workers.

Dukhan Bank announces August draw winners of Thara’a prize

Dukhan Bank has an-nounced the names of the most recent round of draw

winners for Thara’a, its Shariah-compliant savings account, at the bank’s headquarters.

Ibrahim Khan and Sedreya al-Abdulla each won a cash prize of QR10,000. Also, a cash prize worth QR5,000 was awarded to Farouk Hamze, Loai Altawil, Abdulmajeed Alyafei, Abdul-lah Karaminejad, Saif al-Ku-wari, Bashar Jaser, Belal Atout, Bheemappa Khot, Hirok Dutta, Yazan Kaddoura, Adam Khan, Husam Alramahi, Abdulla al-Hajri, Barakah Alreshidi, Nidal Dweik, Mohamed al-Malki, Ab-dulrahman Fakhroo, Sahar Kar-dia, Kamarunnisa Faizal, Hus-sain al-Mulla, Alanoud Alenazi, Ahmed al-Darwish, Zalina Za-imah, Mohamed al-Malki, Ali Salatt, Jamal al-Mohammadi, Layan Aljerf, Abdulfatah She-hada, Dina Ramadan, Ebrahim al-Muftah, Lamia Amor, Kha-

lid al-Sulaiti, Khalid Eldoues, Tamim al-Abdulla, Saeed al-Jaber, Maryam Alabduljabbar, Zahid Ansari, Abdulla al-Malki, Saeed Mubarak A A al-Sulaiti, Intisar Alali, Faisal Tariq, Faisal Alsharafi , and Sharifa al-Mulla. The draw was conducted under the supervision of a representa-tive of the Qualitative License and Market Control Department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

On a monthly basis, there are 42 winners per draw for the cash prize of QR5,000 each, as well as two winners per draw for the cash prize of QR10,000. Quarterly, there are two win-ners per draw for the cash prize of QR25,000 each, two winners per draw for the cash prize of QR50,000 each, and yearly, one winner of the grand prize of QR1mn, rewarding 365 winners in total with cash prizes up to QR3.29mn.

Coupled with cash prizes

and a reward scheme, Thara’a is a product full of value-added benefi ts and services. Thara’a off ers account holders access to Dukhan Bank’s innovative bank-

ing channels. The many benefi ts of Thara’a savings account are available at www.dukhanbank.com or via contact centre at 800 8555.


QATAR

Paraguayan off icials attending the delivery of Qatari medical aid at Asuncion International Airport.

Vodafone off ers customers gifts for pre-ordering new Samsung Galaxy Z SeriesVodafone Qatar announced yesterday

that next-generation all-new Sam-sung Galaxy Z Series is now available

for pre-order for customers in Qatar. Customers will get gifts worth up to

QR1,552 with every pre-order and up to 24GB of free data. Starting from QR3,849, pre-orders can be made at www.vf.qa/samsung-preorder or www.vf.qa/Samsungpreorderar until September 9, 2021.

Diego Camberos, Chief Operating Offi cer of Vodafone Qatar, said: “The new Sam-sung Galaxy Z series continues to provide new features enabling customers who value a combination of productivity and power. The Samsung Galaxy Z series is the ultimate productivity tool for modern multi-taskers. You can check off your to-do list faster and have more time for next-level gaming, con-tent viewing and video calling. With the IPX8 water-resistance, customers can be as-sured that their device will function under the most challenging conditions. Vodafone Qatar is delighted to off er our customers a chance to pre-order today.”

Comprising the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and

Galaxy Z Flip3 5G, Samsung’s next-gener-ation fl agships fuse world-class design and engineering with cutting-edge technol-ogy and features to welcome consumers to a brand-new chapter in mobile innovation.

“For Samsung, working alongside opera-tors has always been an honour as we present consumers with the latest innovations to grace the local smartphone market,” said Os-man Albora, Senior Director – Mobile Divi-sion, Samsung Gulf Electronics.

“The pre-order rollout is an exciting yet

demanding period for Samsung. As such, the support we receive from operators is invaluable as we promote upcoming prod-ucts, engage with audiences, and ensure they complete their purchases in advance. The coming weeks will enable us to show-case what’s in store for consumers across the country, and we believe these eff orts will be more successful than ever thanks to our operator partners.”

When pre-ordering the new Samsung Galaxy Z series devices, Vodafone Qatar cus-tomers with post-paid plans will get 8GB of free local data every month for three months and customers with pre-paid plans will get 8GB of free local data over 90 days. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip prices start from QR3,849 for 128GB and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold starts from QR6,849 for 256GB.

With every purchase, customers will re-ceive a variety of gifts including a free Sam-sung Galaxy Buds Pro and a Flip cover with S pen for the Fold 3 device, a free Samsung Galaxy Buds2 for the Flip 3 device, and a free Samsung Care+ for one year for any of the two newly announced devices.

Paraguay receives third shipment of Qatari medical aidQNAAsuncion

The third shipment of medical aid (Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines) pro-

vided by Qatar to Paraguay arrived yesterday at Asuncion International Airport.

Attending the delivery of the aid was Paraguay’s Minister of Foreign Relations Euclides Acevedo; Strategic Aff airs Ad-viser at the Presidency Feder-ico Gonzalez, Deputy Minister of Health and Social Welfare Lida Sosa; Paraguayan ambas-sador to Qatar Angel Barchini; and Acting Charge d’aff aires at Qatar’s embassy in Asuncion Said bin Hamad al-Marri.

The foreign minister ex-pressed his thanks to Qatar’s government and people for their donations and solidarity with the Paraguayan people in diffi cult times.

He praised the strength of bilateral relations and the two countries’ leadership, stressing that the Paraguayan people will not forget the aid.

The strategic aff airs adviser also expressed his thanks to Qatar’s government and people for the aid that arrived at a time when Paraguay is facing a severe crisis, praising bilateral ties.

The deputy minister of health, meanwhile, expressed her thanks to Qatar’s govern-ment and people and praised ties between the two coun-tries.

The acting charge d’aff aires

at the Qatari embassy praised bilateral ties and stressed that Qatar always rushes to aid friendly countries.

He added that the aid refl ects the strong relations between the two countries.

Covid-19 recoveries increase to 225,881

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) re-ported today 116 new

confi rmed cases of Covid-19 among the community and 78 among travellers.

The MoPH recorded 196 recoveries from the virus during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases recovered in Qatar to 225,881.

It said Qatar has admin-

istered 4,076,666 Covid-19 vaccine doses since the start of the national vaccination programme. Some 9,578 dos-es have been given in the past 24 hours.

Vaccination fi gures show 90.2% of the eligible popula-tion (12 years and over) have now received at least one dose, while 77.9% of the total population have received at least one dose. (QNA)

Qatar progress in Youth IndexFrom Page 1

Qatar’s progress in the Youth Development Index was achieved thanks to the social youth movement which was demonstrated by stra-tegic steps, including the election of the Youth Advisory Committee for the Minister of Cul-ture and Sports, which represents the voice of youth in the proposal and initiative.

Members of the committee were chosen through elections in which more than 2,000 young men and women participated.

Qatar has been ranked among the countries with a very high level of youth development, which is the highest rating in the index.

At the Arab level, Qatar ranked second after Kuwait, which ranked 27th globally.

As for the sub-indicators, Qatar ranked 11th in health and well-being, 19th in peace and se-curity, 14th in employment and job opportuni-ties, and 30th in equality and sports.

The Ministry of Culture and Sports has em-barked on preparing the fi rst national youth policy, which will be the reference document for youth work in Qatar, making great leaps in the path of empowering and developing the Qatari youth, in addition to the tremendous develop-ment of youth programmes. Meanwhile, the Sports Law No 1 of 2016, which gave the general assembly the supreme authority, contributed to empowering the youth in sports clubs.

Qatar has also been keen on encouraging youth participation in all international and re-gional forums, and emphasising the important role of youth in all major events taking place in the country, such as the Shura Council elec-tions, and the active participation of youth during the coronavirus crisis.

31st Doha Int’l Book Fair to be held in Jan 2022

From Page 1

Around 50% of the books to be exhibited should be new ones with less than five years since they were first published. Further, all the participants should be committed to strictly follow the preventive precautionary measures and protocols against the new coronavirus (Covid-19) applicable in Qatar, besides the other related regulations applicable to the fair in this regard.

The prices of the books should be posted in Qatari Riyals after deducting the 25% decided on by the management. In addition, all the books and titles on display at the fair should not conflict with the Islamic creed and principles and the values and traditions of the Qatari society. Participation would be limited to printed books and educational means while the display of audiovisual items and toys would not be allowed at this edition of the fair.

REGION/ARAB WORLD5Gulf Times


Lebanon army deploys at fuel pumpsAFPBeirut

Lebanon’s army seized fuel from petrol stations yes-terday to curb hoarding

amid crippling shortages, as the central bank chief stood fi rm on his decision to scrap fuel subsi-dies. Compounding the coun-try’s crisis, a top private hospital said it may have to close due to power outages caused by short-ages of diesel, warning this could cause hundreds of deaths.

Lebanon is grappling with a fi nancial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the planet’s worst since the 1850s. Foreign currency reserves are fast deplet-ing, forcing the central bank to scale down funding for imports in an eff ort to shore up the lit-tle money Lebanon has left. The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90% of its value on the black market, and 78% of the popula-tion lives below the poverty line.

On Wednesday central bank chief Riad Salameh said he would

scrap fuel subsidies to ease pres-sure on fast-depleting foreign reserves.

His decision sparked panic, with huge queues forming out-side bakeries and petrol stations as Lebanese struggled to stock up. Salameh told a radio sta-tion Saturday he would not back down. “I will not review the re-moval of subsidies on fuel unless the use of compulsory reserves is legalised,” by a parliamentary vote, he said.

Fuel shortages have left many with just two hours of electricity a day, forcing the closure of busi-nesses. Warning of “imminent disaster”, the American Univer-sity of Beirut Medical Centre said it would be forced to cease opera-tions within 48 hours.

Without fuel, “forty adult pa-tients and fi fteen children living on respirators will die imme-diately,” it said in a statement. “One hundred and eighty people suff ering from renal failure will die poisoned after a few days... Hundreds of cancer patients, adults and children, will die in

subsequent weeks.”Fuel importers blame the crisis

on delays by the central bank in opening credit lines to fund im-ports. Salameh accused import-

ers and distributors of hoarding fuel to sell at higher prices on the black market, or across the bor-der in Syria. With the situation rapidly deteriorating, the army

raided petrol stations yesterday and seized fuel to distribute to desperate customers.

A statement said the mili-tary had confi scated more than

78,000 litres of petrol stored at two gas stations as well as 57,000 litres of diesel fuel from a third one. Internal Security Forces also said they had seized thousands of litres of petrol and diesel fuel stockpiled at one gas pump. Pic-tures and video footage posted by the army on its social media pages showed soldiers working pumps at gas stations and fi lling up car tanks.

An AFP correspondent said troops were deployed at several petrol stations north of Beirut, where hundreds of vehicles were trapped in long queues to fi ll up on petrol. Video footage posted online showed motorists cheer-ing as the army raided petrol sta-tions. Later, many petrol stations across the country which had been closed claiming they had no fuel, reopened.

But some Lebanese remained bitter. “The army’s decision is too late,” said one motorist who had been waiting for hours in the scorching heat.

The central bank’s funding of fuel and other basic commodity

imports has contributed to for-eign reserves falling by more than 50% from their pre-crisis level of more than $30bn. Salameh said inaction by politicians had led Lebanon to breaking point.

“Everybody was aware... they were aware in government, par-liament and the president’s of-fi ce” that reserves were falling, he said. Salameh has headed the central bank since 1993 and is suspected by many Lebanese of helping facilitate large transfers of money abroad by the political elite during mass protests that began in October 2019. He is under judicial investigation in Lebanon, Switzerland and France over several cases, including di-version of public funds and illicit enrichment.

At home, many blame him for capital controls in place since 2019 that have trapped dol-lar savings and denied even the poorest segment of the popula-tion full access to their deposits. Political wrangling over a new government has added to Leba-non’s dire situation.

Lebanese soldiers are pictured at a petrol station in the capital Beirut yesterday.

West Baghdad without water after ‘attack’ on power gridAFPBaghdad

Baghdad’s west has been cut off from the city’s water network after the Islamic

State group attacked an electric-ity pylon powering a pumping station, authorities and resi-dents said yesterday. Unclaimed attacks on Iraq’s electricity net-work have been increasing since the start of summer, at a time when the country is facing severe power shortages.

Authorities normally accuse “terrorists” of being behind the

attacks, without identifying a particular group. But the Iraqi army said in a statement yester-day that IS militants were behind an “attack” Friday on a pylon in Tarmiya, north of the capital.

The pylon supplies the Tarmi-ya pumping station which serves Karkh, the city’s west and home to several million people. Bagh-dad announced victory over the Islamic State group in 2017, though troops continue to fight sleeper cells. Residents of Karkh told AFP on Saturday that water had been cut off since the day before.

“We don’t have much water

in our tank and we’re afraid this cut will be prolonged,” a Karkh resident told AFP, declining to be identified. Many Baghdad resi-dents have installed their own water tanks, as persistent power cuts make Iraq’s daily water dis-tribution erratic.

Municipal authorities urged residents to ration tank water us-age until the pylon has been re-paired and the situation “returns to normal”.

Since the start of the summer, authorities have reported the damage or destruction of some 60 electricity pylons across the country, mostly in desert re-

gions. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi met security and intelligence officials on Friday and ordered the establishment of a crisis unit to protect the elec-tricity network.

Oil-rich Iraq produces just 16,000 megawatts of power — far below the 24,000 megawatts needed, and even further from the expected future needs of a country whose population is set to double by 2050, according to the UN.

The country buys gas and electricity from neighbouring Iran to supply about a third of its power sector, which has been

worn down by years of conflict and poor maintenance, and is unable to meet the needs of the country’s 40mn population. Last month, areas in the country’s south were plunged into dark-ness for several days after a series of similar attacks.

Around the same time, Iran briefly suspended its gas and electricity exports because of Iraq’s failure to pay a $6bn en-ergy debt.

The failure of Iraq’s power system is particularly acute in the baking hot summer months, when temperatures shoot past 45C.

This long-exposure picture taken early yesterday shows the Milky Way galaxy rising above the mountains between Jericho in the occupied West Bank and Ein Gedi in Israel.

Celestial spectacle

Iran tightens Covid restrictions AFPTehran

Iran yesterday announced new curbs to combat the spread of Covid-19 as deaths and infections

surge and as the country tries to speed up its vaccination campaign. The Is-lamic republic is struggling to the con-tain what offi cials have called a “fi fth wave” of the virus driven by the highly infectious Delta variant.

Hit by the Middle East’s deadli-est outbreak, Iran has offi cially re-corded more than 97,000 deaths and over 4.38mn infections, with numbers breaking daily records several times this month.

Health authorities acknowledge that the offi cial fi gures underestimate the country’s real toll. Iran’s national coronavirus task force announced yes-terday that government offi ces, banks and non-essential businesses must close their doors countrywide from Monday until the end of next Saturday.

A ban on car travel between provinc-es will be in force from noon today un-til August 27, taskforce spokesman Ali-reza Raisi told IRNA state news agency. The new measures coincide with two Shia religious commemorations set

for next week, though authorities said the restrictions would not impact cer-emonies held in the open air. Iran has avoided imposing a full lockdown on its 83-mn-strong population, instead resorting to piecemeal measures such as temporary travel bans and business closures.

Authorities have recently tried to speed up the country’s inoculation campaign amid criticism that it began too late and as Iran’s exhausted health system struggles to cope with rising case numbers. A few thousand Irani-ans lined up at a vaccination centre at Tehran’s sprawling Iran Mall, AFP journalists said.

“The vaccination pace is accelerat-ing every day, thank God,” said Bahare Karimi, a health ministry representa-tive at the vaccination centre, adding that health workers were “very tired now”. She told AFP that the centre was currently distributing Sinopharm vac-cines, but that the type of jab being

administered might diff er from day to day.

More than 14.7mn people have re-ceived a fi rst vaccine dose, but only 3.8mn have received the required sec-ond jab, the health ministry said Sat-urday. As well as China’s Sinopharm, Iran is also administering Russia’s Sputnik V, India’s Covaxin and the As-traZeneca/Oxford vaccines, accord-ing to the health ministry. Authori-ties have approved the emergency use of two locally made vaccines, but the only mass-produced one, COVIran Barekat, is in short supply.

Pharmacy worker Hamed Rahmati complained as he waited in line for his jab. “They didn’t (import vaccines) when they were supposed to and now it’s too late,” he said. President Eb-rahim Raisi said that Iran needed an additional 60mn vaccine doses to “control the unfavourable coronavirus situation”, according to the govern-ment’s website.

Hit by the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak, Iran has officially recorded more than 97,000 deaths and over 4.38mn infections, with numbers breaking daily records several times this month

WORLDGulf Times Sunday, August 15, 20216

Zambian President Edgar Lun-gu has declared Thursday’s presidential and parliamen-

tary election as “not free and fair” after incidents of violence in three provinces, he said in a surprise statement released yesterday.

Lungu, who was trailing his main contender Hakainde Hichilema in early results from the electoral com-mission, said the Patriotic Front party that he leads is consulting on its next course of action.

“President Lungu says the general election in three provinces, namely, Southern province, North Western province, and Western Province, were characterised by violence, ren-dering the whole exercise a nullity,” the statement from his offi ce said.

He said that Patriotic Front poll-ing agents were brutalised and chased from polling stations, a “sit-uation that left the ruling party’s votes unprotected” in those three provinces.

Citing the killing of a party chair-man in North Western province during voting and the death of an-other man, Lungu said these crimi-nal acts rendered the general elec-tion “not free and fair”.

Lungu brought in army reinforce-ments to help quell violence when the deaths occurred.

Lungu, 64, has been in power since 2015.

Hichilema – known as “HH” – is a businessman who has criticised the president’s management of an economy in turmoil.

This is the third time Hichilema has challenged Lungu in what ana-lysts said would be a closely-fought election amid growing resentment about rising living costs and crack-downs on dissent in the southern African country.

Investors are closely watching the outcome of the election, which was held on Thursday.

The southern African country is highly-indebted and suff ered the continent’s fi rst coronavirus (Cov-id-19) pandemic-era sovereign de-fault in November.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) support, already broadly agreed, is on hold until after the vote.

Results from 31 of the country’s 156 constituencies gave Hichilema 449,699 votes versus the 266,202 garnered by Lungu, who is running for a second fi ve-year term.

Some constituencies include

perceived Lungu strongholds, sug-gesting that Hichilema has gained ground since the last elections in 2016, when he lost by a slim margin in elections marred by allegations of rigging.

The fi rst results had initially been expected on Friday.

They were delayed after counting went on overnight following a heavy turnout and because political par-ties objected to the electoral com-mission’s initial fi gures in one con-stituency, which diff ered with those from monitors on the ground.

An estimated 7mn people regis-tered to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Zambia, Africa’s second biggest copper pro-ducer.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia allowed the last polling station to remain open until 5am on Friday, to give people who had queued for hours an opportunity to vote.

The election also saw violence in three regions and restrictions on In-ternet access.

In Chawama township in Lusaka, Lungu’s parliamentary constitu-ency before he became president, residents said supporters of both Lungu and Hichilema both claimed victory and celebrated throughout the night.

Lungu’s ruling Patriotic Front

party said its vote tally showed a huge turnout in its strongholds and it was confi dent of victory.

Hichilema is running for the United Party for National Develop-ment (UPND).

Following a complaint lodged by local human rights’ organisation, Chapter One Foundation, a high court on Friday overturned a deci-sion by the government regulator to block social media platforms in-cluding WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.

Linda Kasonde, the Foundation’s executive director, said it is unclear how long the social media Internet blackout would remain in force.

Some people said yesterday that their online services were back up.

“It did go up. Some people re-ported that WhatsApp went down, but they had access to Facebook and Twitter,” she said.

According to the court ruling seen by Reuters, the Zambia Information Communication Technology Au-thority ordered the block on Thurs-day, the day of the election.

Richard Mulonga, chief executive of Bloggers of Zambia, an independ-ent group, said it is unclear whether the national regulator had imple-mented the order and that it could take “a week or even months” for services to stabilise.

Lungu has cast doubt on the out-

come of the election in three prov-inces after accusing the opposition of stirring violence on Thursday that killed an offi cial from the ruling party.

He directed the army to send re-inforcements to the provinces on Thursday.

However, European and African observers said the vote had been largely peaceful.

The head of the African Union (AU)’s observer mission, Ernest Bai Koroma, said yesterday that vot-ing “operations were conducted in a peaceful, transparent and profes-sional manner”.

European Union counterparts were slightly more critical of the poll, denouncing the Internet re-strictions and “unequal campaign conditions”.

The electoral process was “tech-nically well-managed” but “marred by ... restrictions on freedoms of as-sembly and movement, and abuse of incumbency”, chief observer Maria Arena told a press briefi ng.

Hundreds of UPND supporters marched through the capital Lusaka yesterday, voicing impatience at the ECZ.

Soldiers deployed to police Thursday’s vote following violent pre-election clashes monitored the scene from armoured military ve-hicles.

Zambian president declares elections ‘not free and fair’Reuters/AFPLusaka

Supporters for Zambia’s presidential candidate for the opposition party United Party for National Development (UPND), Hakainde Hichilema, gather yesterday outside one of the party off ices, where they are demanding the release of the full set of electoral results in Lusaka.

Seven Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) soldiers have been killed

in three days of fi ghting against armed groups in the east of the country that also left 18 militia-men dead, the army said yester-day.

The troops had been searching

for army deserters on the pla-teaus of Uvira and Fiz, in South Kivu province, spokesman Cap-tain Dieudonne Kasereka said.

The operation was launched on Thursday after an attack by fi ghters of the Makanika Twig-waneho Ngumino/FNL coali-tion of armed groups who tried to seize a military position, he added.

The Hauts Plateaux region is the scene of a confl ict between armed groups formed on a com-

munal basis, notably Tutsi Con-golese with distant Rwandan origins, the Banyamulenge, and other communities.

The coalition “Twigwaneho” (self-defence) and “Ngumino” (We Stay Here in Kinyamulenge) is composed of members of the Banyamulenge community.

These armed groups were joined by Colonel Michel Ruku-ndo Makanika who deserted the army in early 2020 with a group of soldiers.

The FNL (National Forces of Liberation) is considered

the main Burundi rebel group present in eastern DR Congo.

Meanwhile, a Congolese broadcaster and his wife were murdered overnight after re-ceiving threats from militia forces in the volatile Ituri region of DR Congo, a local offi cial told AFP yesterday.

“The journalist Joel Mumbere Musavuli, director of Baron-nie de Byakato radio-television, was assassinated about 1.30am by suspected Mai-Mai” militia-men, local area leader Mwami Salamabongo said.

“He was stabbed in the ribs and neck. His wife was gravely wounded by a machete and fi -nally died from her injuries,” Salamabongo told AFP from Byakato in the northeast.

Musavuli is the second jour-nalist murdered in similar cir-cumstances in the area after Papy Mahamba in November 2019, said Placide Icircan, Ituri secretary for the Congo National press union (UNPC).

Musavuli had been “threat-ened” after fronting a pro-gramme on June 26 which

looked into armed groups, said Ituri human rights activist Gil-bert Sivamwenda.

A journalist for the national broadcaster had his throat slit a week ago in North Kivu in the country’s east where massacres and clashes involving armed groups have prevailed for years.

North Kivu and neighbour-ing Ituri have been in a state of siege since May 6, the strongest measure under the constitu-tion, as the government tries to end endemic insecurity in the region.

Seven DR Congo soldiers killed fi ghting armed groupsJournalist and wife attacked and killed overnight

AFPBukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Niger flood death toll hits 64

Heavy rains that have lashed Niger since June have claimed 64 lives, authorities said yesterday, as floods and landslides hit the West African country normally used to drought.In a statement read out on national television, Niger’s cabinet said 32 people had died when their buildings collapsed, and another 32 drowned.The floods and landslides had aff ected close to 70,000 people in total, the statement said, with more than 5,000 houses destroyed or damaged.The worst-aff ected regions are Maradi in the south, Agadez, and the capital Niamey. – AFP

At least 22 killed in central Nigeria attack: police

A suspected Christian militia attacked a convoy of 90 Muslims yesterday in Nigeria’s central Plateau state, leaving at least 22 people dead, police said.Northwest and central Nigeria have for years struggled with violence between mainly Muslim nomadic herders and Christian farmers over control of resources, water and land.Police said they received a distress call during the morning that “a group of attackers suspected to be Irigwe youths (predominantly Christian) ... attacked a convoy of five buses with Muslim faithful”.“Twenty-two persons were killed and 14 injured,” police spokesman Ubah Ogaba said in a statement, adding that 21 were rescued.Mohamed Ibrahim, who escaped, said the assault happened along Rukuba road, on the outskirts of Jos, capital of Plateau state.The Muslims were returning from Bauchi State, he said, after attending an event to celebrate the Islamic New Year.Police said six suspects had been arrested and calm restored to the area. – AFP

Senegalese architects ex-pressed their anger on Friday after bulldozers

razed the famed Sandaga mar-ket, a sprawling hub of infor-mal trade in the heart of Sen-egal’s capital Dakar.

An iconic establishment ly-ing between the old French colonial quarter and more working-class neighbour-hoods, Sandaga has been one of Dakar’s main trading centres for almost a century.

Frequented daily by resi-dents of the capital, the mar-ket also drew people from the provinces and from the West African region.

Many tourists came to hunt down artisanal carvings and other artefacts.

The great hall, built in the Sudanese-Sahel tradition in

1933, housed hundreds of stalls off ering merchandise of all kinds, from food to craft goods, for sale.

It was shut down for public safety reasons after the edifi ce was weakened by several fi res.

The authorities had it pulled down in order to build a mod-ernised replica.

The architects voiced their anger just hours after that process was completed on Fri-day.

“This is deeply regrettable,” said Jean Augustin Carvalho, president of the National Or-der of Architects.

Sandaga is “a heritage and an identity of the city of Dakar. It was necessary by all means to see how to preserve it”, he said adding that “this build-ing could still be standing with some renovation”.

Papa Dame Thiaw, another member of the architect’s so-ciety, said that “technical so-

lutions exist for the conserva-tion of this heritage building”.

Fellow member Annie Jouga called the demolition “a scan-dal”.

“It is a bluff to say that we are going to rebuild identically. We cannot reconstruct a 1933 building identically with mod-ern techniques,” she added.

Shopkeepers voiced oppo-sition over the relocation last month, telling the government that they would lose customers at the new site far from Sand-aga, a curiosity for tourists which drew large crowds.

Last year the government chose a site some 2km from Sandaga as a temporary re-placement for the traders.

The new Sandaga is expect-ed to take two years to build.

The mayor of Dakar-Plateau region, Alioune Ndoye, who is supervising the project, said he would address the issue to-morrow.

S African police seize 60kg of lions’ remains

Police in South Africa have arrested a Vietnamese man and seized about 60kg of lion claws, teeth and other items following a four-month probe into wildlife traff icking, the government said yesterday.The man was arrested on Thursday “in connection with the illegal trade in wildlife and illegal possession of a firearm” in northern Limpopo province, the location of a number of wildlife parks, the environment ministry announced.Police also raided a Vietnamese-owned farm near the tourist site of Bela-Bela in Limpopo and two storage units in the capital Pretoria, a statement from the ministry said.They seized 4.2kg of lions’ teeth, 680g of lion claws and more than 60kg “of processed animal products believed to be lion gelatine”, as well as an illegal firearm.The Vietnamese suspect was arrested for “illegal possession of a threatened species”, and appeared in court on Friday.The case was postponed until August 20 in order to ensure a translator can be present, the ministry said.The team on the four-month investigation included members of the Green Scorpions, a special unit responsible for enforcing environment legislation.Crocodiles and lions’ claws, skin or bones are illegally traff icked from Africa to the Far East, where they are used in traditional medicine or for decoration. – AFP

Senegal architects enraged after historic Dakar market is razedAFPDakar

WORLD7Gulf Times


Philippine health ministry says no corruption in $1.3bn pandemic fundsReutersManila

The Philippine health min-ister, facing questions over more than $1bn in

Covid-19 spending, denied yes-terday that any money was “sto-len”, as his department vowed to account for every peso. The country is battling one of Asia’s

worst coronavirus outbreaks, and the spread of the virulent Delta variant is overwhelming hospitals and healthcare work-ers, some of which have warned of mass resignations over unpaid allowances. “You will be assured that no money went into corrup-tion. None was stolen. I am sure of that,” Health Secretary Fran-cisco Duque told DZMM radio on Saturday.

The state auditor has fl agged “defi ciencies” involving 67.3bn pesos ($1.33bn), casting doubts on the regularity of related transactions in the country’s pandemic response. The health ministry said it will submit its explanation, including required documents, to the state audi-tor next week, ahead of a Sept. 27 deadline. The Philippines on Saturday recorded 14,249 new

Covid-19 infections, its second-biggest daily increase, and 233 additional deaths. The positiv-ity rate was a record high, with a quarter of the nearly 53,000 peo-ple tested confi rmed positive.

With more than 1.71mn infec-tions and 29,838 deaths, the Phil-ippines has the second-highest Covid-19 cases and fatalities in Southeast Asia, next to Indone-sia. The Manila capital region, an

urban sprawl of 16 cities that is home to more than 13mn people, remains under a strict lockdown to contain the spread of the Delta variant.

Only around 11% of the coun-try’s 110mn people are fully im-munised. Nearly a quarter of the country’s 1,291 hospitals are at the critical risk level – with oc-cupancy rates at or above 85% – government data showed. Small

hospitals near the capital region are getting overwhelmed by surging cases.

A 50-bed public hospital in Binan city south of the capital is trying to treat 100 to 200 pa-tients, most of them in corridors and tents separated by curtains in the parking lot, Dr Melbril Alonte, its medical director, told DZMM radio

“The sad truth is patients con-

tinue to increase and there are no signs of it easing,” Alonte said, adding that the facility’s nurses and doctors are already getting sick from exhaustion. Dozens of nurses could resign over months of unpaid special risk allow-ance, Jocelyn Andamo, secretary general of the Filipino Nurses United, told Reuters. Healthcare workers will hold a nationwide protest next week, she said.

Rain sparks fl oods, landslides in JapanAFPTokyo

Nearly 2mn people were urged to seek shelter as torrential rain triggered

fl oods and landslides in western Japan yesterday, leaving at least one dead and three missing.

Authorities in seven regions, mainly in the northern part of Kyushu island, issued their highest evacuation alert as the weather agency reported un-precedented levels of rain in the area.

Under the non-compulsory alert, more than 1.8mn residents have been asked to leave their homes immediately, according to public broadcaster NHK.

TV footage showed rescuers towing residents through sub-merged streets on a lifeboat in the town of Kurume in Fukuoka, while a man who was rescued in neighbouring Saga prefecture said he had never seen rain like it. “This situation is diff erent,” he told NHK. “I’ve had a similar experience before, but (this time) I was scared.”

The government said 14 riv-ers had burst their banks and 14 landslides had occurred, mainly in western Japan. A 59-year-old woman died and two of her fam-ily members were missing after a landslide destroyed two houses in Unzen, Nagasaki, a local offi -cial said.

“More than 150 troops, police and fi refi ghters were dispatched to the site for rescue operations,” Takumi Kumasaki told AFP.

“They are carefully searching for the missing residents, while watching out for further mud-slides as the heavy rain contin-ues.”

A 76-year-old man was also missing in Kumamoto after he

tried to secure his fi shing boat at a surging river, a regional offi cial told AFP.

Downpours are forecast for several more days over a large swathe of the country. Scientists say climate change is intensify-ing the risk of heavy rain in Japan and elsewhere, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water.

“Unprecedented levels of heavy rain have been observed,” Yushi Adachi, a meteorological agency offi cial, told reporters in Tokyo.

“It’s highly likely that some kind of disaster has already oc-curred,” Adachi said.

“The maximum alert is needed even in areas where risks of land-slides and fl ooding are usually not so high.”

Strong rain last month caused a devastating landslide in the central resort town of Atami that killed 23 people, with four still missing. And in 2018, fl oods and landslides killed more than 200 people in western Japan during the country’s annual rainy sea-son. An overview of an residential area caused by a torrential rain in Takeo, Saga prefecture, Japan.

A flooded road in Takeo, Saga prefecture.

TV footage showed rescuers towing residents through submerged streets on a lifeboat in the town of Kurume in Fukuoka, while a man who was rescued in neighbouring Saga prefecture said he had never seen rain like it

Malaysia’s opposition, key ally reject PM’s off er for supportReutersKuala Lumpur

Malaysia’s opposition parties and a key ally have rejected a plea for

support from embattled Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in exchange for political and elec-toral reforms, urging him to re-sign immediately.

Muhyiddin’s grip on power has been shaky since coming to office in March 2020 with a slim majority and unstable coalition.

He has defied mounting calls to quit, with the pressure reaching fever pitch this month after some lawmakers in his ruling coalition withdrew sup-port.

In a televised address yester-day, Muhyiddin acknowledged for the first time that he lacks a majority and urged opposi-tion lawmakers to back him in a confidence vote in a bid to shore up his government and prevent an election during a Covid-19 resurgence.

In return for their support, Muhyiddin promised to amend the constitution to limit a prime minister’s period in of-fice to two five-year terms, introduce an “anti-hopping” law to prevent elected officials from jumping parties, and en-

sure the minimum voting age is immediately lowered to 18 from 21.

“This is the first time in Ma-laysia’s history where a prime minister admits that he has lost majority support yet contin-ues to openly solicit opposition support,” the main opposition bloc Pakatan Harapan said in a statement late on Friday.

It called Muhyiddin “a prime minister without legitimacy”, saying his offers were “insin-cere” — as the prime minister should have made them earlier, not at what they called the end of his political life.

Opposition parties and key ally United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) blasted Muhyiddin’s offers, which also include increased funds for op-position lawmakers, as “brib-ery”.

UMNO, which said Muhyid-din was obliged to resign, has regularly challenged the prime minister even after agreeing to form a government with him last year.

Some UMNO lawmakers withdrew support for him this month.

“UMNO cannot consider all offers from someone who no longer has legitimacy” as prime minister, UMNO president Ah-mad Zahid Hamidi said in a statement.

Malaysian PM Muhyiddin Yassin

Indonesian flag flies as people, wearing protective face coverings, wait to receive a coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine dose at Pakansari Stadium in Bogor, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, yesterday.

Vaccination drive

Sydney lockdown extended statewideReutersSydney

Australian police hiked fines for people break-ing lockdown rules in

Sydney and the rest of its home state yesterday and strict stay-at-home orders were extended statewide amid a record jump in daily new Covid-19 infections.

State police will fine up to A$5,000 (US $3,700) anyone breaching stay-at-home orders or for lying to contract-tracing officials, said state Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Previously breaching quarantine orders had carried a A$1,000 fine.

“We have to accept that this is the worst situation New South Wales has been in since day one. And it’s also regretta-bly, because of that, the worst situation Australia’s been in,” she told a news conference.

Locally transmitted infec-tions surged by a record 466 over the previous 24 hours, eclipsing the previous daily high of 390 set yesterday. Four deaths were recorded on Sat-urday, taking the state’s total in the latest outbreak to 42. It is becoming increasingly un-likely Sydney will end its nine-week lockdown on Aug. 28 as planned.

Authorities had been talking about easing some restrictions if enough people are vaccinated and case numbers fall. “We will get through this, but September and October are going to be very difficult,” Berejiklian said.

“This is literally a war, and we’ve known we’ve been in a war for some time, but never to this extent.”

Hundreds more defence per-sonnel will be deployed next week to Sydney to help enforce the lockdown, with authorities particularly concerned about the spread of the virus to several regional towns.

A new A$3,000 fine will ap-ply to people entering rural ar-eas without an official permit, while stay-at-home orders were introduced for seven days in regional areas not currently in lockdown.

Weddings and funerals will

get a day “grace period” and will be allowed on Sunday, but schools across the state will close, officials said.

The head of the Australian Retailers Association, Paul Za-hra, said the state-wide lock-down would come as a shock to many regional towns and could cost the economy A$1.5 billion (US$1.11bn) per week.

The permit to enter rural ar-eas will only be granted for cer-tain reasons including author-ised work, property inspections or urgent work repairs on a sec-ond home.

“The fines are some of the biggest fines that I’ve ever seen

and we will be issuing them as of today,” said New South Wales police commissioner Mick Fuller. “Those people that have been getting around the orders, taking family vacations to other premises – that is over.”

In neighbouring Victoria, where state capital Melbourne is in its second week of an ex-tended lockdown, authorities reported 21 locally acquired cases, up from 15 a day earlier.

Despite the recent outbreaks, Australia still has far lower Covid-19 numbers than many other countries in the devel-oped world, with just over 38,600 cases and 952 deaths.

A general view shows quiet streets in the central business district of Sydney.

Boat carrying Rohingya sinks near refugee island

At least 27 Rohingya refugees were missing after their boat sank yesterday during an attempt to escape a Bangladeshi island camp criticised by human rights groups, off icials said. Nearly 20,000 Rohingya have been relocated to Bhashan Char island, which takes the full force of cyclones that roar across the Bay of Bengal each year. Bangladesh eventually wants to rehouse 100,000 of its approximately 1mn Rohingya

refugees to the island, moving them from cramped settlements on the mainland. But some Rohingya say they were coerced into relocating while thousands protested living conditions on the island in June. After the incident, the United Nations refugee agency said it “remains concerned about reports of refugees being arrested and detained for attempting to leave Bhashan Char”.

Police said the small fishing boat sank with 41 Rohingya on board after encountering rough weather in the Bay of Bengal near the island. Fourteen were rescued, while a search operation is underway to locate those still missing. “Navy ships and a helicopter have also joined the search,” Sujit Kumar Chanda, the government administrator for Bhashan Char, told AFP, adding the missing included women and children.

WORLDGulf Times Sunday, August 15, 20218

A major earthquake killed at least 227 people in south-western Haiti yesterday,

reducing churches, hotels and homes to rubble in the latest tragedy to hit the impoverished Caribbean nation already mired in humanitarian and political crises.

The country’s civil protec-tion agency initially reported 29 deaths.

“The death toll from the earth-quake has risen to 227, including 158 in the south”, near the epi-centre of the quake, the agency posted on Twitter, adding that hundreds more were injured and missing.

“Lots of homes are destroyed, people are dead and some are at the hospital,” 21-year-old Chris-tella Saint Hilaire, who lives near the epicentre, told AFP. “Every-one is in the street now and the shocks keep coming.”

The 7.2-magnitude quake, which was followed by a series of aftershocks, struck 8km (fi ve miles) from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, about 150km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 km, the US Geologi-cal Service (USGS) said.

That made the temblor, which was felt as far away as Cuba and Jamaica, potentially bigger and shallower than the magnitude 7 earthquake 11 years ago that killed tens of thousands in the poorest nation in the Americas.

This one – which occurred around 8.30am local time – hit farther away from the capital, however.

In Port-au-Prince, it was strongly felt but did not appear to have caused major damage, according to Reuters witnesses, meaning there will likely be fewer fatalities than the devastating 2010 disaster.

The nearest big town was Les Cayes, with a population of around 126,000, where many buildings collapsed or suff ered major damage, according to au-thorities, who said they were searching for survivors in the rubble.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry declared a month-long state of emergency.

In Les Cayes, locals said water had briefl y fl ooded the coastal town, causing panic amid fear of

a tsunami, but then appeared to retreat.

Haitian media outlets reported some people along the coast had already fl ed to the mountains.

The US Tsunami Warning Sys-tem issued a tsunami warning after the quake, lifting it shortly thereafter.

US President Joe Biden au-thorised an immediate US re-sponse to the earthquake and named Samantha Power, ad-ministrator of the US Agency for International Development, co-ordinator of the eff ort.

The earthquake comes just over a month after the assassina-tion of president Jovenel Moise, who had been ruling by decree, which deepened the country’s political turmoil.

Meanwhile, swaths of Haiti are facing growing hunger and healthcare services are over-whelmed by the coronavirus (Covid-19).

Access to the southern region, where the quake struck, has been restricted by gang control of key areas.

That region had only recently recovered from Hurricane Mat-thew, which struck in 2016, kill-ing hundreds and causing wide-spread devastation.

Haiti is now in the cone of Tropical Storm Grace which could bring heavy rains early next week.

“This country just never fi nds a break! Each year of misman-agement did not hurt but the cumulative eff ects made us vul-nerable to everything,” said Hai-tian entrepreneur Marc Alain Boucicault on Twitter. “It’s going to take years to fi x things and we have not even started!”

Residents shared images on social media of frantic eff orts to pull people from the ruins of caved-in buildings, while screaming bystanders sought safety in the streets outside their homes.

“Houses and their surround-ing walls have collapsed. The roof of the cathedral has fallen down,” resident Job Joseph told AFP from the hard-hit city of Jeremie on Haiti’s far western end.

Heavy damage was reported in the centre of the city, which is composed primarily of single-storey residences and buildings.

The damage in the city of Les Cayes appeared to be signifi cant, including the collapse of a multi-storey hotel.

In Port-au-Prince, residents traumatised by the 2010 quake rushed, screaming, into the streets and stayed there as the aftershocks rumbled on.

“In my neighbourhood, I heard people screaming. They were fl ying outside,” said resident Se-phora Pierre Louis. “At least they know to go outside. In 2010, they didn’t know what to do. People

are still outside in the street.”The quake sent shock waves as

far as Cuba and Jamaica although there were no reports of material damage, deaths or injuries there.

“Everyone is really afraid. It’s been years since such a big earth-quake,” said Daniel Ross, a resi-dent in the eastern Cuban city of Guantanamo.

He said his home stood fi rm

but the furniture shook.“I feel it, man. It wake me

up. My roof kind of make some noise,” said Danny Bailey, 49, in Kingston.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre also re-ported a quake in the region, say-ing it was magnitude 7.6, while Cuba’s seismological centre said it registered a magnitude of 7.4.

Powerful Haiti quake kills more than 200Reuters/AFPPort-au-Prince/Havana

Immigration advocates have criticised President Joe Bi-den’s asylum policies, saying

that expulsions of migrants at the US-Mexico border and other deterrent measures were “cruel, unlawful, and ineff ective”.

In a letter to Biden and top offi cials, more than 100 organi-sations urged the Democratic president to restore the ability of all migrants to claim asylum

in the United States and eschew any new policies that limit asy-lum access.

Promising a more humane im-migration approach, Biden has reversed many of the restrictive policies of his Republican pred-ecessor, Donald Trump.

However, the Democratic pres-ident has kept an order known as Title 42, one of Trump’s most limiting measures which allows US authorities to expel migrants caught crossing the border back to Mexico.

Border arrests have risen to

20-year highs in recent months, fuelling Republican criticism that Biden’s decision to roll back some Trump restrictions has en-couraged more people to cross into the United States.

At the same time, some Demo-crats have pressed Biden to end Title 42 and advocates for asy-lum-seekers say the administra-tion’s actions contradict what Biden promised.

The administration says the expulsions are necessary to keep US detention centres from be-coming overwhelmed during the

coronavirus (Covid-19) pandem-ic, which they argue would create a risk for government workers, migrants and the public.

White House spokesperson

Vedant Patel said the adminis-tration deferred to health experts on decisions related to Title 42, which was issued by the US Cen-tres for Disease Control and Pre-vention (CDC).

The groups urged Biden not to adopt any policies that force migrants to wait in Mexico for the resolution of their US cases, which they said “would unques-tionably put individuals in dan-ger and violate US asylum law”.

Homeland Security Secre-tary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Thursday that the United States

would expand an online asylum registration system in the hopes migrants will apply remotely.

The offi cial also added that more changes would be an-nounced in the coming days.

Last week, the government be-gan fl ying some Central Ameri-can and Mexican migrants ar-rested at the US-Mexico border to southern Mexico in an eff ort to deter crossers.

In the letter to the US presi-dent, the groups said that they were “gravely concerned” about the fl ights and reports that mi-

grants were then bussed to a re-mote part of Guatemala.

Marielena Hincapié, execu-tive director of the Los Angeles-based National Immigration Law Centre, said the fl ights signalled the Biden administration was taking a more restrictive stance.

She said it appears Biden is focusing only on arrests and de-portation and not on the rights of the asylum-seekers.

“That absolutely contradicts what the Biden administration said they were going to do,” she said.

US immigration advocates blast ‘cruel’ Biden asylum policiesReutersWashington

The US embassy in Kabul has ordered staff to get rid of sensitive material

that could be used for Taliban propaganda as the insurgents rapidly advanced in Afghani-stan.

In a memorandum to staff , a facility manager at the sprawl-ing embassy directed employ-ees to incinerators and other disposal sites for documents and equipment.

“Please also include items with embassy or agency logos, American fl ags or items which could be misused in propagan-da eff orts,” the memo said.

A US State Department spokesperson said that the embassy in Kabul was con-ducting a “drawdown”.

“Drawdowns at our diplo-matic posts around the world follow a standard operating procedure designed to mini-mise our footprint across vari-ous categories, including staff -

ing, equipment and supplies,” the spokesperson said.

The memorandum is the latest sign of mounting con-cerns for the safety of one of the largest US embassies in the world after President Joe Biden ordered a withdrawal of US troops after 20 years.

The Taliban on Thursday seized two other major cities, Herat and Kandahar, as they moved closer to the capital.

Biden on Thursday ordered 3,000 troops to the Kabul air-port to move out US staff , with preparations underway to shift embassy operations to the air-port as needed.

The Pentagon nonetheless said on Friday that it did not see an “imminent” threat to Kabul.

The Biden administration is expected to take extraordinary precautions to guard US dip-lomats, mindful of the fi erce backlash after an attack in 2012 on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left four people dead, including the ambassa-dor.

US embassy in Kabulinstructed to reduce ‘sensitive’ material

AFPWashington

Canada has said that it will take in up to 20,000 Afghan refugees, in-

cluding women leaders, gov-ernment workers and others facing threats from the Tali-ban, as insurgents advanced across the country seizing ma-jor cities.

“The situation in Afghani-stan is heartbreaking and Canada will not stand idly by,” Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told a news confer-ence.

The refugees will include “particularly vulnerable” Af-ghans still in the country or who’ve already fl ed to neigh-bouring states, which in ad-dition to female leaders and government employees also comprises human rights de-fenders, persecuted minorities and journalists.

Several planeloads of asy-lum-seekers have already

departed with the fi rst one landing on Friday in Toronto, Mendicino said.

As the Taliban advances on the capital Kabul, offi cials said Canadian special forces form part of a contingency plans to airlift Canadian embassy staff , but details were not provided due to the sensitive nature of the security operation.

Earlier on Friday, many countries including Spain, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands announced the withdrawal of staff from their respective embassies.

Canada has said it is moni-toring the situation in Af-ghanistan “very closely” and working with its allies on the ground.

“Protecting the Canadian embassy and our staff is our top priority,” said Foreign Minister Marc Garneau.

On Twitter, he said that Canada “owes Afghans a debt of gratitude and we will con-tinue our eff orts to bring them to safety”.

Canada to take 20,000 Afghan refugees

AFPOttawa

People are seen near debris following an earthquake in Jeremie, in this picture obtained from social media.

Venezuela’s government and op-position launched negotiations on Friday in Mexico that were

expected to focus on sanctions and elections to try to end a crippling po-litical and economic crisis.

Previous talks in the Dominican Re-public in 2018 and Barbados the fol-lowing year failed to resolve disputes centred on President Nicolas Maduro and Juan Guaido, the opposition lead-er considered president by about 60 countries.

Neither attended the inauguration ceremony at Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology in person.

Instead, representatives of the two sides signed a document agreeing to undertake “a comprehensive dialogue and negotiation process” mediated by Norway and hosted by the Mexican government.

The agreement mentions the need

“for sanctions to be lifted”, the econo-my to be stabilised and any kind of po-litical violence to be avoided.

Unlike previous negotiation eff orts, the talks will include more than a dozen countries, among them the Nether-lands, Russia, Bolivia, Turkey and Nor-way, which will act as the facilitator.

Venezuela “is in a very bad way. Our people are suff ering the worst crisis in their modern history”, said Gerardo Blyde, head of the opposition team, predicting “diffi cult times” for the ne-gotiators.

Parliament Speaker Jorge Rodriguez, leading Maduro’s delegation, called for progress towards “urgent agreements” to ease the plight of the Venezuelan people and economy.

The parties are expected to meet again later this month to discuss a sev-en-point agenda that does not include the departure of Maduro, accused by the opposition of having been fraudu-lently re-elected in 2018.

On Friday, Maduro hailed the sign-ing in a tweet and thanked Mexico and

Norway “for their eff orts for the Peace of the Venezuelan people”.

However, Peter Hakim, president emeritus at the Inter-American Dia-logue, a Washington-based think tank, said it seems unlikely Maduro would

accept fully free and fair presidential elections.

“Maduro appears fi rmly in power, with more confi dence than ever, while the opposition remains as divided as ever, with no eff ective strategy, and

weakened international and regional support,” he told AFP.

Maduro “might be willing to accept some opposition election victories, as long as the more militant opposition is not among them, and they do not threaten his power or control”, Hakim said.

The South American nation’s eco-nomic crisis has been deepened by a raft of fresh sanctions imposed by Washington following the contested 2018 election.

The US has urged Maduro, who be-came president on the death of his mentor Hugo Chavez in 2013, to make serious eff orts toward holding elections if he wants sanctions relief.

In a state television broadcast on Thursday, Maduro said his country would go to the talks “autonomously and independently and does not submit to blackmail or threats from the United States government”.

Earlier, Maduro said he wants an “immediate lifting of all the criminal sanctions” led by the US, which in 2019

said it no longer considered him the legitimate president after wide allega-tions of electoral irregularities.

Guaido on Friday spoke of the power of sanctions to put pressure on Maduro and acknowledged that “some solu-tions won’t be easy”, while warning that a failure at the negotiating table would only “deepen the confl ict”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the sanctions, which include an oil embargo, were aimed at “promoting accountability” on democ-racy and human rights.

“We’ve also been clear that the Ma-duro regime can create a path to easing sanctions by allowing Venezuelans to participate in long overdue free and fair presidential, parliamentary and local elections,” Price told reporters.

Guaido, who declared himself Ven-ezuela’s president in 2019 through his position as parliament speaker, wants guarantees over electoral conditions and a clear programme for presidential elections, as well as the release of po-litical prisoners.

Representatives of Venezuela government, opposition launch talks in MexicoAFP/ReutersMexico City

Venezuela National Assembly president Jorge Rodriguez, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Norway government representative Dag Nylander, and Gerardo Blyde Perez, head of the opposition delegation of Venezuela, shake hands after meeting in Mexico City to seek consensus on how to overcome the economic and social crises gripping Venezuela.

Biden: has kept a Trump-era order known as Title 42.

WORLD9Gulf Times


The UK government must show leadership over the unfolding crisis in Af-

ghanistan, the Labour leader has said, as a former head of the British army called on the prime minister to launch an urgent hu-manitarian aid operation.

Keir Starmer said there is a risk of a global terror group tak-ing control of the country after the withdrawal of British and US forces, while Richard Dannatt said there is still time to show Afghans that they are not being completely abandoned.

“What I want to see is our government stepping up and leading this, and calling for an urgent meeting of Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) and an urgent UN security coun-cil meeting,” said Starmer.

“We have obligations to Af-

ghanistan, we made promises to Afghanistan and we cannot walk away and let this turn into a humanitarian crisis, probably a refugee crisis as well,” he added. “There is a real risk that inter-national terrorism will take hold again in Afghanistan, so we can’t walk away and undermine the legacy of the last 20 years.”

He urged the government to respond positively to the latest call by the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, for international assistance to end the confl ict in his country.

And he said the timing of the decision to pull out interna-tional forces from the country was “not right”, adding: “There appears to have been a miscal-culation of the strength of the Taliban on the one side, and the resilience of the Afghan troops and government on the other.”

Thousands of refugees fl eeing the Taliban have been pouring into the capital Kabul as the mil-

itants continued their lightning advance across the country.

The collapse of Afghan gov-ernment forces followed the US decision to withdraw remaining forces, leading allies to follow.

While Lord Dannatt said he shared the anger of many mili-tary veterans who served in Af-ghanistan at the way the country was being left to its fate, he in-sisted it was still not too late for the UK government to act.

“It is OK to extract our British citizens. What about mounting a humanitarian operation in Kabul to look after some of the refu-gees, to build some camps, bring in some humanitarian sup-plies?” he told BBC Breakfast.

“At least let’s show to the Af-ghan government we are not completely abandoning them and that we still stand side by side with them,” Lord Dannatt said. “It is quite possible to do that. I think our government should be thinking about that

kind of response even though it has now pulled the plug on our wider military response.”

“There may come a moment when our last troops have got to go but until that point, let us do what we can to help with the humanitarian crisis, even if we have given up helping on the military side,” he added.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that the current situation was the “inevitable

logical consequence” of the de-cision by the Biden administra-tion to withdraw all remaining US forces by the 20th anniversa-ry next month of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

He insisted that the sacrifi ces of the British armed forces who fought in the country had not been in vain, but said there was no question now of a “military solution” to stop the Taliban.

He said the government would

use whatever leverage it could – including the UK overseas aid budget – to ensure that Afghan-istan did not become a breeding ground for terrorism.

However, there is anger among MPs across the political spectrum at the way events un-folded, with calls for parliament to be recalled from its summer break so they can discuss the crisis.

See also page 11

UK must show leadership in Afghan crisis: StarmerBy Kevin RawlinsonGuardian News & Media

Crowds gathered in coastal towns in eastern England yesterday to

view new artworks by Banksy, after the secretive street artist claimed responsibility for the murals.

Ten images appeared in towns in Norfolk and Suff olk over the past week, sparking speculation that Banksy was behind them.

His website has since de-picted images of the works under the title A Great British Spraycation, a play on the word staycation.

Government coronavirus (Covid-19) rules have deterred Britons from holidaying abroad, prompting many people to take a “staycation” at home.

Banksy, Britain’s most fa-mous street artist, confi rmed on Friday what many had al-ready suspected – that he is indeed the author of the works that have appeared in British seaside towns.

An Instagram video clip, just over three minutes long and en-titled A Great British Sprayca-tion, shows the elusive artist taking a summer road trip in a beat-up camper van with cans of spray paint stashed in a cool-er.

In one work on the concrete sea-defence wall of a British beach, a rat lounges in a deck-chair, sipping a cocktail.

In another artwork, stick-ing to the seaside theme, a me-chanical claw dangles above a public bench – as if anyone who sits there is about to be plucked up like a prize in an arcade game.

Another shows a giant seagull swooping down to snatch some outsized chips – French fries to

US readers – from a waste skip or dumpster.

A fourth shows three chil-dren in a rickety boat.

One looks ahead while an-other is busy bailing out water with a bucket.

Just above the children ap-pears the inscription: “We’re

all in the same boat.”On the roof of a bus shelter, a

couple also dance to the tune of a fl at-capped accordion player, in a black and white painting evoking the faded, down-at-heel feel of many of the coun-try’s once-prosperous seaside resorts.

In recent years, the Bristol artist, who cleverly maintains the mystery of his identity, has kept the attention of the con-temporary art world with his social commentaries and caus-es – migrants, opposition to Brexit, denunciation of Islamist radicals – as well as stirring the

excitement of the moneyed art markets.

Last March, a work hon-ouring caregivers fetched a record £14.4mn (about $20mn, €20mn).

The proceeds went to a hos-pital charity, Christie’s auc-tioneers said at the time.

Banksy shows off his seaside ‘spraycation’Reuters/AFPLondon

Banksy’s works that have appeared on walls in various east England towns.

Flags fl ew at half mast, cul-tural and sporting events were cancelled and piles

of fl oral tributes and cuddly toys continued to grow as Plymouth began the long, diffi cult process of trying to recover from the im-pact of a mass shooting.

Politicians, church leaders and mental health experts said it could take years for the city, especially the tight-knit com-munity of Keyham, to come to terms with the shooting in which Jake Davison killed fi ve people, including a three-year-old child, and his mother before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life.

Yesterday in Keyham, a suburb near the naval dockyard, people turned up to sign books of con-dolence at churches and a school.

There was a steady stream of people arriving at the police cor-dons to leave fl owers and toys.

The home secretary, Priti Pa-tel, was among those who paid her respects to the victims.

She and the chief constable

of Devon and Cornwall police, Shaun Sawyer, laid large bou-quets among other tributes at North Down Crescent Park,

where a vigil was held on Friday evening.

Patel spoke to a local neigh-bourhood watch co-ordinator,

Kev Sprowston, who told her that the shooting had touched the lives of all residents.

“This is our September 11,” he said. “Every single kid, every single adult knows exactly where they were, similar to 9/11. I speak to people who tell me exactly where their brother was, sister was, mother was.”

Patel said: “It’s tragic beyond words. I’m sure everyone will have known each other, this will have touched so many people’s lives. It’s a very sad time. People have seen things that you never want anyone to witness. It’s very diffi cult.”

The Labour MP Luke Pollard said: “We need answers; if they are diffi cult, so be it. We’ve got a whole community grieving here. We’ve got a three-year-old killed. We need proper answers.”

Police allowed wellwishers to cross the police line to leave tributes on Biddick Drive, where Davison lived and where the spree began when he shot dead his mother, Maxine, 51.

At the Lidl supermarket where he used to help her shop and where other victims picked up groceries, another pile of tributes grew steadily.

Many referred to the death of three-year-old Sophie Martyn, who was gunned down with her father, Lee Martyn, 43.

One note read: “Our hearts are absolutely broken for the tragic loss of life in our friendly little part of Plymouth. We are just so sad for everyone and especially for the dear little girl and her family.”

Steve James stopped off on his way to his job in a city centre shop to place a bouquet.

“I think the place is still numb,” he said.

However, there is also grow-ing concern at the revelation that police had reinstated Davison’s fi rearms licence last month after he attended an anger manage-ment course.

“What’s all that about?” asked James. “I think once the sense of shock wears off , people are go-

ing to be asking the police some tough questions.”

Posters recording the names of Davison’s victims began to ap-pear on lamp-posts and trees in the area.

On railings someone had at-tached green and white balloons – in the colours of the city’s foot-ball team Plymouth Argyle – with the fi ve victims’ names on them.

The club’s game against Gill-ingham was going ahead but it was fl ying its fl ags at half mast and organising a minute’s si-lence.

Other events were cancelled.The Hope festival – a football

tournament – was called off as a mark of respect to those who lost their lives; the world pre-miere of a theatrical street event, The Hatchling, featuring what is billed as the largest human-op-erated puppet, was cancelled.

The mourning will continue.Special church services will

be held today, and tomorrow at 11am the city will hold a minute’s silence.

Police urged to take misogyny more seriously in wake of mass shootingBy Steven MorrisGuardian News & Media

Home Secretary Priti Patel is seen near floral tributes left in memory of the victims of the August 12 shootings in Plymouth, in North Down Crescent Park in the Keyham area, southwest England.

Left-wing British filmmaker Ken Loach said yesterday that he had been expelled from the Labour Party in a “purge” by leader Keir Starmer.Veteran socialist Loach, 85, said he had been kicked out after refusing to “disown” other far-left members who have already been ejected.“Labour HQ finally decided I’m not fit to be a member of their party, as I will not disown those already expelled,” he tweeted.Starmer is battling to hold his party together, with supporters of his far-left predecessor Jeremy Corbyn

frequently criticising his leadership.Corbyn’s tenure was dogged by incidents of anti-Semitism among the party’s more radical members, and Labour last month expelled four associated groups for not being “compatible” with its values.Loach tweeted that Starmer’s “clique” would not suc-ceed: “I am proud to stand with the good friends and comrades victimised by the purge. There is indeed a witch hunt.”“Starmer and his clique will never lead a party of the people. We are many, they are few,” he added. – AFP

UK Labour Party kicks out veteran fi lmmaker Ken Loach

Twitter reinstates accounts of Congress leaders

ReutersMumbai

Twitter unblocked yes-terday the accounts of India’s main opposition

party Congress, its leader Rahul Gandhi and other party offi cials, a day after suspending the ac-counts over a tweet on the al-leged rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl.

Gandhi’s account has 19.5mn followers.

It was locked after he posted a photograph of himself with the parents of a girl who was al-legedly raped and killed in New Delhi on August 1, saying that the family deserved justice.

The accounts have been re-stored after Twitter reviewed Gandhi’s submission of formal consent from people depicted in the image, the US social media giant said in an e-mailed state-ment, adding that it has with-held the tweet in India.

The tweet is available glo-bally but withheld in India under laws relating to disclosure of the identity of children and victims of sexual assault, according to a notifi cation from Twitter to a Congress leader, and seen by Reuters, after his account was reinstated.

Congress spokesperson Ran-deep Surjewala confi rmed the restoration of all accounts and said the party “fought unde-terred” against the block.

Gandhi criticised Twitter on Friday for blocking the accounts, saying that the platform was playing partisan politics.

A Twitter spokesperson said its rules were “enforced judi-ciously and impartially”.

For months, Twitter has been in a tussle with the govern-ment for not swiftly complying with India’s new IT rules that required the fi rm to hire com-pliance offi cers by May and are aimed at regulating content on social media.

Twitter completed the hiring and complied with the rules this month, the government has said.

Twitter’s India chief, Manish Maheshwari, will take up a new internal role in the United States, it said on Friday, without giving any reasons.

An internal staff memo seen by Reuters thanked him for his work in India during “extraordi-narily challenging times”.

Britain cuts cost of NHS Covid-19 travel tests

Britain said on Friday that it is cutting the cost of coronavirus (Covid-19) tests for travel from the National Health Service (NHS), and is reviewing the list of private providers to ensure pricing is transparent, warning it would clamp down on misleading pricing.Testing is free for people with symptoms of Covid-19, but all tests used for travel have to be purchased.The travel industry, which has been hammered by the pandemic, has long complained that the costs of tests are too high.The United Kingdom operates a “traff ic light” system for international travel, with low-risk countries rated green for quarantine-free travel, medium risk countries rated amber, and red countries requiring arrivals to spend 10 days in isolation in a hotel.People arriving from green and amber-list destinations must take at least one such test to avoid fines of up to £2,000 ($2,773).The Department of Health and Social Care said the cost of NHS travel tests will be reduced from £88 to £68 for arrivals from green list countries or fully vaccinated arrivals from amber list countries, and from £170 to £136 for two tests for arrivals from amber countries who are not fully vaccinated.“I know how much people have looked forward to their summer holidays and that the cost of PCR testing can be a barrier to that,” said the health minister, Sajid Javid. “That is why I am determined to protect consumers and hardworking families from exploitative practices and ensure high quality tests are available at a reasonable price.”He has also ordered a rapid review of the pricing and service standards of all test providers. – Reuters

Gandhi: his Twitter account was temporarily blocked.

A surge in markets that put a price on planet-warming emissions could make technol-ogy to capture and sequester

carbon dioxide commercially viable after decades of false starts.

A report by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Monday made clear the world would face catastrophic consequences if targets to limit climate change are missed.

Some experts say carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is essential to meeting the goal of a net carbon zero economy by 2050 because behavioural change alone will be insufficient.

But environmental campaigners tend to be wary of CCS on the grounds industry can use it to justify the continued use of fossil fuels.

CCS transports CO2 from where it is emitted and stores it, usually in a geological site, to prevent its release into the atmosphere.

Although the technology has existed for decades, it has yet to be widely deployed because it has been uneconomic — until now.

This year, the cost of producing carbon, which was far too cheap to deter many big emitters, has leapt to record highs.

On the most established carbon market, the European Union’s Emissions Trading System, pollution permits in

July reached their highest yet at nearly €60 ($70.33) a tonne.

Many analysts say a European carbon price of around 100 euros is within reach by the end of this decade, tipping the balance in favour of CCS.

Another big economy, Canada, also faces a rise in carbon prices after the country’s Supreme Court in March gave the go-ahead for an increase to C$170 ($135.67) a tonne by 2030, from C$30 now.

Most roadmaps on how to meet goals set under the Paris Climate agreement to limit a rise in global temperatures to below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) require a vast scaling up of CCS.

For companies and countries that get it right, the opportunity is huge. The world would need to go from current capacity of capturing 40mn tonnes of CO2 a year to 7.6bn tonnes a year in 2050 to realise the International Energy Agency’s net zero scenario.

Apart from the increased interest because of rising carbon prices, greater deployment of CCS would lower costs and help to make it profi table because of economies of scale.

“Part of the reason so many people are now talking about CCS is the movement in the carbon price and higher tax costs,” said Syrie Crouch VP of CCS at Shell, which has a target to capture and store 25mn tonnes of CO2 a year by 2035.

Shell is involved in CCS projects in Europe, Canada and Australia.

IEA data fi nds the cost of capturing CO2, excluding transport and storage,

ranges from $15 per tonne at a natural gas processing plant to over $300 a tonne at a direct air capture (DAC) plant, which sucks emissions out of the atmosphere and is the only negative-emission solution.

The cost variation depends on factors such as the concentration of CO2 in the gas being captured.

Transport and storage costs also vary depending on what infrastructure exists, how far the CO2 must be transported and the structure used for storage.

Total CCS costs are already starting to be manageable for some emitters, Nick Cooper, CEO of project developer Storegga, said.

Storegga is leading development of the Acorn CCS project in Scotland, which aims to use existing oil and gas infrastructure to store 5-10mn tonnes of CO2 a year by 2030. Its partners are Shell and oil and gas company Harbour Energy.

The majority of existing and developing CCS projects are at power plants or natural gas processing sites, but experts say more projects are needed to put CCS fi lters on smokestacks for industries such as steel and cement.

Large industrials including HeidelbergCement, LafargeHolcim, ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel are among those considering CCS to meet their climate targets.

“If you are an industry with high emissions, and you aren’t actively planning for how these emissions are going to be avoided or stored in the future, you are running the risk of stranding your assets, and that risk goes

up the more that carbon prices go up,” Mark Freshney, energy analyst at Credit Suisse, said.

Chemicals giant Ineos hopes to eventually store around 1 million tonnes of CO2 from its Scottish Grangemouth plant at the Acorn site and in July signed an MoU with Storegga.

“Had it not been for that movement (in carbon prices) we wouldn’t be having this conversation on CCS. It has defi nitely led to a sea change,” Colin Pritchard, Energy Business Manager at Grangemouth, said.

Ineos is also developing the Greensands CCS project off the coast of Denmark that it hopes could eventually store up to 8mn tonnes of CO2 a year in depleted oil and gas fi elds.

The sudden eagerness, especially from oil companies that can use carbon dioxide to increase pressure in old fi elds to extract more fossil fuel — currently the most common use of CCS — leaves climate campaigners suspicious, even though they grasp the urgency of fi nding all possible solutions to controlling climate change.

“Putting carbon capture technology on greenhouse-gas emitting facilities enables those facilities to continue operating, eff ectively providing those emitters with a licence to pollute indefi nitely,” a group of over 500 international, US, and Canadian organisations said in an open letter to their policymakers in July.

At the same time, some existing projects have struggled with technical problems.

Australia’s A$3.1bn ($2.3bn) Gorgon CCS project, a joint venture including Chevron, Shell and ExxonMobil, was designed to store 4mn tonnes a year of CO2 at a liquefi ed natural gas project.

Since starting injecting CO2 in August 2019, three years later than scheduled, it has injected a total of 5mn tonnes of CO2-equivalent.

“Like anything of this scale there are technical challenges to overcome,” Shell’s Crouch said. Lessons from the project would be shared with the industry and governments and help to progress future projects, she said.

In the longer term, supporters of the technology say it will play an essential role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere, rather than just capturing at source, through methods such as direct air capture or bioenergy, derived from renewable biomass, with carbon capture and storage (BECCs).

British power generator Drax is seeking to develop BECCs at its biomass units, which it said could make it the world’s fi rst negative emissions power plant by 2027.

Drax CEO Will Gardiner told Reuters it would take the company an initial £2bn ($2.8bn) investment to build the plants capable of removing 8-9 million tonnes of CO2 a year, with the CCS costing around 100 per tonne.

“As carbon prices rise globally, and if we are going to achieve a 1.5 degree pathway, they will have to rise, this will be a very cost effective way of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere,” he said. — Reuters

Qatar remains focused on sustainable investments in technology, infrastructure, and education and healthcare amid the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Qatar has a solid line-up of infrastructure and hospitality projects to prepare itself for the large influx of visitors expected during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, although the tournament’s flagship projects, such as the stadia, are fast nearing completion.

Qatar has identified new projects valued at QR54bn in the medium term; even as the Ministry of Finance, in co-operation with the Public Works Authority (Ashghal), is working on implementing a strategic plan by linking targeted performance indicators for new projects.

Expenditure on major projects during the second quarter of this year already reached QR15bn, representing 20.8% of 2021 budget, Ministry of Finance recently said.

This however, showed a marginal decline of 0.4% compared to the previous quarter. Nevertheless, larger payments are anticipated in the second half of the year, the Ministry of Finance said.

Newly-awarded projects during the second quarter of 2021 amounted to over QR2.7bn. In terms of awarded projects during the second quarter of 2021, infrastructure, roads, and parks totalled QR1.72bn and sewer and drainage QR314.7mn.

According to the Ministry of Finance, projects to be completed this year are Lusail Light Rail Transit, Doha Old Port, Sabah Al-Ahmad Corridor and the one related to Food Security.

Total expenditure for Q2, 2021 amounted to QR46.2bn and represents 23.7% of 2021 budget.

Compared to the previous quarter, total capital expenditure remained relatively stable, while total current expenditure increased by 4.5% leading to an increase of 2.6% in total expenditure.

Oil price averaged $69.1 per barrel during the second quarter, the Ministry of Finance said.

Similar to the previous quarter, revenue continued to outperform the state budget as oil prices remained higher than the conservative $40 per barrel budget assumption.

As a result of controlled expenditure and enhanced revenue, the state budget recorded a surplus for the second consecutive quarter totalling QR3.8bn, the Ministry of Finance noted.

Qatar’s budget for the current fiscal demonstrates that there will be plenty

of investment opportunities going forward, especially regarding infrastructure projects.

The 2021 national budget provides for huge spending on major projects, as well as on education and health.

The overall allocation of QR72.1bn for major projects, a 37% share of the total expenditures worth QR194.7bn indicates the state’s continued efforts to complete the projects related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in a timely manner.

On the other hand, higher oil prices will narrow Qatar’s fi scal defi cit, freeing up resources for higher investment spending, which could create opportunities mainly in the country’s construction sector.

Also, higher favourable energy prices mean Qatar’s need for external financing gets reduced.

Qatar’s stronger fiscal position likely means that it will also focus on paying down its external debt obligations.

The country’s total public debt declined by 2.9% during the second quarter to reach QR370.8bn. The decline was a result of both external and domestic redemptions.

External debt redemption in Q2 totalled QR13.7bn, while redemption of domestic debt amounted to QR0.95bn, the Ministry of Finance said.

Gulf Times Sunday, August 15, 2021

COMMENT10

To Advertise [email protected]

Display 44466621 44418811

Classified 44466609 44418811

Subscription [email protected]

© 2021 Gulf Times. All rights reserved

GULF TIMES

P.O.Box 2888, Doha, Qatar [email protected] 44350478 (News), 44466404 (Sport), 44466636 (Home delivery) 44350474 facebook.com/gulftimes twitter.com/gulftimes_Qatar

CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing Editor

K T Chacko

Major infrastructure projects to steer Qatar’s economic growth

Higher oil prices will narrow the fi scal defi cit, freeing up resources for higher investment spending, which could create opportunities mainly in the country’s construction sector

Sunrise or false dawn for tech to bury emissions?By Susanna Twidale & Shadia NasrallaLondon

RECOURSE TO TECHNOLOGY: In the longer term, supporters of the technology say it will play an essential role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere, rather than just capturing at source, through methods such as direct air capture or bioenergy, derived from renewable biomass, with carbon capture and storage.

WORLD11Gulf Times


Weapon seizures ‘massive boon’ for TalibanAFPKabul

The United States spent billions supplying the Afghan military with the tools to defeat the Tali-

ban, but the rapid capitulation of the armed forces means that weaponry is now fuelling the insurgents’ astonish-ing battlefi eld successes.

“We provided our Afghan partners with all the tools — let me emphasise: all the tools,” US President Joe Biden said when defending his decision to withdraw American forces and leave the fi ght to the locals.

But Afghan defence forces have shown little appetite for that fi ght and, in their tens of thousands, have been

laying down their arms — only for the Taliban to immediately pick them up.

The Taliban’s social media is awash with videos of Taliban fi ghters seizing weapons caches — the majority sup-plied by Western powers.

Footage of Afghan soldiers surren-dering in the northern city of Kunduz shows army vehicles loaded with heavy weapons and mounted with artillery guns safely in the hands of the insur-gent rank and fi le.

In the western city of Farah, fi ghters patrolled in a car marked with an ea-gle swooping on a snake — the offi cial insignia of the country’s intelligence service.

While US forces took the “sophis-ticated” equipment with them when they withdrew, the Taliban blitz has

handed the group “vehicles, humvees, small arms and light weapons, as well as ammunition”, Justine Fleischner of weapons-tracking group Confl ict Ar-mament Research, told AFP.

Experts say such hauls has given the Taliban a massive boost.

The weapons will not only help the Taliban’s march on Kabul but “strengthen its authority” in the cit-ies it has captured, said Raff aello Pan-tucci, senior fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

With US troops all but gone, the Taliban now fi nd themselves fl ush with American-supplied tools, without having to raise a single penny.

“It is incredibly serious. It is clearly going to be a massive boon to them,” he said.

Some of that weaponry is now be-ing brazenly paraded ahead of the US troops’ 9/11 withdrawal deadline by insurgents who have maintained ties with Al Qaeda, the group behind the 2001 terror attacks.

Washington had prepared for the Taliban to claim its weapons, but the rapid fall of cities was its most dire sce-nario, Jason Amerine, who led US spe-cial forces in overthrowing the Taliban in 2001, told AFP.

“The US equipped the ANA with the assumption that weapons and materiel might fall into Taliban hands,” he said, referring to the Afghan National Army.

“The current crisis was a worst-case scenario considered when making pro-curement decisions.”

At Kunduz airport, a Taliban fi ghter

on a red motorbike, head-to-toe in in-surgent dress, was fi lmed staring at a military helicopter sitting on the tar-mac.

It is a picture of jubilation mirrored across insurgent-held territory.

While the group will continue to show off these big prizes, the aircraft at least will have no impact on the battle-fi eld without pilots.

“They will be for propaganda pur-poses only,” former CIA counter-ter-rorism analyst Aki Peritz told AFP.

More useful will be the light arms and vehicles used to navigate the country’s rugged terrain. Coupled with the army’s dwindling morale, they will boost the threat the Taliban pose to the Western-backed government.

As the crisis unfolds, Biden’s admin-

istration says it will still equip an Af-ghan military that appears on the verge of collapse.

Observers of the Middle East have seen this transfer of arms play out be-fore.

After the US withdrawal from Iraq, the Islamic State (IS) group overran the Iraqi city of Mosul in mid-2014, seizing US-supplied guns and humvees.

The jihadists used their gains to build an Iraqi-Syrian caliphate the size of Belgium.

Like IS fi ghters in Mosul, joyous Tal-iban recruits are now posing for pho-tographs with enemy munitions in the newly won cities in all corners of the country.

“This retreat is turning into a rout,” Peritz said.

Clockwise: A girl poses for a picture with flags of Pakistan at the tomb of national poet Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal in Lahore; Pakistani tourists gallery is illuminated with the colours of Pakistan’s national flag at the India-Pakistan Wagah Post, some 35km from Amritsar; Pakistani Ranger’s Wing Commander Hassan (left) presents sweets to Indian Border Security Force (BSF) Commandant Jasbir Singh during a ceremony to celebrate the day at the India-Pakistan Wagah border post; and Pakistanis taking part in the festivities in the federal capital Islamabad. (AFP)

Pakistan Independence Day celebrations at a glance8 killed in Russian fi refi ghting plane crash in Turkey

AFPIstanbul

Turkey battled disaster on two fronts yester-day with eight people dying when a fi refi ght-ing aircraft crashed and rescuers racing to

fi nd survivors of fl ash fl oods in the north that have killed at least 55.

Ankara and Moscow announced that all eight people on the Russian plane had perished on the fi re-fi ghting mission.

The air tragedy came just as Turkey was gaining control of hundreds of wildfi res that killed eight people and destroyed swathes of forest along the scenic southern coast.

Scientists believe such natural disasters are be-coming more intense and frequent because of glo-bal warming caused by polluting emissions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent condo-lences to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erodgan saying “the pain of this loss unites us”.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu add-ed: “Condolences to our nation and to the Russian people. This heroic sacrifi ce will not be forgotten.”

In Moscow, the defence ministry said fi ve Rus-sian servicemen and three Turkish citizens were on board the Russian Be-200 plane that went down around 1330 GMT.

Television footage showed a column of smoke rising from the remote mountainous zone in Tur-key’s south.

Turkey’s defence ministry issued a statement saying the aircraft on loan from Russia had taken off from Adana to help extinguish fi res burning in Kahramanmaras province.

A surveillance plane and a helicopter had been dispatched to the crash site, the ministry added.

Russian consular representatives and a defence ministry commission were reportedly on their way to the area.

on the fl oods front the offi cial disaster agency AFAD said teams were combing through the rub-ble of dozens of homes that collapsed due to the fl oods that hit Black Sea regions on Wednesday af-ter heavy rains.

In the village of Babacay in the northern province of Sinop, 40 houses and two bridges were com-pletely destroyed by the fl oods, according to state news agency Anadolu.

The latest offi cial death toll published yesterday by AFAD stood at 55, with nine other people in hos-pital.

Flash floods toll in north 55

Putin alarmed by scale of disasters

AFPMoscow

President Vladimir Putin yesterday said the scale of natural disasters that have hit Russia this year is “absolutely unprecedented” as local offi cials

ask for Moscow’s help to tackle fi res and fl oods.A former sceptic of man-made climate change, the

Russian leader called on authorities to do everything possible to help Siberians aff ected by the region’s gigantic wildfi res, as well as Russians living in the fl ood-hit south of the country.

Speaking at a video conference with the leaders of the aff ected eastern and southern regions, Putin said he received daily reports on the climate situation in the country. “In the south (of Russia), the monthly norm of rainfall now falls in a few hours and in the Far East on the contrary, forest fi res in drought conditions are spreading rapidly,” Putin said. In Russia’s largest and coldest region of Yakutia, this summer’s forest fi res have already burned through an area larger than Portugal.

Russian weather offi cials and environmentalists have linked the increasing intensity of Siberia’s an-nual fi res to climate change.

Russia tells BBC journalist to go home in new row with BritainReutersMoscow

Russia has told a BBC journalist working in Moscow to leave the

country by the end of this month in retaliation for what it called London’s discrimi-nation against Russian jour-nalists working in Britain, state TV reported late on Thursday.

In an unusual move that signals a further deterioration in already poor ties between London and Moscow, the Rossiya-24 TV channel said that Sarah Rainsford, one of the British broadcaster’s two English-language Moscow correspondents, would be go-ing home in what it called “a landmark deportation”.

The step, a de facto expul-sion, follows a crackdown be-fore parliamentary elections in September on Russian-lan-guage media at home that the authorities judge to be backed by malign foreign interests in-tent on stoking unrest.

“Being expelled from Rus-sia, a country I’ve lived in for almost 1/3 of my life — and reported for years — is devas-

tating. Thank you for all your kind messages of support,” Rainsford wrote on Twitter.

Rossiya-24 said Russian au-thorities had decided against renewing Rainsford’s accredi-tation to work as a foreign journalist in Moscow beyond the end of this month when her visa expires.

The move was a response to London’s refusal to renew or issue visas to Russian journal-ists in Britain, it said.

The channel cited Britain’s treatment of state-backed Russian broadcaster RT and of online state news outlet Sput-nik, saying neither could get accredited in Britain to cover international events.

“Sarah Rainsford is going home. According to our ex-perts, this correspondent of Moscow’s BBC bureau will not have her visa extended because Britain, in the media sphere, has crossed all our red lines,” Rossiya-24 said.

“The expulsion of Sarah Rainsford is our symmetrical response,” it said.

Tim Davie, the BBC’s di-rector-general, called her expulsion “a direct assault on media freedom, which we condemn unreservedly.”

“We urge the Russian au-thorities to reconsider their decision. In the meantime, we will continue to report events in the region independently and impartially,” he said.

Rainsford did not reply to a request for comment. Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign min-istry (MFA), said BBC rep-resentatives had been at the ministry in recent days and

that everything had been ex-plained to them in detail.

Zakharova said Moscow had warned London many times that it would respond to what she called visa-related perse-cution of Russian journalists in Britain.

“We reject the MFA’s claims of discriminatory action against Russian journalists in the UK,” the British embassy in Moscow said in a state-ment, adding that Russian journalists continue to work freely in the UK if they act within the law and the regula-tory framework.

“We urge them to reconsid-er this retrograde step against an award-winning BBC jour-nalist which can only do fur-ther damage to media freedom in Russia.”

Rainsford is part of a team that supplies the British pub-lic service broadcaster’s Eng-lish-language outlets with content about Russia and the former Soviet Union. The BBC also operates a large Russian-language service in Moscow.

Rainsford, a Russian speak-er, is an experienced BBC for-eign correspondent who has also done stints in Havana, Istanbul and Madrid.

“Being expelled from Russia, a country I’ve lived in for almost 1/3 of my life is devastating”— Sarah Rainsford

Protesters in France slam health pass rules for the fi ft h weekend

Protesters have marched in cities across France for a fifth consecutive weekend against rules compelling them to show a Covid-19 health pass for daily activities, but in lesser numbers than a week ago.Crowds rallied through the streets of Paris, Marseille, Nice, Montpellier and other towns, waving placards reading “Pass=Apartheid” and chanting “Freedom, freedom”.Since last Monday, citizens have been required to show the pass in public places, proving that they have been vaccinated or have recently been tested negative for the coronavirus. After a week of leniency from the police, the government has vowed to get tougher on health pass checks, and testing, unless prescribed by a doctor, will no longer be free from October. The protests have united a disparate group against President Emmanuel Macron’s legislation, which is meant to help contain a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections spreading across France and help safeguard the country’s economic recovery. The total number of participants in the latest protests had diminished to almost 215,000, according to the interior ministry, after a steady rise from 114,000 on the first Saturday of protest on July 17 to 237,000 on Aug. 7. Authorities had initially anticipated that the 217 overwhelmingly peaceful rallies around the country would total around 250,000 demonstrators. The number of people being treated for Covid-19 in intensive care units has more than doubled in less than a month, standing at 1,831 as of Friday. That’s less than a third of the third lockdown peak of 6,001, but high enough to trigger restrictive measures in certain areas.Health Ministry data showed nine in every 10 Covid patients recently admitted to intensive care had not been vaccinated. A majority of French support the health pass, surveys show.


QATAR

Expatriate Pakistanis celebrate Independence Day with zest

Ambassador of Pakistan Syed Ahsan Raza hoisting the national flag.

Ambassador Raza and off icers of the Pakistan embassy cutting the celebratory cake with children.

The ambassador with the personnel of the Pakistani armed forces.

By Kamran RehmatDoha

Pakistanis all over the world celebrated the 75th Independence Day with

traditional fervour yesterday. The same zest was evident at a colourful event hosted by the Pakistan embassy on its premis-es to mark the occasion.

Ambassador Syed Ahsan Raza hoisted the crescent-and-star fl ag to the tune of the national anthem, sung in unison by the audience, after a smartly turned out contingent of the Pakistan

Army presented a salute.Offi cers of the Pakistan em-

bassy read out messages of President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In his message, the presi-dent praised the resilience of Pakistan as a nation that had achieved tremendous successes in various fi elds. He made a note of how the country fought a long drawn out war against ter-rorism and defeating the men-ace. He felt the nuclear deter-rence was a great achievement that made the country’s defence impregnable.

More recently, President Alvi

expressed his satisfaction at the laurels Pakistan had won glo-bally for handling the Covid-19 pandemic for which he cred-ited the doctors and paramed-ics, media, National Command and Operation Centre, security forces and the entire nation.

Whilst congratulating the nation on the Independence Day, Prime Minister Imran Khan called upon his compatriots to resolve to uphold national val-ues of unity, faith and discipline envisioned by the Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Muham-mad Ali Jinnah.

“Pakistan today, can stand

tall among the comity of na-tions. Our policies towards re-viving the economy, handling the pandemic and protecting the environment have received universal acclaim,” he pointed out.

Emphasising his govern-ment’s policy, the prime minis-ter said: “We want peace within and without, to pursue our so-cio-economic agenda. The Naya (new) Pakistan has shifted its focus from geo-politics to geo-economics, with the well-being and welfare of our people as the topmost priority.”

He also underlined that 14th

August inspired all Pakistanis “to serve the country with great-er dedication in order to carry the national fl ag, which symbol-ises the nation’s hopes and aspi-rations, even higher”.

Hailing the 170,000-strong Pakistani community in Qatar as a “living bridge” between the two countries, Ambassador Syed Ahsan Raza exhorted them to present the true image of Paki-stan in their practices and deal-ings by following the ideals of the Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and National Poet Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

He felt the community had it in them to continue to con-tribute to the development and progress of both countries ma-jorly. He assured them of the embassy’s complete support to help achieve the desired objec-tive within the framework of re-sources available at its disposal.

The ambassador also ex-pressed his gratitude to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the Qatari leadership for hosting the Pakistani community with excellent employment opportu-nities and living conditions. He felt that His Highness the Amir

had great aff ection for Pakistan and Pakistanis and that the lead-ership in the two countries were committed to boosting the ex-isting fraternal ties.

In this context, he recalled the fruitful visit of the Amir to Paki-stan in 2019 and Prime Minister Khan’s visits to Qatar the same year and in 2020.

The celebration concluded with a cake cutting in the colours and contours of the green-and-white national fl ag in the pres-ence of children mostly attired in similar colours, with prayers of-fered for the solidarity, progress and prosperity of Pakistan.

Package 9 of South Al Meshaf development project to serve 682 citizens’ subdivisionsThe Roads and Infra-

structure Project in South Al Meshaf (Pack-

age 9) by the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) will serve 682 citizens’ subdivisions in the area while providing up-graded infrastructure services including a 23.5km foul sewer network.

The project will develop 56km of surface and ground-water drainage network, 9.5km of Treated Sewage Effluent (TSE) network and a 9km po-table water network.

Ashghal is working on the QR544mn project which will be completed in the third quarter of 2023.

The project is implemented as part of the plan to imple-ment infrastructure projects

for citizens’ subdivisions in the southern regions of the country.

As part of the project, Ash-ghal is upgrading infrastruc-ture facilities to respond to residents’ needs and urban growth in the future.

Located at South of Doha and South West Al Wakra, the project location is bordered by Rekayya Street to the south, Al Wukair Road to the north and by the Southern Part of Doha Express Highway to the east.

New sewage pipelines will be provided and connected with Qatar’s main sewage network. Construction works will also include an emergency flood area with a total capacity of 40,000 cu m to provide proper protection for the entire area against flooding and excess rainfall.

The upgrading works that were started at the beginning of this year will be imple-mented into three geographi-cal zones. The same will be carried out successively. The duration of each phase will be one year.

The project is being imple-mented by the joint venture of Development Company for Road Works and Qatar Build-ing Engineering Company.

The project is being implemented by the joint venture of Development Company for Road Works and Qatar Building Engineering Company

Premier League: to attract FDI, Man Utd fi re past ...

Documents