HM the King a guiding force: Shaikh Nasser...HH Shaikh Nasser Virus mutations unlikely to mean...

02 170,000 COVID-19 tests

04 Stocks rise

6

Former Garuda Indonesia CEO jailed for eight years for bribery4BUSINESS

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Inter, AC Milan resume trainingItalian football giants Inter Milan and AC Milan were both back training yesterday two months after a strict lockdown which has hit the northern Italian city hard.|P 07

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HM the King is a great leader, from

whom we draw inspiration in all

our work and tasks assigned to us

HIS HIGHNESS SHAIKH NASSER BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA

HM the King a guiding force: Shaikh Nasser Shaikh Nasser thanks HM King for lauding the success of ‘Feena Khair’ campaign

TDT | Manama

His Highness Shaikh Nas-ser bin Hamad Al Khal-ifa yesterday pledged

to “double his efforts” to better serving the nation hailing HM the King as a guiding force in all his works.

The leadership of HM the King continues to act as a constant source of pride in the Kingdom for all of us to “draw inspira-tion in all our work and tasks assigned to us.”

“This has also resulted in the Kingdom combating the pan-demic successfully, earning a distinguished international rep-utation, and the praise of the World Health Organisation.”

HH Shaikh Nasser was thank-ing HM the King for hailing the

“outstanding success achieved by the “Fina Khair” campaign.

Shaikh Nasser said: “The un-paralleled success achieved by the campaign reflects the noble

values for which the Bahrain society has always been known for.”

HH Shaikh Nasser is HM the King’s Representative for Hu-

manitarian Work and Youth Af-fairs, National Security Advisor and Board of Trustees Chair-man of the Royal Humanitarian

Foundation (RHF). HH Shaikh Nasser affirmed

that HM the King’s praise of his role in the national campaign, as well as the efforts exerted by the Royal Humanitarian Foun-dation, are a source of pride and a badge of honour for him and the RHF.

Secretary-General of the Roy-al Humanitarian Foundation, Dr Mustafa Al-Sayyed Al-Ameen, extended thanks and appreci-ation to HM King Hamad for lauding the success of the ‘Feena Khair’ campaign and commend-ed the efforts of the RHF in Bah-rain and abroad.

He affirmed that the royal ap-preciation is a source of honour for all the RHF’s affiliates, and will motivate them to continue their efforts.

HH Shaikh Nasser

Virus mutations unlikely to mean stronger strain: expertsParis

The coronavirus’ constant mutation is unlikely to have changes its potency

or its contagiousness, disease experts say, despite recent re-search suggesting the emer-gence of a more virulent strain.

A pre-paper -- that is, not re-viewed by a collection of the researchers’ peers -- released last month by Los Alamos Na-tional Laboratory claimed to have identified a new strain of the virus.

A mutation on one of the vi-rus’ protein spikes made the strain currently circulating in

Europe and the United States potentially more potent than the one that emerged from China at the end of last year, the authors claimed.

“The mutation Spike is of ur-gent concern; it began spreading in Europe in early February, and

when introduced to new regions it rapidly becomes the dominant form,” they wrote.

They said that any new strain

might have implications on the efficacy of treatments or vac-cines against COVID-19 currently in development.

The study made headlines but provoked calls for caution from disease experts, mainly due to the fact that the theory of in-creased transmissibility had not been tested in the lab.

“This variant might have been lucky and got introduced to places outside Wuhan and different approaches to social distancing early on,” William Hanage, associate professor at Harvard University’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health, said on

Twitter.“Essentially the virus has

been mutating... That don’t mean that much. Mutations are what happens when genomes replicate. Comes with the ter-ritory like showers with the springtime.”

Viruses such as COVID-19 are essentially bundles of coded material -- RNA -- containing instructions for how to build copies of themselves.

Since they need the cells of another organism in order to replicate, tiny errors occur as the RNA is reproduced, leading to mutations.

Home just a few hours awayStranded Bahraini citizens repatriated from Lebanon

TDT | Manama

Bahraini citizens stranded in the Lebanese Republic

were brought back home yes-terday on board a flight from Rafic Hariri International Air-port, said the Ministry of For-eign Affairs.

Embassy of Bahrain in Da-mascus coordinated the evacu-ation as part of a plan prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs to help stranded Bahrainis abroad.

The embassy in Damascus appreciated the efforts of local authorities there for facilitating the evacuation.

Bahraini passengers from Lebanon

KNOW

BETTER

Viruses such as COV-ID-19 are RNA bundles containing instructions for how to build copies

of themselves.

Venezuela charges Americans with terrorism, conspiracyCaracas

Venezuela has charged two former US soldiers

with terrorism and con-spiracy for allegedly taking part in a failed bid to topple President Nicolas Maduro, the attorney general said yesterday.

Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, were among 17 people captured by the Venezuelan military, which said it had thwart-ed an attempted invasion by mercenaries in the early hours of Sunday.

Second White House staffer tests positive for coronavirus

Washington

A second White House worker -- reportedly

the vice president’s spokes-woman -- has tested pos-itive for coronavirus, offi-cials said Friday, even as President Donald Trump continued to go mask-free at a World War II commemo-ration with veterans in their 90s.

A senior administration official said a member of Vice President Mike Pence’s staff had been tested and found to have coronavirus.

Trump, speaking later at an event with Republican lawmakers, identified the person as “Katie,” saying she works with Pence as a “press person.”

Trump

Passengers from Bahrain deboard Air India Express repatriation flight IX 474 at Cochin International Airport. There were 182 passengers including 25 children and 5 infants on the flight. (Courtesy of @awnusharma) (Full story on Page 3)

02SATURDAY, MAY 9, 2020

Riding in the time of coronavirus!Authority advises cyclists to ensure social distancing protocols while riding

TDT | Manama

Cycling is a healthy habit. It’s also safe and could lay the foundation for

a more resilient economy for post-COVID-19 world.

But all these become fruitful, only if done in a safe manner preventing the spread of the virus, said the General Traffic Department in a report pub-lished by Al Ayam.

Riding in groups, without ad-hering to social distancing pro-tocols, will only result in harm-ing the otherwise healthy habit.

The last thing our country

needs today is an influx of in-jured, COVID-19 positive cyclists.

Cycling is safe as long as the same precautions for reducing the risk of virus infection is ad-hered to, says experts.

So it is better to listen to what the authorities say about this.

“We urge all cyclists to not to roam or more around in groups, especially not to go out except when it’s necessary.”

Riding alone is the key here, or maybe in the company of peo-ple in the same household.

The message is part of an awareness-raising campaign de-signed by the Ministry of Inte-

rior to enhance public commit-ment to precautionary measures to limit the spread of Coronavi-rus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The authority urges cyclists here to keep sufficient distance between fellow riders and ad-here to traffic regulations, and laws. It’s advised to always keep at least 2 meters apart from an-yone outside your household, at all times.

While it’s always safe to stay indoors at these times, one may go out when it’s necessary but wearing all kind of protective gears, the law demands.

Riders are advised to wear at

all times necessary safety gears, helmets, gloves, leg guards, re-flective jackets as well as light-ing both at the front and rear end of their bikes.

In case of more people riding together, each rider should take care to ride sequentially one be-hind the other leaving sufficient distance between each other.

Hand signals are mandatory while changing lanes as well as adherence to traffic signs and signals. The authority also warned that using headphones while riding will impair the abil-ity to respond to traffic emer-gencies.

Caught flouting shrimp ban TDT |Manama

Bahraini coast guard officers arrested three people for

flouting a six-month ban in place on fishing and sale of shrimps in the territorial wa-ters of the Kingdom.

The Coast Guard command-er said the patrolling team managed to catch the men, both Bahrainis and Asians, with about 150 kg of shrimps.

Legal measures are taken to refer the case to Public Pros-ecution.

According to a ministerial decision, the ban came into effect in Bahrain from Feb-ruary 1 will continue until July 31.

The decision, according to the Minister of Works, Mu-nicipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, Esam Khalaf, is to preserve marine wealth and to achieve sustainable devel-opment of marine resources.

170,000 COVID-19 tests Bahrain continues to move ahead with its aggressive testing strategy

TDT, agencies | Manama

Bahrain is fast expanding its extensive and aggres-sive testing strategy to

contain the coronavirus cases with the health authority here performing more than 170,000 tests as of yesterday.

The authority, on its twitter handle, said it performed around 6,206 tests in the past 24 hours to bring the total number of test-ed people here to 170,719.

The intense testing strate-gy also resulted in the minis-try detecting 205 more active COVID-19 cases yesterday in the Kingdom, of which 138 are expatriate workers, and 67 are contacts of active cases.

With this, the total number of active COVID-19 cases in Bah-rain has reached 2369, of which 2367 are stable, and 2 in critical condition.

As of yesterday, the total num-ber of coronavirus cases in the Kingdom is 4404, which is also one of the lowest among GCC member states.

Bahrain also reported 27 addi-tional recoveries bringing the to-tal number of recovered patients discharged from isolation and treatment centres in the King-dom to 2,027.

The total number of cases per 1 million population in the King-dom is 2,588, and the total tests conducted per 1 m population is 100,330.

The number of cases in the six Gulf Arab states has risen steadily to almost 86,000, with 486 deaths, despite containment measures including curfews, the grounding of passenger flights and the closure of most public

venues.

Saudi cases exceed 35,000The number of coronavirus

cases in Saudi Arabia exceeded 35,000 yesterday.

Officials reported 1,701 new cases, taking the total to 35,432. The country has recorded a dai-ly average of around 1,500 new

cases over the past week.Despite the rising number of

cases, the kingdom’s death toll has remained relatively low. It increased by 10 on Friday to 229.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday formed a police unit to moni-tor violations of its coronavi-rus lockdown rules and banned gatherings of more than five

people, according to state news agency SPA, citing hefty fines for any violations.

Fines of up to 100,000 riyals ($27,000) will be handed down to groups larger than one family gathering in public and private spaces, including homes, con-struction sites and shops. The same rule applies to parties, weddings and funerals.

Saudi Arabia recorded its first COVID-19 infection on March 2, several weeks after the initial outbreak in Asia.

20-day ‘total curfew’ in KuwaitKuwait will enact a “total

curfew” from 4 pm on Sunday through to May 30 to help to curb the spread of the new coro-navirus, the Information Minis-

try said on Twitter yesterday.Further details of the curfew

will be announced soon, it said.Kuwait on April 20 expanded

a nationwide curfew to 16 hours a day, from 4 pm to 8 am, and extended a suspension of work in the public sector, including government ministries, until May 31.

On Friday the Gulf state an-nounced 641 new coronavirus cases and three deaths, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 7,208, with 47 deaths.

In UAE, the number of virus cases almost touched 17,000 yesterday with the kingdom reporting additional 553 cases. Health authorities there also reported nine more deaths yes-terday bringing the total number of deaths to 174. 3,837 people recovered from the disease.

Oman’s virus infection cases continue to remain lowest at 3,112, with it recording 154 new cases yesterday. The total toll is 16.

Courtesy of worldometer

Kuwaiti volunteers wear protective masks as they fill charity boxes with essential household supplies to distribute to the needy, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Adeliah, Kuwait

General view of Riyadh city, after the Saudi government eased a curfew, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

2369

2,027

Active cases

Recovered:

New cases

+ 205

Covid-19 Cases:

4,404

B a h r a i n

Cycling is safe as long as the same precautions for reducing the risk of virus infection is adhered to (Courtesy of Al Ayam)

Representative picture (Courtesy of Al Ayam)

Rogue labour hire providers arrested TDT | Manama

Labour Market Regulatory Authority has pulled down

the shutters of 10 organisa-tions that were supplying do-mestic workers without a valid licence in the Kingdom.

The director of the Preven-tive Inspection Department at LMRA, Ahmed Ibrahim al-Ju-naid, said the operation was a joint effort with the General Department of Investigation and Criminal Evidence at the Ministry of Interior.

The authority during the in-

spection also tracked down 44 domestic workers supplied by these institutions.

Legal measures are taken to refer the suspects to fur-ther action, said a report by Al Ayam.

Al-Junaid expressed his thanks and appreciation to all the concerned authorities that contributed to the investiga-tion.

He further called on all to deal only with those agencies licensed by LMRA to protect themselves and their children, especially in these times.


Finally, their long wait ends Air India flight IX474 carrying 177 passengers from Bahrain arrives in Kerala

TDT | Manama

There were smiles every-where, as Air India flight IX474 carrying 177 pas-

sengers from Bahrain touched the tarmac of the Cochin Inter-national Airport.

The time on the airport clock showed 11:32 pm.

Formalities were in plenty. Glass shielded immigration counters, special health desk manned with doctors and nurs-es, thermal scan, predetermined health protocols, DRDO’s ultravi-olet baggage disinfecting system and then comes the mandatory 7-day institutional quarantine.

All of the 177 passengers and the five infants on board the flight IX474 will have to go through all these formalities before they could give a warm hug of relief to their anxious relatives back home.

But, even though the pandem-ic has discouraged them from running up to their kits and kins with hands wide open, the relief was all evident on their faces.

Nevertheless, they are back home. All else is passable.

30 pregnant passengersThere were 30 pregnant wom-

en among the 177 passengers from Bahrain including 5 in-fants, 152 persons and 25 chil-dren from 13 Kerala districts.

Four of the passengers re-quiring emergency medical care were moved to a hospital, while pregnant women, chil-dren and senior citizens, as per norms, were transported to their homes. Rest of the passengers were shifted to quarantine cen-tres in Kochi.

Before the arrival of the flight, the entire terminal was cordoned off by police officers, who further ensured necessary personal protection for all at the terminal.

Upon arrival, travellers were escorted by police officers from the aerobridge to their respec-tive destinations, after subject-ing them to thermal tests and

allowing them to undergo cus-toms and immigration checks.

Health officials are assigned to ensure that passengers are following the mandatory quar-antine measures.

Landing in the South Indian state of Kerala yesterday was first of the two flights scheduled from Bahrain. This was also the second flight of the day to land

in Kerala from the Gulf region as part of massive exercise un-dertaken by the Government of India to bring back hundreds of thousands of Indians stuck abroad through a mission chris-tened ‘Vande Bharat’.

The mission kicked off on Thursday with two flights land-ing in India from the United Arab Emirates with 345 Keral-

ites. The third flight arrived at Karipur by 8:00 pm yesterday bringing back 152 passengers including 84 pregnant women, 22 children and four infants. They all boarded from Riyadh after conducting thermal tests, though none was given COVID-19 tests.

According to reports, five peo-ple having health issues were

shifted to a medical college hos-pital in the city.

Ten passengers from neigh-bouring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also travelled in the flight from Riyadh.

All passengers were subjected to COVID-19 rapid tests at the airport before transferring them to their respective destinations.

The ongoing effort according

to CIAL (Cochin International Airport Ltd) officials is also the biggest ever carried out by India since the Kuwait war which saw the government bringing 1.5 lakh stranded Indians back to safety by flight. It was done in 59 days, from 13 August to 11 October 1990, involving almost five hun-dred flights.

‘Vande Bharat’ aims bringing back some 15,000 nationals from 12 countries on planes and naval ships which also saw the civil aviation ministry’s website crash Wednesday as panicked citizens rushed to register.

CIAL (Cochin International Airport Ltd) officials in Kochi said elaborate arrangements are in place to receive passengers. Separate parking bay and aer-obridge are ready for incom-ing aircraft. Health desks have doctors and nurses to screen passengers.

Up to 10 officials are sta-tioned at immigration counters to screen the passengers, while their baggage gets disinfected by an ultraviolet disinfecting system developed by DRDO.

Baggage arriving through con-veyor belts will get a sodium hy-pochlorite treatment first, which will then pass through two sep-arate tunnels with Ultraviolet machines.

Only after these procedures, baggage with reach the carou-sel area where passengers can retrieve them.

Onboard the flights, Air India crew members were fully pro-tected with protective gear to reduce the risk of infection.

Earlier, five passengers from the first batch of passengers ar-rived in Kochi suspected to have contracted Coronavirus were taken to COVID-19 hospitals but were released around midnight after completing further check-ups. Later, all passengers went into quarantine centres.

Eight-five of the 177 passen-gers arrived at Karipur on day 1 were allowed to remain in quar-antine at their respective homes, said state minister KT Jaleel.

Moments before boarding Air India flight IX474. In pictures, scenes from Bahrain International Airport (Courtesy of @IndiaInBahrain)

Passengers from Bahrain on board Air India Express flight (Courtesy of Manorama)

Passengers deboard at Cochin International Aiport from Air India Express flight. (Courtesy of @awnusharma)


Facebook to allow employees to work remotely until year endReuters

Facebook Inc said yesterday it would allow its workers

who are able to work remotely to do so until the end of the year as the coronavirus pan-demic forces governments to extend stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the disease.

The social media giant also

expects most offices to stay closed until July 6, according to a company spokesperson.

The virus, which has infect-ed more than 3.8 million peo-ple globally so far, has forced strict lockdowns in most countries and changed the way businesses function, with work from home emerging as the new norm.

Boeing expects to start 737 MAX production in May: Fox Business NewsReuters

Boeing Co expects to start production of grounded

737 MAX jet this month, Chief Executive Officer David Cal-houn said in an interview with Fox Business News yesterday.

“I am confident we will start our line this month on the MAX again,” Calhoun told Fox Busi-ness.

In April, Chief Financial Of-ficer Greg Smith said Boeing was planning to begin produc-tion for the aircraft at low rates

during the second quarter of 2020, with deliveries resuming in the third quarter following regulatory approvals.

American Airlines 737 max passenger planes

Former Garuda Indonesia CEO jailed for eight years for briberyReuters | Jakarta

An Indonesian court yes-terday jailed Emirsyah Sa-

tar, a former chief executive of Garuda Indonesia, for bribery and money laundering related to procurement of planes and engines from Airbus and Rolls-Royce, his laywer said.

Satar’s lawyer Luhut Pan-garibuan said his client had been given an eight-year sen-tence and fined S$2 million ($1.4 million) by the country’s corruption court.

Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had indicted Satar, CEO of Garuda from 2005 to 2014, over payments from a busi-nessman via a third party for the procurement by Garuda Indonesia of Roll-Royce Trent 700 engines and Airbus A320 and A330 planes.

The indictment also related to the procurement of Airbus planes for PT Citilink Indone-sia, a unit of Garuda.

In 2017 Rolls-Royce agreed to pay authorities more than $800 million to settle charges after an investigation by the

U.S. Justice Department and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office into alleged bribery of officials in six countries in schemes that lasted more than a decade.

Airbus in February this year agreed to pay a record $4 bil-lion in fines after reaching a plea bargain with prosecutors in Britain, France and United States over alleged bribery and corruption stretching back at least 15 years.

Satar, who had previously denied wrongdoing, will de-cide next week whether to ap-peal against his sentence, said Pangaribuan.

Former Garuda Indonesia CEO Emirsyah Satar

Stocks rise as reopening optimism beats bad dataAFP | Paris

Global stock markets rose yesterday as optimism over easier lockdown

measures and reopening econ-omies outweighed signs that the planet may be headed for its worst downturn since the Great Depression.

A massive drop in the US pay-roll in April, although historic, fell shy of market expectations and failed to put much of a dent in market confidence.

The non-farm payroll fell by 20.5 million, the US government reported, which compares to the 21 million market consensus established by data firm Factset.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index rose nearly 300 points in the wake of the data, and the dollar edged higher, as did the oil price.

European stock markets also marginally extended their morning gains as traders seemed happy to place their confidence in mind-boggling stimulus and central bank backstopping measures, and be reassured by easing China-US tensions.

“The US and China are seem-ingly still on good terms over the phase one trade deal so that has removed some anxi-ety across markets,” said Jas-per Lawler at London Capital Group.

After crashing in the space of a few weeks, global equities are up about 20 pc since their trough in March, and analysts say the gains could continue.

JP Morgan Chase analysts wrote in a note: “While the col-lapse in economic activity is his-toric, so too is the global policy response to cushion the impact and support a recovery.

“We expect risky assets to continue to recover as econo-mies reopen.”

But some analysts advised caution against underestimat-ing the depth of the economic

crisis, with Michael Hewson at CMC Markets observing that “it almost appears that the worse the US data is, the higher stocks seem to go”.

‘Eye-watering’Neil Williams at investment

manager Federated Hermes, calling the US payroll data “eye-watering”, said that even if some job losses were temporary “it will be a tough ask delivering the V-shape GDP recovery the optimists crave”.

Bullish sentiment had ear-lier seeped into Asia, lifted by strength on Wall Street the pre-vious day, with Tokyo soaring 2.6 pc.

In Europe, London’s closure for VE Day took much of the usual volume out of the trad-ing day, but Paris and Frankfurt were open and up by around one pc by the midafternoon.

News that China and the US had committed to implement-ing a partial trade deal that was signed off in January and brought a pause to their debil-itating trade war also provided much-needed support to mar-kets.

“That will be of substantial relief to markets, as the last thing the world economy need-ed right now, was an escalation in hostilities on that front,” said OANDA’s Jeffrey Halley.

The easing of lockdowns also provided a boost to beat-en-down oil markets.

“People are getting back in cars to commute or merely to get out of the house, which is excellent for gasoline demand as that is providing the first phase in bounce to the oil price recovery,” said Stephen Innes of AxiCorp.

Key figures around 1330 GMTLondon - FTSE 100: Closed for a holiday

Frankfurt - DAX 30: p 1.2 pc at 10,889.43

Paris - CAC 40: p 1.0 pc at 4,545.47

EURO STOXX 50: p 0.8 pc at 2,904.40

New York - Dow: p 1.3 pc at 24,180.36

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: p 2.6 pc at 20,179.09 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: p 1.0 pc at 24,230.17 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: p 0.8 pc at 2,895.34 (close)

West Texas Intermediate: p 2.8 pc at $24.21 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: p 1.8 pc at $29.99

Euro/dollar: p at $1.0832 from $1.0829 at 2050 GMT

Dollar/yen: p at 106.70 yen from 106.26 yen

Pound/dollar: p at $1.2366 from $1.2360

Euro/pound: at 87.59 pence from 87.60 pence

The outlook seems to be brightening

EU, UK to start third push on post-Brexit tiesBrussels

Britain and Brussels embark on a fresh round of trade

talks Monday that downbeat EU officials say show little promise of advancing amid the added turmoil of the coronavirus out-break.

The UK left the European Union on January 31 and both sides have until the end of the year to forge a new basis for relations, barring an optional extension that London refuses to contemplate.

The new talks round will be-gin with a virtual head-to-head between Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, and his UK counterpart, David Frost -- both of whom have recovered from a bout with the virus.

That will be followed by vid-eoconferences involving hun-dreds of officials throughout the week.

The previous round of UK-EU talks broke up on April 24 with little or no progress.

European officials accuse Britain of focusing only on is-sues dear to them and ignoring those essential for EU members, such as fishing, or on agreeing on minimum standards for health and the environment --- known as a “level playing field”.

“There is no real sign that our

British friends are approaching the negotiations with a plan to succeed,” the EU’s trade com-missioner Phil Hogan told Ire-land’s RTE on Thursday.

“I hope I am wrong, but I don’t think so.”

Another accusation is that Britain is dragging its feet on implementing the most sensi-tive stipulations of its divorce deal.

This concerns setting up the customs barrier between North-ern Ireland and the rest of main-land UK -- a border, in effect, in the Irish Sea.

Britain has yet to detail how it will go about the checks and said it would only do so in the coming weeks.

Blame it on the COVID

The EU’s Hogan predict-ed that progress would only emerge much closer to the deadline when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will use the coronavirus fallout to justify a sudden shift of red lines.

“My perception of it is they don’t want to drag the negotia-tions out into 2021 because they can effectively blame COVID for everything,” he said, referring to the illness caused by the coro-navirus.

One diplomat warned that if Britain decided not to seek an extension and no deal is done “then its painful for everyone but especially them”.

If no deal is reached by De-cember 31, then WTO trade rules come into force, with high tar-iffs and customs barriers be-tween the UK and EU.

That prospect is especially alarming given the cataclysmic recession already crushing the continent that cross-Channel chaos would only make worse.

Despite the current crisis, the British government said it would hold its negotiating po-sition and that it was pursuing a trade deal no more ambitious than Europe has sealed with others.

“We now need to move for-ward in a constructive fashion,” a spokesman said.

“The UK remains committed to a deal with a free trade agree-ment at its core, just like the EU has agreed with like-minded countries before.”

The British side is frustrat-ed the EU is seeking to impose European standards through its trade agreement and that France and others want to keep open access to British waters for their fishing vessels.

Britain has meanwhile en-tered trade negotiations with the United States, a deal London hopes will open new economic avenues for the British economy that remains deeply connected to Europe.

Fishing rights are among the thornier points under discussionJC Penney to file for bankruptcy as soon as next weekReuters

JC Penney Co Inc is preparing to

file for bankruptcy protection as soon as next week with plans to permanently close about a quarter of its roughly 850 stores, becoming the latest major U.S. retailer to succumb to fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, according to people familiar with the matter.

A bankruptcy filing would cap a long decline for the iconic 118-year-old depart-ment store chain, which has struggled with a nearly $4

billion debt load and competition from e-commerce firms and discount brick-and-mortar retailers even be-fore the pandem-

ic’s onset.The Plano, Texas-based

company, which employs nearly 85,000 people, is in discussions with creditors for a so-called debtor-in-posses-sion loan to bolster its finances while it navigates bankruptcy proceedings, the sources said. The loan could total between $400 million and $500 million, some of the sources said.


Virus crisis leaves thousands of cruise ship crew stuck at seaAFP | Miami

The cruise industry has taken a beating during the coronavirus crisis -- on-

board outbreaks, refusal of port access and now no clear idea of when ships can sail once again.

While the passengers have headed home, the journey drags on for tens of thousands of crew members who are stranded at sea aboard their vessels, with no end in sight.

Many are no longer being paid because their contracts ended; some have no internet access; tensions are flaring; and some have even filed suit against their employers.

“We are prisoners. I need help. We need help,” said Caio Saldanha, a Brazilian DJ who works on the Celebrity Infinity, which is in limbo somewhere between Florida and the Baha-mas.

“We need to fight to go home,” the 31-year-old musician told AFP.

Saldanha shares a cabin with his 29-year-old girlfriend Jessica Furlan, who hosted on-board activities for passengers.

On March 13, US authorities is-sued a no-sail order as the virus crisis ramped up. Ships with pas-

sengers offloaded them -- some more easily than others.

But most crew members were required to remain on board. And now they’re stuck.

There are more than 100 ships carrying over 70,000 crew in or near US territorial waters or ports, the US Coast Guard says.

“We are desperate to get home,” said Furlan, who not-ed that they spent three weeks confined to their cabin, and then stopped getting paid on April 24.

No free internet for some crewThose who keep the ships

running -- sailors, cleaners and cooks, for example -- are still getting paid, but anyone whose job was to entertain passengers is out of luck.

Other employees had com-pleted their contracts, so they are not getting paid, either.

The cruise lines provide room and board, but crew must pay for anything else -- even toothpaste

and soap. Some have to pay for WiFi.

“We do not have free internet -- from one point of view, I do understand, but from the human point of view, I cannot,” said Verica Brcic, who manages the spa on the Maasdam, operated by Carnival subsidiary Holland America.

Brcic was transferred on March 29 to the Koningsdam, which is meandering along the US West Coast with 1,100 personnel from eight different ships.

“Humans need to stay in con-tact” with family and get news from home, said the 55-year-old, who is from Serbia.

Brcic has no idea when she might get home. She hasn’t been on dry land since early March.

A 52-year-old musician who works for Princess Cruises (also a Carnival subsidiary) says he too has to pay for WiFi. He also says there is not enough food to

go around.“I feel like I’m in forced con-

finement,” said the musician, who asked not to be named, or for AFP to even say which ship he works on, for fear that his employer would retaliate.

‘Roller-coaster of emotions’The major cruise lines stand

accused of failing to do enough to get their staff home, osten-

sibly to save money on pricey charter flights -- a claim the companies deny.

Royal Caribbean says the issue stems from the fine print of their agreement with the US Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion (CDC).

That agreement says cruise companies are liable -- in both criminal and civil court -- if the crew fails to follow the rules of disembarkation to the letter.

“We are happy to do all the things they requested, but the criminal penalties gave us (and our lawyers) pause,” Royal Car-ibbean CEO Michael Bayley said in a May 3 letter to crew seen by AFP.

Bayley then wrote that Royal Caribbean would sign anyway, because “the importance of get-ting you home is so great.”

Lauren Carrick, a British danc-er on the Infinity who shares a cabin with her boyfriend, wants to know why the process is tak-ing so long for Royal Caribbean, which owns Celebrity Cruises.

“It’s just a roller-coaster of emotions,” the 29-year-old Car-rick told AFP.

“It’s really tiring and exhaust-ing. At nighttime, I can’t sleep. My mind is constantly going to like, ‘When am I going to get home?’”

But not everyone is in a huge rush. Some crew members feel safer at sea and fear that all the publicity is going to hurt the companies that pay their bills.

“It is complex and very frus-trating for those of us that love our jobs,” said a 42-year-old South African food and beverage manager for Carnival.

He said keeping the crew on board was costing more than the charter flights would, and that it was simply “very difficult to repatriate certain people to certain destinations.”

“That fault cannot lie with the cruise lines -- it lies with bodies

like the CDC,” he said on condi-tion of anonymity.

It’s complicatedBayley says that of its 25,000

employees on board ships, more than 1,000 of them say they want to stay.

For those who want to get home, he says, it’s complicated.

“Our crew come to us from more than 60 countries. Each country has rules and regula-tions for who can travel home, and how, and when,” Bayley wrote in his letter.

Some countries are not even accepting their own nationals, he said.

Carnival is making “strong progress” in getting its employ-ees home “via air charters and our own ships,” spokesman Rog-er Frizzell told AFP.

The Cruise Lines Internation-al Association (CLIA) told AFP that so far, there have been a total of 2,789 confirmed cases of COVID-19 onboard 33 cruise ships, among passengers and crew.

Last month, employees of Celebrity Cruises filed a class action lawsuit accusing the com-pany of negligence. This week, the family of an Indonesian crew member filed a wrongful death suit against Royal Caribbean.

Carnival says it’s making “strong progress” towards getting its crew members home -- its Panorama cruise ship is seen docked in Long Beach, California on March 7, 2020

This photo provided by Brazilian DJ Caio Saldanha shows his cabin on the Celebrity Infinity cruise ship. He says he feels like a prisoner on the ship where he works, with no news about when he can go home

Caio Saldanha (L) and Jessica Furlan, both from Brazil, are currently on board the Celebrity Infinity, with no news about when they can leave

Holland America Line’s MS Koningsdam -- seen here in Rotterdam in May 2016, on the eve of its dedication ceremony -- is now off the US West Coast, with 1,100 crew from eight different ships

EU court says it ‘alone’ has jurisdiction over ECB• The German judges demanded in particular more details about the pros and cons of the ECB’s 2.2 trillion euros ($2.4 trillion) of government bond purchases

AFP | Brussels

The EU’s highest court yes-terday said it alone had legal authority over the

European Central Bank, firmly rejecting a German Constitu-tional Court ruling critical of the bank’s ambitious stimulus policies.

The highly unusual inter-vention came after the German ruling issued particularly harsh criticsm of European court judges, setting up a clash be-tween the EU institutions and their most powerful member state.

“In order to ensure that EU law is applied uniformly, the

Court of Justice (ECJ) alone... has jurisdiction to rule that an act of an EU institution is contra-ry to EU law,” a statement said.

“Divergences between courts of the member states as to the validity of such acts would in-deed be liable to place in jeop-ardy the unity of the EU legal order and to detract from legal certainty,” it added.

Germany’s Constitution-al Court said the Luxem-bourg-based ECJ had rub-ber-stamped ECB policy with

confusing argumentation and declared it not legally binding.

EU-watchers feared the judg-ment could be a boost for na-tions like Hungary and Poland, whose reforms to the political and judicial systems have drawn allegations they are undermin-ing democracy.

Sidelining the EU court, the German judges gave the ECB three months to justify its polic-es and the bank has said it will try to find a diplomatic solution.

Without an explanation,

German judges in Karlsruhe said they will ban the country’s powerful Bundesbank central bank from participating in the stimulus.

The ECB’s massive bond-buy-ing programme is credited with having put an end to the euro-zone debt crisis.

The German judges demand-ed in particular more details about the pros and cons of the ECB’s 2.2 trillion euros ($2.4 trillion) of government bond purchases since 2015, under a programme known by the ini-tials PSPP.

But some observers are con-cerned that the court decision will be used in Germany to discredit another bond-buying spree by the ECB designed to shield Italy, Spain and others from economic devastation caused by the coronavirus crisis.

By buying up government bonds, the ECB aims to drive pri-vate investors’ cash into riskier investments, stoking economic growth and in turn powering inflation towards the ECB’s goal of just below two percent.

The gloves are off

Lufthansa to resume some European services in June

• More details of the 106 planned destinations will be published next week

Frankfurt am Main

Ge r m a n a i r l i n e g i a n t Lufthansa said yester-

day it will fly twice as many aircraft in June as in recent weeks and return to some Eu-ropean destinations, but the flight plan remains a shadow of pre-coronavirus operations.

Spots beloved of holiday-makers like Spanish island Mallorca, Crete and German North Sea retreat Sylt will return to the timetable, with 160 aircraft aloft bearing Lufthansa’s crane or the log-os of subsidiaries Swiss and Eurowings.

More details of the 106 planned destinations will be published next week, Lufthansa said.

But the vast majority of the group’s roughly 760 planes will remain grounded as re-strictions on travel and tour-ist essentials like hotels and restaurants ease only slowly around the continent.

“We sense a great desire and longing among people to

travel again,” board member Harry Hohmeister said in a statement.

“With all due caution, we are now making it possible for people to catch up and experi-ence what they had to do with-out for a long time.”

Details of the June flight plan were released less than 24 hours after the Frankfurt group said it was in talks for the German government to buy shares and offer a loan to keep it afloat through the coronavirus crisis.

Berlin could end up own-ing around 25 percent of Lufthansa, although politi-cians are still wrangling over the details.

Economy Minister Peter Alt-maier told tabloid-style daily Bild Thursday that Lufthansa was part of Germany’s “family silver” and that Berlin aimed to avoid a “fire sale” of valuable firms.

‘Desire and longing’ to travel again

06

society

SATURDAY, MAY 9, 2020

Coast Guard Commander, Major-General Alaa Siyadi during a meeting with Military Attache of the UK Embassy, Paul Windsar. They received maritime safety and security cooperation and topics of common interest

Members of BMMI and the Rotary Clubs in Bahrain during a collaboration to support virtual learning for students in need. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bahrain has particularly impacted the most vulnerable segments of the local community, and NGOs and corporations have been collaborating to offer various crucial solutions to those in need

Al Tawfeek Maintenance Company’s Managing Director K N Padmanabhan presents a food kit to the Indian Community Relief Fund’s (ICRF) officials to join their initiative of food kit distribution. Al Tawfeek donated 500 kits to ICRF in support of their initiative to reach out to the community during this pandemic situation. ICRF Chairman Aruldas Thomas appreciated K N Padmanabhan for his generous contribution, as well as Bahrain India Society who also came forward to extend their support financially to ICRF

Members of the Rotary Club of Salmaniya during it’s 7th Virtual Meeting with Zoom. Guest speaker was Eric Sibille the Incoming President of the Rotary Club of Blois Sologne in France who spoke about, “RC Blois Sologne Goals and Vision for Rotary Year 2020-2021”


274,675

1,374,045

Deaths

Recovered:

New cases

New deaths +71,524

+4,249

Covid-19 Cases:

Country Total cases

new cases Total deaths

New Deaths

Total recovered

Active cases

Serious, Critical

Tot cases/1m pop

Bahrain 4,404 +205 8 2,027 2,369 2 2,588

Saudi Arabia 35,432 +1,701 229 +10 9,120 26,083 145 1,018

UAE 16,793 +553 174 +9 3,837 12,782 1 1,698

Kuwait 7,208 +641 47 +3 2,466 4,695 91 1,688

Oman 3,112 +154 16 +1 1,025 2,071 17 609

Egypt 8,476 +495 503 +21 1,945 6,028 41 83

Middle East

Country Total cases New deaths Total Deaths

USA 1,306,598 +906 77,834

Spain 260,117 +229 26,299

Italy 217,185 +243 30,201

UK 211,364 +626 31,241

Russia 187,859 +98 1,723

France 174,791 25,987

Germany 169,901 +12 7,404

Brazil 140,023 +412 9,600

Turkey 135,569 +48 3,689

Iran 104,691 +55 6,541

China 82,886 4,633

Canada 65,400 +65 4,473

India 59,642 +96 1,985

Pakistan 26,435 +14 599

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 Up to 190,000 people in Africa could die of coronavirus in the first year of

the pandemic if containment measures fail, the World Health Organisation warned on Thursday. The UN health agency cited a new study by its regional office in Brazzaville which found that between 83,000 and 190,000 could die and 29 to 44 million be infected during the period. The research is based on prediction modelling and covers 47 countries with a total population of one billion, the WHO said in a statement.

India has ramped up output of an anti-malarial drug hailed by US President Donald Trump as a “game-changer” in the fight against coronavirus. India accounts for 70 percent of global production of hydroxychloroquine, which is also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

Despite the challenges, Indian companies have managed to export the medicine to 97 countries during the pandemic, the health ministry said. Brazil, Germany and a number of South Asian and African nations are reported to have been among those to ask India for major supplies of the medicine as they deal with the contagion.

Australia’s government yesterday unveiled a three-stage plan to get the economy back to a new “COVID-safe” normal by the end of July. The first stage of the plan will allow groups of up to 10 people to gather in cafes and restaurants, for weddings and to take part in outdoor sports. Stage two would lift the gathering limit to 20 people and extend it to organised community sports, cinemas and other retail outlets as well as ease restrictions on domestic travel. Stage three should come into effect in July, would allow gatherings of up to 100 people, including in pubs and restaurants, and see most businesses and domestic travel reopened

China said it supports a World Health Organization-led review into the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, but “after the pandemic is over”. The comments from foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying came as China has faced increasing global pressure in recent weeks to allow an international investigation into the origins of the pandemic.

The operator of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea again extended the closure of the parks for the foreseeable future. The decision is a further blow to Oriental Land, which had planned to unveil in April a whole new area with the theme of “Beauty and the Beast” in Tokyo Disneyland, along with other new attractions.

Most Indonesian airlines resumed services with strict health protocols after their suspension last month in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Authorities announced on April 24 that all sea and air travel was being banned to fight the pandemic.

3,985,168

Banksy tribute to UK health service

AFP | London

A n e w a r t w o r k b y Banksy in honour of

Britain’s health service has gone on display in a hospital, paying tribute to medics battling the coro-navirus pandemic in the second hardest-hit coun-try.

The street artist also

posted an image of the work on Instagram, which shows a boy in dungarees playing with a figurine of a nurse in a superhero cape.

The sole splash of col-our in the artwork -- en-titled ‘Game Changer’ -- is the red cross on the nurse’s uniform, while discarded Superman and Batman figures lie in a

basket next to the boy.“Thanks for all you’re

doing. I hope this bright-ens the place up a bit, even if it’s only black and white,” the enigmatic art-ist said in a note for hospi-tal workers.

Hung on a corridor wall at a hospital in Southamp-ton in southern England, the one-square-metre (10-square-foot) tableau

will be put on public display when lockdown measures are lifted, a spokeswoman for Banksy said.

It will later be auctioned to raise money for char-ities connected to the country’s National Health Service (NHS). Other piec-es by the secretive artist have previously fetched millions of dollars.

A University Hospital Southampton staff member looks at an artwork by street artist Banksy called “Game Changer”, showing a boy playing with a nurse superhero toy with figures of Batman and Spiderman discarded in a basket

China’s new spacecraft returns to Earth: official

Beijing

China’s new prototype spacecraft “successfully

landed” yesterday, marking an important step in its am-bitions to run a permanent space station and send as-tronauts to the moon.

The spacecraft -- which was launched Tuesday -- arrived safely at a prede-termined site, the China Manned Space Agency said, after a hitch in an earlier part of the key test.

It said the cabin structure of the spacecraft had been confirmed on site as being intact.

The test vessel was launched with a cargo capsule aboard a new type of carrier rocket from the Wenchang launch site on the southern island of Hain-an.

The space agency said the vessel was in orbit for two days and 19 hours and had completed a number of ex-periments.

The return has verified the spacecraft’s capabilities such as its heat resistance -- vehicles re-entering Earth’s atmosphere face high tem-peratures.

The new prototype ex-pands the number of crew that can be sent into space to six from three in an ear-lier model.

A Long March 5B rocket lifting off

Photographers in Britain seize the chance to capture the last supermoon of the year. In the capital London, hobbyists take to a park to observe the May full moon, referred to as a Flower Moon in reference to the blooming flowers of spring.

L a s t s u p e r m o o n

European leaders evoke WWII spirit to beat CoronaAFP | Berlin

The world must draw lessons from the past and work together to

beat the coronavirus pandem-ic, European leaders urged as the continent marked 75 years since the end of World War II in Europe.

With parades and com-memoration events cancelled or scaled down to contain the outbreak, Europe and the Unit-ed States marked the victory over Nazi Germany in a sombre mood.

In Berlin, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel kept their distance as they paused in front of wreaths at Neue Wache -- the country’s main memorial to the victims of war and dic-tatorship.

Steinmeier then delivered an outdoor speech urging nations to remember how they joined forces to fight the tyranny of Nazism and said the same uni-ty was needed now to defeat a virus that has killed 270,000 people globally.

“For us Germans, ‘nev-er again’ means ‘never again alone’,” he said.

“We want more, not less co-operation in the world -- also in the fight against the pandemic.”

In Britain, one of the coun-tries hardest hit by the virus in Europe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson also drew wartime parallels with the battle against the pandemic.

“On this anniversary, we are engaged in a new struggle against the coronavirus which demands the same spirit of na-

tional endeavour that you ex-emplified 75 years ago,” he said in a letter to veterans.

The Red Arrows, Britain’s Royal Air Force aerobatics dis-play team, performed a flypast over central London, trailing red white and blue smoke.

UK broadcasters marked a na-tionwide two minute’s silence at 11am (1000 GMT).

In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron attended a small ceremony at the Arc of Triumph on a near-deserted Champs-Elysees.

In the US, President Donald Trump and his wife Melania will join a wreath-laying cere-mony at the World War II me-morial in Washington, DC.

But it was the German com-memorations that were most closely watched, as the country does not usually mark the an-niversary of the Nazis’ uncon-ditional surrender to the Allies with much fanfare.

This year however the city of Berlin declared a one-off public

holiday on Friday.President Steinmeier urged

Germans to see May 8 as “a day of gratitude” because it freed Germany from the terror of the Nazis and brought peace to Europe.

Russia had originally planned a huge military display on its May 9 Victory Day, with world leaders including France’s Ma-cron on the guest list.

But now only a flypast will take place over the Red Square, as the country becomes Eu-rope’s new hotspot of corona-virus infections.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has scheduled a televised address to the nation at 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Friday, the same time that her father, king George VI, gave a radio address marking VE day in 1945.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe attended a small ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris

Angela Merkel attends ceremony marking 75 years since end of WWII


Humanity’s triumph over a virus, 40 years on• At a time when smallpox remained endemic in more than 30 countries and was still killing more than two million people annually

AFP | Geneva

As scientists scramble for a COVID-19 cure and vac-cine, the world marked

yesterday a pertinent anniversa-ry: humanity’s only true triumph over an infectious disease with its eradication of smallpox four decades ago.

On May 8, 1980, representa-tives of all World Health Organ-ization (WHO) member states gathered in Geneva and officially declared that the smallpox-caus-ing variola virus had been rele-gated to the history books, two centuries after the discovery of a vaccine.

Smallpox is a highly conta-gious disease that was trans-mitted via droplets during close contact with other people or contaminated objects, sparking high fever and a rash that left survivors permanently disfig-ured and often blind.

But many did not survive. The virus killed up to 30 percent of all those infected and is esti-mated to have killed more than 300 million people in the 20th century alone.

Smallpox is thought to have existed for thousands of years, with the earliest documented evidence of the vesicular skin lesions believed to be caused by the disease discovered on the mummy of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V.

The devastating disease was also the target of the world’s first vaccine, discovered by scientist and physician Edward Jenner in 1796.

‘Public will’But the idea of fully eradicat-

ing smallpox only emerged near-ly two centuries later, in 1958, amid a “momentary ‘detente’ between the Russians and Amer-icans”, US epidemiologist Larry Brilliant said.

At a time when smallpox re-mained endemic in more than 30 countries and was still killing more than two million people annually, the Soviets proposed to show what global cooperation

is good for and eradicate the disease.

They made the proposal dur-ing a meeting of the WHO’s an-nual assembly.

“ I m m e d i a t e l y A m e r i c a agreed,” Brilliant said, juxta-posing the leadership and inter-national cooperation seen back then, during the Cold War, to the “nationalism” colouring the current response to the novel coronavirus.

“There was public will,” he said.

Four decades later, as the world reels from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, deci-sion-makers should look to the tireless efforts to isolate those infected with smallpox and trace their contacts for inspiration, said Rosamund Lewis, in charge

of the smallpox file at the WHO.

Lessons for COVID-19 response“We can learn a lot from small-

pox for the COVID response,” she said.

The WHO initially did not have the funds needed to get to work seriously on rooting out small-pox, but when it finally launched the global eradication campaign in 1967, experts “went door-to-door” to find infected people, she said.

She lamented that it had taken too long for many countries to realise the importance of this basic public health “weapon” against COVID-19, as it has spread worldwide, killing more than 260,000 people in a matter of months.

Experts stress that con-

tact-tracing will be of vital im-portance until a vaccine against the new virus is developed and available -- something expected to take at least a year.

The discovery of the small-pox vaccine nearly a quarter of a millennium ago was a “principle element of the victory” against the disease, Angela Teresa Ci-uffi, a microbiology professor at Lausanne University, said.

Jenner came up with the idea for a vaccine after observing that milkmaids who previously caught cowpox did not catch smallpox, and used the usually fairly harmless virus to immu-nise against the far more deadly disease.

Before the emergence of the vaccine, people engaged in in-oculation to immunise against

smallpox, inserting powdered smallpox scabs or fluid from a patient into superficial scratches made in the skin, in the hope it would produce a mild but pro-tective infection.

While this process did have an immunising effect, “the in-convenience was that it allowed smallpox to circulate,” said Anne-Marie Moulin, head of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

Improvements to the vaccine, including the abolishment of the need for refrigeration, greatly increased its access and avail-ability and paved the way for the eradication campaigns to come.

After a decade-long major push, the last known naturally occurring case of smallpox was seen in Somalia in 1977.

A year later, however, a British medical photographer working near a smallpox research lab became infected and died.

Bioterrorism threat?Since then, a global debate

has raged over whether or not variola virus samples should be destroyed.

Only two places in the world are authorised to keep samples of smallpox: the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in the United States, and the State Research Centre of Vi-rology and Biotechnology (VEC-TOR) in Novosibirsk, Russia.

Washington and Moscow have long maintained the importance of retaining the samples for re-search purposes.

But decades after its eradica-tion, the threat of smallpox still looms large, with fears that the remaining virus samples could pose a bioterrorism threat swell-ing since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Compared to smallpox, “COV-ID-19 is just a training exercise”, David Evans, a virologist at the University of Alberta in Canada, said.

If ever reintroduced, “small-pox could be devastating in the first weeks when entering a world of largely immunolog-ically naive persons,” warned Rosine Ehmann of the Institute of Microbiology from the Ger-man Forces.

“COVID-19 has illustrated how long it can take for public health systems to activate their logistics and crisis intervention manage-ment,” she said.

Vaccinations against smallpox helped eradicate the disease in 1980

A close-up view of smallpox lesions on a person’s leg

Free smallpox inoculations were being given to US Office of War Information employees in 1943 Pre-schoolers in the US being inoculated against smallpox in 1946

Smallpox is a highly contagious disease that was transmitted via droplets during close contact with other people or contaminated objects, sparking high fever and a rash that left survivors permanently disfigured and often blind.But many did not survive. The virus killed up to 30 percent of all those infected and is estimated to have killed more than 300 million people in the 20th century alone.

The WHO initially did not have the funds needed to get to work seri-ously on rooting

out smallpox, but when it finally launched the

global eradication campaign in 1967,

experts “went door-to-door”

to find infected people


Joe Biden, please step forward and be

held accountable. You should not be

running on character for the president of

the United StatesTARA READE

Former US vice president and White House hopeful Joe Biden has denied Tara Reade’s allegation of sexual assault

News in brief Barcelona on Friday reopened its beaches, closed as part of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown imposed in Spain in mid-March, but only to allow people to exercise between 6:00 am and 10:00 am. With the sun shining

and temperatures nearing 20 degrees Celsius, dozens of people woke up early to jog, swim, paddle on boards or surf on the Mediterranean city’s beaches. “It’s to practise individual sports...We can’t go for a walk, sit down, have a picnic,” said Barcelona city councillor Eloi Badia. Spain’s second-largest city was following the lead of other cities which have already reopened their beaches for excercise, such as San Sebastian in the north and Valencia in the east.

Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents killed a provincial police chief and two others in a roadside bomb attack, the local governor said yesterday in the latest violence hindering a U.S.-brokered peace process. The blast took place late on Thursday in the southeastern province of Khost, killing police chief Sayed Ahmad Babazai, his secretary and another officer, as well as wounding another person, said governor Halim Fidai in a statement. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter the militants claimed responsibility for the attack.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said certain White House staff members have started wearing masks, one day after the White House said his personal valet had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Trump, asked if those who serve him food would now cover their faces, told Fox News in an interview that such White House staff had already started wearing face masks.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday thousands of low-risk prisoners would be granted parole to help curb the spread of the coronavirus in correctional facilities. Around 19,000 people would be freed in response to a U.N. call on all countries to reduce their prison populations so that social

distancing and self-isolation conditions can be observed, Ramaphosa said.

A train killed 14 migrant workers who had fallen asleep on the track yesterday while they were heading back to their home village after losing their jobs in a coronavirus lockdown, police said.

Accuser says Joe Biden should quit W. House race

• The accusation is the biggest imbroglio of Biden’s presidential campaign

TDT | Washington

The woman who accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993

called on him to drop out of the US presidential race, saying Thursday she’d take a polygraph about the alleged encounter if he would.

Tara Reade said in March that Biden, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nom-inee, sexually assaulted her in a Capitol Hill corridor 27 years ago when she was a 29-year-old aide in the then-senator’s office.

The accusation is the biggest imbroglio of Biden’s presiden-tial campaign. The candidate has denied wrongdoing.

“Joe Biden, please step for-ward and be held accountable. You should not be running on character for the president of the United States,” Reade told journalist Megyn Kelly in a clip released Thursday.

“You want him to withdraw?” asks Kelly, a former Fox News anchor and NBC talk show host.

“I wish he would, but he won’t,” Reade said, adding: “I think it’s a little late” for an apology.

It was Reade’s first on-camera interview since Biden, 77, re-leased a statement Friday saying the incident “never happened.”

The interview also comes as new written evidence from the 1990s emerged showing Reade

-- who has not produced the complaint she apparently filed with a congressional personnel office in 1993 -- had told her ex-husband that she was sex-ually harassed while working for Biden.

The 1996 court document, obtained by the San Luis Obis-po Tribune, does not say Biden

committed the harassment, nor does it mention Reade’s more recent and serious allegations of sexual assault.

Reade’s then-husband, Theo-dore Dronen, wrote in the court declaration that Reade had told him about “a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in US Senator Joe Biden’s office.”

‘Not a criminal’Reade, now 56, alleged in

March that Biden pinned her against a wall, put his hands “down my skirt” and violated her.

Reade’s publ ic account evolved over time. In early 2019, she was among multiple wom-en who accused Biden not of assault but of touching them inappropriately, or in ways that

made them feel uncomfortable.She has s ince present-

ed a more serious claim of assault.

Biden’s deputy campaign manager released a statement Thursday challenging some of Reade’s assertions.

“More and more inconsisten-cies keep emerging,” Kate Bed-ingfield said, according to The Washington Post.

“Women.. . must be able to come forward and share

their stories without fear of retribution or harm,” she said.

“At the same time, we can never sacrifice the truth. And the truth is that these alle-gations are false and that the material that has been pre-sented to back them up, under scrutiny, keeps proving their falsity.”

Reade said she would “abso-lutely” speak under oath about what happened. Asked if she would take a polygraph test, she said such requests would set a poor precedent for survivors of violence.

“I will take one if Joe Biden takes one,” Reade said. “But I am not a criminal.”

Reade in the past has publicly expressed support for Bernie Sanders, the progressive candi-date who quit the Democratic nomination race in April and endorsed Biden.

American voters are divided on the alleged assault.

According to a Monmouth Un i ve r s i t y p o l l re l e a s e d Wednesday, 37 percent said the accusation is probably true, 32 percent said it’s probably not true, and 31 percent were un-decided.

The same poll shows support for Biden for president rising from 48 per cent in March to 50 pc today.

Support for President Don-ald Trump, Biden’s November election rival, slid from 45 per-cent in March to 41 percent now, likely due to his response to the coronavirus crisis.

UN agency for Palestinians launches corona appeal• UNRWA provides support for millions of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East

Ramallah | Palestinian Territo-ries

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UN-

RWA) launched an emergency coronavirus appeal Friday, say-ing Palestinians across the Mid-dle East were suffering a devas-tating socio-economic impact.

The agency appealed for $93.4 million for the next three months to provide food and cash assistance to the vulnerable.

While the number of Palestin-ian refugees infected with COV-ID-19 has so far been relatively low, they often work in informal sectors and are facing devas-tating economic repercussions from the crisis, UNRWA said.

In the Gaza Strip, where the majority of the two million pop-ulation are refugees, unemploy-ment could jump from 50 to 70 per cent due to the crisis, said Matthias Schmale, UNRWA’s head in the Palestinian territory.

UNRWA provides support for millions of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, but pri-marily in Jordan, Lebanon, Syr-ia, the West Bank and Gaza.

This includes schooling and medical services, with the or-ganisation often operating as a de facto state in refugee camps.

Without the funds schools for millions of children may not be able to reopen, UNRWA officials said.

The United States, tradition-ally the largest individual donor to the organisation with around $300 million annually, cut all

funding to the body in 2018 as relations with the Palestinian government broke down.

UNRWA is not affiliated with the government and accused Trump of politicising humani-tarian aid.

Elizabeth Campbell , the agency’s Washington director, told an online press conference they were launching the appeal “amidst the biggest financial cri-sis in our history”.

In March, 59 US Congress members wrote to Trump’s ad-ministration urging him to rein-state the funding in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A man transports a sack of flour as people come to receive food aid from a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) centre in the Khan Yunis camp for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip

Trump: ‘I know nothing’ about Venezuela incursionReuters | Washington

President Donald Trump on Friday again said the U.S.

government was not behind a bungled incursion into Vene-zuela this week, allegedly to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro, saying in a Fox News interview he would not rely on a small group for such an operation.

“I know nothing about it. I think the government has nothing to do with it at all, and I have to find out what hap-pened,” Trump said. “If we ever did anything with Vene-zuela, it wouldn’t be that way. It would be slightly different. It would be called an invasion.”

Trump said the incursion “was not a good attack,” car-ried out by a “rogue group”

that included Venezuelans and “people from other countries.”

“I saw the pictures on a beach. It wasn’t led by Gen-eral George Washington, ob-viously,” he said, referring to the first U.S. president, often considered a military genius.

A former US soldier captured in Venezuela has said he was contracted by a Florida secu-rity firm to seize control of Caracas’ airport and bring in a plane to fly Maduro to the United States. According to a document published by the Washington Post on Thurs-day, members of the country’s opposition party negotiated a $213 million deal with the company, Silvercorp USA, to invade the country and over-throw Maduro.


The situation is better now but

we can’t say it is completely normal. The temperature in the tanks has been

brought down by 120 degrees but we

need to being it down further by 25 degrees

SWAROOP RANI

SENIOR POLICE OFFICER

Fresh gas leak at Indian plant!• Plant owner LG Chem said yesterday there was no fresh leak, but moved nearby people

• Footages showed men, women and children slumped motionless in the streets after the Thursday morning gas escape

• Authorities advised people to wear wet clothes and masks, avoid eating uncovered food

• The gas was styrene, which is likely carcinogenic and combined with oxygen in the air forms the more lethal styrene dioxide

• The tank was also “old and not properly maintained”

• The accident left hundreds hospitalised

Visakhapatnam | India

Engineers battled yester-day to prevent more toxic gas escaping at a chemical

plant on India’s east coast, a day after a pre-dawn leak killed 12 people and knocked locals un-conscious in the street.

Although the death toll was lower than feared, the accident which left hundreds hospital-ised outside the industrial port city of Visakhapatnam evoked memories of Bhopal where a gas leak killed around 3,500 people in 1984.

Late on Thursday the evac-uation zone around the plant owned by South Korea’s LG Chem was widened with hun-dreds more people in 10 locali-ties brought to safety as a pre-caution, police said.

“The situation is better now but we can’t say it is completely normal. The temperature in the tanks has been brought down by 120 degrees but we need to being it down further by 25 degrees,” senior police officer Swaroop Rani said.

“Twelve people have died so far. No one is critical. But we have told those who have re-covered that they may go either to their relatives’ houses or to shelters that we have set up till the situation is completely nor-mal,” she said.

Plant owner LG Chem said yesterday there was no fresh leak, but as a precautionary measure nearby people should be moved.

The company “made a request to the police to evacuate resi-dents in case of an emergency if the temperature rises in the tank”, it said in a statement is-sued in Seoul.

“Currently, we are taking nec-essary measures, such as adding water into the tank” to keep it cool.

Horrifying footage on Indian television showed men, wom-en and children slumped mo-tionless in the streets after the Thursday morning gas escape.

“There was utter confusion and panic. People were unable to breathe, they were gasping for air. Those who were trying to escape collapsed on the roads -- kids, women and all,” local resident Kumar Reddy, 24, told reporters.

B K Naik, district hospitals co-ordinator, said 1,000 had initially been hospitalised. By Thursday afternoon around 600 remained in treatment, with none in a crit-ical condition.

“This is a calamity,” Naik saidPhotographs taken at the King

George Hospital in the city ear-ly Thursday had shown two or three patients on each bed, some of them children, and several unconscious.

Prayers“I pray for everyone’s safety

and well-being in Visakhapat-nam,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.

The plant, operated by LG Pol-ymers, a subsidiary of LG Chem, is on the outskirts of Visakhap-atnam.

The city and the surrounding area are home to around five million people.

The plant had been left idle because of the coronavirus lock-down, according to Rani, an as-sistant police commissioner in Visakhapatnam.

“(The gas) was left there be-cause of the lockdown. It led to a chemical reaction and heat was produced inside the tanks, and the gas leaked because of that,” Rani told AFP on Thursday.

LG Chem confirmed the plant, which makes polystyrene prod-ucts, was not operating because of the lockdown, but there were maintenance staff at the facility, a spokesman in Seoul said.

‘Ticking bombs’Authorities advised people to

wear wet clothes and masks, avoid eating uncovered food and consume bananas and milk to “neutralise the effect of the gas”.

According to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the gas was styrene, which is likely carcinogenic and com-bined with oxygen in the air forms the more lethal styrene dioxide.

The leak happened because the gas was not stored at the ap-propriate temperature, causing pressure to build up and break-ing the valve, the CSE said.

The tank was also “old and not properly maintained” and there was no monitoring mechanism installed to specifically detect styrene, it said.

The incident “shows us that there are ticking bombs out there as the lockdown ends and industries start resuming activ-ities,” it added.

Police file complaint against LG ChemReuters | Chennai, India

Police have filed a complaint against an LG Chem sub-

sidiary over a toxic gas leak at its chemical plant in Andhra Pradesh that killed 11 people and sickened almost a thou-sand more. Authorities doubled the evacuation area around the factory to a 5 kilometre (3 mile) radius on Friday, a day after the gas first began leaking. Around 800 people were hospitalised.

A copy of the police com-plaint filed against the man-agement of LG Chem’s subsid-iary LG Polymers, viewed by Reuters, cited several counts of negligence and culpable hom-icide.

The report, which precedes a full police investigation and potential charges, refers to neg-ligent handling of poisonous

substances and causing hurt and endangering public life due

to negligence. Culpable homi-cide is classifed as not amount-

ing to murder.An LG Chem spokesman in

Seoul declined to comment on the police report.

India’s government has formed a committee, which includes senior bureaucrats, to investigate the leak, identi-fied by authorities as coming from styrene, a principal raw material at the plant.

The factory was in the process of reopening after a weeks-long shutdown imposed by Indian authorities to curb the spread of the novel coro-navirus, local officials and the company said.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Min-ister Jagan Mohan Reddy said in a televised address on Thurs-day that the leak occurred be-cause the styrene had been stored for a long period of time.

A satellite image shows the aftermath of the gas leak at the LG Polymer plant

People sit on road divider after evacuating their homes

Around 1,000 people were taken to hospital after the gas leak Rescuers evacuate people following the gas leak in Visakhapatnam

Across1- Picture; 6- Sheep cry; 11- Barker and Bell; 14- Escapade; 15- Oscar de la ___; 16- Venomous viper; 17- ___ nous; 18- Adored ones; 19- Decease; 20- Artificial waterway; 22- Commerce; 24- Member of the Girl Scouts; 28- Judged; 29- Potemkin setting; 30- Parlor game; 32- Not of the cloth; 33- Wanting; 35- Uses a shuttle; 39- Member of a great Peruvian people; 40- Washington bill; 41- Word that can precede hygiene, tradition and agreement.; 42- Christmas song; 43- Fidgety; 45- ___-Rooter; 46- Not quite right; 48- Exhausts; 50- Shred; 53- Professoriate; 54- New wing; 55- Tall and thin; 57- Can ___ now?; 58- Sluggish; 60- Condition; 65- After taxes; 66- Raccoon-like carnivore; 67- Negates; 68- It’s past due; 69- Meanies; 70- Follows orders;

Down 1- Clinch; 2- Adult male; 3- To the point; 4- Lux. neighbor; 5- Builds; 6- Salt water; 7- Moon of Jupiter; 8- Hydroxyl compound; 9- City in GA; 10- Sampled; 11- Palindromic title; 12- Line in a play directed to the audience; 13- Swiftness; 21- ___ impasse; 23- Put back; 24- General Powell; 25- Hersey’s bell town; 26- Thaw before takeoff; 27- Increase; 28- Boring; 30- Some change; 31- Citrus coolers; 34- Seemingly forever; 36- “______ by any other name…”; 37- Jazz pianist Art; 38- Slant; 43- Broadcast; 44- Expression of disgust; 47- Republic in S North America; 49- Declines; 50- Spoil; 51- Ire; 52- Govt. security; 53- Nay sayers; 55- Cordelia’s father; 56- Commedia dell’___; 59- Beverage made with beaten eggs; 61- Center of activity; 62- Pub choice; 63- Layer; 64- Curvy letter;

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.


Inter, AC Milan resume training AFP | Milan

Italian football giants Inter Milan and AC Milan were both back training yesterday

two months after a strict lock-down which has hit the northern Italian city hard.

Inter said all their players and staff have tested negative for coronavirus yesterday, clearing the way for them to return to individual training in the after-noon.

“All the medical tests that the first team underwent have come back negative,” the team said in a statement.

“Optional individual training sessions will begin this after-noon.”

City rivals AC Milan resumed earlier in the week with club technical director Paolo Maldini warning yesterday “not going back on the pitch would be a disaster.”

Former Italy captain Maldini, together with his 18-year-old son Daniel, a Milan youth team player, have both recovered from coronavirus.

“You have to be careful, but not to resume would be a dis-aster from all points of view,” 51-year-old Maldini said during a live Instagram chat yesterday with former Milan teammate Filippo Inzaghi.

“France were wrong to decree the end immediately, but we will accept what will be the verdict

of the government. There is so much uncertainty.”

The city in the northern Lom-bardy region is the epicentre of Italy’s outbreak, one of the worst in Europe in terms of deaths and infections.

Lombardy has suffered some 15,000 deaths, around half of Ita-ly’s 30,000 coronavirus fatalities, since the outbreak first erupted in early March.

Both Milan clubs insisted they were taking the maximum pre-cautions.

“We have closed the common areas of Milanello,” said Maldini. “The players are divided into four for each pitch and in 12 you can work well anyway.”

Inter added: “The club main-tains the utmost attention to pre-ventive measures to safeguard the health of the players and all members of the club, in accord-ance with all the governmental and public health protection guidelines.”

‘Negative signals’ One by one stars have re-

turned to Italy with Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo is in two weeks’ coronavirus quaran-tine as his team got back training on Tuesday.

AC Milan were awaiting the belated return of Zlatan Ibra-himovic from a protracted exile in Sweden.

But opinions are divided on whether to follow France and

the Netherlands and end the season or the Bundesliga and return behind closed doors.

The Italian Football Feder-ation (FIGC) met on Thursday with the government’s technical scientific committee to discuss details of the medical protocol for a return to group training.

“Tell us what we need to do to return to play,” FIGC president Gabriele Gravina was reported to have told government offi-cials.

Italian Sports Minister Vin-cenzo Spadafora said afterwards he was “hopeful” team training could resume on May 18.

“I don’t want to risk forecasts at this time, we must be careful,” said Spadafora. “If it is to be re-sumed, it will be behind closed doors.”

Almost at the same time as the meeting two clubs, Fiorentina and Sampdoria, announced ten positive tests -- seven players and three staff members.

In addition, a Torino player tested positive on Wednesday, giving “extremely negative sig-nals for a restart of the cham-pionship,” said the daily Il Mes-sagero.

Italian football bosses want to follow the example of Germany, which returns to action on May 16 and where only positive cases would be put into isolation.

But the scientific committee insists that football must comply with the general rule that those

who have been in contact with positive cases should be isolated.

In this scenario, any positive screening after the resumption of collective training on May 18, would sideline the entire team.

Another obstacle is that the scientific committee protocol re-quires regular repeated screen-ing for each player, which means clubs would need to acquire a considerable number of testing kits, which could prove difficult in regions such as Lombardy.

There is also the problem of individual regions which could refuse to host teams from high-ly-infected areas.

Inter Milan’s Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku (L) and teammates run during a training session (file photo)

KNOW

BETTER

Four Sampdoria players, including one who had pre-viously recovered,

and three from Fiorentina have

tested positive for coronavirus

Ibrahimovic keeps busy in Sweden, fuelling talk he will stayAFP | Stockholm

AC Milan was yesterday awaiting the belated re-turn of Zlatan Ibrahi-

movic from a protracted and productive coronavirus exile in Sweden that has fuelled specu-lation in his native country that their biggest star was coming home for good.

While most of his AC Milan team-mates have had to sit idle because of the pandemic, Ibrahi-movic was busy training in Swe-den with players at Hammarby, a first-division club which he part owns.

Unlike much of the rest of Eu-rope, where containment has limited or prevented athletes training, in Sweden restrictions to contain Covid-19 have been more flexible.

The start of the Swedish league, scheduled for 4 April has been postponed, but training has continued as long as players avoid close contact, unlike Italy where individual training only resumed this week.

On Tuesday, only Ibrahimovic

and Ivory Coast striker Franck Kessie were absent at the Milan-ello centre for medical tests AC Milan had asked players to take, according to La Gazzetta dello

Sport. But yesterday morning, the same newspaper reported that the Swede was expected later in the day.

In Sweden, reports on Ibra-

himovic’s immediate intentions are contradictory. There have been reports that he was wait-ing for a clearer picture of how training and Serie A will resume.

On the other hand, some media say he is poised to leave for Italy, where Serie A hopes to resume in June.

“If we start on 4 May, I will return on 3 May. If we start on 9 May, I will arrive on 8 May,” the player was quoted by Swedish

public television as saying in April.

In Stockholm, life has been almost normal for the former Swedish international, who re-turned home with his family after the the break in the Italian championship.

AC Milan’s Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic takes part in a training session of Swedish league team Hammarby IF in Stockholm


Villas-Boas leads Marseille back into Champions League but doubts linger over future

Andre Villas-Boas has taken Marseille to second place in Ligue 1 in his first, shortened,

season in charge

AFP | Marseille

The decision to end the French Ligue 1 season early

brought celebrations in Marseille, who are look-

ing forward to a return to the Champions League thanks to the

fine work done by coach Andre Vil-las-Boas, but it remains to be seen if he will stay at a club with major financial problems.

Marseille were second when the season was suspended in mid-March with 10 games remaining. They were well behind leaders Paris Saint-Ger-main but well clear of the chasing pack, so nobody disputes they are worthy runners-up after the French government dashed hopes of the campaign restarting.

In an Instagram post, Villas-Boas

called it an “extraordinary achieve-ment”. Marseille have not been in the Champions League since 2013, but they had finished fifth last season under Rudi Garcia and Villas-Boas knew he was arriving at a club with little money to spend.

He had to do without arguably Marseille’s best player, the wing-er Florian Thauvin, for almost the whole campaign because of injury, but the Portuguese has breathed new life into the careers of Dimitri Payet and goalkeeper Steve Mandanda.

In addition, he has got the best out of those new faces who did come in, like Spanish defender Alvaro Gonza-lez and ex-Boca Juniors striker Dario Benedetto.

The former Porto, Chelsea and Tot-tenham Hotspur coach has rebuilt his own reputation by reviving a club that is wildly popular across France

and remains the country’s only winners of the Champions League

having taken the inaugural edition in 1993.

Now, a decade after they last won

Ligue 1, they are heading back to Eu-rope’s top table, but their ability to compete with the continent’s best is in doubt because of their financial situation, and there is uncertainty surrounding Villas-Boas’s future as a result.

“I am very happy in Marseille. I don’t want to look for another club. I don’t want to go back to the Premier League,” the 42-year-old told RMC radio from his native Portugal, where he has been spending lockdown.

“I obviously want to go into the Champions League with Marseille, but...if the conditions are not there for us to do a good job, I don’t think it’s worth it.”

UEFA sanctions loom Spending since American tycoon

Frank McCourt -- the former Los Angeles Dodgers owner -- bought the club in 2016 has been way beyond the limits set out in UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.

They lost 91 million euros ($98m) last season and that will be com-pounded by further losses this season, made worse by the coronavirus crisis.

UEFA announced in March that Marseille had been referred to the adjudicatory chamber of their Club Financial Control Body for not com-plying with an agreement to balance their books.

The club had already signed a “set-tlement agreement” which set out that Marseille would have to play with a reduced squad in their next European campaign and pay back up to four million euros of any prize money.

Now further sanctions are inevita-ble, with sports daily L’Equipe sug-gesting they could even be excluded from the next Champions League.

“When I bought OM, I knew there would be highs and lows,” said Mc-Court recently, emphasising his “long-term vision”.

With a wage bill last season of 127 million euros, Marseille must sell players, and want those who remain to accept pay cuts. Villas-Boas says he needs a competitive team if he is to stay.

He also wants to be sure sport-ing director Andoni Zubizarreta, the ex-Barcelona and Spain goalkeeper, stays before committing to a second season at the Velodrome, even if he is settled on France’s Mediterranean coast.

“I want to understand more or less where we are going, how much we can invest. Whether the club wants me, or if they don’t, in which case it will not be a problem,” said Vil-las-Boas, who is due back in France next week.

Amiens’ goalkeeper stops the ball shot by Marseille’s French midfielder Dimitri Payet (L) (file photo)

Marseille’s Portuguese coach Andre Villas Boas (4-R) celebrate with Marseille’s French goalkeeper Steve Mandanda at the end of a match (file photo)

I am very happy in Marseille. I don’t want

to look for another club. I don’t want to go back

to the Premier League. I obviously want to go into

the Champions League with Marseille, but...if the

conditions are not there for us to do a good job, I don’t think it’s worth it

ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS

Woods, Mickelson, Manning and Brady showdown set for May 24Reuters | Miami

The coronavirus relief golf match featuring Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson

and Super Bowl-winning quar-terbacks Tom Brady and Pey-ton Manning will be on May 24 at Medallist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, WarnerMedia’s Turner Sports said on Thursday.

The sanctioned PGA Tour event, which is being dubbed The Match: Champions for Charity, will begin at 3 pm ET (1900 GMT) and the four golfers will come together to make a charitable donation of $10 mil-lion to benefit COVID-19 relief.

WarnerMedia is banking on a matchup featuring two of the most famous golfers of their era alongside two of the all-time greatest NFL quarterbacks com-peting on the nation’s Memorial Day holiday weekend to be a welcome sight for sports-starved fans.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unimaginable tragedy and heartbreak,” Jeff Zucker, chairman of WarnerMedia News

and Sports, said in a news re-lease.

“We’re hopeful this event and platform will help raise mean-

ingful funding for COVID-19 relief, while also providing a source of brief distraction and entertainment for all sports

fans.”The competition, which is be-

ing held 2-1/2 weeks before the PGA Tour plans to resume its

season, will feature 15-times ma-jor champion Woods and Man-ning up against five-times major winner Mickelson and Brady in Team Match Play.

The golfers will play fourballs on the front nine and a modi-fied alternate shot format on the back nine, where each compet-

itor tees off and then the team plays alternate shot from the selected drive.

Medallist Golf Club opened in 1995 and is the home course to many PGA Tour players includ-ing 15-times major champion Woods, who last competed in February and then withdrew from a number of tournaments with a back injury before the PGA Tour decided to cancel a slew of events because of the coronavirus.

Mickelson finished third in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in ear-ly February and missed the cut in his next two starts.

Brady joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March after 20 years with the New England Pa-triots during which he won an NFL-record six Super Bowl titles.

Manning, who played for the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos, retired in 2016 as the NFL’s all-time leader in passing touchdowns and yards and is the only five-times winner of the league’s Most Valuable Player award.

Tiger Woods (L) and Phil Mickelson walk to a tee during a tournament (file photo)

Medallist Golf Club opened in 1995 and is the home course to many PGA Tour players including

15-times major champion Woods

KNOW WHAT

Andre Villas-Boas

Spurs hotshot Son Heung-min earns military accoladeAFP | Seoul

Tottenham Hotspur striker Son Heung-min was named

one of the top five recruits in his unit as he finished three weeks of compulsory military training in South Korea yesterday.

South Korea’s marine corps posted pictures of Son wielding an M-16 assault rifle and salut-ing on their Facebook page as he completed his stint at a boot camp.

All able-bodied South Korean men are obliged to serve in the military for nearly two years, making up the bulk of Seoul’s 600,000-strong forces -- who face off against North Korea’s army of 1.3 million.

But Son -- the top Asian goalscorer in Premier League history, and the Asian Football Confederation’s reigning in-ternational player of the year -- was in the South Korean team that earned an exemption by winning gold at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.

The Spurs star broke down in tears of joy after the 2-1 ex-tra-time win over Japan, which meant he could fulfil his obli-gations with just three weeks’ basic training and around 500 hours of community service.

In April he reported to a ma-rines camp on the island of Jeju

for the basic train-ing, which involved lengthy hikes, as well as tear-gas training and rifle practice.

He was judged among the five best recruits out of 157 on his course, a spokesper-son for the Republic of Korea Marine Corps said.

“Son did exceptionally well in all areas of training, includ-ing military ethics and securi-

ty education,” he added.Likes poured in for the Face-

book pictures, with fans post-ing messages of congratulation.

“He indeed is world-class. I’m a die-hard Son Heung-min

fan,” wrote one South Ko-rean marine veteran.

T h e P r e m i e r League has been suspended since mid-March due to the coronavirus and

no date has yet been set

for a re-s u m p -

tion.


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]

Subscription & circulation: Tel: 36458394 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

All able-bodied South Korean men

are obliged to serve in the military for nearly two years,

making up the bulk of Seoul’s

600,000-strong forces -- who face off against North Korea’s army of

1.3 million

KNOW WHAT

India to accept quarantine to save Aussie Test seriesAFP | New Delhi

India’s cricket team is pre-pared to undergo quarantine to salvage a money-spinning

Test series against Australia, a top official said yesterday, but there was less optimism about this year’s Twenty20 World Cup taking place Down Under.

Virat Kohli’s men are sched-uled to contest a four Test series in Australia towards the end of the year but will need to isolate for two weeks under current COVID-19 rules.

Board of Control for Cricket in India treasurer Arun Dhu-mal said the Test team were willing to make that sacrifice to save the series, which cash-strapped Cricket Australia des-perately needs to replenish its coffers.

“There is no choice -- every-one will have to do that (quaran-tine). You would want to resume the cricket,” Dhumal told Fair-fax newspapers.

“Two weeks is not that long a lockdown.”

Australia this month de-throned India as the world’s top-ranked Test team, setting up the series as a blockbuster rivalry.

The series would also gen-erate hundreds of millions of dollars for a host organisation struggling during the coronavi-rus shutdown.

Revenue from the series is so important to Cricket Australia

that it has proposed adding a fifth Test, which would mean ditching a one-off Test against Afghanistan in November.

Dhumal said it was “too early” to make a call on extending the Test series, suggesting Indian broadcasters would prefer more limited overs matches instead because they generate more money.

“They will want to have rev-enue and revenue most likely will come from ODIs or T20s much more than a Test match,” he said.

While it would be relatively

straightforward for Australia’s government to allow the Indian team to enter the country for a bilateral series, Dhumal said staging the 16-nation T20 World Cup was another matter.

He also questioned whether elite players would be ready for the October tournament.

“They will have been out of cricket for a long time. Would you want to be without training for that long and straight away go and play [the] World Cup?” he asked.

“That is a call every board has to take. It seems to be difficult.”

Indian players celebrate after winnning a Test match (file photo)

There is no choice -- everyone will have to do that (quarantine).

You would want to resume the cricket,

Two weeks is not that long a lockdo

ARUN DHUMAL

Five substitutions per team to be allowed on temporary basis

Reuters | Bern

Teams will be allowed up to five substitutions per

match, instead of the usual three, as a temporary measure to help cope with potential fixture congestion in the after-math of the novel coronavirus outbreak, FIFA said yesterday.

The change in the rules will be allowed in all competitions which are due to finish by the end of this year and it will be up to individual competition organisers whether to imple-ment it. FIFA also said that competitions currently using the video replay system (VAR) would be free to discontinue its use on restarting.

Soccer’s rule-making body IFAB agreed to make the change to the rules “based on a proposal received from FIFA seeking to protect player wel-fare”, the statement added.

FIFA added that, to avoid disruption to the game, each team would have to make their substitutions in a maximum of three slots plus the halftime interval.

Football has been at a stand-still since mid-March but many leagues and federations are still hoping to complete the season. To do so they would have to cram fixtures into a shorter period than usual once games re-start.

“The temporary amendment comes into force with immedi-ate effect, and has been made as matches may be played in a condensed period in different weather conditions, both of which could have impacts on player welfare,” FIFA said.

“The IFAB and FIFA will de-termine at a later stage wheth-er this temporary amendment would need to be extended further (e.g. for competitions due to be completed in 2021).”

FIFA did not give further de-tails on the decision regarding the use of VAR.

Italy’s referees’ association said last month that it repre-sented a potential health haz-ard as video assistant officials often worked from cramped conditions in vans or portable units where social distancing was impossible.

A Fourth official holds up a substitution board during a match (file photo)

Restarting game should not compromise its quality, says England’s RootReuters | London

England test captain Joe Root is keen to play inter-

national cricket this summer but not by compromising on quality of the game or its in-tensity, the 29-year-old has said.

With professional cricket suspended because of the COV-ID-19 pandemic, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is considering playing the se-ries against West Indies and Pakistan behind closed doors.

“If the game is compro-mised, it shouldn’t be going ahead,” Root told Sky Sports.

“The game itself, the inten-sity it is played at - if you can’t play test cricket at its abso-lute best we shouldn’t play it. It’s not a fair reflection of the sport.”

England’s home series against West Indies scheduled for June has been postponed while the inaugural ‘The Hun-dred’, which was to begin in July, has been moved to next year.

Root, like any profession-al cricketer, longed for inter-national cricket but stressed public health was paramount.

“The guys are all missing playing and desperate to get back out there but safety is

paramount for everyone in-volved. As soon as that is com-promised, this can’t happen,” he said.

According to a Guardian report, ECB’s plans to play in ‘bio-secure’ venues could keep the players away from their families for up to nine weeks.

Fast bowler Mark Wood said most players were fine with the idea after their chat with director of cricket Ashley Giles and the chief medical officer Nick Pierce.

“We trust what Ashley and the doctor are saying and if an environment is set up where it works then I think most play-ers would trust that,” Wood said in a video conference.

Joe Root celebrates after scoring a century

Man City’s Walker says he is being ‘harassed’ after admitting lockdown breachesReuters | London

Manchester City’s Kyle Walker says he is be-

ing “harassed” after admit-ting he breached coronavi-rus lockdown rules to visit his sister and parents.

The defender was forced to issue an apology last month after media reports that he had hosted a party at his home.

But Walker has hit back at the latest stories, insisting that he is being targeted and that the ongoing controver-sy is affecting his family’s health.

In a statement on his of-ficial Twitter feed, Walker wrote: “I have recently gone through one of the toughest periods of my life, which I take full responsibility for.

“However, I now feel as though I am being harassed.

“This is no longer solely affecting me, but affecting the health of my family and my young children too.” Walker admitted contraven-ing coronavirus regulations again by visiting Sheffield to see his sister and his par-ents -- for which he could be fined and cautioned by police.

Son Heung-min

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