THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021 www.thepeninsula.qa13 RAJAB - 1442 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 8544

Sport | 10

Vodafone Ordinary General

Assembly Meeting approves cash dividend of 5%

World's best riders get set for thrilling battle at Al Shaqab Arena

Business | 01

2 RIYALS

Amir meets Kuwait’s Deputy PM and Defence Minister

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of the sisterly State of Kuwait, H E Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al Ali Al Sabah, and his delegation at the Amiri Diwan yesterday on the occasion of their visit to attend the inaugural ceremony of Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor. The Deputy PM conveyed the greetings of Kuwait Amir H H Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah to H H the Amir, and his thanks for naming the “Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor” after the late Amir H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, also wishing the H H good health and happiness, and continuous progress and prosperity for the Qatari people. H H the Amir entrusted Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al Ali Al Sabah to convey his greetings to the Amir of Kuwait, wishing him good health and wellness, and the Kuwaiti people further progress and development. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and the means of developing and enhancing them.

Cabinet approves draft laws; health insurance must for expats, visitorsQNA — DOHA

The Cabinet yesterday approved a draft law regulating health care services and announced that all expatriates and visitors must obtain health insurance to receive basic health care services in Qatar.

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani chaired the Cabinet’s regular meeting at the Amiri Diwan yesterday.

At the outset of the meeting, the Cabinet listened to the explanation provided by H E Minister of Public Health on the latest developments to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), and affirmed the continuation of implementing the precautionary measures to combat this pandemic.”

After that, the Cabinet approved a draft law organising health care services within the country and refered it to the Shura Council. The preparation of the draft law aims to provide an integrated, high-quality, effi-cient, and sustainable health system through establishing the

necessary policies, plans, proce-dures, systems, and standards to provide health care services in governmental and private health facilities, determine the rights and duties of patients that must be taken into account when receiving health care services, providing health care services to citizens in government health facilities without charge and all residents and visitors to the country must obtain health insurance to receive basic health care services.

The Cabinet also approved a draft decision of the Minister of Interior to exempt trainees in driving schools from the renewal fee for issuing a temporary driving license to learn motor vehicle driving. Under the draft decision, trainees in driving schools, who did not complete the prescribed examination procedures to obtain their driving licenses during the closing period of driving schools due to the application of precau-tionary measures to confront the novel coronavirus (COVID -19), are exempt from fees for renewing their permits expired on March 3, 2020 until August 1, 2020. �P3

Qatar aims to

vaccinate 90% of

eligible population

by year-end,

says Dr. Al Khal

FAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Qatar aims to vaccinate at least 90 percent of the eligible population by the end of the year and has taken several initiatives to boost the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign, said a senior official, yesterday.

“We aim to cover about 90 percent of the eligible popu-lation before the end of the year; we have to vaccinate more than 100,000 people a week,” said Chair of the National Health Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of Infectious Diseases at Hamad Medical Corporation Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal. He said that this will be implemented while taking effective public health measures, like screening and isolating people suspected to have or exposed to COVID-19.

Dr. Al Khal was speaking at ‘An Injection of Hope: Do Vaccines Mean an End to the Pandemic Is in Sight?’ as part of the latest edition of Edu-cation City Speaker Series, and in collaboration with the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), which fea-tured healthcare experts and practitioners to discuss vaccine development, ques-tions surrounding the new variants of COVID-19, and the efforts needed to combat and avoid future waves of infection.

Dr. Al Khal said that several steps have been taken to widen and boost the ability of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

“Twenty-seven health centers throughout the country provide vaccine to people seven days a week from 7am to 11pm. In addition we recently open the vacci-nation centre at the Qatar National Convention Centre, which can deliver 8,000 doses a day,” said Dr. Al Khal.

“We also trained nurses at different ministries and entities to administer vaccine. Now they are vaccinating their frontliners at their own facil-ities,” he added. �P5

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor inauguratedIRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani and Kuwait Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, H E Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al Ali Al Sabah, together inaugurated the Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor yesterday.

The inauguration coincides with celebration of the National Day and Liberation Day Anni-versary of the State of Kuwait today.

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor extends from Hamad Interna-tional Airport, south of Doha, to Umm Lekhba Interchange, (Landmark Interchange) on Al Shamal Road at a distance of more than 29km, besides the length of newly developed service roads and perpendicular roads connecting with the Corridor, total project work reaches to an approximate length of 41km.

The inaugural ceremony, which was held at Cable-Stayed Bridge, was attended by prom-inent guests including Their Excellencies the ministers, a del-egation from State of Kuwait, Ambassadors, senior gov-ernment and Ashghal officials and representa-tives of the com-panies imple-menting the project.

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor is a four-lane dual carriage highway after converting the old road from two lanes in each direction and the vehicle capacity has increased from 8,000 vehicles per hour to more than 20,000 vehicles per hour on both directions. The Cor-ridor is also an ideal alternate route for commuters along Doha Expressway & 22 February Street, which accommodates about 12,000 vehicles per hour in both directions.

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor also includes construction of pedestrian crossings including seven bridges and two pedes-trian underpasses, besides

50.5km long bicycle and pedes-trian paths to ensure safe movement of people, in addition to beautification and tree plan-tation works along an approx-imate area of 355,642 sq meters.

On this occasion, Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti, said: “We share the joy of our brethren in the State of Kuwait in their celebrations of National Day and anniversary of Liber-ation Day through the opening of Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor, which depicts embodiment of

fraternity between Qatar and Kuwait, firmly rooted in the wise and visionary leadership of the two State.”

The Minister added: “The corridor will contribute in reducing traffic congestion and achieve great traffic flow, serving other means of transport such as Hamad International Airport and Metro network through integration with many major roads such as Al Rayyan Road, Salwa Road and Al Shamal Road.” �P3

SEE ALSO PAGE 7

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani and Kuwait Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, H E Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al Ali Al Sabah, jointly inaugurating the Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor yesterday.

Today, in the presence of Sheikh Hamad Al-Sabah, we inaugurated

the Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor, which is one of the largest roads

in Qatar that named after Sheikh Sabah, May God have mercy

on him, and embody the deep Qatari-Kuwaiti brotherhood

relations. The Corridor links south of Doha with the north of

Qatar in a qualitative leap for the infrastructure that constitutes

a pivotal role in achieving the goals of Qatar's Vision 2030.

Ministry invites applications for fee hike amid COVID-19THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Parents have called on the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) to defer fees hike in private schools during COVID-19. Many are facing difficult financial times due to the pandemic.

Parents are reacting to the Ministry’s announcement last month to open appli-cations from private schools to increase fees.

A private school has said that it applied for a fee hike last month through the Ministry’s online system.

Parents stress it would be difficult for many of them to afford a new increase in fees because of the financial con-straints resulting from the pandemic.

As many parents keep reacting to the news regarding private fee increments, a Qatari parent said he was surprised by the Ministry’s move to increase the fees under the current circumstance.

“Since the coronavirus outbreak and the imposition of the preventive measures to limit the spread of the virus,

teaching turned into distance education, and parents became responsible for follow-up and guidance of their children at home. Parents played more significant roles in running a smooth distance and blended learning.

“Fees for private schools are already high in Qatar, so instead of taking into account this fact, the Ministry has invited applications for fee hike. Continuous increase in school fees has become an unending problem. The increases in tuition fees for private schools are taking place every three years, and this is making our private education system among the most expensive,” said Khalifa Al Rumaihi.

He urged the Ministry to rethink whether it is appropriate to allow private schools to increase fees during the pandemic.

“I am with the teachers’ right to lead a decent life and to obtain salaries that guarantee them that, but also the

Ministry should be a fair mediator that balances the interests of the family and the school. The exceptional situations that we are going through due to the spread of the virus should be taken into account, instead of dealing with the matter as if everything is normal,” said Al Rumaihi.

Another parent, Ibrahim Al Kuwari, said that the world is going through exceptional health conditions, and these conditions are reflected in everyone’s economic situation.

Al Kuwari, whose children are in private schools, told The Peninsula: “I expected the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to take into account these circumstances and refuse applica-tions for the increment of fees from the private schools this year at least until things return to pre-COVID-19 condi-tions. “Unfortunately, we hear that the Ministry does not only receive applica-tions for increasing fees but has invited the schools to submit their applications to increase fees, without taking into account the parents’ circumstances.” �P3

Parents declare move to increase fee in private schools as ‘unjustifiable’ in present situation

Parents stress it would be

difficult for many of them

to afford a new increase

in fees because of the

financial constraints

resulting from the

pandemic.

The increase in tuition

fees for private schools

are taking place every

three years, and this is

making the private edu-

cation system among the

most expensive.

Investigative report

OFFICIAL NEWS

02 THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021HOME

Amir sends congratulations to President of EstoniaDOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad

Al Thani, and Deputy Amir H H Sheikh

Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent yester-

day cables of congratulations to President

of the Republic of Estonia H E Kersti Kalju-

laid on the anniversary of her country’s

Independence Day. Prime Minister and

Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin

Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani also sent

a cable of congratulations to Prime Min-

ister of the Republic of Estonia H E Kaja

Kallas on the anniversary of her coun-

try’s Independence Day. — QNA

Prime Minister meetsKuwait Deputy PMDOHA: Prime Minister and Minister of

Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin

Abdulaziz Al Thani met yesterday morning

with Deputy Prime Minister and Defence

Minister of the sisterly State of Kuwait, H E

Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al Ali Al Sabah, and

the accompanying delegation. At the out-

set of the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister

and Defence Minister of Kuwait conveyed

the greetings and thanks of the Prime Min-

ister of the sisterly State of Kuwait, H H

Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Hamad Al Sabah,

for the invitation to attend the inaugural

ceremony of “Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor”.

H E the Prime Minister and Minister of

Interior entrusted His Excellency to con-

vey his greetings to H H the Prime Minister

of the State of Kuwait, wishing him suc-

cess. The meeting dealt with reviewing

bilateral relations and the scope for devel-

oping them. — QNA

Prime Minister meets ILO head

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani met yesterday with Head of the International Labour Organization Project Office for the State of Qatar, H E Houtan Homayounpour, on the occasion of the end of his tenure in the country. The meeting dealt with reviewing cooperation between the State of Qatar and ILO. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior wished Houtan Homayounpour success on his future missions.

Prime Minister meets Tunisian Minister

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani met yesterday with Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Republic of Tunisia, H E Olfa Benouda Sioud, and the accompanying delegation, on the occasion of her visit to the country. They reviewed bilateral relations and means to enhance them, particularly in the education field.

Qatar welcomes ICC

decision on inclusion of

occupied Palestinian

territories in its jurisdictionQNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar has welcomed the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the inclusion of the occupied Palestinian territories in its jurisdiction, which paves the way for an investi-gation into committing international crimes against Palestinians, and considered as a message to the perpetrators of these crimes that their crimes will not be subject to statute of limitations, and provides hope to the victims in achieving justice and fairness.

This came in the statement of the State of Qatar delivered by Per-manent Representative of the State of Qatar in Geneva, H E Ambassador Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri, yesterday at the Human Rights Council during the interactive dia-logue on the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on ensuring accountability and justice in all violations of international law in the Occupied Pales-tinian Territory, including East Al Quds, under the second item on the council’s agenda.

Ambassador Al Man-souri said that they have reviewed the report of the High Commissioner, and strongly condemn Israel, the occupying power, for con-tinuing violations and crimes against the brotherly Palestinian people of killing civilians and children, and imposing the unjust siege and repeated aggression on the Gaza Strip.

He added that the inter-national community has repeatedly emphasised that

the Israeli settlements, the forced displacement of Pal-estinians, the destruction of their homes and the confis-cation of their lands con-stitute a flagrant violation of the relevant international laws and conventions, espe-cially the Fourth Geneva Convention, and are con-sidered a war crime under the 1998 Rome Statute, stressing that the absence of accountability and inde-pendent and impartial investigations encouraged the Israeli military and political leaders to continue committing more systematic and gross violations, and to continue committing serious crimes against the Palestinian people.

Qatar's Ambassador called on the international community to take all nec-essary measures to end the Israeli occupation of the occupied Arab lands, protect the Palestinian people, ensure the restoration of all their legitimate rights, and ensure the establishment of an independent and viable state of Palestine on the basis of the 1967 borders, with Al Quds as its capital.

FM receives written message from Bahrain Foreign Minister

DOHA: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister

of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed

bin Abdulrahman Al Thani received a written

message from Minister of Foreign Affairs of

the Kingdom of Bahrain H E Dr. Abdullatif

bin Rashid Al Zayani. The message was

received by Minister of State for Foreign

Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi,

during his meeting yesterday with Under-

secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

for Regional and GCC Affairs of the King-

dom of Bahrain, H E Ambassador Waheed

Mubarak Sayyar, who is currently visiting

the country. — QNA

Ambassador Ali Khalfan Al

Mansouri says absence of

accountability and

independent and impartial

investigations encouraged

the Israeli military and

political leaders to continue

committing more

systematic and gross

violations, and serious

crimes against the

Palestinian people.

03THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021 HOME

Five arrested for violating

home quarantine

QNA — DOHA

The competent authorities arrested yesterday five people who violated the requirements of the home quarantine they committed to following. The arrested persons being referred to the competent prosecution are: Mohammed Abdullah Saad Al Bahih Al Marri, Turki Masoud Turki Al Ghufrani Al Marri, Ali Jaber Hamad Al Makhdoubia Al Marri, Salem Rashid Mohammed Rashid Al Ghreineq, and Abdulrahman Nayef Abdulrahman Al Imran Al Kuwari.

Qatar will spare no effort to alleviate Palestinians' sufferings: Assistant FM QNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar participated in the ministerial meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee to coordinate international assistance to the Palestinian people, which was held via video conference yesterday.

The State of Qatar was rep-resented in the meeting by Assistant Foreign Minister and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs H E Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater.

She said in her speech at the meeting that the international community stands today as a silent witness to the plight of the Palestinian people while the Israeli occupation and the siege of the Gaza Strip and Israeli set-tlement activity in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank continue without any signs of retreat, even in light of the over-whelming impact of the out-break of COVID-19 pandemic

among the Palestinian people, which affected nearly half of the Palestinian population who need humanitarian aid.

She praised the efforts of international partners in trying to provide medical assistance to the Palestinian territories, and pointed out the continu-ation of the repressive measures of the Israeli author-ities and the prevention of shipments of vital vaccines from reaching the occupied Palestinian territories, thus exacerbating the dire condi-tions caused by the pandemic, indicating that such actions, without a doubt, are a flagrant violation of the charters and principles of international law, and constitute a serious crime against humanity.

The Assistant Foreign Min-ister said that the State of Qatar reminds that the Palestinian people, like all peoples, have the basic right to life and health,

and that these repressive actions taken by Israel hinder the efforts of negotiations and dialogue, with its emphasis on the two-state solution and the Arab Peace Initiative, with East Al Quds as Palestine’s capital on the borders of June 4, 1967 as a way forward to achieve just peace and protect the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

She stressed that the world must not remain silent in the face of the injustice committed against the Palestinian people and the continued deterioration of the social, economic and health conditions in Palestine, which are likely to reach cata-strophic levels, leading to a humanitarian disaster that the global community will not bear and will not be prepared to endure.

She affirmed that the State of Qatar stands to support its brothers in Palestine and said that Qatar will spare no effort

in working to alleviate the hard-ships faced by the Palestinian people, as the aid provided focused on urgent needs, in addition to long-term devel-opment projects that amounted to more than $1.5bn during the past eight years.

H E affirmed the State of Qatar’s commitment to close cooperation with international agencies, as she contributed to the support of the UNRWA with

more than $106m from 2014 to 2020.

She pointed out that as part of the State's efforts that focus on helping lift the burden of the pandemic from Palestinian brothers, Qatar has provided $150m in urgent aid to the Pal-estinian health sector, including $1m allocated to combat the outbreak of the COVID-19 pan-demic and to provide medical supplies and equipment.

Assistant Foreign Minister and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater, participating in the ministerial meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee to coordinate international assistance to the Palestinian people, yesterday.

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani; Kuwait Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, H E Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al Ali Al Sabah; and other dignitaries at the inauguration of the Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor yesterday.

QNL President

meets Deputy FM

of Uzbekistan

QNA — DOHA

Minister of State and President of Qatar National Library (QNL), H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, met yesterday with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan H E Furkat Sidikov, who is currently visiting the country.

During the meeting, they reviewed means of cooper-ation between QNL and the cultural institutions in the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan visited QNL and learnt about its activ-ities, and its most important knowledge treasures.

Circulation of

4th edition of

banknotes until

July 1: QCB

QNA — DOHA

Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has extended the circulation of the 4th Edition banknotes, until Thursday, corresponding to the July 1.

QCB said that after this date, the banknotes will become illegal and indem-nified currency, with the holder remaining entitled to recover its value from the Central Bank within a period not exceeding 10 years from the date of the withdrawal decision.

In its statement, Qatar Central Bank referred to the decision of H E the Governor of Qatar Central Bank No. 99 of 2020 issued in the Official Gazette on 27/12/2020 regarding the withdrawal of banknotes from circulation, starting from 18/12/2020, after the fifth edition was put into circulation.

The central bank also clar-ified that this decision comes in accordance with the provi-sions of Articles 54 and 55 of the Qatar Central Bank Law and Regulation of Financial Institutions issued by Law No. 13 of 2012.

The bank stressed the importance of preserving the national currency and not tampering with it, whether by writing, perforation or oth-erwise, indicating that these acts are criminalised by the provisions of Article 56 of the aforementioned Qatar Central Bank Law.

PM, Kuwait Deputy PM inaugurate Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor

FROM PAGE 1

President of the Public Works Authority (Ashghal), Eng. Saad bin Ahmed Al Muhannadi, expressed delight in opening Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor on the occasion of celebration of National Day of the State of Kuwait. President of Ashghal pointed out that Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor comes in honour of the late Amir H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, to commemorate his memory and to express loyalty to the Amir of Humanity.

On his part, Director of Projects Affairs at Ashghal, Eng. Yousef Al Emadi, stressed that the government has spared no effort to complete the works as

fast as possible using local materials in the implementation of the project at an estimated rate of 60% of works. He assured that the remaining works of the Corridor such as service roads, beautification and landscaping are being com-pleted to deliver by the end of 2021.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Hassan Al Thawadi, confirmed that Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor is one of the vital road to facilitate movement of people to various World Cup stadiums, pointing out that the Corridor will not only facilitate movement, but cut the travel time to the

stadiums, especially to Al Janoub Stadium, Al Thumama Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium and Education City Stadium.

Talking to The Peninsula, Ali Mohamad Al Darwish from Highway Projects Department congratulated Kuwait on its National Day. “This is first Cable-Stayed Bridge in Qatar. We are very proud that the project was implemented under the supervision of Qatari engi-neers. We managed to overcome the challenges during the development of the project. The Corridor serves many venues of FIFA World Cup 2022, Al Thumama Stadium, Ras Abu Abbud Stadium, Al Janoub

Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium.”

The Corridor, he said, also connects with Al Shamal Expressway and Doha Expressway leading to Lusail and Al Bayt Stadium. “It is par-allel to Doha Expressway. It will serve 20,000 vehicles per hour in comparison of 12,000 vehicles on Doha Expressway in both directions. On the other hand, the expressway contains the largest interchange in Qatar which is called Umm Lakhba Interchange (commonly known as Landmark Interchange). It has also the longest underpass and longest bridge in Qatar,” he added.

He said that the carriage

way of Sabah Al Ahmad Cor-ridor has opened fully while some service roads and exits are yet to be developed. “The project will be delivered com-pletely by end of 2021.”

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor project included 6,300,000 cubic metres of excavation, backfilling and paving works as well as the use of approximately 1,442,000 tonnes of asphalt and 1,520,000 cubic meters of rein-forced concrete.

The infrastructure lines installed include 220km of communication lines, about 470km of power lines, 205km of drainage lines extension and about 77km of treated sewer lines. It is worth noting that 60%

of materials used in these works are locally made.

The Corridor is considered the ‘lung of Doha’. It will con-tribute greatly to ease traffic congestion in Doha in general, especially for those coming from south to north, as the road is an ideal alternate route to Doha Expressway & February 22nd Street, with better traffic flow, as the commuter from HIA through this road will reach Umm Lekhba Interchange on Al Shamal Road in less than 18 minutes, while the same journey through Doha Expressway & 22 February Street takes about 50 minutes, which means cutting 70% of travel time.

Ministry invites applications for fee hike amid COVID-19

FROM PAGE 1

Al Kuwari asked why private schools are primed to make a profit while everyone else suffers significant financial strains this period.

“I appeal to the Ministry not to rush to receive the applications and not to raise the fees, at least this year. The burdens that parents are bearing due to these conditions should be taken into account seriously,” Al Kuwari added.

Another parent Abu Hamad told The Peninsula that parents expected the Ministry to reduce school fees because of the pandemic, which has brought some businesses to a halt. Companies have reduced some workers’ salaries. Instead, the Min-istry invited applications to increase fees which will put an extra burden on parents.

He urged the Ministry to revise the decision and close applications for fees increase until normalcy returns.

“At this difficult time, there is no way to think about increasing the school fees,” said a parent, Sayed Ameen.

“We live in exceptional circum-stances, and schools do not offer any-thing new which is worth an increase in fees,” said Ameen.

He added that students benefit little from schools since the outbreak and all the burden is on parents more than schools. Schools are supposed to reduce their fees instead of increasing them.

For her part, Maryam, who has

two children in private schools, said: “The Ministry should not send any cir-cular to schools in this regard, as it is unjustified to hike fees at this time.”

She said that the current blended learning system is a burden more on parents compared to schools.

However, private schools have justified the fee hike describing it as necessary for schools’ survival as they provide quality education.

Speaking to The Peninsula, Riyaz Amed Bakali, Founder Director of The Next Generation School (TNG), said that his school applied to increase fees by six percent last month.

“The Ministry of Education and Higher Education opened the system allowing schools to submit requests for increasing fees following certain rules and regulations. As per the rules, in June, the Ministry approves for genuine applications which meet all requirements for the fee hike,” said Bakali.

Giving justification for his school’s application, Bakali said: “The fee hike is not going to be implemented imme-diately. It will take many months between approval and implemen-tation. When it comes into effect, the COVID-19 situation is expected to have improved, so there will be no major impact on parents.”

He said that TNG had increased fees by 3.2 percent five years ago. “Now operation cost of schools has increased drastically. Transport became costlier due to the hike in fuel prices. Moreover, we make increment

in the salary of staff annually,” Bakali added.

He said that a fee hike is necessary for a suitable business model; oth-erwise, private investors will not continue.

“Fee hike process undergoes strict rules and regulations imposed by the MoEHE, which considers concerns of parents and schools as well,” he noted.

To a question about parents’ com-plaints on fee hikes during an Al Rayan TV programme earlier, the Director of Private Schools Licensing Department at the Ministry of Edu-cation and Higher Education, Hamad Al Ghali, said schools that have increased their fees, after the Minis-try’s approval, could not do so until after three years.

“Even if it applied for fees increase, the application will be rejected. The requests for fee hikes should be submitted with the docu-ments to justify the demand. The committee concerned will study the request, then the final decision is taken for approval or rejection,” Al Ghali had said.

He said that parents are being informed about fee increases and are given enough time to decide to move their children to more affordable schools.

The Peninsula approached the Ministry of Education and Higher Education for a comment on the topic on February 14, but no response was received.

Cabinet approves draft laws; health insurance must for expats, visitors

FROM PAGE 1

Approval of a draft decision of the Minister of Education and Higher Education to reforming the scholarships committee. Under the Provi-sions of Law No. 9 of 1976 Regulating Scholar-ships, a scholarship committee is formed in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and is responsible for drawing up scholarship policy and planning and investigating the country’s actual needs for them.

The Cabinet also approved a draft agreement on canceling entry visas for holders of regular passports between Qatar and the government of the Republic of Moldova.

A draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in the fields of youth and sports between the governments of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Malta.

Taking necessary measures to ratify an agreement on economic, commercial, and tech-nical cooperation between the governments of the State of Qatar and the government of Uzbekistan.

04 THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021HOME

Minister of Culture and Sports meets Tunisian Minister of Higher Education

Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali met yesterday with Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Republic of Tunisia, H E Olfa Benouda Sioud, on the occasion of her visit to the country. During the meeting, they discussed aspects of cooperation between the two countries and ways to support and develop them.

Speaker meets Italy, Kazakhstan envoysSpeaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, met separately yesterday with Ambassador of the Italian Republic to the State of Qatar H E Alessandro Prunas (pictured), and with Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the State of Qatar, H E Arman Isagaliyev. During the two meetings, parliamentary relations and ways to support and develop them were reviewed.

Shura Council

participates in

parliamentary

seminarQNA — DOHA

The Shura Council partic-ipated yesterday in a parliamentary seminar on emergency legislation to reduce the repercussions of pandemic on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), organised by the Council of Representa-tives in the Kingdom of Bahrain in cooperation with the General Secre-tariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, through visual communication tech-nology.

Discussions focused on exchanging experiences between the Gulf councils on limiting the pandemic effects on SMEs.

The Shura Council was represented in this seminar by H E Nasser Bin Sulaiman Al Haidar, a member of the Council.

Qatar, Uzbekistan‘enjoy strong ties,bright future’QNA — DOHA

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, H E Furkat Sidikov, has praised the strong relations between his country and the State of Qatar, saying shared culture and religion among other matters link Doha and Tashkent.

In an exclusive statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), the Uzbek official noted that the Republic of Uzbekistan has established very strong cooperation relations with the State of Qatar after its inde-pendence, explaining that the two countries are coordi-nating and conducting a good political dialogue between them.

He indicated that during his current visit to Doha, he had held bilateral talks with Qatari officials, expressing his pleasure for the good organ-ization and good preparation for these meetings.

He added, in a related context, that he would like at this stage to develop cooper-ative relations with Qatar in the fields of trade and investment, as trade relations currently do not reflect the strength of the bilateral relations.

He said that, during his meetings with Qatar Chamber (QC), he saw a great oppor-tunity to develop trade rela-tions between Qatar and Uzbekistan, as the export of foodstuffs from Uzbekistan to Qatar was discussed, as well as the investment opportu-nities available in Uzbekistan for Qatari businessmen in the fields of renewable energy and tourism.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan congratulated the State of Qatar on its success in organ-izing the FIFA Club World Cup early this year, expressing his confidence that Qatar will also organize a successful World Cup next year in light of the great preparations it has made in this way.

HE also stated that he will visit the Museum of Islamic Art and the Qatar National Library to see opportunities for cooperation in the cultural field between Qatar and Uzbekistan, adding that he will discuss with the Uzbek ambassador in Doha about the possibility of holding an exhibition for Uzbekistan in Qatar.

Qatar participates in 5th session of UN Environment AssemblyQNA — NAIROBI

The State of Qatar participated in the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5), which was held through video conference.

The delegation of the State of Qatar to the session was headed by Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Kenya and the Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations office in Nairobi, H E Jaber bin Ali Al Dosari.

The Ambassador said in a speech during the leadership dialogues session on the con-tribution of the environmental dimension of sustainable devel-opment to building a resilient and inclusive post-pandemic world that the coronavirus pan-demic has had many repercus-sions on societies in various aspects and fields. He stressed however that its effects should not detract the international community from ensuring that the environmental dimension as countries strive for sus-tainable development.

Addressing this pandemic and its repercussions will only be done by collective action and international cooperation, so it is imperative to follow this path, and strive to take measures that will enhance our capabilities to address the environmental challenges raised by the pan-demic, and to enhance our capabilities to recover from

them in a manner that takes into account the preservation and sustainability of all eco-systems, the Ambassador explained.

The Ambassador referred to the ongoing efforts regarding the new medium-term strategy of the United Nations Envi-ronment Program, which we hope will be based on the lessons learned from the pandemic.

Furthermore, its reliance on the axis of flexibility and resil-ience to face such current con-ditions in the future, in addition to its strengthening of the pro-gram’s efforts within the framework of supporting national programs and projects in countries in a manner that harmonizes development requirements and environ-mental sustainability.

The Ambassador pointed out that the State of Qatar relies

on the principle of strategic planning in order to achieve the requirements of development and progress, whether on the economic, social or environ-mental levels, enlightened in this by the Qatar National Vision 2030, so the pandemic was not a major obstacle that would be difficult to overcome, but rather a challenge and a catalyst for us to work posi-tively towards achieving our s t r a t e g i c g o a l s f o r development.

The State of Qatar spared no effort to advance the wheel of development in conjunction with the pandemic and the challenges that came with it, which were the key to new horizons and space for devel-opment in existing national plans and programmes, by strengthening preventive measures in a way that bal-ances the preservation of resources in light of the pan-demic and preserving the envi-ronment, he added.

We have not overlooked the importance of interacting with the international community within the framework of the international environmental agreements to which the State of Qatar has acceded, as we have participated and closely followed up on all develop-ments resulting from the compass reorientation of the plans and programs of these agreements due to the pan-demic, he continued.

The envoy said Qatar

spared no effort to advance

the wheel of development

in conjunction with the

pandemic and the

challenges that came with

it, by strengthening

preventive measures in a

way that balances the

preservation of resources

and preserving the

environment.

Armed Forces holds joint exercise

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Armed Forces conducted the 'Command Centers 1' exercise, in the presence of Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces, H E Lieutenant-General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen Al Ghanem.

The exercise aims to maintain control against illegal acts such as penetration, infiltration, maritime terrorism, maritime piracy and all illegal acts that aim to destabilise the security of the country and harm the interests of the state.

The exercise also aims to train commanders and staff officers on the planning and implementation of joint opera-tions, training on implementing coordination procedures between units, and raising the capabilities of the forces and participating parties when carrying out duties on how to deal with objectives.

The exercise was conducted in the Combined Air Opera-tions Center, with the participation of various units of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Interior represented by the General Directorate of Coasts and Borders Security. The exercise was attended by a number of senior officers of the Armed Forces.

Quarantine for children travelling with vaccinated parents under reviewFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

The quarantine procedure for children who are not eligible for COVID-19 vaccination but have travelled with parents who have been vaccinated is under consideration, a senior health official has said.

“This matter is still under study, and an announcement will come out very soon. Probably, children below 16 years, who are not eligible to take the vaccine, and if they come back with parents who have been fully vaccinated and finished their two doses 14 days before, the parent will have to sign an undertaking that children will stay home and not be allowed to go out for seven days,” said Dr. Soha Al Bayat, Head of Vaccination at the Ministry of Public Health, during a live Instagram question and answer session.

“If the child is above 16 years and has not been vac-cinated, then they have to be quarantined. In that case, a parent has to stay with the child during the quarantine. If one parent is not vacci-nated, then they will have to stay with the child in quar-antine,” she added.

In reply to a question about how long a person would be immune to COVID-19 after vaccination, Dr. Al Bayat said that the period might change since studies are ongoing.

“The validity has been set as three months. This doesn’t

mean the vaccine is valid only for three months. Studies are on in this regard,” she said.

She added that people who have registered online would be contacted as per the priority basis and asked infected persons to get vacci-n a t e d t o p r e v e n t re-infection.

“No scientific data is available that indicates safety and risk of vaccination towards pregnant and breast-feeding women,” said Dr. Al Bayat.

She also emphasised that side effects due to the COVID-19 vaccination are similar to those of other vaccines.

“Some of the infected people developed pain and tiredness. Pain, headache, lethargy, and high or increasing temperature are common side effects. Among the majority of the vaccinated people, these side effects were cured within 24 hours while taking panadol or similar tablets while a small percentage required 48 hours for the side effects to go,” said Dr. Al Bayat.

According to Dr. Al Bayat, many women who partici-pated in the clinical trials of the COVID-19 vaccine devel-opment in stage 3 and coinci-dentally got pregnant live a healthy and safe pregnancy.

“There is no contraindi-cation between taking the vaccine and getting pregnant. And you do not have to wait after the vaccine for any period before trying to get pregnant,” she said.

05THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021 HOME

FAZEENA SALEEMTHE PENINSULA

The need to build family relation-ships in an equal way where each individual including children are respected was emphasised by H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation, during an international conference on marriage.

Families need to spend time with their children and start con-versations with them at a young age, Sheikha Hind said at a plenary session of Qatar Foundation member Doha International Family Institute’s (DIFI) conference on Marriage: Formation and Constit-uents of Stability.

“It’s important that family rela-tionships are built in an equal way where each individual is respected, and that includes our children. We need to respect that we bring our children up, to have a voice as well, and they need to feel they have this security within their home,” said Sheikha Hind.

The session explored the theme of loneliness, and what children

need in order to feel they belong in a community.

“We have to spend time with our children in building an under-standing of where they come from. The conversations we have with our children are critical and need to start at a very young age,” said Sheikha Hind.

“They have to feel they are able to ask questions, and that we have the time to answer them. And they have to feel they belong to a com-munity, which they can only do if they understand how they are

connected to it, and who they are,” she added.

Sheikha Hind also emphasized that in today’s world people are more connected to the world, but less with family and friends in the immediate community.

“There is still a lot for us to understand about why people feel lonely and how we can tackle these issues, but I believe it’s about mean-ingful relationships – not just the number of hours in a day that you spend with people, but the relation-ships you build with them by learning about their lives and, in turn, sharing yours,” she said.

Speaking about the role of mar-riage in combating loneliness, Sheikha Hind said much of a burden placed on marriage to be a solution to problems.

“If we do not go into a marriage with confidence, a true recognition of what we want, and a commitment to what we expect to have from that marriage – and if we do not align those expectations with our partner – the issues will evolve and the chal-lenges will continue,” she said.

The session also heard from

H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani (right, top) with other speakers during the plenary session of the conference on ‘Marriage: Formation and Constituents of Stability’, yesterday.

Sheikha Hind emphasises role of marriage in fostering social wellbeing

MoPH: 562 more

recover and

459 new cases

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health ( M o P H ) y e s t e r d a y announced the registration of 459 new confirmed COVID-19. Among them 38 were travellers returning from abroad.

Another 562 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 151,787.

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

102 applications for Education Forum

participation given approvalQNA— DOHA

The Organising Committee of the Virtual Education Forum 2021 announced that it has agreed to accept 102 applica-tions to participate in the activ-ities and workshops of the forum scheduled for April 3.

The Assistant Director of the Educational Guidance Department at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Dr. Abdullah Ali Al Marri, said that the Virtual Education Forum 2021, which will be held - remotely - is an extension of several conferences and forums held by the Ministry of Edu-cation and Higher Education, and the forum will include

participants from within the State of Qatar and abroad, and it will include various modern training workshops.The Head of the Training and Capacity Development Department and the leader of the screening team at the Forum’s Organising Com-mittee Alia Al Basti, confirmed that the acceptance of posts is determined based on the extent of their relevance to the five main axes of the forum, which focus on sustainable devel-opment and linking educational outcomes to the labor market, in addition to early education, community partnership and the role of mentoring Educational and professional development for teachers.

Families need to spend

time with their children

and start conversations

with them at a young

age.

H E Sheikha Hind bint

Hamad Al Thani

Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation

New vaccination headquarters can serve up to 8,000 people dailyQNA — DOHA

The new headquarters for vaccination against COVID-19 at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) is part of Qatar’s expansion of the national programme for vaccination against the virus. It is open every day and can serve about 5,000 to 8,000 people, depending on the capacity of the center, said a senior official.

The center is under the supervision and management of the Primary Health Care Cor-poration (PHCC) in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corpo-ration, volunteers from the Qatar Red Crescent Society and the administration of QNCC.

The first vaccination phase in the new headquarters, which

began on February 18, focused on vaccinating teachers and school personnel, in addition to other essential workers and community members who meet the eligibility criteria.

The Director of the Office of Institutional Project Man-agement at PHCC and Director of the National Campaign for COVID-19 Vaccine Project Dr. Yasmin Ali Morad, said that the work strategy is based on vac-cinating the most vulnerable populations such as the elderly, people with severe chronic con-ditions, health workers and other essential workers.

She added that the new vac-cination centre at QNCC will enable Qatar to increase its ability to vaccinate more essential workers and open more opportunities for the

general public to receive the vaccine. At present, all people at high risk or over the age of 60 years are urged to get the vaccine by setting an appointment and calling the announced numbers or visiting their health centres.

Dr. Yasmine noted that to ensure community safety and a smooth and effective vacci-nation process, invitations are sent for appointments in a gradual and phased manner, and teachers and school staff will receive short text messages inviting them to come to the vaccination site during specific time periods.

She explained that the vaccine will be given only to those who have received an invitation, provided that it is shown when they attend the

vaccination center, with the necessity to bring a valid Qatari ID and health card, while others are required to wait until they receive an invitation via SMS, noting that the card renewal service has also been provided in the center to reduce time and effort in this regard.

She indicated that the vac-cination process will continue to proceed in the same way, that is, the vaccine will be given in two doses at the vaccination headquarters located at QNCC, with an interval of three weeks between the first and second doses, while visitors will be

asked to carry the required cards when they come to the scheduled vaccination date, and they are required to apply pre-ventive and precautionary measures, including wearing a mask, ensuring hand hygiene and maintaining social distancing.

She said among the pro-tocols for obtaining vaccination in vaccination headquarters, attendance must be according to the time and specified day, and adherence to all measures in order to ensure that the work proceeds smoothly and quickly, noting that the time it takes to receive the vaccine will be less than one hour, since the medical and training staff and the assisting administrative staff have sufficient experience to facilitate the matter to the public.

A view of the vaccination centre set up at QNCC.

Sümeyye Erdoğan Bayraktar, Vice-President of the Women and Democracy Association in Turkey.

“Ties to a spouse or children are seen as adding meaning to life, and these ties are formed through mutual obligations, respon-sibilities, and caring. And having an intimate confidant in whom you can trust is what makes marriage critical,” she said.

“However, not all marriages are ideal. The ability to establish healthy communication with a spouse and children is not an easy thing, and when an individual cannot realize their potential within the family, and

communication is weak, that individual can start feeling lonely,” she added.

Day two of the conference included four plenary sessions. It also features an Ask the Expert session, where Mostafa Aboussaad, Educational and Social Expert, Kuwait, illu-minates issues surrounding the challenges in a happy marriage by responding to ques-tions on the subject from conference participants.

The second day also featured a presen-tation of DIFI’s research report on Percep-tions and experiences of long-lasting mar-riage among youth in Qatar.

Qatar aims to vaccinate 90% of eligible population by year-end: Dr. Al Khal

FROM PAGE 1

In a another move, Dr. Al Khal said, the Ministry of Public Health has also started an ini-tiative to visit homes of the elderly, who cannot make it to the health centres and admin-istrate the vaccine to them and to their family members.

“So, hope this will help change the mind of the elderly people and their family members,” said Dr. Al Khal.

He also emphasised on the fact that Qatar was pro-active in working with the COVID-19 vaccine manufactures. According to Dr. Khal, Qatar is part of the global initiative, COVAX, formed nine months ago to ensure fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for every country.

Speaking about the chal-lenges faced during the COVID-19 vaccination cam-paign, Dr. Al Khal said that ini-tially the widespread misinfor-mation about vaccine safety, that circulated widely through the social media made a signif-icant portion of people being reluctant to take the vaccine.

“We established a group to spread evidence-based infor-mation and community figures to get the message across,” said Dr. Al Khal.

Dr. Al Khal said that the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign and its method of implementation can be adopted by other countries as a model.

In reply to a question about quarantine exemption for those who have been vaccinated, Dr. Al Khal said that the time period of three months could be extended.

“The present period for exemption for quarantine was made from the available data about the duration of protective level of antibodies in the blood following the second dose. But there is more available infor-mation that the duration is probably longer. It could be a year or even longer. What we have is done is a starting point of quarantine exemption for three months and we are reviewing the literature and the data as it emerges regularly on a daily and weekly basis,” he said.

“And we are ready to extend it to six months as soon as there is information to do that. Then before it is six months, we will review the data and probably extend the validity. The present one is only the starting point,” he added. The virtual event ‘An Injection of Hope: Do Vaccines Mean an End to the Pandemic Is in Sight?’ also featured WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Ahmed Al Mandhari; WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti; Director-General, International Vaccine Institute, Dr. Jerome Kim; and Head of Secretariat for WHO’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards, Professor Nahoko Shindo.

Dr. Moeti said that Ghana became the first country to receive a delivery of COVID-19 vaccine which has 600,000 AstraZeneca shots as part of global effort to boost vaccine access. But she expressed hope that at least, “an initial 20% in Africa to be vaccinated by end of the year”.

06 THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021HOME

The World Hearing Day,

which falls on March 3,

raises awareness of

hearing loss and the

importance of early

diagnosis to prevent

complications as well as

support for people living

with hearing loss.

HMC World Hearing Day to focus on causes, preventionTHE PENINSULA - DOHA

Causes of hearing loss and deafness, prevention, screening and diagnosis, and management will be the highlights of a series of events marking World Hearing Day organized this week by Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Audiology and Balance Department under the theme: “Hearing care for All! Screen. Rehabilitate. Communicate.”

Activities marking the day included a virtual World Hearing Day seminar attended by around 300 participants and awareness campaigns organized across Hamad General Hospital, Al Wakra Hospital, Al Khor Hos-pital, Women’s Wellness and Research Center and Ambulatory Care Center.

The World Hearing Day, which falls on March 3, raises awareness of hearing loss and the importance of early diag-nosis to prevent complications as well as support for people living with hearing loss.

This year’s event coincides with the launch of the World Report on Hearing, presenting a global call for action to address hearing loss and ear diseases across the life course.

“The causes of hearing loss and deafness can be congenital or acquired,” notes Audio-Ves-tibular Medicine Consultant and Head of Audiology and Balance Department, Dr. Khalid Abdul Hadi (pictured).

He explains further that congenital causes may lead to hearing loss being present at or acquired soon after birth. “Hearing loss can be caused by hereditary and non-hereditary genetic factors or by certain complications during preg-nancy and childbirth, including

maternal rubella, syphilis or certain other infections during pregnancy,” he says.

Acquired causes which may lead to hearing loss at any age, according to him include infec-tious diseases such as menin-gitis, measles and mumps; chronic ear infections; col-lection of fluid in the ear (otitis media); and use of certain med-icines, such as those used in the treatment of neonatal infec-tions, malaria, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and cancers.

Dr. Abdul Hadi notes that among children, chronic otitis media is a common cause of hearing loss. “In addition, other acquired causes can be injury to the head or ear; excessive

noise, including occupa-tional noise such as that from machinery and explosions; recreational exposure to loud sounds such as that from use of personal audio devices at high volumes and for prolonged periods of time and regular attendance at concerts, clubs, and sporting events; ageing, in par-ticular due to degener-ation of sensory cells; and wax or foreign bodies

blocking the ear canal,” he highlights.

He says hearing loss (and related ear diseases) can be addressed when it is identified in a timely manner and appro-priate care is sought. “People at risk of hearing loss should check their hearing regularly. They should seek care from a health care provider because their timely action is important in addressing the current notable increase in the number of people living with hearing loss and ear diseases across the world,” he says.

According to him, in Qatar over 28,000 patients are screened for hearing loss yearly while a total of 7,209 and 303 patients have been fitted with hearing aids and cochlear implants respectively.

“The services that we offer those living with hearing loss (especially children) at HMC’s Audiology Department are unrivalled in the region and are also on par with leading inter-national centers. We have high quality equipment and well qualified staff providing top notch care to all our patients both as new and follow-up cases,” Dr. Abdul Hadi adds.

THE PENINSULA - DOHA

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has announced the completion of upgrading works on two intersections on Al Khafji Street which are Envi-ronment Intersection on the Environment Street, and Jelaiah Intersection on Jasim bin Hamad Street.

The upgraded intersections are now open to traffic, as part of the Road Improvement Works for Roads, Junctions an d Roundabouts in Greater Doha, Phase 9.

Eng. Ali Sami Jamal (pic-tured), the Project Engineer in Doha Section in the Roads Projects Department at Ashghal highlighted the importance of the upgrading works since they help regulate the traffic movement and increase the traffic safety on the road especially after the recent openings on Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor and particularly on Umm Lekhba Interchange.

These recently opened inter-sections will provide accesses to service facilities in the area, and they directly link to the

highly-frequented Al Khafji Street as well as Jasim bin Hamad Streetand Environment Street which connect to several important areas such as the Dip-lomatic Area in Jelaiah Area in addition to residential areas such as North and South Al Duhail, and Umm Lekhba.

Eng. Jamal also explained that the completion of the upgrading works on the two intersections has significantly enhanced the traffic flow and reduced the congestion in the area especially that the project aimed at improving the traffic

flow and increasing the vehicular capacity.

He also indicated that in line with Ashghal’s support to local manufacturers and in line with Ta’heel initiative which was launched by the Authority in 2017, local mate-rials and manufacturers were relied on for most of the project’s work.

Materials and elements sup-plied from local manufacturers included gabbro, asphalt and interlock where the local Qatari component used on the project has reached 100%.

Further to upgrading the two intersections, the project’s scope of works also included a total 1.8km of road works, the construction of a new access on Jasim bin Hamad Street serving the petrol station, in addition to a new lane to accommodate traffic on Jasim bin Hamad Street heading right towards Al Khafji Street.

Landscaping and beauti-fication works were also implemented alongside the intersections as well as Al Khafji Street.

QU Board approves pharmacy programme restructuringTHE PENINSULA - DOHA

The Qatar University Board of Regents has approved the pharmacy curriculum’s restructuring to align with the latest developments in pharmacy education globally in North America, Europe, and New Zealand.

Qatar University College of Pharmacy (QU-CPH) set out to introduce curricular reform and upgrade the level of curricular integration into the Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (BSc Pharm) programme.

The BSc Pharm programme currently consists of 173 credit hours and five years of study. With the new approved modular curriculum, students will com-plete 165 credit hours in five years of study, with a pro-gramme that provides the grad-uating students a better approach to patient-centered care, enriches the student expe-rience, optimizes integration between courses, and updates the overall assessment plan.

The students will complete the same number of experiential hours, and a series of eight (four credits) modular systems-based courses will be part of the new curriculum. These modules cover different diseases and medication management, including cardi-ology, oncology, respiratory, infec-tious diseases, endocrinology, etc. These courses will integrate the different disciplines, including pathophysiology, pharmacology, and pharmacotherapy.

The current curriculum will

be phased out gradually, and the new curriculum will start from September 2021.

QU-CPH Dean Dr. Mohamed Diab said, “No doubt that the restructuring of CPH BSc. modular curriculum and the relaunch and restructuring of the part-time PharmD Program will open new doors and learning opportunities for our respected students. This is a huge achievement and milestone for the College of Pharmacy."

The Board of Regents also approved the relaunch and restructuring of the qualifying courses within the part-time Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program at Qatar University College of Pharmacy. The part-time PharmD program targets practicing pharmacists with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree interested in pursuing an advanced degree in clinical pharmacy.

The newly restructured qualifying courses were reduced from 11 courses (23 credits) to 8 courses (20 credits). They will integrate a blended learning approach with online and face-to-face sessions that will provide flexibility to complete the courses over a 1-to-2-year period before entering the PharmD program.

The program is looking forward to welcoming the first batch of pharmacists into the newly restructured program.

The part-time PharmD program will commence in August 2022 and begin accepting applications in Fall 2021.

Lulu Hypermarket joins Ellen MacArthur Foundation to promote circular economy THE PENINSULA - DOHA

Lulu Group International, the leading business conglomerate that has diversified business interests in the Middle East, North Africa, India, Malaysia and Indonesia, has joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as a Network member to facilitate collaboration for accelerating its ongoing efforts towards the tran-sition to a circular economy.

The Ellen MacArthur Foun-dation is a UK-registered charity that develops and pro-motes the idea of a circular economy – a global systemic shift from the ‘take, make, waste’ extractive model to one that designs out waste and pol-lution, keeps products and materials in use, and regen-erates natural systems.

A circular economy offers solutions to tackle global chal-lenges such a climate change, waste and pollution, and bio-diversity loss. Underpinned by a transition to renewable energy, a circular economy designs out waste, and pol-lution, maximises resource effi-ciency, and promotes the reuse, sharing, repair, refurbishment and recycling of materials.

Commending the promising initiative of Lulu Group, Joe Murphy, the Network Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation said: “With a diverse portfolio, there is great scope for the Lulu Group to embed circular economy prac-tices and, as a member of the

Foundation’s Network, the group will have the opportunity to col-laborate with some of the world’s leading organisations. In the near term, we hope to see the Lulu Group spark projects in markets where we have traditionally had a smaller presence.”

Lulu Group has always been working on the integration and implementation of sustaina-bility principles across different spheres of its activity for a long time, aligned with the sus-tainable development goals of the United Nations. As a mul-tinational organisation with majority of its operations in those countries that have food security vulnerabilities, Lulu Group is mindful of its respon-sibilities. In line with this, they have taken various measures in cooperation with the local regulatory bodies to maintain food security in the region it operates and inhouse policies to reduce the food wastage.

As a responsible retailer, Lulu Group has framed its own strategy on sustainability, which is put into practice in all its retail units and supply chains worldwide. The strategy mainly involved outlining of projects for overall improvements in social, environmental and economic

values (ESG) as well as contribu-tions to improve people’s quality of life and satisfaction.

Dr. Mohamed Althaf, Director of Lulu Group International, said: “Sustainability is the core of our company’s strategy. Joining Ellen MacArthur Foundation would give us an opportunity to share our learnings with others. This will also help us to formulate our strategy in reduction of food waste and to make progress in sustainable packaging.”

In recognition of its con-tinued efforts towards sustaina-bility, Lulu Group was bestowed with the ‘Sustainability Award’ in Qatar Region from the Gulf Organization for Research and Development (GORD) in the year 2019. Most recently, Lulu Group’s Chairman and Managing Director Yusuffali M.A. has won the ‘Sus-tainable Business Leader of the Year 2020’ Award from Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group (ADSG) for his excellence in implementing the Sustainability best practices in retail.

Lulu Group has made advancements in pursuit of cir-cularity starting with recycling of packaging materials, reduction of food waste, and the intro-duction of recyclable paper bags.

A comprehensive policy

towards circularity is key to ensure that consumers are pro-vided with a more durable, repairable, recyclable and reusable choices. Aligned with this, Lulu also has focused on a cost-effective implementation of proactive measures to increase the intake and pro-motion of recyclable products, promote healthier food options, reduce the waste which is dis-posed through landfill and encourage recycling.

Besides these, they have also started sourcing of more products and services from sus-tainable/circular partners who share the common philosophy, which will give the opportunity for customers to make more informed choices.

Apart from these, Lulu for-mulated and executed an action plan to reduce the use of plastic bags by encouraging customers to go for reusable choices – a woven bag or a more environ-mentally friendly jute bag.

Splash unveils Plus Size Spring Summer 2021 collectionTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Splash has unveiled its Spring Summer 2021 collection for XXL Brand for both Men & Women. The brand believes in “body positivity” and inclusive fashion, offering comfortable, trendy, and affordable clothing for everyday needs.

Splash plus-size collections speak of the brand’s com-mitment to being sustainable by indulging in eco-friendly fabrics and finishes. The sustainable col-lection & finishes using BCI (Better Cotton Initiative), organic

cotton, Lenzing viscose, recycled polyester, and tech finishes using anti-bacterial technology. Don’t miss the tags on garments that specify whether the product is natural or nature’s comfort and recycle or advance comfort products with finishes.

The women’s collection includes four categories, including ‘Seas the day’ con-sisting of classic nautical colours re-imagined and combined in oversized florals. Wear this bold floral print with your favorite denim for a perfect nautical spring-day look. Textured knits,

bright reds, gold trims & classic blue denim are an absolute must here.

The key colors are red/white/blue with pink in print to give a contemporary twist in this col-lection. Shirt dress/long knit T-shirt dress are key shapes.

It’s maritime covers classic nautical stripes are re-imagined and combined in statement pieces. Wear these easy stripes separate with your favourite denim for a perfect nautical spring look. Breathable fabrics, graded colour-blocked stripe prints & easy silhouettes are the

key elements here.Also, Neo Nature is all

about natural fabrics which add to comfort. This collection celebrates spring in shades of green & beige. Tropical foliage print is re-imagined and scaled to dynamic proportions. Foliage and animal prints are converted into lush textures in natural blend fabrics. So let’s calm down and unwind as we head into spring! The shapes are coordinates and tiered dresses.

Besides, Get Active is a small capsule curated for the

everyday needs of plus-size women — time to gear up and look fabulous, whether in gyms or at the yoga class. Comfort is a key factor. Printed leggings,

hoodies, knit tops & printed tees are the key elements here, with recycle polyester fabrics tech-nically finished with wicking and quick dry.

Ashghal upgrades Environment and Jelaiah Intersections on Al Khafji Street

THE PENINSULA – DOHA

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor which was opened yesterday is ‘Lung of Doha’ and alternate route for Doha Expressway and 22 February Street.

It will contribute greatly to ease traffic con-gestion in Doha in general, especially for those coming from south to north, as the road is an ideal alternate route to Doha Expressway & February 22nd Street, with better traffic flow.

The commuter from HIA through this road will reach Umm Lekhba Interchange on Al Shamal Road in less than 18 minutes, while the same journey through Doha Expressway & 22 February Street takes about 50 minutes, which means cutting 70 percent of travel time.

The Corridor extends from Hamad Interna-tional Airport, south of Doha, to Umm Lekhba Interchange, (Landmark Interchange) on Al Shamal Road at a distance of more than 29km, besides the length of newly developed service roads and perpendicular roads connecting with the Corridor, total project work reaches to an approximate length of 41km.

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor also includes con-struction of pedestrian crossings including seven bridges and two pedestrian underpasses, besides 50.5km-long bicycle and pedestrian paths to ensure safe movement of people, in addition to beautification and tree plantation works along an approximate area of 355,642 square metres. Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor has many special features:

First road named ‘Corridor’ with distinct

calligraphic naming Due to the importance of the road named after

Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, this is the first road in Qatar to be a corridor, and the name Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor is written on signboards in distinctive calligraphy similar to Al Majd Road, to distinguish it from the rest of the names of roads and streets in Qatar.

Integration of Mesaimeer Bridge, Bu

Hamour Bridge and Cable-stayed BridgeThe Mesaimeer Bridge extended along 1,600

metres, and the Bu Hamour Bridge extended along 900 metres on the corridor to facilitate free flow traffic from the south of Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor towards the cable-stayed bridge over Haloul intersection and Faleh Bin Nasser interchange.

Cable-Stayed BridgeThe 1,200M long Cable-Stayed Bridge was

designed to construct without columns up to a distance of 150 metres, taking into account all safety factors while constructing the bridge, including supporting the bridge with about 120

cables and 754 precast concrete pieces of more than 200 tons in weight and setting up 20 columns and 16 pillars to reach the height of the highest point from the bridge to 30 metres.

This indigenous cable-stayed bridge will be a great leap in the traffic culture of Doha due to its strategic location above Haloul interchange and Faleh bin Nasser interchange on Salwa Road, where it will catch traffic coming to and from Hamad International Airport and will reduce traffic pressure on parallel roads such as Wholesale Market Street and Doha Expressway.

Al Waab Interchange, Murraikh

Interchange & Longest Bridge in Qatar

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor includes the longest bridge in Qatar with a length of 2.6 km extending over Al Waab Interchange, Murraikh Interchange and Snay Bu Hasa Interchange. The bridge con-sists of four lanes in each direction to provide free flow traffic for commuters from Salwa Road and Al Waab in the direction of Al Rayyan and Al Rayyan Road and vice versa.

Al Waab Interchange Al Waab Interchange will be reopened after

converting it from signaled intersection to a three level interchange to provide improved traffic flow in all directions. The interchange facilitates access to important roads such as Doha Expressway, Salwa Road and Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor.

It consists of three bridges and a ground level signalled junction on Al Waab Street. The inter-change will also provide traffic flow to neigh-borhood areas such as Al Waab, Fereej Al Soudan, Al Sadd, Mehairja, Al Rayyan and Muaither, where there are many educational institutions and health facilities, commercial outlets and residential neighbourhoods.

The interchange will also facilitate access to a number of sports facilities such as Khalifa Inter-national Stadium, Jassim bin Hamad Stadium (Al Sadd), Ali bin Hamad Al Attiyah Hall and Aspire Zone, in addition to nearby metro stations along the Golden Line such as Al Sudan Station and Al Waab Station.

Murraikh Interchange Murraikh Interchange is integrated with Al

Waab Interchange, after converting Lekhwiya Roundabout into a two-level interchange. It is

considered as a major access road providing par-allel traffic to Al Waab Street and connecting traffic from Doha Expressway in the direction of Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor and Al Khufoos Street to Al Furousiya Street, reducing traffic pressure on Al Waab Street. Murraikh Interchange is also connected with Al Mokafaha Interchange that connects Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor with Al Rayyan Road, which will reduce the parallel traffic movement on Doha Expressway and 22 February Street.

Deepest and Longest UnderpassThe corridor project includes Al Rayyan

Underpass, the longest and deepest two-way underpass with a length of 2.1km, extending below Lebday Interchange (Al Mokafaha Interchange) at a depth of 25 metres. The underpass connects traffic coming from Al Waab, Murraikh inter-changes and Makkah interchange in Al Luqta area without the need to use Al Rayyan Road.

Makkah Interchange The project also includes Makkah Interchange,

which consists of a bridge with four lanes in each direction, ensuring a free flow traffic between Al Rayyan and Al Gharrafa, and a signaled inter-section that facilitates access to Al Luqta area.

Al Luqta UnderpassThe corridor includes the 500-metre long Al

Luqta interchange that intersects with Khalifa Street, directly linking Al Luqta and Al Gharrafa, providing an alternative road to the nearby tilted intersection.

Umm Lekhba, the Biggest Interchange Umm Lekhba Interchange is the largest inter-

change in Qatar, with a length of 11km, and it is the first in Qatar in highest number of levels, con-sisting four levels and nine bridges that provide free traffic flow in all directions. It also includes the second highest bridge in Qatar with a height of 30 metres.

Umm Lekhba interchange is also significant in its position as the north gate to Doha city and a ‘distribution point’ of traffic due to its strategic location. The interchange is located at the northern entrance to Doha city, where the heavy traffic movement to and from Doha towards Al Shamal direction, and it is located in an important spot where Al Shamal Road intersects with Sabah

Al Ahmad Corridor.In addition, the interchange is located in

densely populated neighbourhoods with many big commercial outlets, many governmental insti-tutions, educational and health facilities, as well as big shopping complexes and markets.

The interchange can accommodate more than 20,000 vehicles per hour, as five out of nine bridges consist of two lanes in one direction, while the other four bridges are of one-way lane.

The interchange will reduce traffic pressure on Al Shamal Road, especially at Al Gharrafa Interchange (Immigration Interchange) and Al Duhail Interchange. It will also provide excellent traffic flow for commuters from Doha Corniche, Al Markhiya, Madinat Khalifa and Al Duhail in the direction of Al Shamal Road, Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor, Al Gharrafa and Gharrafat Al Rayyan areas, reaching up to Al Luqta and Al Rayyan.

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor - a

vital artery in the heart of Doha

Residential neighbourhoods and major roads

The new corridor is a major link connecting about 15 major roads including Doha Expressway, Al Wakra Road, Ras Bu Abboud Street, G Ring Road, Industrial Area Road, Salwa Road, Al Rayyan Road, Al Waab Street, Al Luqta Street, Al Markhiya Street and Al Shamal Road, which serves more than 25 densely populated residential neighborhoods such as Al Thumama, Bu Hamour, Al Waab, Al Rayyan, Al Luqta and Al Gharrafa among others.

Sports Facilities and World Cup

Stadiums

Sabah Al Ah mad Corridor facilitates access to most of FIFA 2022 World Cup stadiums including Ras Bu Abboud Stadium, Al Thumama Stadium, Al Janoub Stadium, Khalifa International Stadium, Education City Stadium, as well as many other sports facilities such as Aspire Zone, Al Gharrafa stadium, Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium (Al Sadd) and Ali bin Hamad Al Attiyah Hall.

Doha MetroSabah Al Ahmad corridor project integrates

with the metro network by connecting with several stations including Free Zone Station, Al Waab Station, Al Rayyan Al Qadeem Station, Oqba Ibn Nafei Station and Al Sudan Station.

Economic entities Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor contributes to

linking important economic organisations in the country from Hamad International Airport passing through Free Zone, Municipal Market to the com-mercial outlets beside Al Waab Interchange and Umm Lekhba Interchange. The corridor also facil-itates access to Doha Industrial Area through its link with Industrial Area Road.

Health and educational facilitiesAs for health facilities, Sabah Al Ahmad Cor-

ridor, by linking with the highway network in the country, provide best way to reach health facilities around the route including Sidra Med-icine Hospital, Mesaimeer Health Center and Al Thumama Health Center. The corridor also facilitates access to many educational institu-tions including institutions in the Education City, besides many schools and nearby institutes.

07THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021 HOME

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor is ‘Lung of Doha’ & alternate route for Doha Expressway and 22 February Street

Historian Leyla Bartet, in her book “Memories of Cedar and Olive”, in Chapter III, “The Arabs in Peru” mentions that “it is estimated that from 1860 to 1890 an approximate number of 600 thousand Arabs left the Middle East as America as a destination, a flow that intensified from 1900 to 1914”.

08 THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021VIEWS

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

THE State of Qatar has reiterated its commitment to disarmament efforts around the globe, and has voiced its support to protecting humanity from the devastation of deadly weapons. Working towards maintaining global peace and security has been the state’s longstanding policy.

Speaking at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, said Qatar pursues a consistent and clear national policy on disarmament issues based on its commitment to its responsibilities towards maintaining international peace and security, and in its belief in the need to support all efforts aimed at disarmament in the world.

Doha has also welcomed the agreement between the United States and Russia to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). Qatar’s envoy at the Geneva conference said the extension of the treaty was a right step towards limiting and getting rid of the nuclear armament cycle.

Al Hammadi said the Middle East region faces an important security dilemma represented by the presence and use of weapons of mass destruction. This situation constitutes a real threat that must be addressed. In this regard, he reaffirmed Qatar’s full support for holding a new session of the United Nations conference on estab-lishing a zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East during this year.

Establishing such a zone in the region will also con-tribute to achieving security, stability, peace and sus-tainable development, as well as enhancing the credi-bility of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, especially in light of the existing regional and international tensions.

Doha has signed a number of global accords on disarmament and, in 2004, also set up a National Com-mittee for the Prohibition of Weapons.

At the Geneva session, Qatar called on the interna-tional community, especially the countries sponsoring the 1995 resolution, which was mainly related to the endless extension of the Treaty on the Non-Prolifer-ation of Nuclear Weapons, to fulfill their responsibilities and duties towards implementing the resolutions of the 2010 conference, and other relevant decisions. It also affirmed the legitimate right of all countries, especially developing countries, to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, in accordance with the standards and proce-dures of the International Atomic Energy Agency and under its supervision and in line with the comprehensive safeguards system.

The envoy also called on the Conference on Disar-mament to review and expand its membership in order to be more representative.

Call for global peace

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OFFICE: TEL: 4455 7741 / 767FAX: +974 4455 7758

MANAGING EDITOR: TEL: 4462 7505

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR: TEL: 4455 7769

LOCAL NEWS SECTION: TEL: 4455 7743

BUSINESS NEWS SECTION: TEL: 4462 7535

SPORT NEWS SECTION: TEL: 4455 7745

ONLINE SECTION: TEL: 4462 7501email: INFO@PEN.COM.QA

PUBLIC RELATIONS: TEL: 4455 7613email: PR@PEN.COM.QA

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT: TEL: 4455 7837 / 780FAX: 4455 7870, email: adv@pen.com.qa

CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT: TEL: 4455 7857email: adv@pen.com.qa

SUBSCRIPTION & DISTRIBUTION: TEL: 4455 7809 / 839 FAX: 44557819, email: info@tawseelqatar.com

D-RING ROAD, POST BOX: 3488, DOHA - QATAREMAIL: editor@pen.com.qa

Quote of the day

In the face of COVID-19, of climate

change, of rising inequality, this is our

moment to act.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

The Palace of Torre Tagle, headquarters of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru.

One of the communities that went to Peru in search of a new oppor-

tunities abroad of their native land; was undoubtedly the people from the Arab world, who with their valuable contribution in many cultural, economic and social aspects made the country a suitable place to live.

Since the arrival of the first Europeans to the lands of South America and specifi-cally to Peru, the Arab migrant came with a pro-found civilization of more than 700 years in the Iberian Peninsula which is referred to as the territory of Al-Andalus.

Lima, the capital of Peru, where the first Spanish Vice-royalty was established with an Arab influence demon-strated unswervingly in the architecture of our city. A symbolic sample was the con-structions of the balconies of the colonial era, beautifully represented -to this day- in the Torre Tagle Palace, head-quarters of our current Min-istry of Foreign Affairs; and, built at the beginning of the 18th century until 1735.

Historian Leyla Bartet, in her book “Memories of Cedar and Olive”, in Chapter III, “The Arabs in Peru” mentions that “it is estimated that from 1860 to 1890 an approximate number of 600 thousand Arabs left the Middle East as America as a destination, a flow that intensified from 1900 to 1914”.

It is in June of 1919, when Peru begins a process of wel-coming migrants from this part of the world, who traveled with an Ottoman passport, and later arrived with a French passport from Lebanon or with an English or Jordanian travel document in the case of the Palestinians.

These first immigrants who came across South America (Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia), settled in the regions of Huancavelica and Arequipa (the Peruvian Andes). It is claimed that in Arequipa from 1880 to 1920, of the 20 commercial com-panies, five were originally Palestinians.

Denys Cuche, professor at the Sorbonne University (1997), a researcher spe-cialized in immigration, tells us about Syrian-Palestinian immigrations to the Peruvian Amazon, in the eastern region

of Peru, in 1880, whose trade was commerce.

Undoubtedly, the presence of the Arabs in Peru was very positive in the past and in the present as we have successfully opened several resident Embassies in the region including, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and the Gulf countries: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Con-sulate General of Dubai.

In 1979, the Palestinian Club was established in Lima, where a large number of Arab descendants gather, those who have integrated into the Peruvian society, giving it their knowledge and their dif-ferent cultural touch.

In addition, the first inau-gurated Mosque, named Masjid Bab-Ul-Islam located in an important District of Magdalena, Lima, was the

very first Islamic center of the reunion of the Muslims residing in Lima including many Peruvians who con-verted to Islam. Arequipa was also one of the cities that was introduced to the Islamic faith by building another place of worship and another Pales-tinian Club.

Peruvian women was also introduced to the oriental fashion aspect shown through the ‘La tapada Limeña’, the name used at the time of the viceroyalty of Peru and the early years of the Republic to designate the Limeña women “The women of Lima” who

covered their heads and faces with comfortable silk shawls, exposing only one eye. This style resembles the attire of Islamic women.

Music, one of the key ele-ments that had evolved from the ancient Arabic civilization through the Moorish rule; allowing the spread of the Arab tuning methods into the western world. Thanks to this transmission of art, many instruments were introduced to the rest of the world such as the Oud, the Nay, the violin as well as the guitar, an instrument that is heavily used in my country Peru.

On the other hand, the Arab presence is also shown in the hydraulic system, agri-cultural instruments, and at the same time in new crops, such as sugar cane, cotton, rice, citrus, bananas, some vegetables, cinnamon, cumin, pepper, palm trees and the date palm including, our gas-tronomy which has also been fused with the Arabic culinary cuisine.

The Arab civilization left a legacy of discoveries and achievements that we are still learning from.

Finally, I have to write that I will continue along with my research for the discovery of a Qatari presence within the journey of the Arabic influence in Peru.

BOBBY GHOSH BLOOMBERG

If the recent news of a United Nations-brokered deal for a “unity government” in Libya has a familiar ring, it is because we’ve seen this movie before - and it didn’t end well. But if the principal actors stick to their parts, there is a chance the script will play out differently this time.

At the end of 2015, a UN-brokered deal promised an end to Libya’s political turmoil. After months of frac-tious talks, delegates from the country’s warring factions met in the Moroccan coastal town of Skhirat and agreed to form a unified government of national unity, headed by a presidential council. The council had one month to name a cabinet, which would stabilize the country, extirpate terrorist groups like the Islamic State and eventually pave the way to general elections.

Within months, the agreement was in tatters. The warlord Khalifa Haftar, whose

so-called Libyan National Army dominated the coun-try’s eastern half, took control of the “oil crescent,” a string of towns along the Mediter-ranean. Advancing toward him were western forces loyal to the UN-approved council in Tripoli that had defeated ISIS in Sirte. But Haftar brushed aside the westerners and brought his army to the gates of the capital, before a Turkish military intervention sent him packing.

This impasse finally brought the UN to mediate a new agreement. This time, the delegates gathered in Geneva and elected a slate of candi-dates such as the western businessman-politician Mohammed Dbeibah, who will be Libya’s prime minister, and Mohammad Younes Menfi, an easterner, who will head the new three-member presidency council. They have until the end of this week to form a cabinet, and the end of the year to hold new national elections.

Can they make it? There are some grounds for optimism. For one thing, the

foreign patrons of both sides seem to have concluded that neither can pull off a decisive military victory. That may explain why Egypt, the UAE and Turkey have all pro-nounced themselves satisfied with the new deal and pledged to back the Dbeibah-Menfi government. For another, Libyans themselves are plainly tired of the fighting and are hurting from its impact, along with that of the coronavirus pandemic, on their economy.

The challenge for the gov-ernment will be to manage expectations - of ordinary Libyans, of the political fac-tions and of the international community. The first test will come this week with the naming of the new cabinet. Although the political factions are jockeying for control of key ministries, the prime minister’s own druthers are to appoint technocrats.

Libyans, exhausted from 10 years of nearly continuous fighting, are counting on the new government to reen-ergize a sclerotic economy, which will require a steady

flow of oil exports. The recent end of a nine-month blockade by Haftar’s forces has allowed production to rise to about 1.3 million barrels a day, but poor infrastructure has interrupted output and strikes by port security have disrupted exports.

Still, Libya finally has a unified national budget for the first time since 2014 and its central bank has unified the exchange rate, which augurs well for currency sta-bilization and the easing of a longstanding liquidity crisis.

Ultimately, though, the success of the new deal will depend on the willingness of the factions and their patrons to keep their weapons sheathed. Hopes that foreign forces and mercenaries would begin to go home have been dashed; instead, Turkey and Russia are setting up per-manent military bases, the better to protect their local partners as well as economic interests. Turkey, for instance, has billions of dollars in business contracts at stake, as well as an interest in new oil and gas exploration deals.

Presence of cultural Arab in Peru

/PeninsulaQatar

/ThePeninsulaQatar

/Peninsula_Qatar

/ThePeninsulaNewspaper

+974 6698 6188

www.thepeninsula.qa

Finally, there’s some hope for an end to Libya’s pain

Established in 1996

JOSÉ A. BENZAQUEN PEREA,AMBASSADOR OF PERU TO QATAR

UNRWA official receives vaccine in Gaza

09THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021 GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Biden moves to reengage with Palestinians after Israel focusAP — WASHINGTON

The Biden administration is moving slowly but surely toward reengaging with the Palestinians after a near total absence of official contact during former President Donald Trump’s four years in office.

As American officials plan steps to restore direct ties with the Palestinian leadership, Biden’s national security team is taking steps to restore relations that had been severed while Trump pursued a Mideast policy focused largely around Israel, America’s closest partner in the region.

On Tuesday, for the second time in two days, Biden’s administration categorically embraced a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict, something that Trump had been purposefully vague about while slashing aid to the Pales-tinians and taking steps to support Israel’s claims to land that the Palestinians want for an independent state.

The State Department said

on Tuesday that a US delegation attended a meeting of a Nor-wegian-run committee that serves as a clearinghouse for assistance to the Palestinians. Although little-known outside foreign policy circles, the so-called Ad Hoc Liaison Com-mittee has been influential in the peace process since Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords in 1993.

“During the discussion, the United States reaffirmed the US commitment to advancing pros-perity, security, and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians and to preserve the prospects of a negotiated two-state solution in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Pal-estinian state,” the State Department said in a statement.

“The United States under-scored the commitment to sup-porting economic and human-itarian assistance and the need to see progress on outstanding projects that will improve the lives of the Palestinian people, while urging all parties to avoid

unilateral steps that make a two-state solution more dif-ficult to achieve,” it said.

US participation in the meeting followed a Monday call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israel’s foreign minister in which Blinken stressed that the new US administration unambigu-ously supports a two-state solution. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is close to Trump, has eschewed the two-state solution.

Biden spoke to Netanyahu last week for the first time as president after a delay that many found suspicious and sug-gestive of a major realignment in US policy. Blinken, however, has spoken to Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi twice amid ongoing concern in Israel about Biden’s intentions in the region, particularly his desire to reenter the Iran nuclear deal.

In Monday’s call, Blinken “emphasized the Biden admin-istration’s belief that the two-state solution is the best way to

ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, living in peace alongside a viable and democratic Pales-tinian state,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

The Trump administration had presented its own version of a two-state peace plan, though it

would have required significant Palestinian concessions on ter-ritory and sovereignty.

The Palestinians, however, rejected it out of hand and accused the US of no longer being an honest peace broker after Trump recognised Jeru-salem as Israel’s capital, moved

the US embassy to the city from Tel Aviv, cut off aid to the Pal-estinian Authority, closed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington and rescinded a long-standing legal opinion that Israeli settlement activity is ille-gitimate under international law,

A picture taken with a drone shows the city of Jericho, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, yesterday. President Joe Biden’s national security team is taking steps to restore relations that had been severed while former President Donald Trump pursued a Mideast policy focused largely around Israel.

Three killed in clashes as mob storms governor's office in southeast IranAP — TEHRAN

Three people were killed over two days in clashes in the southeastern Iranian town of Saravan near the border with Pakistan, the semiofficial Ilna news agency reported.

An angry mob stormed the district governor’s office Tuesday, a day after shootings of fuel smugglers at the border left at least two people dead.

Tuesday’s Ilna report quoted Malak Fazeli, Saravan’s representative in parliament, as saying: “As far as I know, three people lost their lives while being transferred to the hospital.”

It was unclear whether all three people were killed in the border shootings or if one of the fatalities was a result of the chaos at the district governor’s office. Fazeli said another eight people were hospitalised with injuries but three were released. He said calm had returned to the town.

On the other side of the

border, in Pakistan, officials lamented the loss of life and urged authorities of both coun-tries to investigate the shootings and resulting mayhem. Sana Ullah Baluch, a member of the Baluchistan Pro-vincial Assembly and former senator in the government, told a local TV channel that he’d heard reports of higher death tolls, without providing evidence.

“Our innocent jobless youths go to Iran because of unemployment, they don’t go there just for entertainment,” he said of the violence that broke out when outraged pro-testers stormed a police station and later the governor’s office in Saravan. “The governments of Pakistan and Iran should devise some policy... so that these men don’t face bullets, batons and torture.”

Saravan is a major city in Sistan-Baluchestan, a desert province that is one of the most restive and least developed parts of Iran.

Iran nuclear issue at ‘critical point’: ChinaAP & REUTERS — BEIJING/TEHRAN

Developments surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme are at a “critical point” and lifting sanctions on the country is key to breaking the deadlock, China’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Spokesperson Wang Wen-bin’s comments came a day after Iran officially began restricting international inspections of its nuclear facilities in a bid to pressure European countries and the US into lifting crippling eco-nomic sanctions and restoring the 2015 nuclear deal.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China

is a party to the agreement known as the JCPOA, while also maintaining friendly relations and close economic ties with Tehran.

That has long set China against sanctions, and Beijing worked with Germany, France, Britain and Russia to maintain the deal after former President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US unilat-erally out in 2018.

The new administration of President Joe Biden has sought to reverse that decision, although Iran’s violations of the JCPOA and the move Tuesday to limit inter-national inspections underscore how difficult that task is.

“The current situation on the Iranian nuclear issue is at a critical point, with both opportunities and challenges,” Wang told reporters at a daily briefing.

“We have always believed that the return of the U.S. to the comprehensive agreement and the lifting of sanctions against Iran are the keys to breaking the deadlock in the Iranian nuclear issue,” Wang said.

It is up to the United States to make the first move in saving the Iran nuclear deal, Iran’s ambassador in Geneva told the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament on Wednesday.

“The onus is on the

offending party to return, restart and compensate for the damages as well as to reassure that they would not renege again,” Ambassador Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh said.

“There is a path forward with a logical sequence as (Iranian Foreign) Minister (Mohammad Javad) Zarif recently outlined.”

The United States urged Iran again on Tuesday to coop-erate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying that Tehran is moving further away from compliance under its nuclear constraints, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

Matthias Schmale, UNRWA’s Gaza director, receiving a vaccine against the coronavirus disease in Gaza City, yesterday.

Israeli forcesattack Palestinianboats, farmers

QNA — OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

Israeli navy yesterday attacked Palestinian fishing boats sailing offshore the city of Gaza, Wafa news agency reported.

The Israeli navy opened fire and water hoses at Pales-tinian fishing boats sailing within six nautical miles off-shore Gaza city, causing damages to the boats. The fishermen had to leave the water and abruptly end their fishing mission, which is their sole source of livelihood.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces manning Gaza’s frontier opened fire at Palestinian farmers and shepherds who were tending their groves and flocks to the east of Khan Younes city, in the southern coastal enclave, forcing them to leave. No casualties were reported though.

Israeli occupation forces launched a campaign of arrests in various areas of the West Bank, during which they arrested six Palestinians from different parts of Tulkarm, all of whom were released pris-oners, while a freed prisoner was arrested from the town of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah.

Kuwait celebrates 60th National Day today

QNA — KUWAIT CITY

The State of Kuwait is set to celebrate its 60th National Day today, marking the efforts of its leadership to develop all sectors and preserve the country’s peace and stability.

This year’s celebrations will be the

first under the leadership of H H the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah.

During the celebrations, Kuwait is also remembering the great efforts of the late Amir H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, who passed away after long years of national and international achievements.

Although this year’s celebrations come in time of the coronavirus virus crisis, as today marks one year since discovering the first coronavirus case in Kuwait, this crisis showed Kuwaiti people’s strength and unity in facing the pandemic.

Even though public celebrations are banned by the government due to the ongoing crisis, Kuwaiti families will

continue celebrating the event in their homes.

Meanwhile, all segments of society are cooperating to deal with the impact of the coronavirus, including the great efforts of the health care workers and people who volunteered in different areas.

Kuwait had celebrated the first national day on June 19, 1962, organ-ising a huge military performance.

National day celebrations con-tinued to be held on June 19 between 1962-64, but an Amiri decree issued on May 18, 1964, merging Inde-pendence Day with ascension of Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem to office to be Feb-ruary 25.

In the same year, Kuwait launched

an establishment council tasked with setting the constitution that relies on democracy.

The constitution was approved by Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem in November 1962, then holding the first legislative elections in January 23, 1963.

Kuwait’s foreign policy has always been neutral and peaceful, while also focusing on cooperation with regional and international organisations to achieve international peace and stability.

Kuwait had also built strong rela-tions with the Arab and Muslim Worlds, and exerted great efforts in supporting the work of the GCC, Arab League and the UN.

Moreover, the country has great

achievements in the humanitarian field, continuously aiding those in need around the world.

These efforts were recognized by the UN in September 2014, granting late His Highness Sheikh Sabah the “Humanitarian Leader” title, and Kuwait the “Humanitarian Center” title.

In the 70s and 80s, the National Day celebrations were held along the Arabian Gulf street, with perform-ances by school students and musical bands.

In 1985, Kuwait opened the Flag Square overlooking Arabian Gulf to hold national celebrations. The square also includes the longest pole, raising the Kuwaiti flag to about 36 meters.

During the celebrations, Kuwait is

also remembering the great

efforts of the late Amir H H Sheikh

Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al

Sabah, who passed away after

long years of national and

international achievements.

Turkish court convicts three in Ghosn escape trialREUTERS — ISTANBUL

A Turkish court convicted an executive of Turkish jet company MNG and two pilots over their role in flying former Nissan Motor Co Ltd Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan during his escape to Lebanon just over a year ago.

The court sentenced them to four years and two months on charges of migrant smug-gling. It acquitted two other pilots of the same charge.

Ghosn, once a leading light of the global car industry, was arrested in Japan in late 2018 and charged with underre-porting his salary and using

company funds for personal purposes, charges he denies.

The ousted chairman of the alliance of Renault, Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp had been awaiting his trial under house arrest in Japan when he escaped in December 2019 via Istanbul to Beirut, his childhood home.

An executive from Turkish private jet operator MNG Jet and four pilots were detained by Turkish authorities in early January 2020 and charged with migrant smuggling.

The defendants were released in July, when the first hearing was held, and are not expected to return to jail due to

time they served. All defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Ghosn saga has shaken the global auto industry, at one point jeopardising the Renault-Nissan alliance which he mas-terminded, and increased scrutiny of Japan’s judicial system.

Iran arrested French tourist nine months ago: LawyerREUTERS — DUBAI

Iran has detained a French tourist for nine months and his lawyers have been denied access to him, one of the lawyers, Saeid Dehghan, said. “His name is Benjamin and he is being held at the Vakilabad prison in the city of Mashahd. He was detained nine months ago and he faces contradictory and baseless charges,” Dehghan said. Iran’s judiciary was not available to comment.

10 THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021ASIA

India expands COVID-19 vaccination programme REUTERS — NEW DELHI

India announced an expansion of its COVID-19 vaccination programme yesterday but warned that breaches of coro-navirus protocols could worsen an infection surge in many states.

Nearly a month after the health minister declared that COVID-19 had been contained, states such as Maharashtra in the west and Kerala in the south have reported a spike in cases amid growing reluctance to wear masks and maintain social distancing.

India's infections are the second highest in the world at 11.03 million, swelled by a further 13,742 in the past 24 hours, health ministry data showed. Deaths rose by a two-week high of 104 to 156,567.

"Any laxity in implementing stringent measures to curb the spread, especially in view of new strains of virus..., could com-pound the situation,"

the ministry said in a statement singling out nine states and a federal territory.

India has confirmed the long-time presence of two mutant variants — N440K and E484Q — in addition to those first detected in Brazil, Britain and South Africa.

The health ministry said that while cases in the states of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab, as well as the federal territory of Jammu and Kashmir,

were rising, the proportion of high-accuracy RT-PCR tests in those places was falling because many states prefer antigen tests, which are cheaper and quicker but less accurate.

The federal government is worried excessive reliance on rapid antigen tests could under-count cases, leading to real infections going unchecked and spreading the disease.

Cases have also risen in Kar-nataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. In the past week, a third of India's 36 states and union territories have reported an average of more than 100 new cases each day, with Kerala and Maharashtra both registering more than 4,000, in a trend experts link to the reopening of schools and suburban train services.

Maharashtra reported 8,807 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, the highest in nearly five months. Of those, 1,167 were in Mumbai, India's financial capital.

The government has also

asked states to speed up vacci-nations for healthcare and frontline workers. Just about 11 million people have received one or two doses in a campaign that began on Jan. 16. The target is 300 million by August.

From March 1, India will start

vaccinating people above 60 and those older than 45 with health conditions free of charge in about 10,000 government hos-pitals and for a fee in more than 20,000 private facilities, the government said.

Earlier yesterday, a

regulatory panel sought more data from drugmaker Dr. Reddy's Laboratories for emer-gency authorisation of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, a senior official with direct knowledge of the discussions said.

India renames world’s largest cricket stadium after PM ModiREUTERS — AHMEDABAD

India renamed the world’s largest cricket stadium after Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday, a move that drew immediate praise and criticism.

The name change to the Narendra Modi Stadium was unveiled at the 132,000-seat venue formerly known as Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad, in the western state of Gujarat, where India are playing England

in the third match of a four-game test series.

A gifted orator and con-summate populist, Modi is by far the most popular and recog-nisable politician in India, and won a second term in power with an increased majority for the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019.

But Modi has also been accused of centralising power in the world’s biggest democracy.

“World’s largest stadium

dedicated to the world’s largest personality!,” Priti Gandhi, a BJP spokeswoman, said in a tweet.

Others said the decision reflected a cult of personality surrounding Modi.

“The people of Gujarat will not bear this insult to Sardar Patel,” said Hardik Patel, pres-ident of the opposition Congress party in the state. Patel was India’s first interior minister, long revered for his tough approach on national issues.

Authorities have named the larger complex surrounding the stadium after him.

Dedicating sports stadiums to former prime ministers is common in India, but renaming such a high-profile venue for a sitting leader is rare.

Many of India’s public insti-tutions and projects have been named after members of the Congress’ Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that governed India for decades and which Modi’s party

long criticised as the dominance of one family.

“Both the BJP and Congress are busy perpetuating political branding,” Sanjay Jha, a former Congress official and political commentator, said.

Archit Khare, a 29-year-old student at the game, said: “I don’t know why it has been changed. Sardar Patel is more iconic. Sardar Patel was the iron man of India, it should have remained.”

Thailand court finds 3 ministersguilty of leading protestsAP — BANGKOK

Three Cabinet ministers in Thailand were forced to leave their posts yesterday after a court found them guilty of sedition for taking part in sometimes-violent protests in 2013-2014 against the government then in power.

The Criminal Court in Bangkok found Digital Economy Minister Bud-dhipongse Punnakanta, Edu-cation Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan and Deputy Transport Minister Thaworn Senneam guilty along with about two dozen other defendants in a case that was launched in 2018.

The verdicts can be appealed to a higher court but under the law the Cabinet ministers must relinquish their jobs immediately.

Another prominent person convicted yesterday was Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister who helped found the People’s Democratic Reform Com-mittee, which led the demon-strations against the elected government of then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Instability caused by the street protests led to the Thai army

staging a coup in 2014 and keeping power until 2019.

Suthep and the Cabinet ministers each received prison sentences ranging from five to about seven years.

“We are prepared. Whatever happens, will happen,” Suthep said outside the court.

“But I have to assure you that the protest leaders and those who share our same belief, that we are fighting for our country and our land. We firmly believe in responsibility in our actions and not vio-lating the law.”

The protests marked the tail end of almost a decade of intense political contention in Thailand that began in 2006 after then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by a coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin is Yingluck’s brother, and they are both currently in exile.

Thaksin’s ouster set off years of sometimes violent conflict between his sup-porters and opponents, both of which engaged in aggressive street protests against governments led by the other’s faction. The Peo-ple’s Democratic Reform Committee was in the anti-Thaksin camp, which in an earlier incarnation as the Peo-ple’s Alliance for Democracy occupied the prime minister’s offices and Bangkok’s inter-national airport for about a week in 2008.

Thaksin’s supporters were known as the Red Shirts, and in 2010 wreaked havoc by occupying part of central Bangkok.

Their protest was sup-pressed by the army with armed force in violence over several weeks that took almost 100 lives.

Thailand Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan gestures while wearing a face mask as anti-government protesters and students attend a demonstration demanding the government to resign, in front of the Ministry of Education, in Bangkok on September 5, 2020.

Lawmakers, rights groups ask Malaysia to explain deportation of migrantsAP — KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysian lawmakers and rights groups yesterday demanded that the government explain why it violated a court stay order and deported 1,086 Myanmar migrants, saying it put their lives in danger following Myanmar’s military coup.

A high court on Tuesday ordered a stay of the repatri-ation of 1,200 Myanmar nationals pending an appeal by Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia, which said there were refugees, asylum-seekers and minors among the group.

But hours later, the immi-gration department said it had sent 1,086 of them back on three Myanmar military ships. It insisted there were no ref-ugees and asylum-seekers on board, and that all had volun-tarily agreed to return home.

The act was a “a clear display that the Malaysian gov-ernment does not respect the ongoing court process and has put Malaysia in a bad light on the human rights front,” four opposition lawmakers said in a statement.

They said the government must provide details about the 1,086 who were deported, reveal if there were any children and explain how consent was obtained from them.

The UN High Commissioner of Refugees has said that at

least six people among the 1,200 were registered with it. The two rights groups in their lawsuit named at least three UNHCR cardholders and 17 minors with one parent still in Malaysia.

The two groups said yes-terday that the court has ordered a stay on the depor-tation of the remaining 114 migrants pending its decision on March 9 on whether to hear their appeal.

New Sin Yew, a lawyer for the rights groups, said the court will also decide how to deal with the immigration department for breaching its order to halt the deportation.

“We believe the gov-ernment owes an explanation to the people of Malaysia as to why they chose to defy the court order, and on the identity and status of all 1,200 people,” said Amnesty Malaysia director Katrina Jorene Maliamauv.

“There is clear, docu-mented evidence of an esca-lation in human rights viola-tions in Myanmar since the coup earlier this month. Therefore, no deportation to Myanmar can be treated as part of any ‘normal exercise,’ but demands more scrutiny,” she said.

The rights groups reiterated their call for the government to give UNCHR, which has been barred from immigration detention centres since August 2019, access to the migrants to examine their claims.

Malaysia PM

receives jab

as vaccine

roll-out begins

BLOOMBERG — KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia started its COVID-19 vaccination programme yesterday, two days ahead of schedule, with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin the first to receive the shot.

Muhyiddin and the nation’s Health director-general, as well as several medical staff were among the group to receive the first Pfizer-BioNTech shots in Putrajaya, the country’s admin-istrative capital.

The first phase of the vaccine roll-out will run through April. It involves about 500,000 front-liners comprising health-care, defense and security personnel, as well as teachers with co-mor-bidities, according to the gov-ernment. Malaysia received its first batch of vaccines on Sunday, when 312,390 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot landed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

“I am confident that this vaccine is safe and effective,” Muhyiddin said. “So, trust and believe that the government’s efforts to ensure we break the Covid-19 chain succeeds, God willing.” The inoculation drive will begin in Selangor, Malaysia’s richest state, from Thursday, and get underway in the nation’s federal territories including Kuala Lumpur on March 1, Science, Technology and Inno-vation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said at a separate briefing yesterday.

The government has secured 66.7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from various producers, enough to inoculate nearly 110% of the population. Pfizer remains the only manu-facturer to receive the govern-ment’s conditional approval for usage, and is set to deliver a total 32 million dosages.

Malaysia is also in line to get 12.8 million doses of the Astra-Zeneca Plc. vaccine, 12 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine, 6.4 million shots of Sputnik V and 3.5 million doses from CanSinoBio.

The government is evalu-ating a deal with Johnson & Johnson, said Khairy.

India plans new social media controlsREUTERS — NEW DELHI

Chafing from a dispute with Twitter, India plans to oblige social media companies to erase contentious content fast and assist investigations, according to a draft regulation.

New Delhi’s planned “Inter-mediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code” - a copy of which was seen by Reuters - come as various nations around the world try to assert tighter control over powerful Big Tech firms.

Facebook faced a global backlash from publishers and

politicians last week after blocking news feeds in Australia in a dispute with the government over revenue-sharing.

In India, Twitter ignored orders to remove content over farmers’ protests, fuelling the zeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government since 2018 to tighten regulation for content it deems disinformation or unlawful.

The latest draft rules — which would be legally enforcable – say companies should remove content as early as possible, but not later than 36 hours, after a government or legal order.

They must also assist in investigations or other cyber security-related incidents within 72 hours of a request. Further, if a post depicts an individual in any obscene act or conduct, then companies must disable or remove such content within a day of receiving a complaint, the rules added.

“A publisher shall take into consideration India’s multi-racial and multi-religious context and exercise due caution and dis-cretion when featuring the activ-ities, beliefs, practices, or views of any racial or religious group,” the draft rules said.

India's infections are the

second highest in the

world at 11.03 million,

swelled by a further

13,742 in the past 24

hours, health ministry

data showed. Deaths

rose by a two-week high

of 104 to 156,567.

A policeman receives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

The Criminal Court in

Bangkok found Digital

Economy Minister

Buddhipongse

Punnakanta, Education

Minister Nataphol

Teepsuwan and Deputy

Transport Minister

Thaworn Senneam guilty

along with about two

dozen other defendants

in a case that was

launched in 2018.

11THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021 ASIA

Japanese officials punished in scandal linked to Suga’s sonAP — TOKYO

Japan’s communications ministry punished 11 senior officials yesterday for accepting lavish dinners paid for by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s eldest son and fellow executives at a satellite broadcaster, the latest embarrassment for Suga’s already scandal-laden government.

The case surfaced after weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported that Seigo Suga and other executives from s a t e l l i t e b r o a d c a s t e r Tohokushinsha Film had enter-tained the officials at the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, which regulates com-munications business.

Yesterday, the ministry announced penalties including

salary cuts and reprimands for the 11 ministry officials for accepting the expensive dinners and gifts in violation of the ethics code. Internal Affairs and Com-munications Minister Ryota Takeda told reporters it was regrettable that the case led to the loss of public trust in the gov-ernment. Takeda said he is taking a three-month salary cut himself and ordered the ministry to set

up an investigative panel to look further into the case.

A ministry internal investi-gation found that the ministry officials received dinners and gifts totalling about 600,000 yen ($5,700) on around 40 occasions from 2016 to 2019. It also found one of Prime Minister Suga’s public affairs officials, Makiko Yamada, also accepted an expensive steak dinner when she

was at the ministry in 2019.Suga apologised over his

son’s entertaining of the officials. He, however, denied any involvement in his son’s business activity or knowledge of his entertaining of the officials.

“I’m very sorry about my son’s involvement that led to illegal activity, and I would like to apologize to the people,” Suga said.

Germany prepares

way for troops

to stay in

AfghanistanAP — BERLIN

The German government is preparing the way for the country’s troops in Afghan-istan — the second-biggest contingent in a Nato force — to stay in place until next year if needed.

Chancellor Angela Mer-kel’s Cabinet yesterday approved a new draft mandate that would enable German troops to stay until January 31, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

German troop deploy-ments overseas require par-liamentary approval, which is typically granted on an annual basis. The current mandate for Afghanistan expires at the end of March.

Nato has just under 10,000 troops in the war-ravaged country, helping to train and advise Afghan security forces. Germany’s contingent of nearly 1,100 is the second-biggest in the Resolute Support mission after the United States.

President Joe Biden is reviewing his predecessor’s 2020 deal with the Taliban, which includes a May 1 deadline for a final US troop withdrawal.

In Washington, calls are mounting for the United States to delay the final exit or rene-gotiate the deal to allow the presence of a smaller, intelli-gence-based American force.

Germany’s foreign min-ister, Heiko Maas, has said the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan should be tied to progress in slow-moving peace negotiations between the Kabul gov-ernment and the Taliban, rather than “slavishly” bound to the May 1 deadline.

Seibert said that the maximum level of 1,300 German troops is unchanged in the new mandate.

He said its proposed expiry date “takes account appropri-ately of the complex situation in Afghanistan and also makes possible the flexibility nec-essary to be able to react if the volatile security and threat sit-uation there changes.”

It also is designed to give Germany’s newly elected par-liament and government an early say in what happens going forward.

Germans will elect a new parliament on September 26, but it typically takes weeks or even a few months before a new coalition government is in place.

Thailand receives its first coronavirus vaccinesREUTERS — BANGKOK

Thailand received yesterday its first 200,000 doses of Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac, the coun-try’s first batch of coronavirus vaccines, with inoculations set to begin in a few days.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is expected to be among the first to receive the vaccine this weekend. Most doses have been reserved for frontline medical workers.

“Thank you to the People’s Republic of China for delivering the vaccine this month and sub-sequent months,” Prayuth said on the tarmac at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, where a

refrigerated container bearing the flags of the two countries was lowered from a Thai Airways plane. Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul earlier this week said 117,000 doses of Astra-Zeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine would also arrive on Wednesday and that Prayuth would be among the first recipients.

Thailand is expecting to take delivery of a further 1.8 doses of CoronaVac in March and April, to be given mainly to health workers and at-risk groups.

The country has so far been spared of the kind of epidemic seen elsewhere, with just over 25,000 infections overall.

The vaccine’s arrival comes

amid some public criticism of the government and accusations it has been too slow to secure the vaccines.

Its mass immunization cam-paign, which aims to administer 10 million doses a month, is slated to begin in June, using 26 million shots of AstraZeneca vac-cines produced by local firm Siam Bioscience. It has also reserved a further 35 million doses of the vaccine.

The government has said it plans to vaccinate more than half the adult population this year.

“We will procure more as we produce them so there is enough to create herd immunity in our country,” Prayuth said.

A container with Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines is loaded into a truck after a shipment of 200,000 doses from China arrived at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, in Bangkok yesterday.

First batch of AstraZeneca vaccine doses arrives in VietnamREUTERS — HANOI

Vietnam received the first batch of 117,000 doses of the Astra-Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine yesterday ahead of the planned rollout of the Southeast Asian country’s immunisation programme from next month.

The vaccines, which arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on a flight

from South Korea, will be used to inoculate more than 50,000 people who are seen as high risk, the government said in a statement.

Deputy health minister, Truong Quoc Cuong, was at the airport to meet the consignment of vaccines flown in from Seoul, according to media.

South Korea’s SK Bioscience

has a plant that has been approved to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Vietnam aims to obtain 90 million COVID-19 vaccine doses this year, including 30 million through the COVAX international vaccine-share scheme, 30 million from AstraZeneca and the rest from negotiations with Pfizer, its

health ministry said.The government said the

batch that arrived yesterday was part of the 30 million doses to be brought in by the Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Co., a firm set up to handle vaccine import and distribution.

The country expects to receive 1.3 million more doses by the end of March and 9.5

million doses in the second quarter.

It hopes to receive 25.9 million doses and 51.1 million doses in the third and final quarters respectively.

“We can assure that we have enough vaccines for the COVID-19 vaccination pro-gramme,” the health ministry said in a statement.

Philippine official defends move to

monitor foreign funding for NGOsREUTERS — MANILA

The Philippines’ top diplomat yesterday defended a new order requiring all international aid for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to be cleared with the foreign ministry, saying the aim was to stamp out funding for terrorism.

“It doesn’t affect legit NGOs,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said on Twitter.

“It is how a responsible gov-ernment monitors where money comes from and goes to in the face of insurgent and terrorist-secessionist threats.”

Successive Philippine gov-ernments have for decades fought low-level communist and sepa-ratist rebellions, but the rise of

Islamic State-inspired local extremism and the intensity of attacks has caused alarm. But NGOs said the requirement, which was conveyed to diplo-matic missions on February 5, might lead to a reduction in funding and threaten their sur-vival. The Philippines has a vibrant NGO sector, with 60,000 registered aid groups, according to the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, promoting the interests of farmers, women, and indigenous people, among many others.

Susan Ople, who heads an NGO fighting human trafficking, said the policy needs to be clar-ified. “We’d like to know how to navigate these changing waters,” Ople said.

Singapore discussing vaccine

certification with other countriesREUTERS — SINGAPORE

Singapore is discussing the mutual recognition of vaccine certificates with other countries, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, calling it a necessary step towards resuming global travel.

Singapore, a regional travel and tourism hub, has been rolling out its COVID-19 vacci-nation programme over the last two months. It has approved shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

“Even if each of us gears up to secure our own supplies, we must cooperate internationally

so that all countries including developing ones have access to vaccines for their people,” Lee said in a video recording posted on Facebook yesterday.

“We are also discussing mutual recognition of vaccine certification with interested countries,” he said. Lee did not specify the countries.

Singapore’s economy, which recorded its worst recession in 2020 due to the pandemic, is staging an uneven recovery this year and a return of more business and tourism travel would be a boost for the city state.

Australia: Antitrust chief claimsvictory after Facebook standoffREUTERS — CANBERRA

The architect of Australia’s laws forcing Google and Facebook to pay media companies for content claimed victory yesterday, though critics said last-minute changes to appease Facebook favoured Big Tech over smaller news outlets.

After tense negotiations prompted Facebook to cut off news in the country last week, Australia offered a host of tech-nical concessions and the social media giant said it would restore news as the revamped bill looked set to become law this week.

While Facebook said its con-cerns had been met and oppo-sition lawmakers warned that smaller media players may be overlooked, Australian Compe-tition and Consumer Com-mission Chair Rod Sims said the bargaining power imbalance had been righted.

“The changes the govern-ment’s done are things that either don’t matter much or are just to clarify things that, at least in Facebook’s mind, were unclear,” Sims, who helped draft the original laws, said.

“Whatever they say, they need news. It keeps people on their platform longer. They make more money,” he said.

The endorsement from Aus-tralia’s top antitrust regulator will bolster the government’s argument that its hardline approach worked and may offer

encouragement to countries such as Canada and Britain which have said they plan similar laws.

Other countries have intro-duced legislation forcing so-called Big Tech players to nego-tiate with media companies for licensing fees for links that draw traffic, and advertising revenue, to their platforms.

However, Australia will be the first country where a gov-ernment arbitrator effectively sets the rates tech giants will have to pay if negotiations with media companies fail.

The last-minute changes include an extra two-month mediation period between any failed talks and state intervention and give the government dis-cretion to release Facebook from the process if it proves it has made a “significant contribution to the sustainability of the Aus-tralian news industry”.

Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said the company had “erred on the side of over-enforcement” with its

news blackout - which inadvert-ently blocked some government pages - because it needed to act quickly before the new legis-lation was introduced.

The agreed changes “mean fair negotiations (with pub-lishers) are encouraged without the looming threat of heavy-handed and unpredictable arbi-tration,” he wrote in a blogpost he internet needs new rules that work for everyone, not just for big media corporations. B, adding: “The internet needs new rules that work for everyone, not just for big media corporations.”

While the Australian Senate backed the changes before sending the amended bill back to the lower house, where it was expected to pass soon, opposition lawmakers and smaller media firms warned that giving the gov-ernment power to spare tech giants its involvement could leave niche outlets without compensation.

“The big (media) players could successfully negotiate with Facebook or Google. The minister then doesn’t designate them, and all the little players miss out,” independent senator Rex Patrick, who opposed the amended legislation, told Reuters.

Lee O’Connor, owner and editor of regional newspaper The Coonamble Times, said the changes appeared to weaken safeguards for smaller players.

Australia offered a host

of technical concessions

and the social media

giant said it would

restore news as the

revamped bill looked set

to become law this

week.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa talk at the end of a Trade and Investments Conference, in Colombo, yesterday.

Imran Khan invites Sri Lankan Buddhists to visit PakistanAP — COLOMBO

Visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has proclaimed his Muslim-majority nation a choice desti-nation for religious tourism by Sri Lankans, most of whom are Buddhists.

In talks with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday, Khan highlighted Buddhist her-itage sites in Pakistan and stressed the building of cultural ties, the Pakistan Embassy said

in a statement.“Pakistan probably has one

of the greatest Buddhist her-itages in the world and we invite people from Sri Lanka to visit them,” Khan said a day earlier after meeting with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Khan is making a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka which began on Tuesday.

Buddhists account for more than 70% of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people.

Ethnic minority Tamils, who

are mainly Hindu, comprise about 15% and 9% are Muslims.

Khan said northern Pakistan is the center of the ancient Buddhist Gandhara civ-ilisation and that a 40-foot sleeping Buddha statue was recently discovered there.

“We are planning a Bud-dhist trail... with all the Buddhist great shrines and Buddhist places,” he said. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is the older brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

12 THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021EUROPE

Germany, Belgium seize huge cocaine shipment

Germany approves three COVID-19 home test kitsREUTERS — BERLIN

Germany approved three COVID-19 tests for home use as part Health Minister Jens Spahn’s strategy for mass testing to help Europe’s biggest economy emerge from a lockdown that has been in place since mid-December.

The infection rate in Germany fell steadily in the first weeks of the year but has stag-nated in recent days, adding to signs that it could be difficult for the country to ease restric-tions when the lockdown is due to end on March 7.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has told lawmakers in her con-servative party that making rapid tests more available and boosting testing capacity could make a return to normality more durable, two sources at the meeting told Reuters.

The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, Germany’s pharmaceutical reg-ulator, yesterday approved antigen tests made by Healgen Scientific, Xiamen Boson Biotech and Hangzhou Laihe Biotech for use by people who are not medical professionals, according to its website.

Spahn told broadcaster ZDF that further home test kits would be approved next week.

Other countries are also banking on home tests to help limit the spread of the virus. In Austria, self-tests are already being used in schools, and they will be available to the public for free at pharmacies from next week. In Germany, the number of confirmed virus cases rose by 8,007 to 2,402,818, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases yesterday.

Italy seeks UN probe into death of envoy in DRCAP — ROME

Italy yesterday pressed the United Nations for answers about the attack on a UN food aid convoy in Congo that left a young ambassador and his paramilitary police bodyguard dead.

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told lawmakers in Rome that Italy has asked both the UN and the UN World Food Program to open an investi-gation into the security arrange-ments for convoy, which was attacked two days earlier.

The minister said Italy also will spare no effort to determine the truth behind the killing of Ambassador Luca Attanasio and Carabiniere paramilitary officer Vittorio Iacovacci. A WFP Con-golese driver, Moustapha Milambo, was also killed in the attack.

“We have formally asked the WFP and the UN to open an inquest that clarifies what hap-pened, the motivations for the security arrangements employed and who was respon-sible for these decisions,” Di Maio said. The trip was under-taken at the UN’s invitation, according to Di Maio.

The two Italians had “entrusted themselves to the

protocol of the United Nations,” which flew them on a UN plane from Kinshasha to Goma, 2,500 km away, Di Maio said.

The Italian embassy in Kin-shasha, Di Maio noted, has two armoured vehicles at the ambassador’s disposal for moving around the city and the country. But for Monday’s mission, to visit a WFP school food project in Rutshuri in eastern Congo, Attanasio was traveling in UN vehicles.

Only hours earlier, Di Maio, flanked by Premier Mario Draghi, met the arrival of the bodies of the two Italians at a Rome military airport. Autopsies are scheduled yes-terday and a state funeral for both men was set for today in Rome.

A special team of Carab-inieri investigators, dispatched by Rome prosecutors, arrived on Tuesday in Congo on what

Di Maio said would likely be multiple missions to determine what happened.

Attanasio, 43, who leaves a widow involved in volunteer projects in Congo and three young children, “was in love with his profession, with Africa and his family,’’ Di Maio said. He noted that the Carabiniere was nearing the end of his security detail in Congo and was soon due back in Rome.

The World Food Program, which won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for its efforts to feed refugees and other mal-nourished people worldwide, is headquartered in Rome.

“For this reason, I

immediately asked WFP in Rome and the United Nations, involving directing the Sec-retary General (Antonio) Guterres, to supply a detailed report on the attack on the convoy,’’ Di Maio said.

WFP has said the road had been previously cleared for travel without security escorts.

On Tuesday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York that the UN had launched an internal review concerning the “security around the incident.”

Di Maio said that the attackers numbered six, had light arms and apparently spread obstacles on the road

and fired shots in the air to stop the convoy.

Di Maio quoted the local governor as saying that to force the victims to go into the bush, they killed the WFP driver. When the ranger patrol arrived, Di Maio said, citing the Con-golese interior minister’s account, the attackers “fired upon the Carabiniere, killing him, and at the ambassador, gravely wounding him. Attanasio died of his wounds shortly afterward.

Italy will reinforce its com-mitments to aid Africa, Di Maio said, calling that the “best way to honour the memory’s of the two slain Italians.

Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi (right) looks on as the coffins containing the bodies of Italian ambassador Luca Attanasio and his bodyguard Vittorio Iacovacci arrive back at Ciampino airport, in Rome yesterday.

Johnson warns climate change threatens world securityAP — UNITED NATIONS

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned world leaders late Tuesday that climate change is a threat to security of all nations and sharply criticised people across the globe who say this is “green stuff from a bunch of tree-hugging, tofu-munchers and not suited to international diplomacy and international politics.”

He pointed to the 16 million people displaced by weather-related disasters each year, some becoming easy prey to violent extremists, farmers losing another wheat harvest because of drought and

switching to growing opium poppies, and girls forced to drop out of school to search for water becoming prey to human traf-fickers. He also cited the impacts of changing sea levels and wildfires.

“Whether you like it or not, it is a matter of when, not if, your country and your people will have to deal with these security impacts of climate change,” he warned leaders at a high-level Security Council meeting on climate-related risks to international peace and security.

Chairing the meeting of the UN’s most powerful body during the UK’s presidency this

month, Johnson urged the council to demonstrate lead-ership to protect global peace, security and stability.

John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, thanked European nations for stepping up to tackle climate change during the “inexcusable absence” of the US during the previous administration.

Former President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emis-sions that cause global warming. The world has already warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius since the mid-19th century and

the goal now is to prevent an additional 0.3 degrees Celsius warming from now.

Kerry said President Joe Biden knows there is “not a moment to waste” and his administration aims to put the US on a route to cutting fossil fuel emissions in a way that is, “and I emphasise, irreversible by any president, by any dem-agogue in the future.”

That appeared to be one of the most explicit assurances from the Biden administration that foreign countries should go ahead and make deals with the administration on climate despite fears that Trump or one of his populist “America First”

supporters will take power again in 2024.

Kerry called the climate crisis “indisputably a Security Council issue,” saying the Pen-tagon has described it as “a threat multiplier.” But even though climate change has been repeatedly called “an existential threat,” he said, “we honestly have yet as a world to respond with the urgency required.”

He called the UN climate conference that Britain is hosting in Glasgow in November “literally our last best hope to get on track and get this right.” Nations are expected at the con-ference to come up with more ambitious pollution cuts.

An undated handout photo released yesterday shows cocaine found in over 1,700 tins of wall filler after German authorities seized more than 16 tonnes of cocaine in the northern port city of Hamburg.

France chides

health firms over

mass data leak

BLOOMBERG — PARIS

France’s privacy watchdog said it’s investigating the leak of sensitive health data on half a million people and said the companies involved could face heavy penalties if they don’t come forward with details of the breaches.

The leaks were of “partic-ularly significant magnitude and severity,” the CNIL said in a statement. Hackers may have infiltrated software made by Dedalus France that was used by medical testing labo-ratories, according to reports.

The watchdog cited the media reporting on the inci-dents and said the companies should have notified it of the breaches within 72 hours. It said the individuals affected should also be informed.

The leaks lasted from 2015 until October 2020 and included data that ranged from social security numbers to insurance information, drug treatments, pathologies and the health status of patients, according to Liberation news-paper. Online tech newsletter Zataz first reported the breaches on February 14.

Di Maio said Italy will spare no effort to determine the truth behind the killing of its Ambassador and Carabiniere paramilitary officer.

Slovenia police find 13 migrants lacking oxygen hidden in truckAP — LJUBLJANA

Authorities in Slovenia said that they have discovered 13 migrants from Iraq, including two children, who were hidden in a cargo truck, suffering from dehydration and a lack of oxygen.

Some of the migrants needed medical attention after they were found on Tuesday during a routine check at the border with Croatia, a police officer in Novo Mesto said yesterday.

The group had traveled for several hours from Bosnia and through Croatia, crammed in an airless, secret compartment inside a truck bearing Bosnian licence plates, the police statement said.

The migrants were dehy-drated and scared and some were already losing con-sciousness. They were given first aid on the spot while two people had to be taken to a nearby hospital.

The incident highlights dangers migrants are facing while trying to reach Western Europe, often with the help of ruthless human smugglers and traffickers. Thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in their countries have been stuck in Bosnia and the rest of the Balkan countries while seeking to move west.

Slovenian authorities said in a statement that the children in the truck were aged 11 and 6 years old.

Police have detained the Bosnian truck driver and another person who was also in the truck.

UK pledges fund to help kids catch up after school closures

REUTERS — LONDON

The British government pledged a $988m package of support to help children in England catch up on learning lost due to the novel corona-virus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has shut schools to most students.

English primary and sec-ondary schools were closed to the majority of pupils from January 5 as part of lockdown measures.

They will reopen on March 8 under plans announced on Monday by Prime Minister

Boris Johnson.The education ministry said

yesterday it would introduce a ‘Recovery Premium’ targeting disadvantaged students, alongside other measures, amid concerns that those from poorer backgrounds have been falling behind.

“Our package of measures will deliver vital support to the children and young people who need it most, making sure eve-ryone has the same opportunity to fulfil their potential no matter their background,” said Education Minister Gavin Williamson.

AP — BERLIN

German customs officials have found more than 16 metric tonnes of cocaine in containers that arrived in Hamburg from Paraguay, authorities said yesterday. Another 7.2 metric tonnes of cocaine were seized in Belgium and a suspect was arrested in the Netherlands.

The Hamburg customs office described the find in the German port as the biggest quantity of cocaine ever seized in Europe and one of the biggest single seizures worldwide. The Dutch national prosecutors’ office, referring to the overall haul, said that “never before has so much cocaine been inter-cepted” in a single operation.

The drugs were found in a search on February 12 of five containers from Paraguay that

had been flagged as suspect in a risk analysis by several European customs authorities, the Hamburg office said. They had detected “clear irregular-ities” in three containers, which were loaded with putty in tin cans but appeared also to contain other wares. Customs officers found the cocaine hidden in more than 1,700 cans.

The freight document linked to the shipment was addressed to a 28-year-old man in the Dutch town of Vlaardingen, who was arrested Wednesday, prosecutors in the Netherlands said.

Investigations prior to his arrest led Dutch authorities to another shipment of containers that were on their way from Panama to the Belgian port of Antwerp.

A search by Belgian customs

officials on Saturday uncovered 7.2 metric tonnes of cocaine hidden in a container of wood blocks.

The total haul in Hamburg and Antwerp — more than 23 metric tonnes — would have had a street value of “several billion euros,” according to the Hamburg customs office.

Using a different measure of price, Dutch prosecutors esti-mated the wholesale value of the combined shipments at some $730m.

The announcement of the cocaine haul came a day after Dutch prosecutors said they cooperated with Britain’s National Crime Agency to intercept more than 1.5 metric tonnes of heroin worth 45 million euros at Rotterdam’s port in a container full of Himalayan salt that originated in Pakistan.

Ukraine startsgiving jabsBLOOMBERG — KIEV

Ukraine, the biggest European country yet to start vaccina-tions against the COVID-19, administered its first shot yesterday.

Yevhen Horenko, an emer-gency doctor in Cherkas, received an AstraZeneca vaccine, along with nine other people, according to the Health Ministry. The gov-ernment plans to inoculate about 370,000 people in the first round of immunization.

The country of about 40 million people ranks alongside Moldova and Kosovo in its lateness in rolling out the jabs. Vaccine purchases were com-plicated by government infighting and corruption alle-gations, as well as public dis-trust toward shots produced by Russian and Chinese companies.

13THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021 EUROPE

EU vaccine rollout struggles to gather steamAP — BRUSSELS

Two months after its first vaccine shots, the European Union is still struggling to get its COVID-19 inoculation drive up to speed. EU leaders are meeting today to jump-start the process, fearing that new virus variants might spread faster than Europe’s response.

At a video conference, the leaders will look at ways to improve the bloc’s vaccine rollout, as the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, presses pharmaceutical com-panies to respect the terms of their contracts. Officials also want to try to fast-track vaccine authorisations.

More than 21 million coro-navirus cases have been recorded and some 515,000 people have died from it in the EU’s 27 countries, according to the European Centre for Disease Protection and Control.

Italy, France, Germany and Spain have the most corona-virus deaths in the EU, although all trail non-EU member Britain,

which has Europe’s highest virus death toll at over 121,000.

Given the spread of the disease — the Czech prime min-ister is worried about “a total catastrophe” at overburdened hospitals, Germany fears the impact of new variants, the Netherlands is seeing a rise in cases — there should be little appetite to ease up on travel and other restrictions too soon.

“The epidemiological situ-ation remains serious, and the new variants pose additional challenges. We must therefore uphold tight restrictions while stepping up efforts to accelerate the provision of vaccines,” the leaders will say, according to a draft summit statement.

But public pressure to relax measures is building. The Neth-erlands has eased some lockdown measures in what Prime Minister Mark Rutte called a calculated risk to make the year-long crisis “bearable.” Denmark just allowed high school students to partially return to classes.

In Belgium, Jean-Marc Nollet, head of the francophone Greens party that is part of the ruling coa-lition, openly said he no longer fol-lowed his own government’s limits on social contacts because “I am a human being and human contact is something vital.”

The leaders will say, however, that the crisis is far from over, especially as vaccine production lags.

“We need to urgently accel-erate the authorization, pro-duction and distribution of vac-cines, as well as vaccination. We also need to enhance our sur-veillance and detection capacity in order to identify variants as early as possible so as to control their spread,” the draft statement said.

The commission has sealed deals with several companies for well over 2 billion vaccine shots — far more than the EU population of around 450 million — but only three have been authorized: jabs from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca, which all involve two shots over several weeks. In March, the bloc could also authorize the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine.

But the EU was heavily crit-icized for taking almost a month longer than Britain to approve the first vaccines and for lagging so far behind in vaccinating its people. The EU leaders’ debate will focus as much on speeding up authorizations as boosting vaccine production rates

through new facilities and cutting delivery bottlenecks.

Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said one way might be to “agree upon legis-lation to allow for the emer-gency authorisation of vaccines at the EU level. To date, this is only possible at national level.”

And as curfew-weary, mask-wearing European cit-izens hope for relief — and the prospect of a real summer vacation this year — this summit will also focus on when to ease restrictions and the possibility of a future vaccination certif-icate so people can travel more conveniently.

Such a certificate has been demanded by southern EU nations that depend heavily on tourism, and they consider it a way to stave off a second dis-astrous summer season.

An official from an EU nation, who asked not to be identified because the prepa-rations were still ongoing, said talks would also centre on ways to dovetail any EU vaccine cer-tificate with similar efforts at

the World Health Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Air Transport Association.

Still, European travel restrictions don’t look like they will be easing anytime soon. Belgium, home to the EU’s insti-tutions, has a ban on all nones-sential travel that could remain through March. The country has been criticized by some neigh-bours for what they see as a dis-proportionate use of border controls.

“For the time being, nones-sential travel needs to be restricted,” the leaders say in their draft statement, which still could be modified. But they add “the unhindered flow of goods and services within the single market must be ensured.”

With leaders conscious that the pandemic will not end unless it’s defeated everywhere, summit talks will also touch on getting vaccines to other coun-tries in need, notably in Africa, through the UN-backed COVAX programme.

Putin warns of foreign efforts to destabilise RussiaAP — MOSCOW

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered the nation’s top counterintelligence agency yesterday to redouble its efforts to address what he described as Western attempts to desta-bilise the country.

Speaking at a meeting of top officials of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main KGB successor agency, Putin pointed at the “so-called policy of con-tainment of Russia,” charging that it includes efforts to “derail our development, slow it down, create problems alongside our borders, provoke internal insta-bility and undermine the values that unite Russian society.”

The Russian president added that those activities by foreign powers, which he didn’t name, are aimed at “weakening Russia and putting it under outside control.”

Russia’s relations with the

West have plummeted to post-Cold War lows after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, and, most recently, the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a sweeping crackdown on protests demanding his release.

Navalny, Putin’s most prominent critic, was arrested on January 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation and accused Navalny of cooperating with Western intelligence agencies — claims which he has ridiculed.

Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for violating terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. The sentence stems

from a 2014 embezzlement con-viction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and the European Court of Human Rights has ruled to be unlawful.

Navalny’s arrest has fueled a wave of protests that drew tens of thousands to the streets across Russia. The authorities have detained about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days.

In the wake of the demon-strations, the Kremlin-con-trolled parliament has toughened the punishment for disobeying police and intro-duced new fines for funding demonstrations. Putin on yes-terday signed those new bills into law.

Without naming Navalny, Putin assailed those in Russia who allegedly serve foreign interests.

“It’s necessary to draw a line between natural political

competition, competition between political parties, ide-ological platforms, various views on the country’s devel-opment, and the activities that have nothing to do with democracy and are aimed at

undermining stability and security of our state, at serving foreign interests,” he said.

The Russian president emphasized the need for the FSB to shield the parliamentary elections set for September

from any “provocations.”He hailed the agency for

disrupting the activities of foreign spies, saying that it unmasked 72 foreign intelli-gence officers and 423 of their informants.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a meeting of the Federal Security Service board, in Moscow yesterday.

Denmark to take

‘calculated risk’

by easing some

curbs in March

REUTERS — COPENHAGEN

Denmark plans to allow shops and some schools to reopen in March in a much awaited move that could, however, send hospital coronavirus admissions soaring in coming months.

Denmark, which has one of the lowest infection rates in Europe, has seen general infection numbers drop after it introduced lockdown measures in December in a bid to curb a more contagious coronavirus variant.

In what the prime minister has called a “calculated risk”, the government will allow stores under 5,000 square metres to reopen, while leisure activities can resume with outdoor leisure activities can resume with an upper limit of 25 people.

Schools in parts of the country will also be allowed to reopen, but will require stu-dents to test themselves twice a week. The measures, which are based on recommenda-tions from an expert advisory group, could send hospital admissions skyrocketing, the goverment said.

“More activity will also mean more infected and thus also more hospitalisations,” Health Minister Magnus Heu-nicke told a press conference, adding COVID-19 admissions could briefly peak at some 880 in mid-April, more than triple the current 247.

Reopening shops is expected to contribute more than 2bn crowns ($326.92 m) to the Danish economy each month, Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen said yesterday.

Spain plans ¤11bn direct aid package to help virus-hit firmsREUTERS — MADRID

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced an extra ¤11bn ($13.4bn) package yesterday to help Spain’s small and mid-sized companies and the self-employed cope with the economic crisis wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

He gave no details. A gov-ernment source said the plan, whose contents were still being discussed with the Bank of Spain and the banking sector, would include haircuts for state-backed loans and recap-italisations of SMEs.

That would be in line with what the sectors hardest-hit by the crisis, including restaurant

owners, have demanded, bringing them direct aid after the Spanish government ini-tially provided mainly state-backed loans and furloughs.

“We don’t just want to save businesses and jobs. We want to create new businesses and jobs,” Sanchez told parliament. The Bank of Spain declined to comment.

Another government source told Reuters that the goal was to help companies cope with the pandemic but the exact instru-ments were still being worked out.

“Agreeing on the details (of haircuts) is very complicated,” said a financial source with direct knowledge of the talks

on the package.A third government source

stressed that this would in any case also need approval by the European Union’s executive commission.

Several sources had told Reuters earlier this month that the government was preparing this new set of measures.

In November, Madrid extended its €140bn ICO liquidity scheme until June, but that was not enough to offset the impact of the third wave of the pandemic on heavily indebted companies.

The European Commission has allowed member state gov-ernments to temporarily provide direct aid and convert

some debt into grants to support their economies through the pandemic.

The implementation of haircuts on ICO loans is a con-troversial issue and the Spanish banking association has been saying that those measures are not a priority.

Under the plan being dis-cussed, banks, who already share some guarantees with the state under the scheme, would also share some of those losses, a source told Reuters recently.

Consultant firm Oliver Wyman has been working with the Bank of Spain on assessing firms’ financial needs and found that SMEs were in need of €5bn while larger

corporates required €7bn in support, without saying if this should be direct cash injections or haircuts, according to a source with knowledge of the process. Oliver Wyman declined to comment.

The Spanish hospitality sector has been complaining that they were not getting the same help as in other EU countries, pointing to valued-added tax cuts for the catering industry in Germany or a reduction in social-security charges in France.

Spain has been one of the countries worst hit by COVID-19. Its tourism-dependent economy shrank a record 11 percent last year.

Chairman of Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Clinical Center, Csaba Lengyel, administers a dose of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine to Zoltan Peto, Director of the Szeged Epidemiological Supply Centre, at the University in Szeged, Hungary, yesterday.

Too early to easecurbs, says OrbanREUTERS — BUDAPEST

Hungary cannot yet ease its partial coronavirus lockdown as a third wave of infections has boosted new cases and only a small section of the popu-lation has received a vaccine so far, the prime minister said.

Hungary became the first European Union country yes-terday to start inoculating people with the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, following a similar move with Russia’s Sputnik V shot, which have not been granted regulatory approval in the EU.

“This is an important day as we begin inoculations with the Chinese vaccines,” Orban said in a video on his Facebook page. “This also gives me hope that those in charge of the defence effort can also get in line perhaps next week.”

It was not immediately clear

whether this meant Orban or any of his cabinet would be vac-cinated next week. Orban’s press chief did not immediately respond to an emailed question.

“The situation is not easy as we have the good news that many vaccines have arrived and the number of people inoc-ulated will increase,” Orban said. “However, the third wave is threatening Hungary.”

As of yesterday, Hungary had reported 410,129 cases with 14,552 deaths. Some 471,000 people have been vac-cinated, representing nearly 5% of Hungary’s population based on a government tally.

“We cannot yet speak of any easing (of restrictions),” Orban said, apparently walking back on a tentative timetable unveiled early this month, which projected decisions about easing as soon as next Monday.

At a video conference today, the leaders will look at ways to improve the bloc’s vaccine rollout as the European Commission, presses pharmaceutical companies to respect the terms of their contracts. Officials also want to try to fast-track vaccine authorisations.

14 THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021AMERICAS

Biden, Trudeau pledgeto strengthen relationsREUTERS — WASHINGTON/OTTAWA

US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sought on Tuesday to turn the page on the Trump era, stressing the countries’ deep ties and pledging to work together to counteract Chinese influence and address climate change.

“The United States has no closer friend, no closer friend than Canada,” Biden told Trudeau via an electronic video link with the Canadian leader and top aides. “That’s why you were my first call as president (and) my first bilateral meeting,” he said.

After talking for about two hours, the two leaders emerged and said they planned to work closely together to beat the COVID-19 pandemic and combat climate change, with a goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Trudeau also thanked Biden for reiterating US support for the release of two Canadians held by China, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. “Human beings are not bartering chips,” Biden said. “We’re going to work together until we get their safe return.”

Biden and Trudeau did not take questions after delivering their remarks.

Trudeau welcomed the Biden administration, citing in particular Washington’s renewed attention to climate change in contrast to former US President Donald Trump.

“Thank you, again, for stepping up in such a big way on tackling climate change. US leadership has been sorely missed over the past years,” the prime minister said.

Canada has often been a US president’s first foreign stop, but the COVID-19 pandemic turned the sit-down between the two leaders and some of their top deputies into a virtual affair.

Biden, Vice-President

Kamala Harris and other offi-cials, all wearing dark masks, sat at a long table in a White House meeting room, near a large video screen beaming in Trudeau’s image from Ottawa.

A Canadian government source said there had been no progress on the possibility of Canada accessing COVID-19 vaccines produced in the United States. Canada is currently receiving doses from plants in Europe.

“We’re focused on our-selves, the United States is focused on itself. They feel they have a supply shortage, so there is no news on that front,” said the source, who requested ano-nymity given the sensitivity of the situation.

Biden irritated Ottawa shortly after taking office on January 20 by blocking the $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline project to pump oil sands crude from Alberta to Nebraska, and proposing a “Buy American” program aimed at directing more US spending toward domestic manufacturers.

But the two leaders made clear they wanted to put the dispute behind them and work together.

The meeting drew scrutiny as an early view of Biden diplomacy. “Everyone around

the world is watching this meeting very closely. They will want to get what the Canadians got and they won’t all succeed. This is the top level of access, the gold standard,” a senior Western diplomat in Ottawa said.

”We feel we are off to the races here,” the Canadian gov-ernment source added.

Trudeau was the first world leader to congratulate Biden when the Democrat was declared the winner of the November election, illustrating the degree to which the close US ally looks to move on from

Trump’s four years in office.The Republican former pres-

ident, who often clashed with traditional allies on trade, imposed tariffs on Canadian alu-minum and steel. He traveled only once to Canada for a G7 meeting in 2018, and blasted Trudeau for being “very dis-honest and weak” after he left.

Trump also forced the rene-gotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, talks that consumed Trudeau’s gov-ernment for years.

Tuesday’s session began with a 45-minute meeting

between Biden, Harris, Sec-retary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and their Canadian counterparts.

Another meeting with more officials followed. Trudeau was accompanied by his finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, and others.

Biden also said the leaders would work closely to strengthen supply-chain security and resil-ience, and to drive a robust post-pandemic “economic recovery that benefits everyone, not just those at the top.”

US President Joe Biden gestures to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau if Canada, appearing via video conference call, during closing remarks at the end of their virtual meeting from the White House in Washington, DC.

Prosecutor denies

political charges

against Mexico

governor

AP — MEXICO CITY

Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero denied yesterday that corruption accusations against the opposition governor of the border state of Tamaulipas are politically motivated, but did not specify what is behind the case.

The attorney general’s office filed a request Tuesday to Congress to remove the governor’s immunity from prosecution, equivalent to a kind of impeachment proceeding.

Governor Francisco Garcia Cabeza De Vaca is accused of organised crime, money laun-dering and tax evasion. He has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the accusations are politically motivated.

Local media have reported that some of the accusations are related to movements of millions of dollars between front companies. Other accu-sations may be related to bribes that were allegedly paid to lawmakers in 2013 to approve an energy sector reform that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador opposes.

Mexico doing better than US in dealing with virus: ObradorAP — MEXICO CITY

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Tuesday that his country is doing better than the United States in dealing with the coro-navirus pandemic, even though Mexico’s per capita death rate is probably higher and the country has vaccinated less than one percent of its popu-lation.

López Obrador said on Tuesday that comparing coun-tries is in “bad taste,” but went on to say “the most powerful nation on earth, our neighbor, did worse than us.”

The Mexican government’s “estimated” death toll from

COVID-19 is now about 201,000. The United States death toll is around 500,000, but its popu-lation is 2.6 times larger.

Moreover, estimates of excess deaths in Mexico since the start of the pandemic suggest the COVID-19 toll is now well above 220,000. Mexico has adminis-tered about 1.7 million vaccine doses, while the US has given 64 million shots.

López Obrador blamed rich countries for “hoarding” vac-cines, calling that “totally unfair,” and said “the UN has to intervene.”

López Obrador has demanded the United States vaccinate the millions of Mex-icans living in the US with or

without legal documents; Mexico says its consulates in the United States have even been registered as vaccination centres.

But a photo circulated on social media showed a sign posted last week outside one Mexico City vaccination centre stating “No Foreigners Will be Vaccinated.”

Presidential spokesman Jesús Ramírez said that was a mistake, and promised eve-ryone over 60, foreigners and Mexicans alike, would have access to vaccines.

“That was a photo of one center, and that message was corrected,” Ramírez said.

But Dr. Ruy López Ridaura, the country’s director of disease

prevention and control, said the exclusion of foreigners appar-ently occurred at other sites in the opening weeks of the vac-cination effort.

“There may have been some confusion at some operating sites,” López Ridaura said. “It was a communication problem.... The orders are totally clear now, foreigners will also receive their vaccinations.”

López Obrador invited Argentine President Alberto Fernández onstage at his daily morning press conference Tuesday, and the Argentine leader proposed that vaccine companies be forced to cede intellectual property rights and allow anyone to manufacture

their shots.“The idea is to propose at

the G20 the need to declare COVID-19 vaccines as ‘global goods,’ so that they cede their intellectual property rights and all countries can freely produce them,” Fernández said.

Mexico is trying to beef up its supply of Pfizer vaccines with Russian and Chinese shots, and late Monday the country received its first shipment of 200,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccines.

Mexico has had over 2 million test-confirmed corona-virus cases, but the low level of testing means the real number is probably several times that amount.

Boosting tiesVenezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza talks to the Ambassador of the European Union to Venezuela, Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, during a meeting at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela, yesterday.

Asylum seekers rush to register for US border processingAP — MEXICO CITY

In the first five days since the administration of US President Joe Biden began to process the thousands of asylum seekers waiting in Mexico, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees registered 12,000 people. That’s nearly half the 25,000 active cases the US government has cited.

Migrants who have waited in Mexico and elsewhere to get hearings on their US asylum requests are dealing now with a mix of hope and frustration, along with overloaded websites and telephone lines that never stop ringing.

The hurdles are far better than the seemingly endless wait often in wretched conditions of tens of thousands of asylum seekers forced to choose between waiting in Mexico — or returning to Central America — under the Migrant Protection Protocols, or Remain in Mexico program. Instituted by the Trump administration in January 2019, the program sought to discourage asylum seekers by making them wait in Mexico rather than releasing them with orders to appear for future court dates in the US.

Yesterday, the US Department of Homeland Security announced it would begin processing asylum seekers with registered cases who have been living in a tent encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico.

Life in the camp has always been precarious, but it was especially hard hit by frigid

winter weather that hit Texas and northern Mexico last week. Processing residents of the camp is a priority for the Biden administration, the statement said.

Last week, the US gov-ernment began processing a small number of asylum seekers with active cases in San Diego. The processing is expected to expand to El Paso soon.

According to preliminary data shared by UNHCR, of the 12,000 people who have reg-istered, some 4,000 are children or dependents and about 1,200 registered from outside Mexico.

Some of that last group reg-istered from the United States, suggesting that they may have entered the country illegally after making their initial asylum petition.

The others registered from Central America where they returned to their native coun-tries rather than remain in the often dangerous Mexican cities at the border.

“I’m like I believe, I don’t believe it, I have a mix of feelings,” said a Cuban teacher from the border city of Reynosa where she been waiting for almost two years. She requested anonymity because she had been kidnapped pre-viously in the city.

After many frustrated attempts, she managed to register and received a WhatsApp message asking for her patience as technical dif-ficulties were resolved. “Now just wait for the call,” she said.

Riots in Ecuador

prisons leave

79 deadREUTERS — QUITO

Ecuador yesterday raised the death toll from riots in four jails to 79, and said authorities had regained control following one of the bloodiest outbreaks of prison violence in its history.

Police and troops were stationed at detention centers in the cities of Guayaquil, Cuenca and Latacunga, where gangs on Tuesday fought one another with handmade weapons in what authorities said was a coordinated out-break of violence.

The gangs began a battle for leadership within the prison system in December when a leader of Los Choneros, considered the sys-tem’s most powerful gang, was killed in a shopping center several months after being released.

Several of Tuesday’s con-frontations took place in maximum security areas of the Guayaquil and Cuenca prisons.

Prison authority SNAI said all those killed the rioting were prisoners.

Mexico: Electricity reformbill approved for final voteBLOOMBERG — MEXICO CITY

Mexico’s lower house of congress approved a contro-versial electricity bill that prior-itises the state utility above private renewable companies in the latest nationalist move for the country’s energy market.

The bill, proposed by Pres-ident Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was approved without any changes late yesterday, with 289 votes in favour, 152 opposed and one abstention. It will now be taken up by the senate, where the ruling Morena party and its allies have a majority.

If approved as expected, the initiative would determine what plants have priority in dis-tributing power, starting with hydroelectric plants belonging to the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission, known as CFE, followed by other gov-ernment facilities.

Only after that, private solar and wind farms would be allowed to supply the network with their power production. It also removes CFE’s obligation to buy electricity through com-petitive auctions and calls on Mexico’s energy regulator to revoke self-supply permits that don’t meet certain conditions.

The bill is yet another step in the president’s ambitious push to reverse Mexico’s energy opening to foreign investors, a historic step taken in 2014 that ended more than 75 years of state monopoly. Since taking power in late 2018, Lopez Obrador, who’s known as AMLO, has vowed to prioritize the country’s embattled state-run companies at the expense of private operators.

“We need to strengthen these companies to be inde-pendent and guarantee that the electricity price doesn’t go up, as I promised,” AMLO said after the approval.

“The United States has no closer friend, no closer friend than Canada,” Biden told Trudeau via an electronic video link with the Canadian leader and top aides. “That’s why you were my first call as president (and) my first bilateral meeting,” he said.

15THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021 AMERICAS

CIA nominee vows to intensify competition with ChinaREUTERS — WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden’s nominee to be director of the CIA, William Burns, told a Senate committee yesterday that he saw competition with China — and countering its “adversarial, predatory” lead-ership — as the key to US national security.

Burns, 64, a former career diplomat during both Demo-cratic and Republican admin-istrations, is expected to easily win confirmation to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Burns has already been confirmed by the Senate five times for his stints as ambas-sador to Jordan and Russia and three senior State Department positions.

Testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Burns outlined his four top priorities — “people, partnerships, China and technology” — if he is confirmed.

“Out-competing China will be key to our national security in the days ahead,” Burns said.

He called China “a formi-dable, authoritarian adversary,” that is strengthening its ability to steal intellectual property, repress its people, expand its reach and build influence within the United States.

During questioning, Burns

said that if he were a US college or university president, he would recommend shutting down Con-fucius Institutes —Beijing-funded campus cultural centers that many members of Congress see as propaganda tools.

Burns was introduced at the hearing by bipartisan foreign policy heavyweights — former Secretary of State James Baker and former CIA Director Leon Panetta. He would be the first career diplomat to lead the agency.

Senators from both parties praised Burns during an unu-sually amicable two-hour hearing. Republican Richard Burr, a former committee chairman, said he looked forward to Burns’ confirmation.

Democrat Ron Wyden praised Burns’ record on human rights and said he would support him. Competition with China is a top priority for the Biden adminis-tration — and for members of Congress, who want a tough line toward Beijing.

Russian aggression is a con-stant concern, especially its involvement in US elections and the recent SolarWinds hack that penetrated government agencies and that US officials have blamed on Russian hackers.

Burns said the Biden admin-istration would soon produce an assessment of Russia-related issues, including the SolarWinds hack.

Burns said “familiar” threats persist, including from Russia, North Korea and Iran. He also said climate change, global health issues and cyber threats are great risks, and “an adver-sarial, predatory Chinese lead-ership poses our biggest geo-political test.”

Burns helped lead secret talks with Iran in 2013 that helped pave the way for the international nuclear deal, which was opposed by Repub-licans. He told the hearing that Iran must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

The Biden administration offered last week to sit down

with the Iranians and other parties to the 2015 pact to see if there is a way to return to the agreement, after former Repub-lican President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

Burns’ arrival at the CIA would come after a difficult four years under Trump, who fre-quently disregarded spy agencies’ findings, especially the determination that Russia

interfered in the 2016 election to boost his chances of winning the White House.

Senator Mark Warner, the committee’s Democratic chairman, stressed that point in his opening remarks.

“I would like to hear how you plan to reinforce the credo that - no matter the political pressure, no matter what - CIA’s officers will always do the right

thing and speak truth to power,” Warner said.

Biden has been able to get most of his national security team into place with support from many Senate Republicans as well as Democrats. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sec-retary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intel-ligence Avril Haines all easily won confirmation.

William Burns is sworn-in to testify before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on his nomination to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Judge bans enforcement of deportation pauseAP — HOUSTON

A federal judge on late Tuesday indefinitely banned President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing a 100-day mora-torium on most deportations.

US District Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction sought by Texas, which argued the moratorium violated federal law and risked imposing additional costs on the state.

Biden proposed the 100-day pause on deportations during his campaign as part of a larger review of immigration enforcement and an attempt to

reverse the priorities of former President Donald Trump.

Biden has proposed a sweeping immigration bill that would allow the legalisation of an estimated 11 million people living in the US illegally. He has also instituted other guidelines on whom immigration and border agents should target for enforcement.

Tipton, a Trump appointee, initially ruled on January 26 that the moratorium violated federal law on administrative pro-cedure and that the US failed to show why a deportation pause was justified.

Tipton’s ruling did not

require deportations to resume at their previous pace. Even without a moratorium, immi-gration agencies have wide lat-itude in enforcing removals and processing cases.

But in the days that followed his ruling, authorities deported 15 people to Jamaica and hun-dreds of others to Central America. The Biden adminis-tration has also continued expelling immigrants under a separate process begun by Trump officials, who invoked public-health law due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The legal fight over the deportation ban is an early sign

of Republican opposition to Biden’s immigration priorities, just as Democrats and pro-immigrant legal groups fought Trump’s proposals. Almost four years before Tipton’s order, Trump signed a ban on travel from seven countries with pre-dominantly Muslim populations that caused chaos at airports. Legal groups successfully sued to stop implementation of the ban.

It was not immediately clear if the Biden administration will appeal Tipton’s latest ruling. The Justice Department did not seek a stay of Tipton’s earlier temporary restraining order.

Single dose J&J vaccinecloses in on US approvalREUTERS — WASHINGTON

Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J)one-dose COVID-19 vaccine appeared safe and effective in trials, the US Food and Drug Administration said yesterday, paving the way for its approval for emergency use as soon as this week.

The vaccine was 66 percent effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 in a 44,000 person global trial, the FDA said in documents ahead of a Friday meeting of independent experts who will advise the agency on emer-gency authorization.

New data provided by J&J to the FDA showed the vaccine was 64 percent effective at stopping moderate to severe cases of COVID-19 after 28 days in thousands of trial par-ticipants in South Africa where a worrying new variant has swept across the country.

Overall, the vaccine was 100 percent effective at stopping hospitalization 28 days after vaccination, compared with 85 percent at 14 days, and there were no COVID-19 deaths among those who received the shot rather than a placebo.

J&J also said the data sug-gested its vaccine cut down on asymptomatic infections, which experts said was another sign COVID-19 vaccines may indeed stop transmission of the disease.

“Most encouraging to me were the data in South Africa,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Phil-adelphia and a member of the

FDA advisory committee that will make its recommendation tomorrow.

“That you could still get protection against medically attended illnesses — meaning hospitalisation, ICU admission and deaths from that vaccine against the South African strain, I thought that was really encouraging.”

While the FDA is not bound to follow the advice of its experts, it approved both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines the day after the advisory com-mittee met.

The United States, where COVID-19 has killed more than half a million people, has been struggling to speed up its vac-cination program because of the limited supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vac-cines so far.

Worldwide, COVID-19 has infected 112 million people and killed more than 2.5 million and governments are racing to get their hands on any effective vaccines.

J&J said this week that it expected to have four million shots ready to go following an FDA green light and would ship 20 million doses by the end of March. It has promised the United States 100 million doses by the end of June.

The vaccine is adminis-tered in a single dose and can be stored in normal fridges. The J&J vaccine is also considered essential in the global vacci-nation effort due to its routine storage requirements and is already being rolled out to 500,000 healthcare workers in South Africa.

US Ambassador to United Nations takes oathUS Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, with her husband Lafayette Greenfield and son Lafayette Greenfield II, is sworn into her new office by Vice-President Kamala Harris in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, yesterday.

Florida man charged with trying to join IS militants

AP — GAINESVILLE

A Florida man travelled to the Middle East and attempted to enter Syria so he could help Islamic State militants, according to an indictment by a federal grand jury.

The grand jury on Tuesday charged Mohamed Suliman, 33, with attempting to provide material support to a desig-nated foreign terrorist organisation.

Suliman, of Gainesville, was previously charged last September but the complaint was not made public until the beginning of the month when Suliman was arrested, fol-lowing his expulsion from a foreign country, according to a statement from the US Attor-ney’s Office. Prosecutors did not say where he was arrested.

During a court hearing two weeks ago, a judge ordered him to remain in federal custody. “Suliman said that if he had reached the above-listed groups, he would have supported them with his English speaking and writing capabilities,” the affidavit said.

“Suliman added that he did not support the beheadings and torture that IS engaged in, but he was willing to assist and support them in their media section and related duties, and provide financial support.”

Suliman had been on the FBI’s radar for the past decade, according to the affidavit. He was interviewed by an agent in Turkey in 2011 and inter-viewed again in 2018 during a trip to Sudan.

During the earlier interview in Turkey, he told the FBI agent he had a bipolar disorder and had stopped taking medication, which led him to be manic or depressed, the affidavit said.

South Dakota House moves to impeach A-G after fatal crashAP — PIERRE

South Dakota House lawmakers yesterday began impeachment proceedings against the state’s attorney general, who is facing misdemeanour charges for striking and killing a man with his car and is already under pressure to resign.

A bipartisan group of law-makers filed a resolution in the House to impeach the state’s top law enforcement officer, Jason Ravnsborg, after he indi-cated Monday he would not heed calls for his resignation.

The Republican attorney general faces three misde-meanour charges but no fel-onies in the September death of 55-year-old Joseph Boever.

Lawmakers argued in the impeachment resolution that

Ravnsborg should be removed from office for “his crimes or misdemeanours in office causing the death” of Boever.

The resolution also stated that Ravnsborg’s conduct fol-lowing the crash was “unbe-coming” and his “statements and actions failed to meet the standard” of his office.

“When we started looking through and thinking about the duties that the attorney general owes to the people of South Dakota, and I think he owes a special duty to protect the people and uphold the laws. And I think that the actions in these incidents fell short of that duty,” said Rep. Will Mortensen, who represents the area where the crash occurred and who sponsored the impeachment resolution.

Shortly before the impeachment resolution was filed, Governor Kristi Noem called for him to step down. The governor’s spokesman Ian Fury said she also supports the impeachment resolution.

“Now that the investigation has closed and charges have been filed, I believe the Attorney General should resign,” Noem said in a statement.

But Ravnsborg’s will not be stepping down, according to spokesman Mike Deaver.

“As an attorney and a Lt. Colonel in the Army Reserves, AG Ravnsborg has fought for the rule of law and personal lib-erties and would hope that he is afforded the same right and courtesy,” Deaver said in a statement.

Grand jury hearing evidence in death of George FloydAP — WASHINGTON

Several witnesses have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury consid-ering charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is already facing state murder charges in the death of George Floyd, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday.

The Justice Department’s federal civil rights investigation has been focused on Chauvin and some of the witnesses, including other officers who worked with Chauvin, according to the person, who could not publicly discuss the non-public proceedings and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The New York Times first reported that a grand jury was hearing testimony against

Chauvin. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Jury selection begins in Chavin’s state case on March 8 — he faces second-degree murder and manslaughter charges — with opening state-ments scheduled for March 29.

Floyd, a Black man, died May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck while he was handcuffed and saying he couldn’t breathe. Floyd’s death sparked protests in Minneapolis and beyond and led to a nationwide reckoning on race.

Three other officers —Thomas Lane, J Kueng and Tou Thao — are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter and are scheduled to face trial in August. Like Chauvin, all three were fired soon after Floyd’s death.

Biden’s CIA nominee Wiliam Burns called China “a formidable, authoritarian adversary”, that is strengthening its ability to steal intellectual property, repress its people, expand its reach and build influence within the United States.

16THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2021

You Ask, officials answer

Does ADHD only affect children?

No, about one-third of children /with ADHD continue to meet the criteria for an ADHD diag-nosis as adults. In early adulthood, ADHD may be associated with mood or conduct disorders or substance abuse. Adults with ADHD often cope with difficulties at work and in their personal and family lives related to ADHD symptoms.

How is ADHD treated?Treating ADHD often

requires medical, educa-tional, behavioural, and psycho-logical intervention.

This way of comprehensive approach found to be very effective. In children ages six and over med-ication can be an important part of treatment.

They work by increasing levels of neurotransmitters in the brain to reduce common symptoms such as inattention, and hyperactivity.

A c o g n i t i v e - b e h a v i o u r a l approach is effective for working on a problematic behaviour by helping the person understand why they are doing it and how to change it.

Social skill groups can be bene-ficial. A therapist can improve self-regulation, self-monitoring of the child also helps to better manage emotions, improve executive func-tioning so that the child would be functional in his day-to-day chal-lenges at home, school, and in social situations.

Should I go for a gluten-free or sugar - restricted diet for my child with ADHD?

However, some alternative methods have found to help manage different symptoms of ADHD. The benefit of these methods may differ from individual to individual.

Not necessarily, it will work for all. Eating essential foods that reduce inflammation in the body may help the brain function better. This includes limiting gluten in diet, sugar and processed foods and incorporating foods high in omega 3 fatty acid for better brain functioning.

What kind of exercise is good for my child with ADHD?

Exercise can lessen the severity of ADHD symptoms and improve cognitive functioning, including focus, attention, and memory. Brain gym is good for children to improve their brain con-n e c t i o n s a n d f u n c t i o n a l integration.

Meditation helps those with ADHD to hone their attention and to improve self-awareness, which can restrain impulsive behaviour and reduce the anxiety that is associated with ADHD.

Fast-moving sports can work best to curb symptoms of inattention like basketball, swimming, soccer, hockey, etc.

If the pressure of competition or required skill level is too much it’s better to look for activities like martial arts, ice skating, etc. If your child is not interested in sports, can do dance, band, and drama.

What accommodations are helpful for students with

ADHD in the school setting?Preferential seating, i.e., arrange

seating in the front row (or close to the teacher), away from windows and other distractions.

The child can be assigned with a buddy pair in the class from the peer.

Oral instructions should be reit-erated and written down for the student.

Breaking down tasks into man-ageable pieces of work or chunking of tasks can be done. Highlight key points in the notes and readers.

Use assistive technology to make the learning process more visual. They can be provided with extended time on tests.

Answers provided by:Minusha Jaleel. M PSenior Clinical Psychologist,QISH, Doha

(If you have any queries, you can send it to editor@pen.com.qa)

The Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, Dr. Khalid Mubarak Al-Shafi received Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Qatar, Dr. Claudius Fischbach, on Tuesday. The Ambassador was briefed about the evolution of the newspaper over the past two decades since its establishment and its mission, vision and the role of the newspaper’s website. The Ambassador and the Editor-in-Chief discussed cooperation between the German embassy in Doha and the newspaper. PIC: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH/THE PENINSULA

Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula receives German Ambassador

An outlook towards childhood disorders: ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactive Disorder) in children - Part 2

HMC starts COVID-19 vaccination campaign for housebound patientsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Home Healthcare Service (HHS) has commenced administering the COVID-19 vaccine to its registered housebound patients to protect them against the disease.

The COVID-19 vaccination outreach campaign, which received endorsement from the Ministry of Public Health, targets not only adult home healthcare patients but also other adults living in the same household, provided they fit the medical criteria for eligibility.

National Lead for Healthy Ageing and Chairperson for the Department of Ger-iatrics and Long-Term Care, Dr. Hanadi Al Hamad explained the campaign was the result of extensive feedback with patients and families. “The feedback we have received especially from our older patients was that they were hesitant to go out of their home to get vaccinated and that they would feel more confident if they could be vaccinated along with other family members.”

“As a large portion of our home healthcare patients are older, which is exactly the population group who are among the most vulnerable from COVID-19, we wanted to establish a

solution that will provide them with added protection. It was therefore very important to extend the eligibility criteria for this campaign to include both family and other household members who closely interact with our patients,” added Dr. Al Hamad.

HMC’s Home Healthcare Service, which is part of HMC’s Continuing Care Group, has around 2,500 home bound patients registered as service users, nearly 75% of which are people aged 60 and above. Approximately 300 patients are children who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated with the currently available vaccines; therefore around 2,000 home bound patients overall are being con-sidered for the vaccine.

The campaign started in district one which includes Al Wakra, Wukair, Al Hilal, Mattar Qadeem, and Mamoura. The vaccination strategy is for several teams to remain in a designated district to vac-cinate as many patients and their house-holds as possible, before moving on to the next district. Patients registered with HMC’s Home Healthcare Service can call the newly established Hamad Home Healthcare Call Center on 4439 0111 for help and advice on home healthcare needs as well as the COVID-19 vaccination.

QA Cargo joins Validaide as a premium memberTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Airways Cargo has joined Validaide Capabilities Platform as a premium member.

Through the membership, the cargo carrier can digitally manage and share its station capabilities for pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. Cus-tomers can easily review the airline’s pharma handling capa-bilities at all the airports throughout its extensive network.

Qatar Airways Cargo has also joined the Advisory Board of Validaide, which allows it to contribute to the platform’s further developments and cus-tomise its features to benefit the end-user. Qatar Airways Cargo and Validaide both pursue dig-italisation projects within the broader air cargo industry.

Guillaume Halleux, Chief Officer Cargo at Qatar Airways, said, “Digitalisation is the need of the hour. Our premium

membership with Validaide, the leading digital platform for special cargo, gives our cus-tomers, logistics providers, and pharmaceutical shippers access to define and search for special cargo handling capabilities easily. Customers can also create lane assessments when transporting pharmaceuticals on our flights. We are easing the way for our customers do business with us, providing con-venience and speed to market,

which are the key benefits of going digital.”

Eelco de Jong, CEO at Val-idaide, said, “There is a strong need in the industry for collab-oration and data sharing as transparency on transport and storage conditions is essential for distributing COVID-19 vac-cines. We are very happy to add Qatar Airways Cargo to the Advisory Board as we share strong support for collaboration and transparency in the industry.”

“Working closer together with Qatar Airways Cargo will help us create a better future. Firstly, easy access to the cargo carrier’s capabilities will be important for global forwarders to comply with regulatory requirements for pharma ship-ments. Secondly, Qatar Airways Cargo will play a key role in our community model and help us define the development roadmap,” Natalie Niers, Head of Capabilities Platform at Val-idaide, said.

The airline’s product QR Pharma provides temperature-controlled air freight for phar-maceuticals, offering active and passive solutions in cold chain logistics. Expertly-trained staff at every pharma destination ensure the cool chain is unbroken.

In December 2020, Qatar Airways Cargo was awarded IATA’s Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) certification in pharmaceutical logistics at its hub in Doha.

Qatar Airways Cargo has invested considerably in its pharma solution through quality handling, infrastructure, facilities, people, and proce-dures at each of its pharma sta-tions, including the Doha hub, adhering to high operating standards for transporting tem-perature-controlled products. Due to this, the cargo carrier’s volumes for pharmaceutical shipments have grown by 18% in 2020 over 2019.

Qatar Airways Cargo has

also joined the Advisory

Board of Validaide,

which allows it to

contribute to the

platform’s further

developments and

customise its features to

benefit the end-user.

Van Gogh painting to be shown in public for first timeREUTERS — PARIS

A painting of a Paris street scene by Vincent Van Gogh is to be shown to the public for the first time, after spending more than a century behind closed doors in the private collection of a French family.

The work, painted by Van Gogh in 1887 while he was lodging with his brother Theo in the French capital, will be put

on display by Sotheby’s auction house in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Paris, prior to being auctioned off next month.

The auction house put an estimated value on the artwork of between 5 million euros ($6.08m) and 8 million euros.

Titled “A street scene in Montmartre,” the painting depicts a man and woman, strolling arm in arm past a ram-shackle fence with a windmill

in the background.The painting is part of a

series that Van Gogh produced of scenes in Montmartre, a hilly district of Paris now dominated by the Sacre Coeur church.

When the artist was there, the church was under con-struction and the area was a patchwork of fields, houses and windmills on the edge of the city that was starting to attract a bohemian artist set

with its cheap rents.The auction house said the

painting had been seen in cat-alogues, but has never itself been on public display. It did not identify the current owner.

Sotheby’s said in a statement that very few paintings from Van Gogh’s Montmartre period remain in private hands.

“The appearance on the market of a work of this calibre,

and from such an iconic series, is undoubtedly a major event,” the statement said.

Van Gogh arrived in Paris in 1886. He left the city in 1888, saying he had tired of the hectic pace of Paris life.

He moved to the south of France, where he cut off part of his ear during an episode of mental illness. The artist later shot himself and died near Paris on July 29, 1890.

China’s Mars craft

enters parking

orbit before

landing roverAP — BEIJING

China says its Tianwen-1 space-craft has entered a temporary parking orbit around Mars in anticipation of landing a rover on the red planet in the coming months.

The China National Space Administration said the space-craft executed a maneuver to adjust its orbit early yesterday morning Beijing time and will remain in the new orbit for about the next three months before attempting to land.

During that time, it will be mapping the surface of Mars and using its cameras and other sensors to collect further data, particularly about its prospective landing site.

That follows the landing of the US Perseverance rover last Thursday near an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater to search for signs of ancient microscopic life.

A successful bid to land Tianwen-1 would make China only the second country after the US to place a spacecraft on Mars. China’s solar-powered vehicle, about the size of a golf cart, will collect data on underground water and look for evidence that the planet may have once har-bored microscopic life.

Tianwen, the title of an ancient poem, means “Quest for Heavenly Truth.” Landing a spacecraft on Mars is notoriously tricky. About a dozen orbiters missed the mark. In 2011, a Mars-bound Chinese orbiter that was part of a Russian mission didn’t make it out of Earth orbit.

China’s attempt will involve a parachute, rocket firings and airbags. Its proposed landing site is a vast, rock-strewn plain called Utopia Planitia, where the US Viking 2 lander touched down in 1976.

Tianwen-1’s arrival at Mars on February 10 was preceded by that of an orbiter from the United Arab Emirates. All three of the latest missions were launched in July to take advantage of the close alignment between Earth and Mars that happens only once every two years.

W ALRUWAIS : 17o → 20o W ALKHOR : 17o → 24o W DUKHAN : 15o → 21o W WAKRAH : 15o → 23o W MESAIEED : 15o → 23o W ABUSAMRA : 16o → 21o

Moderate temperature daytime

and partly cloudy with chance of

scattered rain may be thundery at

times, relatively cold by night.

Minimum Maximum19

o

C 24o

C

WEATHER TODAY

LOW TIDE 11:38 – 21:28

HIGH TIDE 03:56 – 14:26

PRAYER TIMINGSPPPPRAYRRRAAAYARA MMMMIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGMMMMMMMMMIIINNNNNNGGGGNNNNGGGIINNNNGNNNNNNNNN

PRAYERTIMINGS

FAJRSUNRISE

04.43 am 06.01 am

DHUHR 11.47 am

ISHA 07.06 pmMAGHRIBASR 03.06 pm

05.36 pm