Hezbollah member guilty!...Hezbollah member guilty! UN-backed tribunal issues long-awaited verdict...

Hezbollah member guilty!UN-backed tribunal issues long-awaited verdict in 2005 assassination of

Lebanon’s Rafic HaririAFP | Beirut

A UN-backed tribunal yes-terday found a member of the Hezbollah move-

ment guilty over the 2005 mur-der of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri, but cleared three other suspects af-ter a years-long trial.

The long-awaited decision prompted mixed reactions, with the late Hariri’s son Saad telling journalists outside the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) he “accepted the tribunal’s ver-dict”.

“Everybody’s expectation was much higher than what came out today, but I believe that the tribunal came out with a result that is satisfying. We accept it,” said Saad Hariri, also a former prime minister, after attending the hearing at the STL’s heavily fortified courthouse.

Salim Ayyash, 56, was convict-ed in absentia by the STL, based in the Netherlands, over a huge suicide bombing in Beirut that killed the billionaire politician and 21 other people.

“The trial chamber finds Mr Ayyash guilty beyond reasona-ble doubt as a co-perpetrator of the assassination of Rafic Hari-ri,” said the tribunal’s presiding judge David Re.

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

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

The judges also said there was no evidence to directly link Syr-ia or Hezbollah’s leadership to the attack.

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

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nas-

rallah has refused to hand over the four defendants and reject-ed the court’s legitimacy.

Mobile phone plotJudges said there was suf-

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

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

Prosecutors had said Ayyash was a ringleader of the group, while Oneissi and Sabra alleged-ly sent a fake video to a regional news channel claiming respon-sibility on behalf of a made-up group. Merhi was accused of general involvement in the plot.

The judges said evidence also linked phones used in the at-tack to Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine, who was indicted by the court but is be-lieved to have been killed in the Damascus area in May 2016.

The Hariri bombing triggered mass protests that drove Syr-ian forces out of Lebanon af-ter three decades. The hearing opened with a minute’s silence for victims of the explosion that devastated Beirut two weeks ago, killing 177 people. The ver-dicts were initially scheduled for August 7 but were postponed because of the blast.

7

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Koeman in talks to replace Setien at BarcaRonald Koeman in talks to take Barce-lona coaching job after Quique Setien sacked| P 08

WEDNESDAYAUGUST, 2020

210 FILS ISSUE NO. 8570

People under 50 driving virus spread: says WHO

Traffic safety a top priority 3 LOCAL

19WHATSAPP3844 4692

TWITTER@newsofbahrain

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WEBSITEnewsofbahrain.com

FACEBOOK/nobmedia

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D E V E L O P I N G T R A D E

Salim Ayyash, who was convicted in

absentia, faces life imprisonment if he is ever brought before

the court; his sentenc-ing will be decided at a

later date

TOTAL CASES

ACTIVE CASES

DEATHS

DISCHARGED

NEW CASES

CRITICAL

47,581

3,485

175

43,921

396

45

BAHRAIN

HM the King reassured on HRH the Premier’s healthTDT | Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa held a phone call yesterday

with His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

HM the King was reassured about HRH the Premier’s health after successful medical check-ups he had undergone, praying to Allah the Almighty to bless him with good health, happi-ness and well-being.

HRH the Prime Minis-ter expressed his deepest thanks and gratitude to HM the King for his lofty feelings and keenness to be reassured about his health, praying to Allah the Almighty to bless him with good health and happiness.

HRH the Premier’s Court an-nounced earlier yesterday the success of HRH the Prime Min-ister’s regular check-ups, and wished him abundant health and a long life.HM the King

HRH the Crown Prince chairs executive committee meetingTDT | Manama

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al

Khalifa, Crown Prince, Dep-uty Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister chaired yesterday the 340th meeting of the Government Executive Committee.

Bahrain’s labour market sys-tems and the latest develop-ments on measures to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Kingdom were reviewed.

The meeting was held re-motely. HRH the Crown Prince chairing the

executive committee meeting

Former Lebanese prime Minister Saad Hariri is seen following the judgment (Picture Courtesy of Reuters)

Bahrain signs Arab customs cooperation dealTDT | Manama

Bahrain Ambassador to Egypt and Arab League permanent representa-

tive Hisham bin Mohammed Al Jowder signed a customs coop-eration agreement between Arab countries yesterday, on behalf of the Kingdom’s government.

The Arab League’s general secretariat was represented by Minister Plenipotentiary Ehab

Makram. The Bahraini ambas-sador affirmed that the Kingdom is keen to advance the bonds of joint-Arab action in all fields to develop trade.

He also indicated that Bah-rain, under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, is supportive of everything that would serve the Arab world.

The agreement includes 27

articles, the most important of which are the simplification of customs procedures and ad-ministrative assistance, cus-toms control and information exchange.

It also covers issues of in-tellectual property protection, combatting money laundering and terrorist financing, and com-batting commercial fraud and counterfeiting, among others. Ambassador Jowder and Minister Makram after signing the agreement

Israel, Sudan close to peace deal: officials

AP | Jerusalem

Israel and Sudan said yes-terday that they are close

to reaching a peace agree-ment—setting the stage for a second dramatic diplomatic breakthrough for Israel with its Arab neighbours in a mat-ter of days.

A Sudanese Foreign Min-istry official announced that his government is “looking forward to concluding a peace agreement with Is-rael,” drawing a promise from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “do all that’s needed” to wrap up a deal. The spokesman was also quoted as saying that the peace agreement is “based on equality and Suda-nese interests.” This devel-opment comes days after Is-rael and the UAE announced an agreement to establish formal diplomatic ties.

Three injured in Hamala restaurant blastTDT | Manama

Three workers were injured yesterday fol-

lowing an explosion at a restaurant in Hamala, the Ministry of Interior report-ed last night.

The ministry said that Civil Defence forces dealt with the incident, which was caused by a gas leak.

The workers received first aid on site from med-ics and they were referred to the hospital.

The ministry said that the gas leak was a result of negligence in maintaining the restaurant’s gas cylinder connection.

COVID-19 takes two more lives; overall recoveries near 44,000

• Following 9,932 COVID-19 tests conducted yesterday, the total tests done in Bahrain increased to 991,140

TDT | Manama

The coronavirus (COV-ID-19) took the lives of

two female citizens in Bah-rain yesterday, the Ministry of Health announced.

The deceased were aged 52 and 62 years old, and their passing brought the total number of virus-related casualties in the Kingdom to 175. The Health Ministry also announced early this morn-ing that out of 9,932 COVID-19 tests conducted yesterday, 396 new cases were detected. These included 156 expatri-ate workers, 233 contacts of active cases, and seven trav-el-related cases.

There were also 392 ad-ditional recoveries from the virus yesterday, bringing the Kingdom’s total number of discharged individuals to 43,921. The total number of current active cases went to 3,485, with 45 in critical condition and 93 receiving treatment.

Foreign Ministry undersecretary meets IISS executive directorTDT | Manama

Foreign Affairs Ministry un-dersecretary Dr Shaikha

Rana bint Isa bin Daij Al Khali-fa met at the ministry’s General Court with International Insti-tute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in the Middle East executive director Sir Tom Beckett.

The undersecretary praised the important role played by the IISS in studying and analys-ing the issues, challenges and conflicts that countries of the region and the world are facing, and in discussing ways to solve them in order to establish secu-rity and stability.

Dr Shaikha Rana stressed

the importance of continuing cooperation and coordination and promoting it to broader and more comprehensive horizons, in order to achieve common

interests. She wished further success to Sir Tom and to all those in charge of the institute.

Sir Tom hailed the great and endless support that IISS re-ceives from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, which greatly con-tributes to achieving its goals and aspirations, and wished Bahrain further progress and prosperity.

The two sides discussed a number of topics of common interest, primarily coordination for the Manama Dialogue.

02WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2020

The IISS helps shape strategic agenda for governments, busi-

nesses, media and experts across the world. Operating for 60 years, it has an office in Bahrain and an-nually organises the Manama Di-alogue, the Middle East’s premier

security summit

Congratulatory cables sentTDT | Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa sent

a cable of congratulations to Afghanistan President Dr Mo-hammad Ashraf Ghani on his country’s Independence Day.

His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa

bin Salman Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister also sent con-gratulatory cables to President Ghani on the occasion of his country’s Independence Day.

HM the King’s Diplomatic Advisor receives French AmbassadorTDT | Manama

His Majesty the King ’s Diplomatic Affairs Advi-

sor Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa received yesterday French Ambassador Jérôme Cauchard.

Shaikh Khalid expressed his pride with the historical re-lations and the level of coop-eration between Bahrain and France in all fields.

Shaikh Khalid noted that the constant communication be-tween His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and French President Emmanuel Macron has opened more opportunities for cooperation that will benefit the two countries and peoples.

The ambassador stressed his keenness on joint communi-cation that would enhance the friendship between Bahrain and France.

Shaikh Khalid with Ambassador Cauchard

Bahrain ‘a human rights pioneer’TDT | Manama

The role of the legislative branch in protecting and promoting human rights

and preparing the National Hu-man Rights Plan was highlight-ed in a forum organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The virtual session, held un-der the patronage of Represent-atives Council Speaker Fawzia bint Abdulla Zainal and For-eign Affairs Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, saw the participation of Shura Coun-cil chairman Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh, members of parliament, British Ambassador Roderick Drummond, and UN Develop-ment Programme resident rep-resentative Stefano Pettinato.

In her remarks, the Speaker said that Bahrain has achieved numerous successes at the leg-islative and institutional lev-els and in taking measures that

have contributed to the con-solidation of human rights as a culture, a principle and a prac-tical commitment, under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and HM the King’s comprehensive development plan that led to the National Action Charter and to the 2002 Constitution and its amendments.

Promoting human rights prin-ciples is given special attention by the Representatives Council due to its close association with democratic practices and with the commitment to reinforcing progress in reforms, modern-isation and prosperity in the Kingdom, the Speaker added.

Al Saleh said that HM the King’s wide reform approach guaranteed rights and freedoms for all and contributed to multi-ple human rights achievements that have made Bahrain a pio-neer in the field.

Al Zayani highlighted the Kingdom’s pride in its numer-ous achievements in protect-ing human rights, the appli-cation of the principles of the National Action Charter, the Kingdom’s constitution and laws, and its commitment to the goals of the UN.

The Foreign Minister add-ed that Bahrain has had re-markable achievements in human rights, thanks to its advanced legislative system, the establishment of national human rights bodies, the es-tablishment of the Ombuds-man’s Office, the development of rehabilitation and reform

centers, the adoption of alterna-tive penalties, the strengthening of efforts to combat human traf-ficking, and its recent election to the UN Human Rights Council.

Assistant Foreign Minister

Abdullah bin Faisal bin Jabur Al Doseri stressed the importance of preparing, through shared action, a clear and comprehen-sive national plan for Bahrain that will be a new tool for the promotion and protection of human rights.

The plan focuses on civil and political privileges, economic, social and cultural rights, and the rights of women, children, persons with disabilities and the elderly.

The forum was the first in a series concerned with prepar-ing the national plan for human rights that the Foreign Ministry has lined up from August to No-vember.

The ministry is embarking on wide consultations with nation-al authorities in the Kingdom as well as with international and regional institutions to ex-change ideas and learn more about the most important ex-periences in preparing national plans and strategies.

The Foreign Minister during the virtual forum

Promoting human rights is given

special attention due to its close

association with democratic

practices and with the commitment

to reinforcing progress in reforms, modernisation and

prosperityREPRESENTATIVES COUNCIL SPEAKER

FAWZIA BINT ABDULLA ZAINAL

Bahrain Bourse receives Korean Ambassador

TDT | Manama

Bahrain Bourse CEO Shai-kh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al

Khalifa received on Monday Korean Ambassador Hae-Kwan Chung.

During the meeting, the Bah-rain Bourse CEO and the ambas-sador discussed issues of mutual interest and areas of potential

collaboration between the ex-changes of both countries, as well as Bahrain Clear.

Shaikh Khalifa expressed his appreciation for the efforts undertaken by the Korean Em-bassy in developing relations between the two countries and increasing prospects of bilateral cooperation in areas related to the capital markets.

The Bahrain Bourse CEO with the Korean Ambassador

Dr Shaikha Rana with Sir Tom

KNOW WHAT

Traffic safety a top priority Interior Minister asserts importance of continuing efforts to ensure

security for all road usersTDT | Manama

Reinforcing traffic safety for all road users is a top priority, Interior Minis-

ter General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said yes-terday.

The Interior Minister assert-ed the importance of continuing efforts to ensure road safety as he chaired the Traffic Council meeting, held remotely.

Education Minister Dr Majid bin Ali Al Nuaimi and Trans-portation and Communication Minister Kamal bin Ahmed at-tended, along with the Interior Ministry undersecretary, the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Development under-secretary, and representatives of various ministries.

The Education Minister ex-pressed thanks for the role of the General Directorate of Traf-fic and Community Police in achieving security and safety, especially in getting ready for the new academic year.

Several other topics were dis-cussed, including the compre-hensive model of transportation and the use of lands presented by the Urban Planning and De-velopment Authority. A brief highlighted that the model is linked with the uses of lands, residential details, and roads networks to take strategic de-cisions.

The model includes safe transportation policies that will be the base for traffic flow

expectations until 2055. The model meets the economic vi-sions and adopts balanced and flexible transportation policies that limit traffic congestion.

The Interior Minister hailed the initiative, directing to con-sider the international stand-ard in planning and implemen-tation of the project through joint work and a team spirit. He highlighted the importance of the project to have an impact on society by limiting traffic congestion.

He also urged to determine other projects that meet and assist in its success, mainly be-cause the current traffic situa-tion influences general safety and economic life.

The council was then briefed on the development and ex-pansion project of Al Fateh Highway to increase the daily capacity of the road to 138,000 vehicles. The project includes four lanes on each side.

In this context, the Interior Minister asserted the essenti-ality to protect traffic safety in

all projects.The council also discussed

the installation of safety barri-ers on Zallaq road, in which the Interior Minister directed to in-crease traffic deployments and CCTV cameras. He also urged for the use of barriers for roads and bridges that meet international standards to protect lives and property and prevent accidents.

At the end of the meeting, the Interior Minister expressed thanks and appreciation to the council’s members for their ongoing follow-up and efforts to meet traffic safety require-ments, while highlighting the importance of fieldwork and preparedness to ensure smooth traffic flow.


138,000is the daily capacity of road vehicles targetted

in the Al Fateh Highway expansion

project

The Interior Minister chairing the council meeting

DON’T MISS IT

A comprehensive model of transporta-

tion, presented by the Urban Planning and

Development Author-ity, includes safety policies that will be the base for traffic flow expectations

until 2055

Court grants custody of Bahraini boy to his Saudi grandma

• Lawsuit filed by child’s father rejected, granting custody to child’s grandmother on his mother’s side

TDT | Manama

The First Lower Sharia Court (Sunni Division)

has recently rejected a law-suit filed by a man and his mother, who demanded to transfer the custody of his child from his ex-wife’s mother to his mother.

Defence Attorney Mujtaba Ahmed explained that the complaint was considered unjustified and the court or-dered to grant the custody to his client’s mother, the child’s grandmother.

According to Ahmed, the plaintiff ’s pretext was that his ex-wife had married an-other man and shall be de-prived from caring for their three-year-old son, as per the provisions of the law. Moreover, he argued that his ex-wife’s mother, the child’s grandmother, is “too old to take care of the child”, adding that she is a Saudi national and her living abroad, along with his son, is a big proba-bility.

The plaintiff demanded the court grant his mother legal custodianship of the boy, as

stipulated in Article 127 of Law 19 of 2017, with respect to the promulgation of the Family Law, which mentions that “if the custodian is a woman, she shall not be mar-ried to a stranger to the child in custody, unless the court decides otherwise for the in-terest of the child”, according to Sunni jurisprudence.

H o w e v e r, A h m e d e x-plained that the court’s de-cision came as per Article 128 of the same law, which stipulates: “Custody is a joint duty of both parents togeth-er as long as they remain married.

“In case of separation, the custody shall be for the mother, then the mother’s mother, no matter how high in lineage, then to the father’s mother, then the father, in accordance to the Sunni ju-risprudence.”

Ahmed added: “The court summoned my client’s moth-er, the grandmother of the child in custody, to stand on her fitness and capability of raising the child and caring for him.

“After reviewing her health condition, the court decided to reject the lawsuit filed by the plaintiff and his moth-er, and ordered to grant the grandmother the custody of the boy. The court also or-dered the plaintiff to bear the court expenses and lawyer fees.”

Four teenagers face explosives possession chargesTDT | Manama

The First High Criminal Court yesterday adjourned

the trial of four teenagers ac-cused of possessing explosives to August 24.

The four defendants are aged 15 and are accused of possessing Molotov cocktails and hurling them at a pub-lic security patrol vehicle in the southwestern parts of the Northern Governorate.

According to court files, the case was first reported to Hamad Town Northern Police Station.

The complaint mentioned that at around 8pm on June 4 this year, four individuals approached a police patrol ve-hicle that was stationed near the entrance of Buri village.

“They hurled Molotov cock-

tails at the vehicle and quickly fled the scene, without causing any injuries to the on-duty po-licemen or damaging the vehi-cle,” an eyewitness mentioned in the report of the case.

Investigations led to the de-fendants, who were interro-gated by the Public Prosecu-tion, which accused them of manufacturing inflammable containers (Molotov cocktails) with the intent of using them in a way that risks people’s lives and poses public and pri-vate properties to damage.

T h e p r o s e c u t i o n a l s o charged the quartet with the possession of Molotov cock-tails serving the same purpose.

The four defendants stood before the judges yesterday, and the case has been ad-journed to August 24 to review the defendants’ pleadings.

Salmabad bootleggers’ trial adjournedTDT | Manama

The First High Criminal Court this week adjourned the trial

of three Asian men, who are ac-cused of illegally selling alcoholic beverages last Ramadan and as-saulting police, to August 24.

The court’s decision to adjourn the trial came to summon the pros-ecution witness, so he can verbally testify against them.

The details of the case show that a police officer received a tip from an informant about one of the sus-pect’s illegal activities of selling

alcoholic beverages during the Holy Month of Ramadan (May 2020), with the help of others, in the Sal-mabad area in the Northern Gov-ernorate.

Based on the received informa-tion, an ambush was set up in coor-dination with the informant, who approached one of the defendants and requested to buy liquor worth BD2.

Police arrested the man on the spot while selling the alcohol to the informant.

According to the testimonies of the policemen, the man attempted

to escape and he was eventually caught. However, he assaulted one of the officers by punching him sev-eral times in the face before he was handcuffed by the other policemen. The bootlegger led the police to his accomplices, who are all now in their custody.

On May 8 of this year, the defend-ants were interrogated by the Public Prosecution, which referred them to the court for trial after charging them with illegal selling of alcoholic beverages, while one of them was accused of assaulting an on-duty public servant (the policeman).

Training programmes set for new academic year

TDT | Manama

Education Minister Dr Majid bin Ali Al Nuaimi

has revealed that the min-istry’s training plan for the coming academic year in-cludes 160 programmes for 12,000 trainees from differ-ent sectors.

Sixty-nine of the pro-grammes will be held virtu-ally during the first semester,

he noted.Dr Al Nuaimi noted that

the Education Ministry has succeeded in implementing 157 programmes that have benefited 10,561 trainees.

He affirmed that the min-istry is keen on providing training programmes that contribute to developing its employees in all sectors, and improve educational services for all students.Dr Al Nuaimi

Works Minister inspects road construction projectTDT | Manama

Works, Municipalities Af-fairs and Urban Planning

Minister Eng Essam Khalaf conducted a field inspection on the work flow at the road construction project leading to Al Lawzi housing development in Hamad town.

Work at the BD5.1 million project started in June.

The minister was accompa-nied by Works Affairs under-secretary Ahmed Al Khayyat, Roads assistant undersecre-tary Huda Fakhro, Road Pro-jects and Maintenance director Sayyed Badr Alawi, and Roads Planning and Design director Eng Maha Khalifa Hamada.

The minister announced that the road construction project is an important development on the main road network, which aims to streamline

traffic in the areas that are di-rectly connected to this vital street.

The minister added that the project includes the construc-

tion of a 4.8km highway, along with the development of all intersections and the creation of four signal lights to raise effi-ciency at intersections and reg-

ulation of traffic, and to ensure traffic safety. The project will serve the people of Al Lawzi, Damistan, Karzakan, Hamad Town and Al Malikiya.

The Works Minister, second from left, with other officials during their inspection tour

Foreign Ministry undersecretary meets IISS executive directorTDT | Manama

Foreign Affairs Ministry un-dersecretary Dr Shaikha

Rana bint Isa bin Daij Al Khali-fa met at the ministry’s General Court with International Insti-tute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in the Middle East executive director Sir Tom Beckett.

The undersecretary praised the important role played by the IISS in studying and analys-ing the issues, challenges and conflicts that countries of the region and the world are facing, and in discussing ways to solve them in order to establish secu-rity and stability.

Dr Shaikha Rana stressed

the importance of continuing cooperation and coordination and promoting it to broader and more comprehensive horizons, in order to achieve common

interests. She wished further success to Sir Tom and to all those in charge of the institute.

Sir Tom hailed the great and endless support that IISS re-ceives from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, which greatly con-tributes to achieving its goals and aspirations, and wished Bahrain further progress and prosperity.

The two sides discussed a number of topics of common interest, primarily coordination for the Manama Dialogue.


The IISS helps shape strategic agenda for governments, busi-

nesses, media and experts across the world. Operating for 60 years, it has an office in Bahrain and an-nually organises the Manama Di-alogue, the Middle East’s premier

security summit

Congratulatory cables sentTDT | Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa sent

a cable of congratulations to Afghanistan President Dr Mo-hammad Ashraf Ghani on his country’s Independence Day.

His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa

bin Salman Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister also sent con-gratulatory cables to President Ghani on the occasion of his country’s Independence Day.

HM the King’s Diplomatic Advisor receives French AmbassadorTDT | Manama

His Majesty the King ’s Diplomatic Affairs Advi-

sor Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa received yesterday French Ambassador Jérôme Cauchard.

Shaikh Khalid expressed his pride with the historical re-lations and the level of coop-eration between Bahrain and France in all fields.

Shaikh Khalid noted that the constant communication be-tween His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and French President Emmanuel Macron has opened more opportunities for cooperation that will benefit the two countries and peoples.

The ambassador stressed his keenness on joint communi-cation that would enhance the friendship between Bahrain and France.

Shaikh Khalid with Ambassador Cauchard

Bahrain ‘a human rights pioneer’TDT | Manama

The role of the legislative branch in protecting and promoting human rights

and preparing the National Hu-man Rights Plan was highlight-ed in a forum organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The virtual session, held un-der the patronage of Represent-atives Council Speaker Fawzia bint Abdulla Zainal and For-eign Affairs Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, saw the participation of Shura Coun-cil chairman Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh, members of parliament, British Ambassador Roderick Drummond, and UN Develop-ment Programme resident rep-resentative Stefano Pettinato.

In her remarks, the Speaker said that Bahrain has achieved numerous successes at the leg-islative and institutional lev-els and in taking measures that

have contributed to the con-solidation of human rights as a culture, a principle and a prac-tical commitment, under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and HM the King’s comprehensive development plan that led to the National Action Charter and to the 2002 Constitution and its amendments.

Promoting human rights prin-ciples is given special attention by the Representatives Council due to its close association with democratic practices and with the commitment to reinforcing progress in reforms, modern-isation and prosperity in the Kingdom, the Speaker added.

Al Saleh said that HM the King’s wide reform approach guaranteed rights and freedoms for all and contributed to multi-ple human rights achievements that have made Bahrain a pio-neer in the field.

Al Zayani highlighted the Kingdom’s pride in its numer-ous achievements in protect-ing human rights, the appli-cation of the principles of the National Action Charter, the Kingdom’s constitution and laws, and its commitment to the goals of the UN.

The Foreign Minister add-ed that Bahrain has had re-markable achievements in human rights, thanks to its advanced legislative system, the establishment of national human rights bodies, the es-tablishment of the Ombuds-man’s Office, the development of rehabilitation and reform

centers, the adoption of alterna-tive penalties, the strengthening of efforts to combat human traf-ficking, and its recent election to the UN Human Rights Council.

Assistant Foreign Minister

Abdullah bin Faisal bin Jabur Al Doseri stressed the importance of preparing, through shared action, a clear and comprehen-sive national plan for Bahrain that will be a new tool for the promotion and protection of human rights.

The plan focuses on civil and political privileges, economic, social and cultural rights, and the rights of women, children, persons with disabilities and the elderly.

The forum was the first in a series concerned with prepar-ing the national plan for human rights that the Foreign Ministry has lined up from August to No-vember.

The ministry is embarking on wide consultations with nation-al authorities in the Kingdom as well as with international and regional institutions to ex-change ideas and learn more about the most important ex-periences in preparing national plans and strategies.

The Foreign Minister during the virtual forum

Promoting human rights is given

special attention due to its close

association with democratic

practices and with the commitment

to reinforcing progress in reforms, modernisation and

prosperityREPRESENTATIVES COUNCIL SPEAKER

FAWZIA BINT ABDULLA ZAINAL

Bahrain Bourse receives Korean Ambassador

TDT | Manama

Bahrain Bourse CEO Shai-kh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al

Khalifa received on Monday Korean Ambassador Hae-Kwan Chung.

During the meeting, the Bah-rain Bourse CEO and the ambas-sador discussed issues of mutual interest and areas of potential

collaboration between the ex-changes of both countries, as well as Bahrain Clear.

Shaikh Khalifa expressed his appreciation for the efforts undertaken by the Korean Em-bassy in developing relations between the two countries and increasing prospects of bilateral cooperation in areas related to the capital markets.

The Bahrain Bourse CEO with the Korean Ambassador

Dr Shaikha Rana with Sir Tom

KNOW WHAT

Literary success for BHAVANS-BIS studentTDT | Manama

A BHAVANS-Bahrain Indi-an School (BIS) student has gotten his first book

published and listed on amazon.com.

“Iridescence—50 Poems by a Teenage Dreamer”, written by 14-year-old Arnab Sengupta, ranked number one in the kids’ poetry category among Amazon Best Sellers just five days after its release.

Arnab, a grade nine student, has a vivid imagination and his poems are based on his experi-ences and inspiration. The 50 poems in his book encompass various shades of life, including the issues of the world, hope, and relationships.

The B Sustainable Group CEO James Murphy from the UK, who has composed the foreword for the book, wrote: “Arnab Sengup-ta has a gift, he creates beauty with his words. A young man with an incredibly bright future, but more importantly a young man that we can learn from in the present.”

Arnab has been invited by in-ternational magazines like Fu-ture of Earth to write articles for publication. He is nearing completion on his next book, which is a sci-fi thriller that he plans to release later this year or early 2021.

A Kindle edition of “Irides-cence—50 Poems by a Teenage Dreamer” is listed on Amazon India, US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Canada, Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico and Australia. The print edition is available on Amazon US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan and Canada.

BIS directors Himanshu Ver-ma and Ritu Verma, principal Saji Jacob, and the entire school fraternity have extended their

heartiest congratulations to Arn-ab for his literary success.


Arnab Sengupta’s book, entitled “Iridescence—50 Poems by a

Teenage Dreamer”, ranked number one in the kids’ poetry

category among Amazon Best Sellers just five days after its

release

Arnab

Arnab’s book

Financial crimes warningBahraini lawmaker calls for regulation of digital currencies trading to prevent possible illegal practicesTDT | Manama

A Bahraini lawmaker has warned that the unor-ganised and ungoverned

trade of digital currencies in Bahrain and other countries in the region, away from regulato-ry systems, may allow for count-less illegal practices.

This was stated by MP Abdulla Al Thawadi, who underlined that the government and legis-lators in the Kingdom and GCC states must introduce necessary laws and legislations to regulate this new field.

Al Thawadi, who is also a representative of Bahrain at the GCC Supreme Council Ad-visory Board, cautioned that the unregulated trade of digital currencies in the region allows several financial crimes to grow, such as black markets and mon-ey laundering.

The MP also pointed out the high investment risks in

this fairly-new trade, and he additionally warned that fake and fraudulent companies are rapidly spreading in the field, consequently exposing small investors and beginners to great danger and large losses, espe-

cially in the absence of any legal protection.

“This is a very complex issue that needs a lot of awareness and legislative cover to organ-ise,” Al Thawadi commented.

Moreover, the MP called for

intensifying joint work between executive and legislative au-thorities to create new laws so that there will be better super-vision of developments in the financial sector and a regulation that allows for safe trading of digital currencies.

Al Thawadi said: “The accel-eration witnessed globally in the launch of digital currencies in various ways must have strict laws that ensure the existence of penalties for those who violate the regulations while involved in digital trading.

“This would strengthen ef-forts exerted to combat money laundering and would eliminate black markets.

“Such entities operate away from official supervision and are contrary to the laws in all countries that fight crimes of money laundering, which is an essential practice for terrorist organisations and drug traffick-ers.”

The acceleration witnessed globally in the launch of digital

currencies must have strict laws that ensure penalties for

those who violate regulations. This would

strengthen efforts exerted to combat

money laundering and would eliminate black

markets. MP ABDULLA AL THAWADI

ICRF honours outgoing Indian Embassy official

TDT | Manama

The Indian Community Relief Fund (ICRF) or-

ganised a farewell online meeting for Indian Em-bassy second secretary P K Chowdhury, who is prepar-ing to leave Bahrain by next week.

Chowdhury will be joining India’s External Affairs Min-istry in New Delhi.

ICRF officials and its re-

gional team members joined the meeting and thanked him for his support extended to ICRF’s activities.

Chowdhury has been active in the Indian community and is easily accessible to people who come to the embassy with grievances. He has also shown great passion in help-ing people.

The ICRF extended its best wishes to him in all his future endeavours.

Chowdhury, third from right, is presented a token of appreciation by ICRF officials

Bahrain hosts regional ministerial meeting on COVID-19, environmentTDT | Manama

Bahrain, represented by the Supreme Council for En-

vironment (SCE), hosted the First Ministerial Meeting on COVID-19 and the Environment in West Asia.

The meeting, organised by the United Nations Environ-ment Programme’s (UNEP) Regional Office for West Asia, aimed to highlight the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the region and to recommend specific, sus-tainable, and environmentally friendly measures and policies.

UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) vice-president and SCE executive chairman Dr Mohamed Mubarak bin Daina conveyed the greetings of His Majesty the King’s personal representative and SCE Presi-

dent His Highness Shaikh Ab-dulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa to the participating ministers and the environmental councils and authorities presidents, as well as to UNEP executive director Inger Andersen and UNEP re-gional director and West Asia representative Sami Dimassi.

The officials discussed issues of common interest across the countries of the region related to measures taken to protect the environment amidst the COVID-19 crisis, and presented a roadmap for re-building after the pandemic.

The ministers adopted a joint ministerial statement confirm-ing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human safety and the environment, and its neg-ative impact on local, regional and global economies.

The ministers expressed their

deep regret for the lives lost to COVID-19 all over the world. They noted that the pandemic has led to a remarkable increase in the production of waste, in general, and plastic, in particu-lar, at all levels. The pandemic has also led to a decrease in investment in environmental and economic measures and activities that depend on envi-ronmental services.

The meeting called for strengthening regional coordi-nation and exchanging knowl-edge and experiences to work for a healthy environment for current and future generations. It also called on the UNEP Re-gional Office in West Asia to continue providing technical support and assistance to the countries of the region, espe-cially those most affected by the crisis.

Capital Governorate launches public awareness campaignTDT | Manama

Capital Governor Shaikh Hisham bin Abdulrahman

Al Khalifa launched a cam-paign aimed at enhancing pub-lic awareness as the Kingdom continues to grapple with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan-demic.

Themed “Because You Are Important”, the drive is in sup-port of Team Bahrain’s efforts, led by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Depu-ty Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, to combat the disease and protect psychological and economic stability in Bahrain.

The Capital Governor gave the go-ahead for the campaign remotely, in the presence of

Bahrain Islamic Bank (BiB) CEO Hassan Jarrar and other experts, in addition to the or-ganisers.

He stressed the importance of protecting citizens and resi-dents’ psychological safety and empowering them to deal with crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which has a heavy

toll on societies and peoples worldwide.

The Capital Governor un-derlined the need to harness all efforts to prepare for the post-COVID-19 time, and hailed the efforts of people in charge of the campaign, which seeks to achieve noble humanitarian goals.

A screenshot of the campaign’s launch taking place

Information Minister receives NCC chiefTDT | Manama

Information Affairs Minis-ter Ali bin Mohammed Al

Romaihi received National Communication Centre (NCC)

CEO Yousif Mohammed Al-binkhalil.

The minister congratulated the NCC chief on the precious royal trust bestowed upon him through his appointment

to his post, as per a Royal Decree issued by His Maj-esty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

The minister wished the NCC chief every successThe Information Minister, left, with the NCC chief

DON’T MISS IT

$45.28Brent crude eased by 9 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to

$45.28 a barrel by 1117 GMT

$2,006Spot gold climbed 1.1 per

cent to $2,006.84 per ounce by 1010 GMT


Saudi leads Gulf markets higher; Egypt retreats• All Saudi Arabian banks gain

• Qatar expects economy to contract this year

• Arabtec extends losses for a third day

Reuters

Most Gulf bourses ended higher yesterday, with Saudi Arabia outper-

forming in the region on the back of banking shares, while the Egyptian index was hit by blue-chip sell-off.

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index advanced 1.2 per cent, buoyed by a 1.5pc gain in oil giant Saudi Aramco and a 4.6pc leap in Riyad Bank.

The kingdom’s consumer price index jumped 6.1pc in July compared with last year, boost-ed by a tripling of value-add-ed tax, official data showed on Sunday.

Dubai’s main share index rose 0.8pc, extending gains for

a sixth session, with blue-chip developer Emaar Properties jumping 3.6pc, while its unit Emaar Malls gained 2pc.

Dubai Islamic Bank, the coun-try’s largest sharia-compliant lender, advanced as much as 2.5pc.

Arabtec Holding, howev-er, declined 4.9pc to extend losses for a third straight session.

The United Arab Emirates’ largest listed contractor swung to a first-half loss and said in the

weekend that it was seeking an adviser for debt restructuring.

This will be the third restruc-turing exercise for Arabtec in the last four years.

The Abu Dhabi index closed up 0.3pc, helped by a 0.6pc gain in telecoms company Etisalat and 2.7pc rise in Aldar Prop-erties.

A rebound in global stock markets, gradual reopening of world economies including the UAE, and the fact that the UAE market valuations are low com-pared with other GCC markets led the recent gains, said Khaled Abdel Majeed, fund manager at MENA Capital.

In Qatar, the index gained 0.8pc. Lender Masraf Al Rayan climbed 2.2pc and Commercial Bank leapt 3.4pc.

The Gulf state expects the economy to contract this year due to low oil prices and the coronavirus crisis, after it shrank by 0.3pc last year, the central bank said in a report on Monday.

The blue-chip index in Egypt lost 0.6pc, as most of the stocks were in red including Commer-cial International Bank, which declined 0.5pc.

Traders on the floor of Saudi Stock exchange (picture courtesy of Al Arabiya)

Closing Bell SAUDI 1.2pc to 7,854 pts

ABU DHABI 0.3pc to 4,445 pts

DUBAI 0.8pc to 2,225 pts

QATAR 0.8pc to 9,775 pts

EGYPT o.6pc to 11,077 pts

BAHRAIN n at 1,349 pts

OMAN 0.5pc to 3,571 pts

KUWAIT 1pc to 5,741 pts

Nokia wins second round of legal fight against Daimler on patent feesReuters | Helsinki/Brussels

Nokia won yesterday the second of its ten law-

suits against Daimler over patent licensing fees after a German court said the carmaker had not made a serious attempt to resolve the issue with the Finnish company.

The spat highlights a wid-er battle between tech com-panies and the car industry over royalties for technolo-gies used in navigation sys-tems, vehicle communica-tions and self-driving cars.

The Mannheim court in Germany said neither Daimler nor other parties involved in the case were “seriously prepared or ready to conclude a license agree-ment” with Nokia on fair, reasonable and non-dis-criminatory terms.

Daimler said it did not understand how the court could come to this conclu-sion and that it would ap-peal.

Nokia said the court confirmed it had acted in a fair way in licensing its cellular standard-essential patents (SEPs), and that Daimler was using Nokia t e c h n o l o g i e s w i t h o u t authorisation.

“We hope that Daimler will now accept its obliga-tions and take a license on fair terms,” Jenni Lukander, president of Nokia Tech-n o l o g i e s , s a i d i n a statement.

Nokia lost the first of its lawsuits against Daimler.

France to make masks compulsory in most workplacesReuters | Paris

The French government plans to make wearing a

mask compulsory in the vast majority of workplaces to try to stop a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The labour ministry said the new arrangement would apply

to all shared spaces in offices and factories, but would not extend to individual offices where only one employee is present. The ministry, in a statement, did not say when the new rules would take ef-fect. It said that working from home would remain its recom-mended option for employees.

Walmart beats profit estimates

Reuters

Walmart Inc posted its biggest-ever growth

in online sales yesterday as shoppers placed orders for everything from electronics and toys to groceries from the safety of their homes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Walmart recorded only a 4 per cent rise in compara-ble sales in July. Shares of the company were up 2pc in pre-market trading.

Walmart has incurred mil-lions of dollars in COVID-19 expenses that include higher wages for warehouse workers and bonuses for store employ-ees, as well as more spending to keep its facilities clean.

Despite higher costs, Wal-mart said its margins improved in the quarter, helped by stim-ulus checks that had consum-

ers spending on bigger ticket items like electronics, home furnishings and apparel.

Gross margins rose to 24.9pc in the quarter edging past ex-pectations of 24.24pc.

For Walmart, its online busi-ness has been a bright spot, seeing rapid growth as it ex-pands its same-day delivery options and pick-up services.

Walmart’s US ecommerce sales rose 97pc in the quarter. Sales at US stores open at least a year rose 9.3pc, excluding fuel, in the quarter ended July 31. Analysts had estimated a gain of 5.73pc, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Operating income rose 8.5pc to $6.1 billion in the quarter, while adjusted earnings per share of $1.56 also topped the average estimate of $1.25.

Total revenue rose about 5.6pc to $137.74 bn.

The entrance to a Walmart store is seen in Bradford, Pennsylvania, U.S

Oil holds gains made on high OPEC+ complianceReuters | London

Oil prices were broadly steady yesterday, hanging

on to gains from the previous session thanks to high com-pliance with production cuts from members of the OPEC+ producer group.

Brent crude eased by 9 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $45.28 a bar-rel by 1117 GMT, having gained 1.3 per cent on Monday. US crude edged down by 17 cents, or 0.4pc, to $42.72 after a rise of 2.1pc in the previous session.

A technical panel found that compliance with OPEC+ oil out-put cuts in July was between 95pc and 97pc, according to a draft report seen on Monday by Reuters.

The panel considered a sce-nario of substantial downside risk to oil demand if the coro-navirus pandemic conditions worsen, the report said, calling for “vigilance and close mon-itoring of the implementation of the compensation for over-production”. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a grouping known as OPEC+, eased their cuts in August to

7.7 million barrels per day (bpd) from 9.7 m bpd previously.

The market has priced in news that the alliance’s mem-ber compliance has been quite high in July, said Bjornar Ton-haugen, Rystad Energy’s head of oil markets.

OPEC+ will hold a ministerial panel meeting on Wednesday.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak will join the video meeting despite testing positive for COVID-19, the coun-try’s energy ministry said on Tuesday.

Oil prices have started to pick up in recent months, prompting Australian miner and oil pro-ducer BHP to strike an upbeat

note in its earnings on Tuesday.“We believe that the most

significant risks to the physical (oil) market have now passed,” the company said, ading that the pace of gains could be mod-est given potential headwinds from supply returning.

A TORC Oil & Gas pump jack is seen near Granum, Alberta, Canada

Gold climbs back above $2,000/oz level as dollar slides

• Silver climbed 3.1pc to $28.24 per ounce

Reuters

Gold rose 1 per cent yester-day, climbing back above

the $2,000 level breached ear-lier this month, as the dollar touched a more than two-year low and investors awaited details of the US Federal Re-serve’s strategy to combat a pandemic-induced economic slump.

Spot gold climbed 1.1 per cent to $2,006.84 per ounce by 1010 GMT, having earlier hit a one-week high of $2,009.89. Gold first broke the record $2,000-level early in August.

U.S. gold futures were up 0.8pc at $2,015.30.

“The dollar has lost its at-traction when it comes to re-turn,” Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said.

Making gold cheaper for those holding other curren-cies, the dollar index .DXY hit it lowest since May 2018, pres-sured by low yields and bleak U.S. economic data.

On Monday, gold jumped as much as 2.4pc, drawing im-

petus from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway’s buying a stake in major gold miner Bar-rick Gold. Bullion had scaled an all-time peak of $2,072.50 on Aug. 7.

This reinforced gold’s 32pc jump this year, helped by a rush to perceived safety in the metal considered a hedge against inflation and currency debasement.

Gold, with its reputation for relative safety, is also drawing investors as the United States ratchets up pressure on Chi-na’s Huawei [HWT.UL], CMC’s Hewson said.

For further direction, inves-tors await minutes from the Fed’s last meeting, which are due on Wednesday.

Platinum rose 2.1pc to $969.14, while palladium was 0.7pc higher at $2,214.68 per ounce.

Oracle enters race to buy TikTok’s US operationsReuters

Oracle Corp has held prelim-inary talks with TikTok’s

Chinese owner, ByteDance, and was seriously considering buy-ing the app’s operations in the United States, Canada, Austral-ia and New Zealand, the Finan-cial Times newspaper reported on Monday.

Oracle was working with some U.S. investors that already have a stake in ByteDance, in-cluding General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, the newspaper reported on.ft.com/3iO2uhM, citing people briefed about the matter.

ByteDance and TikTok did not have a comment on the FT

report, while Oracle declined to comment.

The Financial Times said on Monday Microsoft has also se-riously considered a bid to take over TikTok’s global operations beyond the nations it outlined earlier in August. Microsoft is particularly interested in buy-ing TikTok in Europe and India.

31Royalty paid by 31 leading

Indian companies with foreign parents, including Maruti and Bosch, grew 9pc in fiscal year 2019 to

total $1.11 billion.

3.3mDubai now has more than 3.3 million inhabitants of 200 nationalities, relies

largely on expensive desalinated water, and its food needs have grown

and diversified

India urges auto companies to cut royalties to foreign parents • Maruti Suzuki paid $510 m as royalty to Suzuki Motor in 2020

• Hyundai’s local unit paid $150 m or 2.6pc of revenue as royalties

• Toyota Motor’s India arm paid $88 m or 3.4pc of revenue

Reuters | New Delhi

India’s commerce minister has asked automakers to find

ways to reduce royalty payments to foreign parent companies for use of technology or brand names, two sources told Reuters, in an effort to boost local invest-ment and reduce outflows.

In India’s competitive auto market, top-selling carmakers Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor’s

local unit pay millions of dollars in royalties to parent companies in Japan and South Korea for us-ing their technology and brand to build and sell cars.

The minister, Piyush Goyal, in a meeting last week asked officials from groups represent-ing carmakers and auto parts manufacturers to review such payments with a view to reduc-ing them, said people with direct

knowledge of the discus-sions.

“The concern raised during

the meet-i n g

wa s

that the outflow is high, even for old technologies, and something should be done about it,” said one of the sources.

The sources declined to be named as the talks are private.

The ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

India, for years, has debated imposing stricter caps on royalty payments which spiked after 2009 when foreign investment rules were eased and restric-tions on such payments were removed.

The country’s markets regula-tor last year suggested imposing curbs on payments exceeding 2pc of revenue. The limit was fi-nally set at 5pc after complaints from some sectors and fears it may dissuade foreign firms from investing or sharing technology.

Recently however, Indi-an Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has made a renewed push to make the country a major manufacturing hub by encouraging domestic production and curbing imports. It also wants to increase local investment and reduce foreign outflows.

While India does not restrict the amount that can be paid as royalty, any payment by a locally listed company exceeding 5pc of revenues needs shareholder approval.

Maruti Suzuki paid 38.2 bil-lion rupees ($510 m) as royalty to its Japanese parent Suzuki Motor in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020, amounting to 5pc of its revenue, according to its annual report.

Privately-owned companies such as Hyundai’s local unit paid $150 m or 2.6pc of revenue as royalties to its South Korean parent in fiscal 2019 and Toyota Motor’s India arm paid $88 m or 3.4pc of revenue to its Japanese parent, government data shows.

Royalty provision has been important in attracting foreign investments into various sectors in India, especially autos, said Vaibhav Gupta, partner at tax firm, Dhruva Advisors.

“Depending on the form in which the government brings back such caps ... it may impact the ability of auto companies to benefit from the use of foreign brands and technical know-how,” said Gupta.

He said for many foreign com-panies royalties are a profit re-patriation strategy and changes to these could impact operat-ing and supply chain structures

from a fiscal perspective.Maruti, Toyota and Bosch de-

clined to comment. Hyundai, Schaeffler and Wabco did not respond to emails seeking com-ment.

Such payments have also been a long-standing issue with mi-nority shareholders.

A February report by proxy firm Institutional Investor Ad-visory Services showed royalty paid by 31 leading Indian com-panies with foreign parents, in-cluding Maruti and Bosch, grew 9pc in fiscal year 2019 to total $1.11 billion.

Cars are seen parked at Maruti Suzuki’s plant at Manesar, in the northern state of Haryana, India

KNOW WHAT

Listed companies such as Maruti

Suzuki and parts makers including Bosch, Schaeffler India and Wabco

India typically pay royalties of between 1pc-5pc to their for-

eign owners.

Green revolution in Dubai• More than a decade ago, the UAE began buying or leasing agricultural land abroad, mainly in east Africa

AFP News

An ultra-modern vertical farm in the middle of the desert stands as a testa-

ment to Dubai’s determination to spark a “green revolution” to overcome its dependence on food imports.

Al-Badia market garden farm produces an array of vegetable crops in multi-storey format, carefully controlling light and irrigation as well as recycling 90 percent of the water it uses.

“It’s a green revolution in the middle of the desert,” the farm’s director Basel Jammal tells AFP.

“Each plant is given the amount of light, humidity, heat and water it needs. It’s as if it were a guest in a five-star hotel,” he says.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted global supply chains, has refocused attention on food security in the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE is rich in oil and ingenuity, but has little arable land and endures dry, baking summers.

That was not an issue decades

ago when the area was sparsely inhabited by Bedouins.

But the wealth generated by oil discoveries since the 1970s sent expatriates flocking to the UAE.

Dubai now has more than 3.3 million inhabitants of 200 na-tionalities, relies largely on ex-pensive desalinated water, and its food needs have grown and diversified.

‘Choices for the future’Dubai, like the other six emir-

ates that make up the UAE, is heavily dependent on imports, which make up 90 percent of its food needs according to official statistics.

Produce arrives from all over the world by air and at Dubai’s state-of-the-art port, stocking supermarkets with a range that compares favourably to those of any Western capital.

But in a region where geopo-litical tensions with nearby Iran frequently threaten to boil over, long-term food security and self-sufficiency are key goals.

More than a decade ago, the UAE began buying or leasing ag-ricultural land abroad, mainly in east Africa, to lock in supply even in times of crisis.

Problems on the ground in-cluding political instability led it to look towards Australia and Eastern Europe.

But the need to address its over-reliance on imports has

inspired other strategies includ-ing stockpiling and high-tech agriculture.

Jammal says his model farm where everything is controlled by computers, is a “choice for the future”.

“We no longer want to depend on imports. We want to produce locally, all year round, without worrying about climate change,

rainfall or drought,” he says.Like Al-Badia, a number of

farms are springing up in Dubai and less-developed areas like Al-Ain and the mountainous emir-ate of Ras al-Khaimah.

Abdellatif al-Banna is anoth-er independent farmer joining the innovation drive, growing pineapples in greenhouses us-ing hydroponics -- without soil -- and selling his production via an internet platform.

At his farm in Al-Awir, Banna also experiments with grow-ing fruits, vegetables and even wheat in the cooler months -- producing enough grain for his family in what he hopes is a prototype.

Elsewhere, not far from Du-bai’s coastline and glitzy sky-scrapers, several farms raise cows in air-conditioned sheds

that help provide the local mar-ket with dairy products.

And in vast tanks overseen by a control room that duplicates Norway’s sunrises and sun-sets, salmon are being farmed in tanks, despite searing heat outside.

Free of shortages Such farms are often private

ventures but are actively encour-aged by Emirati authorities, said Omar Bouchehab, who chairs Dubai’s Food Security Commit-tee.

Authorities have launched a plan to raise domestic agricul-tural production by 15 percent by 2021 and boost the use of ag-ricultural technologies, he said.

At the beginning of the coro-navirus crisis, while many devel-oped cities saw shelves stripped

of pasta, tinned goods and toilet rolls, Dubai did not experience any shortages in fresh produce or staples.

Thanks to airborne cargo ser-vices via giant carrier Emirates, which repurposed passenger seats to boost capacity, Dubai was even able to ensure the re-export of various food prod-ucts to its neighbours.

At the Fresh Market, a large wholesale enterprise, workers busily transported and stored tonnes of imported fresh food. Executive director Redha al-Mansouri was upbeat about the emirate’s food security.

“Dubai has an adequate in-frastructure and a stock capa-ble of meeting the needs of the United Arab Emirates, and even the needs of neighbouring coun-tries,” he said.

Al-Badia market garden farm produces an array of vegetable crops in multi-storey format, carefully controlling light and irrigation as well as recycling 90 percent of the water it uses

Not far from Dubai’s coastline and glitzy skyscrapers, several farms raise cows in air-conditioned sheds that help provide the local market with dairy products

Abdellatif al-Banna is an independent farmer joining the innovation drive, growing pineapples in greenhouses using hydroponics and selling his production via an internet platform

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2020

06

31Royalty paid by 31 leading

Indian companies with foreign parents, including Maruti and Bosch, grew 9pc in fiscal year 2019 to

total $1.11 billion.

3.3mDubai now has more than 3.3 million inhabitants of 200 nationalities, relies

largely on expensive desalinated water, and its food needs have grown

and diversified

India urges auto companies to cut royalties to foreign parents • Maruti Suzuki paid $510 m as royalty to Suzuki Motor in 2020

• Hyundai’s local unit paid $150 m or 2.6pc of revenue as royalties

• Toyota Motor’s India arm paid $88 m or 3.4pc of revenue

Reuters | New Delhi

India’s commerce minister has asked automakers to find

ways to reduce royalty payments to foreign parent companies for use of technology or brand names, two sources told Reuters, in an effort to boost local invest-ment and reduce outflows.

In India’s competitive auto market, top-selling carmakers Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor’s

local unit pay millions of dollars in royalties to parent companies in Japan and South Korea for us-ing their technology and brand to build and sell cars.

The minister, Piyush Goyal, in a meeting last week asked officials from groups represent-ing carmakers and auto parts manufacturers to review such payments with a view to reduc-ing them, said people with direct

knowledge of the discus-sions.

“The concern raised during

the meet-i n g

wa s

that the outflow is high, even for old technologies, and something should be done about it,” said one of the sources.

The sources declined to be named as the talks are private.

The ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

India, for years, has debated imposing stricter caps on royalty payments which spiked after 2009 when foreign investment rules were eased and restric-tions on such payments were removed.

The country’s markets regula-tor last year suggested imposing curbs on payments exceeding 2pc of revenue. The limit was fi-nally set at 5pc after complaints from some sectors and fears it may dissuade foreign firms from investing or sharing technology.

Recently however, Indi-an Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has made a renewed push to make the country a major manufacturing hub by encouraging domestic production and curbing imports. It also wants to increase local investment and reduce foreign outflows.

While India does not restrict the amount that can be paid as royalty, any payment by a locally listed company exceeding 5pc of revenues needs shareholder approval.

Maruti Suzuki paid 38.2 bil-lion rupees ($510 m) as royalty to its Japanese parent Suzuki Motor in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020, amounting to 5pc of its revenue, according to its annual report.

Privately-owned companies such as Hyundai’s local unit paid $150 m or 2.6pc of revenue as royalties to its South Korean parent in fiscal 2019 and Toyota Motor’s India arm paid $88 m or 3.4pc of revenue to its Japanese parent, government data shows.

Royalty provision has been important in attracting foreign investments into various sectors in India, especially autos, said Vaibhav Gupta, partner at tax firm, Dhruva Advisors.

“Depending on the form in which the government brings back such caps ... it may impact the ability of auto companies to benefit from the use of foreign brands and technical know-how,” said Gupta.

He said for many foreign com-panies royalties are a profit re-patriation strategy and changes to these could impact operat-ing and supply chain structures

from a fiscal perspective.Maruti, Toyota and Bosch de-

clined to comment. Hyundai, Schaeffler and Wabco did not respond to emails seeking com-ment.

Such payments have also been a long-standing issue with mi-nority shareholders.

A February report by proxy firm Institutional Investor Ad-visory Services showed royalty paid by 31 leading Indian com-panies with foreign parents, in-cluding Maruti and Bosch, grew 9pc in fiscal year 2019 to total $1.11 billion.

Cars are seen parked at Maruti Suzuki’s plant at Manesar, in the northern state of Haryana, India

KNOW WHAT

Listed companies such as Maruti

Suzuki and parts makers including Bosch, Schaeffler India and Wabco

India typically pay royalties of between 1pc-5pc to their for-

eign owners.

Green revolution in Dubai• More than a decade ago, the UAE began buying or leasing agricultural land abroad, mainly in east Africa

AFP News

An ultra-modern vertical farm in the middle of the desert stands as a testa-

ment to Dubai’s determination to spark a “green revolution” to overcome its dependence on food imports.

Al-Badia market garden farm produces an array of vegetable crops in multi-storey format, carefully controlling light and irrigation as well as recycling 90 percent of the water it uses.

“It’s a green revolution in the middle of the desert,” the farm’s director Basel Jammal tells AFP.

“Each plant is given the amount of light, humidity, heat and water it needs. It’s as if it were a guest in a five-star hotel,” he says.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted global supply chains, has refocused attention on food security in the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE is rich in oil and ingenuity, but has little arable land and endures dry, baking summers.

That was not an issue decades

ago when the area was sparsely inhabited by Bedouins.

But the wealth generated by oil discoveries since the 1970s sent expatriates flocking to the UAE.

Dubai now has more than 3.3 million inhabitants of 200 na-tionalities, relies largely on ex-pensive desalinated water, and its food needs have grown and diversified.

‘Choices for the future’Dubai, like the other six emir-

ates that make up the UAE, is heavily dependent on imports, which make up 90 percent of its food needs according to official statistics.

Produce arrives from all over the world by air and at Dubai’s state-of-the-art port, stocking supermarkets with a range that compares favourably to those of any Western capital.

But in a region where geopo-litical tensions with nearby Iran frequently threaten to boil over, long-term food security and self-sufficiency are key goals.

More than a decade ago, the UAE began buying or leasing ag-ricultural land abroad, mainly in east Africa, to lock in supply even in times of crisis.

Problems on the ground in-cluding political instability led it to look towards Australia and Eastern Europe.

But the need to address its over-reliance on imports has

inspired other strategies includ-ing stockpiling and high-tech agriculture.

Jammal says his model farm where everything is controlled by computers, is a “choice for the future”.

“We no longer want to depend on imports. We want to produce locally, all year round, without worrying about climate change,

rainfall or drought,” he says.Like Al-Badia, a number of

farms are springing up in Dubai and less-developed areas like Al-Ain and the mountainous emir-ate of Ras al-Khaimah.

Abdellatif al-Banna is anoth-er independent farmer joining the innovation drive, growing pineapples in greenhouses us-ing hydroponics -- without soil -- and selling his production via an internet platform.

At his farm in Al-Awir, Banna also experiments with grow-ing fruits, vegetables and even wheat in the cooler months -- producing enough grain for his family in what he hopes is a prototype.

Elsewhere, not far from Du-bai’s coastline and glitzy sky-scrapers, several farms raise cows in air-conditioned sheds

that help provide the local mar-ket with dairy products.

And in vast tanks overseen by a control room that duplicates Norway’s sunrises and sun-sets, salmon are being farmed in tanks, despite searing heat outside.

Free of shortages Such farms are often private

ventures but are actively encour-aged by Emirati authorities, said Omar Bouchehab, who chairs Dubai’s Food Security Commit-tee.

Authorities have launched a plan to raise domestic agricul-tural production by 15 percent by 2021 and boost the use of ag-ricultural technologies, he said.

At the beginning of the coro-navirus crisis, while many devel-oped cities saw shelves stripped

of pasta, tinned goods and toilet rolls, Dubai did not experience any shortages in fresh produce or staples.

Thanks to airborne cargo ser-vices via giant carrier Emirates, which repurposed passenger seats to boost capacity, Dubai was even able to ensure the re-export of various food prod-ucts to its neighbours.

At the Fresh Market, a large wholesale enterprise, workers busily transported and stored tonnes of imported fresh food. Executive director Redha al-Mansouri was upbeat about the emirate’s food security.

“Dubai has an adequate in-frastructure and a stock capa-ble of meeting the needs of the United Arab Emirates, and even the needs of neighbouring coun-tries,” he said.

Al-Badia market garden farm produces an array of vegetable crops in multi-storey format, carefully controlling light and irrigation as well as recycling 90 percent of the water it uses

Not far from Dubai’s coastline and glitzy skyscrapers, several farms raise cows in air-conditioned sheds that help provide the local market with dairy products

Abdellatif al-Banna is an independent farmer joining the innovation drive, growing pineapples in greenhouses using hydroponics and selling his production via an internet platform

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7yrsFor attempted culpable homicide, the woman could have been jailed

for up to seven years and fined.

22,151,696

779,655

14,880,183

Deaths

Recovered:

New cases

New deaths +108,136

+2,582

Covid-19 Cases:

Country Total cases

new cases

Total deaths

New Deaths

Total recovered

Active cases

Serious, Critical

Tot cases/1m pop

Egypt 96,590 5,173 60,651 30,766 41 942

Saudi Arabia

301,323 +1,409 3,470 +34 272,911 24,942 1,716 8,638

UAE 64,906 +365 366 +2 57,909 6,631 6,552

Kuwait 77,470 +643 505 +3 69,243 7,722 101 18,107

Oman 83,418 +192 597 +9 77,977 4,844 154 16,285

Qatar 115,368 193 112,088 3,087 69 41,088

Middle East

Country Total cases

Newcases

TotalDeaths

New deaths

1 USA 5,623,512 +11,485 174,141 +425

2 Brazil 3,363,235 108,654

3 India 2,752,765 +51,161 52,853 +928

4 Russia 932,493 +4,748 15,872 +132

5 South Africa 589,886 11,982

6 Peru 541,493 26,481

7 Mexico 525,733 +3,571 57,023 +266

8 Colombia 476,660 15,372

9 Chile 388,855 +1,353 10,546 +33

10 Spain 382,142 28,646

11 Iran 347,835 +2,385 19,972 +168

12 UK 320,286 +1,089 41,381 +12

13 Saudi Arabia 301,323 +1,409 3,470 +34

14 Argentina 299,126 5,877 +63

G l o b a l C o u n t r i e s w o r s t a f f e c t e d

Figures as of closing

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

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

u Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that any attempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of Belarus would be unacceptable, the Kremlin said yesterday. Any such attempts would lead to an escalation of the political crisis in Belarus, Putin told Merkel in a phone call, the Kremlin said in a statement.

u Qatar and Turkey have signed an accord to send military advisers and instructors for the armed forces of Libya’s Government of National Accord, the UN-recognised GNA said. “We have reached an agreement with Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and Qatar’s (minister) Khaled bin Mohammad Al-Attiyah on tripartite cooperation to build a

military institute for training,” said the GNA’s deputy defence minister, Salah al-Namrouch. Both Sheikh Khaled, Qatar’s minister of state for defence, and Akar were in Tripoli on Monday for meetings with the GNA’s military and for talks on three-way military cooperation.

u Dubai still requires foreign residents who are overseas to obtain permission before returning, the emirate said yesterday. The United Arab Emirates in March suspended the entry of non-citizens as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease. Residents have since graduallly been allowed to return, either after being granted a special exemption or by registering online, though many still remain overseas. Last week, a federal policy requiring oversease residents to seek approval before they returned to the Gulf state was lifted. However, Dubai still requires residents to apply for an entry permit, the emirate said in a statement.

u Israeli warplanes pounded Hamas-ruled Gaza early yesterday in response to Palestinian fire balloon attacks across the border, the Israeli army said. The strikes came as visiting Egyptian security officials strove to defuse the latest uptick in violence, a Hamas source said. “Fighter jets and (other) aircraft struck underground infrastructures belonging to the Hamas terror organisation in the Gaza Strip,” an Israeli military statement said.

Pakistan gives go-ahead to Phase 3 COVID-19

vaccine trial

Putin tells Merkel external intervention in Belarus would be unacceptable

Libya signs military accord with Qatar, Turkey

Foreign residents still need permission to return to Dubai

Israeli planes bomb Gaza as Egyptians seek to restore calm

Mother jailed for tossing her newborn into rubbish chuteAgencies | Singapore

A 27-year-old woman was sentenced to one-and-a-

half years’ jail on Tuesday (Aug 18) for throwing her newborn son down a rubbish chute from the third floor of a housing block, intending to kill him.

Her lawyer told the court that the new mother did not know she was pregnant and was “unprepared for the situation”. She was later diagnosed with postpartum depression, court documents said.

The woman cannot be named due to a gag order imposed by the court to protect the identity of the boy, who fractured his clavicle and is now with foster parents.

The woman pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted culpa-ble homicide by throwing her son down the rubbish chute with the intention of causing death. The court heard that she held two part-time jobs as a waitress and a cleaner at the time of the offence.

In the early hours of Jan 7 this year, she was at home in her Bedok North flat with her brother when she began to experience discomfort in her abdomen.

When she went to the toilet that morning, she gave birth to the victim and was shocked after the delivery.

She carried the newborn child out of the toilet and to the kitchen, where she placed him in a plastic bag and tied it up.

She realised that the victim was moving inside the bag but “wanted to get rid of him quickly”, the court heard. She threw the bag containing her son down the third-floor unit’s rubbish chute, intending to cause death.

After this, she cleaned up the blood in the house, took a show-

er and went to sleep. She did not tell anyone about what she had done, telling her friend that she had a miscarriage.

Cleaners heard the sound of a baby crying softly as he re-trieved a rubbish bin from the block and closed the chute door.

Soon town council proper-ty officers went to the scene, with one of them tearing open the bag to see the newborn boy covered with blood crying in-side, with no clothes or towel on him.

The accused initially denied knowing anything, when asked by the police, but eventually confessed to her friend that she had thrown the baby down the chute. Court documents made no mention of the father of the child.

Rubbish collectors rescued the baby boy from a bin at the bottom of a trash chute in Singapore (Picture Courtesy of the Leaders-online)

Mossad spy chief visits UAE for security talksAFP News

Israel’s Mossad spy agency chief Yossi Cohen visited

the United Arab Emirates for security talks, Emirati state media reported Tues-day, only days after the countries agreed to estab-lish diplomatic ties.

The head of Israel’s for-eign intelligence service discussed “cooperation in the fields of security” with the UAE’s national security advisor, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi, reported the official WAM news agency.

Cohen’s trip marked the first visit to the UAE by an Israeli official after the two countries had agreed to nor-malise relations.

“The two sides discussed prospects for cooperation in the fields of security as well as exchanged points of view on regional developments and on issues of common interest” including efforts to contain COVID-19, the re-port said.

Afghan presidential compound hit in rocket attackAFP News

Six members of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s

honour guard were wound-ed yesterday when a rock-et struck his palace com-pound, two officials said.

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

People under 50 driving virus spread: says WHOAFP News

Coronavirus cases in Asia-Pacific countries are now being driven by

people under the age of 50 who may not know they are infected, the World Health Organisa-tion said yesterday, warning of a “new phase” in the pandemic.

Many have mild or no COV-ID-19 symptoms and risk in-fecting the elderly and other vulnerable populations, the WHO’s Western Pacific region-al director Takeshi Kasai told a virtual briefing.

“The epidemic is changing. People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the threat,” Kasai said.

“Many are unaware they’re infected with very mild symp-toms or none at all.

“What we are observing is not simply a resurgence. I believe it’s a signal that we’ve entered a new phase of the pandemic in the Asia-Pacific (region).”

WHO data on the current phase of the contagion showed around two-thirds of Japan’s infections were among those aged under 40.

More than half of the case-loads in the Philippines and Australia were also in that age group. “We must redouble ef-forts to stop the virus from moving into vulnerable com-munities,” Kasai said.

Some countries that had brought their outbreaks under

control -- such as New Zea-land, Vietnam and South Korea -- have detected new clusters, forcing governments to reim-pose painful lockdowns on cit-ies and tighten social distancing rules.

But Kasai said the use of tar-geted interventions in the re-

gion was encouraging because it reduced the economic and social impact of containment measures and was more sus-tainable.

He warned, however, that the challenge will remain “as long as the virus is circulating and we don’t have immunity to it”.

The WHO has warned that people under the age of 50 are driving the spread of the coronavirus in the Asia-Pacific region

Study links COVID-19 to childhood type 1 diabetesReuters | London

Cases of type 1 diabetes among children in a small UK study almost doubled during the peak of Britain’s COVID-19

epidemic, suggesting a possible link between the two diseases that needs more investigation, scientists said yesterday.

While the study is based on only a handful of cases, it is the first to link COVID-19 and new-onset type 1 diabetes in children, and doctors should be on the look-out, the Imperial College London researchers said.


7yrsFor attempted culpable homicide, the woman could have been jailed

for up to seven years and fined.

22,151,696

779,655

14,880,183

Deaths

Recovered:

New cases

New deaths +108,136

+2,582

Covid-19 Cases:

Country Total cases

new cases

Total deaths

New Deaths

Total recovered

Active cases

Serious, Critical

Tot cases/1m pop

Egypt 96,590 5,173 60,651 30,766 41 942

Saudi Arabia

301,323 +1,409 3,470 +34 272,911 24,942 1,716 8,638

UAE 64,906 +365 366 +2 57,909 6,631 6,552

Kuwait 77,470 +643 505 +3 69,243 7,722 101 18,107

Oman 83,418 +192 597 +9 77,977 4,844 154 16,285

Qatar 115,368 193 112,088 3,087 69 41,088

Middle East

Country Total cases

Newcases

TotalDeaths

New deaths

1 USA 5,623,512 +11,485 174,141 +425

2 Brazil 3,363,235 108,654

3 India 2,752,765 +51,161 52,853 +928

4 Russia 932,493 +4,748 15,872 +132

5 South Africa 589,886 11,982

6 Peru 541,493 26,481

7 Mexico 525,733 +3,571 57,023 +266

8 Colombia 476,660 15,372

9 Chile 388,855 +1,353 10,546 +33

10 Spain 382,142 28,646

11 Iran 347,835 +2,385 19,972 +168

12 UK 320,286 +1,089 41,381 +12

13 Saudi Arabia 301,323 +1,409 3,470 +34

14 Argentina 299,126 5,877 +63

G l o b a l C o u n t r i e s w o r s t a f f e c t e d

Figures as of closing

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

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

u Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that any attempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of Belarus would be unacceptable, the Kremlin said yesterday. Any such attempts would lead to an escalation of the political crisis in Belarus, Putin told Merkel in a phone call, the Kremlin said in a statement.

u Qatar and Turkey have signed an accord to send military advisers and instructors for the armed forces of Libya’s Government of National Accord, the UN-recognised GNA said. “We have reached an agreement with Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and Qatar’s (minister) Khaled bin Mohammad Al-Attiyah on tripartite cooperation to build a

military institute for training,” said the GNA’s deputy defence minister, Salah al-Namrouch. Both Sheikh Khaled, Qatar’s minister of state for defence, and Akar were in Tripoli on Monday for meetings with the GNA’s military and for talks on three-way military cooperation.

u Dubai still requires foreign residents who are overseas to obtain permission before returning, the emirate said yesterday. The United Arab Emirates in March suspended the entry of non-citizens as part of measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease. Residents have since graduallly been allowed to return, either after being granted a special exemption or by registering online, though many still remain overseas. Last week, a federal policy requiring oversease residents to seek approval before they returned to the Gulf state was lifted. However, Dubai still requires residents to apply for an entry permit, the emirate said in a statement.

u Israeli warplanes pounded Hamas-ruled Gaza early yesterday in response to Palestinian fire balloon attacks across the border, the Israeli army said. The strikes came as visiting Egyptian security officials strove to defuse the latest uptick in violence, a Hamas source said. “Fighter jets and (other) aircraft struck underground infrastructures belonging to the Hamas terror organisation in the Gaza Strip,” an Israeli military statement said.

Pakistan gives go-ahead to Phase 3 COVID-19

vaccine trial

Putin tells Merkel external intervention in Belarus would be unacceptable

Libya signs military accord with Qatar, Turkey

Foreign residents still need permission to return to Dubai

Israeli planes bomb Gaza as Egyptians seek to restore calm

Mother jailed for tossing her newborn into rubbish chuteAgencies | Singapore

A 27-year-old woman was sentenced to one-and-a-

half years’ jail on Tuesday (Aug 18) for throwing her newborn son down a rubbish chute from the third floor of a housing block, intending to kill him.

Her lawyer told the court that the new mother did not know she was pregnant and was “unprepared for the situation”. She was later diagnosed with postpartum depression, court documents said.

The woman cannot be named due to a gag order imposed by the court to protect the identity of the boy, who fractured his clavicle and is now with foster parents.

The woman pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted culpa-ble homicide by throwing her son down the rubbish chute with the intention of causing death. The court heard that she held two part-time jobs as a waitress and a cleaner at the time of the offence.

In the early hours of Jan 7 this year, she was at home in her Bedok North flat with her brother when she began to experience discomfort in her abdomen.

When she went to the toilet that morning, she gave birth to the victim and was shocked after the delivery.

She carried the newborn child out of the toilet and to the kitchen, where she placed him in a plastic bag and tied it up.

She realised that the victim was moving inside the bag but “wanted to get rid of him quickly”, the court heard. She threw the bag containing her son down the third-floor unit’s rubbish chute, intending to cause death.

After this, she cleaned up the blood in the house, took a show-

er and went to sleep. She did not tell anyone about what she had done, telling her friend that she had a miscarriage.

Cleaners heard the sound of a baby crying softly as he re-trieved a rubbish bin from the block and closed the chute door.

Soon town council proper-ty officers went to the scene, with one of them tearing open the bag to see the newborn boy covered with blood crying in-side, with no clothes or towel on him.

The accused initially denied knowing anything, when asked by the police, but eventually confessed to her friend that she had thrown the baby down the chute. Court documents made no mention of the father of the child.

Rubbish collectors rescued the baby boy from a bin at the bottom of a trash chute in Singapore (Picture Courtesy of the Leaders-online)

Mossad spy chief visits UAE for security talksAFP News

Israel’s Mossad spy agency chief Yossi Cohen visited

the United Arab Emirates for security talks, Emirati state media reported Tues-day, only days after the countries agreed to estab-lish diplomatic ties.

The head of Israel’s for-eign intelligence service discussed “cooperation in the fields of security” with the UAE’s national security advisor, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi, reported the official WAM news agency.

Cohen’s trip marked the first visit to the UAE by an Israeli official after the two countries had agreed to nor-malise relations.

“The two sides discussed prospects for cooperation in the fields of security as well as exchanged points of view on regional developments and on issues of common interest” including efforts to contain COVID-19, the re-port said.

Afghan presidential compound hit in rocket attackAFP News

Six members of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s

honour guard were wound-ed yesterday when a rock-et struck his palace com-pound, two officials said.

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

People under 50 driving virus spread: says WHOAFP News

Coronavirus cases in Asia-Pacific countries are now being driven by

people under the age of 50 who may not know they are infected, the World Health Organisa-tion said yesterday, warning of a “new phase” in the pandemic.

Many have mild or no COV-ID-19 symptoms and risk in-fecting the elderly and other vulnerable populations, the WHO’s Western Pacific region-al director Takeshi Kasai told a virtual briefing.

“The epidemic is changing. People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the threat,” Kasai said.

“Many are unaware they’re infected with very mild symp-toms or none at all.

“What we are observing is not simply a resurgence. I believe it’s a signal that we’ve entered a new phase of the pandemic in the Asia-Pacific (region).”

WHO data on the current phase of the contagion showed around two-thirds of Japan’s infections were among those aged under 40.

More than half of the case-loads in the Philippines and Australia were also in that age group. “We must redouble ef-forts to stop the virus from moving into vulnerable com-munities,” Kasai said.

Some countries that had brought their outbreaks under

control -- such as New Zea-land, Vietnam and South Korea -- have detected new clusters, forcing governments to reim-pose painful lockdowns on cit-ies and tighten social distancing rules.

But Kasai said the use of tar-geted interventions in the re-

gion was encouraging because it reduced the economic and social impact of containment measures and was more sus-tainable.

He warned, however, that the challenge will remain “as long as the virus is circulating and we don’t have immunity to it”.

The WHO has warned that people under the age of 50 are driving the spread of the coronavirus in the Asia-Pacific region

Study links COVID-19 to childhood type 1 diabetesReuters | London

Cases of type 1 diabetes among children in a small UK study almost doubled during the peak of Britain’s COVID-19

epidemic, suggesting a possible link between the two diseases that needs more investigation, scientists said yesterday.

While the study is based on only a handful of cases, it is the first to link COVID-19 and new-onset type 1 diabetes in children, and doctors should be on the look-out, the Imperial College London researchers said.


400people suffered ocular injuries, more than 50

required surgery, and at least 15 were permanently

blinded in one eye

Strong quake in Philippines kills one, damages quarantine centre

Reuters | Manila

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck the Philippines yester-day, killing at least one person and damaging roads and

buildings including a hospital and a sports complex being used as a novel coronavirus quarantine centre.

It was the strongest earthquake in eight months in the Phil-ippines, which lies on the “Ring of Fire,” a seismically active belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean.

“My things at home fell down and my neighbours’ walls cracked and some collapsed,” Rodrigo Gonhuran, 30, told Reuters from the central town of Cataingan, which has a pop-ulation of more than 50,000 people and is near the epicentre.

One man, a retired police colonel, was killed when his three-storey house collapsed, while four people suffered mi-nor injuries, provincial administrator Rino Revalo told DZMM radio station.

Patients were moved out of a hospital into tents because of cracks in the building, Revalo said.

Engineers were checking a damaged sports complex to see if it was safe to accommodate people staying there in quarantine after moving back from the capital, Manila, he said.

People returning to their homes in the provinces from the capital have to spend time in quarantine.

The Philippines, which has a population of 107 million, has the most coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia with more than 164,000 confirmed infections and 2,681 deaths.

The quake struck at sea at a depth of 30 km (18.64 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre said.

The Philippine seismology agency said there was no risk of a tsunami but warned of aftershocks.

Aftermath of earthquake that struck the Philippines

‘Vision from hell’Losing an eye to the Beirut blast

AFP News

A white plume, a huge orange blast and black smoke engulfing him:

those were the last things Rony Mecattaf saw when the Beirut explosion maimed him and his city.

“I have lost my whole lateral vision -- and even maybe my self image,” the 59-year-old psycho-therapist said, blood still oozing from a large vertical gash that has destroyed his right eye.

“When I look at myself in the mirror,” he said, he now has to adjust to a new image, no longer the former “me with two eyes”.

The powerful August 4 ex-plosion that killed 177 people and devastated swathes of the Lebanese capital also left thou-sands wounded, mostly from flying shards of glass.

At least 400 people suffered ocular injuries, more than 50 required surgery, and at least 15 were permanently blinded in one eye, according to data compiled by major hospitals in and around Beirut.

Sitting in his office 10 days af-ter the blast, on a couch usually reserved for his patients, Me-cattaf repeatedly used a tissue to dab the long, stitched facial wound.

“The blast effect,” the thera-pist said drily, gesturing towards his injury.

Mecattaf was sitting on a friend’s balcony overlooking the port when the explosion hurled him across the flat and against the front door as though he was a “speck of dust”.

He still doesn’t know if it was the door or a flying fragment of the window that sliced through his eye.

Doctors later told him that the pressure from the colossal blast alone could have literally caused his eyeball it to explode, making it all the more difficult to repair.

‘Stages of loss’In the chaotic and terrifying

hours after the disaster, it took a “series of angelic interventions” for Mecattaf to finally get onto an operating table, he said.

First a stranger on a tiny moped took him and zipped through the wreckage like a “madman” to get him to a hos-pital -- but the clinic was so

badly hit it turned him away.A Christian nun then hap-

pened to pull up her vehicle, yelled at him to get in and drove him to another hospital, which however also turned out to be out of service because of the blast. “The city was a vision from hell,” Mecattaf said.

Finally, his friend arranged for an eye surgery in southern Lebanon. The operation took at least two hours. His eye could not be saved.

Mecattaf said that nonethe-less he was “luckier than most” blast victims, but he also admit-ted that losing an eye could feel like grieving for a dead person.

“The five stages of loss or grief, I find there is something very similar here in what can happen.”

‘Half blind’The port explosion of a

stockpile of ammonium nitrate caused a blast wave so strong it shattered an inordinate amount of glass that was still being swept off the streets two weeks

later. With windows shattering

more than eight kilometres (five miles) away, glass-related inju-ries accounted for a bulk of the 6,500 wounded.

In an eye hospital north of Beirut, Maroun Dagher settled into an examination chair for his third checkup since the disaster.

The 34-year-old web devel-oper said the Beirut explosion “changed everything”, with the loss of binocular vision turning even the simplest tasks into ma-jor challenges.

Being able one day to pour Arabic coffee into miniature cups without spilling it would feel near-miraculous, he said.

Dagher’s face had been close to a window, just a city block away from the habourside blast site, when the explosion blew a two-centimetre-long shard into his left eye.

For the first few days after-wards, his pain was “just physi-cal,” he said, but his agony took on a new dimension when he was told his vision was most likely permanently impaired.

Mornings have been especial-ly difficult since.

“I would have dreams that I could see everything and then I wake up,” he said.

“That’s when you feel the bad emotions coming out. You just wake up half blind.”

‘Safest place’ Syrian construction worker

Makhoul Al-Hamad, 43, from

the city of Manbij in the north of his war-torn country, has been living in the same Beirut neigh-bourhood since 1995.

He used to believe that the capital’s Mar Mikhael district was the “safest place in Leba-non”. That is why his daughter Sama, born in Manbij when it was ruled by the Islamic State jihadist group, came to live with him in 2016 along with her mother and three siblings.

She was just one year old at the time, and had celebrated her sixth birthday a few weeks before the port explosion.

Tragically, Sama was sitting close to a window when the blast also sent shards of glass flying into her left eye.

On the roof of their damaged house, the wasteland that is now Beirut’s port behind her, Sama smiled even though the eye was

completely bandaged. With her retina blown out,

doctors have told her parents she would need reconstruction surgery abroad -- but her father simply can’t afford it.

Holding her in his arms, he said: “I wish all the suffering that befell people had hit me in-stead, if that would have spared Sama.”

Sama al-Hamad, a six-year-old Syrian girl who lost her left eye in the blast, points at the disaster site from the roof of her damaged house in Beirut’s Mar Mikhael district

Rony Mecattaf, 59-year-old psychotherapist who lost his right eye in the August 4 explosion in Beirut

Beirut’s neighbourhood of Gemmayzeh three days after the colossal explosion of a huge pile of ammonium nitrate that had languished for years in a port warehouse

With her ret-ina blown out, doctors have

told her parents she would need reconstruction surgery abroad -- but her father simply can’t af-ford it. Holding her in his arms, he said: “I wish all the suffer-ing that befell people had hit me instead, if

that would have spared Sama.”

WHO calls for end to ‘vaccine nationalism’

Reuters | Geneva

Countries putting their own interests ahead of others

in trying to ensure supplies of a possible coronavirus vac-cine are making the pandemic worse, World Health Organi-zation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday.

“(Acting) strategically and globally is actually in each country’s national interest -

no one is safe until everyone is safe,” he told a virtual briefing calling for an end to “vaccine nationalism”.

He said he had sent a letter to all WHO members asking them to join the multilateral COVAX vaccine effort.

More than 21.9 million peo-ple have been reported to be infected by the novel corona-virus globally and 772,647 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

A healthcare worker takes a swab sample from a woman at a coronavirus disease drive in test centre at Rome’s San Giovanni hospital in Rome, Italy


3India has reported the

world’s third-largest number of infections

after the United States and Brazil, with cases topping 50,000 every

day since July 30.

Amit Shah back in hospital after recovering from COVID-19

Reuters | Mumbai/New Delhi

India’s interior minister Amit Shah was hospitalised again

yesterday after complaining of fatigue and body ache, four days after he said he had re-covered from COVID-19, as cases in the country surged to more than 2.7 million.

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

“He is comfortable and continuing his work from the hospital,” it said, adding he had now tested negative for COVID-19.

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

India has reported the world’s third-largest number

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

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

Authorities in the education and autos hub of Pune, to the south of Mumbai and home to 3.5 million people, said late on Monday that 51.5 per cent of the people surveyed in five of its worst affected areas had shown the presence of an-tibodies, indicating that the spread of the virus was higher than reported.

Amit Shah addresses workers of the BJP in Ahmedabad

WHO calls for widespread flu vaccinations this year

Reuters | Geneva

The world must administer widespread anti-flu vac-

cinations this year to help to ward off the risk of compli-cating coronavirus infections, World Health Organisation senior adviser Bruce Aylward said yesterday.

More than 21.9 million peo-

ple have been reported to be infected by the novel corona-virus globally and 772,647 have died, according to a Reuters tally. WHO epidemiologist Ma-ria Van Kerkhove told a brief-ing in Geneva that studies to date showed that less than 10 per cent of the population has evidence of antibodies against the virus.

A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a “Vaccine COVID-19” sticker and a medical syringe in this illustratio

Sweden temporarily pulls its diplomats out of North KoreaReuters | Stockholm

Sweden said yesterday it had temporarily withdrawn all

its diplomats from North Ko-rea, where its embassy also represents the interests of the United States and several oth-er nations, partly due to issues linked to the coronavirus pan-demic.

Sweden acts as the consular representative of the United

States, Australia and Cana-da, among others, in North Korea.

The Swedish foreign minis-try said its embassy in Pyong-yang remains open and staffed by local employees.

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

England axes health agency criticised for COVID-19 response• England has suffered 55,634 excess deaths from coronavirus

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a lockdown later than many other countries

Reuters | London

England will scrap the government agency re-sponsible for responding

to public health emergencies after the country has suffered the highest death rate in Europe from the coronavirus pandemic.

Public Health England, a cor-nerstone of the state-run health system with responsibility for managing infectious disease outbreaks, will have many of its functions merged with the government’s contact tracing service into a new body to be known as the National Institute for Health Protection.

“The National Institute for Health Protection will have a single and relentless mission, protecting people from external

threats to this country’s health; external threats like biologi-cal weapons, pandemics, and of course, infectious diseases,” said Matt Hancock, Britain’s health minister.

Dido Harding, the former chief executive of internet pro-vider TalkTalk and the current head of the contact tracing ser-vice, will run the new institute.

England has suffered 55,634 excess deaths from coronavirus, according to Reuters calcula-tions, with a surge that lasted longer and spread to more plac-es than those in other hard-hit European nations like Italy and Spain.

Public Health England has been blamed for failing to ramp up coronavirus testing early in

the crisis, abandoning a pro-gramme of widespread contact tracing as the number of cases rose, and initially deciding to share almost no details about the location of infections with local public health officials.

Some public health officials have accused ministers of shift-ing the blame for their own mis-takes on to Public Health Eng-land ahead of a public inquiry that will scrutinise the response to the crisis.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a lockdown later than many other countries, which government advisers now say led to thousands of avoidable deaths.

Public Health England was created by a previous Conserv-ative government in 2013 when the government carved out many of the public health re-sponsibilities from the National Health Service.

The agency, which reports directly to the health minister, was given a wide remit from promoting healthier lifestyles to protecting against infectious diseases.

The National Institute for Health Protection will be oper-ational from next spring.

A staff member adjusts her mask as she poses inside a recreation of a Victorian pharmacy in the Science Museum during a Guest Preview Day ahead of the official opening on Wednesday, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, Britain

COVID-19 pandemic causes mental health crisis in Americas, says WHO official

• Many people are stressed by fear of developing the severe illness caused by the novel coronavirus

Reuters | Brasilia

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a mental health

crisis in the Americas due to heightened stress and use of drugs and alcohol during six months of lockdowns and stay-at-home measures, the World Health Organisation’s regional director said yesterday.

The pandemic also has brought a related problem in a surge in domestic violence against women, Carissa Etienne said in a virtual briefing from the Pan American Health Or-ganisation in Washington.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a mental health crisis in our region at a scale we’ve never seen before,” she said. “It is ur-gent that mental health support

is considered a critical compo-nent of the pandemic response.”

Etienne called on govern-ments to expand mental health services and prioritise mental

health as part of their response to the pandemic.

Many people are stressed by fear of developing the severe illness caused by the novel coro-navirus, while doctors, nurses and health workers are working longer hours than ever before and risking their lives in hospi-tals, she said.

Attention must be paid to ris-ing domestic violence, Etienne said.

“Ongoing stay-at-home meas-ures, coupled with the social and economic impacts of this virus, are increasing the risks of domestic violence – home is not a safe space for many,” she said.

Helpline calls have risen in Argentina, Colombia and Mexi-co, but the real extent of domes-tic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic is likely under-esti-mated, as survivors are stuck at home and outreach services are

interrupted, Etienne said.“With reduced contact to

friends and family or barriers in access to services and shelters, we are leaving survivors with nowhere to go,” she warned.

Coronavirus cases in the Americas have reached almost 11.5 million and more than 400,000 people have died as a result of the pandemic, the WHO regional director said.

The region continues to car-ry the highest burden of the disease, with 64% of officially reported global deaths despite having 13% of the world’s pop-ulation. The biggest drivers of the case counts are the United States and Brazil, she said.

But there are increasing cases in the Caribbean, and new in-fections are rising in Peru, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago.

Relatives react near the coffin of a man, during his funeral at the local cemetery, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues in Mexico City, Mexico

A woman wearing a face mask holds a dog outside a closed square as the outbreak continues


3India has reported the

world’s third-largest number of infections

after the United States and Brazil, with cases topping 50,000 every

day since July 30.

Amit Shah back in hospital after recovering from COVID-19

Reuters | Mumbai/New Delhi

India’s interior minister Amit Shah was hospitalised again

yesterday after complaining of fatigue and body ache, four days after he said he had re-covered from COVID-19, as cases in the country surged to more than 2.7 million.

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

“He is comfortable and continuing his work from the hospital,” it said, adding he had now tested negative for COVID-19.

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

India has reported the world’s third-largest number

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

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

Authorities in the education and autos hub of Pune, to the south of Mumbai and home to 3.5 million people, said late on Monday that 51.5 per cent of the people surveyed in five of its worst affected areas had shown the presence of an-tibodies, indicating that the spread of the virus was higher than reported.

Amit Shah addresses workers of the BJP in Ahmedabad

WHO calls for widespread flu vaccinations this year

Reuters | Geneva

The world must administer widespread anti-flu vac-

cinations this year to help to ward off the risk of compli-cating coronavirus infections, World Health Organisation senior adviser Bruce Aylward said yesterday.

More than 21.9 million peo-

ple have been reported to be infected by the novel corona-virus globally and 772,647 have died, according to a Reuters tally. WHO epidemiologist Ma-ria Van Kerkhove told a brief-ing in Geneva that studies to date showed that less than 10 per cent of the population has evidence of antibodies against the virus.

A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a “Vaccine COVID-19” sticker and a medical syringe in this illustratio

Sweden temporarily pulls its diplomats out of North KoreaReuters | Stockholm

Sweden said yesterday it had temporarily withdrawn all

its diplomats from North Ko-rea, where its embassy also represents the interests of the United States and several oth-er nations, partly due to issues linked to the coronavirus pan-demic.

Sweden acts as the consular representative of the United

States, Australia and Cana-da, among others, in North Korea.

The Swedish foreign minis-try said its embassy in Pyong-yang remains open and staffed by local employees.

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

England axes health agency criticised for COVID-19 response• England has suffered 55,634 excess deaths from coronavirus

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a lockdown later than many other countries

Reuters | London

England will scrap the government agency re-sponsible for responding

to public health emergencies after the country has suffered the highest death rate in Europe from the coronavirus pandemic.

Public Health England, a cor-nerstone of the state-run health system with responsibility for managing infectious disease outbreaks, will have many of its functions merged with the government’s contact tracing service into a new body to be known as the National Institute for Health Protection.

“The National Institute for Health Protection will have a single and relentless mission, protecting people from external

threats to this country’s health; external threats like biologi-cal weapons, pandemics, and of course, infectious diseases,” said Matt Hancock, Britain’s health minister.

Dido Harding, the former chief executive of internet pro-vider TalkTalk and the current head of the contact tracing ser-vice, will run the new institute.

England has suffered 55,634 excess deaths from coronavirus, according to Reuters calcula-tions, with a surge that lasted longer and spread to more plac-es than those in other hard-hit European nations like Italy and Spain.

Public Health England has been blamed for failing to ramp up coronavirus testing early in

the crisis, abandoning a pro-gramme of widespread contact tracing as the number of cases rose, and initially deciding to share almost no details about the location of infections with local public health officials.

Some public health officials have accused ministers of shift-ing the blame for their own mis-takes on to Public Health Eng-land ahead of a public inquiry that will scrutinise the response to the crisis.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a lockdown later than many other countries, which government advisers now say led to thousands of avoidable deaths.

Public Health England was created by a previous Conserv-ative government in 2013 when the government carved out many of the public health re-sponsibilities from the National Health Service.

The agency, which reports directly to the health minister, was given a wide remit from promoting healthier lifestyles to protecting against infectious diseases.

The National Institute for Health Protection will be oper-ational from next spring.

A staff member adjusts her mask as she poses inside a recreation of a Victorian pharmacy in the Science Museum during a Guest Preview Day ahead of the official opening on Wednesday, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in London, Britain

COVID-19 pandemic causes mental health crisis in Americas, says WHO official

• Many people are stressed by fear of developing the severe illness caused by the novel coronavirus

Reuters | Brasilia

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a mental health

crisis in the Americas due to heightened stress and use of drugs and alcohol during six months of lockdowns and stay-at-home measures, the World Health Organisation’s regional director said yesterday.

The pandemic also has brought a related problem in a surge in domestic violence against women, Carissa Etienne said in a virtual briefing from the Pan American Health Or-ganisation in Washington.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a mental health crisis in our region at a scale we’ve never seen before,” she said. “It is ur-gent that mental health support

is considered a critical compo-nent of the pandemic response.”

Etienne called on govern-ments to expand mental health services and prioritise mental

health as part of their response to the pandemic.

Many people are stressed by fear of developing the severe illness caused by the novel coro-navirus, while doctors, nurses and health workers are working longer hours than ever before and risking their lives in hospi-tals, she said.

Attention must be paid to ris-ing domestic violence, Etienne said.

“Ongoing stay-at-home meas-ures, coupled with the social and economic impacts of this virus, are increasing the risks of domestic violence – home is not a safe space for many,” she said.

Helpline calls have risen in Argentina, Colombia and Mexi-co, but the real extent of domes-tic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic is likely under-esti-mated, as survivors are stuck at home and outreach services are

interrupted, Etienne said.“With reduced contact to

friends and family or barriers in access to services and shelters, we are leaving survivors with nowhere to go,” she warned.

Coronavirus cases in the Americas have reached almost 11.5 million and more than 400,000 people have died as a result of the pandemic, the WHO regional director said.

The region continues to car-ry the highest burden of the disease, with 64% of officially reported global deaths despite having 13% of the world’s pop-ulation. The biggest drivers of the case counts are the United States and Brazil, she said.

But there are increasing cases in the Caribbean, and new in-fections are rising in Peru, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago.

Relatives react near the coffin of a man, during his funeral at the local cemetery, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues in Mexico City, Mexico

A woman wearing a face mask holds a dog outside a closed square as the outbreak continues


My Administration and I built the

greatest economy in history, of any country, turned it off, saved millions of lives, and now

am building an even greater economy than it was before,” Trump

tweeted on Tuesday

DONALD TRUMP

Trump lashes out at Michelle Obama• Biden is leading Trump in the polls ahead of the November 3 election

• Former president Obama will speak on Wednesday along with 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Biden’s running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris

AFP News

US President Donald Trump lashed out at former first lady Michelle Obama

yesterday after she delivered a scathing takedown of his leader-ship on the opening night of the Democratic convention.

“I thought it was a very di-visive speech, extremely divi-sive,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

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

In her pre-taped remarks to the convention -- which has

gone almost entirely online be-cause of the coronavirus pan-demic -- Michelle Obama urged Americans to rally behind Dem-ocrat Joe Biden, her husband Barack Obama’s former vice president, in November’s pres-idential election.

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

In unprecedented criticism of a sitting US president by a former first lady, she painted Trump as a man who lacks the competence,

character and decency for the job.

“Whenever we look to this White House for some leader-ship, or consolation, or any sem-blance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division and a total and utter lack of empathy,” she said.

“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” she said. “He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head.

“He cannot meet this mo-ment.”

After a night of hard-hitting attacks on Trump from Michelle Obama, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and others, including

several Republicans, the con-vention is to feature remarks on Tuesday by two former presi-dents -- Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

‘Longest political TV ad ever’ Jill Biden, the candidate’s

wife, is also scheduled to speak along with New York Represent-ative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising star in the progressive wing of the party.

Former president Obama will speak on Wednesday along with 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Biden’s running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris.

The convention is to culmi-nate on Thursday when the 77-year-old Biden will formally accept the Democratic nomina-tion and deliver his acceptance speech.

US presidential nominating conventions are traditionally raucous events featuring rousing speeches, balloons and confetti and thousands of delegates from around the country.

But the Democratic conven-tion in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and next week’s Republican event in North Carolina have been forced to go almost entirely online because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Larry Saboto, a professor of politics at the University of Vir-ginia, gave the Democrats’ virtu-al convention a thumbs-up after

the first day.“This show, this longest politi-

cal TV ad ever, isn’t designed for the junkies but for people who dip in for 10 minutes before go-ing back to Netflix,” Sabato said. “And that’s smart.”

Biden is leading Trump in the polls ahead of the November 3 election and the Republican incumbent has been desperately seeking to persuade Americans that the COVID-19 crisis is behind them and that the situation is improving.

“My Administration and I built the greatest economy in history, of any country, turned it off, saved millions of lives, and now am building an even greater economy than it was before,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.

Trump also continued his at-tacks on mail-in voting, insisting without proof that it was “going to be a disaster the likes of which our country has never seen.

“It’ll end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome,” he said. “They’ll have to do it again and nobody wants that. And I don’t want that.”

W h i l e D e m o c r a t s h o l d their convention, Trump has been visiting battleground states.

He visited Minnesota and Wisconsin on Monday and plans to go to Iowa and Arizona on Tuesday.

Former US president Bill Clinton is to address the second night of the Democratic convention

Actress Eva Longoria served as the emcee on the opening night

Former first lady Michelle Obama said “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country”

DON’T MISS IT

US presidential nominating conven-tions are tradition-ally raucous events featuring rousing

speeches, balloons and confetti and

thousands of dele-gates from around

the country.

Mauritiust arrests captain of Japanese oil spill shipReuters

Mauritius has arrested the captain of a Japanese bulk

carrier that ran aground off its coast, causing a devastating oil spill in one of the world’s most pristine maritime environments, police said yesterday.

The MV Wakashio struck a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island on July 25 and began spilling oil on Aug. 6, prompting the government to announce a state of environmental emer-gency.

The spill spread over a vast area of endangered corals, af-fecting fish and other marine life in what some scientists have

called the country’s worst eco-logical disaster. Emergency crews managed to remove most of the ship’s remaining oil before it split in two on Saturday.

“We have arrested the cap-tain of the

vessel and another member of the crew. After having been heard by the court they have been denied b a i l a n d

are still in detention,” Inspector Siva Coothen told Reuters.

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

“The route set five days before the crash was wrong and the boat navigation system should have signalled that to the crew and it seems the crew ignored it. The boat did also fail to send

out an SOS (when it ran

aground), and did not respond to attempts by the coastguard to get in touch,” the official said.

The other man arrested was the deputy captain, he said, add-ing the two men were charged with endangering safe naviga-tion.

The official confirmed that the crew had been questioned about reports they were having a birthday party on board, but said it was not clear yet if the party had been held at the same time that the ship ran aground or earlier in the day.

He also denied media reports that the ship had sailed close to land seeking a wifi signal,

saying that look-

ing for a phone signal would not have required sailing so close to land.

Scientists say the full impact of the spill is still unfolding but the damage could affect Mauri-tius and its tourism-dependent economy for decades. Removing the ship is likely to take months.

The official noted it was the second accident in the area in four years and said the govern-ment might establish a signal station nearby to try to ward off future disasters.

The route set five days before the crash was wrong and the boat navigation system should

have signalled that to the crew and it seems the crew ignored it. The boat did also fail to send out an SOS (when it ran aground), and did not

respond to attempts by the coastguard to get in touch

MAURITIUS OFFICIAL

The Japanese bulk carrier MV Wakashio, that has struck a coral reef causing an oil spill, is seen in Mauritius, in this undated aerial picture obtained from social media

Angelina Jolie considering move to London suburb with children amid Brad Pitt divorce battleFox | Los Angeles

Angelina Jolie has reportedly been looking to move out of

the country with her six children, whom she shares with her ex Brad Pitt, to a suburb in London, England.

The recent reports come amid the couple’s yearslong divorce battle in court.

Jolie, 45, previously lived in Richmond, a suburb in south-west London, with Pitt, 56, while filming in 2011.

“She believes [Richmond is] a perfect environment for the kids, from a cultural stand-point and educa-tionally,” a source told the Mirror.

They added: “One scenario is that she could have the kids a few months at a time in the UK, then

they’d be allowed back to see Brad for longer periods.”

Pitt resides in Los Angeles, Calif.The “Maleficent” star revealed in

the December 2019 issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine that she would’ve liked to move with her children sooner, but she hasn’t because of her ex.

“I would love to live abroad and will do so as soon as my

children are 18. Right now, I’m having to base where their father chooses to live,”

she told the outlet.The former couple, who

share six children together: Maddox, 19; Pax, 16; Zaha-

ra, 15; Shiloh, 14; Knox, 12; and Vivienne, 12, have been locked in a divorce battle since 2016 when it was of-ficially revealed that they were calling it quits after roughly 10 years together and two years of mar-riage.

12 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2020

celebs

Across1- Bedouin; 5- Killer whales; 10- Old Testament book; 14- List heading; 15- Expanse of sand; 16- Low-lying area; 17- Affirm solemnly; 18- Carousal; 19- Author James; 20- “You ___ worry”; 22- Mental strain; 24- Always, poetically; 25- Bang-up; 26- Capsize; 30- Stroll; 35- Fam. reunion attendee; 36- Coquettish; 37- Where there’s ___...; 38- Igneous rock; 41- Supposed; 43- Fall bloomer; 44- Flightless bird; 45- Sprint rival; 46- I ___ vacation!; 47- Tear roughly; 50- Polo of “Meet the Parents”; 53- Chiang ___-shek; 54- Genuine; 58- In and of ___; 62- Buck follower; 63- Noted Civil War biography; 66- “Twittering Machine” artist; 67- Dress often worn by Hindu women; 68- Hot spots; 69- Charles Lamb’s pen name; 70- Actor Connery; 71- Adjust to zero; 72- Sugar substitute?;

Down 1- ___ impasse; 2- Wander; 3- Zip-___-Doo-Dah; 4- Frontier; 5- To block; 6- Agt.; 7- Auto-mobile; 8- Vinegary prefix; 9- Luster; 10- Gardner and others; 11- Wise men; 12- Muffin topper; 13- Witnessed; 21- Can be used to catch fish or surf!; 23- Sherpa’s home; 25- At all; 26- Church instrument; 27- Piece of poetry; 28- Overjoy; 29- Fish eggs; 31- Wonderment; 32- 18th letter of the Greek alphabet; 33- Chosen; 34- Blast from the past; 39- Aussie outlaw Kelly; 40- Angry; 41- Doctors’ org.; 42- Most fortunate; 44- Actor Wallach; 48- Consume; 49- Dared; 51- Slip; 52- Actor Christopher; 54- Back talk; 55- Dies ___; 56- “A Doll’s House” heroine; 57- Fountain-bottom sight; 59- Vogue rival; 60- Sci-fi princess; 61- Extreme reverence; 64- French article; 65- Chemical ending;

S U D O K U C R O S S W O R D

Yesterday’s solutionYesterday’s solution

How to playPlace a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Adele says Glennon Doyle’s book ‘Untamed’ helped her during transformative yearFox | Los Angeles

While everyone is praising Adele for com-pletely transforming herself over the last

few years, she’s giving a shout out to a special book that inspired her.

Over the weekend, the Grammy winner, 32, revealed how “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle has completely changed the way she thinks and sees the world. Reading it will “shake your brain and make your soul scream,” Adele warned in a social media post.

“I am so ready for myself after reading this book! It’s as if I just flew into my body for the very first time. Whew! Anyone who has any kind of capacity to truly let go and give into yourself with any kind of desire to hold on for dear life - Do it. Read it. Live it. Practice it. We are a lot! But we are meant to be a lot! .. ‘A good life is a hard life!’” she wrote.

“Read this book and have a highlighter on hand to make notes because you’ll want to re-fer back to it trust me! I never knew that I am solely responsible for my own joy, happiness and freedom!! Who knew our own liberation liber-ates those around us? Cause I didn’t!! I thought we were meant to be stressed and disheveled, confused and selfless like a Disney character! ProBloodyFound!! You’re an absolute don Glen-

non,” Adele concluded.Doyle, 44, wrote back in

the comments section: “I love you, my soul sister. Thank you for this … Love, Hope, Sisterhood…”

Doyle’s book, which was released in March, is part self-help, part memoir type of reading that encourages women to live their “un-tamed” lives and not adhere to society’s expectations.

The author opens up about her divorce, motherhood, and her husband’s cheating all while on her journey to meet-ing and marrying Olympic soccer star Abby Wambach.

“I wrote my first two mem-oirs and I think that with those two I was still trying to be a good girl, and ‘Un-tamed’ is really about how I became a free woman,” Doyle told Robin Roberts on GMA back in March. “’Un-tamed’ was about finding myself.”

Ana de Armas gifts Ben Affleck a new motorcycle with matching

helmets for his 48th birthdayANI | Washington

Cuban-Spanish actor Ana de Armas gifted Ben Affleck a motorcycle on his 48th

birthday and treated fans with a love-able monochromatic selfie.According to People Magazine, the

32-year-old ‘Knives Out’ actor, gifted her boy-friend a new BMW motorcycle. It was specially built from scratch for Affleck by WYLD Garage Co. She also surprised him with his and her matching helmets.

Wearing matching green helmets atop the similarly coloured vehicle, de Armas wore a light blue dress and a pair of white sneakers as Affleck sported a simple white button-down shirt alongside a pair of grey-coloured pants.

As Affleck turned 48 on August 15, his castmate-turned-quarantine partner Ana de Armas posted a post-birthday celebration selfie on Instagram. In the monochromatic photo, shared over the weekend, Ben grinned as he stood behind de Armas. The pair was seen smiling cheek to cheek in the rare loved-up snap.

The’ Deep Water’ costars were spotted riding the new motorcycle together in Pa-cific Palisades, California, as de Armas was

seen throwing her hands up in the fresh air.Since early March, the duo has been romanti-

cally linked when they were seen on a trip to her native Cuba. Previously, Affleck and de Armas met for the first time while filming their thriller in New Orleans.

De Armas later confirmed their relationship on Instagram in April when she shared photos of them spending time together for her 32nd birthday.

Elizabeth Debicki to play

Princess Diana in ‘The Crown’

ANI | Washington

Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki

will play will play Diana, Prin-

cess of Wales, in seasons five and six

of ‘The Crown,’ the Netflix series

announced Sunday (local time).

According to Page Six, the

29-year-old actor will join

a new cast for the series that

includes Imelda Staunton as

Queen Elizabeth, Lesley Man-

ville as Princess Mar-

garet and Jonathan

Pryce as Prince Phil-

ip. Staunton suc-

ceeds Olivia Colman

and Claire Foy in

the role.Emma Corrin

is playing Diana

on the drama’s

upcoming fourth

season, but Debicki

will take on the

part for what’s

sure to be the

character’s most dramatic chapters.

Seasons five and six are expected

to be the show’s final seasons. How-

ever, the premiere date of season four

has not been announced yet.

Debicki said on Twitter. “Prin-

cess Diana’s spirit, her words

and her actions live in the

hearts of so many. It is my

true privilege and honour to

be joining this masterful series,

which has had me absolutely

hooked from episode one.”

Page Six reported that

the Debicki is seen as a

rising star after a break-

out performance in Ste-

ve McQueen’s ‘Widows’.

She also stars in Chris-

topher Nolan’s upcom-

ing thriller ‘Tenet.’ Other

credits include ‘The Great

Gatsby,’ ‘The Burnt Orange

Heresy’ and ‘Guardians of

the Galaxy Vol. 2.’

Will Smith, Kevin Hart will lead ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’ remake for ParamountFox | Los Angeles

Will Smith and Kevin Hart are set to take on the lead

roles in a remake of “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” for Par-amount Pictures.

The film will be a modern take on the original, Fox News can confirm, and Smith, 51, and Hart, 41, will star as two men that must team up to overcome obstacles on their way to their loved ones.

The original film, which de-buted in 1987, was directed and written by John Hughes and boasted Steve Martin and John Candy in the leading roles. Kevin Bacon also appeared.

The remake will be written by Aeysha Carr, who has writ-ten episodes of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “The Carmichael Show.” The project will be her feature film writing debut.

Carr also has producing cred-its under her belt, including Hu-lu’s upcoming “Woke,” set to debut next month.

Adele

Angelina Jolie

Elizabeth Debicki

Ben Affleck rides the bike with Ana de Armas

Man Utd’s David De Gea shrugs off criticismManchester United goalkeeper David de Gea says he is still safe pair of hands

• David de Gea had a disastrous game against Chelsea in the FA Cup semifinal

AFP | London

David de Gea says he has faith in his abilities de-

spite a torrent of criticism in recent months and questions over whether he should re-main Manchester United’s first choice goalkeeper.

The 29-year-old Spanish in-ternational’s position has come under increasing pressure due to the form shown by Dean Henderson on loan at Premier League rivals Sheffield United.

The 23-year-old Englishman is believed to have told United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer he will seek a move away if he is not given the number one spot.

Chelsea are reportedly keen to sign Henderson as they seek to offload Kepa Arrizabalaga. His understudy Willy Caballero is 39.

De Gea, though, sounded a defiant note following United’s 2-1 loss to Spanish side Sevilla in

the Europa League semi-finals. Solskjaer showed his faith in

De Gea in selecting him for the Sevilla clash ahead of Sergio Romero, who usually played in the Europa League.

De Gea has been at United since 2011 and signed new and improved terms with them until at least 2023 last September.

He has been United’s player of the year on four occasions but last season was a trying one for him reaching a nadir with two

glaring errors in their FA Cup semi-final defeat by Chelsea.

“No, I trust in myself,” De Gea told the Press Association news agency.

“I showed my qualities all the years, so I just keep available for the manager.

“I’m always ready to play and try to help the team as always, as I did always.”

De Gea said that despite los-ing in three semi-finals last sea-son -- they lost to Manchester

City in the League Cup -- saw definite progress at the club un-der Solskjaer.

“I think we improved already this season,” said de Gea.

“We were 14 points behind the third position in the Premier League (at one point).

“We finished third (securing a place in next season’s Champi-ons League) at the end.”

However, de Gea believes that to make the leap from semi-fi-nalists to trophy winners, the club needs to add new faces who bring a more streetwise approach to their play.

“Maybe we need a bit of expe-rience, more experience in the team,” he said.

England captain Root ‘would love’ to tour Pakistan

AFP | London

England captain Joe Root has said he “would love” to

play in Pakistan but is unsure when the space could be found in a crowded schedule ahead of a planned tour in 2022.

England have not played in Pakistan since 2005/06. An attack by armed militants on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in 2009 ended major cricket tours for a decade, with Pa-kistan playing the majority of their subsequent ‘home’ matches in the United Arab Emirates.

But Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, West Indies and Bangladesh have all since made the trip to Pakistan.

Pakistan are 1-0 down in a three-Test series in Eng-land after a weather-affected drawn second Test at South-ampton on Monday followed a three-wicket loss at Old Traf-ford earlier this month.

“I’d love to go and visit Paki-stan,” Root told reporters after stumps at the Ageas Bowl in an echo of recent comments made by England coach Chris Silverwood.

“It would be a great oppor-tunity to go and play there personally. Unfortunately, it’s not my decision to make but it looks a wonderful country to

go and play cricket in. “The wickets look nice

and flat, which will be a nice change to what we have just played on here,” the top-order batsman added.

‘Emotion’ Test cricket returned to Pa-

kistan in December, when Sri Lanka were the visitors.

“You see could see the emo-tion of everyone back in Pa-kistan when Test cricket was there at the back end of last year,” said Root.

“Also, speaking to a few of the players, how much it meant to them as well and they really appreciated being able to play back in Pakistan too.”

Earlier this month, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief ex-ecutive Wasim Khan, voiced the hope that England could tour before 2022.

David Silva returns to Spain to sign for Real SociedadReuters | London

Spanish midfielder David Silva has agreed a two-year

contract with Real Sociedad following his departure from Manchester City, the La Liga club announced.

Silva, 34, spent a decade with City and made his final appearance as a substitute in Saturday’s 3-1 defeat by Lyon in the Champions League quarter-finals. He is expected to join his new Sociedad team-mates in the coming days for pre-season training.

The 2020/21 La Liga campaign is scheduled to be-gin on September 12. Sociedad fin-ished sixth last season to qualify for the Europa League.

Silva won 11 do-mestic trophies in his time in Man-chester and is widely regarded as one of the Premier League’s finest im-ports.

City said a stat-ue will be erect-

ed next year in his honour, while a pitch at the club’s training ground will also be named after him.

S i l v a i s t h e f o u r t h - h i g h e s t goalscorer in Spain’s history and sixth for all-time appearanc-

es, and was part of the squads which won the

2010 World Cup and two

European Champi-onships,

in 2008 a n d 2012.

Inter demolish Shakhtar to reach Europa finalLukaku, Martinez fire five-star Inter into Europa League final against Sevilla

• Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez both scored twice in Inter’s 5-0 thrashing of Shakhtar Donetsk

AFP | Lisbon

Inter Milan are destined for “great things” under Anto-nio Conte, according to Lau-

taro Martinez after the Argen-tine and Romelu Lukaku both scored twice to thrash Shakhtar Donetsk 5-0 in Dusseldorf and reach the Europa League final.

Danilo D’Ambrosio was also on target for the Italian giants, who will face Sevilla in Friday’s final in Cologne.

Inter have endured a lean dec-ade since winning the Champi-ons League in 2010, but closed the gap on Juventus at the top of Serie A to just one point in Conte’s first season in charge and are now one win away from a first trophy in nine years.

Martinez and Lukaku’s pro-lific partnership has been the source of much of Inter’s suc-cess and they took their tally to a combined 54 for the season.

“It was an incredible night, something we have been dream-ing of,” said Martinez, who has been strongly linked with a move to be Luis Suarez’s suc-cessor at Barcelona.

“We proved that Inter are ready for great things, we are ready for the final.”

After a slow start, Martinez put Inter on course for their 10th European final as he pow-

ered home Nicolo Barella’s cross to open the scoring on 19 min-utes.

Shakhtar are one of European football’s great survivors as the Ukrainian champions continue to thrive despite not playing a match in their home city of Donetsk for six years due to a war in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Rus-sian-backed separatists.

Luis Castro’s men had scored 14 goals in five Europa League games since dropping into the competition form the Cham-pions League, but their talent-ed array of Brazilian forwards barely laid a glove on a charac-teristically well-organised Con-te defence.

“Don’t get fooled by the re-sult,” said Conte. “We were good not allowing them to play the way they wanted. The lads played exactly how a European game should be played.”

Shakhtar had one golden chance to level when Mykola

Matviyenko’s cross picked out Junior Moraes, but the Brazil-ian-born Ukrainian interna-tional’s header was too close to Samir Handanovic.

Two minutes later, Inter land-ed the killer blow when D’Am-brosio met Marcelo Brozovic’s corner with a powerful header.

“When Inter scored their sec-ond goal we simply collapsed,” said Castro. “After 2-0 we made so many terrible mistakes.”

Only a brilliant save from 36-year-old Andriy Pyatov had denied Martinez classy second with a lob long range early in the second half, but he gave the veteran ‘keeper no chance to set himself with brilliant quick hit for his 21st goal of the season.


Joe Root celebrates during a match (file photo)

Shakhtar Donetsk’s Brazilian midfielder Dodo and Inter Milan’s Argentinian forward Lautaro Martinez (R) vie for the ball

Inter Milan have not won a trophy since a 2011 Coppa Italia

triumph

KNOW WHAT

11domestic trophies have been won by

David Silva in his time in Manchester and is

widely regarded as one of the Premier League’s

finest imports

It would be a great opportunity to go and play there personally.

Unfortunately, it’s not my decision to make but it looks a

wonderful country to go and play cricket in

JOE ROOT

David Silva

I showed my qualities all the years, so I just keep available for the manager. I’m always

ready to play and try to help the team as always, as I did

alwaysDAVID DE GEA

Manchester United’s goalkeeper David de Gea is unable to prevent a shot from Chelsea’s striker Olivier Giroud (file photo)


Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: [email protected]

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Koeman in talks to replace Setien at BarcaRonald Koeman in talks to take Barcelona coaching job after Quique Setien sacked

• Barcelona also sacked sporting director Abidal as part of restructuring

• Koeman has coached the Netherlands since 2018

Reuters | Barcelona

Ronald Koeman has said he is in talks to leave his role as Netherlands man-

ager in order to succeed Quique Setien as coach of Barcelona, who continued a restructur-ing effort yesterday by sacking sporting director Eric Abidal.

Koeman, who is revered by Barca fans for delivering their first European Cup, will be ex-pected to lead Barca’s rebuilding work after they were subject-ed to an 8-2 drubbing by Bay-ern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.

The Dutchman, who has coached the Netherlands since 2018, told reporters outside the national side’s headquar-ters yesterday that he wanted to coach Barca but had not yet

finalised a deal.“It is only definite when my

signature is on the document. Until then I cannot say any-thing, even if I wanted to,” Koe-man said.

Koeman is fondly remem-bered at Barca for the role he played in Johan Cruyff’s hugely successful side known as the ‘Dream Team’ and for scoring the only goal against Sampdoria in the 1992 European Cup final.

The defender later became the club’s assistant coach before embarking on an eventful ca-

reer as a head coach, managing Dutch sides Ajax Amsterdam, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord plus Premier League sides Southampton and Everton and La Liga’s Valencia.

Later in the day, Barca decid-ed to terminate the contract of Abidal, another popular former player, which was met with sur-prise as the club had said a day earlier that a restructuring of the squad would be overseen by the Frenchman.

The dismissal of Abidal came a day after Setien was sacked af-

ter only seven months in charge.Abidal, a double Champions

League winner as a Barca player, had been in the role for over two years but has been let go after one of the club’s worst seasons in recent memory, in which they also surrendered the league title to Real Madrid.

He was also the target of crit-icism from Lionel Messi ear-lier this year, who accused his former team mate of blaming the squad for Ernesto Valverde getting sacked as coach last Jan-uary.

Abidal joined Barca as a play-er in 2007 and became one of the club’s most popular players for enduring a battle with can-cer, which forced him to under-go a liver transplant in 2012.

It is only definite when my signature is on the document. Until then I cannot

say anything, even if I wanted toRONALD KOEMAN

Ronald Koeman looks on during a match (file photo)

India’s Farhad signs multi-fight extension with BRAVE CF

TDT | Manama

One of the biggest names in the Indian subcontinent

Mixed Martial Arts scene is now committed for a longer term with BRAVE Combat Federation, the fastest-grow-ing MMA organization in the world.

A veteran of the truly global organization since its very first event, back in 2016, Mumbai’s Mohammad Farhad extended his agreement with BRAVE CF and commented on the new deal.

“I’m signing a new deal with BRAVE Combat Federation”, he said. “I’m very happy with this opportunity and I’d like to thank His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Hamad Al Khalifa for giving us this platform and I want to ensure to all MMA

fans that I will give my full dedication and leave the best performances inside the cage. I am BRAVE”.

A knockout artist with an extensive striking background, Farhad holds a professional record of 11 wins and only three losses. All of his three wins under BRAVE Combat Federation’s banner came by way of knockout or technical knockout.

The last time “Sher-e-Hind” stepped into the BRAVE CF Are-na, he beat Kushal Vyas via first-round TKO in his home country of India, back in No-vember of 2019.

The promotion’s officials have not confirmed the date or event for Farhad’s next bout but the Indian superstar is ex-pected to make his return be-fore the end of 2020.

Mohammed Farhad

Two matches in Nasser Premier League postponedTDT | Manama

The association said that its decision is based on the

directives of the Health Min-istry after a COVID-19 case was confirmed among the Mu-harraq team, stressing keen-ness on implementing the official instructions in com-pliance with precautionary

measures for combating the pandemic.

The BFA board said that it is following up developments with Dr. Khalid Al-Sheikh, Head of Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) panel in charge of over-seeing the implementation of precautionary and medical measures for the resumption of sports activities.

T h e B FA b o a rd c a l l e d upon member clubs to urge their affiliates to comply with the guidelines and pre-cautionary measures so as to avert the spread of the pandemic.

It announced that it would c o n t i n u e a l l p re c a u t i o n-ary measures for holding the matches - checking the play-

ers’ temperature, filling in the forms of all the participants – the technical and administra-tive staff, players, referees and reporters.

The BFA board commended all competent parties for their cooperation during the first two rounds after resuming the Nas-ser bin Hamad Premier League on the 7th of August.

KHK Sports and Icon Group Partner for iconic venturesTDT | Manama

KHK Sports and BRAVE Combat Federation

recently announced their partnership with holding company Icon Group, and their talent management partner company Superbia Management.

With a strong proven record of developing and empowering the sports in-dustry building strong grass root programs and scouting talents, KHK Sports contin-ues to grow from strength to strength; and now combin-ing the experience and pow-erhouse of KHK Sports with the portfolio of Icon Group and Superbia Management, this partnership encapsu-lates the unified vision of the companies to empower and grow talent within their respective regions.

Former England keeper Hart joins TottenhamAFP | London

Former England number one goalkeeper Joe Hart will

compete to be number two choice to Hugo Lloris after signing for Tottenham Hotspur on a free transfer yesterday.

The 33-year-old signed a two-year contract with Spurs with the club reportedly agreeing to pay him £50,000 ($66,000) a week, the same as his wages in an unsuccessful spell with Burnley.

“We are delighted to an-nounce the signing of Joe Hart on a contract until 2022,” read a Spurs statement on their web-site.

Hart will compete with Paulo Gazzaniga to sit on the bench -- and get the nod for either League Cup or Europa League ties -- as understudy to Lloris, whose own form was far from consistent last season.

He did excite interest form a variety of clubs ranging from newly-promoted Premier

League side Leeds United to second tier Derby County and Scottish champions Celtic.

Hart’s fall from grace has been dramatic -- set in train by Pep Guardiola’s arrival as Man-chester City manager on 2016.

Guardiola made clear Hart -- who won two Premier League titles, two League Cups and an FA Cup with City -- was not his type of goalkeeper and sent him on loan to Italian side Torino and then to West Ham.

He finally found a more per-

manent home with Burnley in 2018 but ended up as number two to Nick Pope last season.

Hart’s international career suffered accordingly as he also lost his undisputed number one spot and was not even selected for the 2018 World Cup squad.

He has not added to his 75 caps -- which included appear-ances at two European Cham-pionships (2012/16) and the 2014 World Cup finals -- since November 2017.

KNOW WHAT

Hart’s international ca-reer suffered as he lost his undisputed number one spot and was not even selected for the

2018 World Cup squadJoe Hart

Ligue 1 season start reshuffled after Marseille virus cases

AFP | Paris

The French football league (LFP) yesterday reshuffled

the opening weekend of Ligue 1 after the game scheduled to kick off the season was post-poned following three more positive coronavirus tests at Marseille.

Marseil le were due to play Saint-Etienne on Fri-day evening in the first game shown by the league’s new broadcast partner Mediapro on its specially created pay channel, Telefoot.

The LFP filled the Friday evening slot by bringing for-ward the game between Bor-deaux and Nantes, initially scheduled for Saturday. It will be the first league match in France since March 8.

The LFP said the postponed Marseille match was to be played on either September 16 or 17 “subject to changes in sanitary conditions within the Olympique de Marseille club”.

The three fresh coronavirus cases took the total at Mar-seille to four, and the club said yesterday that all details had been relayed to the LFP. The LFP guidelines say that four cases mean the virus is “wide-spread” at a club.

Regional daily La Provence reported that the three posi-tive tests announced yesterday were from goalkeeper Steve Mandanda and midfielders Maxime Lopez and Valentin Rongier, names that the club would neither confirm nor deny to AFP, citing medical confidentiality.

Marseille’s players take part in a training session (file photo)

40players from 11 clubs

have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks

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