Monday 25 May 2020

2 Shawwal - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8268

Eid Mubarak

BUSINESS | 01 PENMAG | 03 SPORT | 08

Clijsters

determined to

press on with

comeback

Classifieds

and Services

section

included

China pledges

more spending to

steady virus-hit

economy

Less number of road accidents recorded on first day of EidFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Emergency Department at Hamad General Hospital (HGH) and Al Wakra Hospital have treated 651 cases on the first day of Eid Al Fitr due to several reasons including road acci-dents, stomach ailments, respi-ratory problems and trauma.

However, the number of cases especially the number of road traffic accidents have reduced because many have stayed home as a preventive measure against COVID-19, said Dr. Galal Saleh Al Essai, Vice-Chairman for Cor-porate Affairs, Department of Emergency Medicine, Hamad Medical Corporation.

“Many of them were minor and moderate cases and were

sent home after treatment,” he told The Peninsula.

“Cases received both at HGH and Al Wakra Emergency Department were not serious or critical and most of them were simple or routine ones related to digestive and respi-ratory diseases.

Among them very few were admitted for continued treatment and others were treated and sent back home. We have seen a decrease in road accident related cases this year, possibly because people keep indoors and no activities are being held due to COVID-19,” he added.

Emergency Department at HGH has received a total of 431 cases, among them 291 were male, 140 female, 16 patients were admitted for further treatment.

The Emergency Department at Al Wakra hospital has treated a total of 220 cases, among them 186 male, 34 female and 23 were admitted for further treatment.

The Ambulance Service has

received 869 calls and among them 60 were related to traffic accidents.

Also the Ambulance Service at HMC the Pediatric Emer-gency Centres (PEC) received

many patients but all were simple routine ones with no critical cases reported from any of the departments.

HMC has continued to provide smooth delivery of

Emergency and essential services across the hospitals during the ongoing Eid Al Adha holidays.

“As we were well prepared to receive patients during the Eid holidays. The team with specialised doctors, nurses and paramedics, we ensure that operations are not affected and patients are given the best care,” said Dr Al Essai.

When Eid Al Fitr festivities were approaching, HMC had cau-tioned people against road acci-dents and eating habits. The Min-istry of Public Health stressed the importance for the elderly or those suffering from chronic dis-eases and their family members to follow strict measures to reduce the chances of infection, including refraining from social visits during Eid Al Fitr. �P2

MoPH: 657 more patients recover; 1,501new cases and two deaths registeredTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday recorded 1,501 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 657 patients infected with the virus recovered, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 9,170, yesterday.

The Ministry also announced two deaths due to the virus.

Also 24 people were

admitted to intensive care due to the virus, bringing the total number of cases in intensive care to 188 cases.

The total number of positive COVID-19 cases recorded in Qatar till now stands at 43,714 and there are 34,521 active cases under treatment.

So far, 23 people have died from the coronavirus in Qatar. Ministry conducted 3,349 tests yesterday, taking the total tests done so far to 188,143

tests.The Ministry stated that the

two new deaths were a 66-year-old and 53-year-old, both of whom were receiving treatment in intensive care. The Ministry of Public Health extended its sincere condo-lences and great sympathy to the families of the two deceased.

The Ministry revealed that the number of positive cases among citizens and residents

witnessed a significant rise, with the number of infections relating to family gatherings, visits and sharing meals together with relatives and extended families having doubled.

The Ministry of Public Health stated that Qatar is still in the peak phase of the virus outbreak, which is seeing a rise in the number of infections recorded daily, and therefore it is necessary to adhere to, more

than ever before, the preventive measures and social measures recommended.

The Ministry also stressed the importance for the elderly or those suffering from chronic

diseases and their family members to follow strict measures to reduce the chances of infection, including refraining from social visits during Eid Al Fitr. �P2

NEW RECOVERIES

ACTIVE CASES

TOTAL RECOVERIES

TOTAL DEATHS

657 34,521

9,17023

NEW CASES ANNOUNCED

1,501

COVID-19QATAR UPDATES ON 24 MAY 2020

Residents celebrate Eid Al Fitr,maintain social distancing

SACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

Residents made their Eid Al Fitr festivities memo-rable by celebrating the festival at home with their family members. By celebrating Eid at home and following social distancing, they made signif-icant contribution in government’s effort to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

This year’s Eid is different from previous years because of COVID-19 outbreak. In order to keep everyone safe, the government asked everyone to celebrate Eid Al Fitr at home and avoid any gath-erings. Just few days before Eid Al Fitr, Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari, had reminded people of the importance of staying at home and following the recommended measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

“This Eid, it is really important that you stay at home and only go out when it is absolutely necessary,” H E Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari had said in the message to the people.

Following the message in a true sense, the

residents made the most of their time by staying at home. The first day of Eid Al Fitr started with offering Eid prayers in early morning at home.

Residents adorned their homes with Eid themed decorations. They used technology to overcome the distance created by COVID-19 out-break. Residents connected with their family, friends and relatives through video calls and exchanged greetings and wish them through various social media platforms. “This Eid, it was

not possible for us to visit our friend’s house because of COVID-19 pandemic. But, we con-nected with our friends and relatives virtually through video calls,” Mohammad Mufeel, res-ident of Al Sadd told The Peninsula.

Taking benefit of staying at home, many used this time to test their culinary skills by preparing some new traditional delicacies. Dishes, espe-cially sweets, were enjoyed together with rela-tives and friends via video calls.

“Video calls were usually used for wishing living in other cities and countries. On previous occasions, we used to make video call to wish our friends and relatives living abroad.” �P2

Sheikh Dr. Thaqil bin Sayer Al Shammari delivering Eid Al Fitr sermon (Khutba) at Imam Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab Mosque yesterday. Eid Al Fitr prayer was performed exclusively at Imam Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab Mosque following the state's strict preventive and precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Residents connected with their family, friends and relatives through video calls and exchanged greetings.

Taking benefit of staying at home, many used this time to test their culinary skills by preparing some new traditional delicacies.

We welcome the announcements by the Afghan government and the Taliban about ceasefire during Eid Al Fitr. We encourage the parties to take further steps to promote intra-Afghan negotiations and secure a durable peace settlement that ends the conflict in Afghanistan

Traffic accidents have reduced because many people have stayed home as a preventive measure against COVID-19.

Most of the cases received both at HGH and Al Wakra Emergency Department were simple or routine ones related to digestive and respiratory diseases.

Emergency Department at HGH has received a total of 431 cases.

Qatar, four other countries welcome Afghan ceasefireQNA — DOHA

Qatar, Germany, Indonesia, Norway, and Uzbekistan announced their warm welcome to the announcement of the Afghan government and the Taliban ceasefire during the blessed Eid Al Fitr. They wished all Afghans a joyful and blessed Eid.

In a joint statement, the five countries said that the ceasefire is a positive step forward that gives cause for hope. The Afghan people deserves an end to violence as well as a dig-nified peace and stability. It added that the five countries encourage the parties to take further steps in the days and weeks ahead in order to enter into, without delay, intra-Afghan negoti-ations aimed at securing a durable peace set-tlement that ends the conflict in Afghanistan.

Recalling the appeal of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a global ceasefire amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the five countries urged a permanent and comprehensive reduction in violence so as to bring lasting relief to the Afghan population. "In this connection, we also encourage the taking of necessary measures to protect vul-nerable groups and individuals, including pris-oners, from the pandemic," the statement said.

"As like-minded countries resolved to co-operate in our support for an inclusive peace process in Afghanistan, we stand ready to assist the process in any way the parties may wish," it added.

The five countries commended the long-standing efforts of all relevant parties, including those of the State of Qatar and the United States, in supporting the peace process in Afghanistan.

02 MONDAY 25 MAY 2020HOME

Eid Al Fitr prayers at Imam Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab Mosque

Sheikh Dr. Thaqil bin Sayer Al Shammari delivering Eid Al Fitr sermon (Khutba) at Imam Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab Mosque yesterday. Eid Al Fitr prayer was performed exclusively at Imam Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab Mosque following the State’s strict preventive and precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Children may act as carriers of COVID-19: OfficialFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Though data shows that children are less affected by COVID-19, they may still fall ill and can be carriers of the virus. Parents are, therefore, urged to keep their children safe during Eid celebrations by following the instructions by health authorities, according to Dr. Sadriya Al Khoji, National Lead, Healthy Children and Adoles-cents.

“They may act as carriers of the virus and spread it to others who may be at risk of devel-oping complications if infected. Celebrate Eid this year with your children at home,” she said, as part of a social media campaign by the Ministry of Public Health, Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), yesterday.

"While this is a very special occasion for us and our children, we must prioritise their safety, our safety and that of our family and friends who may be more at risk,” she added.

On May 21, health author-ities revealed weekly statistics on the COVID-19 cases. They said that most of those infected were in the age group of 25-34 years, constituting 35% of the patients. They are followed by the age group 35-44 years (27% of cases), and the 15-24 age group.

It has been seen that those above 45 years are most vul-nerable to severe infections and complications from the virus and require intensive care.

On average, the number of cases that needed to enter intensive care during the past week was 20 cases per day, up from 14 per day during the pre-

vious week.Some 24 people were

admitted to intensive care due to the virus yesterday bringing the total number of cases in intensive care to 188 cases.

While the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that all age groups can catch COVID-19, evidence to date suggests that children and ado-lescents are less likely to get severe disease, but severe cases and death can still happen in these age groups.

WHO has said, “While we are still learning about how COVID-19 affects people, older persons (e.g. persons over 60 years) and persons with pre-existing medical conditions, like high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer or diabetes, appear to develop serious illness more often than others.

"As this is a new virus, we are still learning about how it affects chi ldren and adolescents.”

Aspire Zone Foundation virtually celebrates EidTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

This year, Qatar is experiencing a unique celebration of Eid Al Fitr as authorities have urged citizens and residents to stay home and protect themselves and the wider community from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to celebrate this special occasion, the man-agement of Aspire Zone Foun-dation (AZF) invited the staff to join them for an e-Majlis yes-terday to connect in these chal-lenging times online and to exchange Eid greetings.

“It’s very important to reaffirm that we stand together as one this Eid, to celebrate synergy and togetherness. Eid is an occasion to exchange greetings with family and friends. This year it has come at a time where physical dis-tancing is being enforced for our well-being and health,” said AZF CEO, Mohammed Khalifa Al Suwaidi, who was part of the virtual meeting along with Aspire Academy

Director General, Ivan Bravo; Aspetar CEO, Dr. Abdulaziz Jeham Al Kuwari; and Aspire Logistics Director General, Abdulla Nasser Al Nuaimi.

The participants used the opportunity to talk with the members of the management, videos were shown that showed the diversity in Aspire featuring greetings and Eid-wishes in many different languages.

Eid Al Fitr, one of the most important Religious Occasion in the Muslim calendar marking the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan, is traditionally cel-ebrated with mosque prayers, family feasts and shopping for new clothes, gifts and sweet treats.

But this year, the cele-bration is overshadowed by the fast-spreading respiratory disease, and although there will be no community events and gatherings this year, those cel-ebrating can make the most of the unique time with their loved ones at home.

While Eid Al Fitr is a very special occasion for us and our children, we must prioritise their safety,

our safety and that of our family and friends who may be more at risk,” said Dr. Sadriya Al Khoji, National Lead, Healthy Children and Adolescents.

Sunrise on the first day of Eid Al Fitr A view of sunrise over the Doha skyline and Imam Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab Mosque on the first day of Eid Al Fitr. PIC: BAHER AMIN/THE PENINSULA

Education Ministry announces winners of short film contest THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has announced 18 winners of ‘School Stars’ short film competition.

Under the first category competition for Arabic language films, Luluwa Abdul Aziz Abdur-raham from Moza Bint Mohammed Primary School for Girls received the first prize; Rahmah Mohamad Majdi Al Damir from Al Bayan Primary School for Girls won second prize; while the third prize went to Yasin Monir Abdali from Saud bin Abdulrahman Primary School for Boys, the Ministry said in a tweet.

Winners for foreign lan-guages films for first category are Miria Hassett from Newton British School who received first prize, Omar Wael Assem from

American School of Doha bagged second prize and the third prize went to Aadhi Azhagiri from GEMS Wellington Qatar.

Under the second category competition for Arabic language films, Fahed and Hamad Masood Nabina from Qatar Academy received first prize, Al Jawhara Thani Ali Al Thani from Al Bayan Primary School for Girls got second prize and Danah Ahmad Alwah from Sumaya Primary School for Girls received third prize.

Winners for foreign lan-guages films for second category are Mahmoud Ahmed Mohammed Mustafa from Newton British Academy who received first prize, Fatima Khalid Shuwaiter from Ashifaa Primary School got second prize and Aadhya Prajeeth from GEMS

Wellington bagged third prize. Under the third category

competition for Arabic language films, Najad Ali Al Muhannadi from Al Bayan Secondary School for Girls received first prize, Hamad Khalifa Al Rumayhi from Khalif Secondary School for Girls bagged second prize and Maryam Abdullah Al Ibrahim from Al Wakra Preparatory School for Girls got third prize.

Winners of foreign lan-guages films for third category are Khalid Moustafa Helmy from Newton British School

Muraikh who received first prize, Manal Abdul Jaleel from Al Khor International School got second prize and Bhavyasri Rajesh from MES Indian School bagged third prize.

The short film competition ‘School Stars’ was organised by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in partnership with the Doha Film Institute (DFI) for public and private school students in Qatar.

The competition was held under the theme of ‘The Bright Side’ for students to submit short

films that explore and express their views, observations and their experience in relation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The open community-wide initiative invited Arabic and other language-speaking stu-dents to participate by creating 30-60 second films that capture the essence of the presented theme and reflect their opinions and ideas on the proposed topics.

Three winning films from each category will receive cash prizes in addition to compli-mentary access to DFI youth workshops and the exclusive opportunity to participate in the Ajyal Jury programme (age appropriate) in the upcoming edition of the Institute’s annual celebration of culture and art — the Ajyal Film Festival.

The short film competition ‘School Stars’ was organised by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in partnership with the Doha Film Institute for public and private school students in Qatar.

Residents celebrate Eid Al Fitr,maintain social distancing

FROM PAGE 1

But, this Eid, we used video calls to wish our neighbours living few metres away,” Shakira Saied, resident of Matar Qadeem told The Peninsula. Those who were not confident about their cooking skills, they availed the various offers by restaurants and hotels. Many and hotels and restaurants have launched special offers for Eid Al Fitr. Taking measure to ensure customers’ safety, they have started contactless home delivery of orders. Under this new service, a customer receives his order without coming in contact with delivery person.

Fewer accidents recorded on 1st day of EidFROM PAGE 1

During the first three days of Eid Al Fitr holidays in 2019, HMC’s HGH treated at least 1,524 cases for several conditions including stomach ailments, respiratory problems and trauma. The Emer-gency Department at Al Wakra Hospital treated around 656 cases in the first three days of Eid.

MoPH: 657 more

recover as

1,501 new

cases reportedFROM PAGE 1

The Ministry urged anyone who has symptoms of COVID-19 should either quickly contact the 16000 hel-pline or go directly to one of the designated health centers for testing the virus.

This is important as the earlier the disease is detected the easier it will be to receive the right treatment and recover from it.

The four main testing centers are: Muaither Health Centre, Rawdat Al Khalil Health Centre, Um Slal Health Centre; and Al Gharafa Health Centre.

FAJR SUNRISE 03.18 am 04.45 am

W A L R U WA I S : 25o↗ 37o W A L K H O R : 26o↗ 37o W D U K H A N : 24o↗ 38o W WA K R A H : 27o↗ 37o W M E S A I E E D 27o↗ 37o W A B U S A M R A 21o↗ 42o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 04:43–18:51 LOW TIDE 01:31 – 12:22

Misty at places at first becomes hot daytime with some clouds at times, mild by night.

Minimum Maximum28oC 38oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.31 am06.19 pm

ASR ISHA

02.56 pm07.49 pm

03MONDAY 25 MAY 2020 HOME

HMC operated 4 mobile sites for blood donation during RamadanFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

The Hamad Medical Corpora-tion’s Blood Donation Center operated four sites during the holy month of Ramadan, espe-cially in the present situation (COVID-19) to reach out to donors in the nearest area they can safely donate blood and recruit more donors.

The Center organises a number of regular blood donation campaigns every week. A mobile blood donation campaign begins before the holy month of Ramadan every year, said Sadika Al Mahmoudi, Medical Manager, Blood Donation Center.

“The aim is to entrench the culture of voluntary donation in the society to provide ade-quate and safe stocks of blood in Qatar. Through mobile cam-paign, we recruited new donors (first time donors) and the youth from 18 to 25 years to remove the fear of blood donation. We went to their location to recruit and not to let them come and wait in our center,” she told The Peninsula.

“We put our plans very early

(mobile campaign plans) and we worked with the Communi-cation Department of HMC. We use a theme “One Nation through Donation” and meaning of this theme is very important and the objective is to give blood to save life to sick patients and the injured regardless of nationality but as whole nation,” she said.

Through mobile campaign, the Blood Donation Center recruit new donors (first time donors) and the youth from 18

to 25 years to remove the fear of blood donation.

“We are safely following the precautionary safety of eve-ryone especially our donors that is why we open four sites,” said Al Mahmoudi.

Main donor Center in Hamad Hospital covers all areas in Doha including the Minis-tries, private companies, semi government institutions to donate. The Center opens in two shifts, from 8am to 12 noon and 7pm to 12midnight.

“The new branch we recently open is opposite the

Surgical Specialty Center, this center is for female and platelet apheresis donation. We had a mobile camp in Al Labeeb Health Center, which covers north areas to make it easier for them to reach, and Al Wakra Hospital, which covered the south area. All these arrange-ments are coordinated with the Ministry of Interior to facilitate the mission of donation,” said Al Mahmoudi.

To be able to donate blood, a donor must be healthy, adult not less than 17 years of age, with no significant chronic

illness or previous infections, with the body weight of not less than 50kg and hemoglobin level of not less than 13g for male and 12.5 for female. On the day of the donation, the donor must be free of symptoms of fever and coughs or any other infection and he must have ade-quate hours of sleep.

“Blood donation is a very safe procedure and adverse are very rare and even when occur they are usually very mild and post no threat to the donor. To ensure that the process of donation is safe potential

donors are very carefully assessed for suitability before they can donate and to make sure that the procedure caries no hazard to the donors,” said Al Mahmoudi.

According to her, though, it is true that Qatar is 100 percent self-sufficient in the sense that the country do not import any blood units from outside the country and rely entirely on local volunteer donors. However, due to the ever expansion of health care facilities there is an expo-nential increase of demands for blood supplies.

Volunteer donors waiting for theIr turn for blood donation. RIGHT: A man donating blood during a blood donation campaign organised by the Hamad Medical Corporation during the holy month of Ramadan.

QF member’s fast track-research funding program boosts Qatar’s fight against COVID-19THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Research projects designed to help children with Autism learn from home, enforce quarantine measures, and safeguard the mental health of healthcare workers are among those to be supported through a new, streamlined funding call launched by Qatar National Research Fund to help Qatar combat COVID-19.

With the needs of Qatar and the health and safety of its people as its priority, the Qatar Foun-dation (QF) member — which is the region’s leading research funding agency — developed the Rapid Response Call (RRC) from scratch in record time, and accel-erated the evaluation and funding phases to ensure that the proposed outcomes of awarded projects are met as soon as possible.

The call aims to encourage researchers to participate in pro-viding impactful and innovative solutions on a fast-track basis, through research projects that support Qatar’s efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. Under the inaugural cycle of RRC, Qatar National Research Fund received 230 proposals from researchers across Qatar,

and, after a thorough competitive scientific and technical review process, 21 research proposals were selected to receive funding. Researchers will be awarded grants worth up to QAR 100,000 each and given three months to complete their projects.

Dr. Abdul Sattar Al Taie, Executive Director of QNRF, said: “QNRF has always been a strong and reliable force in enabling research which addresses the development of Qatar and its people. “This is why, at a time when we are in the grip of a global pandemic, QNRF decided to ramp up its efforts to assume research leadership not only in the region, but in the world, by rolling out a special research program cov-ering a wide spectrum of sectors currently faced with unprece-dented challenges posed by the spread of COVID-19.”

Dr. Al Taie said authorities in Qatar have taken “extraordinary measures to contain the virus and treat affected patients”, adding: “However, it is important to under-stand that COVID-19 is not only a health emergency, but an eco-nomic and social one, too, which we and our institutions are not completely prepared to deal with.

“A program like the RRC

therefore meets the needs of the hour, as an effective response requires evidenced research for study prior to shaping an informed response to the impact of such crises and the building of effective solutions and policies going forward. Through RRC, we aim to instill agility in, and build the robustness and resilience of, Qatari institutions in order to address the challenges posed by COVID-19 to various sectors.”

Dr. Dena A. Al Thani, Assistant Professor at the College of Science and Engineering in Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and an awardee under the RRC said: “Our project aims to develop an interactive educational platform to support learning for children with Autism.

“Children with Autism exhibit attention deficit disorder and other communicational and behavioural challenges that hinder them from communi-cating online using the traditional setting of online teaching. This means parents are left in misery, without tools to help their children continue learning from home.

“Our project proposes an augmented reality application that provides a holistic remote

learning platform which children with Autism can benefit from, especially at the present time when the whole world is in lockdown and children are being taught remotely.”

Another award recipient, Dr. Amber Haque, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Doha Institute of Graduate Studies, is conducting a research project that probes the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare workers. He said: “We feel the Rapid Response Call by QNRF is a perfect opportunity to emphasize mental health needs during and post this pandemic.

“Our research team has iden-tified reliable and valid instru-ments for measuring anxieties and coping responses of potential frontline healthcare worker par-ticipants, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics that

explore any differences related to factors such as age, gender, edu-cation, and work experience.

“The scientific findings would not only enable us to get hard data on hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of frontline workers but also shape development of specific treatment plans related to the needs of our research par-ticipants, as well as provide a basis for further research.”

A research project that aims to develop an effective mechanism for ensuring quarantine measures are adhered to is also one of the awarded proposals. Dr. Hamid Menouar, Product Manager at Qatar Mobility Innovations Center and a member of the research team, said: “As a scientist and an innovation expert, I felt I must contribute to the national efforts fighting against the COVID-19 crisis and its impacts.

“Our project tackles the quar-antine enforcement issue, which will be relevant even after the crisis, and in case of future waves of COVID-19. We have developed a smart bracelet that acts as a virtual link between the user and their smartphone. The bracelet is not designed to sense any health characteristics, but is only used for making sure that the user is physically close to their smartphone. By monitoring the location of the smartphone, we can ensure if the user is abiding by quarantine measures through a cost-effective mechanism.”

The awarded proposals focus on conducting research to help different sectors deal with the impact of coronavirus in Qatar, including ICT, health, education continuity, communications and transportation, culture, economy, and social life.

FROM LEFT: Dr. Abdul Sattar Al Taie, Dr. Dena A. Al Thani, and Dr. Amber Haque.

Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State of Qatar were established on September 14, 1994. During the period of more than 25 years of diplomatic relations both States have taken many important steps to develop bilateral relations approximately in all fields.

Heydar Aliyev, National leader of Azerbaijan

Qatar, Azerbaijanto strengthenrelations furtherTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar and Azerbaijan have taken many steps over the last 25 years to develop bilateral relations in various sectors. Both countries are interested in the development of economic partnership, including investment, trade and tourism cooperation, said the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Doha.

On May 28, the people of Azerbaijan celebrate the National Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On May 28, 1918 the first parliamentary democracy in the Muslim world — Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was founded with the adoption of Declaration on Inde-pendence. The sovereign

territory of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic was 114,000sq km.

Despite facing grave internal and external challenges arising from the collapse of an empire, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic succeeded in setting effective state institutions, upholding the rights of its cit-izens and gaining the trust of the international community.

Azerbaijani parliament — a democratically-elected, multi-party and truly representative legislative body, was the first of its kind in the entire Muslim world, said Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Doha in a press release. Universal suf-frage right, as well as the right of voting of women was guar-anteed. The newly formed

Republic made education a primary concern and on its end the Baku State University was founded.

As stated in the Declaration of Independence, establishment of friendly relations with all nations, especially neighbouring nations and states, was deter-mined as one of the foreign policy priorities of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

The first major break-through in diplomatic relations

came when the parliamentary delegation of Azerbaijan went to Paris with the main goal to gain international recognition for Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Unanimous de-facto recognition of the inde-pendence of Azerbaijan was attained and the Azerbaijani mission received an invitation to the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference.

The Bolsheviks invasion of April 1920 put an end to the independence of ADR. As the successor of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the Republic of Azerbaijan restored its independence in 1991. The difficulties faced by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, including Armenia’s territorial claims and war against Azerbaijan, geopolitical intrigues, the socio-economic problems engulfed the Republic of Azerbaijan as well since regaining its independence in 1991.

The policies pursued later by the national leader of Azerbaijani people Heydar

Aliyev developed the sense of national identity by reviving deep historical and cultural memory, as well as by instilling a firm conviction for preserving and strengthening inde-pendence and statehood.

Today the Republic of Azerbaijan as the independent, sovereign and democratic country brings into the reality the aspirations and ideals of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic with its good and effective man-agement, socio-economic and human capital development as well as its growing role and prestige in international rela-tions. Based on the reality of being part of the Islamic world, the Republic of Azerbaijan, from the first days, sought to consol-idate fraternal relations with brotherly Muslim countries and thus, the relations between Azerbaijan and member coun-tries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference began expanding.

In this context, diplomatic relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State of

Qatar were established on Sep-tember 14, 1994. During the period of more than 25 years of diplomatic relations both States have taken many important steps to develop bilateral rela-tions approximately in all fields. Official reciprocal visits by the leaders of the two countries opened broad prospects to enhance mutual cooperation. The agreements signed during these visits have created favourable legal framework for the deepening of relations.

Today there are political and economic dialogue mecha-nisms between Azerbaijan and Qatar, and they successfully cooperate within the interna-tional and regional organiza-tions. Azerbaijan highly appre-ciates the position of Qatar in connection with the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan. In the light of existing high-level political relations between the countries, both sides are interested in the devel-opment of economic partnership, including investment, trade and tourism cooperation.Azerbaijani delegation at the Claridge Hotel during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

To be able to donate blood, a donor must be healthy, aged 17 or above, with no significant chronic illness or previous infections, with the body weight of not less than 50kg and hemoglobin level of not less than 13g for male and 12.5 for female.

04 MONDAY 25 MAY 2020 MIDDLE EAST

Netanyahu attacks justice system as trial beginsAP — JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday launched a tirade against the nation’s justice system as his long-awaited corruption trial got underway, accusing police and prosecutors of conspiring to “depose” him.

Netanyahu’s comments opened what is sure to be a tumultuous period for Israel as he becomes the country’s first sitting prime minister ever to go on trial. Hundreds of protesters calling him the “crime minister” demonstrated outside his official residence, while hundreds of supporters, including leading members of his Likud party, rallied in support of him at the courthouse.

Netanyahu faces charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of corruption cases stemming from ties to wealthy friends. He is accused of accepting lavish gifts and offering to grant favours to powerful media moguls in exchange for favourable cov-erage of him and his family. He denies the charges, which come after years of scandals swirling around the family.

Netanyahu entered the Jerusalem courtroom wearing a blue surgical mask, in line with public health restriction due to the coronavirus pan-demic. He stood and talked to his lawyer and attorneys for other defendants, refusing to sit until TV cameras left the room.

As the proceedings began, the lawyers and judges also wore masks, with the three-judge panel sitting behind a glass divider. In a hint of what

could lie ahead, his lawyers said they would need two to three months to respond to the arraignment, and said they needed additional funds to add to their defence’s legal team. Netanyahu sat silently.

When he arrived at the courthouse, Netanyahu revived his claims that he is the victim of a deep state-type conspiracy by media, police, prosecutors and judges out to oust him.

“The objective is to depose a strong, right-wing prime min-ister, and thus remove the nationalist camp from the lead-ership of the country for many years,” he said.

He said police and prose-cutors had conspired to “tailor” a case against him, and said the evidence was “contaminated” and exaggerated. He called for the court proceedings to be broadcast live on TV to ensure “full transparency.” “While the media continues to deal with nonsense, with these false,

trumped up cases, I will con-tinue to lead the state of Israel and deal with issues that really matter to you,” he said, including to resuscitate the economy, and “continue to save the lives of thousands of Israelis ahead of the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus.” Critics have said that Netanyahu’s arguments have undermined Israel’s court system and risk deeper damage to the country’s democratic institutions.

Netanyahu’s fitness for office was the key issue in three inconclusive elections over the past year. After vowing never to sit with an indicted prime minister, Netanyahu’s chal-lenger, Benny Gantz, agreed in March to form a power-sharing coalition with his rival.

In a tweet, Gantz said he was sure Netanyahu will receive a fair trial. “I repeat and emphasise that my colleagues and I have full faith in the justice system and law enforcement,” he said.

Netanyahu was forced to attend Sunday’s hearing at the Jerusalem district court, after his request to have his lawyers rep-resent him instead was rejected.

The dramatic scene came just days after the long-serving leader swore in his new government, breaking more than a year of political stalemate following three inconclusive elections.

Netanyahu held his first Cabinet meeting with the new government just hours before heading to court. Neither he nor any of his ministers addressed the looming trial but the coun-try’s outgoing religious affairs minister wished Netanyahu that “God will bring the truth out” at his trial.

Muslims wearing protective masks and maintaining social distancing, as a preventive measure against the spread of coronavirus, perform Eid Al Fitr prayer at Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in Tehran, Iran, yesterday.

Iran marks end of Ramadan on two different days in rare eventAFP — TEHRAN

Shia Iranians in a rare event will mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan this year on separate days — yesterday or today — depending on different religious authorities’ edicts.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced Sat-urday evening on his official website that the Eid Al Fitr fes-tival will fall on Sunday this year.

But the country’s other senior Shia clerics, or “marjas” — whose guidance believers follow and are seen as a “source of emulation”, such as Javadi Amoli, Makarem Shirazi and Safi Golpayegani, among others — have issued separate state-ments saying the holiday will

be celebrated today. The timing of Eid is determined by the position of the moon, in accordance with the Muslim lunar calendar.

In practice, due to the political system of the Islamic republic, almost all open reli-gious sites — affiliated with the state — marked Eid yesterday.

The Sunni minority in the country celebrated Eid yes-erday, in line with most of the Muslim world.

In the capital Tehran, where many mosques remain closed as part of measures to combat the spread of the novel corona-virus, worshippers took part in morning prayers while trying to respect social distancing rules, according to a journalists.

Collective prayers are still banned in principal in the city due to the pandemic, but special dispensation has been granted for Eid Al Fitr, one of the most important holidays on the Muslim calendar. The holiday was also marked by the tradi-tional pardons granted to pris-oners by the supreme leader.

According to the judiciary’s official news agency Mizan Online, 3,721 convicts were granted pardons.

But several Iranian media outlets reported that labour activist Esmail Bakhshi and others who took part in protests at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory in the southwestern province of Khuzestan were on the list of those granted amnesty.

Kuwait records 838 new virus cases, 8 deathsQNA — KUWAIT

The Kuwaiti Health Ministry reported 838 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) over-night for a total of 21,302 cases. The ministry recorded eight new COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the total tally to 156.

The official spokesman for the Kuwaiti Ministry, Dr. Abdullah Al Sanad said that most of the cases were in contact with confirmed cases, while the ministry is searching for the causes of the other infections and examining those in contact with them.

He pointed out that the number of checks that were carried out during the past 24 hours amounted to 2,935 tests.

Earlier today, the Kuwaiti Health Ministry said that it had 370 COVID-19 cases have cured, bringing the number of recoveries in the country to 6,117 cases.

Death toll from

coronavirus in

Iran nears 7,500

ANATOLIA — ANKARA

Iran yesterday confirmed 58 more fatalities from corona-virus over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide death toll to 7,417.

A further 2,180 people tested positive for COVID-19, raising the overall count to 135,701, said the Health Min-istry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour.

He said 105,801 patients have recovered and been dis-charged from hospitals so far, while 2,615 patients remain in critical condition.

Jahanpour said no deaths have been reported in 13 states of the country in the last 24 hours due to COVID-19.

In Iran, one of the coun-tries in the Middle East hardest hit by the disease, COVID-19 was first detected in the city of Qom on February 19 and then spread throughout the country.

More than 5.33 million cases have been reported in 188 countries and regions since the virus emerged in China last December.

Muslims celebrate holiday amid curfews, virus fearsAP — JERUSALEM

Muslims around the world yesterday began celebrating Eid Al Fitr, a normally festive holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with millions under strict stay-at-home orders and many fearing r e n e w e d c o r o n a v i r u s outbreaks.

The three-day holiday is usually a time of travel, family get-togethers and lavish daytime feasts after weeks of dawn-to-dusk fasting. But this year many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims will have to pray at home and make due with video calls.

Some countries, including Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, have imposed round-the-clock holiday curfews. But even where many restrictions have been lifted, celebrations will be subdued because of fears of the pandemic and its economic fallout.

Saudi Arabia is under a complete lockdown, with resi-dents only permitted to leave their homes to purchase food and medicine.

In Jerusalem, Israeli police said they broke up an “illegal demonstration” and arrested two people outside the Al Aqsa mosque, which Muslim author-ities have closed for prayers

since mid-March and will not reopen until after the holiday. Worshippers who tried to enter the compound scuffled with the police.

Al Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam and would ordi-narily welcome tens of thou-sands of worshippers during the Eid. The site has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Pales-tinian conflict.

In Sudan, which has reported more than 3,600 cases and 146 deaths, thousands of people gathered for prayers in mosques and open areas, defying a curfew and other restrictions imposed by author-ities, local media reported.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, has reported nearly 22,000 infections and 1,350 fatalities, the most in Southeast Asia. Lockdown orders intended to contain the pandemic mean there will be no congregational prayers at mosques or even open fields, no family reunions, no relatives bearing gifts for children.

“This outbreak is not just dampening spirits of Eid, but also has made the tradition entirely different,” said Andieka Rabbani, a university student in Jakarta. This year, like many Indonesians, he will only see family and friends through

video calls.In neighbouring Muslim-

majority Malaysia, businesses have mostly reopened after weeks of lockdown. But mass gatherings are still banned and people are not allowed to travel back to their hometowns for the holiday. Police have turned away more than 5,000 cars and have warned of strict penalties for those who try to sneak home.

Some 2,000 Muslims gathered for Eid Al Fitr prayers Sunday at a sports complex in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, carefully spaced apart and wearing masks, according to France-Info radio. Traditional embraces were not allowed.

War room talks by Turkish Minister

Turkish National Defence Minister Hulusi Akar receives latest information as he speaks with commanders of the troops in the operation areas in the north of Syria and Iraq via video conference in Hatay, yesterday.

Turkey evacuates 4 virus patients from BangladeshANATOLIA — DHAKA

Turkey yesterday evacuated four COVID-19 patients including an expat from Bang-ladesh, officials said.

“Tuba Ahsan, a Turkish citizen, her Bangladeshi husband Mossaddique Ahsan and their three-year-old twins Huma and Ziyad were evac-uated in an air ambulance,” a statement by the Turkish Embassy in Dhaka read.

The air ambulance was arranged by Turkey’s Ministry of Health.

Mustafa Osman Turan, Turkish ambassador to Bang-ladesh, and deputy head of mission Enis Faruk Erdem were present at the Dhaka airport during the departure.

“Turkey is providing

free-of-charge air ambulance service to its citizens present in any part of the world since 2008,” said Turan.

In the wake of the corona-virus pandemic, he added, this year Turkey evacuated 211 of its nationals from across the world by air ambulances due to their emergency health conditions.

“Even during Eid holidays, which began in Turkey today (Sunday), these services will continue unabated,” he said, adding that they are available for any Turkish national who is unable to receive the nec-essary virus treatment due to any reason.

Earlier on April 21, as many as 154 Turkish nationals left Bangladesh on a Turkish Air-lines chartered flight.

20 years on, Israel’s Lebanon pullout inspires new Hezbollah recruitsAFP — MLEETA, LEBANON

Jalal was barely three years old when Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon two decades ago, but he speaks fondly of the Hezbollah victory that shaped his allegiance to the Shiite group.

“I feel honour and pride in this historic victory,” said the 23-year-old who was brought up on stories of Hezbollah-led guerrilla operations leading to the Israeli pullout.

Founded in 1982 with backing from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah touts the 2000 pullout as the first Israeli with-drawal from occupied Arab land under military pressure.

Today Hezbollah, which means “Party of God”, is both a fighters group with involvement in several regional countries and a major political force in Lebanon.

The group remains an archfoe of Israel. Its military wing is blacklisted as a “terrorist”

organisation by many Western governments but, to the dismay of Israel and its close ally the United States, its political wing is blacklisted by rather fewer.

Twenty years after the Israeli withdrawal, Hezbollah still enjoys wide support among Lebanese youth who grew up with tales of the Shia group heroically ending 22 years of Israeli occupation.

Also popular for its social services helping the poor, it

continues to leverage the memory of this era to mould a new gener-ation of loyalists gearing up to join its regional operations.

“We all wish we were there standing beside (Hezbollah) during the liberation war,” Jalal said over the phone, asking to use a pseudonym.

We wish we had been “fighting on their side and offering ourselves for our country,” said the young man, whose brother has since fought with Hezbollah

in neighbouring Syria.Bashir Saade, author of a

book on Hezbollah, said “the party always needs to jump back into the past... to make sense of its political presence and vision”.

The main site where Hez-bollah celebrates its historical legacy is a memorial and museum in the hilltop bastion of Mleeta, built in 2010 to com-m e m o r a t e I s r a e l ’ s withdrawal.

Netanyahu’s comments opened what is sure to be a tumultuous period for Israel as he becomes the country’s first sitting Prime Minister ever to go on trial. Hundreds of protesters calling him the “crime minister” demonstrated outside his official residence.

05MONDAY 25 MAY 2020 AFRICA

Moroccans trapped in Spain for 2 months head home AP — RABAT

It’s a reverse migrant crisis: Moroccan workers trapped in Spain are begging their own government to let them come back home.

Construction worker Mohammed Benali is among hundreds of Moroccans who headed to their jobs in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta one day in March thinking they’d be home for dinner — but instead they found themselves trapped for more than two months by Morocco’s abrupt and unusually strict border clo-sures to keep out the virus.

They have slept in a parking lot, gyms, mosques, churches or with generous employers. One stranded woman gave birth. A few were so desperate they jumped into the Mediter-ranean Sea to swim home.

At last, Morocco is starting to allow them back.

Benali, who reached

Moroccan soil on Friday, was so shaken by the experience that he said: “I’ll never return to Ceuta again.” Others are still stuck, their return dates uncertain.

While countries around the world closed their borders to foreigners to keep out the virus, Morocco went even farther, barring its own citizens from coming home in hopes of lim-iting the risk of coronavirus arriving on Moroccan soil and overwhelming its underpre-pared hospitals.

That left more than 21,000

Moroccans stranded around the world. They include legal workers in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla who live in Morocco and work in Spain in construction, commerce, or as domestic employees, as well as undocumented migrants whose jobs have dried up amid eco-nomic shutdowns and Moroccan tourists whose visas have now expired.

When she was nine months pregnant, Houria Douas went to Ceuta to visit her brother and buy baby clothes but ended up getting stuck. She gave birth to

her firstborn in a Ceuta hospital because Morocco wouldn’t allow her to come home.

Hospital workers “would look at me with pity and tell me it’s in the hands of the Moroccan government,” she said.

During childbirth, Douas, who does not speak Spanish, struggled to breathe through her mask and to understand the doctor and nurses. She was told that her newborn boy couldn’t be vacci-nated because Douas does not have Spanish residency papers.

After weeks of waiting, good news came on Friday: Benali, Douas and her baby were listed along with about 200 people eligible to return to Morocco.

Spanish authorities said 300 people would be allowed back in Morocco from Ceuta. But the stranded Moroccans say hundreds of others still remain, staying in sports complexes and a mosque. It’s unclear when they will leave.

The lucky ones waited for eight hours on Friday in a

parking lot in Ceuta for buses to take them home. When they crossed the border into the nearby Moroccan city of Fnideq, they were separated into groups and taken to separate hotels where they were tested for the virus. Spanish authorities said they would be isolated in the hotels for two weeks.

“The first thing I’ll do after the quarantine is get my newborn his vaccination shots,” Douas said.

Aberrahim Ennaw, a Moroccan who is still stuck in Ceuta, and says anxiety among the remaining Moroccans is intense.

“We were not given any information on repatriation,” he said. “The Spanish and Moroccan authorities do not communicate with us at all.”

Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othman announced last week that repa-triation plans are “finally ready,” but details are only

slowly trickling down to those trapped in Ceuta. Moroccan authorities cited the heavy virus toll in Europe, which has now seen more than 169,000 coro-navirus deaths, as a reason for the tough border closure. They said they would only start allowing people when it is safe for them and Morocco.

Some Ceuta residents opened up their houses, shops, and garages for the stranded Moroccans. Churches in southern Spain also housed those who couldn’t go home.

The Moroccans appealed to their king for help, and held small protests earlier this month in Spain and France.

At least a dozen Moroccans swam in April in the chilly Med-iterranean from Ceuta around the border checkpoint to the nearby Moroccan town of Fnideq, according to the pres-ident of the Northern Observ-atory of Human Rights, Mohammed Ben Aissa.

Eid Al Fitr prayers in KhartoumMuslims perform Eid Al Fitr prayer at an open area as a precaution against coronavirus in Khartoum, Sudan, yesterday.

Africa records nearly 3,500

virus cases in a single dayANATOLIA — ADDIS ABABA

Coronavirus cases in Africa jumped to nearly 107,500 yesterday after some 3,500 people contracted the conta-gious virus across the continent in the last 24 hours.

The latest update by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 63 patients have died over the same period, bringing the tally of continental death toll to 3,245.

More than 42,600 patients have recovered from the disease so far, according to the data.

South Africa remains the most affected country in terms of cases with 21,300 people having been infected while Egypt has followed it with 16,500 cases. However, Egypt

has suffered 735 fatalities while South Africa has recorded 407 deaths.

Algeria has registered 8,100 cases and 592 deaths, Morocco 7,400 cases and 198 deaths and Tunisia 1,000 cases and 48 deaths.

Nigeria in West Africa has recorded the highest death toll of 221, Sudan in East Africa 137 and Cameroon in Central Africa 159 showing regional highs.

For the regional distri-bution of infections, North Africa has suffered the highest burden with 33,400 cases and 1,600 deaths, while West Africa has recorded 28,300 cases and 602 deaths, Southern Africa 22,900 cases and 429 deaths, East Africa 11,600 cases and 303 deaths, and Central Africa 11,200 cases and 330 deaths.

53 workers at mine inSouth Africa infectedREUTERS — JOHANNESBURG

Underground production at AngloGold Ashanti’s Mponeng mine in South Africa will remain closed until further notice after 53 employees tested positive for the corona-virus, a provincial health department said in a statement yesterday.

The mine, the deepest in the world, restarted operations on April 22 after closing entirely during a nationwide lockdown, and was operating at 50 percent capacity.

The department of health in Gauteng, the province where the mine is located, said in statement posted on Twitter that 53 employees at the mine

had so far tested positive for the virus, and that a further 104 tests were still being processed.

“The management of the mine has indicated that the underground production will remain closed until further notice,” the statement said.

The company did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment outside of business hours.

Miners were permitted to return to 50 percent production capacity when the country’s lockdown, still one of the world’s most restrictive, was eased in April. Mponeng accounted for around 7.4 percent of the company’s total gold production in 2019.

In virus fight, South Africa expects a long waitAP — JOHANNESBURG

With her winning smile and outgoing nature, Fino Dlamini was a natural to succeed in South Africa’s booming tourism industry.

Her bicycle tours of Soweto took visitors to historic sites, including the homes of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and to restau-rants where they could meet South Africans. The tourists and locals would quickly connect over shared interests in sports or TV shows, forming instant

bonds that were “magic,” she said.

Business was good in January and February, and pro-jections for the rest of 2020 were excellent. Then the coro-navirus brought everything to an abrupt halt. Dlamini was confined to her small home under a strict lockdown, with few options for earning money.

Millions of other South Africans share in the same mis-fortune. The country with the continent’s most developed economy also has its highest number of confirmed infections

— more than 21,000, repre-senting 20 percemnt of Africa’s total. And because the disease may not hit its peak for four more months, leaders expect to spend an especially long time balancing the risks to public health with the economic activity essential to the national welfare.

“We must save lives and livelihoods,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said this month an address to the nation.

So far, South Africa has not seen the explosion of virus

infections that emerged in Europe. One possible contrib-uting factor is the country’s youthful population, with just three percent of people above the age of 60, say several health experts. Africa’s small elderly population may help explain why the disease is spreading relatively slowly across the continent.

South Africa is still in the early stages of the pandemic, leading health experts to predict the peak could come as late as August or September. A surge of cases in Cape Town suggests

that city might reach its maximum near the end of June. The forecasts portend a lengthy wait to resume normal activity.

Other African countries appear to be on a similar tra-jectory. Forty-three of the con-tinent’s 54 nations have imposed containment measures, including lockdowns, bans on public gatherings, school closures and curfews.

The lockdown that began March 27 in South Africa is increasing tensions in Soweto, said Dlamini, who closed her tourism business.

Kenyans celebrate Eid Al Fitr

Muslim faithful walk along a street after performing the Eid Al Fitr prayers amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Nairobi, Kenya, yesterday.

EU ambassador calls for Eid ceasefire in Libya

ANATOLIA — ANKARA

The EU ambassador to Libya has called on warring parties to stop clashes and mark Eid Al Fitr, holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, in peace.

Alan Bugeja urged Libyan army and militias of Khalifa Haftar “to respect the spiritu-ality of Eid Al Fitr and allow the holidays to be celebrated in peace and compassion, which is the basis of the religion of Islam.”

“While this year’s Eid Al Fitr is being celebrated, Libyans, besides suffering from the coronavirus pan-demic, still continue to be affected by the war that has caused death, destruction and displacement. It is time to hear the ongoing calls to end con-flicts and return to dialogue,” Bugeja said in a statement on Saturday.

Libya’s government, which has been under attack by Haftar’s forces since April 2019, launched Operation Peace Storm on March 26 to counter attacks on the capital Tripoli.

Earlier this month, the army retook Al Watiya airbase after about six years under putschist forces.

Following the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya’s government was founded in 2015 under a UN-led political agreement.

Ethiopia: No mass Eid prayers but festive spirit aliveANATOLIA — ADDIS ABABA

Although Ethiopian Muslims yesterday missed holding mass Eid Al Fitr prayers due to the coronavirus pandemic, they celebrated the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with festive spirit.

In the capital Addis Ababa, shops and supermarkets were open on the eve of Eid. While some virus restrictions were in

place, the city was not in lockdown, with the mayor warning doing so could have “serious economic conse-quences.” Hajji Mufti Omar Idris, the much-revered and beloved head of the Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, called on Muslims to maintain the spirit of charity during Eid as they did during the month of fasting.

Though celebrations were

marred by the virus, the festival brought a blessing for the Muslim community: the start of construction of a new Islamic Research Center and the biggest mosque yet in the capital.

“We will build both to serve the Muslim community,” said the mufti after taking over the site for the center and mosque from Takele Uma, the city’s deputy mayor.

The site is prime and

spacious, next to the high-rise headquarters of the Com-mission of the African Union.

African affairs analyst Omar Redi, who also owns Iffriqiyah Media and Commu-nications, said the Islamic center is long overdue. “Addis Ababa is the capital not only for Ethiopia but all of Africa... it is long overdue but deserving,” he said.

“Given Ethiopia’s Islamic

history, having the largest Muslim population in East Africa, and its capital with one of the largest diplomatic com-munities in the world, it needed to have such a centre long ago.”

“Better late than never,” he said, adding: “It is never too late for such undertakings… I really hope that all stakeholders will make sure the project becomes a reality in the shortest time possible.”

Haftar militias

strike Mitiga

Airport in Tripoli

ANATOLIA — ANKARA

Militias loyal to Libya’s renegade commander Khalifa Haftar yesterday hit the capital Tripoli with a rocket attack.

The attack targeted Mitiga International Airport , according to a statement by the press center of the Libyan army-led Operation Volcano of Rage.

The statement gave no information on injuries or deaths.

According to the United Nations, since the beginning of this year, seven health centers in the country have been struck 12 times.

Haftar, the leader of illegal armed forces in eastern Libya, has intensified attacks on civilians since the beginning of May as the Libyan army recently gained an advantage and inflicted severe losses on his militants.

Libya’s government has been under attack by Haftar’s forces since April 2019, with more than 1,000 killed in the violence. It launched Operation Peace Storm on March 26 to counter attacks on the capital.

On Monday, Libya’s army retook Al Watiya airbase occupied by Haftar’s militias, a key airbase now back under government control.

While countries around the world closed their borders to foreigners to keep out the virus, Morocco went even farther, barring its own citizens from coming home in hopes of limiting the risk of coronavirus arriving on Moroccan soil and overwhelming its underprepared hospitals.

06 MONDAY 25 MAY 2020ASIA

Soaring infections dampen Eid festivities in Southeast AsiaAP — JAKARTA, INDONESIA

Millions of Muslims in Indonesia are marking a muted and gloomy holiday of Eid Al Fitr, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan — a usually joyous three-day celebration that has been significantly toned down as coronavirus cases soar.

The world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, with more than 240 million people, has reported nearly 22,000 infec-tions and 1,350 fatalities, the most in Southeast Asia. It means no congregational prayers at mosques and open fields, no family reunions, no relatives bearing gifts for children.

“This outbreak is not just dampening spirits of Eid, but also has made the tradition entirely different,” said Andieka Rabbani, a university student in Jakarta.

This year, like other Indo-nesians, he can only greet his cousins and friends through video calls.

In Aceh province, public Eid prayers were allowed to be held at mosques and fields, but without shaking hands and with

limited sermons. The iconic public parade of decorated vehicles with loudspeakers invoking God’s name was scrapped this year.

“It’s too sad... the whole week used to be one long fes-tival, but not this time,” said Muchtar Yusuf, a resident of Aceh’s Lhokseumawe city.

The province has reported zero coronavirus cases in the past weeks and has had only one death and 19 confirmed infections.

Unlike Aceh, mosques and fields in Jakarta, which are usually always crowded with Eid worshippers, stood empty after authorities extended the restrictions to June 4, suspended community gatherings and banned private cars from leaving the capital.

Jakarta has become the epi-center of the COVID-19 out-break in Indonesia with 6,515

confirmed cases and 501 deaths as of Saturday.

Eid celebrations also were low-key in neighbouring Muslim-majority Malaysia. Businesses have mostly reo-pened after weeks of virus shutdown, but mass gatherings are still banned and ethnic Malay Muslims are not allowed to travel back to their villages.

Police have turned away more than 5,000 cars trying to head back to their hometowns in the last few days and have warned of strict penalties against those who sneaked back.

The pandemic has also can-celled the “open house” tra-dition, where Muslims invite family and friends to their homes for a feast.

The Prime Minister and government officials usually host open house events that

attract thousands of people. This year, the government allowed family members living nearby to visit each other yes-terday only, but the gatherings must not exceed 20 people in the same house.

Mosques have reopened but are limited to small congrega-tions of up to 30 people.

Malaysia has reported 7,185 infections and 115 deaths, but

officials fear the Eid festivities could spark a new wave if people ignore social distancing and health measures.

In his Eid message broadcast late Saturday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is under a two-week quar-antine after being in contact with a government official diagnosed with the virus, reminded Muslims to be

responsible and follow strict health guidelines.

He urged them to ensure their homes are cleaned up immediately after hosting guests, and also to refrain from visiting graves, a norm during Eid.

“To preserve life, we have to sacrifice some of our tradi-tions or norms so as to prevent infection,” he said.

Indonesian Muslims follow social distancing as they take part in prayers at a mosque during Eid Al Fitr amid the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Sidoarjo, East Java Province, yesterday.

3 Indian states seek delay in restarting flights as new cases riseREUTERS — MUMBAI/NEW DELHI

Three large Indian states have sought to delay the planned opening of their airports today as new cases of the novel coro-navirus jumped by a record, complicating the federal government’s plan to resume flights after a two-month lockdown.

India registered 6,767 new cases of the novel coronavirus yesterday, the country’s biggest 24 hour jump yet, taking the total to over 131,000.

Airlines are preparing to resume about a third of their domestic flight operations from Monday, even without clarity over which states will allow flights or what quarantine rules may apply to passengers.

India’s western state of

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu in the south and West Bengal in the east, major business hubs and home to the country’s busiest airports, have said they are not prepared to open for flights amid rising coronavirus cases, according to state government officials.

Maharashtra is home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, which has reported nearly 29,000 positive infec-tions, almost a fifth of reported cases in the country.

“It’s extremely ill-advised to reopen airports in the red zone,” Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Twitter yesterday.

India’s federal structure gives its 28 states flexibility to set their own rules, compli-cating efforts by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi’s government to kickstart the economy after

the lockdown.Airlines including IndiGo,

India’s biggest carrier, SpiceJet Ltd and Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Group and Sin-gapore Airlines are preparing to restart some operations from Monday.

Budget carrier GoAir, however, said it would resume flight operations from June 1 as it awaits clarity on the readiness of states and their airports. Tamil Nadu has asked India’s civil aviation ministry to defer the operation of flights from Chennai airport until the end of May due to rising cases in the city, a state government official said.

West Bengal has urged the central government to postpone the resumption of passenger flights to Kolkata as it focuses on rescue work after Cyclone Amphan hit the city.

An Indigo aircraft approaches to take off from Anna International Airport after the government eased a nationwide lockdown, in Chennai, India, yesterday.

Australia state without power after storm

AP — SYDNEY

About 50,000 homes and businesses were without power across Western Australia state yesterday as a severe storm hit the coast and brought wind gusts of more than 100 kph.

Conditions were expected to worsen overnight as the storm progressed.

Jon Broomhall, acting assistant commissioner of W e s t e r n A u s t r a l i a ’ s department of fire and emer-gency services, called the storm “a once-in-a-decade-type system.”

“Normally our storms come from the southwest, and this will come from the northwest, so it will test peo-ple’s buildings, sheds and all those unsecured items, so we’re asking people to secure property and make sure eve-rything loose is tied down,” he said, A Bureau of Meteor-ology official, James Ashley, said the weather formation was “dynamic and complex,” as a system from Cyclone Mangga in the southern Indian Ocean interacted with a cold front.

In the Perth metropolitan area, electricity supply to about 37,000 homes and busi-nesses was impacted by the storm. A power company said some households should expect to remain without elec-tricity overnight, particularly in places where it was not safe for crews to repair the network.

The worst of the weather was due to hit Perth soon and today morning, and not ease until today afternoon. “In a broad area, the southwest of the state will be hit really severely overnight, tonight and into tomorrow,” Ashley said.

Australia PM pushes jobs; Victoria to resume tourismREUTERS — MELBOURNE

Australia’s prime minister stressed the need to create jobs as a way to minimise government welfare spending, while the country’s second-most populous state Victoria set out measures to resume tourism to regions ravaged by bushfires and virus-linked curbs.

“Whether it’s how we access markets, how we deliver assistance, whether it’s to bushfire affected commu-nities... the thing that gets Aus-tralia back to where we want to be is making jobs,” Scott Morrison told reporters yesterday.

These are his first com-ments since the Treasury Department flagged last week that Australia had vastly over estimated the initial costs of its coronavirus wage subsidy scheme.

Australia on Friday halved

the number of people expected to be covered by its subsidy scheme due to reporting errors and after swiftly controlling the outbreak, a revision that will save the government around A$60 billion ($39bn).

“You just don’t go around and borrow A$60bn on a whim. You carefully consider every dollar you have to borrow.”

Morrison also said it was important to get agriculture and tourism back up to create more jobs and drive the economy.

Earlier, Victoria said it would relax travel curbs to boost tourism in its bushfire-struck towns, a key contributor to the southern state’s coffers.

Tourists will be able to stay overnight from June 1 in regional areas in the state, Premier Daniel Andrews said.

Victoria will open up ski fields from June 22, with strict rules around hygiene and

without shared facilities after a testing blitz showed low levels of community transmission.

“This is all about opening up again, but doing so because we have got some new test results, and we can be con-fident about how much virus is out there,” Andrews said.

Victoria, which reported one case overnight, has con-ducted over 420,000 tests since the start 2020, and 174,000 this month, a week ahead of a schedule set by health officials.

The state has reported 1,603 cases, of which 180 are community transmissions. Its testing rate is 6,340 per 100,000 people, which if it were a nation, would be the sixth highest for testing in the world, a state health official said.

In New South Wales, only one case was recorded over-night, a returning traveller,

bringing the total to 3,085. As cases have plateaued, the most populous state will let beauty salons reopen from June 1. Aus-tralia has reported 7,106 cases and 102 deaths.

In Victoria and New South Wales, where schools are set to reopen next week, play-grounds and skate parks will also be able to reopen from Tuesday, Premier Andrews added.

In Queensland, Australia’s third-most populous state, offi-cials announced a $50 million investment into community sports from June 12, after one new case was recorded overnight.

“In Australia, sport isn’t just something people watch, it’s something they participate in, and they particularly do it at a community level,” Morrison said.

“It’s all about getting life back to as normal as it can be in a COVID-safe world.”

Indian Army soldiers cut trees to clear the roads in the aftermath of Cyclone Amphan, in Kolkata, yesterday.

Army called in to help cyclone-ravaged Indian cityAFP — KOLKATA

The Indian Army has been mobilised to help with the clean-up after a devastating cyclone hit the eastern city of Kolkata, as thousands yesterday protested again over power and water shortages.

At least 112 people were killed in eastern India and Bangladesh after Cyclone Amphan — the strongest storm to hit the region since 1999 — struck on Wednesday.

Streets were flooded in Kolkata, home to 15 million people, while power lines were brought down and fallen trees blocked roads. Authorities already grappling with the coronavirus struggled to clear roads — some which remained

flooded — as well as restore electricity and water to homes.

Police used batons to dis-perse the protesters as Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal — of which Kolkata is the capital — called for calm. “This is a huge dis-aster. We need to have patience, because nobody has seen such a disaster before,” Banerjee said Sunday.

“We are not sitting idle... A shortage of manpower stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic is hobbling relief and restoration efforts.” Around 200 soldiers from the Indian Army’s Eastern Command joined more than 4,000 dis-aster relief personnel and local volunteers working on the streets, a military officer said.

Virus death toll

in Bangladesh

rises to 480

ANATOLIA — DHAKA

The novel coronavirus has claimed 28 more lives, including a police officer, in Bangladesh in the last 24 hours, marking highest single-day spike up to date, according to the latest official data.

With the latest casualties, the death toll yesterday rose to 480 while 1,532 more people have been reported positive for the coronavirus, the Directorate General of Health Services said in its latest online briefing.

The report added that a total of 33,610 people have been infected with the virus and 6,901 people have recovered from the disease so far.

Bangladesh has been under a countrywide lockdown since March 26 to stem the spread of the virus. But it has been partly eased since May 10 due to Eid Al Fitr, a holiday marking the end of Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The South Asian Muslim majority country is going to celebrate the Eid today with thousands of people en masse still moving to villages from urban areas, including the capital Dhaka, to share the fes-tival with relatives, posing high risks of spreading the fatal virus in remote areas.

According to available media reports, tens of thou-sands of people have been leaving Dhaka through dif-ferent means violating social distancing and health guidelines.

Experts and medical doctors have repeatedly warned that situation may go out of control immediately after the Eid.

In Indonesia's Aceh province, public Eid prayers were allowed to be held at mosques and fields, but without shaking hands and with limited sermons.

07MONDAY 25 MAY 2020 ASIA

China says virus pushing US ties to brink of ‘Cold War’AFP — BEIJING

China said yesterday that rela-tions with the United States were “on the brink of a new Cold War”, fuelled in part by tensions over the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 350,000 people worldwide and pitched the global economy into a massive downturn.

Globally more than 5.3 million people have been infected by the virus, which most scientists believe jumped from animals to humans — pos-sibly at a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic emerged in December.

The origins of the virus and China’s response have become highly politicised, with US Pres-ident Donald Trump accusing Beijing of a lack of trans-parency, and pushing the theory that it may have leaked from a Chinese maximum-security laboratory.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington had been infected by a “political virus” to continually attack China, but added the country would be open to an interna-

tional effort to find the corona-virus source.

“It has come to our attention that some political forces in the US are taking China-US rela-tions hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War,” Wang told a press conference at China’s week-long annual parliament session.

Wang blasted what he called efforts by US politicians to “fabricate rumours” about the virus origin and “stigmatise China”.

Wang did not identify what "forces" he was referring to, but US President Donald Trump has led world criticism of China's initial response to the pan-demic, which has caused more than 340,000 deaths and eco-nomic carnage worldwide.

Trump and members of his

administration have said China covered up the emergence of the virus late last year and bungled its initial response.

Washington's criticism has been widely seen in the United States as an attempt by Trump to divert attention from the White House's own COVID-19 failures. Wang took an apparent swipe at the US struggles to contain the virus, which has now infected more people in the United States than anywhere else.

"I call on the US to stop wasting time and stop wasting precious lives," Wang said.

He said China was "open" to international scientific coop-eration to identify the source of the novel coronavirus, but stressed that any investigation must be "free of political inter-ference", based on science and

led by the World Health Organization.

The WHO has called on Beijing to invite the UN body in to investigate the source, but Wang did not indicate if foreign scientists would be invited to come to China.

"Some political figures in the US rush to label the virus and politicise its origins, stig-matising China," Wang said.

Governments including the US and Australia have called in recent weeks for an investi-gation into the exact origins of the virus. China has proposed instead that the "global response" to COVID-19 should only be assessed when the pan-

demic is over.WHO members on Tuesday

adopted a resolution, tabled by the European Union, at the UN body's first virtual assembly to review the international han-dling of the pandemic, but it does not single out China.

"Aside from the devastation caused by the novel corona-virus, there is also a political virus spreading through the US," he said. "This political virus is the use of every opportunity to attack and smear China. Some politicians completely disregard basic facts and have fabricated too many lies targeting China, and plotted too many conspiracies."

Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks to reporters via video link at a news conference held on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing yesterday.

Thousands protest in HK over security law proposalAFP — HONG KONG

Police fired tear gas and water cannon at thousands of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters who gathered yesterday against a controversial security law proposed by China, in the most intense clashes for months.

As the demonstrators and police were facing off in the semi-autonomous financial hub, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi insisted in Beijing that the proposed law must be imposed “without the slightest delay”.

The planned legislation —expected to ban treason, sub-version and sedition — comes after Hong Kong was shaken last year by months of massive, often-violent protests, and repeated warnings from Beijing that it would not tolerate dissent.

With campaigners warning the proposal could spell the end of the city’s treasured freedoms,

thousands gathered and chanted slogans in the busy Causeway Bay and Wan Chai districts, while some masked protesters set up makeshift bar-ricades to stop police vehicles.

“People may be crimi-nalised only for words they say or publish opposing the gov-ernment,” 25-year-old pro-tester Vincent said.

Riot police were deployed after protesters ignored earlier warnings from authorities against unauthorised assembly and violated the city’s current coronavirus-linked law banning public gatherings of more than eight people.

As the number of protesters swelled, police fired tear gas and pepper spray to try and dis-perse the crowd, and later deployed water cannon and armoured vehicles against pockets of protesters.

At least 180 people were arrested, police said, the majority in Causeway Bay and

Wan Chai districts. Other pro-testers were detained at a smaller demonstration in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The Hong Kong government condemned the “extremely violent and illegal acts” of the protesters and said they rein-forced “the need and urgency of the legislation on national security”.

It also accused protesters of injuring at least four police officers.

The scenes yesterday were the most intense in months.

The Hong Kong pro-democracy movement had fizzled at the beginning of 2020 as arrests mounted and, later, large gatherings were banned to stop the coronavirus.

More than 8,300 people have been arrested since the protests erupted last year. Around 200 were detained during small rallies at malls on Mother’s Day earlier this month.

Hong Kong residents enjoy

rights — including freedom of speech — unseen on the Chinese mainland, as well as its own legal system and trade status.

Fears had been growing for years that Beijing was chipping away at those freedoms and tightening its control on the city, and campaigners have described the new proposal as the most brazen move yet.

Of particular concern is a provision allowing Chinese security agents to operate in Hong Kong, and that they could launch a crackdown against those dissenting the mainland’s communist rulers.

Despite the alarm in Hong Kong and in some Western cap-itals, Chinese and city officials have insisted the proposed law is needed to prevent unrest and protect national security. The massive protests last year were sparked by a now-scrapped bill that would have allowed extra-ditions to the mainland.

North Korea’s Kim vows to bolster nuclear deterrenceREUTERS — SEOUL

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hosted a meeting to discuss the country’s nuclear capabilities, state media said yesterday, marking his first appearance in three weeks after a previous absence sparked global speculation about his health.

Ruling Workers’ Party offi-cials wore face masks to greet Kim as he entered the meeting of the party’s powerful Central Military Commission, state tel-evision showed, but no one including Kim was seen wearing a mask during the meeting.

Amid stalled denucleari-sation talks with the United States, the meeting discussed measures to bolster North

Korea’s armed forces and “reliably contain the persistent big or small military threats from the hostile forces,” state news agency KCNA said.

The meeting discussed “increasing the nuclear war deterrence of the country and putting the strategic armed forces on a high alert oper-ation,” adopting “crucial measures for considerably increasing the firepower strike ability of the artillery pieces,” it said. Kim has made an unu-sually small number of outings in the past two months, with his absence from a key anniversary prompting speculation about his condition, as Pyongyang has stepped up measures against the COVID-19 pandemic.

North Korea says it has no confirmed cases of the new

coronavirus, but South Korea’s intelligence agency has said it cannot rule out that the North has had an outbreak.

US-led negotiations aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes have made little progress since late last year, especially after a

global battle on the virus began. The Chinese government’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, expressed hope yesterday that the US and N Korea could resume mean-ingful dialogue as soon as pos-sible, “and not squander away the hard-earned results of (pre-vious) engagement.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un attending the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea in an undisclosed location in North Korea.

Erdogan condoles

with Pakistan

President

ANATOLIA — KARACHI

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday telephoned his Pakistani coun-terpart Arif Alvi to offer condo-lences over Friday’s deadly plane crash in Karachi that killed 97 passengers, state-run Pakistan Television (PTV) reported.

Assuring his counterpart that Ankara stands with its longtime ally Islamabad at this trying time, Erdogan expressed sympathy with the bereaved families.

The two leaders, according to PTV, also discussed the coronavirus situation, and vowed to jointly fight the pandemic.

Alvi thanked Erdogan for the medical supplies Turkey sent last month to help Pakistan in its fight against COVID-19.

Through special Turkish Airlines cargo flights, Ankara delivered two shipments of medical aid including tens of thousands of surgical masks and protective suits.

Alvi also praised the Turkish government for taking care of hundreds of Pakistani citizens who were stranded in Turkey due to the suspension of international flights amid the outbreak, the channel reported.

Erdogan also extended his greetings for the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Fitr to Pakistanis.

Perilous journey Afghan boys travel in the back of a car during Eid Al Fitr in Laghman province, Afghanistan, yesterday.

Japan to lift emergency in Tokyo todayBLOOMBERG — TOKYO

Japan’s government has decided to lift the state of emer-gency in Tokyo, its surrounding regions and the northern island of Hokkaido as new virus cases tail off, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The government will put the issue to a meeting of a panel of advisers today, NHK reported, with the move set to bring the state of emergency in the country to an end a week ahead of schedule.

Tokyo reported 14 new coronavirus cases yesterday, the highest since May 16, after just two cases were confirmed on Saturday. The total for the past seven days is 50, below the

threshold of 70, or 0.5 people per 100,000, which the gov-ernment has outlined as being needed to lift the emergency.

“The number of infections is decreasing day by day. That can be seen even in areas where the state of emergency is still in effect,” Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said yesterday morning on NHK. “The situation of the outbreak is improving, and the pressure on the medical system is being relieved.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared an emergency in the capital and some other areas from April 7, later expanding it nationwide. From mid-May he began lifting it in places where the rate of new infections sub-sided. The Tokyo region — the

worst-hit by the virus — was the final and largest site of infection.

Tokyo, with its surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, has a combined population of about 35 million people and an annual output of 182.2 trillion yen ($1.7 trillion), which in global terms would make it the 11th largest economy on the planet.

While a European-style lockdown isn’t legally possible in Japan due to civil liberties enshrined in its postwar con-stitution, the state of emergency enabled local governments to instruct businesses to close or operate for shortened hours, and to ask residents to stay at home.

Japan TV star, pro-wrestler dies at 22AP — TOKYO

Hana Kimura, a Japanese pro-wrestler who appeared in the latest series of the popular reality show “Terrace House,” has died. She was 22.

Her organisation Stardom Wrestling confirmed Kimura’s death on Saturday. It said details are still largely unknown and the group was cooperating in an investi-gation, and asked her fans to be respectful.

“We are very sorry to report that our Hana Kimura has passed away,” the organ-ization said in a statement.

Kimura was found dead at her home, Japanese media said.

Kimura became the target of massive bullying on social media over her role on the “Terrace House” show on Netflix, which involves three men and three women tem-porarily living together at a shared house in Tokyo. The show was temporarily sus-pended due to the coronavirus.

In her latest Instagram posting on Friday, she pub-lished a photo of herself and her cat, with a message saying “Goodbye.” Another posting carried a message “I love you, live long and happy. I’m sorry.”

Her death has triggered a wave of messages on social media against anonymous bul-lying and hateful messages.

Kimura, whose mother Kyoko was also a famous pro-wrestler, performed at a sold-out Madison Square Garden event by Japan Pro-Wrestling and US Ring of Honor.

Celebrities weighed in on the topic of online harassment after since-deleted social media posts from Kimura men-tioned how she was affected by a torrent of negative opinions from strangers online.

25 new virus

infections in

South KoreaAP — SEOUL/BEIJING

South Korea has reported 25 additional cases of the coro-navirus over a 24-hour period, amid a continuation of small-scale outbreaks in the country.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention said the additional figures released yesterday took the country’s total to 11,190 with 266 deaths.

The agency says 10,213 of them have recovered and been released from quarantine.

It says 17 of the 25 new patients were locally infected while the rest eight came from overseas.

South Korea eased much of its strict social distancing rules in early May before it saw a sudden uptick in the number of cases associated with night-clubs in Seoul’s Itaewon enter-tainment district. Health authorities say they’ve con-firmed a total of 225 cases linked to Itaewon cubs as of Sunday noon.

Meanwhile, China yes-terday reported three new confirmed cases of coronavirus.

Two of the cases were brought from outside the country and one locally trans-mitted in the northeastern province of Jilin that has expe-rienced a minor outbreak now a p p a r e n t l y l a r g e l y contained.

No new deaths were reported.

China has reported a total of 4,634 COVID-19 deaths out of 82,974 cases.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi says China was "open" to international scientific cooperation to identify the source of the novel coronavirus, but stressed that any investigation must be "free of political interference", based on science and led by the World Health Organization.

Distancing oneself, using masks, washing hands, taking such other preventive actions as avoiding public bathrooms and, of course, staying home when sick are not magic bullets, but they all impact spread. As in army barracks in 1918, as in SARS among health care workers, compliance matters.

08 MONDAY 25 MAY 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

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

EDITORIAL

FOOTBALL and tennis are trying out new methods to lessen the reliance of human presence inside sports venues. Organsiers in Europe, Asia and even in America are exhibiting great improvisation in con-ducting sports events. Just a week after Bundesliga brought sports delight with the resumption of the German football league, a few players in the US helped fans to witness some much-needed action on a tennis court. Women players this week gathered for the UTR Pro Match Series in West Palm Beach, Fla, hitting fierce forehands and crushing volleys in matches that have been keenly watched by fans in the US and rest of the world.

With a few tweaks in rules, watching live tennis was fun again. Marked balls to identify which ones to be used for serve and approval of drones to televise the matches were used by the organizers to rely less on human assistance during games. The noise of drones hovering over courts are the new normal, according to fans.

Joining Danielle Collins, a former Australian Open semi-finalist, in the four-woman field were world No. 19 Alison Riske, 2019 Roland Garros semi-finalist Amanda Anisimova and Australian No. 2 player Ajla Tomljanovic. Engaging rallies were restricted to players winning a set with only four games. Safety was a priority as players were checked for high tem-peratures throughout the series that also conducted for male players a week earlier. With ATP Tour and WTA Tour tournaments now blocked until late July, this minor league tennis was a welcome relief for sports fans.

Move across to Europe and ‘new normal’ on another sports event saw 13,000 cutouts filled the stands on Saturday when Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach hosted Bayer Leverkusen. A similar tactic was used at baseball and football games played in South Korea earlier this month. Though some German fans were not too pleased with cutouts taking the place of real supporters, thousands spent a small amount of $20.70 to have their photos turned into cutouts and placed at the stadium. A news report said Gladbach fans took pictures at home - either in their team jersey or scarf - and paid €19 to be ‘placed at the stadium’.

Clearly fan cutouts - like the marked balls in tennis - will be the ‘new normal’ at sports events for some more months to come. Some may approve the idea and many would say the mundane tricks won’t work, but sports activity is limping its way to some kind of normalcy.

Sport lifting the gloom

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Quote of the day

For the peace in South Sudan to be durable, the

state authorities must act to end these cycles of

retaliatory violence, including by holding those

responsible to account and promoting peace-

building between individual communities.

Michelle Bachelet, UN Human Rights Chief

Palestinians, wearing masks and maintaining social distancing, gather to perform Eid Al Fitr prayer within precautions against the novel coronavirus pandemic at Al Kabir mosque in Khan Yunis, Gaza, yesterday.

All 50 states have now started to come out of lockdown, in many cases without meeting White House guidelines and without adequate testing and contact tracing capacity. So how can we minimize deaths in this new reality - and prevent a potentially explosive new wave? Lessons of the past - and what we have learned from our present condition - provide some guidance.

First, Americans should consider what they have accomplished. Most states locked down in mid-March. Three weeks later on April 7 - roughly the date when statistics began to reflect the effects of controls - deaths totalled 12,757, with cases and deaths doubling every 6.5 days. Had the disease maintained that pace, some 500,000 Amer-icans would have died by now; worse, the virus would have been so widely disseminated that control would have been impossible and we might have eventually exceeded the worst-case projections of 2 million deaths.

Instead, at this writing, we are approaching 100,000 deaths. This is a terrible number compared with that in such countries as South Korea, which reacted swiftly and suffered only 264 deaths in a population of 51 million; or even Germany, which started slowly but quickly got ahead of the virus and has seen 8,219 deaths in a popu-lation of 83 million. But it also represents enormous progress given our initial trajectory.

We have also flattened, though not turned fully downward, the pandemic curve, and according to a Morgan Stanley model, we have extended the time it takes to double cases to 46 days.

In the 1918 influenza pan-demic, many US cities closed for business, then reopened too soon, and when the disease surged back, had to close down again. Some cities did this three times. To avoid that, and more importantly, to avoid a surge so large that it might become uncontrollable, we should consider our expe-rience from 1918, from SARS

and from current observa-tions to guide our path.

In 1918, a study of Army training camps compared the few installations which made no attempt to control the flu with those that imposed iso-lation and quarantine, but also failed to sustain rigid enforcement over a period of weeks. The study found no difference in either sickness, deaths, or even peak stress on camp hospitals - but the study also reported that the very few camps which had main-tained rigid controls saw ben-efits. Civilians, who even in densely populated places are far more spread out today than soldiers were in over-crowded World War I bar-racks, should benefit from control measures.

SARS also teaches a lesson about best practices. Health care workers accounted for 21% of SARS cases worldwide and 51% of cases in Toronto. At the George W Bush admin-istration’s very first meeting held to develop recommen-dations to mitigate a pan-demic, the infection control chief from the single hospital in the world with the best record for protecting staff from SARS explained that he followed the same procedures as other hospitals, but he made certain his staff adhered to those procedures. They did not get sloppy. His people stayed healthy; elsewhere they got sick and many died.

The lesson in both cases: Compliance matters.

Modern influenza studies also hold lessons. Influenza and COVID-19 transmit the same way, and a careful study of seasonal influenza trans-mission found that a

combination of masks and hand-washing reduced illness dramatically after six weeks, while an analysis of multiple studies of mask use and hand-washing during the 2009 swine flu pandemic concluded the same thing: the combination of the two pro-vided significant protection.

Even more important in interrupting transmission is social distancing. Simply talking face to face seems to be a major mode of transmission. Although quantifiable data supporting that statement has not yet been extracted and analyzed, that is the view of an emerging consensus of public-health experts.

Distancing oneself, using masks, washing hands, taking such other preventive actions as avoiding public bathrooms (bowel movements and toilet flushing expel airborne virus), and, of course, staying home when sick are not magic bullets, but they all impact spread. As in army barracks in 1918, as in SARS among health care workers, compliance matters.

Individuals who employ all these measures can greatly enhance their chances of avoiding infection, and, even in the absence of adequate testing and tracing, can have considerable impact on society-wide spread.

Such measures are not ideological, even if the great irony in this pandemic is that they have become so.

Barry is author of “The Great Influenza: the story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History” and a professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

IQBAL NASIM AL JAZEERA

Behind the coronavirus death toll numbers are individual stories of trauma and tragedy for family members and friends.

Among the deceased in the United Kingdom are staff members of the National Health Service (NHS) who have succumbed to the virus.

The fact that they died from the very disease from which they were trying to save others is particularly poignant. Many of the doctors who have been killed by the virus in the UK were experi-enced medics with decades of service behind them. And many of them were Muslims.

This is an example of the

disproportionate effect that the pandemic has had on Muslims. Although Muslims are not synonymous with an ethnic minority, many Muslims are from back-grounds that have been shown to be more vulnerable than others to the virus.

For example, British Muslims are over-represented in the medical field.

But even beyond the NHS, coronavirus seems to have hit the Muslim community in the UK particularly hard. One of the country’s youngest victims, Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, died at the age of 13 with no family members allowed to be present in his final moments.

Because of the close-knit nature of many large Muslim

families, as well as frequent religious gatherings, some have warned that virus trans-mission in the community is likely to have been higher than in broader society.

There is also the devas-tating financial impact. Even before COVID-19 struck, it was the case that Muslims were more than twice as likely to be in poverty than others in Britain.

With widespread job losses and bereavements, thousands will be pushed to despair. A high proportion of Muslims are self-employed, a group that will have to wait until June to receive gov-ernment financial assistance from a support package announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.

In the midst of all this trauma, many Muslims are turning to their faith for hope and inspiration. One key concept that we are reminded of, and that has been exem-plified by the doctors who have lost their lives, is that of sacrifice.

This sacrifice is built largely on the Islamic concept of sabr. Sabr is to have the patience to persist in doing the right thing even when it is hard, whether that is heading into a disease-ridden ward for a gruelling night shift or enduring self-isolation.

Sabr is also resistance in the face of temptation - such as the temptation to stockpile key supplies and to forget the needs of others in the rush to take care of oneself.

How to avoid a second wave of infections

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Patience and sacrifice: An Islamic response to coronavirus

Established in 1996

JOHN M BARRY THE WASHINGTON POST

09MONDAY 25 MAY 2020 OPINION

The anecdotes about COVID-19 infecting cats at first seemed like a sideshow. But now, scientists have determined that the virus spreads readily among cats. That means scientists will need to start doing epidemiological studies on other species to understand and control this virus.

The coronavirus pandemic accelerated across Latin America, Russia and the Indian subcontinent on Friday even as infection curves flat-tened and reopening was under way in much of Europe, Asia and the United States.

Many governments - even those where the virus is still on the rise - say they must shift their focus to saving jobs that are vanishing as quickly as the disease can spread. In the United States and China, the world’s two largest

economies, unemployment is soaring.

The Federal Reserve chairman has estimated that as many as 1 in 4 Americans could be jobless, while in China analysts estimate around a third of the urban workforce is unemployed.

Meanwhile, the virus is roaring through countries ill-equipped to handle the pan-demic, which many scientists fear will seed the embers of a second global wave of infections.

India saw its biggest single-day spike since the pandemic began, and Pakistan and Russia recorded their highest death tolls. Most new Indian cases are in Bihar, where thousands returned home from jobs in the cities. For over a month, some walked among crowds for hundreds of miles.

Latin America’s two most populous nations - Mexico and Brazil - have reported record counts of new cases and deaths almost daily this week, fuelling criticism of their presidents, who have slow-walked shutdowns in attempts to limit economic damage.

Cases rose and intensive-care units were swamped in Peru, Chile and Ecuador - countries lauded for imposing early and aggressive business shutdowns and quarantines.

Brazil reported more than

20,000 deaths and 300,000 confirmed cases on Thursday night - the third worst-hit country in the world in terms of infection by official counts. Experts consider both numbers under-counts due to widespread lack of testing.

“It does not forgive, it does not choose race, or if you are rich or poor, black or white,” Bruno Almeida de Mello, a 24-year-old Uber driver, said at his 66-year-old grand-mother’s burial in Rio de Janeiro. “It’s sad that in other countries people believe, but not here.”

She had all the virus’s symptoms, but Vandelma Rosa’s death certificate reads “suspected of COVID-19,” he said, because her hospital lacked tests. That means she did not figure in the death toll, which nevertheless on Thursday marked its biggest single-day increase: 1,181.

President Jair Bolsonaro has scoffed at the seriousness of the virus and actively cam-paigned against state gov-ernors’ attempts to limit movement and commerce.

Bolsonaro fired his first health minister for supporting governors. His second min-ister resigned after openly disagreeing with Bolsonaro about chloroquine, the prede-cessor of the anti-malarial often touted by US President Donald Trump as a viable coronavirus treatment.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador down-played the threat for weeks as he continued to travel the country after Mexico’s first confirmed case. He insisted that Mexico was different, that its strong family bonds and work ethic would pull it through. The country is now reporting more than 400 deaths a day, and new infec-tions still have not peaked.

Armando Sepulveda, a mausoleum manager in sub-urban Mexico City, said his burial and cremation business

has doubled in recent weeks.“The crematoriums are

saturated,” Sepulveda said. “All of the ovens don’t have that capacity.” Families scour the city looking for funeral services that can handle their dead, because the hospitals cannot keep the bodies, he said.

The Mexican government has shifted its attention to reactivating the economy. Mining, construction and parts of the North American automotive supply chain were allowed to resume operations this week.

Russian health officials registered 150 deaths in 24 hours, for a total of 3,249. Many outside Russia have suggested the country is manipulating its statistics to show a comparatively low death rate. The total con-firmed number of cases exceeded 326,000 on Friday.

The Governor of the German region of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, sug-gested that his country could bring in Russian patients, as it has those from European Union countries as a gesture of “solidarity”.

China announced it would give local governments 2 trillion yuan ($280bn) to help undo the damage from shut-downs imposed to curb the spread of the virus that first appeared in the city of Wuhan in late 2019 and has now infected at least 5.1 million people worldwide, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

The Bank of Japan said it would provide $280bn in zero-interest, unsecured loans to banks for financing small and medium-size businesses.

Nearly 39 million Amer-icans have lost their jobs since the crisis accelerated two months ago. States from coast to coast are gradually reo-pening their economies and letting people return to work, but more than 2.4 million people filed for unem-ployment last week alone.

Much of the country remains unlikely to venture out to restaurants, theaters or gyms anytime soon, despite state and local officials across the country increasingly allowing businesses to reopen, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That hesitancy could muffle any recovery from what has been the sharpest and swiftest economic downturn in US history - comparable only to the Great Depression almost 90 years

ago.In an eerie echo of famous

Depression-era images, US cities are authorizing homeless tent encampments, including San Francisco, where about 80 tents are now neatly spaced out on a wide street near city hall as part of a “safe sleeping village” opened last week. The area between the city’s central library and its Asian Art Museum is fenced off to out-siders, monitored around the clock and provides meals, showers, clean water and trash pickup.

Nathan Rice, a 32-year-old who is camping there, said he’d much rather have a hotel room than a tent on a sidewalk.

“I hear it on the news, hear it from people here that they’re going to be getting us hotel rooms,” he said. “That’s what we want, you know, to be safe inside.”

Despite an often combative approach to scientists who dis-agree with him, Trump’s approval ratings have remained steady, underscoring the way Americans seem to have made up their minds about him. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says 41% approve of his job performance, while 58% dis-approve. That’s consistent with opinions of him throughout his three years in office.

In Congress, Republicans are staking out plans to phase out coronavirus-related unemployment benefits to encourage Americans to go back to work, although it’s not clear when there will be jobs to return to. The Senate also began efforts to fast-track an extension of a popular small business lending program.

European countries also have seen heavy job losses, but robust government safety-net programs in places like Germany and France are subsidizing the wages of mil-lions of workers and keeping them on the payroll. Tourism, a major income generator for Europe, has become a flash-point as countries debate whether to quarantine new arrivals this summer for the virus’s two-week maximum incubation period.

Spain’s National Statistics Institute published its tourism report yesterday showing columns of zeros for over-night stays, average length of stays and occupancy rates in April. Spain is Europe’s second most popular tourist desti-nation, after France, and an economic recovery without visitors is all but unthinkable.

Even where virus accelerates, lockdowns are cracking open

Back in mid-April, I took my 13-year-old cat to the vet for some tests. They told me his chronic heart disease had worsened, but it was nothing alarming. His condition started to deteriorate a few days later, ultimately leading to a 3am trip to the emer-gency room on April 27. The emergency veterinarians told me his blood readings were baffling; X-rays showed blood clots in his lungs. He died later that day.

At first it just seemed like one more sad thing to cope with during this time of COVID-19 - then, last week, I got a call from virologist David Sanders of Purdue University. He wanted to tell me about a new paper showing COVID-19 infections in cats. He said it looked like high-quality work, and it could have important impli-cations for the spread of the virus. I started to wonder whether my own cat had picked up COVID-19 while waiting with other cats for

his checkup at the vet’s.The anecdotes about

COVID-19 infecting cats at first seemed like a sideshow. But now, scientists have determined that the virus spreads readily among cats. That means scientists will need to start doing epidemio-logical studies on other species to understand and control this virus.

University of Wisconsin biologist Peter Halfmann, a co-author on the cat paper, says his research was inspired by anecdotes they’d heard - the most striking one being that a caretaker apparently infected multiple tigers at the Bronx Zoo. They were worried about cats in shelters, veterinary clinics and humane societies.

They set out to investigate with an experiment, the results of which have recently been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. They infected three cats with COVID-19 and paired each with a virus-free cat. These partner cats tested positive on day three, day five and day six. None of the cats developed any symptoms of the illness, he says. But the disease could be dangerous to a cat that is older and had comorbidities, like his own cat. And, I thought, like mine.

This raises questions about animal-to-animal transmission, and human-animal transmission since, of course, humans are animals, too.

Tony Goldberg, a pro-fessor of epidemiology and veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin, said that it’s not uncommon for diseases to bounce around between species. Ferrets are often victims of human flu viruses, for example. When people bring sick ferrets to the vet, they often appear to have the same cough and runny nose as their pets.

Sometimes a virus can be deadlier to another species than it is to us - just as SARS-CoV-2 is likely deadlier to us than to the animal it came from. For example, Goldberg recently published a preprint paper warning that great apes have the same cell receptor we do that allows the virus into our cells. In a news article in Science, he warns of the serious danger COVID-19 might pose to endangered great apes.

Other Coronaviruses have spread to chimpanzees and killed them, even though they only gave humans a mild cold. Camels became an integral part of the MERS crisis, and civet cats tested

positive for SARS in China.The civet cats story shows

another risk for animals: that humans will blame and vic-timize them. That’s happened before, as noted in David Quammen’s book “Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic.” In the chapter on the 2003 SARS epidemic, he describes how the Chinese health authorities originally thought, probably wrongly, that people had gotten the disease from a civet cat.

“More than a thousand captive civets were suffo-cated, burned, boiled, electro-cuted and drowned,” writes Quammen. “It was like a Medieval pogrom against satanic cats.”

Further work showed it was a different animal alto-gether - a tiny brown bat - that harbored the original SARS virus.

Similarly, early on COVID-19 was associated with an armadillo-like animal called a pangolin, but Goldberg says pangolins did not give us this disease. The association comes from the fact that pangolins carry a dif-ferent coronavirus that has one part that’s nearly iden-tical to SARS-CoV-2. Goldberg says pangolins are gentle creatures who need more positive press. “We shouldn’t

start persecuting pangolins,” he says. Bats are now the prime suspect as the source of COVID-19.

Figuring out the role any animal plays in a human virus is difficult. The exact role of civets in SARS is still unclear; some people think they may have played some part in the spread of the disease even if they weren’t the primary hosts.

While there’s clearly a lot of uncertainty here, Halfmann said I wasn’t crazy to worry that my cat died from COVID-19, and that it would be possible to pick it up at a veterinary clinic. Neither the cat nor I had been anywhere else for days.

He says it might be smart to keep cats indoors, and for veterinarians to take precau-tions to protect their patients from spreading the virus to each other. And he says that the cats may more easily transmit the virus to other cats than to humans. Any threat they or other animals pose to us is likely very small compared to the threat we could pose to them.

Faye Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She has written for the Economist, the New York Times, the Wash-ington Post, Psychology Today, Science and other publications.

How safe are pets from coronavirus?

FAYE FLAMBLOOMBERG

Nearly 39 million Americans have lost their jobs since the crisis accelerated two months ago. States from coast to coast are gradually reopening their economies and letting people return to work, but more than 2.4 million people filed for unemployment last week alone.

Many governments - even those where the virus is still on the rise - say they must shift their focus to saving jobs that are vanishing as quickly as the disease can spread. In the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, unemployment is soaring.

Demonstrators taking part in a motorcade to protest in favour of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, amid the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Brasilia, Brazil, yesterday.

LORI HINNANT, SHEIKH SAALIQ & DAVID BILLER — AP

10 MONDAY 25 MAY 2020EUROPE

Pressure grows on Johnson as top aide faces more lockdown breach claimsAFP — LONDON

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was under increased pressure yesterday to sack top aide Dominic Cummings who was facing allegations that he had breached coronavirus lockdown rules for a second time.

The British government has so far rejected calls to sack Cummings over allegations he broke coronavirus lockdown rules by travelling across the country with his wife while she was suffering from symptoms of the disease, but even MPs from his own party were calling for him to leave on Sunday.

Cummings was seen with his young son close to his parents’ home in Durham, northeastern England, more than 400km away from his London home on March 31, the day after he himself reported suffering symptoms.

The Observer and Sunday Mirror reported that he had broken lockdown restrictions again and was seen in Durham a second time on April 19, days after he had returned to work in London following his first trip north, quoting anonymous witnesses.

Cummings strenuously

denies the claims and Downing Street said yesterday that it “would not waste time” responding to “campaigning newspapers”.

A named witness told the papers Cummings was also spotted in the town of Barnard Castle, 30km from Durham, on April 12.

Cummings has been a highly divisive figure in British pol-itics since masterminding the successful 2016 Brexit cam-paign alongside Johnson, who brought him in as his top adviser after coming to power last year.

Under lockdown rules brought in on March 23, anyone with symptoms must self-isolate in their own homes. And people aged over 70 — as Cum-mings’ parents are — are not

allowed to receive visitors.Cabinet ministers had

defended his actions, with foreign minister Dominic Raab tweeting that “two parents with coronavirus, were anxiously taking care of their young child.

“Those now seeking to politicise it should take a long hard look in the mirror,” he added.

However, Tory MP Steve Baker, a staunch Brexiteer but critic of Cummings, demanded that he be sacked.

“Enormous political capital is being expended saving someone who has boasted of making decisions beyond his competence and who clearly broke at the very least the guidance which kept mums and dads at home,” he wrote in The Critic.

“It is intolerable that Boris, Boris’s government and Boris’s programme should be harmed in this way.”

His criticism was retweeted by fellow Tory MP William Wragg.

An unnamed minister earlier told the Daily Telegraph: “He’s going to have to go. It’s just arrogance”, but Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said yesterday Cummings would not be resigning.

Labour shadow minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told the BBC that the claims were “extraordinarily serious” and that Downing Street’s denials created “more questions than answers”.

A spokesman for the prime minister said on Saturday that Cummings had acted “in line with coronavirus guidelines.

“Owing to his wife being infected with suspected coro-navirus and the high likelihood that he would himself become unwell, it was essential for Dominic Cummings to ensure his young child could be properly cared for” by family,

the spokesman said on Saturday.

Deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries suggested there was some room for manoeuvre if both parents were ill, saying “all guidance has a common sense element to it, which includes safeguarding around adults or children”.

Cummings also denied reports in The Guardian news-paper that police had spoken directly to him or his family about a tip off they received on March 31 that he was in Durham.

The force insists they spoke to Cummings’s father on

the telephone, but Shapps said yesterday that it was the family who had initiated the contact to talk about security arrangements.

Cummings told a throng of reporters while leaving his house that it was “a question of doing the right thing, it’s not about what you guys think”, while rebuking the group for not obeying social distancing rules.

Downing Street revealed at the end of March that Cum-mings was self-isolating with virus symptoms. Johnson was also infected and ended up in intensive care.

No. 10 Downing Street special adviser Dominic Cummings leaving his home surrounded by media in London yesterday following allegations he broke coronavirus lockdown rules by travelling across the country in March.

Venice Film Festival to go ahead in SeptemberREUTERS — ROME

The Venice Film Festival will go ahead as scheduled at the beginning of September, Luca Zaia, the governor of the region around the Italian city said on Sunday as the spread of the new coronavirus in the country slows.

Organised by the Biennale di Venezia company, Venice is the world’s longest running film festival. In January it announced

that Cate Blanchett would preside over its 77th edition.

Due to the lockdowns imposed on the film industry across the world to limit the spread of the virus, the fes-tival will probably be attended by fewer productions, said Zaia, who is also a board member of the Biennale di Venezia.

The Cannes Film Festival, the world’s largest, was forced to postpone its latest edition in

May due to the virus epidemic.

Italy plans to lift all travel curbs from June 3 and travelers from European Union countries will be able to enter without going into quarantine.

The country recorded 119 new deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic on Saturday, bringing the death toll in Italy from the outbreak to 32,735, the third highest total in the world after the United States and Britain.

Twitter, WhatsApp sanctions loom in EU privacy crackdownBLOOMBERG — LONDON

Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp are in the firing line as Europe’s leading privacy watchdog for US tech giants edges closer to delivering its first major sanctions under the region’s tough data-protection rules.

The Irish Data Protection Commission said on May 22 that it finalised a draft decision linked to a data breach at Twitter and has asked its peers across the European Union for their sign-off.

The regulator said that it’s also completed a draft decision in a probe of WhatsApp’s trans-parency around data sharing. The Facebook service will be asked to give its comments on any proposed sanctions before EU counterparts can weigh in.

The Irish authority’s probes have been piling up since the bloc’s tough General Data Pro-tection Regulation took effect in May 2018 — but with no final

decisions to date. The regulator is the lead data protection authority for some of the biggest US tech companies, including Twitter, Facebook, Google and Apple Inc.

GDPR empowered regu-lators to levy penalties of as much as 4 percent of a com-pany’s annual revenue for the most serious violations. The biggest fine to date was a $54.5m penalty for Google by France’s watchdog CNIL.

The Irish regulator said it has also made progress in a number of its other pending cases, including an investigation into obligations of Facebook’s local unit “to establish a lawful basis for personal data processing,” adding that this “inquiry is now in the decision-making phase.”

While sanctions in the two cases wouldn’t be the first under the new GDPR rules, they will be the first to test the cooper-ation between all 27 EU data authorities.

Reports said that Dominic Cummings had broken lockdown restrictions again and was seen in Durham a second time on April 19, quoting anonymous witnesses.

Tourists are seen at St. Mark’s Square amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Venice, yesterday.

Germany to trace church service attendees at which COVID-19 spreadREUTERS — FRANKFURT

German authorities are trying to trace everyone who attended a church service in Frankfurt this month after more than 107 people tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Churches in the state of Hesse, where Frankfurt is located, have been able to hold services since May 1 following the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions, pro-vided they adhere to official social distancing and hygiene rules.

“This situation shows how important it is that all of us stay alert and avoid becoming careless, especially now during the easing of restrictions. The virus is still there and will spread,” Hesse state health minister Kai Klose said.

He said the authorities hoped that identifying those who attended the service at a Baptist church on May 10 would help prevent others being infected.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has risen to 178,281, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed yesterday.

The reported death toll rose by 31 to 8,247.

Spain gears up to ease measures amid 70 more deathsANATOLIA — OVIEDO

As much of Spain prepares to further relax lockdown measures, the Health Ministry yesterday reported 246 more COVID-19 cases and 70 deaths.

Though the number of deaths is up from Saturday, it marks the eighth con-secutive day that the country reported under 100 daily deaths. In total, 28,752 people have lost their lives to the infec-tious disease in Spain, according to the ministry.

The number of new confirmed infec-tions dropped to 246, bringing the total number of cases to 235,772.

Starting today, the major cities of Madrid and Barcelona will enter phase one of Spain’s de-escalation programme, which will allow for small group gatherings and residents to enjoy a coffee or food on outdoor terraces.

Going further, around half of the country will enter phase two, which allows for indoor dining, movie theatres, plays, and other activities with limited capacity.

On Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told touristic establish-ments to begin preparations for the summer tourism season.

But one town in the southern region

of Murcia will not move forward to the next phase, the government decreed yesterday.

Totana has a population of around 35,000 people. Around a third of the pop-ulation consists of immigrants from around the world who migrated to work in the agricultural sector.

There, epidemiologists have put 50 people into isolation after six workers and one bus driver tested positive for the disease.

Spain’s gradual de-escalation plan only allows regions or specific areas to relax measures when they comply with certain epidemiological and health criteria.

Workers using measuring tape to check social distancing as they set up a terrace which will be allowed to open from today, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, at Plaza Mayor Square in Madrid, yesterday.

Poland’s President loses

grip on election win: PollsAFP — WARSAW

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda appeared to have lost his grip on victory in an upcoming election, fresh opinion polls showed, threatening a political upset for the allied right-wing government.

While April opinion polls handed Duda over 50 percent voter support for a comfortable first-round win, he scored between 35 to 39 percent support in two separate surveys published this week.

The slide came days after the main liberal Civic Platform (PO) opposition party switched its presidential candidate, tapping Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

He immediately shot to second spot in the polls, setting him up for a tight round two duel with Duda, who is backed by the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party.

Originally scheduled for May 10, the election was post-poned at the last minute when government and opposition parties failed to agree how to proceed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Parliament was still strug-gling this week to overcome the stalemate but senior PiS and opposition officials said in sep-arate statements that the ballot could go ahead on June 28,

before Duda’s five-year term ends on August 6th.

Support for Duda sank to 35 percent according to a May 18 and 19 survey by the inde-pendent PBS pollsters pub-lished on Saturday in the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza broadsheet daily.

A Kantar poll conducted on the same days and published on Thursday gave him 39 percent backing.

Trzaskowski scored 21 and 18 percent support respectively in the two surveys, followed by independent centrist Szymon Holownia, who enjoyed 19 and 15 percent backing, in a field of six main candidates.

Opposition parties had rejected PiS government plans for a May 10 universal postal ballot amid the pandemic, insisting the constitution requires voting rules to be changed at least six months before election day.

They also insist that the way powerful PiS party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski postponed the May 10 date, via a political declaration, was illegal.

Constitutional experts say a government can only postpone an election by declaring a state of emergency or disaster, some-thing the PiS administration has refused to do despite the unprec-edented social and economic impact of the pandemic.

11MONDAY 25 MAY 2020 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Russia carries out 8.6 million COVID-19 testsANATOLIA — MOSCOW

While Russia has been reporting slight drop in daily coronavirus cases over the past weeks, the number of deaths has increased as the country has registered more than 100 deaths from the infection for a sixth day in a row.

According to the figures reported by the country’s emer-gency task force, the virus has claimed the lives of 152 people over the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 3,541.

Over the same period 8,599 new cases have been registered, compared to 9,434 the day before, taking the country’s tally to 344,481.

Meanwhile, the number of successfully treated people has risen by 5,363 since Saturday and totalled 113,299 throughout the pandemic.

Russia continues mass testing for COVID-19 aiming to detect the disease at early stages when it is less contagious. Up to date as many as 8.6 million tests

have been carried out in the country, finding 282,000 people suspected to be infected with the virus. Despite strict measures, which include lockdown of the capital Moscow, ban on the entry of foreigners and stateless people, and the suspension of international air and railway traffic, Russia is the third-worst coronavirus-hit country in terms of number of cases, following the US and Brazil.

Three top Russian officials, including Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, are being treated in hospital for the coronavirus,

while three more were earlier discharged with recovery.

The pandemic has claimed more than 342,100 lives in 188 countries and regions since

originating in China last December. The US and Europe are currently the world’s worst-hit regions.

More than 5.31 million cases

have been reported worldwide and 2.11 million people have recovered to date, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.

National Guard servicemen wearing protective face masks stand guard at a closed street in front of a mosque, in Moscow, yesterday.

Iranian fuel starts arriving in Venezuelan waters despite US warningREUTERS — CARACAS

The first of five Iranian tankers carrying fuel for gasoline-starved Venezuela entered the South American country’s exclusive economic zone on Saturday, despite a US official’s warning that Washington was considering a response to the shipment.

The tanker — named Fortune — reached the coun-try’s waters at around 7.40pm local time after passing north of the neighbouring dual-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, according to vessel tracking data from Refinitiv Eikon.

Venezuelan state television showed images of a navy ship and aircraft preparing to meet it. The nation’s defence minister had pledged that the military would escort the tankers once they reached Venezuela’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) due to what authorities described as threats from the United States.

“We welcome the boats from the Islamic Republic of Iran, which will soon arrive at our fatherland’s ports,” Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela’s economy vice president and recently named oil minister, wrote on Twitter earlier on Saturday.

The tanker flotilla is carrying

a total of 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and alkylate to Vene-zuela, according to both govern-ments, sources and calculations by TankerTrackers.com. The shipments - desperately needed as gasoline is increasingly scarce in Venezuela due to a near com-plete breakdown of the OPEC nation’s 1.3 million barrel-per-day refining network - have caused a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran and Venezuela as both countries are under US sanctions.

Washington is considering measures in response, according to a senior US official, who did not elaborate on any options.

The United States recently beefed up its naval presence in the Caribbean for what it said was an expanded antidrug oper-ation. A Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday he was not aware of any operations related to the Iranian cargoes.

The shipment has drawn condemnation from Venezuela’s opposition, who are concerned about growing ties between Iran and socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has overseen a six-year economic crisis.

The shipments are bringing enough fuel for just a month of consumption at current rates in the nation, once a prominent fuel exporter.

“[The ruling party] is trying to turn an embarrassment into an epic victory,” said Oscar Ron-deros, a lawmaker who serves on the opposition-controlled National Assembly’s energy commission.

Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned of retaliatory measures against the United States if Washington caused problems for tankers carrying Iranian fuel to Venezuela, the semi-official news agency Mehr reported.

“If our tankers in the Car-ibbean or anywhere in the world face trouble caused by the Americans, they (the US) will also be in trouble,” Rouhani said.

Italy reports 50new fatalities,mayors step uprestrictions

ANATOLIA — ROME

Italy yesterday reported 50 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 32,785, as mayors across the country started imposing new restrictions in response to risky get-togethers and crowds on Italian beaches.

The increase in deaths reg-istered yesterday is one of the lowest since the beginning of the outbreak, but it does not include data from the northern Lombardy region, which remains the epicentre of the pandemic.

Data released by the coun-try’s Civil Protection Department confirm, however, that the peak of the crisis has been left behind. The tally of active infections yesterday fell again, by 1,158, placing the total at 56,594.

Meanwhile, recoveries con-tinued to climb, topping 140,000, as more patients left intensive care, easing pressure on Italy’s strained health care system.

But photos of Italian beaches and piazzas crowded with people enjoying the first weekend outdoors continue to alarm authorities and experts.

After reports of infractions and huge get-togethers in Italy’s largest cities, mayors have already started to impose new restrictions.

In the city of Brescia — which suffered heavy losses — the mayor forced clubs to close two hours earlier than usual. According to police reports, at a national level, people move-ments by car and train rose 20 percent on Saturday.

France lifts curbs on religious activities;virus restrictions easedAFP — PARIS

French churches held their first Sunday masses in more than two months after the government bowed to a ruling that they should be reopened — provided proper precautions were taken.

Nearly two weeks into the relaxation of its shutdown, the government finally allowed churches, mosques and syna-gogues to reopen.

Last Monday, the France’s Council of State, which instructs the government on legal issues, ordered it to lift its sweeping ban on all religious services, in place since the lockdown.

The ruling said that such a ban on freedom of worship caused “damage that is serious and manifestly illegal”, ordering the government to lift the ban within eight days.

But priests, pastors, rabbis and imams will still have to ensure that the correct safety measures are in force.

Worshippers will have to wear masks, there will have to be disinfectant gel on hand and the seating will need to be organised to ensure people keep a safe distance from each other.

“My cellphone is crackling with messages!” Father Pierre Amar, a priest in Versailles, said.

At one church in

Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside Paris, some worshippers turned up at short notice on Saturday morning, having heard that mass would be celebrated.

“We knew 30 minutes in advance, we ran to come,” said Eliane Nsom, who went with her three daughters. Around 40 people attended the service.

France’s mosques never-theless called on Muslims to stay at home to mark the Eid Al Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. They said they would gradually resume services from June 3.

France’s Jewish com-munity took a similarly cau-tious line. Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia stressed that believers should not “rush towards the r e o p e n i n g o f t h e synagogues”.

The latest figures for those seriously ill from the virus fell on Saturday, with 1,665 patients still in intensive care for the coronavirus: 36 fewer than 24 hours ago.

The death toll from the virus stands at 28,289.

But the government has had to fight a series of legal and battles to control the pace of the gradual loosening of France’s two-month lockdown.

It has refused Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo’s call to reopen the capital’s parks and gardens,

over fears this could accelerate infections in the city, already hard-hit by the virus.

Heavily criticised for what critics say was their inadequate preparation in the run-up to the coronavirus crisis, the author-ities have taken a caution line in handling the exit from the lockdown.

Many of its experts judge that it is too soon to say that the virus has been brought under control in France.

But some specialists, such a s e p i d e m i o l o g i s t

Laurent Toubiana believe that the coronavirus has already done its worst.

“A significant portion of the population may not be suscep-tible to coronavirus, because non-specific antibodies to the virus can stop it,” Toubiana said.

The controversial micro-biologist Didier Raoult has also said the dangers of a second wave of the virus have been exaggerated.

But a series of medical papers have called into question h i s i n s i s t e n c e t h a t

hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment against the coronavirus, a cure most notably promoted by US Pres-ident Donald Trump.

The latest study of nearly 100,000 coronavirus patients, published on Friday in the medical journal The Lancet, showed no benefit in treating them with anti-viral drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.

Such a treatment even increased the likelihood of them dying in hospital, it said.

People stand in front of a closed restaurant in Montmartre neighbourhood, in Paris, yesterday as France eases lockdown measures taken to curb the spread of the COVID-19.

Buenos Aires lockdown extended until June 7 after rise in infectionsREUTERS — BUENOS AIRES

Argentina extended until June 7 a mandatory lockdown in Buenos Aires on Saturday and tightened some movement restrictions, after a steady increase in the city’s confirmed coronavirus cases in recent days.

Officials will tighten traffic controls between the capital and Buenos Aires province, the area with the second highest concen-tration of cases, President Alberto Fernandez said in a televised press conference.

Commercial activity in some of the city’s more populated neighborhoods and access to public transportation will also be

rolled back. Some businesses had been allowed to reopen under a previous lockdown extension.

The lockdown, due to expire on Sunday, has been in place

since March 20, though officials have relaxed restrictions in some areas of the country.

Argentina has a commercial flight ban until September 1, one of the world’s strictest travel measures during the pandemic.

The country recorded 704 new infections on Saturday, one of the highest single-day increases since the pandemic began. The country has 11,353 cases, mostly in Buenos Aires, where the city’s low-income neighborhoods have been par-ticularly hard hit, government data showed. The death toll is at 445. Fernandez said the rising case load was the driving factor in extending the isolation period

in Buenos Aires, where 87 percent of new cases over the last two weeks were confirmed.

“We are doing things well and I thank everyone, but much remains to be done,” Fernandez said. Argentina is still outpaced in infections and deaths by many of its neighbors including Brazil, which has the world’s second highest number of cases at 347,398 and a death toll of 22,013, Brazilian government data showed.

Argentina registered a death rate of 9.8 per 100,000 people as of May 22, compared to 94.3 in Brazil and 47.2 in Peru, according to a report presented by Fernandez.

US may ban travellers from Brazil over virus outbreak: White HouseREUTERS — WASHINGTON

The United States is likely to impose travel restrictions on Brazil, a top White House official said after the South American nation became the world No. 2 hot spot for coronavirus cases.

National security adviser Robert O’Brien told CBS’ “Face the Nation” there will likely be a decision to suspend entry for travelers arriving from Brazil.

“We hope that’ll be temporary, but because of the situation in Brazil, we’re going to take every step necessary to protect the American people,” O’Brien said. Brazil became the world No. 2 hot spot for coronavirus cases on Friday, second only to the United States, and now has over 347,000 people infected by the virus, the Health Ministry said. US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was considering imposing a ban on travel from Brazil.

“I don’t want people coming over here and infecting our people. I don’t want people over there sick either,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Canadian province

pleads with

citizens to get

tested for virusREUTERS — OTTAWA

The premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, yesterday pleaded with citizens who are worried they may have contracted the coronavirus to get tested, as offi-cials try to prevent a surge in cases.

Doug Ford also condemned the thousands of people who flocked to a public park in Toronto on Saturday, flouting rules on social distancing.

Canada’s total death toll edged up by 1.6 percent to 6,380 yesterday from Saturday, public health agency data showed.

Ontario has recorded a steady rise in recent days.

“Our best defense right now is to ramp up testing,” Ford said in a five-minute address to Ontarians, adding that the virus “will spread like wildfire” unless checked.

“I’m here to ask for your help today... if you’re worried you have COVID-19, or that you’ve been exposed to someone who has COVID-19 — even if you’re not showing symptoms — please go get a test,” said Ford.

“The only way we can get those numbers where they need to be is for everyone who feels they need it to get a test... we can open up the economy if we see the numbers going down.”

The virus has claimed the lives of 152 people over the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 3,541. Over the same period 8,599 new cases have been registered.

Officials will tighten traffic controls between the capital and Buenos Aires province, the area with the second highest concentration of cases, President Alberto Fernandez said.

12 MONDAY 25 MAY 2020AMERICAS

Americans soak up sun on beaches as virus death toll nears 100,000REUTERS — NEW YORK

Americans sunbathed on beaches, fished from boats and strolled on boardwalks this holiday weekend, but the occa-sional person wearing a mask was a constant reminder that the world is still battling the coronavirus pandemic.

The Memorial Day weekend that signals the start of the US summer is normally a time when cemeteries across the nation fill with American flags and ceremonies to remember those who died in US wars. This year the holiday week is when the US death from COVID-19 is expected to exceed 100,000.

The New York Times filled its entire front page with the names and selected details of 1,000 victims yesterday to try to capture the humanity of the lives lost. “We were trying to capture that personal toll,” Marc Lacey, the newspaper’s national editor, said.

“We were trying to humanise these numbers which keep growing and have reached such unfathomable heights that they’re really hard to grasp any more....This is about everyday people. It’s about a death toll, reaching a number that’s really just jaw-dropping.”

Among the names, drawn from obituaries and death notices in hundreds of US

newspapers: Lila Fenwick, 87, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Law; Romi Cohn, 91, saved 56 Jewish families from the Gestapo; Hailey Herrera, 25, budding therapist with a gift for empathy.

All 50 states have relaxed coronavirus restrictions to some degree. In some states, like Illinois and New York, restau-rants are still closed to in-person dining and hair salons remain shuttered. In many southern states, most businesses are open, with restrictions on capacity.

Last week, 11 states reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases, including Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Maryland, Maine, Nevada, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to a tally. It is not clear if the cases are rising from more testing or a second wave of infections. Total US cases are

over 1.6 million, the highest in the world.

A plea by health officials and many state governors to wear masks in stores and in public is being met with protest and resistance from some Americans. Social media is filled with videos of businesses turning away a few angry cus-tomers who refuse to cover their mouths and noses.

“We need to be wearing

masks in public when we cannot social distance. It’s really critically important we have the scientific evidence of how important mask-wearing is to prevent those droplets from reaching others,” Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Few people wore masks on Saturday while walking on a

crowded boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland. Masks were also a rare sight on other beaches, but people mainly kept their distance in small groups and avoided playing games like Frisbee and volleyball.

“Personally, I’m not sure I’m worried about that, but for those who are worried... I suggest they stay home. I like to get out,” said Bruce Clark at Daytona Beach in Florida.

People wearing masks arrive at Jones Beach on Long Island, New York, yesterday.

COVID-19 lawsuits spreading like a virus through US courtsAFP — WASHINGTON

While apps for video-confer-encing and online courses have flourished during the COVID-19 pandemic, so have something rather more contentious: lawsuits.

More than 1,300 complaints linked to the coronavirus have already been filed in US courts, according to a daily tally kept by the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth.

“COVID has divided America and it has vast political implications,” Lawrence Gostin, a professor of public health law at Georgetown University, said.

“There is a conflict between public health and freedom -- all kinds of freedoms, like the right to work, to liberty, to protest, to buy a firearm...” And since the United States is a

“highly litigious society,” he added, these conflicts often end up in court.

A first wave of lawsuits has come from prisons and immi-gration centers, said Torston Kracht, a litigation partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth: pris-oners have demanded to be paroled early, arguing that san-itary conditions in their facil-ities are poor and in some cases are aggravating detainees’ existing health problems.

Some prisoners, including former Donald Trump cam-paign director Paul Manafort and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, have won early release.

Others have found them-selves caught up in epic legal battles: the US government has just asked the Supreme Court to block the early release of 800

inmates from the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in eastern Ohio.

A federal judge in Cleveland had ordered the men liberated after nine of those infected died.

M e a n t i m e , s e v e r a l employees’ groups have sued their employers to demand better protection against the virus.

Thus, a union representing New York nurses filed suit to demand more masks, gloves and other protective equipment.

And in cases where pro-tective measures were too little or too late, victims’ relatives have filed suits charging negligence.

Employers including the big-box Walmart stores and the JBS meat-processing company have been targeted, as have some nursing homes.

These complaints, however, have prompted legislative pushback: several states have moved to introduce laws to protect healthcare providers from suits, and Republicans in the US Congress want to provide similar protection for companies.

“The COVID-19 pandemic will definitely have an effect on legal relationships in the future,” Kracht said.

Beyond legislative changes, he said, “I think in the future you will see that newly nego-tiated force majeure clauses will directly deal with the issue of pandemic.”

A second big category of lawsuits deals with efforts to seek compensation for financial losses.

Ticket-buyers who saw events canceled have filed a

class-action suit against the online reservation site Ticket-master, while others are seeking compensation for lost hotel or airline reservations, or even for memberships in gyms that have been closed for months.

Since early May, demands from students seeking to recover tuition expenses and fees have surged. And business and shop owners, forced to remain closed, have sued various governmental entities to challenge confinement orders.

Politicians have jumped into the thorny debate: several Republican officials, mirroring President Donald Trump’s aggressive push for a rapid reo-pening of the country, have contested lockdown orders issued by the Democratic gov-ernors of their states.

Honduran prison

brawl leaves six

dead, 2 injured

REUTERS — TEGUCIGALPA

Six inmates died and two more were injured between Saturday night and yesterday morning in a violent brawl in a Honduran women’s prison home to 835, part of which was set on fire, a prison official said yesterday.

The brawl started on Sat-urday night in the National Women’s Penitentiary for Social Adaptation, said Jose Gonzalez, the head of a prison commission, but was brought under control in the early hours of yesterday.

It was not immediately clear how the inmates died but Gonzalez said the fire was set by an inmate.

“While the fire was being controlled, some of the inmates broke through the roof of their module and went to another module,” Gonzalez said.

The prison is located some 20km north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

Oscar Triminio, a spokesman for the Honduran Fire Department, added that shots could be heard from inside when the fire fighters arrived at the prison.

Overcrowding and fighting is common in the country’s 25 prisons, which house some 21,500 inmates, and have been under military control since December.

SpaceX ready to launch astronauts into space for the first timeAFP — WASHINGTON

In the beginning, everyone was sceptical. But Elon Musk’s SpaceX defied expectations -- and on Wednesday hopes to make history by ferrying two Nasa astronauts into space, the first crewed flight from US soil in nine long years.

US President Donald Trump will be among the spectators at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida to witness the launch, which has been given the green light despite months of shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The general public, in a nod to virus restrictions, has been told to watch via a livestream as Crew Dragon is launched by a Falcon 9 rocket toward the International Space Station.

Nasa’s Commercial Crew program, aimed at developing private spacecraft to transport American astronauts in to space, began under Barack Obama.

But his successor sees it as a symbol of his strategy to reassert American domination of space, both military — with his creation of the Space Force — and

civilian. He has ordered Nasa to return to the moon in 2024, an unlikely timetable but one that has given the storied space agency a boost.

In the 22 years since the first components of the ISS were launched, only spacecraft developed by Nasa and by the Russian space agency have carried crews there.

Nasa used the illustrious shuttle program — huge, extremely complex, winged ships that carried dozens of astronauts into space for three decades.

But their staggering cost — $200bn for 135 flights — and two fatal accidents finally put an end to the program.

The last shuttle, Atlantis, landed on July 21, 2011.

After, Nasa astronauts learned Russian and travelled to the ISS in the Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan, in a partnership which survived political tensions between Washington and Moscow.

But it was only ever meant to be a temporary arrangement. Nasa had entrusted two private companies — aviation giant

Boeing and upstart SpaceX — with the task of designing and building capsules that would replace the shuttles.

Nine years later, SpaceX — founded by Musk, the out-spoken South African entre-preneur who also built PayPal and Tesla, in 2002 -- is ready to launch.

At 4.33pm on Wednesday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is set to take off from Launch Pad 39A

with the Crew Dragon capsule at its top.

Nasa has awarded SpaceX more than $3bn in contracts since 2011 to build the space-craft. The capsule will be crewed by Robert Behnken, 49, and Douglas Hurley, 53, both veteran space travelers — Hurley piloted Atlantis on its last trip. Nineteen hours later they will dock at the ISS, where two Russians and an American

are waiting for them.The weather forecast

remains unfavorable, with a 60 percent chance of bad condi-tions, according to Cape Canaveral forecasters.

The next launch window is Saturday, May 30.

The launch has taken five years longer than planned to come about, but even with the delays SpaceX has beaten Boeing to the punch.

Nasa astronauts Douglas Hurley (left) and Robert Behnken participating in a dress rehearsal for launch at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center ahead of Nasa’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Liberal groups press Biden on picks for economic postsREUTERS — NEW YORK

Liberal groups are pushing Joe Biden to pick tough watchdogs for US economic posts ahead of the November 3 election to generate broader support for the presumptive Democratic presi-dential nominee.

Leaders of organizations including the Revolving Door Project and Demand Progress said they expect to advance names of people they find

acceptable to oversee taxes, reg-ulation, stimulus oversight and markets should Biden defeat Republican President Donald Trump.

Activists want public-minded, progressive leaders to help ensure a fair economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and to guard against stimulus money being wasted on what they view as corporate giveaways.

Several progressive activists

said they have begun sharing personnel preferences privately with Biden campaign officials. They plan to further make their case through task forces estab-lished with Senator Bernie Sanders and other sympathetic members of Congress who support Biden.

The quiet pressure campaign, still in its early stages, has engaged nearly three dozen pro-gressive groups so far, according to conversations with the groups.

“If you’re going to try to figure out how to make the economy more fair, you’re going to have to put people in positions who wake up every morning with the goal of trying to make the economy more fair,” said Jeff Hauser, director of the advocacy group Revolving Door Project.

The former vice president has been criticized by some pro-gressives for what they see as a cozy relationship with Wall Street. Many were alarmed that

former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is giving Biden advice because of his association with financial deregulation efforts.

Informal advisers such as economic aide Jared Bernstein, Washington Center for Equitable Growth chief Heather Boushey and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray are viewed more favorably on the left because they focus on issues of inequality.

Chile’s hospitals

under strain as

cases near

70,000: President

REUTERS — SANTIAGO

Chile’s healthcare system is under strain and “very close to the limit,” President Sebastian Pinera said yesterday, as the number of confirmed novel coronavirus infections approaches 70,000 after a rapid increase in recent days.

The Ministry of Health reported 3,709 new cases in the last day, bringing the total to 69,102. The death toll is at 718.

“We are very close to the limit because we have had a very large increase in the needs and demands for medical care, and for intensive care unit beds and ventilators,” Pinera said during a visit to a hospital in Santiago, which has the highest concentration of cases.

More than 1,000 people have been hospitalised for disease associated with the coronavirus, according to the government. Chile, the world’s top copper producer, confirmed its first case of coronavirus in early March and surpassed 50,000 infections this week.

The Memorial Day weekend that signals the start of the US summer is normally a time when cemeteries across the nation fill with American flags and ceremonies to remember those who died in US wars.