Qatar Islamic Insurance Group (QIIG) and Allianz Interna-tional and its associates in insurance operations cele-brated the signing and inau-guration of the exclusive agreement in health insurance cooperation that has been concluded between Qatar Islamic Insurance Group (QIIG) and the strategic partner, M/s. Allianz International which is considered as one of the leading companies in respect of health insurance in the world.

The ceremony was held yesterday, August 18, 2020 via remote communication tech-nique due to the precautions taken because of COVID-19.

Mr . Al i Ibrahim

Al-Abdulghani - the Group president – Qatar Islamic Insurance Group addressed the ceremony welcoming eve-rybody and assuring that Qatar Islamic Insurance Group always does not spare effort in looking for the best way and means to provide the best services to its customers.

Therefore, its choose was to be a partner with the leading health insurance company in the world, which is Allianz, noting that this exclusive part-nership will enable QIIG to provide the best and faster service to its customers in the State of Qatar and across the world as well.

Mr. Ali Ibrahim Al-Abdulghani – the Group president – Qatar Islamic Insurance Group addressed the ceremony and assuring that Qatar Islamic Insurance Group always does not spare effort in looking for the best way and means to provide the best services to its customers.

Qatar Islamic Insurance Group and Allianz International and its associates sign agreement in health insurance cooperation

Sheikh Abdullah bin Thani Al Thani (left), QIIC Board of Directors Chairman; and Ali Ibrahim Al Abdulghani, CEO and Group President of Qatar Islamic Insurance.

Wednesday 19 August 2020

29 Dhul-Hijja - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8354

Choose the network of heroes Enjoy the Internet

BUSINESS | 13 PENMAG | 15 SPORT | 20

Diamond League

to resume

Qatar’s sports

season

Classifieds

and Services

section

included

Only ‘good’ debt

can save

Europe’s

economy: Draghi

TODAY'S FIXTUREBayern Munich vs Lyon

Kick off at 10:00pm Qatar time

YESTERDAY'S RESULTPSG 3 – 0 RB Leipzig

QA refunds over $1.2bn to customers since MarchTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Airways has paid out over $1.2bn in refunds to almost 600,000 passengers since March, demonstrating its commitment to honouring its obligations to passengers who need to change their plans due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global travel.

In the context of unprece-dented numbers of refund requests as airlines and pas-sengers navigate entry restrictions imposed by countries around the world to limit the spread of COVID-19, Qatar Airways has worked hard to process almost all refunds requested since March 2020 (96%). The airline is now processing all new refunds back to the original form of payment in less than 30 days.

Additionally, the airline introduced an unrivalled flexible booking policy that has proved extremely popular with

passengers. Qatar Airways tickets are now valid for two years from the date of issuance.

Passengers can also choose to change their travel date or des-tination free of charge as often as they need, change their origin to another city within the same country or any other destination on the airline’s network within a 5,000 mile radius of the original, exchange their ticket for a future travel voucher worth 110 percent of the original ticket value, or swap their tickets for Qmiles. Over one third (36%) of Qatar Airways passengers selected one of these options over a refund.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, H E Akbar Al Baker, said: “With the impact of COVID-19 on global travel, passengers have had to change their plans at short notice and it has been difficult for them to plan ahead with any certainty. What they want and deserve are flexibility and reliability, and in Qatar Airways we hope they find

an airline they can trust.”“The amount we have paid

out in refunds has undoubtedly had an impact on our bottom line, but it is our duty to do the right thing by our customers

and trade partners and as an airline we are strong enough to mitigate the impact of this.”

Qatar Airways took a number of important measures to ensure that it could manage the

unprecedented number of refund requests – over 10,000 per day at the height of the crisis – from pas-sengers that needed to change their travel plans in light of COVID-19.

Firstly, it increased its

automation capabilities, with customers being able to request their refund online, from which point it can largely be processed automatically. The airline also automated travel voucher requests, so that passengers were able to receive a voucher within 72 hours of requesting it online.

In terms of manpower, Qatar Airways redeployed employees from other areas of the business – for example its Cabin Crew and Ground Services staff – to join the airline’s global network of customer contact centres to help manage the large volume of online requests and customer phone calls.

The airline has also worked hard to make the refund and rebooking process as easy as pos-sible for its trade partners, con-tinuing to use the industry standard global distribution system (GDS) – a largely automated process that is simple to use for travel agents – to pay out refunds. �P3

Qatar Petroleum enters exploration agreement in AngolaTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Petroleum has entered into a farm-in agreement with Sonangol, the national oil company of Angola, and Total to acquire a 30 percent partic-ipating interest in Block 48, located in the ultra-deep waters offshore Angola.

The block, with a drill ready opportunity covers an area of

approximately 3,600sq km, and is expected to be drilled as part of a 2020/2021 drilling programme.

Commenting on the agreement, H E Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, and President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said: “Continuing on our journey to build a world-class exploration portfolio, by

securing interests in promising exploration blocks in diverse geographies, we are pleased to be part of this exciting ultra-deep water opportunity in Angola, a leading oil and gas producing country.”

He added: “This is our first opportunity in Angola with both Sonangol, and our long-term partner, Total, an experi-enced operator with significant

in-country presence. We would like to thank the Angolan authorities, and our partners in this block for their support. We look forward to a long-standing and fruitful partnership”.

The farm-in agreement is subject to customary approvals by the Angolan Government. Upon receipt of such approvals, the parties respective interests

in Block 48 will be as follows: Total (40% - Operator), Sonangol (30%), and Qatar Petroleum (30%).

Block 48 is located in the ultra-deep waters offshore Lower Congo Basin, approxi-mately 400km northwest of Luanda and 200km West of Soyo onshore facilities. The average water depth in the block is around 2,500 metres.

Ministry of Culture, QFFD continue work onproject to support displaced Syrian childrenTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD) continue to implement a project to support knowledge and reading activities for displaced Syrian children in the camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, as part of the ‘QUEST’ fund initiative.

QFFD’s support for the project amounted to QR7m, showing the deep commitment of the State of Qatar to support the humanitarian needs of the Syrian people, and affirming the role of education and knowledge in shaping the future of Syria, in partnership with international and regional organisations, said a statement.

Minister of Culture and Sports, H E Salah bin Ghanem

Al Ali said: “Supporting Syrian refugee children is a humani-tarian duty aimed at empow-ering them with the right to knowledge, strengthening the will to live in their conscience, instilling optimism in them and developing their creative talents to contribute to the renaissance of their society in the future.”

Director General of QFFD, Khalifa bin Jassim Al Kuwari said: “This partnership comes as part of the QUEST initiative supported by the Fund to

support Syrian refugees who were affected during the Syrian crisis to reach good regular education and develop the capacities of youth and children to ensure a good future for them, as this project serves development goals.”

The partnership between the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the QFFD is a model for Qatari institutions to interact to implement Qatari support and aid for Syrian refugees and dis-placed persons. �P2

Qatar's first cable-stayed bridge coming upWork in progress for Qatar’s first cable-stayed bridge which will convert Haloul Roundabout into a two- level interchange as part of Sabah Al Ahmed Corridor project. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA

SEMI-FINALS

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the airline has

offered unrivalled flexibility and reliability to

customers that need to change their travel plans.

QFFD’s QR7m support for the project shows

the deep commitment of Qatar to support the

humanitarian needs of the Syrian people.

The project aims to increase knowledge and

reading activities for displaced Syrian children.

02 WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020HOME

Minister meets with Ukrainian AmbassadorTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti met with the Ambassador of Ukraine to the State of Qatar H E Andrii Kuzmenko, at Ministry offices yesterday.

The two officials reviewed cooperation between the two friendly countries in the fields of ports, transportation and communications and means of further developing them, said a statement.

Qatar’s embassy provides medical, preventive aid to Mexican statesQNA — MEXICO CITY

The Embassy of the State of Qatar in the United Mexican States announced that it will provide medical and preventive aid from Qatar Charity to the states of Morelos and Guerrero in Mexico, to combat the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

This came during a meeting of Mexico’s Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs at the

Secretariat of Foreign Affairs H E Martha Delgado with Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Mexico H E Mohammed bin Jassim Al Kuwari, in the presence of Min-ister of Health in Morelos Marco H E Antonio Cantu and Under Secretary of Tourism in Guerrero H E Noe Peralta.

H E Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs expressed her gratitude for the State of Qatar’s continuous support for Mexico,

and acknowledged the bilateral relations between the two countries. For his part, H E Ambassador Al Kuwari stressed the distinction of the Qatari-Mexican relations and joint cooperation between the two countries in various fields, and noted the efforts of the State of Qatar to provide the necessary medical assistance to friendly countries to combat the out-break of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mexico’s Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs at the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, H E Martha Delgado, with Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Mexico, H E Mohammed bin Jassim Al Kuwari, in Mexico City.

Qatar orders largest number of seasonal flu vaccine; will be available free for all: MoPH

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar has ordered the largest number ever of vaccine for seasonal flu, Director of the Public Health Department at the Ministry of Public Health, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, said.

“The vaccines for seasonal flue are expected to be available by end of next month at all health centres free of cost,” he added, urging people to get vaccinated.

Speaking to Qatar TV on Monday, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed also said that COVID-19 vaccines have reached registration stage in some countries after passing several phases of approvals. He said that a vaccine usually takes from 12 to 18 months to reach production but this time COVID-19 vaccines are being

developed very fast, thanks to the collective efforts.

The Ministry of Public Health in coordination with authorities concerned conducted environ-mental tests on surfaces, air and wastewater for the presence of COVID-19 and results suggest that coronavirus is not infecting from air as its presence is very meagre, said Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani.

“However, some virus was found on surfaces at some places but it is not confirmed whether they could be infectious,” said Sheikh Dr. Mohammed, stressing on cleaning surface properly and maintaining necessary hygiene at places which attract large number of people like airport, educational and health institutions.

Regarding tests

on wastewater, he said that coronavirus was found in waste-water during the tests and Min-istry is expanding these tests as these are cheaper than testing large number of people.

He said that the tests of sur-faces are being held in public places, which attract large number of people and waste-water tests are done in schools, complexes, hotels and big firms.

“Such tests give us

indications about coronavirus infections and later if required random tests are conducted. We thank the Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment and Public Works Authority (Ashghal) for facilitating the testing,” said Sheikh Dr. Mohammed.

The COVID-19 environ-mental testing pilot was launched by the Ministry of Public Health in partnership

with a number of governmental, educational and research insti-tutions in Qatar to support and enhance surveillance and contact tracing efforts.

During the pilot phase, inno-vative technology was used to collect surface, air, and waste-water samples and test for the presence of COVID-19.

Sheikh Dr Mohammed, urged people — citizens and expatriates — to avoid partici-pating in large gatherings and keep adhering strictly to the pre-ventive and precautionary measures like wearing a mask, social distancing and avoiding crowded places to curb the spread of COVID-19.

“We, in the State of Qatar, are proud to conduct the tests on the largest possible number of people, especially when the cases were increasing, and now the situation has become satis-factory as the cases are declining,” said Sheikh Dr. Mohammed.

“The decrease in the number of daily infections does not mean we can relax in dealing with coronavirus,” said Sheikh Dr. Mohammed, asking people to adhere to the preventive measures.

Director of the Public Health Department at the Ministry of Public Health, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, speaking during a Qatar TV programme.

MoPH produced over 1,000 awareness materials on COVID-19THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) with its partners including Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has implemented an intensif ied awareness campaign on COVID-19 preventive measures, guide-lines and several other infor-mation through different channels.

It includes more than 1,000 media materials such as press releases, posters, interviews and awareness videos, in dif-ferent languages.

“In a bid to educate people and keep them safe from COVID-19, the health sector has published various media messages in all languages,” said Ali Abdullah Al Khater, Chair of the Supreme Healthcare Communications Committee.

He stated that the awareness activities started since the beginning of the pan-demic and continue till date as a social responsibility.

“It’s a challenging situation at the global level. Qatar has taken a wide range of measures to control the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Besides care and prevention, we were obliged to share

reliable information to people. Besides the awareness mes-sages on social media in lan-guages, including Arabic, English, Hindi and Malayalam, a hotline was launched to reply queries of people,” said Al Khater in a video message.

More than 80 press releases, 500 posters, awareness video and 800 interviews were published related to COVID-19, according to Hassan Al Hail Executive Director for Media and Public Relations in Corporate Com-munications at Hamad Medical Corporation and Member of Supreme Committee for Healthcare Communication at Ministry of Public Health.

Nayef Al Shammari, Acting Executive Director for Media at Hamad Medical Corporation has said that more than 1,380 various media materials have been published since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to raise public awareness.

“The awareness messages were not only on precautions and guidelines but on issues like mental health problems due to COVID-19,” he said.

To mention, educational and awareness materials about COVID-19 are also being pub-lished on a dedicated website by the Ministry.

293 new virus cases, 267 recoveries reportedTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 293 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. Another 267 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 112,355.

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

The Ministry further said that measures to tackle COVID-19 in Qatar have suc-ceeded in flattening the curve and limiting the spread of the virus. The number of daily new cases and hospital admissions has gradually declined over the past few weeks. The Ministry said that Qatar has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world, as a result of, Qatar’s young population, proactive testing to identify cases early, expanding hospital capacity, especially intensive care to ensure all patients receive the medical care they need, pro-tecting the elderly and those with chronic diseases.

New research zone established at QF to support sustainability visionTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

A new solar research zone at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), part of Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, is one of several projects getting off the ground around the country, in an effort to promote sustainable energy.

Since mid-June, and con-tinuing over a two-month period, Total’s Gas, Renewables & Power branch — and specif-ically its Paris-based T-lab — has expanded its solar research zone at QEERI’s Outdoor Test Facility.

The extension, featuring three trackers, bifacial modules, inverters, sensors and power optimisers, looks to improve the performance of Total’s photo-voltaic components in desert conditions. The zone will also

monitor performance in real time and validate the results through simulation tools.

The project is part of not just Qatar’s vision, but Total’s increasing move into sus-tainable energy. The company aims to reach zero carbon emis-sions within their operations by 2050, and is therefore investing highly in low-carbon solutions.

In addition to the solar research zone at QEERI, Qatar recently signed an agreement with Total, alongside Japan’s Marubeni, to build a solar power plant that will be capable of producing 800 megawatts – meeting 10 percent of Qatar’s peak electricity demand.

“Total aims to develop and commercialize new low-carbon solutions to provide sustainable energy for the future,” said Yousef Al Jaber, Vice President

of Innovation and Change Man-agement at Total Qatar and Acting Director of Total Research Centre-Qatar, which is located in Qatar Foundation’s Qatar Science & Technology Park.

Dr. Marc Vermeersch, Exec-utive Director of QEERI, said the new solar research zone is in line with what he worked towards during his nine years at Total. The trained physicist was instrumental in Total’s move into solar energy, and continues to promote sus-tainable energy at QEERI.

He said that solar photo-voltaic energy conversion, which converts sunlight into electricity, is the most useful technology for the Middle East. Solar thermal energy – which harnesses sunlight to transform it into heat — is less a p p e a l i n g t o d e s e r t

environments, where solar irradiance is significantly dif-ferent from other regions. Solar energy is also, according to Dr. Vermeersch, an inex-pensive energy source.

It’s a message that is becoming increasingly louder, especially as Qatar moves into the limelight as host of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. With a global focus on sustainable energy and Qatar’s exceptional sun exposure, experts believe the country can’t afford not to move towards solar energy innovations.

“It’s the right time,” said Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, the Director of the Centre for Energy & Climate at the French Institute of International Rela-tions in Paris. “All stars are aligned for this type of project to take off.”

“Choosing to work with

France’s Total was also a natural choice for Qatar, which already shares a close rela-tionship with France through political support, cultural ties and joint investments.

But while the Middle East has the most potential for solar deployment, due to its natural environment, installation capacities are moving at a slower rate than in Europe or the US. Countries like Qatar are quickly realizing that solar is the future,” said Eyl-Mazzega, not just for environmental reasons but for economic and political ones as well.

“Total’s solar testing facility at QEERI reduces carbon emis-sions, whilst supporting Qatar in developing leading-edge technologies and inspiring future engineers to work on more sustainable solutions,” said Total’s Al Jaber.

Sheikh Dr. Mohammed, urged people — citizens and expatriates — to avoid participating in large gatherings and keep adhering strictly to the preventive and precautionary measures like wearing a mask, social distancing and avoiding crowded places to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Ministry of Culture,

QFFD continue

work on project to

support displaced

Syrian children

FROM PAGE 1

The Ministry of Culture and Sports, represented by the Qatari Publishers and Distrib-utors Forum, selected and acquired books according to criteria that respond to the great perceptions that nurture human thought and establish in new generations.

The 28th Doha Interna-tional Book Fair witnessed the start of the implementation of the Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) between the Ministry of Culture and Sports represented by the Qatari Pub-lishers and Distributors Forum and the Qatar Fund for Devel-opment in early December 2017, to support cultural activ-ities for Syrian refugee and dis-placed children in camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

The partnership continued to the 30th edition of the exhi-bition, and according to the agreement, various books were purchased from various publishers and then sent to Syrian refugee children thanks to the efforts of the Qatar Red Crescent.

The QUEST initiative seeks to ensure that children and youth affected by the Syrian crisis have access to quality education and skills that will ensure building a bright future for them and improve their societies through the transition to formal education.

The Ministry of Culture and Sports, through the project to support the activities of dis-placed Syrian children in the camps.

FAJR SUNRISE 03.48 am 05.09 am

W A L R U WA I S : 33o↗ 36o W A L K H O R : 32o↗ 39o W D U K H A N : 33o↗ 39o W WA K R A H : 28o↗ 43o W M E S A I E E D 28o↗ 43o W A B U S A M R A 27o↗ 38o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 17:04 – 03:27 LOW TIDE 00:12–10:42

Hazy at some places at first becomes hot daytime with some clouds.

Minimum Maximum33oC 40oC

ZUHR

MAGHRIB

11.38 am06.09 pm

ASR

ISHA

03.07 pm07.39 pm

03WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020 HOME

Italian Embassy, QF launch social media campaignRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

The Embassy of Italy and Qatar Foundation (QF) have launched a joint social media campaign on bilateral coop-eration in the field of research and science diplomacy.

The recently launched campaign features a series of video clips by Italian and local QF researchers who highlight their ongoing research projects and share their expe-riences of being part of Qatar’s and QF’s RDI ecosystem. The videos are a window to the cutting-edge initiatives that have the potential to bring about positive impact on both countries as well as the wider international community.

“Science diplomacy” or, as I like to call it, “diplomacy for science and research” can be instrumental in building bridges between the scientific communities of our countries and bring about closer inter-action for the benefit of people beyond borders . The COVID-19 global emergency has made us realise that we need to improve common tools to respond to health crises and this can be achieved by reinforcing the network of relations that are already in place between our countries. Italy is eager to further increase diplomatic efforts to encourage research and sci-entific cooperation with Qatar,” said H E Alessandro Prunas, Ambassador of Italy to Qatar.

The campaign has been developed to highlight the personal commitment of sci-entists and experts, who are devoted to their academic and professional careers in areas that are key to the future of the next generations, such as Environmental Policies and Sustainability, Artificial Intel-ligence, Precision Medicine and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These are just a few examples of areas of joint interest which are also top national priorities in Italy and Qatar,” said H E Ambassador Prunas.

The campaign, which is promoted on the official Twitter and Facebook accounts of the Italian Embassy in Doha, features

leading Qatari entities like QF Research Development and Innovation’s (QF RDI) inter-nationally recognised Qatar Genome Programme, as well as the three national research institutes — Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, Qatar Computing Research Institute, Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, that are part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).

“Collaboration is a crucial factor for highly effective research. It contributes to both accelerat ing scient i f ic progress and it enhances quality of the work. Our part-nership with Italian research centres and scientific experts is part of QF RDI’s effort in placing Qatar at the forefront of scientific research and technological advancement and providing solutions to national and global needs,” said Dr. Richard O’Kennedy, Vice-President for Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) at QF and Vice-Pres-ident for Research at HBKU.

The common interest of Italy and Qatar in the fields of scientific research and tech-nology has seen the two coun-tries develop various forms of cooperation and partnerships aimed at facing present and

future global challenges with innovative solutions and enhancing human capacity through greater interaction among researchers and knowledge exchange.

In this regard, QF has played a crucial role, especially in enhancing connections with leading Italian research insti-tutes and universities, and engaging them in Qatari research, development, and innovation projects.

“When I took office few months ago, I had the chance to meet many Italian researchers working at QF institutes, and I realised that there was a growing number of local projects involving top Italian research centres.

“When I discussed with the QF the ways to enhance bilateral cooperation, we felt it would be essential to dis-seminate information about existing QF programmes to generate greater awareness among the Italian scientific research community, as well as highlight the contribution of Doha-based Italian scien-tists and experts as a means to encourage new research, development and innovation partnerships between our countries,” said H E Ambas-sador Prunas.

H E Alessandro Prunas, Ambassador of Italy to Qatar, during the launch of a joint social media campaign of Italian Embassy and Qatar Foundation on bilateral cooperation.

Qatar participates in 44th meeting of GCC Standardisation OrganisationQNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar participated in the 44th meeting of the GCC Standardisation Organisation. Chairman of Qatar General Organisation for Standardi-sation and Metrology (QGOSM) Engineer Mohammed bin Saud Al Musallam represented Qatar in the meeting that was held via virtual communication tech-nology.

The meeting discussed a number of important issues, including the memorandum of the presidency of the Standard-isation Organisation regarding the follow up to the decisions of the Organisation’s technical meetings No. 42 and 43.

With regards to the speci-fications and standards, the meeting discussed the adoption of Gulf standards and technical regulations and their amend-ments, in addition to the follow up of the work of the GCC tech-nical s tandardisat ion committees.

The meeting also discussed technical work guides and the m e m o r a n d u m

of the presidency of the Stand-ardisation Organisation on the outcomes of the Technical Committees (TCs) for Metrol-ogy’s meetings during the period from November 2018 until June 2020, in addition to the report of the President of the Gulf Metrology Association for the period from April 2017 until June 2020.

Besides, the meeting dis-cussed authorising the Stand-ardisation Organisation to sign the agreement on translating the standards issued by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The unified financial system for imple-menting standardisation services was also discussed.

The meeting concluded by discussing and reviewing the implementation of the strategic plan of the GCC Standardisation Organisation during the period from 2016-2020, in addition to the Organisation’s strategic plan for the period from 2021-23.

The meeting took appro-priate decisions regarding these memorandums.

Ashghal opens Green Award entry submissions for year 2020THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has announced the opening of the submission entries for the Green Award for year 2020, which has been expanded to include all the contractors of Ashghal’s ongoing projects under the Project Affairs, and is no longer limited to the projects within Ashghal’s Roads Projects Department (RPD).

The timetable for this year’s event was formally released by Ashghal’s QSD on July 12 and the applications are requested to be submitted by

August 31, 2020, said Ashghal in a statement.

The expansion of the initi-ative is aligned with Ashghal’s continuous improvement strategy and its commitment to raise the bar on the imple-mentation of the best interna-tional practices for environ-mental permitting, processes and procedures at Ashghal and the construction industry.

The Green Award is an annual award event launched in 2018 by Ashghal’s Quality and Safety Department (QSD) a n d R o a d s P r o j e c t s Department (RPD), developed to encourage contractors and

consultancies to adopt the best practices for environmental and sustainability measures, targeting all aspects including air quality management, ground water recycling, carbon emissions reduction, material recycling, and cost efficiency.

The initiative aims to assess the effectiveness of sustaina-bility management across projects under implementation, and reward companies with outstanding and continuous performance on theprojects.

The initiative also aims to identify distinguished sustain-ability practices on site and

share innovations and practical solutions with others for adoption on a wider scale.

A selection committee will be established with the repre-sentatives from Ashghal’s QSD and representatives from departments of Projects Affairs.

The selection committee will review all applications and shortlist a number of projects for the Green Award 2020.

The shortlisted projects will be visited on site and call for a 15-minute presentation each. Following the site visits and presentations, the selection committee will confirm the date of the awards

ceremony where the winners of the overall Green Award and Special Recognition Awards for Year 2020 will be announced.

The Green Award Initiative by Ashghal has proven to be a great success, and has been awarded as the ‘Best Gov-ernment Initiative’ for sustain-ability policy by the Qatar’s Green Building Council 2019 and recently shortlisted for the 2020 Sustainability Impact Awards by British Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) in the Sustainability Campaign for Public Sector category.

HBKU Press, QNL sign open access publication funding agreementTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press) and Qatar National Library (QNL) recently signed an agreement that funds and supports researchers from Qatar-based universities and institutions to publish their research freely as open access works.

The published content funded by Qatar National Library will be made available in QScience Connect, HBKU Press’ multi-disciplinary, peer-reviewed online journal, hosted on QScience.com, or as open access monograph books.

“By working with Qatar National Library, we are able to provide affordable pub-lishing solutions to local researchers who seek publi-cation and a dedicated journal

to disseminate local research regionally and internationally,” said Dr. Rima Isaifan, Head of Academic and Journals Pub-lishing at HBKU Press.

“HBKU Press endeavours to consistently support the local academic publishing landscape. Through agreements like these we are able to establish our-selves as a cornerstone of Qatar’s knowledge-based economy by providing a unique local and international platform for scholarship and discovery.”

Dr. Alwaleed Alkhaja, Senior Intellectual Property Librarian and Open Access Fund Manager at Qatar National Library, said: “We are committed to supporting the researchers of Qatar to pub-licise their findings as far and wide as possible. Wherever we

can, we will support innovative scholars, creative thinkers and scientific pioneers to maximise the impact of their work across the world.

“Open access is one of our core values and working with partners like HBKU Press enables us to reach out to more Qatari scholars and help further their progression.”

Open access content is free to readers and patrons of aca-demic libraries to access and read. The benefits of publishing open access research are many. The lack of subscription bar-riers allows research to be accessed by readers from low and high income countries alike; it increases the discov-erability of the work which allows for more developments within the field and possible collaborations; and it increases

citation and visibility for authors as there are no restric-tions to downloading and reading these articles.

However, the cost of pub-lishing open access varies and is sometimes exclusionary to researchers who are unable to fund the publication of their work. With open access, the charges associated with pub-lishing scholarly communi-cation have shifted from being paid by the end users or aca-demic libraries to the authors/researchers themselves, which is not always possible.

For academic researchers, publishing a number of research papers annually is essential for career pro-gression. However, without financial support, many researchers are simply unable

to publish their work. Qatar National Library is

providing a solution to the financial barrier to publishing by making funding available for Qatar-based researchers to offset associated costs. It will provide financial support to authors with a restricted budget and pay the article processing charges associated with publishing their research. Authors are requested to make the funding request during the submission process to QScience Connect.

The final research will be made available to the global scholarly community in the QScience Connect journal, which is fully open access under HBKU Press. The journal publishes articles in English or in Arabic which are immediately and permanently

available online. The articles in QScience Connect are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attri-bution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, dis-tribution and reproduction of the content in any medium, provided that the original author(s) and source are credited. QScience Connect is indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), EBSCO and Google Scholar.

Interested authors and researchers who are affiliated with a graduate institution in Qatar and who would like to publish their work with HBKU Press with funding opportu-nities provided by Qatar National Library can send queries to infoqscience@hbku.edu.qa.

MoPH organises

virtual orientation

events for

CPD providers

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has organised two virtual orientation events for the CPD providers in Qatar.

The first orientation on Activity-Based Accreditation System, targeted non-accredited CPD providers in the Qatar and was attended by CME/CPD programme coor-dinators from various healthcare institutions within the country.

The presentation detailed the activity-based accredi-tation process and was fol-lowed by an intensive dis-cussion, and questions and answers session, as part of the National Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development Accreditation System.

The session highlighted delivering online activities in accordance the new global trends emerging after the ongoing pandemic and restric-tions on gatherings.

The second event, which is CPD Provider Accreditation Orientation, aimed at detailing the standards and processes for the accreditation of CPD providers, application review, decision-making, audit, live audit and appeal processes in a very interactive discussion.

The two workshops were held as part of part of efforts by the Health Professions Department at MoPH aiming at raising the level of health services in the country by pro-viding accredited professional development activities. As a result,licensed health practi-tioners in Qatar can enhance their skills and professional knowledge to keep up with all new developments in the health field, in addition to meeting the requirements of renewal of licence for health practitioners.

Chairman of Qatar General Organisation for Standardisation and Metrology, Engineer Mohammed bin Saud Al Musallam, attending a meeting of GCC Standardisation Organisation which was held via virtual communication technology.

The campaign has been developed to highlight the personal commitment of scientists and experts, who are devoted to their academic and professional careers in areas that are key to the future of the next generations, such as Environmental Policies and Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, Precision Medicine and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.

QA refunds over $1.2bn to customers since March

FROM PAGE 1

Although Qatar Airways is now seeing a decrease in the number of refund requests, it remains committed to hon-ouring its policies to pas-sengers and trade partners.

Qatar Airways is one of the few global airlines to have never stopped flying throughout this crisis and con-tinues to utilise its full fleet of 30 Boeing 787 and 49 Airbus A350 aircraft. The airline’s variety of modern, fuel-effi-cient aircraft has meant it can continue flying by offering the right capacity in each market.

Due to COVID-19’s impact on travel demand, the airline has taken the decision to ground its fleet of Airbus A380s as it is not commercially or environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market.

04 WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020HOME

QNA — ISLAMABAD

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan H E Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Pakistan H E Sheikh Saoud bin Abdul-rahman Al Thani. During the meeting, t h e y r e v i e w e d bilateral cooperation, in addition to issues of common concern.

Ooredoo announces cashback on money transfers to LebanonTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar’s leading telecommunica-tions operator, Ooredoo has announced a special new promotion in support of its customers with loved ones in Lebanon, in the wake of the devas-tating explosion at Beirut’s port.

The new offer for Ooredoo Money customers allows them to send fund transfers to Lebanon at no charge, helping them support their loved ones back home at such a difficult time.

All customers sending transfers

to Lebanon using MoneyGram via Ooredoo Money will get 100 percnet of their transfer fee as cashback to their accounts, meaning the transfers will be sent free. This offer is in addition to giving Lebanese customers extra free minutes to call their loved ones.

Sabah Rabiah Al Kuwari, Director PR at Ooredoo, said: “We know our many customers with friends and loved ones in Lebanon want to contact those back home and support them financially in the aftermath of the dreadful explosion. Helping the

communities in which we operate — especially in times of need — is a key focus for Ooredoo as part of our corporate social responsibility strategy, and we’re proud to be doing what we can to support our customers during such a difficult time.”

Customers who do not yet have the Ooredoo Money app can download it from the App Store or Google Play. They can then register instantly and make instant cash deposits with debit cards, then start sending transfers straight away.

Pakistan FM meets Qatar’s envoy Sidra Medicine to takepart in virtual PICS-AICS THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Sidra Medicine, a member of Qatar Foundation, will be partic-ipating in the 23rd Annual Pedi-atric and Adult Interventional Cardiac Symposium (PICS-AICS) from September 11 to 13. PICS-AICS is one of the largest cardiac symposia dedicated to the latest breakthroughs in the treatment of patients with congenital and structural heart diseases.

More than 2000 healthcare professionals are expected to vir-tually sign in to join PICS-AICS this year. Sidra Medicine will also transmit (via broadband) two live interventional cardiac proce-dures from its brand new state-of-the-art Cardiac Catheteri-zation Laboratory at its Heart Center, to the PICS-AICS dele-gates on September 13.

Commenting on Sidra Medi-cine’s participation, Professor Ziyad M Hijazi, who is the founder of PICS-AICS as well as the Acting Chief Medical Officer at Sidra Medicine said: “I am very proud to see the Sidra Medicine banner flying high at international sym-posiums and showcasing our world-class expertise and teams from Qatar conducting complex procedures. Our virtual presence at PICS-AICS this year is part of our commitment to optimising

healthcare for patients and playing a key role in advocating for cutting edge therapies to care for children and adults with con-genital heart disease.”

“Despite the current pan-demic, we have quickly adapted

to bringing the symposium online as we firmly believe that the need to network and educate within the clinical fraternity is an ongoing process. The live trans-missions are also a testament to our focus on medical education and the sharing of best practice methodologies with peers from all over the world,” continued Prof.esor Hijazi.

The live interventional cardiac procedures relayed from Sidra Medicine’s Heart Center in Qatar will be conducted on two patients born with congenital heart defects. The procedures will be led by Professor Hijazi, who is also the Executive Chair of Med-icine and the Medical Director the Heart Center and Dr. Younes Boudjemline, Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Labora-tories and Dr. Hesham Al Saloos, Medical Co-Director of the Heart Center.

The Sidra Medicine Heart Center provides preventative, medical, and surgical care for patients with congenital heart disease (including adults) or acquired heart conditions in children and young people. The Center boasts a world-renowned team, cutting edge facilities and a best-in-class model that delivers comprehensive “one-stop” care for patients and their families.

Our virtual presence at PICS-AICS this year is

part of our commitment to optimising healthcare for patients and playing a key role in advocating for cutting edge therapies to

care for children and adults with congenital

heart disease.

Prof. Ziyad M Hijazi

QF-inspired technology aims to bring the world’s innovators togetherTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

A platform for innovation inspired by Qatar Foundation is bringing people from around the world together to accelerate tech solutions to humanity’s greatest challenges – and devel-oping a device that could lead to COVID-19-induced pneu-monia being detected faster.

SynSapien is an Artificial Intelligence-driven web appli-cation that enables innovators from different countries to col-laborate, with the aim of co-creating new technologies tackling urgent and complex issues such as climate change – breaking down the barriers that physical distance can install. Ultimately, it aims to create a ‘virtual’ global com-munity of one million innovators.

Its team is now working with researchers from around the world – with 14 countries already involved – to create an

early detection device that clin-ically vulnerable people, such as elderly members of society who have to self-isolate amid COVID-19, can use to raise the alarm if it indicates they may be at risk of pneumonia, and be treated before the infection takes a firmer grip.

According to Basil Mahfouz, SynSapien’s Co-Founder and an alumnus of Qatar Foundation (QF) partner university Geor-getown University in Qatar, the

platform aims “to bring together a global community of inno-vators, and give them the tools to create open source tech-nology effectively.”

“Innovation results from a diverse group of people being involved in a project,” he said. “Larger, more diverse groups have a wider pool of knowledge to draw upon when solving a complex challenge.

“However, without the right systems, it can be chaotic. Our platform helps large groups to

collaborate in a structured way so they can design and develop technologies more swiftly.

“We asked ourselves ‘what does it take to get ideas and inventions off the ground?’ There are several barriers to innovation: access to expertise and knowledge; Intellectual Property concerns; and being able to collaborate, brainstorm, and ideate at scale. If you have 500 people from different parts of the world wanting to solve a problem together, how do you

organise that? “We’ve created a platform

that allows this to take place digitally. We want to unlock the ability of people to innovate together, which improves the quality of the solutions that emerge. People don’t need to be in the same place to think and act creatively.”

Through SynSapien, users input their interests and expertise, and the platform’s algorithm matches them to ideas, projects, and other col-laborators. Once they select a project they want to be part of, they enter an anonymised col-laboration space which cur-rently allows up to 300 people to share and propose ideas, contribute data, provide feedback, and make decisions.

The platform also addresses the issue of how Intellectual Property rights are distributed by measuring the contribution each person

makes to a project – the time they spend on it, the ideas they put forward, and how their peers rate their contribution – and producing an “influence score”.

Mahfouz’ eyes were opened to the possibilities that a platform like SynSapien could create through his time studying at QF, and the inter-disciplinary environment at Education City that brings together students from nine d i f f e re nt unive rs i t ie s , researchers, innovators, and a vast expanse of different ideas and perspectives. “Having the best of so many disciplines on one campus highlighted to me the value of interdisciplinary collabo-ration,” he said.

One of the drivers of Syn-Sapien is the desire to show people across the Middle East who want to develop solutions to global problems that they can do so.

Basil Mahfouz

HBKU welcomes returning students to kick start new academic yearTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Against a backdrop of excep-tional global circumstances, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) welcomed back under-graduate and graduate students for the start of the new academic year, this week.

Their return heralds a new chapter in their respective aca-demic journeys, which this year coincides with HBKU’s 10th anniversary.

While summer offered the majority of students a well-deserved break from the classroom, many took time to focus on their professional development by participating in academic and professional training, and international con-ferences or gaining work expe-rience through internship and fellowship opportunities. Many of these valuable opportunities were provided on a remote basis and within virtual learning environments.

As part of its commitment to the overall development of its student body, HBKU encourages students to connect with local and international organisations and benefit from experiences that hone their academic, professional and interpersonal skills. These experiences often complement classroom learning and encourage a holistic and informed approach to their aca-demic development.

Paula Djanine, a returning Master of Arts in Islamic Studies student at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS), said: “The work of

an aspiring academic starts way before the first word is written; the process of gathering sources, reading, analysing, comparing and contrasting is exhaustive, but essential. Summer was a great time for me to familiarise myself with the established lit-erature in my field, as throughout the semester other academic duties naturally take their places.”

Another returning student, Muhammad Usama Tariq, at the College of Health and Life Sci-ences (CHLS), recounts his own experiences, “My journey at HBKU has been very rewarding so far. Despite being an inter-national student, I was able to instantly adapt to the univer-sity’s approach and align with its conducive environment. This helped me perform well in aca-demics and research, as I managed to maintain high grades and also publish a book chapter with a very prestigious publisher.”

“Then COVID-19 happened and the effects were undeniably tangible. However, the efficient system at CHLS, as well as the

support of my mentors, research supervisor and the college’s staff, helped me sustain academic growth and continue this exciting journey with even more progress. Remote learning was initially a difficult experience, but the way my mentors navigated the sit-uation was remarkable.”

“My research mentors pre-sented multiple opportunities throughout the pandemic, and I ended up writing a review article on a novel protein which is deregulated in cancer. This topic is now related to my dis-sertation. The experience added to my publications record and gave me a thorough under-standing of my thesis project. The laboratory meetings we held and the journal clubs we attended helped me hone my scientific understanding.”

Last May, HBKU celebrated the success of 197 graduating students representing 44 coun-tries. The students were able to benefit from a highly spe-cialized, world-class educa-tional experience in the heart of Education City.

Paula Djanine Muhammad Usama Tariq

SynSapien is an Artificial Intelligence-driven web application that enables innovators from different countries to collaborate, with the aim of co-creating new technologies tackling urgent and complex issues such as climate change.

QRCS to mark World Humanitarian Day today

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) will celebrate World Humanitarian Day today, when the world appreciates the heroic sacrifices of humani-tarian workers, commemorates those killed while performing their professional and human-itarian duty.

Under the theme of ‘Pro-viding Life-Saving Support during the Pandemic’, World Humanitarian Day comes as ongoing global efforts are exerted to fight the COVID-19 pandemic over the past months.

Relief workers are dealing with unprecedented challenges and hurdles to deliver human-itarian aid and services to the vulnerable around the world. Besides the risks to their safety and the safety of the benefici-aries, many vulnerable com-munities are economically affected by the lockdown.

As an active member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, QRCS

serves a central mission of mobilizing the power of humanity for the best interest of the vulnerable everywhere.

It capitalises on fruitful partnerships with the Interna-tional Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Soci-eties (IFRC), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and a network of National Societies in 192 countries.

In the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, QRCS has played a significant role, by supporting the efforts of the government and sectors of Qatar to contain the health and economic consequences, as well as helping many fellow National Societies to minimize its impact on the vulnerable segments of society.

Early in the crisis, QRCS launched a Volunteer for Qatar campaign, which recruited 13,800 young women and men to do many activities. These included guidance of con-sumers at shopping centers, management quarantine

facilities, medical and logistic services, health education, psychological support , restoring family links, street disinfection, public hygiene inspection, distribution of masks and gloves to the public, and delivery of food baskets to the families affected by the lockdown.

Workers’ Health Centers continued to work as normal, and the fleet of ambulance vehicles was deployed to transport the infected cases. Two units were opened to do swabbing, in cooperation with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).

Medical professionals were stationed at the Mekaines quarantine camp 24/7 to provide a wide range of medical services for the inmates. At the QRCS Training and Development Center, dozens of courses and lectures were held for the medical workers and volunteers engaged in the operation, in addition to health education events for the public.

QRCS officials distributing urgent assistance to people in Gaza. RIGHT: Representatives of QRCS participating in disinfection operation to curb the spread of COVID-19.

05WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020 HOME

A view of Gaza Strip’s sole power plant after its operations halted over an Israeli ban on fuel imports into the Palestinian territory in Gaza Strip, yesterday.

Hezbollah member guilty ofHariri murder: UN tribunalAFP — LEIDSCHENDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

A UN-backed tribunal yesterday found a member of the Hezbollah Shia movement guilty over the 2005 murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri but cleared three other suspects after a years-long trial.

Salim Ayyash (pictured), 56, was convicted in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon based in the Nether-lands over a huge suicide bombing in Beirut that killed the Sunni billionaire politician and 21 other people.

“The trial chamber finds Mr. Ayyash guilty beyond rea-sonable doubt as a co-perpe-trator of the assassination of Rafic Hariri,” said David Re, presiding judge of the tribunal.

Addressing victims of the attack, he said: “We sincerely hope the verdict today will give you some sort of closure.”

But judges said there was not enough evidence to convict Assad Sabra, 43, Hussein Oneissi, 46, and Hassan Habib Merhi, 54, over the blast, which changed the face of the Middle East.

The judges also said there was no evidence to directly link Syria — the former military overlord in Lebanon — or Hez-bollah’s leadership to the attack.

Sentencing for Ayyash will be decided at a later date. He faces life imprisonment if he is ever brought before the court.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has refused to hand over the four defendants and rejected court’s legitimacy.

Hariri’s son Saad, himself a former Lebanese prime min-ister, was in the heavily secured court for the judgement.

Judges said there was suf-ficient evidence to show that Ayyash was at the centre of a network of mobile phone users who scoped out Hariri’s move-ments for months before his assassination.

A still-unidentified suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden Mitsubishi truck blew himself up as Hariri’s motorcade passed on the Beirut waterfront on Valentine’s Day in 2005.

Prosecutors had said Ayyash was a ringleader of the group, while Oneissi and Sabra allegedly sent a fake video to the Al Jazeera news channel claiming responsibility on behalf of a made-up group. Merhi was accused of general involvement in the plot.

The judges added that evi-dence also linked phones used in the attack to Hezbollah com-mander Mustafa Badreddine — who was indicted by the court

but is believed to have been killed in the Damascus area in May 2016.

The bombing triggered mass protests that drove Syrian forces out of Lebanon after three decades.

But the court said there was not enough evidence to tie Damascus to the crime.

“Syria and Hezbollah may have had motives to eliminate Mr Hariri and his political allies, however there is no evidence that the Hezbollah leadership had any involvement in Mr. Hariri’s murder and there is no direct evidence of Syrian

involvement,” Re said.The hearing opened with a

minute’s silence for victims of a separate explosion that dev-astated Beirut two weeks ago, killing 177 people. The verdicts were initially scheduled for August 7 but postponed because of the blast.

Judge Re called on the court to observe a “minute’s silence to remember the victims of this catastrophe, those who lost their lives, those who were maimed or injured, their fam-ilies, those who were made homeless”.

The UN Security Council

agreed in 2007 to establish the court billed as the world’s first international tribunal set up to probe terrorist crimes.

It opened its doors in 2009, although the trial itself did not formally start until 2014.

The court has cost at least $600m to operate.

Hariri was Lebanon’s Sunni premier until his resignation in 2004 over Syria’s role as pow-erbroker in the country.

Observers have voiced fears that the verdict, whichever way it goes, could spark vio-lence on the streets in Lebanon when it is announced.

A billboard depicting Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafic Al Hariri, who was killed in a bombing in 2005, is seen in Sidon, southern Lebanon, yesterday.

The judges said that there was no evidence to directly link Syria — the former military overlord in Lebanon — or Hezbollah’s leadership to the attack.

Gaza’s lone power plant shuts down amid tensionREUTERS — GAZA

Gaza’s lone power plant shut down yesterday, less than a week after Israel suspended fuel shipments to the Pales-tinian enclave over the launching of incendiary balloons that have caused brush fires in southern Israel.

Gaza, run by Hamas mili-tants, relies on Israel for most of its energy needs. Its popu-lation of two million currently receives around six hours of electricity followed by a 10-hour power cut.

“The power feed may now decline to only four hours (per day),” said Mohammad Thabet,

an official at Gaza’s main power distribution company, after fuel ran out at the plant.

Gaza homes and businesses rely on generators to make up for the lengthy power cuts, increasing the financial pressure on its largely impov-erished people.

Officials in Gaza said the power plant’s closure would cause disruptions at vital facil-ities such as hospitals, which are also equipped with generators.

Dozens of helium balloons carrying incendiary material have been launched from Gaza in recent days, in what political sources described as a bid to pressure Israel to ease its

blockade and allow more Arab and international investment.

Israel cites security con-cerns in imposing restrictions.

Israel has carried out air strikes over the past week against positions held by Hamas and other factions, saying it would not tolerate the balloon incidents.

Anticipating Israeli attacks after balloon or rocket launchings, Hamas routinely evacuates personnel from outposts.

With tensions high, Israel has closed its lone commercial crossing with Gaza and banned sea access, effectively shutting down commercial fishing.

06 WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Iran says to wait for WHO approval on Russia vaccineAFP — TEHRAN

Iran said yesterday it would wait for the World Health Organization’s approval before buying a coronavirus vaccine unveiled last week by Russia.

Russia said on August 11 that it had developed the world’s first vaccine offering “sustainable immunity” against COVID-19 and was in the final stage of human trials.

The Islamic republic has struggled to contain the Middle East’s worst outbreak of the virus since announcing its first cases in February.

“We are waiting for the international community, including the World Health Organization, (before) we buy the vaccine from Russia,” said Alireza Zali, a member of Iran’s anti-COVID taskforce.

“In order for the vaccine to be used, genuine and inde-pendent organisations such as the World Health Organization must comment on it and approve it, which has not hap-pened yet,” he told a news con-ference in Tehran.

“After scientific approval... we will negotiate with Russia to get the vaccine,” Zalis said.

UN sends 20 truckloads of aid to IdlibANATOLIA — HATAY

The UN yesterday sent 20 truckloads of humanitarian aid to northwestern Syria where millions of people are in need of assistance due to internal conflict.

The trucks carrying sup-plies entered Idlib province through the Cilvegozu border gate in Turkey’s south.

The aid will be distributed among residents of Idlib, and nearby rural areas.

Syria has been ravaged by civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protesters.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million dis-placed, according to UN estimates.

Idlib falls within a de-esca-lation zone forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia.

Kuwaiti MPs call

on govt to reject

UAE-Israel deal

ANATOLIA — KUWAIT CITY

Thirty-seven Kuwait i lawmakers yesterday called on their government to reject a normalisation deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In a statement, the members of parliament affirmed their solidarity with the Palestinian people, “recalling the parliament’s stable and continuous position against normalisation (with Israel) in all its forms”.

“The crimes of the Zionist occupation cannot be removed by normalisation from the souls of our children,” the statement said.

The statement referred to the incursions of Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israeli attempts to judize the holy city.

Lebanon orders two-week shutdown after virus surgeREUTERS — BEIRUT

Lebanon’s interior ministry ordered businesses across the country to shut down for two weeks and enforced an over-night curfew from Friday after a rise in coronavirus infections.

Yesterday’s decision allows for clearing rubble, making repairs and giving out aid in neighbourhoods demolished by the August 4 blast in Beirut. The airport will remain open, with travelers having to take a PCR test before boarding.

Lebanon has registered record numbers of daily infec-tions that have crossed 400, with its tally on Monday

standing at 9,337 cases and 105 deaths since February.

Already deep in financial crisis, Lebanon was struggling with a COVID-19 spike before the huge blast at Beirut port killed at least 178 people.

Officials have urged pre-caution. But after the blast uprooted nearly a quarter of a million people, the risk of the virus spreading has grown, healthcare workers say.

All markets, malls, gyms and pools — among other private businesses — will have to close during the lockdown, the ministry said yesterday. The curfew will extend from 6pm to 6am local time.

Turkish ruling party official says ‘no one can hijack, destroy democracy’ANATOLIA — ANKARA

Turkey’s ruling party spokesman said yesterday that no one can hijack or destroy the country’s democracy.

Omer Celik of the Justice and Development (AK) Party was referring to remarks by US Democratic Party presumptive nominee Joe Biden.

“No one can hijack, destroy our democracy, interfere in Turkey’s political system,” Celik said after a board meeting of the party.

In a video clip that went viral, Biden said: “We can support those elements of the Turkish leadership that still exist and get more from them and embolden them to be able

to take on and defeat Erdogan. Not by a coup, not by a coup, but by the electoral process.”

His remarks — recorded last December but first reported on Saturday — drew condemnation from the entire political spectrum in Turkey, including both the government and opposition.

Biden is currently ahead in

most US polls, but the November 3 presidential elec-tions are still months away.

Also referring to Biden’s remarks, Celik slammed sup-porters of terror groups.

“Whoever supports the PYD/PKK, sends weapons to them, they are the ones who want death for the Kurdish children,” he said.

No Kurdish citizen of the country will become part of this imperialist agenda, he added.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the European Union — has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people,

including women, children, and infants.

Yesterday, a court in western Germany has convicted a 60-year-old man of mem-bership in the banned Kurdish militant group PKK. Prosecutors accused the defendant, who lives in Germany, of organising prop-aganda campaigns and soliciting donations for the PKK.

Sultan of Oman issues royal decree to reform CabinetQNA – MUSCAT

H M Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said of the Sultanate of Oman issued yesterday a royal decree to reform the Omani Cabinet.

Oman News Agency (ONA) stated that the new formation came as follows: H E Fahad bin Mahmoud Al Said as Deputy Prime Minister for Cabinet Affairs; H E Shihab bin Tariq Al Said as Deputy Prime Minister for Defense Affairs; and H E Dhi Yazan bin Haitham bin Tarik Al

Said as Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth.

H M the Sultan also appointed H E Khalid bin Hilal Al Busaidi as Minister of the Royal Court; H E Sultan bin Mohammed Al Nuamani as Min-ister of the Royal Office; H E Hamoud bin Faisal Al Busaidi as Minister of Interior; H E Badr bin Hammad bin Hamoud Al Busaidi as Foreign Minister; H E Sultan bin Salem Al Habsi as Minister of Finance; and H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Abdullah Al

Salmi as Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs.

H M the Sultan also named H E Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhi Minister of Energy and Minerals; H E Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Obaid Al Saeedi Minister of Health; H E Madeeha bint Ahmed bin Nassir Al Shaibaniyah Minister of Edu-cation; H E Saud bin Hilal Al Busaidi Minister of State and Governor of Muscat, H E Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Saeedi Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs and H E Abdullah

bin Nasser Al Harrasi Minister of Information.

The decree also included H E Mohammad bin Sultan Al Busaidi as Minister of the State and Governor of Dhofar; H E Ibrahim bin Said Al Busaidi as Minister of State and Governor of Musandam; H E Salem bin Muhammad Al Mahrouqi as Minister of Heritage and Tourism and H E Saud bin Hamoud bin Ahmed Al Habsi as Minister of Agriculture, Fish-eries and Water Resources.

H M the Sultan also named

H E Rahma Al Mahrouqi as Min-ister of Higher Education; H E Saeed bin Hamoud Al Maawali as Minister of Transport, Com-munications and Information Technology; H E Saeed bin Muhammad Al Saqri as Minister of Economy; H E Qais Al Youssef Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment Promotion; H E Laila bint Ahmed Al Najjar Min-ister of Social Development; H E Mahad bin Saeed Baouin as Minister of Labour, and H E Khalfan Al Shuaili Minister of Housing and Urban Planning.

07WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Turkey not seeking military solution in Libya: OfficialANATOLIA — ISTANBUL

Turkey along with Qatar and some other countries are present in Libya in an effort to support a political solution in the war-weary country, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said yesterday.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Kalin said Turkey was con-cerned that military elements had been building up in the Libyan cities of Sirte and Jufra for a year and this posed a threat to the country’s peace and territorial integrity.

Stressing that Turkey rejected official or non-official plans regarding the disinte-gration of Libya, Kalin said the Ankara administration did not seek any military solutions any-where in Libya.

He went on to say that Ankara did not want to come face to face with any foreign country and underlined that Egypt was a neighbor of Libya who could adopt a constructive role to resolve the conflict.

However, the presence of mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group and other

mercenaries the UAE brought from countries such as Sudan, Niger and Chad were a source of concern for Turkey, he said.

He further noted that ridding Sirte and Jufra of weapons and mercenaries could be a good idea to stop clashes and this could be a window of opportunity for a political solution in the country, adding this process had to be conducted in a fair and trans-parent manner.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin

recently held a long phone con-versation in which they tackled developments in Libya and Syria, Kalin said, and argued that the two countries could help one another in Libya as is the case with Syria.

He said Russia supported warlord Khalifa Haftar despite Moscow denying such claims but noted that the Russian administration sought to act as a mediator between the con-flicting sides in Libya.

In conclusion, Kalin said he believed a political solution could be achieved in Libya and

Turkey would be glad to see any country including Qatar, Germany, Russia, Italy and Egypt contribute political dia-logue in this regard.

Libya has been mired in strife since operations by Nato led to the overthrow of former strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The new government was founded four years later in 2015 under a UN-led agreement, but efforts for a long-term political settlement have so far failed due to a military offensive by Haftar.

Abbas says Palestinians not worried about accordREUTERS — RAMALLAH

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (pictured) said yesterday that Palestinians were not concerned about the normali-sation deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, referring to the accord as “non-sense”.

In his first public remarks since the US-sponsored deal was announced last week, Abbas accused the Gulf Arab state of turning its back on Pal-estinians living under occu-pation in the West Bank and an Israeli-led blockade in Gaza.

However, Abbas said: “We aren’t worried about the non-sense that happens here and there and especially in recent days, when a trilateral agreement between the Emirates, Israel and America was announced.”

Israel, long shunned by most Arab and Muslim

countries in the region, on Thursday agreed with the UAE to forge full relations, angering Palestinians who have long looked to oil-rich Gulf states for support in their quest for statehood.

“They (the UAE) have turned their backs on everything: the rights of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian state, the two-state solution, and the holy city of Jerusalem,” Abbas said during a meeting of factions in the

West Bank city of Ramallah.Abbas, 84, accused the UAE

of trying to justify the deal by arguing it helped stop Israeli annexations in the West Bank, a move which the United States says it will not consent to for “some time” in order to focus on implementing the agreement.

In a rare sign of unity, Abbas’s meeting at his presi-dential compound was attended by rival groups including the Islamist group Hamas, which rules Gaza and from which Abbas’s Fatah party, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, has long been estranged.

Although senior Palestinian officials have called for an urgent meeting of the Arab League over the deal, few coun-tries have come to the Pales-tinians’ defence in wake of the agreement.

Kuwait said its position towards Israel is unchanged.

Others, like Bahrain and Oman, have welcomed the deal, stirring speculation that the two Gulf states could follow in for-malising ties with Israel.

The Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territory Israel cap-tured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Namibians warnedover use of elephantdung to cure virus

AFP — WINDHOEK

Namibia’s health minister warned against the use of elephant dung, traditionally steamed and inhaled as a cure for the flu, to ward off the coronavirus.

The sparsely populated southern African country has seen infections double over the past month, with 4,464 cases and 37 deaths recorded to date.

Many Namibians have turned to natural remedies in the hope of protecting them-selves against the viral disease, including the use of elephant dung. The practice has not been scientifically tested.

“I am worried about unscrupulous people who would make other people spend money on useless remedies in the hope that they will be cured,” Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula said yesteday, denouncing elephant dung sellers as “opportunistic”.

“A desperate person may do a desperate thing,” he added. “It is unethical. Do not spend money on useless remedies.”

Namibia’s environment ministry said it had heard rumours of people buying and re-selling elephant dung as a treatment for COVID-19.

“We understand elephant dung is used traditionally as medicine elsewhere in the country,” the ministry’s spokesman Romeo Muyunda told local media on Monday.

He called on citizens not to trespass national parks in search of dung, warning that offenders would be fined.

“Collecting dung outside national parks is not restricted,” Muyunda added. “We just urge people to do so cautiously.”

Aside from the flu, ele-phant dung is widely believed to treat body ailments such as nosebleeds, headaches and toothaches.

Mali President,PM arrested bymutinying soldiersANATOLIA — ANKARA

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and several offi-cials were arrested by muti-nying soldiers yesterday, local media reported.

Keita and Cisse were taken to the Kati military camp, located 15km northwest of the capital Bamako, at around 4.30 pm local time (1630 GMT), according to Journal du Mali.

Earlier, it was reported that gunshots were heard at the mil-itary camp, while military trucks were also seen on the road heading toward the capital. The military reportedly blocked the road from the town of Kati to Bamako, and busi-nesses and offices were also closed.

Sources told online news-paper MaliActu that a number of officials, including the finance minister, speaker of the national assembly, and several other prominent figures, were also arrested by unidentified gunmen.

Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission, condemned the

arrests.“I strongly condemn the

arrest of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the Prime Min-ister and other members of the Malian Government and call for their immediate release,” Mahamat said in a Twitter post.

“I strongly condemn any attempt at anti-constitutional change and call on the muti-neers to cease all use of violence and respect for republican insti-tutions,” he added.

Mali has been rocked by protests for several months as demonstrators call for the res-ignation of President Keita.

On social media posts,

French and Belgian embassies in Mali urged their citizens to limit their movement given the tense situation in Bamako at the moment.

The United Nations Multi-dimensional Integrated Stabi-lization Mission in Mali issued a message recommending to the UN personnel “to avoid the Kati area and all unnecessary road movements in Bamako until further notice,” MaliActu reported.

The house of Justice Min-ister Kassoum Tapo was set on fire and vandalized by young demonstrators in Bamako on Tuesday, according to

International Security and Con-flict Research.

The military mutiny comes at a time when, for several months, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been under-taking initiatives and deploying mediation efforts between all the Malian parties, the West African body said in a statement yesterday.

‘’ECOWAS calls on the mil-itary to return to their barracks without delay, asking all Malian stakeholders to prioritise dia-logue to resolve the crisis facing their country.

‘’ECOWAS reiterates its firm

opposition to any unconstitu-tional political change and invites the military to remain in a republican posture,’’ it said.

Last month, the head of the African Union Commission urged calm, continued dialogue and negotiations for the diligent implementation of consensual solutions to preserve peace, sta-bility, and social cohesion in Mali.

Tensions erupted in Mali in 2012 following a failed coup and a Tuareg rebellion that ulti-mately allowed al-Qaeda-linked militant groups to take over the northern half of the country.

Malian soldiers are celebrated as they arrive at the Independence Square in Bamako, yesterday.

“I strongly condemn any attempt at anti-constitutional change and call on the mutineers to cease all use of violence and respect for republican institutions,” Moussa Faki Mahamat, said on Twitter.

Sudan hints at contact with Israel over normalisationAFP — KHARTOUM

A Sudanese official yesterday appeared to acknowledge contacts with Israel towards normalising ties and said peace between Arabs and Israelis would promote “world peace”.

Israel remains technically at war with Sudan, which for years supported hardline Islamist forces.

When asked if there had been direct contact between Sudan and Israel, or whether Khartoum had taken steps to normalise ties with the Jewish

state or sign a peace deal, foreign ministry spokesman Haider Badawi responded, “I cannot deny it.”

Badawi also told Sky News Arabia television yesterday that “there is no reason for the continuation of hostilities between Sudan and Israel”.

Badawi told AFP the UAE’s decision was “a courageous step on the right track towards peace in the Middle East and the world”.

“Peace between Israelis and Arabs will favour world peace,” he added.

Faction of DR Congo rebel groupsurrenders after internal revoltREUTERS — KASHUGA, DR CONGO

Almost 500 fighters from a faction of one the largest armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have surren-dered to the government just over a month after they attempted to overthrow the group’s leader.

Soldiers from the NDC-R, a rebel group seen as having close ties with the national army, sang and danced before handing over an assortment of small arms at a ceremony on Monday in the village of Kashuga, about 75 km north of Goma.

Fighting has raged between two groups of the NDC-R since July 9 when a section loyal to deputy leader Gilbert Bwira Shuo attempted to oust their leader Shimiray Guidon, who is the target of UN sanctions,

accusing him of human rights abuses.

“As you have just consented to become a government soldier, each of you come and lay down your weapon,” Bwira told the group of fighters, who wore a hodge-podge of cam-ouflage, European football shirts and rubber boots.

The surrender does not nec-essarily mean an end to their involvement in rebel fighting, said Christoph Vogel, a researcher at Ghent University in Belgium.

There was a big risk that the combatants might take up arms again after a year or two, he said.

“That’s been happening many, many times across eastern Congo over the past 20 years,” Vogel said.

Before the split, the NDC-R controlled vast areas of North

Kivu province near the border of Rwanda and Uganda.

It earned money from the illicit gold trade and was

frequently accused of being used by the army as a proxy force against other armed groups.

“Today we think it’s time for

us to surrnder, lay down our arms and take part in the pacification of the country,” said spokesman Desire Ngabo Kisuba.

Members of the NDC-R rebel group parade as they surrender to the government forces in Kashuga, North Kivu province of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday.

Mauritius arrests captain of stricken Japan oil tanker

REUTERS — PORT LOUIS

Mauritius has arrested the captain of a Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground off its coast, causing a devastating oil spill in one of the world’s most pristine maritime environ-ments, police said yesterday.

The MV Wakashio struck a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island on July 25 and began spilling oil on August 6, prompting the government to announce a state of environ-mental emergency.

Mauritius’ National Crisis Committee said two com-panies, International Tankers Owners Pollution Federation Ltd and Le Floch Depollution, will start cleaning three sites on the shoreline on Wednesday and will be joined by local groups including fishermen.

The spill spread over a vast area of endangered corals, affecting fish and other marine life in what some scientists have called the country’s worst ecological disaster. Emergency crews managed to remove most of the ship’s remaining oil before it split in two on Saturday.

“We have arrested the captain of the vessel and another member of the crew. After having been heard by the court they have been denied bail and are still in detention,” Inspector Siva Coothen said.

The Mauritius coastguard had repeatedly tried to reach the ship to warn that its course was dangerous but had received no reply, a maritime official with knowledge of the incident who asked not to be named said.

The route set five days before the crash was wrong and the boat navigation system should have signalled that to the crew and it seems the crew ignored it. The boat did also fail to send out an SOS (when it ran aground), and did not respond to attempts by the coastguard to get in touch,” the official said.

08 WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 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

LIBYA has been torn by civil war since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The Government of National Accord (GNA) was formed 2015 under an agreement after prolonged discussions between the United Nations and stakeholders. International com-munity expected the GNA would bring peace and progress to a country which was wracked by domestic disputes for several years, but by April 2019, the country has again been pushed into civil war by the reckless attacks by the renegade eastern military man Khalifa Haftar. Haftar drew strong support from some of the countries in the region who wanted to control Libyan affairs against the will of the Libyan people.

Qatar, as always, followed an exemplary and legit-imate path by supporting the UN-recognised GNA headed by Fayaz Al Sarraj as the country’s legitimate authority and has been extending every support pos-sible. In this context, the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah to Tripoli on Monday and his meeting with President of Libya’s High Council of State, H E Khalid Al Mishri; Chairman of the Presidential Council of the GNA, H E Fayez Al Sarraj, and Turkey’s Minister of Defence, Hulusi Akar, draws importance.

The visit, which comes after a year of turmoil and suffering for the people of Libya, will strengthen its need to achieve stability, which can be possible only by supporting the legitimate government with financial and material aid and training for its vital agencies to lead the country to development and harmony.

Protecting the lives of the civilians, providing them food, shelter, education and more importantly a peaceful atmosphere to live in are the fundamental duties of a government. For Libya, after unspeakable damage it suffered to its infrastructure facilities and human resources, it will not be an easy task to rebuild a dem-ocratic state without the help from other willing friendly countries. Since April 2019, the country has been wit-nessing armed attacks by forces opposing the legit-imate government, which resulted in more than 1,000 deaths, bloodshed and displacement of thousands of people from their homes shattering the social fabric.

It is high time the international community heeded the cry of the helpless people of Libya, who despite having enough natural resources to tap, are strug-gling even for a decent meal. They need the necessary freedom and protection to exploit their natural wealth to fulfill their aspirations. Any country providing support and protection to a renegade force to self-ishly hold natural resources, should understand that they are denying the basic right of the people for a decent living.

Qatar’s support to Libya

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Quote of the day

More mobility and contact between people

leads to higher numbers of cases. The virus is

here, even if it’s not visible. There’s no vaccine

and no medication.

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

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Established in 1996

Human testing began in some cases before animal studies were finished. As companies launch small Phase 1 trials intended to establish the correct dose, they already are planning the Phase 3 trials that evaluate whether the vaccines are effective and safe.

The worldwide effort to create a vaccine for the novel corona-virus kicked off in January, soon after scientists in China posted online the genome of a virus causing a mysterious pneumonia. Vaccine devel-opment usually takes years and unfolds step by step. Experi-mental vaccine candidates are created in the laboratory and tested in animals before moving into progressively larger human clinical trials.

These steps are now over-lapping in the race to find a vaccine for a global disease that has killed hundreds of thou-sands of people. Human testing began in some cases before animal studies were finished. As companies launch small Phase 1 trials intended to establish the correct dose, they already are planning the Phase 3 trials that

evaluate whether the vaccines are effective and safe.

No steps are being skipped, top government offi-cials have repeatedly promised, and vaccines will not be considered for approval in the United States until after a large, Phase 3 trial. The Food and Drug Administration, which has the ultimate say on whether a vaccine has been proved safe and effective, says a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, will need to prevent disease or decrease symptoms in at least 50 percent of those who receive it. The effectiveness of the flu vaccine ranges from 40 to 60 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other countries may use different standards or authorize vaccines without waiting for proof they are safe and effective. Russia announced it would begin using its vaccine in people at high risk for the virus in August, before starting its Phase 3 trial. China has authorized a vaccine for use in members of the military.

Researchers in the United States set an audacious goal in January to develop a corona-virus vaccine within 12 to 18 months. This would be a world record. The mumps vaccine is considered to be the fastest to move, in four years, from scien-tific concept to approval in 1967.

Coronavirus vaccines are moving much faster, partly because governments are taking on the financial risk of developing a vaccine that may not work. Through Oper-ation Warp Speed, the US

government has invested about $9.5bn to speed up development and jump-start manufacturing before research is finished.

Advancements in science and technology have given researchers new tools to try against the coronavirus. Scien-tists can deliver genetic material into the body’s cells, turning them into vaccine fac-tories and skipping time-con-suming steps such as manufac-turing viral proteins or growing the whole virus in chicken eggs.

The core of the corona-virus SARS-CoV-2 is a single strip of ribonucleic acid (RNA) surrounded by a protein shell. The virus is named for the iconic spikes that project from its center like a crown, or “corona” in Latin. These spike proteins aren’t just deco-ration. They are critical for the virus to get inside cells and make copies of itself.

Vaccines work by teaching the body’s immune system to recognize and block viruses. Each category of vaccine technology works under this basic principle. Vaccines aim to activate the immune sys-tem’s T-helper cells, which are responsible for detecting the presence of a virus. They instruct B-cells to create anti-bodies that block the virus from being able to replicate and T-killer cells to destroy infected cells. Some vaccines may activate only part of this immune response.

Here is a look at how dif-ferent vaccine technologies being developed around the world would ideally elicit an immune response to prevent SARS-CoV-2 in humans. Each vaccine may vary somewhat in

how it works, but each would generally follow these steps.

Vaccines using nucleic acid (DNA and RNA)

DNA vaccines contain genetic material that carries the blueprint for the spike protein. To get the DNA into cells, researchers use an elec-trical pulse to disrupt the cell membrane. Once inside, the DNA is used as a template to create spike protein.

RNA vaccines contain a strip of genetic material within a fat bubble. Once inside the cell, the RNA gen-erates a protein found on the surface of the virus. The immune system, presented with the protein, learns to recognize the virus.

Viral-vectored vaccinesSome vaccines use a virus

that has been engineered to be harmless to ferry a gene from the coronavirus into cells. The gene codes for a distinctive part of the corona-virus, and the immune system learns to recognize it.

Subunite vaccinesSome traditional vaccines

work by delivering viral pro-teins to cells. The technologies to manufacture those protein fragments vary, but com-panies are using insect cells and yeast. The hepatitis B vaccine relies on a viral protein created by genetically engineered yeast.

Other vaccinesInformation on the tech-

nology platform being used was not available for all the experimental vaccines. Some vaccines being tested do not specifically target the corona-virus, but aim to increase the body’s first line of immune defenses.

JAPAN NEWS-YOMIURI

As each year passes, the number of people who have firsthand knowledge of World War II declines. Pledges for peace must be passed down to future generations.

On the 75th anniversary of the end of the war, the gov-ernment-sponsored national memorial ceremony for the war dead was held in Tokyo with the attendance of the Emperor and Empress.

In his address, the Emperor used the same expression as in last year's address, "reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the

feelings of deep remorse," adding to it, "I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never again be repeated."

The expression "deep remorse" was first used by the Emperor Emeritus in his address for the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary. The Emperor, born after the war ended, apparently thinks of following in the footsteps of the Emperor Emeritus, who knows about wartime and has dealt with the horrors of war.

In his address, the Emperor touched on the spread of novel coronavirus infections and emphasized that he truly hopes people join

hands to work together to overcome the difficult situation

Due to the novel corona-virus pandemic, official events for the Emperor and Empress such as the National Tree Planting Festival have been postponed and visits to areas affected by the tor-rential rains have been dif-ficult. The Emperor obviously put his thoughts into words that the Imperial family is always with the people in such hardships.

In order to prevent infec-tions, the scale of the memorial ceremony was reduced and 20 prefectures

did not have bereaved fam-ilies attend. Although these people were not able to attend the ceremony, many of them must have renewed their feeling of mourning through live television and livestreaming.

The first government-sponsored ceremony to mark the end of the war was held in 1963, 18 years after the war ended.

At the time, the evaluation of the war was not yet fixed. Then Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda had no choice but to mention "criticism of the war notwithstanding" in his address.

These are the top COVID-19 vaccines to watch

Recall sacrifices made for prosperity, peace 75 years after end of WWII

AARON STECKELBERG, CAROLYN Y JOHNSON, GABRIEL FLORIT, CHRIS ALCANTARA — THE WASHINGTON POST

Vaccines sorted by how far they have progressed

Vaccines sorted by technology used

Pre-clinical

170+ vaccinesare being tested in animals

and lab experiments

Approved

0 vaccineshave been

determined to provide benefits

that outweigh known and

potential risks

Phase 2

3 vaccinesare broadened

to a larger group of people,

including people at higher risk

of illness

Nucleicacid

Viral-vectored

Subunit Weakened/inactivated viurs Other

Moderna; National Institutes of Health

AstraZeneca; University of Oxford

CanSino Biologics; Beijing Institute of Biotechnology*

Phase 3

7 vaccinesare being tested

in thousands of people to check their

effectiveness and safety

Gamaleya Research Institute*

Phase 1

15 vaccinesare being tested

in a small number of healthy, young people to assess

safety and correct dose

*Vaccine currently in distribution that has not been fully tested.

09WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020 ASIA

Australia to produce ‘promising’ virus vaccine

AGENCIES — SYDNEY

Australia has secured access to a “promising” potential coro-navirus vaccine, the Prime Minister announced yesterday, saying the country would manufacture it and offer free doses to the entire population.

Prime Minister Scott Mor-rison said Australia had reached a deal with Swedish-British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to receive the COVID-19 vaccine it is devel-oping with Oxford University.

“The Oxford vaccine is one of the most advanced and promising in the world, and under this deal we have secured early access for every Aus-tralian,” he said.

“If this vaccine proves suc-cessful we will manufacture and supply vaccines straight away under our own steam and make it free for 25 million Aus-tralians.” The Oxford vaccine is one of five globally in Phase 3 efficacy trials, and researchers hope to have results by the end of the year.

It is the first such deal for Australia, and Morrison said his

government was also in talks with “many parties around the world” over other potential vac-cines as well as supporting local scientists in their efforts.

The country is yet to reach a final agreement with Astra-Zeneca on the cost, and a local manufacturer has not been locked in.

However, Australia has signed an A$25m ($18m) agreement with American medical technology company Becton Dickinson to buy 100 million needles and syringes to administer the doses.

Austral ia yesterday recorded its lowest one-day rise in new COVID-19 infections in a month, buoying hopes that a stringent lockdown in the coun-try’s second-most populous state has prevented a fresh wave of cases nationally.

Led by cases in Victoria state, Australia said it has detected 226 new infections in the past 24 hours, the lowest since July 18 when 212 cases were recorded.

The national figure is well below the more than 700 infec-tions detected in a single day

earlier this month, almost all of which were in Victoria.

“We have seen numbers going up and down recently, but by and large what we are seeing is a continuing downward trend,” Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd told reporters in Canberra.

Although none of the coro-navirus vaccines under devel-opment has proved its efficacy yet in clinical trials, at least 5.7 billion doses have been pre-

ordered around the world.Morrison said Australia

remained “committed” to ensuring early access to the potential vaccine for Pacific countries and regional partners in Southeast Asia.

Earlier this month he called on nations to share potential vaccines, saying any country that discovered one and did not make it available globally “would be judged terribly by history”.

Early in the pandemic it was considered among the most successful at curbing the virus’s spread until an outbreak in Mel-bourne, the country’s second-biggest city, that authorities struggled to contain.

The outbreak — which was traced back to two hotels being used to quarantine travellers returning from overseas — has ravaged aged-care homes in the city, causing dozens of deaths.

Airforce personnel on a street as the city operates under lockdown in response to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday.

Sri Lanka rations

power as Chinese

generator crashes

during blackout

AFP — COLOMBO

Sri Lanka yesterday said elec-tricity would be rationed across the island, after a Chinese-built coal power generator shut down during an hours-long nationwide blackout.

Power will be cut for nearly three hours every day across the country of 21 million people to conserve electricity, the state-run Ceylon Elec-tricity Board said.

A “technical fault” at a 300-megawatt thermal power plant near the capital Colombo on Monday left the nation without power for up to 10 hours.

The unspecified failure also caused the 900-megawatt Chinese-built Norachcholai coal power plant — which gen-erates almost one-third of Sri Lanka’s electricity — to trip.

“A coal-powered plant takes a few days to restart after a shutdown,” a spokesman for the board said.

“We will have the power cuts to conserve electricity until we are able to reconnect the coal plant at Norach-cholai.” The spokesman did not say when the plant is expected to be operational.

The disruption is the worst since March 2016, when the whole country was without electricity for more than eight hours following a massive system breakdown.

The public utilities regu-lator said the electricity board had been given three days to probe the failure and explain the massive disruption.

The power cut caused chaos on already congested roads in Colombo, with traffic lights not operating and police struggling to man key intersections.

Water supply was also affected as there was no elec-tricity to operate the pumps.

Sri Lanka generates just under half of its electricity through thermal power, with just over 32 percent from coal. Hydro makes up almost 50 percent and wind about two percent.

Ardern hits back at Trump over COVID-19 ‘surge’REUTERS — WELLINGTON

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hit back yesterday against US President Donald Trump for saying her country is experiencing a “big surge” in COVID-19, calling the remarks “patently wrong”.

Trump sparked uproar in New Zealand when he told a crowd in Minnesota that the South Pacific country of five million people was in the grip of a “terrible” upsurge in COVID-19 cases, having earlier succeeded in eliminating the disease.

Thirteen new infections were confirmed in New Zealand yesterday, taking the country’s

total number of cases since the pandemic began to 1,293, with 22 deaths. This compares with the US tally of more than 5.2 million cases and 170,000 deaths.

“You see what’s going on in New Zealand?” Trump said.

“They beat it, they beat it, it was like front page they beat it... because they wanted to show me something.

“The problem is... big surge in New Zealand, you know it’s terrible. We don’t want that.”

Ardern said there was no comparison between New Zea-land’s handful of new cases a day and the “tens of thousands” reported in the United States.

“ I t h i n k a n y o n e

who’s following COVID and its transmission globally will quite easily see that New Zealand’s nine cases in a day does not compare to the United States’ tens of thousands, and in fact does not compare to most countries in the world,” she told reporters.

“Obviously it’s patently wrong,” she said of Trump’s comments. We are still one of the best-performing countries in the world when it comes to COVID... our workers are focused on keeping it that way.”

New Zealand’s death rate per 100,000 people, at about 0.44, is one of the lowest in the world thanks to strict lock-downs enforced early in the

pandemic. The United States has a death rate of 5.21 per 100,000, one of the highest in the world.

New Zealand has fared far better than most countries during the pandemic, but an abrupt resurgence of COVID-19 last week in Auckland prompted the government to extend a lockdown for the city’s 1.7 million residents until Aug. 26, while social distancing rules are in place in other towns and cities.

The origin of the latest out-break is still unknown, but authorities earlier on Tuesday ruled out the possibility that it came from frozen food items or freight.

Australians seize cocaine haul in boat at sea, arrest three men

AP — SYDNEY

Australian authorities said yesterday they had seized a large quantity of cocaine from a fishing boat in treacherous seas off the east coast.

A law enforcement team intercepted the Australian trawler Coralynne on Saturday night after New Zealand author-ities tipped Australians about the boat being tracked in a stretch of ocean not usually visited by trawlers. Australian intelligence officers then saw the trawler

meet a larger ship and transfer the drugs. Australian officials say the larger ship might have come from South America.

Officers boarded the Cora-lynne in 3.5M seas, arrested three crew members and towed the trawler to Sydney Harbor, officials said.

Three men - a 40 -year-old Hong Konger and Australians aged 32 and 27 - were refused bail in a Sydney court on Monday charged with attempting to import a com-mercial quantity of cocaine.

A view of debris in Masbate Province after an earthquake struck the Philippines, yesterday.

One dead, 43 injured as strongquake hits central PhilippinesAFP — CATAINGAN

At least one person was killed and 43 injured when a 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook the central Philippines yesterday, sending residents fleeing their homes and damaging buildings and roads.

The shallow quake struck southeast of Masbate Island in the Bicol region at 8.03am (0003 GMT), the US Geological Survey said.

“There are a lot of damaged houses,” said Staff Sergeant Antonio Clemente in Cataingan, a town of about 50,000 people on the impoverished island several kilometres west of the epicentre in the Samar Sea.

“It was really strong.” Local radio station reporter Chris-topher Decamon said he saw emergency workers pull the body of a man from the rubble of a three-storey house on the outskirts of Cataingan. The man’s wife escaped unharmed.

The earthquake “was really strong. Our people were broad-casting at the time but they just ran out of the building,” Decamon said by telephone.

Police confirmed the man’s death. Sixteen people were also injured in the town.

In nearby Palanas, at least 27 people were injured after being hit by falling objects or when their motorbikes crashed as the ground moved in the town, Chris Adique, a municipal disaster officer, told DZBB radio.

None were in a critical con-dition, he added. Search and rescue efforts were still under way in the region.

The quake struck as the archipelago battles surging numbers of coronavirus infec-tions, with more than 164,000 cases and restrictions on movement that vary across the country.

A lockdown affecting a quarter of the population, including the capital Manila,

will be eased Wednesday.“These natural disasters are

a part of our lives and we always recover,” said Harry Roque, spokesman for Pres-ident Rodrigo Duterte.

“People should not worry about getting relief assistance. They will be provided.” Palanas police chief Captain Alvin Guerina said that several patients, including a pregnant woman about to go into labour, were evacuated from a hospital as a precaution in case of aftershocks.

So far, at least 24 after-shocks have been recorded by the Philippine seismology office, with the strongest reg-istering at 3.8 magnitude.

A video posted on Facebook showed light damage to a food market in Cataingan.

Overturned buckets and small fish were scattered on the ground and chunks of cement had fallen from a pillar. People stood outside on the street.

Amit Shah back in hospital after recovering from virusREUTERS — MUMBAI/NEW DELHI

India’s Interior Minister Amit Shah was hospitalised again yesterday after complaining of fatigue and body ache, four days after he said he had recovered from COVID-19, as cases in the country surged to more than 2.7 million.

Shah, a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the virtual number-two in his cabinet, was admitted to the government-run All India Institute for Medical Sciences in the capital New Delhi, the hos-

pital said in a statement.“He is comfortable and con-

tinuing his work from the hos-pital,” it said, adding he had now tested negative for COVID-19.

Shah is the highest-profile Indian politician to have been infected with the coronavirus. On Monday, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the head of pharmaceu-tical company Biocon Ltd that makes COVID-19 medicines, said she too had tested positive.

India has reported the world’s third-largest number of infections after the United

States and Brazil, with cases topping 50,000 every day since July 30. India’s cases jumped by 55,079 on Tuesday, while deaths rose by 876 to a total of 51,797.

Cases have largely stabilised in Mumbai and Delhi, but there has been a steady rise in smaller cities such as Pune and Bengaluru.

Authorities in the education and autos hub of Pune, to the south of Mumbai and home to 3.5 million people, said late on Monday that 51.5 percent of the people surveyed in five of its worst affected areas had

shown the presence of anti-bodies, indicating that the spread of the virus was higher than reported.

“This is the only reliable information about the mag-nitude of infection in the country,” said T Jacob John, a ret ired professor of clinical virology at Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu state.

“The antibody surveys are telling you that the actual infection burden has been several times larger than the antigen and RT-CPR tests have shown.”

More infectious

virus mutation

may be ‘a good

thing’: Expert

REUTERS — SINGAPORE

An increasingly common mutation of the novel corona-virus found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia may be more infectious but appears less deadly, according to a prominent infectious diseases doctor.

Paul Tambyah, senior con-sultant at the National Uni-versity of Singapore and pres-ident-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, said evidence suggests the proliferation of the D614G mutation in some parts of the world has coincided with a drop in death rates, suggesting it is less lethal.

Maybe that’s a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly,” Tambyah said.

Tambyah said most viruses tend to become less virulent as they mutate. “It is in the virus’ interest to infect more people but not to kill them because a virus depends on the host for food and for shelter,” he said.

Scientists discovered the mutation as early as February and it has circulated in Europe and the Americas, the World Health Organisation said. The WHO has also said there is no evidence the mutation has led to more severe disease.

On Sunday, Malaysia’s director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah urged greater public vigilance after authorities detected what they believe was the D614G mutation of the coro-navirus in two recent clusters.

Sebastian Maurer-Stroh of Singapore’s agency for science, technology and research said the variant has also been found in the city-state but that containment measures have prevented large-scale spread.

“If this vaccine proves successful we will manufacture and supply vaccines straight away under our own steam and make it free for 25 million Australians,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

South Korea tightens coronavirus curbs, confines troops to base

REUTERS — SEOUL

South Korea tightened social distancing rules yesterday as it reported a three-digit increase in novel coronavirus cases for a fifth day and authorities scrambled to trace hundreds of members of a church congre-gation.

The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 246 new cases as of midnight on Monday, bringing its total infections to 15,761 and 306 deaths.

South Korea has been one of the world’s coronavirus mit-igation success stories but it has suffered repeated spikes in cases.

Two days after re-imposing stricter social distancing in Seoul, the government expanded the curbs to include the port city of Incheon, while ordering the closure of clubs, buffets and cyber cafes.

It also banned all in-person church services and indoor gatherings of 50 people or more and outdoor ones of 100 or more.

“If we can’t get the virus under control now we’ll have to notch up social distancing to higher levels, and that would have a big impact on our

economy and people’s liveli-hoods,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a news con-ference after an emergency meeting.

At least 457 infections have been linked to the Sarang Jeil Church, 10 of whom were con-firmed to have attended anti-government demonstrations on the past two weekends in Seoul, Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told a briefing.

Authorities were trying to trace some 500 other members of the congregation to tell them to self-quarantine and get tested as they posed the highest trans-mission risk, Kim said.

This was the second time a church was at the centre of a serious outbreak in South Korea.

In February, authorities

struggled with an outbreak that emerged in a secretive Christian sect in the city of Daegu, which turned into the country’s dead-liest cluster.

The KCDC has warned that the new cases posed a greater crisis than the earlier church outbreak and could swamp the health system.

“If we fail to contain the spread in the Seoul metropolitan area of 25 million population this week, it can not only halt the daily routine of everyone but also put the safety of the elderly and the weak at risk,” KCDC deputy director Kwon Jun-wook told a briefing.

Another cluster has been traced to a Starbucks Corp outlet outside Seoul with seven new cases taking the tally there to 49.

Two new cases were reported in the military, bringing the total number of infections on bases to 88, the defence ministry said.

Some 461 military personnel were in quarantine, and all troops have been confined to base, with leave cancelled and visits halted.

Authorities have set out social distancing rules in three stages, with stage 1 the least strict and stage 3 the toughest, when schools are shut, businesses are advised to work from home and gatherings limited to 10 people.

Seoul is at stage 2 but Kwon said the effort was at a “grave crossroads” and stage 3 might be inevitable.

“High-risk gatherings in the greater Seoul area could spread nationwide,” he said.

Health officials wearing protective gear guide a visitor at a coronavirus testing station in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday.

Pakistan to conductPhase 3 clinical trialof COVID-19 vaccineREUTERS — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s drug regulator greenlit the country’s first Phase 3 clinical trial for a potential COVID-19 vaccine, which is being developed by China’s CanSino Biologics (CanSino) and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology.

The trial is slated to begin next month, according to an official who will coordinate the exercise. Government-run National Institute of Health (NIH) will be leading the trial for the candidate Ad5-nCoV along with pharmaceutical company AJM — the local representative of CanSino.

China has already approved the vaccine for use by its mil-itary after early and mid-stage trials, and further late-stage trials are being lined up for Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

CanSino last month said it was in talks for opportunities to launch Phase 3 trials in Saudi

Arabia, Russia, Brazil and Chile.NIH and AJM signed an

agreement last month, and were awaiting clearance from the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), which NIH says it had now received.

“DRAP has approved a target Group of 10,000 partic-ipants for our clinical trial,” Hassan Abbas Zaheer, the coor-dinator of the trials for AJM, told Reuters via email.

The study will be conducted across major medical research centres in Pakistan, located in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore.

Zaheer added the clinical trial will last for “some months” and the data generated in all participating countries will be collected by CanSino regularly and analysed.

Pakistan has so far regis-tered 289,831 COVID-19 cases and 6,190 deaths, but has seen daily infection numbers slow markedly in August after peaking in June.

A family wearing protective masks rides a motorbike outside a shopping area after Pakistan lifted lockdown restrictions even as the coronavirus outbreak continues, in Karachi yesterday.

Afghan presidential compound hit in rocket attack on capitalAFP — KABUL

Six members of Afghan Pres-ident Ashraf Ghani’s honour guard were wounded yesterday when a rocket struck his palace compound, two officials said.

The rocket was one of a salvo launched into central Kabul just as officials were gathering in the capital to com-memorate Afghanistan’s 101st independence day.

Ghani had finished speaking outside the famous Arg Palace to mark the event when a rocket landed in the sprawling compound and wounded six members of his honour guard, two palace officials said on con-

dition of anonymity.The president had already

wrapped up his ceremonial duties and was not affected.

The interior ministry did not immediately comment on the incident, but spokesman Tareq Arian earlier said 14 rockets were fired out of two vehicles in the capital, mostly hitting civilian homes.

“Unfortunately, 10 civilians including four children and one woman have been wounded,” Arian said. Two suspects were arrested, he added.

The Arg Palace is located in a highly fortified area of the capital that also houses several embassies, and “incoming fire”

alarms could be heard blaring from the US embassy.

The top US envoy in Kabul, Ross Wilson, condemned the “cowardly act of terrorism”.

Ghani’s swearing-in cer-emony on March 9 was also interrupted by rocket fire near the palace. No serious injuries were reported at the time.

In August 2018, multiple rockets were fired in Kabul, including at the presidential palace, where Ghani was making a speech. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

No group immediately claimed yesterday’s rocket attack, which came as the

Afghan government and the Taliban are poised to begin peace talks.

“We were expecting suicide attacks and bomb blasts on the roads, not rockets to hit our houses,” said Habib Rahman, whose house was struck by one of the rockets.

Negotiations are set to start once Kabul completes the release of about 400 Taliban prisoners as approved last week by a traditional gathering of thousands of prominent Afghans.

Afghan authorities have so far released 80 Taliban pris-oners, but insist that the remaining 320 will be freed

after the militants release some Afghan soldiers held captive by them.

“The United States remains committed to a political set-tlement that ends the conflict and ensures Afghanistan never again poses a threat to the United States and its allies,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement marking the independence day.

Officials said the delay in releasing the remaining Taliban prisoners was also due to oppo-sition from Paris and Canberra because some of the inmates are accused of killing French and Australian citizens and soldiers.

Sweden pulls its

diplomats out

of North KoreaREUTERS — STOCKHOLM

Sweden said yesterday it had temporarily withdrawn all its diplomats from North Korea, where its embassy also repre-sents the interests of the United States and several other nations, partly due to issues linked to the coronavirus pandemic.

Most other Western nations which have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, including Germany, Britain and France, have already pulled staff out temporarily, citing the difficulty of rotating staff and bringing in supplies during the pandemic.

Sweden acts as the con-sular representative of the United States, Australia and Canada, among others, in North Korea. The Swedish foreign ministry said its embassy in Pyongyang remains open and staffed by local employees.

“What has happened is that we have relocated our dip-lomats, either as a result of hol-idays or rotation,” a ministry spokesman said, adding that the situation was temporary.

Thailand’s student-led anti-govt protests growAP — BANGKOK

High school students in Thai-land’s capital held blank signs and flashed three-fingered salutes to show opposition to the government yesterday, as the pro-democracy movement continued to spread.

Around 30 students at Samsen Wittayalai school in Bangkok shouted “Down with dictatorship, long live democracy” and held up sheets of plain white paper, meant to convey the message that they were not free to express themselves.

Some girls tied white ribbons to their bags, a recently emerged symbol of dissent.

“People realise nowadays politics isn’t something remote,” said an 18-year-old student who only gave her nickname, Nudee. “When people realise this, they want a better future. That’s why we came out to protest.” Pro-democracy hashtags linked to the school protests were trending on social media with photographs and video clips showing young students at schools in a number of Thai cities lined up on playgrounds and giving the salutes during the compulsory daily singing of the national anthem.

The displays of solidarity began last week and are a remarkable show of defiance within an educational system

that stresses obedience to elders.They appear to be growing

after the largest anti-government rally in six years was held in Bangkok on Sunday and high-light how the student-led protest movement is capturing the imag-ination of many young people.

Thai media reported such school protests occurring in prov-inces including Ratchaburi, Udon Thani, Khon Kaen, Surat Thani and Nakhon Sawan, as well as in the capital.

Commenting yesterday after a Cabinet meeting, Prime Min-ister Prayuth Chan-ocha said he recognised the pure intentions of the high school students but said he believes some were bullied into joining the protests. Thai-land’s Office of the Basic Edu-cation Commission, which super-vises more than 1,000 schools, both private and public, issued an order allowing students to hold protest events on school premises provided they stay within the law and exclude outsiders.

The United Nations children’s organisation Unicef issued a statement calling for all parties to ensure that those involved remain safe and able to express their opinions peacefully without fear or intimidation.

The anti-government pro-tests come as many people become weary of the rule of Prayuth, a former army chief. He took power in a military coup in

2014 and retained it in a 2019 election widely seen as rigged to all but guarantee his victory.

Under his leadership the economy has struggled to compete with its neighbours, even before the damage inflicted by measures to counter the coronavirus pandemic. The government’s image has also been tarnished by corruption scandals for which no one has been held accountable.

The student-led protest movement has declared three core demands: holding new elections, amending the consti-tution and ending the

intimidation of critics of the government. At Sunday’s large Bangkok rally they spelled out three more points: no more coups, no national unity gov-ernment and upholding Thailand as a democracy with the king as head of state under the constitution.

The reference to a national unity government was appar-ently a warning to all political parties against making a backroom deal instead of holding elections, and the ref-erence to the king seemed to be meant as a reassurance that they did not want to abolish

the monarchy.Protest leaders triggered

controversy earlier this month when they expanded their original agenda, publicly criti-cising the constitutional mon-archy and issuing a 10-point manifesto calling for its reform.

Their action was virtually unprecedented, as the mon-archy is considered sacrosanct in Thailand and any criticism is normally kept private. A lese majeste law calls for a prison sentence of three to 15 years for anyone found guilty of criti-cising some members of the royal family.

Pro-democracy students wearing face masks do a three-fingered salute at a rally to demand the government to resign, to dissolve the parliament and to hold new elections under a revised constitution, at Mahidol University on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday.

Vietnam demands

Malaysia probe into

fatal shooting

AP — HANOI

Vietnam has asked Malaysia to investigate a coast guard vessel that fired shots at two Vietnamese fishing boats, killing one fisherman.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said the two Vietnamese boats entered Malaysian waters late Sunday and refused to stop when approached by the Malaysian coast guard vessel.

When the Malaysian vessel fired warning shots, the Viet-namese fishermen threw gasoline bombs and tried to ram it with their boats, leaving officials no choice but to fire at the boats in self-defence, it said in a statement on Monday on Facebook. One Vietnamese fisherman died and 18 others were detained, it said.

The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 246 new cases as of midnight on Monday, bringing its total infections to 15,761 and 306 deaths.

10 WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020ASIA

Hungarian minister under fire over Croatia yacht ‘lies’AFP — BUDAPEST

Hungary’s foreign minister was accused of lying yesterday after he was spotted on a yacht in Croatia while posting social media pictures appearing to show him hard at work in an office.

According to the investi-gative journalism news site Atlatszo.hu, Peter Szijjarto was photographed on Sunday aboard a luxury yacht in Croatia owned by a tycoon.

In Facebook messages on Thursday and Sunday however Szijjarto, alongside images of himself in office settings, said he had been busy telephoning EU counterparts to discuss the crisis in Belarus.

Opposition parties accused the minister of lying and called for his resignation.

“Szijjarto lied that he was working in an office while he was holidaying on a billionaire’s luxury yacht,” the Socialist party said in a statement.

The party said Szijjarto’s actions may also have posed national security risks.

“In a functioning democracy this is grounds for resignation,” said Katalin Cseh, an MEP with another oppo-sition party, Momentum.

Neighbouring Austria has warned its citizens not to travel to Croatia after a spike in infection cases there this month.

A foreign ministry official said in a Facebook message: “Yes, the minister is on holiday, and working at the same time. Even his opponents acknowledge the minister’s working while on holiday,” said Tamas Menczer, adding that the photographs were an “invasion of privacy”.

Green protestGreenpeace activists holding banners swim to an unmanned oil production platform operated by Total in the North Sea, to occupy the Dan Bravo oil rig to demand an immediate ban on all further oil and gas exploration, in Denmark, yesterday.

Norwegian suspected of spyingfor Russia held in custody

AP — COPENHAGEN

A Norwegian citizen suspected of spying for Russia has been remanded in custody for four weeks.

The man was arrested on Saturday as he met with an alleged Russian intelligence officer in an Oslo restaurant. He has not been identified beyond that he is a Norwegian national in his 50s who was born abroad.

The man has admitted receiving money, with Oslo District Court judge Helene Andenaes Sekulic saying it was a “not insignificant amount.”

The court ruling came late Monday following a hearing held behind closed doors.

The man was working for Norway-based DNV GL, a major global classification society for ships, that also deals with the Norwegian defense industry and scientists handling advance military technology.

He has denied that the information he handed over to the alleged Russian intelli-gence officer was sensitive, the Norwegian news agency NTB said.

The Norwegian Police Security Service said he is sus-pected of violating a Norwegian law that carries a maximum prison term of 15 years.

The agency said it is up to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry to decide what will happen to the alleged Russian intelligence officer.

In its annual report pub-lished in February, PST warned of the risk of espi-onage in several sectors of society —political, financial, defence and research circles, among others — singling out Russia, China and Iran as par-ticular threats.

In recent decades several spy cases have marred ties between Nato member Norway and Russia.

Head teachers in Italy worry about liability with school openingsAFP — ROME

Head teachers in Italy, already bracing for the looming school year under COVID-19 protocols, are now demanding they not be held legally responsible for any infections in their establish-ments.

School authorities have expressed concern over the start of the academic year on September 14, especially after a recent uptick in cases of infection in young people.

“It is unthinkable that a

head teacher could be blamed over a case of infection... where the health protocol has been fully applied,” Antonello Gian-nelli, president of the National Association of Head Teachers, told AGI Italian news wire.

The group wants the

government to specify in an upcoming decree that head teachers cannot be held liable if they follow required direc-tives when students or teachers are nevertheless found to be infected.

According to new protocols,

each school must have a room where suspected cases can be immediately isolated, but the head teacher does not have the power to decide whether or not to close the school. That decision falls to local authorities.

Under new security pro-tocols, all schools must ensure a distance of at least one metre (between pupils. But schools are still awaiting the arrival of over 2 million single-seat desks nationwide that will help to ensure proper distances and avoid the need for students to

wear masks during lessons. Some schools may not

receive their desk deliveries before October.

On Sunday, Italy suspended its discos and ordered the man-datory wearing of masks from 6:00pm to 6:00am to clamp down on the spread of infection among young people, less than a month before the restart of school.

Many of the recent micro-clusters of infections seen in Italy have been due to young holidaymakers returning from

more at-risk countries such as Greece, Spain and Malta.

Italy, which shut its schools in March, has recorded over 254,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 35,000 deaths.

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 774,700 lives in at least 188 countries and regions since emerging in Wuhan, China last December.

Over 21.91 million cases have been reported worldwide.

The data shows more than half of all patients — over 13.91 million — have recovered so far.

11WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020 EUROPE

Lukashenko decriesbid to seize power afteroppn sets up councilREUTERS — MINSK

The nascent political opposition in Belarus established a council inside the country yesterday, a move President Alexander Lukashenko denounced as an attempt to seize power 10 days after an election that has trig-gered mass demonstrations.

Many of Belarus’s major opposition figures are either in jail or in exile, including presi-dential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled the country after the vote her sup-porters say she won.

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to demand Lukashenko resign, braving a crackdown by the authorities.

Olga Kovalkova, repre-senting Tsikhanouskaya at a press conference to launch the new opposition council, said she expected Tsikhanouskaya would soon return to Minsk, to act as a guarantor in a nego-tiated transition of power.

“We are operating solely through legal means,” Kovalkova said. “The situation is critical. The authorities have no choice but to come to dia-logue. The situation will only get worse.”

Earlier, in televised remarks to his Security Council of top brass, Lukashenko described

the opposition council as “an attempt to seize power” and promised to take “appropriate measures” to halt it.

Since official results declared him the election winner with 80 percent of the vote, Lukashenko seems to have underestimated the strength of public anger in a country suf-fering economic hardship and a coronavirus epidemic that he has dismissed.

After videos appeared on the Internet showing some police officers throwing their uniforms into dustbins, the Interior Ministry acknowledged yesterday that some police had quit. It issued a plea for others to stay at their post.

“We will not judge the small proportion of police officers who have today left the service out of personal convictions,” the Interior Ministry press office said in a statement.

It said the protesters were a minority, and most Belarusians wanted to live in peace: “If the entire police force today takes

off its badges, who will protect those Belarusians while the other part takes to the street to give its opinions?”

Also yesterday, Lukashenko awarded medals “for impec-cable service” to law enforcement officials who have helped him crack down on protesters.

At least three protesters have been killed and thousands detained in the crackdown that followed the election.

Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old political novice who emerged as an unexpected con-sensus opposition candidate after better-known figures including her activist husband were jailed or barred from standing in the election, has issued calls via the Internet to followers to rise up, but remain peaceful.

Hundreds of protesters chanting “shame” gathered at a theatre in Minsk yesterday in solidarity with its director, who was fired for speaking out in support of the opposition. They

were due later to converge on a prison where Tsikha-nouskaya’s husband has been detained.

“All of this outrageous, unfair lawlessness shows us how this rotten system works, where one person controls eve-rything,” Tsikhanouskaya said in a video. “One man has kept the country in fear for 26 years.”

For his part, Lukashenko says the protests are being stirred up from abroad. The official Belta news agency released a video calling pro-testers “bought-and-sold scum, prepared to sell their own mothers for $20”. Lukashenko told his Security Council that the army had gone on full alert at

the western borders, describing “internal problems” as part of an external threat.

Attention is firmly focused on how Russia will respond to the biggest political crisis facing an ex-Soviet neighbour since 2014 in Ukraine, when Moscow intervened militarily after a friendly leader was toppled by public protests.

Of all former Soviet republics, Belarus is closest to Russia culturally, politically and economically, with a treaty that proclaims the two countries part of a “union state” with a Soviet-style red flag. But Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lukashenko have had a d i f f icul t personal

relationship.The European Union is

gearing up to impose new sanc-tions on Belarus officials. European officials say the situ-ation in Belarus is different from Ukraine’s six years ago, in part because the Belarus opposition is not necessarily seeking to loosen ties with Russia, merely to get rid of Lukashenko.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and EU foreign policy chief Charles Michel spoke to Putin by tele-phone. The Kremlin said Putin warned all three against foreign meddling in the affairs of Belarus.

The European Union is gearing up to impose new sanctions on Belarus officials. The Kremlin said Putin warned Merkel, Macron and EU foreign policy chief Charles Michel against foreign meddling in the affairs of Belarus.

Opposition supporters holding white and red balloons and a former white-red-white flag of Belarus gather outside a pre-trial detention centre, where Sergei Tikhanovsky — opposition figure Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s jailed blogger husband — is allegedly held in custody, in Minsk, yesterday.

Dining out: 35 million meals claimed in UK discount planAP — LONDON

Everyone, it seems, loves a discount especially when it’s on the government’s credit card.

Early indications suggest that hungry, and often nervous, customers are being enticed back to restaurants in the UK as a result of a British government programme that provides dis-counts from Monday to Wednesday this month. The plan aims to protect jobs in a sector that was hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic.

New figures published yes-terday by the Treasury show food outlets claimed for over 35

million discounted meals in the first half of August with the number of covers more than tri-pling in the second week, when much of the country was basking in unusual tropical heat.

Under the programme, sitting customers can receive a 50% percent discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks at participating restaurants between Monday and Wednesday up to $13 per person. Food outlets from Michelin-starred outlets to international burger chains can then get the discount reim-bursed by the government within five days. So far, it has

cost the government $235m. It has previously estimated the total cost of the plan at 500 million pounds.

The so-called “Eat Out to Help Out” programme is being used by around 85,000 restau-rants, or nearly two-thirds of those eligible, in the hope that it will encourage people to return to dining out, particularly in the traditionally fallow early-week period.

Restaurants and other food outlets such as clubs were only allowed to reopen on July 4, more than three months after they were closed as part of the coronavirus lockdown.

“It’s so nice to see our res-taurants full of happy staff and customers again,” said Stephen Wall, managing director and co-founder of the popular res-taurant chain Pho.

Local favourites have also seen an uptick in business, including the south Indian veg-etarian restaurant, Rasa, in Stoke Newington, in north London.

“This makes the customers come out,” said assistant manager Musthafa Kun-nummal. “So they may start coming out during the weekends. They are a bit more confident to go out to restau-rants. I really appreciate this -

it did a great job.”The government is hoping

that the programme will stave off job losses.

“Today’s figures show that Britain is eating out to help out with at least 35 million meals served up in the first two weeks alone,” said Treasury chief Rishi Sunak. “That is equivalent to over half of the UK taking part and supporting local jobs in the hospitality sector.”

When it was launched many critics said the plan was just a gimmick to generate headlines, with many fearing that any rebound in August would lead to a slump in later months.

According to new protocols, each school must have a room where suspected cases can be immediately isolated, but the head teacher does not have the power to decide whether or not to close the school.

In an impassioned speech capping the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama said the Republican Trump “has had enough time to prove that he can do the job” but had failed to meet the moment in a country reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, economic turmoil and racial injustice. “He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is,” Obama said. “If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.”

12 WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST 2020AMERICAS

Michelle Obama takes Trump to task as Democrats showcase unity

REUTERS — WASHINGTON

Former First Lady Michelle Obama launched a blistering attack on President Donald Trump on Monday and urged Americans to elect Democrat Joe Biden in November to end the chaos she said had been created during the four years of Trump’s presidency.

In an impassioned speech capping the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Obama said the Republican Trump “has had enough time to prove that he can do the job” but had failed to meet the moment in a country reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, economic turmoil and racial injustice.

“Whenever we look to this White House for some lead-ership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy,” she said, calling him “the wrong president” for the United States.

“He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is,” Obama said. “If you think things cannot pos-sibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.”

Obama, whose husband,

Barack Obama, was in the White House when Biden was vice-president from 2009-2017, capped a long parade of speakers, including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, who gathered online to make the case for Biden at the start of his four-day nom-inating convention.

The harsh takedown by Michelle Obama, regularly cited in polls as one of the most popular figures in the Demo-cratic Party, could generate the sort of voter enthusiasm some Democrats thought a virtual convention might lack.

The convention opened amid widespread worries about the safety of voting in November because of the pan-demic. Democrats have pushed voting by mail as a safe alter-native, but Trump without evi-dence has proclaimed it is prone to fraud and blocked emer-gency aid for the U.S. Postal Service to limit mail-in voting.

Obama referred to these concerns, saying those who could not win a fair election were trying to stop people from voting by closing polling places in minority neighbourhoods, purging voter rolls and lying about the security of mail-in ballots. “We have to vote for Joe Biden in numbers that cannot be ignored,” she said. “We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put on our masks, pack a brown bag dinner and maybe breakfast too, because we’ve got to be willing to stand in line all night if we have to.”

Showcasing the broad spectrum of supporters united against defeating Trump, former Democratic presidential candidate and progressive Senator Bernie Sanders and prominent Republican John Kasich joined in with Obama.

“Joe Biden will end the hate and division Trump has created. He will stop the demonization

of immigrants, the coddling of white nationalists, the racist dog whistling, the religious bigotry and the ugly attacks on women,” Sanders said.

The pandemic forced Dem-ocrats to overhaul the con-vention, largely eliminating the in-person gathering planned for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and turning it into two-hour, prime-time packages of virtual speeches and events from around the country. It featured discussions with voters who described their struggles confronting the virus.

Kristin Urquiza, who lost her father to COVID-19, blamed Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic for his death. “My dad was a healthy 65-year-old. His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life,” she said. “When I cast my vote for Joe Biden, I will do it for my Dad.”

Jim Clyburn, the influential US representative from South

Carolina whose endorsement of Biden was critical to his breakthrough primary victory in that state in February, said Biden understood the need to unify people was part of presi-dential leadership.

Kasich, a former Ohio gov-ernor and frequent Trump critic who lost to Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, described his opposition to Trump as a patriotic duty and said the country was at a crossroads.

Standing literally at a fork in a road, he called Biden “a man who can help us see the humanity in each other”.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said Kasich “was a loser as a Republican and he’ll be a loser as a Democrat.”

Other Republicans on the speakers list included former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and former Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chief Executive Meg Whitman. “Donald Trump has no clue how to run a business, let alone an economy,” Meg Whitman said.

Biden, 77, leads Trump, 74, in national opinion polls heading into back-to-back con-vention weeks for the two political parties. Trump will be formally nominated for a second term at next week’s Republican National Con-vention, which also has been scaled back due to coronavirus concerns.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama speaks in a frame grab from the live video feed of the all virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention as participants from across the country are hosted over video links to the originally planned site of the convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US.

A virtual crowd seen over video links applauds as former First Lady Michelle Obama concludes her remarks.

Trump strikes back at former First Lady after convention takedownAFP — MILWAUKEE

US President Donald Trump lashed out at former first lady Michelle Obama yesterday after she delivered a scathing takedown of his leadership on the opening night of the Dem-ocratic convention.

“I thought it was a very divisive speech, extremely divisive,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“Frankly, I would not even be here if it wasn’t for Barack Obama,” he said. “I would be building buildings someplace and having a good time.”

In her pre-taped remarks to the convention — which has gone almost entirely online because of the coronavirus pan-demic — Michelle Obama urged Americans to rally behind Dem-ocrat Joe Biden, her husband Barack Obama’s former vice-president, in November’s pres-idential election.

Biden “will tell the truth, and trust science,” she said in a jab at Trump, who has been accused of ignoring the advice of scientists on how to respond to a health crisis which has left some 170,000 Americans dead and millions without jobs.

In unprecedented criticism of a sitting US president by a former first lady, she painted Trump as a man who lacks the competence, character and decency for the job.

Trump has been desperately seeking to persuade Americans that the COVID-19 crisis is behind them and that the situ-ation is improving. “My Admin-istration and I built the greatest economy in history, of any country, turned it off, saved mil-lions of lives, and now am building an even greater economy than it was before,” Trump tweeted yesterday.

Trump also continued his attacks on mail-in voting, insisting without proof that it was “going to be a disaster the likes of which our country has never seen. “It’ll end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome,” he said. “They’ll have to do it again and nobody wants that. And I don’t want that.”

US Postal Service puts changes on hold after mail-in voting outcryREUTERS — WASHINGTON

US Postmaster General Louis DeJoy yesterday suspended all mail service changes until after the November election, bowing to an outcry by Democrats that the moves appeared to be an attempt to boost President Donald Trump’s re-election chances.

The reversal follows charges by Democrats and others that service cuts could slow the handling of mail-in ballots, the use of which is expected to skyrocket for the election as the coronavirus pan-demic raises fears of crowds.

These critics have accused the Republican president of trying to hobble the Postal Service to suppress mail-in voting as he trails Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden in opinion polls ahead of the November 3 election.

“I am suspending these ini-tiatives until after the election is concluded,” DeJoy said in a statement, adding that the

changes are to “avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail”. DeJoy, a major political donor and ally of Trump, assumed the job in June.

DeJoy also said that the Postal Service will not change retail hours at post offices as well as that mail collection boxes will remain where they are and no mail processing facilities will be closed.

The reversal followed a lengthy call by the postal board of governors on Monday night, two people briefed on the matter said.

Trump said last week he was against Democratic efforts to include funds for the Postal Service and election infra-structure in coronavirus relief legislation because he wanted to limit mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier yesterday, states including Washington, Penn-sylvania, Connecticut and New York said they were planning legal moves to block the Postal Service changes.

Trudeau names Canada’s first female finance ministerAFP — OTTAWA, CANADA

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Chrystia Freeland to be Canada’s first female finance minister yesterday as an ethics scandal that clipped her pred-ecessor’s wings reverberates through the government.

Freeland received a standing ovation after being sworn in at a small ceremony at Rideau Hall, the official res-idence of Governor-General Julie Payette in Ottawa.

Guests socially distanced, wore face masks and Freeland greeted Trudeau with an elbow bump after taking the oath of office.

Freeland, 52, has held key posts in the Liberal government including Deputy Prime Min-ister — a role she keeps — and previously as foreign minister,

as well as leading free trade talks with the US and Mexico.

The former journalist, first elected in 2015 and well-respected by her peers, takes on the top finance job as Canada goes through its worst economic crisis since the Second World War.

After five years in the post, Bill Morneau — under pressure from opposition parties — announced his surprise resig-nation from politics late on Monday.

He told a news conference he was leaving to pursue the job of secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Devel-opment (OECD).

Yesterday's cabinet shuffle also saw Dominic Leblanc take back his job as intergovern-mental affairs minister from

Freeland, after a fight with cancer. The changes in the upper echelons of Canadian power allow Trudeau to reset the agenda as his government pivots to lifting Canada out of an economic slump following

a months-long nationwide pan-demic lockdown.

The two-month shutdown of parliament also effectively ends parliamentary committee inquiries into the WE Charity scandal dogging his Liberals.

Marine scientists discover 30 new species in Galapagos depthsAFP — QUITO

An international team of marine scientists have discovered 30 new species of inver-tebrates in deep water surrounding the Galapagos, the Ecuadoran archipelago’s national park authorities announced.

The deep-sea experts discovered fragile coral and sponge communities including 10 bamboo corals, four octocorals, one brittle star and 11 sponges — as well as four new species of crustacean known as squat-lobsters — the Galapagos National Park (GNP) said in a statement.

“These discoveries include the first giant solitary soft coral known for the Tropical Eastern Pacific, a new genus of glass sponge that can grow in colonies of over one meter in width and, colorful sea fans that host a myriad of associated species,” the

archipelago’s Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) said in a separate statement.

Scientists from the CDF, in collaboration with the National Park Directorate and the Ocean Exploration Trust, probed deep-sea ecosystems at depths of up to 3,400 meters using state-of-the-art Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs). The two ROVs, Argus and Hercules, were operated from the 64-meter exploration vessel Nautilus.

The expedition explored for the first time three steep-sided underwater moun-tains, or seamounts, located near the islands of Darwin and Wolf in the archi-pelago’s north. The area is home to the world’s largest shark population.

The Galapagos archipelago, located 1,000km west of Ecuador, is a fragile eco-system that harbors the largest number of different animal species on the planet.

US university switchesto remote mode aftervirus cases spikeAFP — WASHINGTON

A university in the US state of North Carolina announced that it will switch to entirely virtual classes for its nearly 20,000 stu-dents, after dozens tested positive for COVID-19 in the first week back at school.

The move mirrors the decision in mul-tiple US cities that opted for hybrid classes (a few days per week in the classroom) for primary and secondary schools, or entirely virtual classes in major cities including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington.

An announcement from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the most popular in the country, said that 177 students who tested positive are currently in isolation, and an additional 349 were placed in quarantine.

Democratic US Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Dan Kildee rally in support of the United States Postal Service (USPS) outside a post office in Southfield, Michigan, US, yesterday.

In this file photo, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau poses with Chrystia Freeland after she was sworn-in as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs during a ceremony at Rideau Hall on November 20, 2019 in Ottawa. Trudeau will tap Freeland to be Canada’s first female finance minister, local media said yesterday.